cruiserFIN

I don't know anything about this particular Rodeway Inn, but in general, I would never stay at one anywhere in the U.S.

Oh no, is it (the hotel chain) that bad! I can tell from the photos it's not a 5* hotel but I thought it would be ok for a couple of nights. It has 3,5 Tripadvisor stars and the reviews a bit mixed but mainly good.

We'll land at MIA on June 22nd and will spend the first night at a airport hotel as we arrive late after a long flight from Northern Europe. After a good night sleep (yeah right, the jet lag..) we'll pick up a rental car from the airport.

Our plan is to spend two nights somewhere close to Port Everglades before our cruise departs on June 25th (Carnival). Now I'm wondering which hotel to choose. We'll do some shopping at Sawgrass Mills but with the jet lag we would appreciate a hotel with nice pool area to spend some time with the kids (7&9 years) without actually doing anything. We have been to Miami area before so there's no need for any sightseeing. I was thinking about returning the car to FLL airport the night before our cruise so the hotel should have shuttles to FLL and to the port.

I was looking at Rodeway Inn as the rate is only 140 dollars (with taxes etc.) for two nights for the four of us. And they have a complimentary breakfast and the shuttles we would need. Is it a decent place to stay with kids? The pool looks "ok". Other hotels I have looked at cost almost double (or more) as much and they don't all even have free breakfast and/or shuttles. Rodeway Inn also seems to have an early shuttle to the port (extra cost) and that would be great as we have FTTF bought for our cruise so we should be aboard for lunch.

On the way back from the cruise we'll be having a car from Alamo so will use their shuttle from the port to FLL to pick up the car and off we are to Orlando for two weeks! :cool:

Thank you for any opinions you may have about our plans! The hotel is my biggest concern - we are familiar with driving in US and the kids are used to travel. As this is going to be a total 3 weeks trip and we have already spent a fortune for the flights and the cruise, I really don't want to spend "too much" on the hotel we are staying for two nights only. As long as it is basic clean and safe with kids we'll be okay with it! Rodeway Inn is my first option at the moment but I'm open for any suggestions!

(btw I started to write this thinking that you must think I'm nuts and too early as it's February and we won't be there until June but then I realised it's ALREADY February and there's only 4,5 months left, wohoo!) :eek::D

Thank you all!

We ended up booking with Carnival as we got a balcony cabin for less than 4000 dollars and the itinerary is actually better for us than the ones Royal Caribbean has to offer for 5000 dollars.

Wish we didn't have to travel during the school holidays (I teach and the kids study)!

One more thing: is it better/cheaper to book through RCL's own website or by using sites like Expedia etc.? If using for example Expedia, will we get the booking ref number to be able to log into the RLC's website to reserve tours etc.?

Thank you!

We (2 adults, 2 kids under 10 years) have been planning a Caribbean cruise for summer 2016. I'm shocked with the prices! We did a 7 nights cruise in Feb 2015 on Freedom of the Seas and the price for summer 2016 seems to be double the price we payed last time! Have we missed all the sales or are they still to come? Or is the summer time really that much more expensive than winter? Really can't afford to spend about 5000 dollars for a cruise plus all the costs to travel from Europe to USA.

We have been looking at 7 nights cruises from Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Port Canaveral leaving on June 24th-26th. Definitely want a balcony cabin and definitely want to do it with Royal Caribbean! We could do any of the ships and any of the routes as long as they leave from Florida.

What would you do? Forget it? Book for the current price as it won't get any cheaper? We will be coming to USA anyway and we could check the prices daily during these 6 months but without any significant sales we just can't do the cruise this time.

Thank you all for your help and tips!

We have now reserved MTD for every night and decided not to buy any of the beverage packages as we will survive without.

70+ days to go, can't wait!

Our first cruise is on 8th February 2015 with Freedom of the Seas and I'm more than confused with the dining and beverage options!

We have My Time Dining. We make the reservations in advance for every night we want to do the MTD, right? Can we just not to go if we onboard decide to eat somewhere else that night? MTD is at the main dining room - what other restaurants are there but the specialty restaurants? We will be cruising with two kids and want the dining to be as easy as possible so some kind of a buffet style dinner would also be ok for us. I don't want to do the formal dinners at all - are there any with the MTD? If there are, how do I find out which nights are formal so I know to make other dinner plans for that night?

Then about those beverage packages. We won't be drinking enough alcohol to make it any sense to pay for the packages with alcohol drinks. We don't drink coke etc. Are there some drinks included with MTD and breakfast (juice, coffee)? I was thinking about buying the Evian Bottled Water Package(s) as we won't be drinking the tap water but do we in that case end up drinking water (or nothing at all?) at the breakfast and MTD as the drinks must be quite expensive when buying without any packages? We aren't on a budget, I just don't want to pay extra for packages with drinks we won't be drinking anyway but on the other hand drinking nothing but water for a week isn't what I want either.