TMS MT

Forgot to add - make sure you do take a minute to review your bill before you leave. We were charged three times for valet parking, but didn't even have a car. They took the charge off with no problem though.

We returned yesterday from our cruise and we all agreed that the Newport Beachside Resort was perfect for our needs. I was nervous about it when we first got there because that night they had "South Florida's own blues legend, Joey Gilmore & Friends" playing in their Kitchen 305. It was REALLY loud and apparently annoyed the birds in the lobby because they were chirping like crazy. Between the band, the birds, and the people talking in the lobby it had a crazy, hectic feel. But the other nights we were there were much calmer. The room had an entryway with a sink in it, then the bathroom and the frontroom area. The frontroom had a bed that folds up against the wall behind the love seat so there was actually sleeping room for even more people. One bedroom had a regular door and the other had the pocket door. From the pictures I looked at on Tripadvisor the room with the pocket door looked to me to be open on one side, but what appeared to be open was actually mirrors. The frontroom and each bedroom had their own TV. We couldn't hear each other's TVs when we went to bed. One closet had a safe in it and an ironing board and iron. There was a microwave, fridge, and some dishes. They had a coffeepot along with coffee and fixings. In the frontroom area was the counter with the coffeepot. It was kinda a half-moon shaped breakfast bar with stools. The decor of the room was maybe outdated - pretty bright colors and huge patterns. There were stains on the bathroom ceiling from a previous leak problem, but we felt the room was clean. They had self-serve laundry. Our view was OK, but my husband said next time he would prefer to pay a few dollars more and have the ocean or pool view with the decks. Ours had windows, not decks. There is a little strip mall across the street that had probably four restaurants and a CVS. We didn't even go on the other side of the CVS but from our window we could see there were many more stores over there. The pool area and beach area were nice. One morning a lot of jelly fish washed up on shore. Having read here about that area having a lot of them I was a little nervous to go in the water. They did have a sign up that day warning people of them.

We booked through the Newport the boat tour that starts at Bayside and goes around all the millionnaire houses. The tour includes transportation to and from Bayside. We all enjoyed that. We took public transportation down to South Beach and spent most of Saturday there. The transportation webside said to get on the bus at a stop that was directly across the street from Bayside and down that road just a sort way. But we walked south a little bit instead and got on it there and that was good because if we had got on at the stop recommended by the website we would have taken a long loop out of our way. We used SAS transport from the airport and to the port. We were very happy with them. In both cases the driver called us at least twice to let us know his status. He was at the airport before us, but waiting outside someplace, because he had been checking the airline and our flight was running a little early.

We didn't stick around during the day at all, so didn't participate in any of Newport's daytime activities. I did bring home the activities sheet though so if anybody is interested in what they do during the day I can scan it and post it. It doesn't show anything on Sunday but they were doing stuff that morning before we left for the day.

I took a bunch of pictures of the room to share, but right now I don't have my card reader. I need to get it back from the person who has it and then I'll figure out how to post them.

Would I stay there again? Most likely we would. I liked being right on the beach, I liked that stores and restaurants were within very easy walking distance, and the place felt clean and safe to me. The only downside is the distance into downtown Miami or South Beach or Fort Lauderdale. So if you want to be near the main town action you are a ways from it, but do-able on public transportation and it would have been no problem at all if we had a rental car, but we didn't rent one until after our cruise.

We fly out tomorrow morning - I'm so excited! We are staying at Newport for three nights, then doing a four night cruise, then staying one more night in Miami (TownePlace Suite Doral). So I'll be back home late January 31 and will get on the computer probably the next day. I will remember to post back to this thread what I thought.

I'll be at the Newport Beachside Resort one week from today. Yay! Have never stayed there before so unfortunately at this time I can't offer any opinion. Sorry. I just wanted to comment because I'm excited to see a comment on the place we're staying. We'll be in a 2-bedroom city-view.