I went looking at the three hotels, Disney cruise line recommends at Port Everglades. The Marriott Fort Lauderdale charges a $55 a night resort fee, which only includes the use of the pool, the use of the gym and the use of the Wi-Fi that’s it. Maybe it’s just me but $55 for amenities that I would never use seems extremely excessive.
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Wow.
I haven’t cruised out of FLL since 2018, but twice stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. My friend just stayed there in May. They have a shuttle to the ships for a nominal fee. They will deliver people to each ship.
Holiday Inn Express Fort Lauderdale Cruise Airport
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More and more resorts are doing this. My feeling is that if they want to raise the price of a night’s stay, then just raise the price … don’t do it with these forced fees that aren’t as easy to see and compare.
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I looked everywhere on their site and there’s nothing that says what the resort fee is for, so I ended up calling directly. The woman that answered was nice but said that resort fee is charged no matter what and it took her a while to find what it actually was for. I asked since I will be there less than 24 hours prior to a cruise, won’t be using the pool, won’t be using the gym and won’t be using the Wi-Fi if that fee could get waived as it is excessive and was told no, unless I am an ultra premier Marriott member, then everybody has to pay it regardless. I am not staying over a holiday, I am staying on a Sunday night and the least expensive room, prepaid, with tax and resort fee is over $400 a night.
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0% chance I would pay that to sleep somewhere. There are scores of options in that area.
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I think it is funny that the cheaper the hotel room, the more likely you will receive these kinds of amenities for free!
I can book a room at Comfort Inn, for example, and get access to Wifi for free, get breakfast for free, and use the gym/pool for free. But the more “upscale” expensive hotels consider those to be luxuries to pay extra for?
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Yes, this.
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I just got back from a Disney cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale. We stayed at Hyatt Place Ft. Lauderdale Cruise Port & Convention Center. The address is 1851 SE Tenth Ave. It was $168 plus tax for the night. It was a $13 Uber ride to the port. Super close to the port–less than 10 minutes. Drop that $400 hotel room. That’s nonsense!
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This is excellent info!
HOw was the cruise???
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I loathe resort fees and what I do when I price is ensure I’m covering all the taxes, resort fees, AND parking (since we most time will chose to rent a car or be driving ourselves). And then that all-in number is what I compare/price out my hotels at. And the basic amenities (Wifi, a basic pool, and basic exercise equipment) are more than what my family usually needs. But the resorts that do charge more tend to have better upkeep and better facilities (especially in the pool department) so if it a swimming heavy vacation, I may lean to one with a nicer pool. But again, I look at the overall costs of the hotel all-in before making that decision.
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Not being able to compare is the point. People use third-party booking sites and sort by price, so airlines, cruies, hotels, etc. started listing cheap prices with lots of add-ons. The airlines and cruises now have to list the full price, but hotels don’t.
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I once mentioned this to my husband who travelled almost every week for work. He explained that the less expensive places are mostly tourists and such and they are more price conscious. The more-expensive places usually have more business travellers who are on expense accounts and don’t care.
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It was great. Thanks for asking. It was our 4th Disney cruise–the second on the Dream. We did the Remy brunch for the first time and it was over the top services and out of this world food. Loved it and would absolutely do it again.
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