Miami Dining and Whining

There are rarely any sure fire ways to secure a free hotel room upgrade, at least for Hilton Diamond members. We were reminded of that yesterday at the Miami Hilton.

Tom, a Hilton Gold elite, had checked in early online. We’d warned him we’d had greater upgrade success waiting to check in at the hotel.

Tom’s and Ellyn’s room, a corner room up on the 19th floor, was ready when we arrived. 

Greg’s perfectly adequate 3rd floor room was also ready. Ours was not. That’s a hopeful sign. It had to be something special, maybe a too-floor view or even a Junior suite.

We walked over to a pizza joint for a late lunch and returned to find no room even at 4 pm. We were finally assigned a room at 6:00 pm, and found ourselves in a 10th-floor room next to a clanking elevator.

By the way, ask us what we think of these high-tech lifts.

Not much…

Kathy’s Hilton Diamond profile does not include “Close to Elevator” and we trudged yet again downstairs to request a different room. The employee obliged and also gave us a $50 voucher for our trouble. Hmmph!

We’re well aware that Hilton is now pushing paid upgradesto its elite members. Color us less than impressed.

We caught an Uber to dinner at the highly rated Peruvian restaurant, CVI.CHE 105.

https://www.ceviche105.com/site/

It’s a large and noisy establishment that was very busy on a post-holiday Monday night.

Our attractive young Peruvian waitress charmed us into a round of expensive specialty drinks. We stuck with Pisco Sours, a Peruvian classic.

Ceviche, of course, and various waitress’s-surprise dishes ensued, most of which were very tasty.

The final bill was just over a hundred bucks ahead. Was it worth it? Yes it was, notwithstanding the sizzle and salesmanship efforts  of our lovely Lima lassie.