Thursday, April 6 – transit from Montego Bay, Jamaica to Miami

This Morning’s Menu – last breakfast in Montego Bay

• Orange Juice
• Fruit Plate
• Pepper Steak
• Green Banana
• Yam
• Plantain
• Callaloo
• Fried Dumplings

I’ve been spoiled. I’m going to miss these breakfasts!

I have an early afternoon flight today to Fort Lauderdale. I used the driver who picked me up at the bus terminal for the ride to the airport – 15 minutes, 15 USD.

Travel Note: The Montego Bay airport is massively busy! It’s well organized though – both the airline check-in and the security screening. (unlike a certain ferry terminal I encountered that shall remain nameless!). Just get there early! I arrived 3 hours before my flight.

I’m flying Southwest today, and I tried checking-in online yesterday but received an error message. Following that I called customer service, who worked on the issue for 45 minutes, to no avail. I was told I would need to check-in at the ticket counter today. Ugh! I’m sure my boarding position is going to be terrible. Yep, it’s C9! Fortunately it’s only a 90 minute flight (where I’ll be stuck in a middle seat…)

Follow-Up: While waiting in the gate area prior to boarding, my name was called amongst a group of passengers being asked to report to the agent. It turns out I was randomly selected by TSA for a bag search. That’s kind of annoying, but it’s also a good thing because the search starts early in the boarding process and once it’s complete I can get on the plane. Nice! I ended up sitting in an exit row aisle seat!

(Did this story just completely bore you to death? Apologies!)

Side Note: I’ve noticed during this trip that when certain airlines are making announcements at the airports, instead of mentioning “passengers” or “customers”, they are now using the term “guests”. Really? Am I now sounding like the old guy yelling at the kids to stay off his lawn? Probably…

I mentioned a while back why I was traveling to Miami on this trip. Here’s a quick refresher: When I was trying to book my transit from Jamaica to Belize it was either going to be prohibitively expensive or of a brutally long duration. This diversion to Miami seemed to be the best alternate. I know what you’re thinking though: After flying in and out of Miami, spending two nights in an accommodation, plus all the other minor associated costs, wouldn’t it have ultimately been less expensive just to shell out for the high cost fare from Jamaica? Probably, but my cheapness just wouldn’t allow me to pull the trigger on a (relatively) massive ticket price. I’m certifiable, I know! (BTW, the cost of the Southwest flight was $208)

Okay, so I’m arriving in Fort Lauderdale, and in a couple days I’ll be flying out of Miami, so I reserved an Airbnb close to the Miami airport. It turns out it’s kind of a long drive between those two airports. (And I’m probably the only one who’s just realizing this!) After collecting my bag, I checked on a Lyft ride to the Airbnb and it was going to cost $65 and take 70 minutes. Mmmm, flashback to Dominica! There has to be an alternate means of transit, right? And after a little research, I discovered that, yes, there is! My route turned out to be as follows:

• Shuttle bus from Airport to Train Station: free
• Train from Fort Lauderdale Airport Station to Miami Airport Station: $3.75
• Lyft from Miami Airport Train Station to Airbnb: $6.00
• Total Time: 100 minutes

Side Note: You may be wondering why I chose to use Lyft instead of Uber? Well, I usually compare prices between the two, but in this case I had no choice. That’s because Uber no longer works on my phone! I last used Uber in Panama in January with no issues. Well, since then they’ve issued an update to their app that is no longer compatible with Apple iOS 12, which is what my iPhone 6 is stuck using. I’ve had this phone 8 1/2 years, and it may be getting to the point where I need to get a new one. I hate planned obsolescence!

Friday, April 7 – Miami

I have a couple places I’d like to check out today.

The first stop is the Vizcaya Museum (thanks for the recommendation Ali!). To get there I’m going to use the Miami Metro system. The walk to the Miami Airport station took 15 minutes; the train to the Vizcaya station cost $2.25; and the walk to the museum lasted 10 minutes. I love public transport!

The Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is the former villa and estate of James Deering, of the International Harvester fortune, located on Biscayne Bay. The villa was built primarily between 1914 and 1922, and the property originally consisted of 180 acres.

An amazing place! Thanks again Ali! The museum entry fee was $25 and I paid another $5 for a 30-minute guided architectural tour.

My plan is to walk back to the apartment, which should take around 2 hours. On the way is my second stop: Sanguich de Miami – a sandwich shop in Little Havana that I read about.

Saturday, April 8 – transit from Miami to Belize City

My short Lyft ride to the airport this morning cost $7.

My flight is on American today, and I ended up using miles to book it. The one-way ticket cost $6 + 26,000 miles. However, for an additional 10,000 miles I could upgrade to business class. It’s only a 2 hour flight, but I went with the upgrade mainly so I wouldn’t have to pay to check my bag. Not sure if 10,000 miles are only worth $30, but who knows when I’ll ever utilize the miles? And it turns out the Miami airport was very busy on this Easter weekend, so the access I received to the American lounge via the BC ticket was a nice perk.

I was a little disappointed that the BC passengers did not receive a meal on the flight. I know it was only 2 hours, but I figured we’d a least get a sandwich. Nope! Just an offering of some pretzels, chips, and cookies. I did have 2 mimosas though, so there is that! (And I did some eating in the lounge too!)

Travel Note: I had a check-in problem on American too. I had a feeling I knew what the issue was in this case though, and I was right – my one-way ticket to Belize. It’s the same problem I had on the very first flight of this trip with Air Canada – no return or onward ticket. I was prepared this time however and showed the ticket agent my itinerary to Madison on the 19th…on American Airlines!

Travel Note 2: At not one of the immigration points on this trip was I asked by an officer if I had a return or onward ticket. Thereby confirming my assumption that the policing of this policy is solely under the purview of the airline, ferry operator, or similar. Interesting…

I booked my ride from the airport through the B&B where I’ll be staying. It cost 30 USD for the 20 minute drive.

For dinner, the B&B owner recommended a nearby Chinese place. Perfect!