Ok, fellow travelers. This was a real mixed bag. I was trying to find something economical but nice so I tried this one and here is my experience. First of all the hotel looks like it was built in the 50's and never updated. It is a very old facility and although it is fairly clean, it is still very old. Our room still had a wall mounted soda bottle cap remover. Our bathroom door was warped from the humidity and it was hard to shut and open. The lobby is always filled with traveler's and all of their bags blocking the walk ways. Depending upon who waits upon you at the front desk you will either get good service or very poor service. (we stayed here one night before our cruise and one night after). There are a few things you need to know if you plan on staying here I would like to share with you. First, when I booked this hotel, one of the things I booked it for was the free shuttle service it offered for Cruisers to and from the cruise terminal. Since one normally takes a lot of luggage on cruises and since there were 4 of us and normal car might not be able to hold all of the luggage and 4 people. What they don't tell you is that if you are leaving from Miami (25 min. away) there is an extra fee to transport you. It is only if you are leaving the Ft. Lauderdale Cruise terminal that there are no transport charges. If you don't live in this area like me you might not know that there even was a cruise terminal in Ft. Lauderdale and many people fly into Ft. Lauderdale to go on cruises from Miami. The fee isn't terrible but was unexpected. The day we departed for the Cruise ship there were 12 people going to the Miami Cruise terminal and they were all surprised at this charge. In the lobby they have a tour/transport service from a company called KSA Tours. Pretty good a transport but very expensive on local tours. This was a company that wanted to charge me $65 per person to go to the everglades tour, but I ended up paying $18 per person for doing it myself. The second night we stayed after our cruise when I checked in they gave me free water for all 4 at the desk, on the first night we checked in prior to the cruise they gave us nothing. Another thing is that it includes a free breakfast.with your stay. What they don't tell you is right next to their spartan buffet breakfast is a "chargable" buffet (you almost cannot tell the difference since both are small and they sit together like just one buffet. If you get anything from the "chargable one" it is a $5 charge. Again, people were being charge who didn't know there was a difference. Although it is a fairly big hotel, they only have one ancient elevator that is very slow. Would I stay again. Probably not. I believe there are a lot of better options AND I noticed at the ship's terminal almost all the hotels have shuttle service to and from the ship terminal which was something I didn't know before.
Room Tip: Ask for a ground floor unit to make it easier on moving luggage around and so you don't have to...
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.