Miami 2021: Diary – Day 5

We would be switching hotels today. We’d be headed to the St Regis Bal Harbour which would be in a much more exclusive area than our current hotel. We had also gotten a notice that our suite upgrade had been processed so we’d be in a slightly nicer room, though it didn’t look like much of an actual suite from the pictures. We’d have to see.

Pool Time

After breakfast I took the boys down to play in the pool since they were on school vacation. My wife still had to work so she was happy to have some peace and quiet with the room to herself. I was on vacation as well, but I still had a few loose ends I needed to sort out while I watched them in the pool.

I called the next hotel to get an estimate on when our room might be ready so we could better time our move between hotels between my wife’s calls. I got a canned answer that “there was no guarantee of room availability” and that “checkin time was 4:00pm”. We would have to hope it was available and they reassure me there was a quiet place she could work if our room wasn’t ready and we had to wait.

The boys were enjoying their time in the pool while I sorted out some other travel plans by calling Marriott. I had canceled a reservation onnline that was booked with free night certificates that had not show up back in my wife’s account. Apparently, despite what the website says, if you need to cancel a reservation booked with free night certificates you should call in to cancel or else you’ll run into the same issue. It’s frustrating and I’ll have to remember that next time.

I also had to call Citi to get some clarification on my ThankYou points account. I had converted $1000 of cash back to thank you points and the points weren’t showing in my account, but the cash back had been deducted from my balance with no indication of anything pending! They reassured me that they saw the pending conversion and that I would see it reflected in my account within 24 to 48 hours. Phew!

Last South Beach Lunch

The plan was to get our lunch while my wife finished up a call. We’d use the gap between the next meeting to transfer hotels.

I took Tomatico to Charlotte Bakery to get his last dose of Argentinian and Venezuelan goodies from there and I took my youngest to Pizza Bar to get a last gigantic slice. He hadn’t actually been there before and his eyes got wide when he saw the size of a whole pizza!

After we ate, my wife was still finishing her call so I took the boys for one last lap around the block to go to some shops to pass the time. My wife was done her call by then so we finished packing our stuff and checked out.

Our Lyft came quickly and it was a minivan with screens behind the front seats. We found we could play games like Tic Tac Toe and Checkers against each other. Tomatico and I challenged each other. With my youngest’s help I was able to defeat Tomatico in Checkers just as we arrived at the St Regis Bal Harbour.

Check-in and the Pool

As we arrived, we realized we weren’t in South Beach anymore. This area was extremely high end. There were several supercars and ultra luxury cars parked out from (by the valets on purpose, of course). The minivan we arrived in was gloriously out of place among the Porches, Ferraris, Land Rovers, and Bentleys.

It was about 2:00 and our room unfortunately wasn’t ready. We finished the paperwork so we could get into the room when it was eventually ready. They notified us that we had been upgraded to a suite using the suite night upgrade, which we already knew from the alerts online. Hopefully the room would be nice.

Noticeably absent from the process was any mention about what was available on the resort. Nearly every resort we go to will explain all the fun things they have on offer. It wasn’t busy or anything so we figured they’d tell us when we got our key?

Also, when asked about being able to use the business center, they said it was closed and that the only quiet area they could offer for my wife as around the corner in the lobby. This was directly contrary to what the person I spoke to in the morning had told me. If we had known we would have stayed a little longer at the previous hotel. Not a great start.

We had packed a separate bag with swim stuff so the boys could change and use the pool if the room wasn’t ready so we had planned ahead. After a quick walk out onto the balcony to see the resort, which was much smaller and crowded than expected, the boys changed and I took them down to the pool.

The pool wasn’t anything special, though it was pretty active with guests. There were quite a few people but there was no problem finding myself a chair in the shade to catch up on some work while my wife tried to carve out some space in the lobby to work.

Around 4:00, Tomatico was getting anxious to see the room so he went up to see my wife to get an update on when it would be ready. She still hadn’t heard but pressed and finally got word that it would be ready in 20 minutes. Twenty minutes later it because 15 minutes, then another 15 minutes after that. The drip, drip of delays was extremely frustrating, especially with the kids. After reminding them of the repeated delays, they offered my wife a $100 food and beverage credit, which sounds like a lot, but when nachos at the pool are $15 it doesn’t go far.

We finally got the room around 5:00 and headed directly up. We never got any info on what the resort offered, unfortunately. At least our luggage was already in the room. We found the room to be… okay. There was a nice big balcony overlooking the ocean from the 8th floor (a relatively low floor). There were two queen beds and definitely more space than our previous hotel room. There were two bathrooms. One had a sink, bathtub, and shower (but no toilet) and the other was across the hall and had only a toilet and sink. It was odd, but was somewhat useful to have multiple spaces, I guess. There was also a walk-in closet area with some drawers and a hanging area. It was reasonably sized, though nothing about it seemed like an actual suite.

Dinner Time

The boys were famished from all their time in the pools and we decided to walk to some nearby restaurants. We decided on Finnegan’s Seafood. They had a fair variety of options and surprisingly reasonable prices for the area.

There wasn’t a line and we happily got right in. Our food was pretty good and the prices were even better than we thought. The portions were huge and we were all full.

But not so full that we didn’t want to top at Morelia’s Gourmet Paletas to get some dessert! This was the same place we had gone to in South Beach so we were happy to see it was a chain.

Back at the hotel we tried to figure out my wife’s work situation for the next day. The room did have a desk, though we had to re-wire some things to make sure she had access to a power outlet.

She also told me about the odd security she had experienced in the lobby. There were 4 or 5 security people doing rounds in the hotel and checking everyone and everything in an oddly thorough way. It was definitely a bit off-putting. Being Hispanic, she definitely got the side-eye from security in ways I would not have.

We both reflected at how un-welcoming the vibe of the hotel was. We hoped it would improve and things would get better as our stay progressed, but it was not the relaxing, welcoming start to a resort stay we were hoping/expecting to receive as we had at dozens of other resorts, especially since this one had been so well recommended and reviewed.