SATJS

What we do is book the hotel (I do not do non refundable). More times than none it goes up these days. I keep monitoring and if the price goes down I go for the lower rate and get it and if it goes up than I am protected by having booked early.

 

Keith

I normally do the same thing. In fact, I already have 2 hotels reserved for that time. Loews apparently doesn't allow a reservation without a deposit of 1 night's rate. It is refundable, but would still be charged the full amount now.

I'm convinced, Loew's it is! Thank you so much for the help.

One more question for anybody that may be able to guess, is the rate more likely to go up or down between now and May 20th? That will be the weekend before memorial day weekend. Right now the rate for a city view is $329 per night. If I reserve now they require 1 nights deposit, which is fine, but I'd rather not let them hold on to over $300 of mine for 9 months if it's not necessary...

I guess it's South Beach! I hadn't looked at Loews, thought it was further north. The pricing is in the same range, so definitely in the running. Pool area looks great and being right on the beach is a big plus. Leaning towards Loews right now. Thanks for the advise!

Hello,

I find that 99.9% of the time I’m able to find answers to my questions with the search button, however, I have come across something that I’m having difficulty with and could use some help. We have scheduled a cruise departing Miami on 5/22/16, and will be taking our then to be 18 year old son and his best friend. I understand that this is still a long way out, but have been researching hotels in the area. We had cruised last year and stayed at the Intercontinental. My son loved the hotel simply because of the view of the bay / port. I felt the hotel was ok, but was less than impressed with Bayside and the area in general. I am currently trying to decide between the Intercontinental again, The Epic, The Viceroy, and the Mondrian in South Beach. All are in the same general price range as of right now for a waterview. I like the idea of the Mondrian being in South Beach since we would end up taking a cab from the hotel to South Beach anyway, but am concerned with the fact that it’s on the opposite side of the island as the beach. Would this be a safe area to walk back from the beach to the hotel after dark? All seem to have good pool areas, and decent views of the bay and port, although I believe the Intercontinental and Mondrian would have the better views? We are planning to arrive 2 days early, but will likely arrive late afternoon or early evening on the first day so will only really have one full day in Miami. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the reply WeLove2CruiseRCI, I had actually looked at that site (as well as every other site with deck plans I could find) before I posted the question. I'm thinking that all of those other sites get the information from the deck plans area af the RCCL site, so if there's an error there all of the other sites would have the same error. I was hoping someone who had been in the cabin may be able to verify one way or the other. My problem is that the only ocean view balconies left on the cruise are D4, which I could live with except that the price has gone up on this cruise to where the D4 would cost $1200 more than the D1 I have reserved. I guess I'll be calling the TA tomorrow, but I have a feeling I'll be trying to sleep 4 people in a cabin without a sofabed. I also thought that you couldn't book 4 people in a cabin that only had the 2 double beds...

Can anyone that's been in cabin 11594 on Oasis tell me whether it has the pullout sofabed or not? When you look at the deckplan from the "select cabin" stage when making a reservation on the RCCL site it shows the triangle that indicates the sofa bed, but when you look at the deck plan from the RCCL site when not making a reservation the triangle isn't there. I have this cabin reserved for 4 thinking I could put 2 young kids in the sofabed.