worldtraveller73

A 72 hour trip to Miami via the St Regis Bal Harbour and Miami Beach on Alaska Airlines

YVR-SEA-FLL-SEA-YVR (paid)



Preparation:

This one is pretty easy to write up. Between wonderful skiing up at Whistler where the snow was really dumping MrsWT73 had a conference to attend to in Fort Lauderdale. Her work trips are usually of the meeting variety and typically at the last minute. I’ve had minimal luck in the last two years in tagging along. However, the travel gods were shining down on me for this trip as the dates were set in advance and with no kid this weekend, I happened to locate a reasonable fare with Alaska (earning 100% EQM and 50% RQM MVP bonus) and the St Regis Bal Harbour had Cash and Points availability. I was even able to use a $100 USD discount code from our earlier flight delays with Alaska on our Mexico Easter Island Adventure. With that in mind, off I went. . . I left all this fantastic Whistler skiing weather behind!







In this Report:

Alaska Airlines: Vancouver – Seattle
Alaska Airlines: Seattle – Fort Lauderdale
Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina
Miami Beach
St Regis Bal Harbour
Alaska Airlines: Fort Lauderdale - Seattle
Alaska Airlines: Seattle – Vancouver


Links to my previous reports:

Polynesia Part II: Easter Island and Mexico City via LATAM Business Class and Alaska Airlines First Class, Sept 2017
Summer is a state of mind; Kaanapali, Maui, via Alaska Airlines with my 13 yr old son, August 2017
Fiji, New Zealand and French Polynesia via Fiji Airways, Air New Zealand and Air Tahiti Nui Business Class (AS, Y, FJ J, NZ Y, VT Y, TH J, AA J), June 2017
Mileage Running to New York via Delta Airlines First Class for Alaska MVP Status (DL J), Dec 2016
Havana and Varadero Cuba via Westjet Holidays from Canada (WJ Y) Nov 2016
Malta (and the island of Gozo), Venice, Italy and Oktoberfest in Munich, via Air France Business Class (AF J, LH Y) Sept 2016
South Africa, Namibia, Victoria Falls, Mauritius & the UAE via Emirates First, Qatar Business (QR J, EK F, BA J, SA J, SW Y) April 2016
Dodging Volcanic Ash: A family trip to Bali / Singapore with my 11 year old (DL J / OZ J / KL J / JL J) July 2015
RTW#3 (J): Vietnam, Maldives, and Tackling India’s Golden Triangle. (AC/OZ/SQ/AI/TK), May 2015
Experiencing flying as a "Non-Rev", Australia Wine and Beaches, (AC J/Y, QF J) November 2014
Alaska Airlines First Class to Las Vegas, and a stay in the Aria Sky Suites “Penthouse” (AS F), August 2014
Family trip to Kenora Lake of the Woods Ontario via Air Canada Business Class (AC J). August 2014
Cathay Pacific First Class to New York, a sombre visit to the 9/11 Memorial Museum & 4 days of eating in NYC. (CX F) May 2014
RTW
#2 (J) The Khors of Oman- via Japan, Poland & the UAE. RTW in Biz (NH 787, OZ, TG, EY, TK, LH). April 2014
South Africa, Safari in Maasai Mara Kenya, & Mauritius (UA J, SA J, XAK, LX J, AC J) Nov 2013
A family trip to Westin Playa Conchal, Liberia Costa Rica, (UA Y) Aug 2013
Buried Treasure: UAE Empty Quarter and Beyond to Huvadhoo Atoll, Maldives (UA Y, EY J/Y, Q2 Y), Nov 2012
RTW #1(F) The Time Share Presentation: Spain / China / Thailand. (AC J, OZ F, TG F, LH J/F, AC Y, May 2012
A visit to Macchu Picchu and Valle Nevado, Peru and Chile. (AC J, LA Y) Sept 2011
Travel after the Revolution of January 25, 2011. Egypt. (MS Y) May 2011
A Step Back in Time: The Twilight of Burma, a visit to Myanmar (MI Y) Sept 2010

worldtraveller73

Alaska Airlines
AS 964 – First Class (U)
YVR-SEA (Vancouver International Airport – Seattle Tacoma International Airport)
Jan 31, 2018
06:00 AM – 7:01 AM
Booked: Boeing 737-800
Flown: Boeing 737-900

I set the alarm for a 3:15 AM wake up and packed up the house. It was a quick 25 minute drive up Highway 99 to the airport. I had dropped MrsWT73 off at the airport like a good husband the day before for this exact flight (at 4 AM – the horrors!) so I happened to have her car. I parked it away on the Airport Service road and did the short walk in the quiet dark to the US Departures Terminal along with all the other CASTA screeners that were starting work on the early shift at 4:30 AM.









I reprinted my boarding cards at the kiosk and went straight through to security screening. The airport was really quiet this morning until after security where all the line ups were at Global Entry and the regular US Pre-Clearance facilities.








After passing through a friendly CBP check, it was off to Starbucks for a coffee to go. Strangely, this location is not participating in the Starbucks App ordering concept. I was trying to bypass some of the lines but it moved quickly anyway.

Today’s flight was departing from Gate E81 in the main US trans border terminal. Overall, this has been the easiest route for an MVP upgrade. Out of flying this route 6 times over the past few years, I have yet to miss out on a First Class upgrade. The only minus is that there is no actual cabin service since the flight is so short.









We had a 10 minute flight delay post, which was cleared up quickly. There were no children and I boarded along with the 4 other First Class passengers (out of 16 available seats). I settled into row #2 in Seat 2A where I had the whole row to myself.







On the seat was a blanket and a small bottle of Dasani water and the usual Biscotti cookies. As of the time of writing, the Biscotti cookies are reportedly being eliminated as a standard feature and are being offered as “on request”. Despite this, they turned up on all my flights this trip.



It was a friendly flight crew going down and a pre-departure beverage was offered of coffee or orange juice. This was unusual since we never usually get anything as the flight is only 26 minutes long.

We had a long taxi over to Runway 8R and departed over Surrey as the morning traffic was just getting going.

We arrived to Seattle at Gate C3. The flight let off into a busy over crowded terminal. I am always amazed at how busy Seattle is compared to Vancouver. They have roughly the same number of gates but Seattle has about double the passenger movement coming and going from it in the course of the day.





Since I had an 80 minute connection, instead of taking a jerky train ride over to the “D” gates where my connecting flight was departing from, I opted to walk it.





I went straight down the “C” Terminal, calling in at my new favorite Beecher’s Cheese. I picked up a Ham, Egg and Cheese Sandwich on Artisan Bread to go. Yummy.





I arrived over at the “D” gates which appears to be the poor cousin of gate assignments in Seattle. There wasn’t much out here aside from some tired food and beverage stands and construction project signs promising a brighter future in the form of new gates.

worldtraveller73

Alaska Airlines
AS 38 – Economy Class (T)
SEA - FLL (Seattle Tacoma International Airport – Fort Lauderdale / Hollywood Airport)
Jan 31, 2018
08:50 AM – 5:24 PM
Booked: Boeing 737-900
Flown: Boeing 737-800

It was super convenient to fly trans-continental from Seattle without the usual stop half way through the journey in Dallas, Chicago or Minneapolis St Paul like most of our trans-border flights. This flight gets the silver medal for the second longest domestic flight in the lower 48 continental united states at 2,717 miles, just behind the American Airlines Seattle – Miami flight at 2,742 miles.

Based on a look around the holding area, the flight was full of seniors heading off for cruises departing from Fort Lauderdale. The boarding for this flight started on time at 8:10 AM with a call for children, those needing assistance, first class and military. There were a handful of walkers headed down the jet bridge at the first call. I boarded with Group 2 with the Alaska MVP members and had plenty of bin space available.

There was no premium or first class upgrades available today. I ended up way down as an MVP at number 15 on the upgrade list. I later learned that selecting an emergency exit row exempts you from any MVP upgrades at all.



On board, I settled into Seat 16 A. I was able to get and hold an emergency row seat with extra leg room. The leg room was great and a lot better than my last standard seats on Air Canada. The Alaska seats were slim line Recaro’s without seat back entertainment (bring your own device).







The captain announced a 5 hour and 7 minute flight to Fort Lauderdale with 130 knot tail winds with an early arrival. We had a beautiful take off through the clouds of the Pacific Northwest.





The buy on board menus and drink lists were as follows:





Despite having had a snack at Beechers, I had pre-ordered the Tom Douglas Breakfast sandwich from the Alaska Airlines App. It arrived during the regular meal service. I enjoyed this with a coffee and a white wine afterwards. The presentation could use a bit of an upgrade but it was otherwise tasty. At each opportunity, I was addressed by name which was impressive.



There wasn’t much to do for the flight so I read the newspaper and watched some Gogo Inflight Entertainment. Unfortunately, Alaska doesn’t seem to refresh their movies all too often. I enjoyed the same “Taken 2”, “CHiPS” and “Hot Pursuit” that were on our flights in September / October 2017.



In the last hour of our flight, the captain came on to announce that a Rocket Launch was about to take place as we passed over Cape Canaveral. Unfortunately, the launch was probably spectacular from the flight deck, but I wasn’t able to get any view from the back thanks to the angle. I did get to see some interesting circular cork screw clouds (pictured) over the launch site which gradually disappeared as we passed through the area. The launch was a rocket taking up a satellite for Luxembourg.



It was a quick and easy landing at Fort Lauderdale with no holds or other waits as we started the approach.





I landed in at Fort Lauderdale and arrived to Terminal 1. Similar to many other American airports, it’s a very utilitarian structure that looks like it was designed in the late ninetees. There were commercial, industrial looking spaces, flaired with primary color hues, in a somewhat soulless environment. Nevertheless, it was extremely easy to navigate with broad concourses. It made it easy to get over to the Car Rental Center, after a short walk through the arrivals concourse.















I have to love the United States for these wonderful facilities. Nowhere in the world can you have an entire concourse dedicated wholly to car rentals on various floors. Set yourself up properly in advance and you can get to your car rental and choose almost any car in the aisle.





I picked up an Avis Rental Car and drove the 15 minutes up to the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina. I wasn’t looking through the camera when I took this…



The hotel was fairly easy to find and I arrived and got settled.



While MrsWT73 networked at her conference for the evening event, I walked up the street 7 minutes and had a Shula Burger for dinner. Courtesy of the website, Don Shula… was an NFL Legend and Hall of Fame Coach who won back to back Superbowls with the Miami Dolphins in 1972 and 1973. His 1972 team went 17-0 recording the only perfect season in the NFL. Trading on this history, Don Shula opened up a series of tasty burger houses in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. It was a pretty tasty burger all in. A first for me, the name was seared into the top like a football. Yep – I went with the mayonnaise with the fries; shameless.



A pretty tasty American meal for my first night in Florida.

worldtraveller73

Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina
Marina Standard Guestroom - 2 Doubles

I arrived to the property and found my way to the room. MrsWT73 had checked in the night before and was already settled in her assigned room. The photos are from the next morning and from throughout the stay. It is situated right near the draw bridge of one of the entrances to the Fort Lauderdale inlets which presented a great opportunity to get some photos from the bridge.









The initial arrival is good as it can get for a hotel that appears to be 30 – 40 years old. The hotel had a small but compact lobby that always had people in it.









First the good: The property is situated right on the canal waterways of Fort Lauderdale. This means that depending on your room assignment, you may get the opportunity of seeing some terrific hardware (yachts!) floating right outside your room. There is water on two sides of this hotel so there is great opportunity to get some water views in. Overall, this was probably the most impressive feature of the hotel.



















There was also a pool with occasional morning sun. Unfortunately, there is no real view from the pool, other than that of the towers themselves.









The property is pretty well maintained. It’s definitely an older four star property that’s had several updates over the years. The property has several low rise (3-4 story) buildings they call villas (everyone else would call them wings) that surround an outdoor pool, centered with a 6 story tower that is the newer part of the facility. The property has had mixed reviews on Trip Advisor, but I think if you’re coming to Fort Lauderdale and spending $300 a night on a hotel room on water, instead of a $450 on a beach, then you need to adjust the expectations slightly. There is no way anyone should confuse this with a resort property. It’s a waterfront property with access to a pool.

Our smaller than average, but consistent with the era, double bed room assignment had a great view of various things floating by. My apologies on the mess, but MrsWT73 won’t take the DSLR with the gigantic lens to take photos prior to messing up the room. LOL.











The bad: there isn’t much around this property if you have a car. While there is a Chipotle, an Bayoni Italian restaurant and the Boatyard restaurant about a 7-10 minute walk by foot from the property, I can’t imagine many guests that are of the hotels’ target audience actually walking the distance. There is a Walgreen’s Pharmacy across the street from this complex.

MrsWT73 wasn’t too impressed with this place. I won't share the wording here, but needless to say it wasn't up to her usual high standards. All in all, it was a nice introduction to Florida with better things to come.

757

Great report so far! It looks like you had a good flight with Alaska all the way to FLL. I'm actually flying them back from SEA to MSP in early April, and it's been a while since I've flown them. That Banh Mi sandwich in their in flight menu looks yummy!

I'm interested to read that if you select an exit row seat you lose your upgrade priority. I wonder why this is?

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

Best,

Matthew

MAH4546

Great report, look forward to more.

As as to the exit row and upgrades, it does not change anything with regards to your First Class upgrade. However, yes, you will not automatically be upgraded to Premium if you have an exit row, but you can manually upgrade yourself. Also, AS won’t upgrade you to premium automatically if your seat choice is not available (if you are in a window and only aisle available, no auto upgrade).

aquamarinesteph

Loving the trip report! Can't wait for more! :-)

FlightNurse

Shula has some steakhouses too, there is one here in Phoenix. Haven't tried yet, he was the man in the early 70's in football, he couldn't do anything wrong.

iaflyer

I've stayed at that hotel a few times, I was surprised at your happiness with the place. I probably said the same things as MrsWT73. I didn't have a choice in where I stayed, so I was glad when we moved down the road a bit to the Embassy Suites.

mike&co

Excellent report as usual. We’re visiting Fort Lauderdale in 4 weeks time for a cruise and looked at this hotel but decided on the Residence Inn as the reviews were very mixed.

DanielW

Looks like a great few days away, worldtraveller73. Miami must be a great place to spend a few days this time of year.

Madone59

Great way to escape the snow (in one of my favorite cities)!! Thanks for sharing ^

Seat 2A

Nice to see you out and about again, WT73. Thanks also for the trip report! It's making me want to leave the snow and clouds of Interior Alaska for a brief escape to southern Florida - but hopefully in First Class on Alaska! I also enjoyed the shots of Vancouver International - one of my favorite airports. ^^

worldtraveller73

Thanks 757. I saw this buried in the Alaska Airlines Website after I had travelled. It specifically references Premium Class; I had assumed it also applied to First Class.


Will I be upgraded if I'm sitting in an exit row?

If you have a seat in an exit row when your upgrade window arrives, you will not be moved to Premium Class.

Good to know MAH4546. I'm going to have to be more promiscuous around the podium next time.

Thank you aquamarinesteph. It was a good, but all to short trip.

That's neat information to know FlightNurse. As a Canadian, it was new information to me.

IAflyer; my bias was probably because her company was paying for the tab. I've certainly stayed in worse, and the views weren't all to bad. We won't be rushing back, however.

You're probably right on there with your research mike&co. There seems to be a lot of hotel inventory in Fort Lauderdale with widely varying prices.

Thanks DanielW. Surprisingly, there were quite a few clouds throughout January. I was expecting a bit more sun - certainly nothing like the desert of the Middle East.

Thanks Madone59! Variety is always the spice of life.

Thank you Seat2A. I usually keep winter for the ski hill. However, we've been getting away from the rain of Vancouver more and more as the years pass.

worldtraveller73

Miami Beach,
Florida

I woke up. MrsWT73 went for the last day of her conference and I took the rental car for a touristy drive to South Beach in Miami. It was 41 minutes on the Google Maps, but with traffic, construction and parking, it was more like an hour and a half by the time I got settled.



I ended up driving to the 17th avenue parking garage in Miami Beach and ended up going for a Trip Advisor "top rated" breakfast at The Social Club restaurant at 1701 Collins Ave, Miami Beach. It is situated right next to the SLS Miami Beach with a silver Lamborghini parked out front. I had no trouble getting an Open Table reservation for one. This was my kind of place as it served breakfast brunch until 3 PM every day. Although it had no view of the water, it was a nice place to be with both indoor seating and a patio. I opted for the patio.













I had the well rated “The Breakfast Sandwich”, which was a tasty mix of an over-easy egg, maple bourbon bacon, avocado, heirloom tomato, toasted challah and breakfast potatoes along with an excellent smooth Café con Leche. It was nice and filling and the service here was unusually terrific considering it probably lives on tourists coming through. I passed on the unlimited mimosas for $30 since I was driving today. LOL.



There was no view of the water from this restaurant but the people watching on Collins Drive was pretty good on its’ own.



Afte breakfast, I took a walk down Ocean Drive towards 7th avenue. It’s typically known as the Art Deco District and has many refurbished hotels. The buildings are all of the 1920 – 1930’s era. Although architecture is outstanding, its an endless patio district full of tourists. I think it actually shows better in these photographs than in person.

















There were some pretty unique examples of properties to visit. It was neat to think back of what beach holidays and glamour would have been like almost 80 years ago in the 1920’s and 1930’s when this area was built up.













As mentioned, there were endless beach front patios with tourists taking in the the Ocean Drive strip. The walk down Ocean Drive today involves navigating between a lot of restaurant hosts (or touts). They weren't too pushy but it was a less authentic experience than a relaxing beach environment. More like, come on in for a $20 drink...















I didn’t realize it at the time, but Winter Haven pictured below is actually available through Marriott as an Autograph collection hotel (or on points for that matter).





I ended up bypassing my previous favorite, the News Café; a 24 hour breakfast and coffee bar due to time constraints. Almost right next door, there was a small crowd outside Gianni Versace’s residence which has now been converted into a hotel / restaurant.







In summary, a rather pleasant afternoon. I made my way back to Fort Lauderdale and we took an evening of factory outlet shopping at the most excellent Sawgrass Mills. We allotted ourselves 2 hours but could have easily spent 4. There were heaps of Europeans wandering around with full suitcases in the premium outlets section buying up everything in sight.



Miami Beach is an interesting neighbourhood to visit. Having been around since the last time I was through here about 10 years ago, the place has lost a bit of it's charm and twinkle from my perspective. Although the buildings are impressive, it's a bit of a tourist strip filled with those getting their "experience" on Ocean Drive. Those looking for the token Miami experience will do well here... others like myself should come for the buildings, take their photos, and enjoy the food and beverage along with the locals just off the strip.