LuCruise

March will be our first cruise out of Port Canaveral and so need suggestions for a hotel for the night before. We'll have one teenager with us and no car. We don't arrive at MCO until 5:30pm so just need somewhere to grab dinner (fast good is fine) and preferably the hotel includes breakfast. A few that I have researched are as follows: Best Western Cocoa Bach Hotel Days Inn by Wyndham Cocoa Beach Holiday Inn Express Hotels Cocoa Beach These are all just under $400 CAD (which is a lot but seems to be a standard price these days) Are these good? Or, since we are not arriving until dinner time, are we better to book somewhere near the airport and then just give ourselves an extra hour to get the port in the morning? If so, suggestions? It's hard to find some place at the airport where we can grab a quick dinner. Thanks.

We ended up booking the Chocolate Experience. It was fun. Let me know if any questions.

That's true. They used to be the same category but in the year or so, they introduced the connecting room. which includes the Ben and Jerry suite, Too bad you changed and then would have had to pay more to switch to it.

That's too bad. We didn't book our Dec cruise on Liberty too far out. Guess just luck of the draw, You need to call though and ask as it didn't show as available on the website when doing a mock booking.

If nothing in your room, go to guest services and tell them. We had to go through 3 different people at Guest Services until eventually they called the concierge who informed guest services that yes, we got access.

We had the room on Liberty back in December. There is still cow decor but it's not overdone. (I have a link below in my signature) We found there were lesser freebees compared with Independence prior to covid (e.g. no sweets in our cabin like a suite), but we had access to the suite lounge and you could order any drink. So that in itself was a huge bonus for us. And there was still free ice cream. One difference from before though is that on Liberty we got a card to the suite lounge but not the gold card itself that we got on Independence It honestly wasn't a big deal though and thought the room was great for the price. Note that there was no note in the room on Liberty listing the perks (aside from the ice cream voucher card) so you needed to know that you also get suite lounge access. We went to guest services for the access.

Funny enough, on our last cruise, they gave us our cards and a sharpie and said to write our stateroom number on it (but said nothing about the ship). We finished the card, but if not, we could have in theory brought the card on the next cruise (assuming the stateroom exists). They never validated anything when they punched the cards.

Totally get this post as I used to always pay off our cruise by calling Royal...until recently.. I was hesitant but we tried paying it off online and it was no issue. You should get mailed a final invoice shortly afterwards that shows a balance of 0 (and if you don't then I would call them for one)

Thanks! Definitely some options to consider.

This is so helpful. Thank you!

Thank you! Sounds like it won't be hard to know which way to go if many do the same. Walking 15 min is fine with us.

Thanks. I was under the impression from another post that you have to take a shuttle if you want to go to town to just walk around and do a bit of shopping? You can walk too? Your description is an option for us since the cruise is so short we feel like we don't want to lose too much time on the ship.

Love your writing style. Made me chuckle a few times. Allure was the first cruise we took our kids on. Great ship! Have a wonderful cruise! Looking forward to following along.

Thanks for the tip. Still debating if we do one of the tours or just stay on the ship (as it's a short cruise). Good to know though that Ensenada is best wine tasting. There are a few wine options.

Heard that both the SkyPad and the virtual reality thing on Odyssey are no more. Too bad as those were additional things for teens (and adults too). Having said that, it makes Odyssey pretty much the same as Anthem (with different shows) and our kids had more than enough to do. We'll be on Odyssey at Christmas and looking forward to it.

twangster as soon as I saw your live review, I silently followed. I just keep the page up and constantly refresh. You always post amazing pictures so excited to follow along. Seems like you're having a great cruise so far! Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, we booked it at $365 CAD for our date so a bit less if you are quoting USD but not cheap (although much better prices than Miami or Fort Lauderdale these days). Same...know nothing about the area so took the advice on here. Hopefully you'll get some other suggestions that are better priced.

Great thanks. I also noted La Bufadora Tour and Calafia Valley Wine Country as options.

Thank you! This really helps.

Thanks for the info. We probably would have gotten off early so good to know.

Yes that's it. I like margaritas if that counts.. 🙂 Not sure I'd like it straight, but DH would. Seems like a few things. Thanks for explaining. Good to hear first hand that you were on the tour.

Thank you! Was wondering about that but good that we can walk into town or take a shuttle. Funny enough, one of the excursions that we are potentially looking at is a Food and Tequila Walking Tour. One of the pros too is that it is only 2.5 hours and offered two times in the morning so even if we book it, we'd still get the afternoon on ship. Just not sure we would want Tequila at 9:30am in the morning...lol.

We booked Crowne Plaza near the port. It seemed to be the best option with conveniences around it, a short drive the morning of the cruise (uber or taxi ride), plus it was one of the recommended ones.

Thanks. Never been to Ensenada. Is there stuff right at the port such as at Cozumel? Or you need to take a shuttle?

Thanks! Unfortunately we couldn't fit in a short cruise before our son turns 18 (so he keeps Diamond status), but exactly...that's how we ended up booking one our of Los Angeles when Florida is closer to us. The price was right and the dates worked. Looking forward to the 4 free drinks on the next regular length one.