Prior to our five-night Very Merrytime Cruise on the Disney Magic in December 2017, my family stayed for two nights at the Four Seasons Hotel Miami. It is an easy-to-find hotel, located in downtown Miami on Brickell Avenue in an area that is filled with high-rise buildings. There are a lot of hotels, businesses, embassies, restaurants, and residential condos in the area.
I always do a lot of research regarding hotels, and the Four Seasons was very highly rated on Tripadvisor. In addition to the high rating, I picked the hotel based on its prime location (only a 10-minute drive to the cruise terminal) and the fantastic experiences we have had with Four Seasons hotels in others locations (i.e., Baltimore and Orlando). The Four Seasons Miami did not disappoint! I wrote a detailed Tripadvisor review, but I will provide a high-level overview here.
When we pulled into the hotel entrance, the valet and bellman immediately opened our car doors and helped us out. The bellman put all our luggage on a cart (I love this kind of service!) and said that the luggage would be brought up directly to our room. I’m not sure whether the hotel has a self-park option, but I didn’t care – using the valet rocks when I’m on vacation!
The lobby of the hotel is located on the seventh floor of a mixed-use office and residential building. We took the elevator to the seventh floor and were warmly welcomed at the front desk. My favorite thing about the Four Seasons brand is how much they cater to families and the superior level of service. Both of those things were highly evident at check-in: the man at the front desk immediately offered us bottled waters and, after checking us in, hauled out a wagon full of toys for my son to pick out a free gift!
We were pleased to score a room upgrade upon check-in. Our spacious suite was located on the 27th floor, and it had a gorgeous view of Biscayne Bay. Here is a photo, showing our view, which includes an amazing pool area on the seventh-floor terrace:
Our luggage arrived within minutes, and housekeeping set up the sleep sofa for my son (and even had bed rails for him). After relaxing in the room a little bit, we decided to head out and eat an early dinner. A friend had recommended Perricone’s, which turned out to be a fantastic Italian restaurant. We had to walk five blocks or so to get there (it actually was half a mile – city blocks in Miami are big!).
The food was absolutely delicious! They brought out some bread and what I call “Italian salsa” (chopped tomatoes in olive oil, topped with basil). We gobbled that right up! I had a very good Caesar salad. The waiter was great about accommodating our son and bringing out some plain penne pasta with tomato sauce on the side. We requested that it be brought out quickly (my boy was hungry!), and the food indeed came out fast. For entrees, my husband got the penne pomodoro, while I got the best gnocchi I’ve tasted! It was served with “coral pink” sauce, which appeared to be a rich, creamy tomato sauce.
After our scrumptious dinner, we decided to stop by a CVS that we saw on the way back to our hotel. We picked up a few snacks for the next day and to bring on the cruise ship. Once back in our hotel room, we called it a night and started getting ready for bed, as we were exhausted from our full day of travel from Richmond, Virginia.
For the next day, our plan was to relax at the hotel. We started out with room service breakfast. My son and I shared some delicious buttermilk pancakes, fruit, and toast, while my husband had a yummy egg white frittata. After breakfast, my husband went to the gym, while my son and I hung out in the room.
The whopping 50,000 square foot Equinox gym at the Four Seasons Miami is located on the fourth floor and is actually independently owned and operated (but Four Seasons guests have free access). After my husband returned from his work-out, I took my turn at this amazing gym. For better or worse, this appeared to be a place where all the “beautiful” people of Miami exercised and got more beautiful. So, if you’re not a regular gym person, then you might be intimidated by all these incredibly fit people around you. I didn’t really care, as I was trying my best to counter all the calories that I soon would be consuming on our cruise!
Once my husband and I were showered after our respective work-out sessions, we decided to order room service lunch. Once again, the Four Seasons did not disappoint with their cuisine: (1) my husband got a very fresh and amazing salad with chicken, (2) my son got chicken tenders, French fries, AND a margherita pizza, and (3) I just ate whatever my son didn’t eat.
After lunch, we changed into our swimwear and headed down to the pool area. We were greeted by a pool attendant, who asked if we wanted a cabana. I asked if there was a charge, and she said no. Well, yes, OF COURSE, we want a cabana!!!!
And, so, this was my view for the afternoon from inside of the cabana:
There are three pools for guests to use: the main pool (which has a lot of pool toys for the kids), the palm grove pool (with knee-high deep water and hammocks hanging between palm trees!), and a kiddie pool. The main pool was heated, but the palm grove pool was not. When my son and I tried to get in a hammock together, I realized just how cold the water was as our hammock sank into the water! It was about 75 degrees that day, but if it were the middle of summer, that water would have felt awesome, and I would have been lounging around like this:
As I mentioned before, the Four Seasons always has an amazing level of service. Pool attendants would regularly come by to see if we needed food or drinks. For food, they even can make you fresh guacamole while you watch:
(I need a sombrero like that!)
I absolutely loved the Four Seasons’ pool scene in Miami, which is actually pretty consistent with what I’ve seen at their Orlando resort: the atmosphere was very family friendly (not typical, crazytown Miami with risqué bathing apparel), the staff was super (genuinely) nice, and there was a surprising lack of snobbiness/stuffiness. I could have hung out in my peaceful cabana for a whole week!
But, we were going on a Disney cruise the next day! So, after a few hours at the pool, we decided to go back to the room and then order some more room service (yay!) for dinner. (Can you tell that we love room service??? Admittedly, it is highly convenient when you have a young child.) If you order before 6:00pm, you can get food from Bahia, one of the hotel’s restaurants, which is in the pool area and only serves lunch for the day. Bahia offers Latin cuisine, which we love. My son got a quesadilla, I got mojo roasted chicken chilaquiles, and my husband got the Bahia burrito bowl with mojo chicken. We also got chips and salsa, but the salsas were quite fancy: “Juan’s salsa verde,” roasted morita chile pipián, and guacamole. Everything was DELICIOUS!
We were very happy with our relaxing stay at the Four Seasons Miami and would return there in a heartbeat. The family-friendly luxury cannot be beat!
As your vacation concierge, I can offer you complimentary amenities during your stay at the Four Seasons Miami, such as a resort credit, free breakfast, early check-in/late check-out, and a room upgrade (subject to availability).
