We doing our first cruise (last minute) in November and are sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale
HOLY SMOKES they have a lot of hotels. I know it’s only 1 night, but how do you decipher which is a good stay?
Ritz Carlton seems nice, but it is out of our price range. Do people have recommendations? I assume we’ll be there for the day and then leave in the morning/afternoon to board.
TYIA
We used
It was very clean and super close to the cruise port - about. 5 minute ride share ride.
We had dinner in the restaurant and it was good but very overpriced. The little shop for sundries and where you can get some breakfast things was wicked small and overwhelmed (you can get breakfast in the restaurant but my crew wasn’t up for that).
It served the purpose and was affordable and I would stay there again. But there wasnt a lot to it so if you’re looking for more like a resort stay this wouldn’t be for you.
Oddly for being in a bustling area there wasn’t a coffee shop or similar that was in a walkable distance that I could find.
I also stayed here in February and agree (we just had drinks in the restaurant as I had a car and drove to dinner)
One person in our traveling party stayed right next door because she had points so it was free. I think it was Aloft. And it was nice too in the bare bones sort of way. No resort type amenities.
I will add that the morning of embarkation day the lobby was full of people waiting for rideshare so plan ahead. 
Yep. They are literally connected.
My family has used this Holiday Inn Express a handful of times. They have a shuttle for a nominal fee.
I don’t know much about hotels in Ft Lauderdale specifically (the one time I visited I stayed with my brother at his house) but I usually book Marriotts since they have pretty consistent quality and I am familiar with their tiers of brands. ie I know a Springhill will be clean but basic whereas a Courtyard usually has a bit more frills and comforts, while the JW is more on the luxury end.
Another option is to check ratings on aggregator websites.
A very handy site is cruisecritic.com, especially the Cruise Critic Community (forum) section. You can look among the discussion topics in Florida homeports, and find threads about various hotels in FLL. A lot more people there with cruising experience, especially on other lines and homeports other than Port Canaveral, than here.
https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/386-florida-departures/
The websites are how I landed here! haha
Trusted community for the win! I agree with you though. Tend to stay with what you know/like.
That is how I end up at so many Holiday Inn Expresses. They are extremely consistent (and in my price range).
Yikes! What a website!
I’ll be spending some time on here haha. We’re going with experts, but it’s nice to see some information prior. We are literally clueless.
I like these as well. Consistent quality is what I’m after. I don’t care so much about frills or luxuries.
Devils Advocate question:
Do hotel stars matter and what do you get? There are plenty of 3 Stars, some 4 stars but they all seem nice? Just listening to thoughts
Stars only matter to me if it’s less than 3. To your point, I generally do not see tremendous difference between a 3 and a 4 - often it’s just amenities which for a quick pre-cruise stay I wouldn’t care about.
I care far more about consumer opinion. I book most hotels on Priceline and Expedia & use customer ratings to decide.
Also how hotels respond to negative ratings.
I’m not sure I even look at stars, really.
This
Got to agree. I put more into those rankings. They are more real!
In March we stayed at the Hyatt House in Dania Beach. It was just fine for an overnight pre-cruise hotel. We fly into FLL and cruised out of Miami so not sure if they had a shuttle but don’t see one listed.
https://www.hyatt.com/hyatt-house/en-US/fllxd-hyatt-house-fort-lauderdale-airport-south-cruise-port
We stayed at Hyatt Place Ft. Lauderdale Cruise Port and Convention Center. It might have been a 5 to 10 minute Uber ride to the port at most. They had free breakfast in the morning.
I keep coming across the Hyatt Centric Las Olas on various websites.
Anyone have an opinion on that?
Priceline is quite favorable. Nothing weird to me.
