Nadines Travel Blog

We arrived late on our flight from Charlotte, North Carolina and our friends the Kollers picked us up and dropped us off at the Marriott Biscayne Bay and we had a nice check-in because I did get an upgrade bump to a corner Junior suite which is approximately 500 square feet with three walls of floor-to-ceiling windows, a large living room and a large dining room were included. There is a coffee station underneath the TV and there are two long hallways which I would have used the space from one hallway to make the bathroom bigger. This hallway I would have kept because it was a natural flow to the room with a long bench with drawers to put your luggage on and a tall mirror which were both very helpful. The bathroom was a disappointing size. It would not be what you would consider a four or five star bathroom. It's quite small with really no room for two people to be at the sink at once because there's a toilet very close to the sink area and then a large stand-up shower. I reque...

Location location location.  This particular Marriott is across the street from Fort Lauderdale Beach.  It is in the heart of the action if you like spring break in Fort Lauderdale.  (I don't)  We lucked out and got an eighth-floor double balcony view of the Intercoastal Waterway and all of the 20,000-square-foot mansions (and larger) that have waterfront access.  We later stayed a second week at this resort and lucked out and got an 18th-floor view of the Intercoastal Waterway and of downtown Fort Lauderdale.  The view is so good that we could see cruise ships and military ships when they were in Harbor. To the right, you can see the many large mansions that have waterfront access.  Their yachts are usually parked in the canals beside their homes.  There is no shortage of money in Fort Lauderdale.  It is kind of obscene how wealthy many of these people are. We had a couple of friends Jimmy and Sandra who stayed with us the first week that we...

Flamingo Gardens is located approximately 30 minutes from our timeshare in Fort Lauderdale Florida, the Marriott Beachplace Towers.  It is a 60-acre botanical garden and everglade wildlife sanctuary featuring tropical and subtropical plants from around the world including some of the largest trees of their species in the State of Florida known to Florida as Champion Trees.  The highlight for me was the peacocks which are everywhere. To the left is a showy peacock who was just as interested in the cute little girl as she was with him. You can see Darren in the bottom right-hand corner to give some perspective on how large this tree is.  This is one of their Champion Trees. Most of the wildlife here have been rescued and are permanently injured and or non-releasable and would not survive if released back into the wild.  There is a Florida panther on the property and he is 120 pounds, so quite large. We went to the wildlife encounter at 1:30 and we had three animals int...