Oakwood Plaza or????

[CR dude]

Thank you for the very nice replies to our request for info about hotels near Oakwood Plaza. We are an elderly but spry couple who reside in Costa Rica. On our last cruise we stayed pre cruise at Sleep Inn Dania as we will do again on our upcoming cruise which begins on 20 November. Our last 3 day post cruise hotel was Hyatt place north and we did the all the places on 17th street and Galaria Mall and some on Las Olas Blvd which we reached by water taxi. My wife loves places such as Wall Mart or similar – dollar stores and any place where she can find bargains. Such stores get old soon for me and I prefer to wait somewhere nearby with a cold beer and let her shop till she drops. A rental car is not a consideration.

We first considered hotels near Oakwood Plaza (which we have never visited) because of its accessibility to both the cruise port and airport. Would welcome suggestions/recommendations about other places that may better fit our needs. The period is December 4 – 7. Any amenities such as airport shuttle – breakfasts etc would be nice.

[toberman]

We first considered hotels near Oakwood Plaza (which we have never visited) because of its accessibility to both the cruise port and airport. Would welcome suggestions/recommendations about other places that may better fit our needs. The period is December 4 – 7. Any amenities such as airport shuttle – breakfasts etc would be nice.

 

We're not huge fans of the Oakwood Plaza.. nice enough with some good restaurants, but too much of a "box store" mall. The type of place where the stores are huge, and some people actually move their car to go from store to store. I'm not looking for a Home Depot when I'm on vacation.

A lot of walking to get anywhere! We stayed twice, once before cruise and then again after cruise. Everyone we knew who stayed in the area (especially after cruise) said... Nothing to do here!!! 17th St area has just about everything for someone without a car.

 

If you haven't seen it, here's a link to the stores in Oakwood.

 

http://fort.lauderdale.retailguide.com/data/m101620.htm

 

One great place we found was the Hollywood Ale House -- the food was excellent!. It's just a sports bar but we really enjoyed it.

[royalcruz]

If your wife loves Walmart and you love beer, then Oakwood is the perfect neighborhood for you to stay. You can have a nice selection of beer at Ale House while your wife shops at Kmart, Big Lots, and Marshalls, etc.

[DanJ]

In that case, I would look at something like the Crowne Plaza in Hollywood, which is right across the bridge from an actual Walmart, and a million other stores, shops and food places. There is the Hollywood Trolley, but it only runs Wednesday to Sunday, so you'll only have it for the first day, and whatever part of your last day you are there. But it runs up and down Ocean Drive and connects to a couple other local trolley lines. The Westin Diplomat is also an option, given your self description of being "spry". Another option is the Diplomat's golf resort which is right in the middle of the shopping area. All 3 are usually available on Hotwire . In fact, for your dates the Diplomat is on there for $102/night which a fantastic rate for this beautiful hotel (Type in FLL, go to Hollywood Beach area and look for the 4 star. If the amenities say Spa, it's the Diplomat) They run a shuttle between their beach front and golf resorts, so no matter which one you are at, it's easy to get to the other. The drawback is you have to pay to get there from the cruise, and pay to get to the airport.

 

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza in January for a night before a cruise, and liked the area (I only need to save another million bucks and I'll be buying a condo there LOL). Found it a tad out of the way for one night, considering we didn't get there until later in the afternoon, but for a few days, I would rather be over here than at Oakwood.