Ramada Inn Cruiseport/Airport -not as bad as reported!

[Gala62]

Hi everyone!

We just returned from our first cruise on the Zuiderdam and enjoyed ourselves very much.

 

One of the first posts I wanted to make was regarding this hotel property. After booking it (for $77) we were warned by several people that this was a horrible place and if possible to change our reservations. Well we couldn't, it was a site tied to Hotels.com where you pay in full in advance so we were stuck.

 

Boy were we happy to find out that this hotel has gotten a bad rap! It's extremely clean, nice lobby, reasonably friendly front desk help and pretty pool area. Now it is NOT luxurious by any means. Its an older property in good repair. Our A/C in the room was a newer unit and worked very well. New locks, room safe, ironing board and iron, hairdryer and good size TV in an armoire.

 

It does sit close to the highways, but the noise was not bad at all. And we did not feel we were in a dangerous part of town. We had lunch in the bar/restaurant (fish and chips and chicken mozzarella sandwich) and both were quite tasty. We had dinner delivered from the local sub/pizza shop listed in the book and it was both reasonable and good. The free breakfast buffet was ok, certainly no more than I expected, some of it was pretty good and some well...hotel breakfast buffets are never gourmet!!

 

The shuttles were efficient, although there was a bit of a wait in the morning getting to the cruise ship (we had to wait for the Princess pax to go first). But very well organized.

 

All in all, we do recommend the Ramada if you get a good price and are not looking for a luxury type accomodation. It's certainly worth a try for a night or two.

 

Gail

[tutak]

Thanks for the info. Are there any restaurants or shopping close by?

[TrentS]

No, there's nothing to walk to from there, and you wouldn't want to anyway. The OP may not have felt it was a bad neighborhood, but I live down here, it's not one you want to be out walking around in. There are far better options, in much nicer, safer areas that are much closer to the port and airport, with many many restaurants and shops within safe, easy walking distance.

[cruzzers]

Actually there is a very nice place to eat within walking distance out the back of the hotel. It is called Rendovous and sits right on a little marina area by some very nice real estate. It is only about 2 blocks behind the Ramada and has really good food too.

[TrentS]

That "nice real estate" around the marina are rental apts. with a horrible reputation.

[Gala62]

I understand that locals may know of problems that tourists may not know of, my intent was to give another opinion on a property that we were literally scared to death to go to after hearing warnings on these boards.

 

As I originally posted, it is not a luxury property and it is situated near the highways. We didn't need to go shopping for anything and chose not to bother going out for dinner. If those are things you want to do, I'll be the first to say that the Ramada may not be the best choice simply because there aren't many options close by. I can't answer about the safety except to say that we faced the rear and it was perfectly quiet all night. We've been in MUCH louder, rowdier hotels in any number of cities.

 

We did have good luck at the hotel restuarant for lunch and delivery for dinner. One post I read also mentioned they liked the Chinese restaurant that delivers there.

 

I'll be posting a review on tripadvisor.com with pictures of our room so please do check that out.

 

Again, when I posted this I didn't want to try to present this property as some high-class hotel in a great location. I was simply trying to give our honest experiences, which were quite positive.

 

Thanks,

Gail