My parents and I arrived at the Renaissance Hotel on Friday, March 30, for a one-night pre-cruise stay. We were greeted by a very friendly bellboy, Ron, who helped us with our bags and showed us to our room on the 10th floor. It was the type we had booked (two queen beds), and it looked pretty clean and felt comfortable. We then asked Rob if there were any good places to eat around the hotel; he recommended Bravo, an Italian restaurant (but separate from the nationwide Bravo chain). It was in the same parking lot as the hotel, and the food was fantastic and reasonably priced (especially for the Fort Lauderdale area).

When we got back to the hotel, my dad and I decided to go swimming. The pool felt ridiculously cold (basically air temperature, and it got fairly cool that night), so we went to the hot tub and it was the same temperature! We asked a staff member about this problem; they replied that the heaters for both the pool and the hot tub were broken and wouldn't be repaired until Monday, April 2. That was a major disappointment; one of the biggest reasons we chose to stay there was the pool / hot tub. Then we noticed something else appalling about their pool area: THEY ALLOW SMOKING. All Marriott properties were supposed to have gone 100% smoke-free by October 2006, but apparently that doesn't include outdoor pools? My parents and I are non-smokers and get pretty irritated by smoke, so this bothered us quite a bit. (I also noticed that this smoking ban does not include areas just outside the main entrance; we got hit by tons of smoke every time we went in or out of the hotel.)

Unable to make use of their pool or hot tub, we went back to the room and I decided to get on the internet for a while. The Renaissance offers high-speed internet access for $10 a day, which seems kind of unnecessary considering that they charge hundreds of dollars a night anyway. Besides, one- and two-star hotels like Holiday Inn Expresses give you internet access for free; why should nicer hotels charge so much for it? But at least it was a reliable, fast wireless connection.

My dad is a silver Marriott Rewards member. One of the benefits of that level of membership is a late check-out upon request. He asked someone at the front desk if he could do that since we couldn't embark on the cruise ship until around 1 p.m., and they told him that he can but they'd prefer that he didn't, emphasizing that last part. (To be fair, he asked somebody else about that policy later and they apologized about the first response and said that it would be no problem at all.)

That evening, there was a knock on our door. My dad got up to look through the peekhole to see who it was, and... no peekhole! If that's not a security issue, I don't know what is. Turns out it was a hotel staff member coming by to deliver a copy of the next day's newspaper. While the door was still open, he noticed that there appeared to be a peekhole on the outside of the doors; looking again at the inside of our door, he noticed that there probably was a peekhole, but it was covered up by a sign on the door (see photo). I have to wonder if all the rooms are like that.

I took a shower that night. I wear glasses, so naturally, I take them off before getting in the shower; had I not done so, I probably would have seen all the mold and scum in the bathtub area and decided to wait until the first day of the cruise to shower. It was everywhere: the faucet, the bars, the towel rack, etc. (see photos). Then I saw the ring of mold around the top of the sink; I could see some of it plainly in the mirror, but when I got down lower and put the rim of the sink at eye level, I was disgusted at what I saw (see photo).

Since we were just staying for one night, we didn't need to use the closet, which is probably a good thing since we would have had a hard time doing so with one closet door off its track and leaning against the other (see photo).

On the bright side, the beds were comfortable, and the sheets looked clean. I liked the huge selection of pillows. I might have been able to get some sleep that night if it weren't for the extremely noisy A/C vent. Either it was off and we roasted, or it was on and we couldn't sleep for the constant tweeting of the vent.

In the morning, we went down for breakfast in the Bistro 17 Restaurant. It was $14 per person just for a continental breakfast buffet that was about a third the size of your typical Holiday Inn Express buffet (granted it also included a cooked-to-order omelette station - my ham-bacon-and-cheese omelette was delicious, as was the rest of the food).

The express check-out was a piece of cake - no problems at all there.

We took the hotel's shuttle to the cruise port; it was on time and cost $6 a person. A taxi would have been cheaper (just over $12 total, I believe), but the shuttle driver was very friendly, and we were the only ones in the shuttle. He was a great help with the bags, too; one of them was pretty heavy.

Overall, I'd say the Renaissance WOULD be an okay place to stay after each of the following changes were made:
- thoroughly removing all mold from the bathrooms
- removing the $10/day fee for internet access or local calls
- reducing the price of breakfast by a few bucks (while it was good, it just wasn't worth $14 each)
- moving the signs on the inside of the doors so that you can see out your peekhole
- banning smoking everywhere on their property, including the outdoor pool and areas within about 30 feet of the main entrance

Unless those changes are made, I will not stay there again; I'm sure there are better places in the area for less money, such as the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites that (as of the day I'm writing this review, April 8, 2007) is ranked #6 of all Fort Lauderdale hotels.