We are sailing on the Voyager Dec 6th and getting into Ft Lauderdale 2 days early. Any suggestions on what hotel to stay in. Don't want to spend a fortune but would like to be in a good location for site seeing.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :cool:

Penny, My favorite Fort Lauderdale hotel is the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 which can be had for around $83 a night on Priceline for December.

The hotel has a great revolving lounge on the top floor and a very pretty pool area.

KarenS I also will be using a hotel in fort lauderdale. Is this hotel close to some of the night life? How far is A1A from the hotel?

Sotherncruiser, I am not familar with A1A? but the hotel in on the intercoastal waterway and you can take water taxis everywhere.

The Marriott was very close to the Hyatt and was nice as well as was the Rennaissance. They are all very close to the port and to restaurants.

You could feel comfortable at any of the Hotels. The Hyatt is further from shopping areas (for food and last minute things) and the Rennaissance closer. The Rennaissance rooms and hotel were lovely, but the outside facilities (pool) were not as nice as the other properties.

For a night, I would stay at the hotel with the best rates, as all are just lovely.

Karen: I think Pier 66 is neat too and you can't beat being on the intracoastal for the great boat viewings - I am guessing ten minute ride to Las Olas and all the shops etc - Joanna

It is on A1A. That part is also called E. 17th St. We have stayed at the Renaissance and it was very nice. I think we got it on Priceline for $89 in November. Also, we have stayed at the Embassy Suites, but have heard that it is looking a little run down.

12/27/05 Voyager "Party" cruise sure could use some help here.
Looks like "PARTY" has decided to book rooms at
the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Ft. Lauderdale.
Check Voyager party cruise for details to get a $109.00 room.

Penney,

Check out the Riverside Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. It's located right on Las Olas Blvd, which is a very lively area with upscale dining and great shops.

Karen, are you saying you can now reqest a specific hotel from Priceline?

CJ

CJ,

You can choose a particular property at Priceline now but the prices aren't as appealing as when you bid on it.

The good thing about the Hyatt Pier 66 is it is probably the hotel you will get if you bid on a 4 star only hotel at Priceline. Someone mentioned before that you might get the next higher catagory, the resort catagory, even if you didn't request that catagory. I have never had that happen to me the the Hyatt Pier 66 but I am sure it happens.

Here is the list of reported hotels that Priceline uses and their catagories.

Fort Lauderdale Beach

Resort
Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort

4 Star
Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty Six

3 Star
Sheraton Yankee Clipper Resort
Doubletree Suites Galleria

The information for this hotel and all others can be found at Bidding for travel

Karen,

That's very intersting that you can now choose your property on Priceline.
I'm one of those people who was never willing to gamble on what place I would get.
Next time I'm looking for a hotel, I'll certainly look at Priceline and compare their prices.
Thanks for the info!

CJ

Great board for information, just don't post on it, or the board-nazi over there will end up jumping you over something inane! :rolleyes:

I too have been looking at hotels for one night. I bid on Priceline (I pigeon-holed Hyatt Pier66 and added the "free zones" in areas I know 4 star hotels don't exist) but so far haven't had a bid accepted. I think I'm too far out since I don't need this until January. The problem with the Marriott Renaissance is the windows are inoperable (my quirk). For me, I want a window that opens for ventillation OR a small balcony. For this reason I think the best properties (all with small balconies) are: Hyatt Pierr 66; Mariott Marina or Embasy Suites. All are close to the port too.

Marcie, I bet January probably is too far out for a Priceline bargain but it doesn't hurt to start early!

I've been trying to bid on a 4 star hotel for Niagra Falls, the Ontario side for July 30th. So far, I haven't had any luck either.

We are staying at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort the night before taking the Voyager November 21 cruise. I got 4 rooms at $149 each which included 2 welcome cocktails, 2 full breakfasts (room service or restaurant) and two transfers to the port per room.
Adelle

For those of you who use Priceline for hotels, I'd just like to remind you to bid for your hotels through Ebay - link is http://pages.ebay.com/travel/index.html?ssPageName=MOPS5:HTR01 - this effectively gives you a rebate of anywhere from $5 to $15 per bid (depending on the * level you're bidding). This rebate can be used to purchase anything on Ebay and if you want to get fancy, you may transfer out these rebates (EBay Anything Points) out via www.points.com to various airline frequent flyer programs (American, US Airways, Cathay).

This transfer is so effective that I have a few friends over on Flyertalk who just goes and bids on hotels for the points (without any intention of ever even using the room since they figured out that they can effectively get a Business Class ticket to Europe from Washington DC for $800.

thanks for the tip Peteropny! i didn't know you could link thru Ebay. i am working on a room in FLL in Jan '06, so i will give it a shot.

Peter, I've bought and sold many things on ebay but I've never heard of the ebay anything points program. How do I join?

Marcie - you don't really have to join - you need to have an Ebay Account (and your handle there is the one you use) as well as a Paypal account (since they're the "accounting" arm for Ebay) - I'm not absolutely sure how you spend it on Ebay stuff though since I've always switched them over to AA miles.

Actually Peter, I'd rather have the AA miles too!

Marice - to switch Ebay Anything points to AA miles - you need to do that through www.points.com , used to be pretty reasonable cost ($20 a year for unlimited swaps) but they've increased the cost significantly (not sure what it is now) - but points.com is basically a service that allows you to swap in/out of a bunch of different programs (including GoldPoints).

Thanks Peter! I really want to learn more about this swapping (especially Gold Points). Does this mean we can convert 1M Gold Points to 1M AA f.f. miles?

Marcie, I don't think it's quite that good. I remember going to one of the links, and for USAirways, you get 500 miles for 5,000 points. Logical, since on Radisson you get 10 Gold Points for every dollar spent.

Bummer! I knew it was too good to be true. Thanks Olivia!

Update - EBay is discontinuing their EBay Anything points program so you won't be earning them anymore for Priceline Hotel bids. And Olivia is right that their are different ratios for swaps in points.com.

i just read on biddingfortravel:
"The Hyatt Regency Pier 66 was recently sold. Apparently the new owner is not participating with Priceline. This is the first we've learned that 4* is no longer offered in the Beach zone."

further down that strand they go on to say: "I'm more inclined to think Priceline has downgraded both the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 and the Renaissance since they were the only 4* hotels in their respective zones, giving them no opacity. Since we haven't seen the Marriott Marina or the Embassy Suites come up in about a year, this wouldn't be a bad change for the Renaissance except there is only one free re-bid at the 3* level, so it's disappointing from a bidding strategy perspective."


Sooooo..... now what do i do for a FLL Hotel pre & post cruise in January???

i this is bad news for cruisers!

Splish, does that mean that Priceline put the Hyatt into the 3* catagory?

I bid and received the Hyatt Pier 66 (4 star Beach) on Priceline about a month ago for January 9.....glad I did it when I did!

Splish, I bid and received the Hyatt Pier 66 a few days ago for January 13,2006. I requested a 4* property in the beach area. Have you tried it? My price was the same as Marcie's, $135.

whatever happened on Priceline, when the 4* in the beach area was not offered, must have been a glich....'cause it's back now.

previously i had only bid up to $130, so i upped it to $135 and got it for the pre-cruise. still working on the post cruise. i would really rather get the Marriott, 'cause i adore their Jamison Beds. the Marriott was booked for the 7th, but shows available for the 15th....so any tips on how to land it?

thank you for help with Pier 66!

Happy Travels! ~ GayRie

GayRie, from what I've read Priceline may not be offering hotels as early a date as they have in the past. I thing the best solution for those considering bidding on priceline is to FIRST secure a cancellable reservation to use as a back-up if all else fails. As the time approaches, bid and hopefully be successful. I'm happy Peggy and I seemed to have gotten in under the wire!

From what I've read I think we'll all be happy with Hyatt Pier 66! (things could be worse!)

I'm pretty excited that we got such a good deal on the Hyatt Pier 66 on Priceline. Having never used Priceline before, I do have a question. I've heard, that many hotels put the people with Priceline reservations in the worst rooms in the hotel. Have any of you had that problem, and are you able to change rooms if you're not happy with what you get?

I just used Priceline in Chicago, Peggy. The room's magnetic lock reader seemed to create a harmonic dissonance with my fingers. After my fourth trip down to the front desk to have the key re-magnetized, they STILL didn't change my room. The window looked out onto a lovely view of the fire escape (Palmer House Hilton). It was one overnight so I gave up at that point. I decided with benefit of hindsight the rest of the stay was just fine to excellent for the price I paid - at least $50 less than if I'd book direct and my next best alternative was $30/night higher + taxes. Cheers, Anne

Peggy, I can honestly say that this has not happened to me and I've used priceline quite a few times. I don't think we get the BEST room either but so far so good.

Anne, if it's any consolation, nearly all the rooms at the Palmer House have a view of the fire escape and the bricks on the building next door. I've stayed there several times when in Chicago on business. We'll only be at the Hyatt in FLL one night also--so not matter what, it can't be too bad. And if we have to, we can just spend most of the time in the revolving bar on top of the hotel. :D

Marriott Harbor Beach in Fort Lauderdale was a Resort * in the Beach zone - I got that as an "upgrade" from the 4* Hyatt (I liked the Hyatt better since they treat their Diamond members very well). Tip for the Hyatt, try to get a room in the Tower since the "garden" buildings' rooms are not supposed to be very nice.

Peter, I have stayed in both rooms and really prefer the garden rooms! I actually moved us on our last stay when we received a tower room. I thought the garden rooms were much nicer and I love my balcony overlooking the pool area.

Karen, I've read on tripadvisor that others prefer the garden rooms over the tower rooms too. The only negative was that it was a longer walk to the pool.

Just a note that I booked the Hyatt Pier 66 as a 4 star on Priceline for MArcie's suggested price.

Anthony