Contiki – Page 4 – ThePassportPrincess

Day 27 – Daytona Beach

September 10, 2015June 10, 2016SarahLeave a comment

We left Miami at about 8.30am on Monday morning to head off to Daytona Beach.
I didn’t actually really sleep on the bus for some reason this time.
It was one of our shorter bus journeys so I just looked out the window the whole time haha.

To be honest, my night in Daytona was very boring. More so because I had a ‘rest’ night.
When we arrived in Daytona a few people on the tour did an optional Daytona Speedway Tour before the hotel but I didn’t do it.

The rest of us headed off to the hotel and checked in with all our bags.
The hotel we stayed at was pretty basic but it had a pool and it was right on the beach. You could tell it’d be used for Spring break parties as well haha.

I decided to do my washing at the hotel. When I put my washing in the machine I realised I didn’t grab any washing powder off our tour manager and he was out so I used one of the washing machine dispensers for a packet but it didn’t give me any powder 😑
I decided to just wash my clothes without any washing powder and now they smell average.

I met up with Diogenes a bit later and we did a little bit of souvenir shopping in the rain.
I bought my magnet and he bought this random mask to take back home to Australia.
We also went to Walgreen’s and bought some Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream and proceeded to turn into 2 girls sitting watching TV and eating the whole tub before dinner.
(I thought we had no freezer at the time so the only option was to eat it all)

That night we had a buffet dinner at the hotel. There was salads, bread,
sasuages and other meats.
It was so average. I kind of just picked at the salad and had a bit of the meat then left the rest. I probably wasn’t very hungry as I ate so much ice cream before – hand as well.

After dinner, a few of us went down the road to this sports type bar. I didn’t drink and we only stayed for a couple and then walked back to the hotel.
I ended up having a shower back at the hotel and hopping into bed and watching TV while writing my previous blogs.

Overall I barely saw Daytona beach, just the outside of my hotel and a couple of shops that were around us.
It was more to do with the fact the weather was really shit so I didn’t want to go out and I had a big night in Miami the night before.

My impression of Daytona was a bit dirty. To be honest I’m kinda judging it from our hotel and the area we were in. Plus the type of homeless people put me off a bit.
I’m sure on a nice day Daytona is really beautiful though. If I go back I’d rather spend it in a different area.

Day 26. Miami #2

September 8, 2015June 10, 2016SarahLeave a comment

On the Second day of Miami I lay in bed and had a great snooze until 11am.
I was slightly worried that I was actually the only one on the whole tour who had decided to sleep in and everyone else was out exploring the highlights of Miami.
In my head I had visions of the group at the beach, shopping at DASH or eating breakfast at some yummy cafe.

When I emerged all ready for my day and went downstairs, I was mistaken as everyone else had literally just gotten up as well. We all caught up on the previous nights events and people lay their head in their hands to nurse their hangovers.

I had brunch with Paige and Marisa at the hotel restaurant. It would have been nice if I had ordered something savoury. Instead I ordered the strawberry and banana waffles and the whole time I just craved some scrambled eggs and some fried potatoes or something!

After Brunch I walked down to Walgreen’s Pharmacy to try and get myself a Ventolin Inhaler. I know in Australia you don’t need to have a prescription to get one (in NZ you do) so I assumed here would be the same.
Turns out I’d need to see a doctor to get anything to help me breathe better.
😧😧
Every year I get Bronchitis and I thought I’d skip it this year(hence why I didn’t bring anything) but here I am coughing away on the Contiki Coach every day and feeling like I have the airways the size of a straw.

After I bought some Jandals (or thongs as Aussies call them) from Walgreens I went and met up with the girls again where we went to the beach and had a swim.

We were there for about an hour before the thunder started so we decided to go back to the hotel and swim in the pool with some of the group.

When it got later in the day, I headed down the road and bought a Twix ice cream 💕 and some Doritos. I was in such a snack mood! Haha

After munching on them, I had a shower and begun to get ready for my night out. We had a Miami party cruise boat booked and then we’re heading to the club Nikki Beach afterwards.

I was prepared this time and bought my poncho. I got some laughs but I was the one laughing when everyone had to run to the bus in the rain!

When we got to the boat, we all took some photos outside and then boarded.

We all got 3 free drinks each. And they wern’t stingy on the alcohol either!
There was lots of dancing and drinking. Plus Marisa and Paige didn’t feel like drinking so they gave me their 3 free drink coupons. Woo hoo! I was loving life.

After the boat cruise, we all went to Nikki Beach.
We skipped the line and hit the dance floor. It was soo much better than Mansion.
I think there was another tour type thing there so there were heaps of people our age and I talked to other people from NZ which was cool.
By 3am my feet were killing me, I’d gotten free drinks in VIP all night from some guys that were having a party, I then Ubered home with another great Uber driver and I had an hour hang out with the concierge at the hotel.

When I got back I said to the hotel guy I was going to bed but I was hungry so he gave me the rest of his dinner he’d gotten from the restaurant as it was now closed. He even microwaved it for me haha. We chatted for ages about my travels and how I want to move to America but didn’t know how to go about it etc… He recommended working at the Hotel but I’m pretty sure I have to get sponsored for something like that.
It was a pretty all good end to my night.

When I got back to my room I ended up calling my best friend back home and sat in the bathroom talking to her for ages on Facebook messenger calling haha!

Miami, I will defiantly be back! (Maybe when I have more money)
💳💲💰

Day 25 – Miami

September 8, 2015June 10, 2016SarahLeave a comment

Miami.
Where everyone drives nice cars and looks like they came out of the TV series nip/tuck.
I love Miami.

The weather changes it’s mind every 2 hours and it’s humid as fuck but it’s still wonderful.
The Uber drivers are the nicest so far and the clubs are playing the latest music the loudest.
I didn’t bump into any celebrities while in Miami but then I didn’t venture very far from my hotel unless it was to the beach or pool.

We arrived on Saturday in the afternoon and even then, the sky was clouding over.
I signed up for an optional activity to do a Speed boat tour around the Miami Harbour but as soon as we got into the boat it started thunder and lightening so they had to cancel 😯Florida has very tropical weather. By most afternoons there’s like a storm brewing which is really annoying.
We had to stick around the shops for a bit longer waiting for it to pass but by 2pm we were back on the bus and heading for our hotel. croy_3_l The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Croydon was so nice and cute! It was situated right across from the beach and like a block away from the alcohol store haha.

As we had lots of time to get ready, my room mate and I went and got alcohol and then went back to our room to prep.
She’s like me in the way she loves make-up, needs over an hour and a half to get ready and needs to wait for her tan to dry.Once we were ready it was time to head out for dinner.On the way there, as it rained it ruined half of us girls hair.
We were seated outside under the shelter but the humidity made the whole dinner really uncomfortable. It sounds like I’m being such a girl (which I am) but there’s nothing worse then spending time dolling yourself up and then feeling like you look like crap for the rest of the night.
Guys think we do it for them or something, honestly we do it to make ourselves feel beautiful, confident, decent, whatever.
It’s more so for us and then if a good looking guy appreciates it too than that’s a bonus.

So we sat in the humidity sweating off our faces over our buffet dinner and $35 Mojito jugs.

When it was time to leave, our bus driver Ricky took us to this bar but he had to drop us like 4 blocks away. As about 70% of the Contiki at the moment is girls, that’s a lot of heel walking!
Myself and 3 other girls got to the bar eventually but ended up Ubering back to our hotel to re-do our hair/ make up and also drink our own bottle store bought drinks.
It was a win for us really. Better than spending $14 on 1 drink from the bar trying to pass time until our bigger club later that night.

We met everyone at this club called Mansion later that night. It’s good to see these higher end type clubs compared to what we have back home. Plus on Contiki sometimes your tour manager (like ours) can get you in front of line.
It was a cool club, but just like Las Vegas the drinks were around $18 each. There were hundreds of pretty girls and seedy guys just hanging around. *sigh*
All of us broke bitches on Contiki found it wasn’t really our scene.
I think we left around 1am and took an Uber back to our hotel where I fell into bed and looked forward to my sleep in!

😴
Xx