Review of Holiday Inn on 84th

[anniversarycruiser40]

We just returned from a 10 day Ruby Princess cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. I wanted to post a review on our pre cruise hotel. Some of the reviews on this site and others said that this hotel was not a good place to stay. Our stay at this hotel was fine. The room was large, clean and had a great bed. The free breakfast was fine and it did have a small pool. We had heard that it was in a bad area of Ft. Lauderdale. We didn't venture out at night since we were recovering from a long red eye flight from the west coast. I don't know if things are different at night, but we didn't hear a thing all night and slept well. The free shuttle to the hotel and cruise port were fine, no problems there. The only diasadvantage is the distance you have to walk to get to the stores to buy your precruise beverages. The hotel is on a very busy street and you have to walk several blocks to find a signal light to get across the street. They have a grocery store and liquor store at the small strip mall and a couple of fast food places to eat. We ate at the German restaurant a couple of blocks down the street. The food was good and my DH said the German beer was even better. If you have any questions let me know.

[oncruisecontrol]

I'm glad to read a good review of a hotel that is on State Rd. 84 (24th St.). Sadly, too many people report that that neighborhood is bad. It is not a bad neighborhood; State Rd. 84 is just "unpolished". It belies the fact that the neighborhood directly behind the Winn-Dixie supermarket shopping center is middle class/working class with some very nice (and nicely-kept) homes with manicured lawns. Anyway, I'm glad you had a pleasant stay.

[anniversarycruiser40]

Yes, I was so stressed before the cruise worried about that hotel! I didn't want anyone else to go through that also. We even checked our bed for bed bugs since I had read about that on trip adviser! One thing about that area that I did notice was tons of small lizards with curly tails on the sidewalk walking to the German restaurant. Does anyone from Florida know what kind of lizard they were? We had fun watching them run around. We didn't see any of them around the hotel though. Better than a hotel we stayed at in Seattle when we had a rat run in front of us at night:eek::eek:!!! The hotel was in a "good" area also!