So last weekend I went to Miami with Thrillist as a part of their new Hotel Thrillist series.  If you don’t know about Thrillist yet… well…you should.  The site/newsletter has not only been covering cool shit to do in the city for the past five years, but throwing parties of their own – showing the world that they know what the F they’re talking about. Last year they introduced Jet Mystery, their first official Thrillist excursion, this year we knew where we were going and it was Miami bound.

Thrillist invited over 150 social influencers, media types, clients and sweepstakes winners nationwide for a weekend-long showcase of the best of Thrillist Miami, with the legendary Fontainebleau Hotel playing host.  I was pretty stoked to score a last minute invite and knew a handful of people going – I mean look at the itinerary, how bad could  it be?

Well here I am a week later, still recovering from my weekend at Hotel Thrillist, which coincidentally kicked off Internet Week.   I can write a book about the weekend, but I’m not going to.  You can check out play-by-plays HERE, HERE, and HERE – or just read the high and lows.  I mean, I don’t want to make you too jealous.

The Highs

The Hotel:  Ummm.  The Fontainebleau Hotel is reeeeeeeediculous. Def the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in.  The hotel is composed of four towers, 1350 rooms, three fine dining establishments, four casual restaurants, a spa, LIV nightclub, a poolside and lobby bar, and tons of ‘refreshment’ stations (coolers throughout the hotel, pool, and beach area with fruit infused ice cold water...hey, it’s the little things that count when its 110 degrees out. The room was simple and modern and lucky for me, I got a nice view of the bay.   Knowing where my heart is, the room was complete with an iMac (well played Fontainebleau) and the world’s most expensive mini bar (not well played-me thinking $10 bottle of VOSS is reasonable at 5AM.) After I settled in, I headed down to the pool and…my god…the grounds were beautiful.   There are NINE POOLS!!!! Yes, nine, and two hot tubs, all surrounded by cabanas, day beds, and lounge chairs. Sigh… take me back now.

The Participating Sponsors:  Bacardi Torched Cherry is great, unfortunately I drank so much of it last weekend, I probably won’t drink it again.  Corona – in the pool – perfection.  The never ending flow of Klondike bars was also a crowd favorite.  Did you know they come in all different flavors now? My top pick was Cookies and Cream.   Then we have the swag sponsors – who may or may not have made the trip.  Not only did they give us free stuff, but they might have been the biggest revelers of the bunch – providing lots of laughs, good times, and a a few inside jokes to go home with.  Stunner of the Month - a sunglasses subscription service where you get a new pair of Stunna Shades delivered to your house for $9 a month.  Hung Chains - to go along with our new shades, Hung Chains is a modern twist on the popular 50’s glasses chain.  I was so stoked to get one and then so bummed when it was missing from my gift bag.  One of my new buddies saved the day when he graciously gave me his (Thanks Jose!) Boom Boom- Where to start.  Boom Boom is an ‘Energy Inhaler’ and Sean, the Chief Nasalogist of Boom Boom, was pretty much the Mayor of Hotel Thrillist and I’m not talking about Foursquare here. While I’m not sure how well it works, it def made for some fun slang all weekend.  “I just boomed.”  “We’ll be booming all night.” “I just boomed before breakfast.”  you get the point.  My fave bathing suit designers – The House of Jackie Brown (Coolest chicks ever.  Period.) was also in the house selling super cute discounted swimwear and hangin with Hotel Thrillisters.

The Entertainment: There will be much more on this later but we were treated to a night out at LIV nightclub which is the most massive club I have ever seen/been to, performances by Suenalo (do not sleep on these people.  They were amazing), Kat DeLuna, and DJ Elle (both killed it. Interviews coming soon.) Thrillist through a Pool Party and every hotel guest now with our crew was thanking their lucky stars they picked the weekend of June 4th to stay at the Fontainebleau.  One of the pool attendants said it best, ” You were with the Thrillist party? My God, you guys had it like Rehab in Vegas out here yesterday.” Oh yes we did.   There was actually a lot of other performances but unfortunately I missed them.  More on that later.

The Food: Scarpetta, Hakkasan, Gotham Steak, and Solo. DELISH.   Our first night we had a huge dinner which consisted of tastings from each of the the Fontainebleau’s fine dining restaurants.  Scarpetta’s Duck and Fois Gras Ravioli with a Marsala Reduction; Braised Short Ribs of Beef, Vegatable and Farro Risotta, and Creamy Polenta, Fricassee of Truffle Mushrooms def won the prize of crowd favorite.  Solo’s Warm Crepes with Bananas Foster and Pistachio Pudding with fruit was also pretty much the best thing I ever tasted.   I can only comment on this one dinner because I missed the rest of the meals… I totally blew it… which brings me to the ‘Lows.’

The Lows

Wait, What Happened? Because I was either sleeping, hungover, or sleeping because I was hungover, I managed to miss out on 50% of the trip… yup I suck. BIG TIME.  I’m talking three meals  (the seafood feast pre-pool party I was especially bummed about – instead I was dying a slow death in my room nomming on $30 chicken fingers via room service.  Thanks LIV!) Yoga on the beach, Scratch Academy DJ lessons, Capoiera, a midnight pool party, the ‘Jungle Island’, Mixology lessons, The BBQ Showdown, a few performances, the Nerf tourney, the Klondike Every Man Challenge, etc etc. and a trip to the strip club. The one thing about having the most comfortable bed ever made – you want to sleep – a lot.  I found it almost impossible to get up..especially after lots of Bacardi Torched Cherry, a Corona/Vodka cocktail – don’t ask - and shots of Patron. Ugh.

The Weather: While we definitely did have our share of sunshine, but the typical Florida T-storms were in full effect, raining out two of our events causing for another course action. Luckily, there were backup plans – except for Red Steakhouse.  I wont even get in to that mess.   A few lucky individuals got their flights canceled due to bad weather and got to stay an extra night.  I was hoping to be one of them but instead got delayed for two hours.  I didn’t find this out until I got to the airport – which was a major downer considering I had to drag myself out of the pool an on the shuttle.  On a side note – the Ft. Lauderdale airport has the absolute worst food selection known to man.

The Girl to Guy Ratio: Wah Wah Wahhhhhh.  I would say the ratio was about 10 girls to ever 1 guy…very convenient being Thrillist is a men’s publication and all. It was pretty much survival of the fittest after the first sip of alcohol was consumed…by the end of Night 1, I was definitely acting inappropriate.  The guys on the trip had it MADE.

Overall, the trip was a damn good time.  I came home sunburned as hell with a lot of new friends.  Looking forward to the next round.  Full photo gallery coming soon.

all pics [via]