I have used all of the above except Palm Harbor and Bahia Mar. Also take a look at some of the marinas in Dania up the canal like Royale Palm. Very handy to the airport and the inlet. In West Palm. check out the two Loggerhead facilities and definitely Old Port Cove if you are playing in the Turnberry league, very deluxe mega yachty place.
Turnberry used to be extremely expensive; what rate did you get? We stayed there for a month in 07-08. No deals being made in08-09 either. Outstanding dock staff (see if Oscar and Louis are still there), excellent full length fixed docks that run down BOTH sides of your boat. A nice walking area and not that bad a walk even over to the Aventura Mall. The things I didn't like about it besides the hideous expense, are a very noisy air conditioning system on an adjoining office building, and noise from honking cars. They are liberal about who can work on your boat, and have a used oil dispensary on site. Most of the boats are absentee owners, captain or yacht service maintained. Very good security. My wife liked it there a lot mostly because the dock crew were almost like butlers and really looked after her when I was away.
We spent 4 months at Loggerhead Hollywood in 08-09. There is another RO there now, who says the staff has changed. Good, the staff and dock master were the weak links there. The docks have very short finger piers, we needed to be on the seawall or T-Head. Other than that, it was delightful. It is in a high security, beautifully maintained residential development, and includes a fantastic pool and work out gym/spa. There were more live board snow birds and a great social scene, which was completely lacking at Turnberry. The location is excellent for shopping and beach access. One side benefit of Loggerhead which we took advantage of was if you have a lease at one of their marinas, you get free transient stays at their others. We used their facilities at Daytona, Vero Beach and Lantana on our way down. All in all, an excellent choice. They were overly stringent about work and workers o the boat though.
Marina Bay is way up the New River just west of 95. Excellent new docks and dock staff, nice pool and community rooms. The issue is, if you want to use the big boat, you are going all the way down the river to get out. So it tends to be a "storage" marina. If you don't mind funky and no dock staff, next door is the greatness of Yacht Haven. The anti-Turnberry if you will. Like being in old Florida somewhere, "rustic" to say the least. We have come to love it and made great friends with the Rv'ers there. Definitely not a place where anybody is putting on any airs. We make a point of staying there at least a few weeks when we are down south. Exploring the new River and environs in our Whaler is a lot of fun, and so is the adventure of taking the big boat up and down river once you get the hang of it. Nothing quite like it in the USA.
George
Hatteras 56MY
Boston Whaler 130 Sport
