Apr
02

6 Days In A Very Different US City

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Metromover In Downtown Miami

Metromover In Downtown Miami

We’ve just spent several days in Miami waiting for the start of our planned cruise.

Our location has been south west of downtown Miami in the Kendall area.

The decision about where to stay came about as a result of a misunderstanding with the owner of a condo unit in the Doral region of Miami, west of the Miami International Airport. We had initially decided to stay at this location due to its proximity to both the airport and Miami’s Dolphin Mall and the Miami International Mall. This option offered everything that we had been looking for without the hype and expense of a location in the Miami Beach area.

Unfortunately this reservation was unilaterally canceled by the owner of the condo, who simply sent me an email and returned the rental payment back into my PayPal account. We were then left with little option but to start seeking other accommodation.

There is obviously a warning here to be aware that bookings made through private owners are not as firm as those made through a business.

We then discovered that due to the lateness of the action of the owner of the Doral property, our options in Miami Beach were severely limited. What was then on offer was either poor quality or overly expensive or in many case both of the above.

A detailed search of options that were available to us resulted in the discovery on the TripAdvisor website of Comfort Inn Suites, Kendall, Miami.

This property combined good quality accommodation (with a great bed), a gymnasium, spa and heated outdoor pool along with laundry facilities, complimentary high speed internet and a breakfast that exceeded that of many similar hotels.

Without the ratings provided on the TripAdvisor website, it’s unlikely that we would have elected to stay at this type of property.

We have to say that it certainly surpassed our expectations, particularly in terms of personalized service and attention to detail.

We decided to take advantage of Miami’s public transport system, and found that it really offered a cost effective and comprehensive way of getting around town, as long as time wasn’t of the essence.

I purchased a Miami Dade County Easy Card the morning after our arrival and loaded it with $20. At the end of our 6 day stay in Miami, the card still carried a balance of some $8, despite being used on 4 consecutive days for bus and rail travel around the metropolitan area. When within the downtown city center, Miami boasts a free metro loop system with unmanned above ground trolley buses running around the downtown parts of the city.

One of the elements of our stay in Miami that will remain with us for some time was the level to which English is treated as a second language in many businesses. We had an experience in the local supermarket where the cashier on duty needed to write down the total cost of the transaction because she was unable to translate the amount into the English language. Although we were happy to disregard this episode, we were nevertheless very surprised that Spanish seems to be considered as the default language in many parts of Miami.

 

Categories : Destinations, Rail, Road, Vacations
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Mar
27

On The Way At Last!

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Qantas A380 Jet

Qantas A380 Jet Taking Off

We’re now at the Admirals Club Lounge at LAX. Our A380 departure was delayed nearly 1 hour due to late receipt of security clearance for loading.

Not much time was picked up on the flight. We travelled in exit row seats in coach class, but this was certainly not as ideal as premium economy in these aircraft.

The seats are narrow and not overly comfortable, with little room for accessing video controls, etc.

Another issue with these exit row seats is that the arm rests are fixed (and very narrow). With another passenger beside us, it was extremely difficult to avoid getting elbows, etc in the way of my neighbour.

We both noted upon arrival in LA that the process of customs and baggage services is still somewhat chaotic, and that they really don’t have a workable system for processing the large numbers of passengers that occur when an aircraft like an A380 arrives with a full load into LAX.

The number of officers who were tasked with speeding progress through customs and passport clearance were certainly sufficient to handle the passenger numbers, however there was a high level of confusion about how many people should be in each of the queues. We found ourselves being transferred into three different queues before we were able to present ourselves to a customs official.

Once there, the welcome was extremely efficient and friendly however.

Customs and baggage clearance took about 60 minutes after the arrival of the aircraft, but there was a significant further delay involved in re checking our luggage for the next sector.

One message to be gained from this is that you should allow a bare minimum of at least 2 hours transit time at LAX, since you need to check any luggage through customs and quarantine here prior to re-checking it for a domestic or other international service, and then take yourself back through security.

We had hoped to attempt to wait-list onto an earlier flight for our sector to Miami, but it turns out that a fire at MIA has severely impacted American Airline’s flight refuelling capacities, and as a result many flights in and out of Miami International airport.

A consequence of this is that all flights are full, and wait-listing isn’t a real option. Had we known this, we would probably have ticketed all the way to Miami from check-in at Melbourne airport, but of course hindsight is always a wonderful thing!

We have about a 5 hour transit at LAX, although with the time to go through formalities, this has reduced to a little over 3 hours in the Admirals Club Lounge.

Even here, things aren’t going completely to plan. The complimentary wireless internet service is currently down, and in this lounge food and drinks must all be paid for.

At last we now have seat allocation for the LAX-MIA flight. Row 41 seats E and G. We have to hope that we’re not boxed in.

Categories : Air, Destinations, Security
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Mar
27

Over The Pacific Ocean

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Qantas A380 aircraft

Qantas A380 aircraft taking off

Well, our trip is at last underway, and we’re witing this entry from Kendall, Miami.

The first sector of the flight, from Melbourne Australia to Los Angeles USA took us on one of the Qantas A380 aircraft that have been introduced into the airline industry in order to move more people more efficiently, and from the airline’s perspective also more cheaply.

The A380 is an impressive piece of machinery from almost any perspective. It is not only very large, both inside and out, but is very much quieter that many of its predecessors in the long haul business.

It seems that the aircraft suffers a lot less from the regular flight turbulence effects that can make many long haul flights a little “interesting”, but maybe we were simply lucky enough to miss out on many of those areas of turbulence that are so common on trans Pacific flights.

 

Categories : Air, Vacations
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Mar
26

Our Upcoming Itinerary

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Sample TripIt Information

Sample TripIt Presentation

The process of planning for our forthcoming round-the-world trip was not an easy one, since there were very many different issues that we needed to put into place to have a plan that would work and meet our needs.

We used a fantastic tool called TripIt (to be found at http://tripit.com) as an integral part of the planning process that we have used for the trip.

There is an earlier post about TripIt, and we decided to really give it a good workout while piecing together our itinerary.

Among the issues that we had to deal with were:

  • finding a suitable cruise to take us across the Atlantic Ocean from the Americas into Europe
  • linking in air travel options between Australia and the departure port for the cruise
  • Arranging suitable activities through Europe following the disembarkation from our cruise ship.
  • Linking all of this in to a fixed date of departure from Europe back home.

The final itinerary that we have developed with the assistance of the TripIt planning engine is:

  • Flights from Melbourne to LA and then from LA to Miami
  • 6 days in Miami
  • Board Liberty Of The Seas for transatlantic crossing from Miami to Barcelona
  • Sightseeing in Barcelona, then Elipsos night train to Milan (Gran Classe)
  • Wake up in Milan, then travel by rail to Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Explore Ljubljana then board train to Belgrade, Serbia
  • Explore Belgrade then travel to Budapest, Hungary
  • Budapest to Brastislava
  • Bratislava to Prague, with lunch in Vienna
  • Prague to Berlin
  • Berlin to Mainz
  • Day river cruise from Mainz to Bonn, thence rail to Dusseldorf
  • Fly from Dusseldorf across the channel to London
  • Board flight from Heathrow to Singapore
  • Spend a couple of nights in Singapore warming up from the European climate
  • Back home to Australia

During the coming days and weeks, we’ll be keeping this travelogue up to date with summaries of the adventures and observations that we make during this trip.

Categories : Destinations, Technology, Vacations
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Mar
25

Our Latest Venture – Around The World In 49 Days!

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John and Barbara With The Get Packing BookWe have a couple of personal milestones coming up, and as a result have planned a trip that takes us first from Melbourne in Australia across the Pacific into the US of A, thence by cruise ship across the Atlantic and into Spain.

We plan to then travel largely by train around a number of the Eastern European countries before arriving in London en route back to Melbourne via Singapore.

We will be posting stories and experiences about this trip and the places we visit on this website as we go.

 

Categories : Accommodation, Air, Destinations, Rail, Sea, Vacations
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Apr
03

Passengers Entering The US Likely To Be Profiled

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It has been reported that the United States Department of Homeland Security is introducing a program that will begin profiling incoming passengers as a new initiative for air travel security.

The new measures to are planned for introduction in April 2010, and will replace the program of screening of all passengers from a number of Muslim countries that was introduced as a result of the “Christmas Day Bomber” event in Detroit.

These new security measures will apply to US citizens as well, and will apply a level of screening that will depend on how closely their personal characteristics of travelers matches intelligence information.

The Washington Post reported that these changes come after a three-month review of security protocols.

These changes should see a significant reduction in the number of passengers who are taken aside for additional screening, whilst concentrating on individuals that seem to match particular intelligence profiles.

Characteristics such as nationality, partial names, recently visited countries and the age of the traveler  will be taken into account.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano  is reported as saying: ”These new measures utilize real-time, threat-based intelligence along with multiple, random layers of security, both seen and unseen, to more effectively mitigate evolving terrorist threats” .

Categories : Air, Security
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