Conquest Cruise in July! Hotel and transportation recommendations in Fort Lauderdale

My wife and I are flying to Fort Lauderdale in July for an Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Conquest. Are there any recommendations for hotels for our pre-cruise night in Fort Lauderdale? Also transportation to the ship. Finally, we have been on Freedom and Valor. How does Conquest compare?

Thank you!

Many of the hotels in Ft. Lauderdale are outdated, the newest updated one is the Renaissance which is in a perfect location right close to the port, it was updated 3-4 years ago. There is a Hilton Marina a little further which is right on the intercostal if you like to sit by water, see boats and yachts and like to swim, their pool is very nice, but if you check tripadvisor there are people that speak of the hotel needing an update but its fine for the night before. There is an Embassy Suites which is the last place I would book for a few reasons, first most cruise passengers stay there and its hectic to get a cab and check out etc, but this hotel has the most negative reviews of needing an update. There is the Crown Plaza there which has decent reviews and I would consider staying here myself, but I chose the Renaissance because there are places to go at night and for dinner that are in walking distance, such as the Boatyard (aka Bimini Boatyard) and Bravo Ristorante which is rated excellent.

I believe you will find the Conquest to be similar to the Valor. As far as getting to the port, just take a cab or better yet call Uber its inexpensive and you don't have to deal with making reservations with shuttles and waiting for others to get in the shuttle, easier to go yourself, all hotels have cabs lined up outside.

Are you looking for something affordable, or something fancy? If you are looking to save some money without sacrificing comfort, I highly recommend Springhill Suites in Dania Beach. A good hotel for the price we paid. Plenty of restaurants within walking distance. And we just took a cab the next morning.

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We usually stay at GalleryOne DoubleTree. Across the street from the mall and a Starbucks and grocery store for wine. It's also a nice stroll across the bridge to the beach.

We did have an issue with them bumping our family suite last time. But when we rolled in at 10 pm with two tired teens in tow and I pitched a fit after they said they were booked I magically ended up with two connecting rooms for the price of one. But that stuff seems to happen everywhere...

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Great question! I was wondering where to stay as well. Sounds like there are some great choices!

We are staying at the Springhill Suites in Fort Lauderdale and it does free airport shuttle AND free shuttle to the port the next day. I called all of the Marriott hotels and this was the only one with a FREE port shuttle!

We are staying at the Springhill Suites in Fort Lauderdale and it does free airport shuttle AND free shuttle to the port the next day. I called all of the Marriott hotels and this was the only one with a FREE port shuttle!

We have stayed here several times. Great value and a decent breakfast at the hotel pre-cruise.

We love the Riverside Hotel on Los Olas and have stayed there many times. We are booked there for our 5/29 Conquest cruise. It seems to be as reasonable as other 4 star FLL hotels.

Thanks to all of you for your advice!

We have stayed here several times. Great value and a decent breakfast at the hotel pre-cruise.

Good to know! We are Marriott snobs. Because my mother in law being an employee, we get employee discounts and it's the only chain we stay at. Of course no discounts available for Fort Lauderdale, but we still stay Marriott. I love Springhill. And free breakfast and shuttle for the cruise is an extra bonus!

We have stayed at the Bahia Mar twice and really like this hotel. The beach is right across the street, as is the Ft. Lauderdale Beach Boardwalk...great for restaurants, bars, shops and people watching. It is also a very short walk to the Water Taxi, which we really enjoyed. The hotel concierge can arrange transportation to the port...for us a cab was great.

I never want the free port shuttle simply because you have to put your name on a list, they give you a time (tell you when you have to leave) and then waiting for all the others to get their luggage get down to the shuttle and into the van, I don't want to wait for all this, I want to get into a cab/uber privately and no hassles, just get in and go.

Following.. We go on the Conquest 4/2018 and I was wondering the same thing!

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For our July 1st Cruise on the Conquest, we are staying at the Ramada Oakland Park Inn. We have stayed there before. Its a nice place, not to expensive and they have a free shuttle to the port as well.

We will be on the Conquest April 2019 and we love cruising out of FLL our last 4 cruises we stayed at the BIRCH PATIO it is 1 block from the beach we normally stay a week PRE cruise and a week POST cruise to hang out at the beach. cost $400 to $500 per week stay and we use GO AIRPORT SHUTTLE to cruise port $15 to $20

Adding my 2 cents. Stayed last year at Fort Lauderdale: Hyatt Place Ft. Lauderdale 17th Street Convention Center. Located next door to a couple of restaurants and a reasonable walk to Publix. Shuttle from airport and again to pier in the morning. Three of us stayed in a large room with a sofa for the 3rd guest and had a pleasant stay. Loved the Conquest!

Adding my 2 cents. Stayed last year at Fort Lauderdale: Hyatt Place Ft. Lauderdale 17th Street Convention Center. Located next door to a couple of restaurants and a reasonable walk to Publix. Shuttle from airport and again to pier in the morning. Three of us stayed in a large room with a sofa for the 3rd guest and had a .pleasant stay. Loved the Conquest!

We stayed here as well and liked it a lot. For those driving to Ft Lauderdale they had a good package that included the room, parking during the cruise and shuttle back and forth to the port.

May I ask what people are generally paying for a night at the Springhill Suites? I just plugged in our pre-cruise date of Jan 20, 2018 and the cheapest room I'm seeing is $289 a night. Is this rate what to expect in the FLL area?

May I ask what people are generally paying for a night at the Springhill Suites? I just plugged in our pre-cruise date of Jan 20, 2018 and the cheapest room I'm seeing is $289 a night. Is this rate what to expect in the FLL area?

Remember the winter months are high season in Florida.... thus the higher prices then.:)

Remember the winter months are high season in Florida.... thus the higher prices then.:)

Yes I guess that's true. That's a tough expense to swallow when you consider that a night in a run-of-the-mill hotel is the same price as the book rate on a 3 day cruise in an inside cabin! :confused:

We are staying at the Renaissance and paying for a high floor king room for $180, and I just checked and you can get a standard guest room king or queen for 169.

Many of the hotels in Ft. Lauderdale are outdated, the newest updated one is the Renaissance which is in a perfect location right close to the port, it was updated 3-4 years ago. There is a Hilton Marina a little further which is right on the intercostal if you like to sit by water, see boats and yachts and like to swim, their pool is very nice, but if you check tripadvisor there are people that speak of the hotel needing an update but its fine for the night before. There is an Embassy Suites which is the last place I would book for a few reasons, first most cruise passengers stay there and its hectic to get a cab and check out etc, but this hotel has the most negative reviews of needing an update. There is the Crown Plaza there which has decent reviews and I would consider staying here myself, but I chose the Renaissance because there are places to go at night and for dinner that are in walking distance, such as the Boatyard (aka Bimini Boatyard) and Bravo Ristorante which is rated excellent.

 

I believe you will find the Conquest to be similar to the Valor. As far as getting to the port, just take a cab or better yet call Uber its inexpensive and you don't have to deal with making reservations with shuttles and waiting for others to get in the shuttle, easier to go yourself, all hotels have cabs lined up outside.

Have to agree here ,years back the Embassy or the Hilton would be the places to stay. Cant move or breath for the people at the Embassy Suites . Overpriced rooms and the Hotels that charge extra for parking . Hilton rooms are run down and service has become Spanish speaking ,broken English employees .

Today I book a room thirty or forty minutes before Ft Lauderdale and drive to the port,.Embassy Suites Boca Raton ,better rates and less stress.

We have stayed at the Bahia Mar twice and really like this hotel. The beach is right across the street, as is the Ft. Lauderdale Beach Boardwalk...great for restaurants, bars, shops and people watching. It is also a very short walk to the Water Taxi, which we really enjoyed. The hotel concierge can arrange transportation to the port...for us a cab was great.

We cruised on the Conquest this past November and we stayed at the Bahia Mar. We had 2 double beds in each room and paid $169/night. It is right on the beach and we were able to walk to the water taxi, to a CVS and get wine and to eat dinner & breakfast.

We used Aeries Shuttle to get us to the hotel and to the port the next morning. They charged us $8/person.

May I ask what people are generally paying for a night at the Springhill Suites? I just plugged in our pre-cruise date of Jan 20, 2018 and the cheapest room I'm seeing is $289 a night. Is this rate what to expect in the FLL area?

Our price for Springhill Suites was $209, which was about $30 more than the Fairfield where we originally had booked but changed due to easier transportation with Springhill.

We always stay at La Quinta Inn and Suites in Hollywood, 2620 N 26th Ave. It's about 10 minutes from the airport,10 minutes from the terminal and they provide free transportation from the airport to the hotel, and $15 pp to the ship terminal. They provide continental breakfast in the morning, and there are a few restaurants within walking distance. (TGI Fridays, Hollywood Ale House, Sweet Tomatoes, etc) I want to say it was in the $160 a night price range, but it depends when you travel. We usually go in early-mid May and it was very reasonable. Very quiet property, too.