tampa hotels

[cruise on carnival]

does anyone know anything about these places??

 

-Chase Suite Hotel by Woodfin - Tampa

3075 North Rocky Point Drive East

Tampa

http://www.woodfinsuitehotels.com/tampa/index.cfm

-Sailport

http://www.sailport.com/

-The Westshore Hotel • 1200 North Westshore Blvd.

Tampa

http://www.thewestshorehotel.com/home.html

-Ashley Plaza Hotel 111 W Fortune Street Tampa

http://www.ashleyplazahotel.com/default.asp

-Howard Johnson Express Inn & Suites-Near Port of Tampa

2520 No. 50th Street * 50th Street and Columbus Drive, Tampa

http://www.hojo.com/HowardJohnson/control/Booking/property_info?propertyId=06488&brandInfo=HJ

 

any info is appreciated!

thanks!

[nauticaz24]

Im staying at Sailport on Jan 7th. It seems like a good deal. It was a shade over 100 a night and includes shuttle from airport and to/from airport. Nice considering a shuttle from the cruise for that would probably be half that. Ill post more info when i return, from pictures it looks very nice

[tadjr]

Never heard anything about the Chase Woodfin. It is located out on Rocky Point where there are just mainly hotels and restaurants. Fairly quiet area.

Sailport have not heard anything bad, only good. Close to the same area as the Chase Woodfin, mainly hotels, offices in the area.

Westshore Hotel, asked someone at work once and she said it was ok. It looked a little worn, but was clean. Mainly in the business district with offices and hotels.

Ashley Plaza downtown. Havent heard anything about it. I stayed there when it was a Holiday Inn, but that was way back in 83 so that isnt gonna help you. Pretty much by itself downtown.

HoJo. I'm not sure I'd stay here if there were other options. Not in the best area of town. Not a definite dont, but if the other hotels on the list are close in price/amenities, I think I'd choose one of them instead.

 

If the prices are close I'd probably say Sailport/Chase/Ashley/Westshore/HoJo in that order. YMMV of course.

[Trvlr37]

We just booked the Sailport for our Tampa cruise. I called the resort directly and they were very friendly on the phone. Photos look nice.

[cruise on carnival]

thanks for the info. we need to book RIGHT NOW, as we are staying for 1 night on the 7th of january. think the sailport will probably win.

any other info is appreciated. we will have time after the ship docks and before our planes take-off for activities in the area if anyone has any ideas. we were thinking of the aquarium and ??

thanks!

[nauticaz24]

Hey there, i Have a quick question for you. Are there any restaurants in the Sailport area within a walking or quick shuttle ride? Particularly we are looking for a Macaroni Grill, or if you have any suggestions that would be great too! Thanks

[tadjr]

http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?zoomin=yes&name=&ed=rMg8zOp_0TpwHDx2PxAXA4muqrzWdoebAx2DWaGhWYmB_pv1ZF5A_45DbuE8RWhQRr3cuS7X.rhXAqYreNMEs8IaOrLMflPw8VE-&state=FL&csz=Tampa%2C+FL+33607&ds=n&uzip=33607&mag=2&desc=&country=US&dma=539&cat=dine&resize=s&trf=0&rezoom=1&.intl=us&compass=&pan_x=0&pan_y=0&panable=1&BFKey=allres

 

Sorry no Macaroni Grill close by. Here are the restaurants out by the hotel.

[nauticaz24]

Thanks Tadjr! Appreciate the info!! Have you ate at any of those restaurants? Any you'd be able to recommend!

[cruise on carnival]

we did end up booking the sailport. think it will be fine. it's only 1 night of our life if it isn't. thanks for the help.

[nauticaz24]

We are staying the same night as you. From the pictures it looks very nice, I think im gonna go on Trip Advisor and check it out some more. From the phone call i made for the reservations i would say it is good, the customer service was excellent!

[tadjr]

Sorry cant say that I have eaten at any of the restaurants on Rocky Point. Only drinks at the Green Iguana. There used to be some other Tampans on here, but havent seen them recently. Maybe someone else can advise?

[tadjr]

we were thinking of the aquarium and ??

thanks!

 

Ages of the travelers and amount of time until flight? The aquarium usually takes a couple of hours to get through. There is the trolley into Ybor City with some interesting sights, historic and for fun. What type of activities are you interested in?

[cruise on carnival]

i think we need to be at the airport around 5:30. we are both i our late 20's. guess we can just explore the port area...

[tadjr]

Other than the Aquarium there isnt a lot to do yet at Channelside. You can check out the area from this link. http://www.channelside.com

You can see whats in Ybor city here. http://www.ybor.org

The trolley should be running between the two. You could probably find enough to do and see at these two areas to last a couple of hours. Not really enough time to enjoy Busch Gardens or to get to a decent beach. Have a look around and enjoy a nice lunch someplace and walk the historic area windowshopping or enjoying a couple of drinks (after 1pm if on Sun.)

Anything else I can help with let me know.

If you do find something else to do, please post it here so I can let others know. Sometimes living here we miss out on certain things because we arent really looking for the same things to do.

[nauticaz24]

We stayed at the Sailport Resort on January the 7th! Very unimpressed!! I dont think ive ever given a bad review of anywhere except for here. First off, we get to the airport and call for a shuttle, part of our Pre and Post cruise shuttle package. They tell us they will be here in a 1/2 hour. So we go outside and wait. 1/2 hour passes, 45 minutes (Gf is getting antsy), an hour. We wait about 75 minutes, they we call again. "Oh, we must have forgot" was the answer we got!!! They suggested we pay for a cab to go, cause it would be another 30-60 mins before they could get us. They did offer to reimburse the cabfare however. So we end up there, and the help at the front desk seems to be very imcompetant. It took quite a bit to get us checked in, the girl seemed to be new, and she was WAY too chatty!! Kind of hard to describe, but Im sure everyone has had a situation where you are at a store or hotel or restaurant where the help tells you a story you REALLY just dont want to hear?? Her in a nutshell. We finally get to our room, room appears very nice. We go eat (its a haul to walk to what used to be damons (cant remember what it is now, but it was good) come back to relax. Our air conditioning seems to go on the fritz. We screw around with it all night, sleeping was unbearable! It was up to 80 in the room at one point on the thermostat!!! We would have called ( i know it was our fault that we didnt), but the rep had been going on and on about how they were sold out, so i didnt want to call and bother about it. Also, the room wasnt really clean, my gf found a (gasp) pubic hair laying in front of the vcr! YUCK!!! Next day, Shuttle goes to pier fine the next morning, and was picked up this morning in a timely manner. My gf did have to get a bit pushy on the phone with them about it, they wanted us to wait 30-60 minutes for the shuttel, she told them that we had issues prev. , so they driver turned around and got us, which was nice of him. Overall, i was pretty disappointed. For the price, i could have got a better room in a better location and just paid cab fare, probably would have broken even. It seems to be in a out of the way location, so its really not convientent if you dont have a car. The shuttel cannot be relied upon, they are very busy it seems, which is a drag, because that was the main selling point of the hotel.

[tadjr]

Sorry to hear it was a no. Will have to remember next time someone asks. Thanks for letting us know what happened. Other than the Sailport, how was the cruise? Would be interested to hear other Sailport stories to compare if its a constant thing or just a bad night at the hotel.

[nauticaz24]

Sorry to hear it was a no. Will have to remember next time someone asks. Thanks for letting us know what happened. Other than the Sailport, how was the cruise? Would be interested to hear other Sailport stories to compare if its a constant thing or just a bad night at the hotel.

 

The cruise was nice. Costa Maya was a very nice stop, as was cozumel. Mostly good weather too. Ill post a larger review when i get some time

 

Thanks for all your help in giving all your Tampa Info though, everyone appreciates it!!!!!

 

Anyone else with a Sailport story?

[cruise on carnival]

as i reported previously, we did decide to stay at the sailport on the 7th also. although it wasn't a fabulous place, it was okay.

i didn't have any major problems here. it looked recently refurbished in our room. i took the sofa pullout and slept fine. my friend had the bedroom and she found a smashed up jelly bean in her bed! the free breakfast was bagels and the like. the pool was chilly, but i just came from the cold weather and was going to get in no matter what. the elevator was slow. overall, not awful at all. will try to think some more about it and let you know if there is anything else to report.

i'd recommend it for the price and would stay again.

 

disorganized thoughts flowing here, sorry!

[nauticaz24]

Yeah, it wasnt a terrible place by any means. I belive this "Hotel" is actually a bunch of condos owned by individual owners then rented out by the "hotel", ive actually worked at a place in Wilmington, NC that was VERY similar. The shuttel was the real issue here, and because that was why i booked it in the first place, i was pretty disappointed. I probably wouldnt stay there again for one night, but if you had a car and were gonna be in town for a week, it would be a good place to stay im sure

[tampahotelguy]

The Tampa Airport Hilton is a very good hotel located 2 miles from the airport, they have a very good shuttle service to the airport we waited (15 minutes) they said it would be 20 minutes. They offer a shuttle to port that you sign up for upon arrival, we picked the 11:15 shuttle Miracle, the shuttle was loaded and departing early at 11:00, I was very impressed that a hotel actually had a shuttle leave earlier then they said, this never happens. While at the hotel, we enjoyed their nice heated pool, we used the hotel shuttle to take us to the Int'l mall across the street, its a free shuttle just need to tip the driver if you prefer, we called for them to pick us up after dinner and they were back for us within 10 minutes. We found a good rate we only paid $56 for the night and we had a great experience.:)

[Gramsof7]

The Tampa Airport Hilton is a very good hotel located 2 miles from the airport,

 

Tampahotelguy, is that the one on North Lois? I just got a price of $194 for four of us. Would like to pay a lot less than that, but also want a really clean room

[tadjr]

The Tampa Airport Hilton is the one on N Lois Ave.