Kteacher

Recap of the first sea day- 

   Relaxing afternoon reading, packed Michael’s Club for the Officer’s Soirée, great magician in the theatre, crazy busy Luminae for dinner, and a mystery solved.

15 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

We had the pleasure of staying here for four nights in February.  I agree, the staff is outstanding!

And, you can not beat the rooftop pool/bar area.

I’m actually looking at one of the shorter Reflection sailings in 2026 so we can combine it with a longer stay at the Kimpton Shorebreak 👍

  Lunch in Luminae today was delicious. I always enjoy the soups so had the parsnip soup, the signature burger, and a butternut bread pudding (very good). 
  I’m enjoying a good book on the balcony this afternoon and may pop down to Michael’s for the tea later.
   

   It’s a beautiful sea day. We decided to have a late breakfast on our balcony but need to remember to wear our glasses when filling out the room service form as we ended up with double portions of my husband’s omelet order. He had no problem eating both 😂. 
   There are a lot of activities taking place, truly something for everyone. We walked off breakfast, picked up a shakerato at el Bacio, and went to the Beyond the Podium talk in the theatre- European Rivalries in the Caribbean with Jacob Marvin. Very informative an engaging speaker. 
    Our butler gave us a hand written note of activities for us today, which was very sweet. We’re going to try for lunch at Luminae, tea time in Michael’s, and then there’s the Officer’s Soirée. 
   Our way too many plates of breakfast which we somehow managed to finish anyway photo-
  

2 hours ago, buzz031 said:

I forgot to take any photos at last night’s dinner too! However, the tea cured salmon (appetizer) was great and the turbot was also very good. My husband had the filet (asked for rare) and his ended up medium rare and not dried out at all though. He also had the tomato soup and was not a fan. He loves tomato soup and hates cheese (he thought there was a cheese flavor somewhere…)! Maybe it was his imagination? 
 

In the middle of the night, however, something started banging outside. I’ve heard this sound before on another cruise and knew that the barrier between our room and the next had come undone and the ship was not falling apart. This morning when I peeked outside, the neighbor’s chair had worked its way partially onto our balcony and yes, the door between us was having a banging good time.

Oh my! Sorry you had to deal with that noise. I think part of our issue at dinner last night was a combination of first night chaos and late arrival (8 pm). 

A very mixed bag at dinner, but will just chalk it up to first night chaos. I forgot to take photos, but we had the smoked tomato soup (very good) and burrata (okay) to start and both had the filet and requested medium rare (served medium and more than a little dried out). Dessert was a deconstructed chocolate tart (okay), and incorrect cordial from what was ordered (it was corrected, but then there was a wait). We’ve cruised enough to know that the first night is often a little rough. 

One strange thing- when we entered our cabin to drop off our bags there was a welcome bottle of Moet in an ice bucket on the table. When we came back from lunch it had been switched out to a bottle of Duc De Valmer Brut 🤷🏻‍♀️

  Lunch in Luminae was the typical hectic first day. My husband had the Cobb Salad and I had the lobster roll sans bun served as a salad. We had one of each of the desserts and definitely preferred the mixed fruit cobbler

I pre-reserved a taxi through Yellow Cab for a 10:30 pickup, received an automated call when the driver was on their way, and we were picked up about 10 minutes early. We found out that 2 adults and 4 pieces of luggage will fit in a Prius 👍. 
   This was literally one of the quickest embarkations ever. We had dropped off our bags and ordered our first cocktails by about 11:15.

   We’re getting ready to check out of our pre-cruise hotel and I can honestly say that I’m a little sad that we’re leaving. The staff here have been outstanding. They do offer a day pass here so are considering that when we return on 4/26 as we have a late afternoon flight. We would definitely stay at the Kimpton Shorebreak again.

And one more…

What a beautiful evening 

Hugo spritz along with a Death Star purse (I am a rebel 👍). Beautiful night up at the Rooftop Escape Bar

The beach is packed, but the water and weather are perfect!

It’s a beautiful day for the beach ☀️. Guests at the Kimpton Shorebreak get 2 beach chairs (umbrella is extra). Here’s breakfast photos from this morning, everything delicious again-

So sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. We had a very mediocre dinner at The Wild Thyme, which is not far from our hotel. Dried out red snapper, mediocre service 😑 and a tab for over 150.00. I won’t add photos because they are too depressing. The good news is we are now enjoying dessert and drinks at La Fuga ❤️. Un carillo with a delicious tiramisu for the win 👍

1 hour ago, hcat said:

 a hidden gem!

our  Holiday Inn hotel is  towards the end of 17th st near the Convention Center... so it looks like taxi would   just have to curve over to the beach road.  

The service in the restaurant has been outstanding!

One thing I want to mention before I forget- I received an email from Celebrity with a link to a pre-cruise survey. The survey was based on our booking of the 4/21 sailing on the Reflection as all of the questions referenced the stop at Coco Cay, essentially asking if we booked the cruise because of its stop there. 

Breakfast this morning-

14 minutes ago, hcat said:

All very nice ..Much nicwr look than most cruise food .  We'd love to have dinner at this place but are staying on 14th st Causeway.. and our car will be parked there.  Maybe we could get a taxi! ?

I would say it’s worth it. This hotel is a little bit further down, but it’s also much quieter here. Our room rate included breakfast vouchers at the same restaurant, 20 pp allowance. I’ll post photos of breakfast.

Dinner continued…

   I had caprese salad to start, the gnocchi for main course, and finished with an affogato with Nutella gelato. The pasta at La Fuga is all made in house as is the limoncello ❤️. We may consider dining here another night this week just so we can try their veal chop per due.

   Photos from dinner-

We had dinner last night at the hotel’s restaurant, La Fuga, which is advertised as coastal Italian. The service was very attentive, and the food was phenomenal as were the cocktails. I asked if the bartender could make me a carajillo- if you are a fan of espresso martinis you need to give it a try-

One of my favorite things about CC is reading reviews because it helps me in my own planning. We always fly in a few days early before a cruise. This trip I was looking for a pre-cruise hotel that was a little more chill, had a good location with restaurants and the beach within walking distance, and had some character to it. So far the Kimpton Shorebreak has checked off all of these. Here’s our room, 222 (IYKYK), and a nice little car I wouldn’t mind owning in front of the hotel:

As others have said, expedited embarkation and debarkation, Michael’s Club (prefer it to Retreat Lounge), Luminae restaurant, and the level of service we always receive. See you on board 😀

One extremely early wake up call (2 am!) later, we are relaxing at the Kimpton Shorebreak in Ft Lauderdale. The bonus to an early flight was a dear friend who works for JetBlue out of Hartford messaged me to let me know she had just scanned our bags onto the plane , so I got to see her briefly before we took off. There’s a very chill vibe here. We arrived too early for our room to be ready but there was still free coffee and tea off of the lobby, and enjoyed a nice light lunch at the rooftop pool. The room price came with breakfast vouchers (20.00 pp), as well as other amenities. Some photos of the room, amenities information, and lunch. It’s a beautiful breezy day here, so we are off to the pool for a snooze. Our room was ready by 12:30, which was great!