FLL Embassy Suites

[TNcruising02]

My husband and I stayed at Embassy Suites on17th Street in Fort Lauderdale.  Here is some basic information:

Airport to Hotel: Taxi was $16 plus tip.  We grabbed the first available cab and were at the hotel very quickly
Dining:  Free expanded breakfast.  Free coffee for breakfast, but no coffee after breakfast hours available in lobby
There is a bar and restaurant on-site and room service is available until 11:00 pm
The rooms have a coffee maker in them with coffee pods
Gym:  The gym has several treadmills and also free weights.  It is on the 12th floor
Pool:  Although we didn't swim, we looked at the pool area.  The pool is large and looked very nice.  It is outdoors.
Room:  Our room had two full beds.  There is a TV in the bedroom and another one in the living room area.  There is a microwave and refrigerator, but no safe.  The living room area has a table with four chairs, a couch, a chair, and a TV on a stand.  
Evening Reception: This is from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.  They offer free snacks such as popcorn, pretzels, nuts, celery, chips, and punch.  They also advertised that you can get two free drinks, but the bar line was long so we skipped it.
Laundry:  There are self service washing machines and dryers on multiple floors.  Not every floor, but several floors.  They take quarters.  It's $3 to wash and $3 to dry.
Hotel to Cruise Port: This is $9 per person.  You pay before the trip and they will give you a ticket.  They said to show up in the lobby when we are ready to leave any time after 9:00 am, which is when they start running the port shuttles.  They also offer transportation from the port to the airport, but I am not sure how much they charge.

There is a display in each elevator that shows what is available on each floor of the hotel.  There are drink vending machines on certain floors and a small gift shop in the lobby.
 

There are many restaurants and stores on 17th Street.  There is a Walgreens, CVS, Publix, Dollar Store, Outback Steakhouse, Papa Johns, Subway, and many others.  Everything is within walking distance.  Looking out my balcony, which really isn't much of a balcony because it's not even large enough for chairs, I could see a store that sold wine.

All in all, I was very happy with this hotel.  The only disappointing thing was that I booked a room with a king bed, checked in 24 hours in advance, and they gave me a room with two full beds.  Other than that, everything else was nice.  The room was clean and there was plenty of space.  The room service was fast and the food was good.




 

[JohninDC]

Thanks for the feedback.

[bouhunter]

Nice review!  We've stayed there often.

 

You can get to the port a lot cheaper than 9.00/pp with Uber.  And it's more convenient.

[Ashland]

We used to use the ES for our pre-cruise but the two things that have caused me to change to the Hyatt Place was the cost of parking and no in-room safe's....Very happy now with HP.

[nhraformula00]

1 hour ago, Ashland said:

We used to use the ES for our pre-cruise but the two things that have caused me to change to the Hyatt Place was the cost of parking and no in-room safe's....Very happy now with HP.

I agree 100% Hyatt Place much nicer all around.

[Paulinda]

We like that HP is much smaller thus less people/crowded and the cost is a bit less.  The free breakfast however is not nearly as good IMO.  Did not care for the ES because of crowded elevators on embarkation days.

[voljeep]

stay at the Hilton Marina  -  pay a few extra $$ and get a nice balcony tower room overlooking the water, draw bridge and cruise ships in port ... convenient as water taxi has a stop there ... go eat at Southport Raw Bar ... use a AAA stay and park rate

[iancal]

We only stay at ES if if is for one night and we score a deal on Hotwire or Priceline for it.

 

Nothing wrong with the hotel and it is fine for one night.  We find the rooms dark, in desperate need of an update (especially if they have not been renovated in the past three years) and the elevators verrry slow.  Don`t care about the free drinks in the evening or the breakfast where you have to stand in line.  

 

Unless we are doing precruise, we typically arrive in the early evening.  Cab it to the port for $15 or so.  Their breakfast is not a large enough draw for us to pay the going rate. 

[TNcruising02]

A cab or uber would definitely be faster than the shuttle.  We showed up in the lobby at 9:30 and boarded a shuttle at 9:50.  We waited for the small shuttle to fill up and were off to the ports at 10:05.  They dropped off Princess first and then Carnival. It didn't take very long at all.  I think it took about 15 minutes from the time our shuttle left the hotel until the time we were dropped off at the port.  There was a slight delay with the car line going into the port, but it wasn't too bad.

I have seen pictures from posted from people who have stayed at Fort Lauderdale Hotels where they could see the cruise ship from their hotel.  That's pretty neat. There are a lot of hotels in the 17th Street area, but it's not next to the port.  It's still not far, but we couldn't see the ocean from our hotel.  We did walk up to the bridge and back.

There are also a few clothing stores on 17th, so it's a convenient location if you don't have a car but want to visit stores or restaurants within walking distance.

[nhraformula00]

If you walk over the bridge and then into the neighborhood on the south side you can walk to the beach. It is about 4-5 short blocks past the bridge. 

[JamesEM]

Thanks for the review, how is ES limiting you to only two drinks at happy hour?

[nfcu]

4 hours ago, JamesEM said:

Thanks for the review, how is ES limiting you to only two drinks at happy hour?

They aren't.  Stayed there last month and you can have as many as you can drink.  I think they mean you can only get two at a time from the bartender.

[nhraformula00]

Bartender is very slow , and with lots of people waiting, well I think you can figure it out!!!!! We just went over to Duffy;s, they have buy one,  get one , all day long. 

[Ashland]

46 minutes ago, nhraformula00 said:

Bartender is very slow , and with lots of people waiting, well I think you can figure it out!!!!! We just went over to Duffy;s, they have buy one,  get one , all day long. 

Duffy's, a favorite of our's and a quick easy walk from ES or Hyatt Place.

[George C]

Embassy suites is our favorite, handy that it’s two blocks from total wine. 

[iancal]

If your focus in getting a hotel in FLL is the 'free' breakfast or the happy hour then ES is probably a good pick.  And it is convenient to the port and to shopping/restaurants.

 

If your focus is on the room and the hotel in general then we would suggest that there are better places to stay.  Hotels where the rooms have been updated and refreshed at least once  in the last ten years and hotels where the elevators work efficiently.  Not to mention the parking.