Palmetto Bay Life

One of my favorites places is Biscayne Bay. As you drive onto Key Biscayne you will first need to pay a toll of $1.50 to get onto the key. There is no toll exiting Key Biscayne.

Before driving over the bridge, there is a place to the right where you can pull off and park. Here you can rent water toys such as wind surf boards. There are also food vendors and such.

On the left hand side is another place you can pull off which you can reach as you exit the key. However, the beach area is really gross with moss, seaweed and lots of rocks. There are a lot of pine trees in this area instead of palm trees. You do have a great view of Miami from this side. It’s like a New England state park, but with seaweed – an interesting contrast to the pull offs on the right side.

After crossing the bridge, there is another set of pull offs on the right hand side. One of them is in the process of being completely redone. The other is probably going to be fixed up once the other one is done.

I like going here to sit near the water in the sun next to a palm tree.  It  appeals to me.  I can pull my car up near a plam tree and near the ocean.  I pull out my chair, sunscreen, a good book and can sit for hours.  It’s really very convenient – just pull your car into one of the “slots” created by palm trees.

My youngest daughter likes going to poke around in the water, look for shells, use her metal detector, play in the water and meet new friends. She found a bunch of hermit crabs which I made her put back. She thought she was going to bring home some new pets!

As you can see in my picture, there can be a lot of cars and people so if you are looking for a really quiet spot to sit, this may not be it unless the weather is fairly cool. People bring their barbeque grills, children, dogs and spend the day here. There is roughly 15 feet or so of space for each spot.

At this particular pull off there are a couple of food and drink vendors including an ice cream truck. Their prices tend to be very high and you would do well by planning ahead a little bit by bringing your own food and drinks. Glass bottles are not allowed on the beach. There are plenty of trash cans available to throw your trash away.

So, you get a small bit of beach to spend time on with a palm tree for some shade. You can go swimming, windsurfing, shell hunting, or just sit and soak up some Florida sun – all for a small $1.50 toll.  Not a bad deal for a lazy afternoon.

Discovery Cruise Line offers a day cruise to Grand Bahama. You leave port in Ft. Lauderdale around 8am and are in the Bahamas about 1pm. You have 3 hours on the island, then leave at 5pm and return to Ft. Lauderdale around 10pm. We bought both of our tickets for $100 and decided to add a stateroom for an extra $47.

My husband and I got to Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale at 5:30am. They suggest you arrive at about that time. You definitely need to be there before 7am otherwise you won’t be able to get on the ship. We got through the entire check-in process quite quickly and it was rather painless as well.

Since we booked a stateroom, we went to the information desk and got our key. We had to pay a $20 key deposit. One of the stewards showed us where our room was and unlocked the door for us. Michael and I put our bags in the room, took the key, and headed off for the all you can eat breakfast buffet.

The Stateroom

For an extra fee, you can book a stateroom about the size of a postage stamp with an even tinier bathroom. We paid an extra $45 for a stateroom with two single beds and a porthole style window. There was a place to hang our things and in the bathroom there was a small shower stall and towels.

I would say the room is adequate for a short day cruise if you want to lay down for a nap or just get away from everyone else.

One thing that wasn’t explained to my husband and I was the door does not automatically lock when you close it.  Most hotel rooms have doors that lock automatically so we assumed the door on our stateroom did the same.  Wrong.  We had been leaving our door unlocked the whole time with our things in the room!  The door needed to be manually locked.

The Breakfast Buffet

I was very impressed with the breakfast buffet. The menu included: Coffee, Tea, OJ, and water for drinks. For food – Rolls, Crescents, Pancakes, French Toast, Bacon, Sausage, Fresh Fruit, Potatoes, Omlets, Scrambled Eggs. I’m sure there was more, but I can’t remember it all. The tables had table cloths and we had glass water goblets that were filled with ice water. Much nicer than the cafeteria style buffet on Carnival. Of course, Discovery only needs to fee about 1,000 people instead of 4,000 people on Carnival.

On the tables were little notices alerting you to the appropriate amount to tip during your meal. The amount depended on the meal. For breakfast, the suggested amount was $2 per person, lunch – $2.50 and dinner – $3.50. This is written in both English with Spanish on the backside, just in case.

Fun & Games

Michael and I some most of our morning on one of the decks.  He had his newspaper and I brought a book to read while we sat in the sun.  We ordered virgin pina coladas and relaxed.  After a while, the cruise people started games for people to participate in.  It was fun watching things like hula hoop contests, hot potato, talent contests, dancing, etc.

Our Excursion

We had a choice of two excursions – a beach party or going to a hotel for lunch and then shopping. We chose the hotel and shopping. The cost was $30 per person. Since we had never been to the Bahamas, we figured it was best to book an excursion even though cruise excursions are notoriously pricey.

Once we joined up with the rest of the group going on the excursion, we disembarked and go onto a bus headed for the hotel. The hotel was Taino Beach Resort and is right on the beach. After we received our free drinks (either a Bahama Mama or fruit punch) Michael and I had our lunch on the deck right on the beach.  The service and food were both very good.

After lunch we walked around the pool area.  It’s a really cool pool with a very shallow wading area and deeper swimming area.  There is also a grotto bar in a cave-like area. You can swim up to the bar or access it from land on the other side.  I think I’d like to stay at Taino Beach Resort someday just for the pool.

We took a water taxi to Lucaya Marketplace. This was where I really wanted to go.  I like shopping in marketplaces and looking at all the handmade trinkets. We were given about 1 hour and 15 minutes to explore the marketplace. After looking through a few shops, we quickly noticed that most of the things were items we’d seen in marketplaces on other islands – that is mass produced trinkets. I was disappointed. I did find a woman selling little 3 inch cloth doll ornaments. I picked up a bunch of those to give to friends at home.

On our way back onto the ship, we were given a little card with a time for dinner. We had a 7:45pm dinner time.  We went to our stateroom to drop our things and rest a bit. After a little while I started to feel ill, so we went up to one of the top decks to get some fresh air. As we walked up to the upper decks, we found we had a hard time walking straight. I felt better in the fresh air, so we waited out our time for dinner.

Dinner Buffet

We arrived at dinner at 7:45.  We were shown to a table and told we could go directly to the buffet.  By this time, I realized I was seasick. All I wanted to eat was some bread. There wasn’t any bread to be found.  I took some fruit and salad and felt a smidge better after eating.

Other than the absence of any bread product, the buffet appeared to be well stocked. However, within ten minutes of arriving they began to shut down the buffet. They did let us know they were shutting down the buffet.  Michael did have plenty to eat before the buffet closed.

I was surprised we only had ten minutes for the buffet when we had a time of 7:45 for dinner.  Apparently, we should have showed up for dinner early instead of going at the time the ticket said.

We made our way to our stateroom. Thank God for the stateroom.  I didn’t have any dramamine with me since I had never gotten seasick before. I laid down on my bed and was able to take a nap until the ship docked at Fort Lauderdale.

Other Notes

You can also take the cruise in the morning and then return in the evening on another day. This allows you to really explore the island. Discovery also offers great rates on local hotels.

All expenses related to the Discovery Cruise were paid for by me and my husband with our own funds.

Michael and I drove my car from Massachusetts to Miami, Florida.  We did the obvious thing and drove down Route 95.  Route 95 takes you straight down the east coast going from Maine, through New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and ending in Miami, Florida.

In preparation for the trip I did a search on “Route 95″ and found “The I-95 Exit Guide” website - http://www.i95exitguide.com. There is tons of information on the website, but I quickly realized that this information wouldn’t be accessible on the road, so I purchased and downloaded the eBook version of “The I-95 Exit Guide” on to my laptop computer.

This guide is really great! It details what is at each exit on I-95 – restaurants, gas stations, lodging. There is also information for each state – differences in the driving laws, radio stations, weather stations, and lots more.

I didn’t use most of the information in the guide, but found the gas, restaurant, and lodging listings extremely helpful.  When we got into New Jersey, we decided to find a palce to stay overnight.  None of the exits in New Jersey had signs for gas, lodging, or food.  Michael and I did the unthinkable thing of taking an exit that we had no idea of what was at the exit.  We ended up in a really bad neighborhood and got lost.  We got directions back to the highway.  Once on the highway, we turned on my laptop and looked up on the I-95 Exit Guide where we could stop for lodging and food.  We found the information in the guide very accurate and used it on the entire trip.  If you are traveling up and down the east coast, I highly recommend getting a copy of “The I-95 Exit Guide”.

Website: http://www.i95exitguide.com

Books To Purchase: http://www.i95exitguide.com/order

My copy of The I-95 Exit Guide was purchased by me with my own funds.