Miami Hotels

[KAP]

My family and I (wife, son 14, daugter 10, son 5) are cruising on the Carnival Victory the last week of March 2006. We are coming from Portland Oregon on a Red Eye flight. Having done this once before, we learned we need a day of recovery so we are coming a day early. We will get in early on Saturday morning and I am sure everyone will want to sleep for several hours in a bed so I am going to get 2 hotel rooms for Friday and Saturday night. We will check in first thing Saturday Morning and sleep for the morning then explore in the afternnoon and evening. Sunday morning we will get up late (early on west coast time) and head to the port. I have always used Priceline with great success. I believe the areas I would want to look at are Miami Downtown, South Beach, Miami Beach and Coral Gables. I would like to try for a 3 star hotel and keep each room at $100 or less. I have never been to Miami and know nothing about it other than what I have read on the Internet. I have always got good information from CruiseCritic Members. Can I find a hotel for that price per room that has a nice pool and is close to restaurants and the beach, shops or other interesting places? Should I rent a car or take taxies? When would the best time to make reservations on Priceline be? For those of you who have used Priceline, have you had a good experience with Miami area hotels?

[our10th]

Well I haven't been to the hotel yet - 1/7/06 Triumph - But I did get the Courtyard Marriott downtown Miami for $55 on priceline. They have a pool on their roof - but are not located on a beach. I think that they are on priceline as a 2 1/2 star, but from their website and what I've read it appears to be a nice hotel. They also have a shuttle service to the port for $5.

[Packing Light]

My daughter's family (8 year old triplets), my wife & I sailed in March from Miami on Carnival and stayed at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami on Biscayne Blvd. I booked online and it was about $95. I believe my daughter paid only slightly more. It is right across from Bayside Market where you can take a water taxi around the bay seeing homes of Shaq, J-Lo, Ricky Martin, etc, etc. It was a great location since there are many shops and restaurants (Bubba Gump which was great for the kids and good seafood) as well as a food court. It is very close to the docks and we had a van that took all of us (7 people) to the ship for $8. The hotel was recently renovated and very nice. It also had a breakfast buffet which was quite reasonable for guests. I enjoyed this location.