Hampton Inn-Blue Lagoon Review

Hampton Inn – Blue Lagoon, Miami Pre-Cruise stay

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed at the Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon location in Miami on a Friday night before our cruise.   It was a perfect choice for a pre-cruise stay. The hotel was great. Quiet area, clean rooms, comfortable beds, free breakfast, and staff was very friendly and accommodating. Even better was the great location. Within walking distance to places to eat, a Walgreens, a CVS, nail salon (for those last minute pre-cruise mani/pedi’s) and a Publix grocery store directly across the street. This was perfect for any last minute items you need to bring on the cruise ship, like sunscreen, any toiletries that you didn’t want to fly with and the bottle of wine that you are allowed to take onboard the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We requested an early check in because our flight arrived early, at 9:00am. By the way they also have a free airport shuttle service. When we arrived they did not have any rooms available for early check-in, but they stored our luggage so we could go walk around, go to the grocery store, etc… They also told us that breakfast was still being served and to help ourselves to the breakfast buffet. So we grabbed some breakfast and walked around for a while. Within about an hour we received a call that our room was ready.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a perfect choice for a pre-cruise hotel stay. It isn’t they fanciest, but it is clean, comfortable, great location, friendly staff, pool, free hot breakfast and the make your own waffles, free airport shuttle, and reasonably priced. I would highly recommend this hotel for a pre-cruise stay.

Sharon at Sea

HILTON MIAMI AIRPORT BLUE LAGOON REVIEW

GREAT PRE/POST CRUISE OR ANYTIME HOTEL STAY!!!

We stayed at the Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon for one night after our cruise. We had requested an early check in for Sunday morning so we could go directly there after getting off our week cruise on the Carnival Vista. We had plans to fly home the following morning on Monday. The hotel had been completely booked on Saturday night, most likely due to the fact that there were several cruise ships in port to leave on a cruise Sunday. We arrived about 9:00 am. We were assisted by Irene at the front desk. She explained about the hotel being completely booked the night before and we would have to wait until someone checked out and room was cleaned. She put our names on a wait list to be called when our room was available. We were able to leave all our luggage with the concierge to store until our room was ready so we could enjoy the facilities amenities while waiting. We decided since we didn’t have breakfast, we would sit by the coffee bar inside the hotel any enjoyed a morning snack and starbucks coffee. There were large comfortable sofas and tables and chairs all around to relax. About an hour later Irene called us with a room and we retrieved our luggage and were off to check out our room for the night.

 

 

 

 

We had a nice room with 2 double beds on the 6th floor. The room was extremely clean and the beds were comfortable. We settled in and then enjoyed the wonderful outdoor pool area for a while. There is also an outdoor bar area next to the pool, ping pong table, walking paths, and nice sitting area which looked over the lagoon and you could watch planes take off and land from then airport which was in close view straight across the lagoon. It is a beautiful property outside. Although you can hear the planes outside, when inside you did not hear the planes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have a restaurant inside on sight that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner with reasonable prices for hotel restaurants. The food looked good as well. Room service is also available. Later in the day the morning coffee bar area turns into a regular bar and serves appetizers and small meals. We decided to sit around this area and enjoyed a light dinner there. We had the flatbread, along with Calamari. Both were extremely good. The flatbread was huge and enough for two people.

 

 

 

 

They also offer a free airport shuttle which is always a nice advantage. The shuttle starts at 5am and runs until 1am. We needed to be on the first 5am shuttle to catch our early morning flight so we went down to the front desk around 4:45am and the shuttle arrived promptly at 5am and we loaded up and were at the airport to check in within 10 minutes. The shuttle was newer looking and very clean and the driver was very friendly. It was larger and held several people. There were 10 of us on it and there were still several seats left.
I have been to Miami several times and have stayed at various hotels. This is definitely my new favorite place to stay and plan to return next time I am in Miami. Great room, service, staff, food, amenities, and location. There are also several places to eat in the area, including a Publix grocery store a short distance away. They are within walking distance, although the property is set back of the main street so you have to walk out a little to get to the street area. But also just a short taxi ride if you are not able to walk there. With everything this hotel offers you don’t really need to leave the property. This hotel is a great choice for a pre/post cruise stay or even a vacation. I will be staying here on my next visit to Miami.

Sharon at Sea

Video Tour of Carnival Miracle Cabin #7301 (My favorite cabin)

Here’s a video tour of Cabin #7301 (Premium balcony) on the Carnival Miracle.  It is a Spirit class ship, so all the Spirit class ships have these, although very limited.   I have stayed in all types of cabins including suites and for the price this is my overall favorite.  Awesome cabin!!!

Carnival Miracle Review

 

                                               Relaxation At Sea

We decided to take our fall cruise on the Carnival Miracle down to the Mexican Riviera for 7 days. It was a new ship class for us and we have been on this itinerary before and enjoyed it in the past. It was just the 3 of us this time myself, husband Jamie and son Matthew. We went during the week of Matthew’s fall break from school. We just wanted to keep it simple and relax. We had already planned not to do any excursions this time and just get off the ship and go to the beach or just hang out since we had been to these ports a few times and have done different excursions in the past. This cruise was all about relaxing for us. So unfortunately, I won’t be talking about any exciting excursions we took this time. I will focus mostly on the ship and some of the differences from other ships. We had booked this cruise over a year ago and we were able to book a premium balcony (cabin 7301) which is hard since there are only 2 cabins like this on the ship. The cost was not much more than a regular balcony and well worth the money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Besides having a suite, this has been our best cabin in all of our 18 cruises. It felt like more closet and storage space, and with 3 of us it worked out great and let’s not forget the awesome huge balcony. Well more on that later. Continue reading “Carnival Miracle Review”

Carnival Magic Review (Cruise + Friends = MAGIC!!!)

 

Thanks for stopping by to check out my most recent cruise review. This time we sailed on the Carnival Magic out of Port Canaveral, Florida and what made this cruise particularly “Magical” was that we were cruising with our dear friends, The Saunders Family. Here is a little background on this cruise with the Asmus family trio (Sharon, Jamie, and Matthew)….We had planned this cruise over a year ago with our longtime friends.  We met the Saunders family on the Carnival Valor in March of 2006.  We cruised back then with  2 of our older daughters Melissa and Brittany and it was Matthew’s 1st cruise, he was 13 months old.  We were very nervous when we saw that our dinner table was for 10 people.  We had never been seated with others before and all kinds of thoughts were running through our heads about who these people would be.  The Saunders family consists of Marti, EJ and they have three daughters which are now Samantha 22 and twins Sydney and Sarah that are 18.  We ended up enjoying their company so much at dinner that by the end of the week we decided to spend our last port day in St. Maarten together at the beach.  We had so much fun and have continued our friendship over the years with daily text messages, etc…We also continue to cruise together every couple of years.  Now that the kids are getting older we are hoping to cruise together more frequently.  This was our 10th year anniversary cruise from when we met as well as the twins graduation cruise so we had big plans for a lot of memories and there were a few good ones to put in the books…..We originally were booked on the Breeze but with the repositioning of some ships we changed to the Magic which we were also all on together 3 years ago.  We were excited to hear that the Magic went in for dry dock and came out with the 2.0 upgrades along with the new Pig & Anchor which I might add was amazing.  We were stopping at 4 ports, Amber Cove which was new for us, St. Thomas, San Juan, and Grand Turk with 2 sea days.  So on to my story/review…. Continue reading “Carnival Magic Review (Cruise + Friends = MAGIC!!!)”

Vista completes final sea trials…

             Carnival Vista successfully completes final sea trials…

Earlier this week the Carnival Vista successfully completed its final sea trials in the Adriatic Sea. The Vista’s navigation, technical and mechanical systems were all thoroughly tested.

The Vista is currently at Italy’s Fincantieri shipyard finalizing its construction. The ship will offer the 2.0 upgrades along with some new exciting features including a cycling in mid air called skyRide, the 1st IMAX theatre at sea, a Kaleid-o-slide water slide (455 ft long), family harbor staterooms and more.

The Carnival Vista will hold 3,954 passengers. It will set sail on its inaugural cruise May 1, 2016 from Trieste. It will then run 8-13 day Mediterranean cruises from Barcelona and Athens. In November the Vista will then reposition to New York briefly before heading to Miami later in the month which will then become her home port where she will be visiting Caribbean itineraries.

Sharon Asmus  Vista