Travel Diary: Miami & The Majesty of the Seas

While I enjoyed myself immensely overall on this trip to Miami and the Bahamas, it started most horribly with a cancelled flight and a sleepless night. As my boyfriend and I are perpetual early birds, we arrived at YVR Vancouver International Airport with plenty of time to spare. After getting through customs and security, we thought we were all set to go but we were so, so wrong. If I learned one thing on this trip, it is that you should never fly with United Airlines. On every single flight, there was some sort of delay or reason to freak us out with stress and worry. I don't recommend it unless you're looking for ways to get a premature heart attack.

We enjoyed a decent meal at the Canucks Bar and Grill (I didn't know that those restaurants existed until now) and waited for our 6:45 flight to board. However, a 'slight delay' turned into a full blown flight cancellation. After the initial panic and resulting chaos, everyone on that flight started making phone calls and lining up to speak with the airline desk staff. Sadly, my boyfriend left his relatively good spot in line to make a phone call with Expedia. In the end, we waited an unbelievable four hours in line until we could confirm our new plane bookings for a flight the next morning (there were no more flights flying to the United States that night) and get our hotel and food vouchers. FOUR HOURS. I haven't even lined up that long for anything at the PNE at peak hours during the summertime! AND we had to go back through customs because we were officially on American soil.

It was the night from hell. We were first informed of the cancellation at 8 pm and we didn't get to our hotel until 12:30 am-- you do the math. The cherry on top was that I started to get a bit of sore throat, too. When it rains, it pours. Anyways, after we got through that night and got on our 11:45 am flight (there was a slight delay, of course-- something to do with a mechanical check and a stupid printer not working), our trip started to get much brighter. Oh whoops, did I forget to mention that they lost our luggage? Yep, they did. Fortunately, it arrived the next morning and was shipped to the cruise ship with little issue. We originally were supposed to arrive in Miami on Sunday morning at 10:40 am; however, we lost an entire day and arrived at the Intercontinental Miami hotel on Sunday night at about 11:30 pm. Luckily, our hotel room was amazing; it came complete with an incredible view of the harbour, automatic shutters, luxurious space, and extra couches to relax on. We ordered a $100 worth of room service (can you say comfort food?) and finally felt like our vacation had started.

The next morning, we woke up early and took a turn around the hotel and grounds. We grabbed a Starbucks breakfast and took the following pictures. The weather was sunny, warm, and breezy-- just the kind of weather we needed to kick off our week-long adventure!

Outfit Details:

Romper // Forever 21 via clothing swap

Blazer // Forever 21

Sunglasses, Necklace, & Shoes // Aldo

Bag // Michael Kors

Hat // Bluenotes

Some shots of our hotel room view. One huge yacht was parked right in front of the hotel (as seen below).

It felt so good to finally be relaxed enough to take touristy photos! We were supposed to have dinner the night before at a restaurant called Toro Toro at the hotel; however, we were forced to take some photos outside of it as a very pathetic consolation prize.

Our view of the Port of Miami where our ship, Majesty of the Seas, awaited our arrival.

Once we shopped a little, had some more coffee at a local cafe, and enjoyed a bit more of our hotel room, we headed over to our cruise ship. After getting onto the ship, we put our things away in our stateroom and explored the ship until we found the other couple we were traveling with (they had arrived in Florida a few days before us).

Champagne awaited us in our stateroom-- a nice touch to begin our journey to a tropical paradise.

The pool deck and sports area, complete with jacuzzis and a basketball hoop.

I'm so glad that we got a cabin with a view! It would have been very horrid to be stuck in a small space with no window for five days and four nights...

Well, that's where I'll leave it for now; we had a terrible start to our vacation but luckily the rest of the trip went off with nary a hitch. Next up: tropical islands, wild water adventures, and exotic flora and fauna!