Pre and Post Cruise Hotels

JoeyandDavid · December 31, 2008

Are you the type that would be satisfied as long asthe accomedations are clean .. or do you insist that the hotel you book have "free" shuttles to and from the port /airport.. what about that "free" breakfast does that have to be included? Does the location have to be close to "fun" local activities?

When booking a hotel for a pre cruise or post cruise stay what do you look for in a hotel?

Joanandjoe · December 31, 2008

The first thing I look for is whether there's a good hotel that we can book using "frequent stay" points from a hotel chain. We've managed to do that twice out of five trips with a pre-cruise hotel stay: a Marriott about two blocks from the cruise port in Tampa, and the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver.

For our first cruise to Alaska in 1998, we may or may not have used frequent stay miles: I don't remember. We flew ito Seattle and were taking a cruise line bus from the airport to Vancouver; so our first priority was having a hotel close to the airport.

Our other two cruises with pre-cruise stays were in Nice and Amstrdam. In Amsterdam, we wanted an affordable hotel room, booked at the last minute (because we booked the cruise 19 days before we left home), that was both central to museums and close to the hotel where our river cruise was assembling. That hotel was sold out, so we couldn't stay there. Amsterdam was having a festival, and it was hard to get any room at any price.

For Nice, we wanted a hotel that was centrally located, relatively affordable, and with a good rating on Trip Advisor. Breakfast was included, which was a plus.

mercedes · December 31, 2008

My DH calls me a hotel snob, but I only stay at the Ritz, the Four Seasons or something comparable. It doesn’t matter how far away the hotel is or whether they offer free shuttle or breakfast. When the kids were younger and it was 7 of us, Holiday Inn, Econo Lodge and Best Western were our best friend for a number of years. They are all grown and I can now afford to indulge. We have stayed at the Ritz in St. Thomas, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas before and after cruises.

cruisingcats · December 31, 2008

As we have only cruised once we had a precruise hotel. What I looked for was price, to/from cruise ship, how nice it was. It did offer continential breakfast but we had gone to a store and picked up dinner and breakfast food. The room we were in had a kitchenette. It was suite style room for a reasonable price. In the future may not opt for suite but a good room that has coffee. Need that morning coffee to get us going. The closer to the port the better but not necessary.

55ChevyLady · December 31, 2008

this a very funny question Joey...because just last week I had to change our hotel in Galveston.

Seems the very nice hotel i had us booked into still hasn't gotten their electricity or phone service hooked back up. They did have generators running for lights they said were dependable, but they weren't able to power the elevators or heat the pool.

So i would say elevators and heat in the heated pool in Jan. would be nice!

yes, I got us into a Holiday Inn on the beach just down Seawall Blvd. Don't know what it is like but everthing works but the fitness room and i don't care about it. :cool2:

DebbieandJerry · January 1, 2009

Joey, great questions. We don't really care about how ritzy the place is. We care more about if it's in a nice neighborhood and it's proximity to activities, places to eat, places to visit, etc.

We tend to navigate Expedia.com and then go to the hotel's website (if there is one.) We also read the comments that other travelers have made and try to take that in to consideration.

For those cruises where we are arriving the night before, the 4 of us share a room. Our only exception was when all of Marcy's kids (and their significant others) cruised with us. We got a row of rooms in Ft Lauderdale.

Some of the places have included full breakfasts, continental breakfasts and/or happy hours. We'll gladly participate, but it isn't a deciding factor whether we stay there (or not).

Because we have returned to Miami and Ft Lauderdale many times, we have figured out where we like to stay and try to return to those same places.

As for shuttles, again, it's a nice amenity, but not a necessity where we are concerned. We've rented cars, we've hired taxis, limos, drivers, etc. so we're pretty open to whatever.

We'll be arriving about 36 hours before our cruise leaves San Diego. We found a hotel that is pretty close to the pier. Their website says they are close to public transportation for sight seeing. I guess I'll be able to report back when we return.

TheSkipper · January 1, 2009

Clean and either with a restaurant or with restaurants nearby. A shuttle from the airport is a plus as is a breakfast. Our experience with shuttles to the ship have not been great. Too many folks trying to get on the shuttle and this has resulted in a couple long waits. So, we normally just grab a cab to the ship.

cruisetarp · January 1, 2009

#1 would have to be cleanliness followed by at least coffee in the morning if not a continental breakfast. I just hate having to go out for that first cup of coffee in the morning. Shuttle is no big deal as we have found it is easier to drive our own car to the port than to wait for a shuttle especially when an entire hotel is checking out at the same time.

jacketwatch · January 1, 2009

For me it varies. For a post cruise hotel we need to be close to the major attractions or transportaion to them. As for precruise as we go in one day early we're not so fussy. We need to be close but are not fussy about shuttles, breakfast, etc. In fact our precruise hotel in SEA. included transportation to the dock which we declined as a cab was more convienent and nominal in price. However post cruise stays for us are more important so we get a bit more particular about them.

jacketwatch · January 1, 2009

My DH calls me a hotel snob, but I only stay at the Ritz, the Four Seasons or something comparable. It doesn’t matter how far away the hotel is or whether they offer free shuttle or breakfast. When the kids were younger and it was 7 of us, Holiday Inn, Econo Lodge and Best Western were our best friend for a number of years. They are all grown and I can now afford to indulge. We have stayed at the Ritz in St. Thomas, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas before and after cruises.

You rock girl!! :biggrin: