Westin Corporate Drive, Ft. Lauderdale

[Broughton Hall]

We are travelling with friends on a cruise in December leaving from Ft. Lauderdale. They are booking hotel/pre cruise hotel with Holland America. We are booking separately. Holland America has advised the pre-cruise hotel is Westin, Corporate Drive. It looks very nice on the internet, however, before we book ourselves we wondered (a) is it easy to get to the cruise terminal i.e. far away; (b) are there plenty of restaurants and perhaps a local liquor store close by to purchase our pre-boarding wine? If you have any other recommended hotels - greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[RuthC]

I can't answer your questions (sorry :o ), but I can suggest that since this is the HAL pre-cruise hotel you could purchase HAL transfers from the hotel to the pier. You don't have to be on the hotel plan to do that. Your friends will get HAL transfers as part of their package and you could arrive together if you'd like.

[Sierrachik]

The cruise terminal is a ways away, if I recall correctly it is about 25 minutes away. We took a cab to the hotel after we landed, cost about $33 2 years ago. We had the HAL transfers to the ship but was very disappointed that the busses didn't leave til about 1:30, we would miss out on nearly 3 hours of being on the ship before we sailed when you factor in the time to get the the terminal.

My husband and I elected to ditch the transfer and take a cab to the terminal. We ended up being the second ones to board :)

The hotel and setting is nice, however you're in the middle of a business park, I'm not sure what is near there. I didn't see a lot around, not within walking distance anyway. Sorry I can't help you more there.

[Sierrachik]

I should also add that it was very expensive to stay at that hotel using HAL's hotel prices. Our second cruise a year later we stayed at a different hotel for about a third the cost using an online pricing site.

[ger_77]

We've stayed at the Westin on Corporate Drive twice now - once with a HAL cruise, another with Princess. It's a nice hotel with beautiful grounds, but you are away from most amenities. It is in a business area, and there's nothing really within walking distance. We took a taxi one night to a mall to get some things, and it cost us $20 one way - not exactly close.

The beds are truly wonderful, but the noise transfer from room to room is very apparent. We could clearly hear our neighbor's television after we'd turned ours off, and in the morning we could hear the cleaners talking in normal tones in the hallway. Bring ear plugs.

If you're booking a hotel for a night, you can get better rates at hotels much closer to the port, and not have to wait for a hotel bus transfer.

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[kelmac]

BH,

This hotel gets mixed reviews over on Tripadvisor. I've booked it twice with Priceline(pre/post cruise) this December for $95 a night + taxes. It was the only 4 star in North Ft Lauderdale.
It may be cheaper to rent a car for this location, as it's a ways from the cruise port, restaurants, beach...,

Good luck,
Kel

[Randyk47]

We stayed there back in 2004 when we booked a cruise very late...at least for us....and the only hotel we could find was through HAL. It was spring break time and we really couldn't find a decent hotel for less. As it turned out my wife had a rewards card with the chain and they put us in a beauty suite for no additional charge. Having said that I'd not stay there again unless we had our own transportation and that's highly unlikely as we live in Texas. It's isolated, there are no other services or restuarants close by, and it's a long ways from the terminal.

[Stevesan]

We are travelling with friends on a cruise in December leaving from Ft. Lauderdale. They are booking hotel/pre cruise hotel with Holland America. We are booking separately. Holland America has advised the pre-cruise hotel is Westin, Corporate Drive. It looks very nice on the internet, however, before we book ourselves we wondered (a) is it easy to get to the cruise terminal i.e. far away; (b) are there plenty of restaurants and perhaps a local liquor store close by to purchase our pre-boarding wine? If you have any other recommended hotels - greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

According to Mapquest, it's about twelve miles from the Westin to Port Everglades.

See Mapquest (substitute FLL for Port Everglades for the distance to the airport):

http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?do=nw&go=1&r=f&aoh=&aot=&aof=&1a=&1c=&1s=&1z=&1y=US&1l=&1g=&1pl=&1v=COUNTRY&1ffi=&1n=&1qn=%22port%20everglades%22&2a=400%20Corporate%20Dr&2c=Fort%20Lauderdale&2s=FL&2z=33334%2d3640&2y=US&2l=HJ4C80%2fsqAk%3d&2g=4I8pMVMfFLU%3d&2pn=&2pl=&2v=ADDRESS&2ffi=1&2n=&2qn=&2qc=&q=%22port%20everglades%22&1pn=%22port%20everglades%22&1sb=Port%20Everglades%7c1850%20Eller%20Dr%7cFort%2 0Lauderdale%7cFL%7c33316%7c260820%7c%2d801208%7c95 4%2d523%2d3404%7cUS&1qc=County%20Government