Brief Summary of our Pre-Cruise FLL stay

[LuvTheGoodLife]

Pre-cruise: flew down 2 days early from Toronto (missing bad Toronto snow storm on Sunday morning of the cruise). Weather in Florida was gorgeous – 83 degrees and sunny!

Stayed at Sheraton Yankee Clipper Hotel on Ft. Lauderdale Beach for $89/nite via Hotwire. Got upgraded to a beautiful ocean view room courtesy of my Starwood Gold Preferred membership, I believe. Hotel website price for this room type was $239/nite.

Upon our arrival at FLL airport, we rented a car through Hertz (full-size equipped with Neverlost GPS system. Cost $109) and toured around for 2 days and did some Xmas shopping. Ate at Cheesecake Factory on Las Olas, went to SawGrass Mills mall and other area shopping. Ate at Bimini Boatyard on 17th St. and walked from hotel to Beach Place and enjoyed some of the bars in evenings.

Sunday morning, we took the car and had a light breakfast at Einstein Bagels on 17th St. and filled up rental car with gas. Instead of taking car back to FLL airport car rental center and dragging our luggage between hotel, rental car and shuttle, we dropped off rental car at Hertz location at Bahia Mar hotel just down the street from the Yankee Clipper. We then walked back to hotel (5 minutes) and collected our luggage and checked out. We took taxi cab from Sheraton Yankee Clipper to Port Everglades Sunday morning around 10:15 am. Cab was $11.

 

Hope this is helpful to others. I am jealous of those with cruises upcoming.

[kelmac]

Pre-cruise: flew down 2 days early from Toronto (missing bad Toronto snow storm on Sunday morning of the cruise). Weather in Florida was gorgeous – 83 degrees and sunny!

Stayed at Sheraton Yankee Clipper Hotel on Ft. Lauderdale Beach for $89/nite via Hotwire. Got upgraded to a beautiful ocean view room courtesy of my Starwood Gold Preferred membership, I believe. Hotel website price for this room type was $239/nite.

Upon our arrival at FLL airport, we rented a car through Hertz (full-size equipped with Neverlost GPS system. Cost $109) and toured around for 2 days and did some Xmas shopping. Ate at Cheesecake Factory on Las Olas, went to SawGrass Mills mall and other area shopping. Ate at Bimini Boatyard on 17th St. and walked from hotel to Beach Place and enjoyed some of the bars in evenings.

 

Sunday morning, we took the car and had a light breakfast at Einstein Bagels on 17th St. and filled up rental car with gas. Instead of taking car back to FLL airport car rental center and dragging our luggage between hotel, rental car and shuttle, we dropped off rental car at Hertz location at Bahia Mar hotel just down the street from the Yankee Clipper. We then walked back to hotel (5 minutes) and collected our luggage and checked out. We took taxi cab from Sheraton Yankee Clipper to Port Everglades Sunday morning around 10:15 am. Cab was $11.

 

Hope this is helpful to others. I am jealous of those with cruises upcoming.

 

LuvTheGoodLife,

 

Excellent post!:) This kind of first hand account of your experience is very helpful.

 

Enjoy!

Kel

[LuvTheGoodLife]

Glad to help with some post-cruise feedback for others. I read so many questions about where to stay/eat/get rental car etc. pre-cruise but do not see much feedback from others after the cruise. We find FLL/Port Everglades a pretty easy place to stay/eat/drive/cruise from.

 

We have stayed at Sheraton Yankee Clipper pre-cruise for 1-2 nights the past 3 cruises and always have had an excellent stay - room was clean, well-equipped with awesome location on the beach. This year's $89/nite price from Hotwire was our best room rate there yet. (I found this rate back in September).

 

Since we always rent a car getting to shopping, dining, wine/liquor stores are never a problem.

 

Kelmac - thanks for the positive feedback and enjoy your upcoming cruise!

[willow2007]

We are staying in Fort Lauderdale for 5 days prior to our Miami port cruise with our 2 kids age 13 and 8. We know nothing about the beaches of Fort Lauderdale. Was the Sheraton close to a good beach? We'd appreciate any info.

thanks

[LuvTheGoodLife]

Sheraton Yankee Clipper is directly on the beach (3 towers of the hotel complex anyways, the other is across the road via a skywalk). One of the hotel pools overlooks the beach as well.

 

Hope this helps. Enjoy your vacation.

[willow2007]

Thanks for the info. Is the Cheesecake Factory within walking distance from the Sheraton Yankee Clipper?

 

Also just wondering...is the Miami port the same as the Everglades port?

 

thanks for all your help!

[Bequia]

Thanks for the info. Is the Cheesecake Factory within walking distance from the Sheraton Yankee Clipper?

 

Also just wondering...is the Miami port the same as the Everglades port?

 

thanks for all your help!

 

The Cheescake Factory is not within walking distance of the hotel. You can however catch the Sun Trolley that runs past the hotel every 15 minutes on Thursday thru Sunday. For 50 cents you can take it to Beach Place then transfer to the Las Olas line to the Cheesecake Factory.

 

Port of Miami is located in Miami, Port Everglades is located in Ft Lauderdale, two differant ports.

 

68

[lakesider]

Dear LuvThe GoodLife:

You mentioned you walked to beach place from the Yankee Clipper. I'm not familiar with that location. Could you (or someone else) fill me in?

Thanks!

[LuvTheGoodLife]

For Lakesider, Beach Place is an open air mall/restaurant complex that fronts the beach along the main drag in Fort Lauderdale (route A1A?). Has 35 shops, restaurants and pubs including Howl At the Moon Saloon (duelling pianos), Sloppy Joe's, Lulu's Bait Shack and a smattering of popular chain clothing shops, a la The Gap.

 

Marriott Timeshare is right behind Beach Place.

 

If you walk the main beach in FLL, you cannot miss it.

 

Hope this helps. Enjoy your cruise!

[leadout_kv]

This was super helpful. Thank you.

 

Oh one question. What star rating does hotwire rate the Sheraton Yankee Clipper Hotel? And what location and other instructions do you have for getting this hotel through hotwire?

[LuvTheGoodLife]

I believe it was rated 3 or 3.5 star on Hotwire. I used the Vacation Package method on Hotwire to figure out the hotel before booking. We were booking for 2 nites, so I used the Vacation Package option on Hotwire and asked for airfare from a major US airport and 2 nites hotel. Vacation package section on Hotwire shows you the hotels by name with descriptions. With that info, I compared the description/hotel features/area/rating on teh 'opaque' section of Hotwire and determined that the likely hotel choices for my dates at the $89 rate listed on the 'opaque' Hotwire site would be Sheraton yankee trader or Sheraton Yankee Clipper. I was right.

 

Hope this helps.

[leadout_kv]

I believe it was rated 3 or 3.5 star on Hotwire. I used the Vacation Package method on Hotwire to figure out the hotel before booking. We were booking for 2 nites, so I used the Vacation Package option on Hotwire and asked for airfare from a major US airport and 2 nites hotel. Vacation package section on Hotwire shows you the hotels by name with descriptions. With that info, I compared the description/hotel features/area/rating on teh 'opaque' section of Hotwire and determined that the likely hotel choices for my dates at the $89 rate listed on the 'opaque' Hotwire site would be Sheraton yankee trader or Sheraton Yankee Clipper. I was right.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Thank you thank you. This is great.

 

You didn't have to pick a specific area of Ft Lauderdale on hotwire, just Ft Lauderdale?

[LadyLeo84]

Do anyone know the distance is from FLL airport to the Sheraton Yankee Clipper? We are also staying at the Clipper in January and are going to rent a car pre-cruise - but don't know whether to pick up the car at the airport or take a shuttle/cab to the hotel and then pick up a car the next morning. I would also appreciate the info if anyone knows the cost of a shuttle/cab to the hotel.

Thank you.

[LadyLeo84]

Does anyone know the distance is from FLL airport to the Sheraton Yankee Clipper? We are also staying at the Clipper in January and are going to rent a car pre-cruise - but don't know whether to pick up the car at the airport or take a shuttle/cab to the hotel and then pick up a car the next morning. I would also appreciate the info if anyone knows the cost of a shuttle/cab to the hotel.

Thank you.