Quality Inn Fairgrounds Ybor City

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Has anyone stayed here? It is the one on East 18th Avenue in Tampa. We have reservations but don't see much feedback on Cruise Critic. It seems to get fairly good reviews on other sites. We will only be there to sleep as we have a 10+ hour drive that day. We are mostly interested in a clean room with an early shuttle to the port. We can book the Holiday Inn Express Rocky Point for about the same price, ($139 including parking and shuttle to the port), but they don't start shuttling until 11:00 and checking in late, we will probably only get a late time on the shuttle. The Quality Inn said their shuttle starts around 10:00am. An 11:00 shuttle would be ideal to me.

[FlaGrl4Evr]

The Quality Inn near the fairgrounds for a one night stay will be just fine. If it were any more than that, then I would suggest another area. It is not so much the hotel as the area it is in. The area is directly off of I-4 and has a lot of truckers and hotels that offer cheap packages to them for just a few hours rest. It is also not in one of the best areas of town. I would NOT be out walking anywhere. There is, however, the Hard Rock Casino which is just around the corner. That draws a large crowd on weekends. There are some nice restaurants inside as well.

 

I have not stayed at the Quality Inn but have stayed twice at the Holiday Inn RP pre-cruise. On our first visit, we checked in around 4pm were signed up for the 11am shuttle. On our second visit, last Oct, we had a flight delay and did not check in until around 8pm. We were surprised to be able to get on the 11 am shuttle. In fact, they only ran one shuttle that day due to very few cruise passengers that used the shuttle. The shuttle does hold quite a few passengers so it is just the luck of the draw as to if it will be full or not at check-in. Not all of the cruise passengers will use the shuttle. We had a few that took a taxi to the port around 10am but did use the shuttle for the return after the cruise.

 

Either hotel will be fine for just a night.

Have a great cruise. :)

[KroozFoolz]

We stayed at the Quality Inn Fairgrounds pre-cruise November 2010. The hotel was fine, but as stated before, the area is not great. Even with gps and mapquest directions, it was a bit tricky to find (especially after dark). Because we were the only ones using the park and cruise package that day, the hotel called a taxi to take us to the port (at their expense, of course) and we were told to get a taxi back to the hotel at the end of the cruise (again, their expense), so that worked better than a shuttle, but even the Tampa taxi driver had a difficult time finding the hotel (in daylight)!

 

November 2011, we again cruised from Tampa, but this time we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, Riverview, also using their park and cruise package. The hotel is right off I-75, so very easy to find, easy off and on I-75. It was less expensive than the Quality Inn, easier to find and get to, and seemed like a much better area. We also liked that we didn't have to get in Tampa traffic (before or after the cruise), and involved less travel time than the Rocky Point locations.

http://hiltongardeninn.hilton.com/en/gi/hotels/index.jhtml?moreDesc=true&ctyhocn=TPASEGI