Lesson Learned - Baseball Spring Training/Race at Daytona

[geoherb]

We are driving down to Fort Lauderdale from North Carolina for our cruise that leaves tomorrow. We've only driven once before and did not have any problems getting a hotel along the way last time. Little did I know that major league baseball spring training is going on in the Port Saint Lucie area and the Daytona 500 is taking place tomorrow. Hotels are booked up from Jacksonville to Fort Lauderdale. I found a few rooms available online for tonight in the Fort Lauderdale area but they were outrageous. We lucked up on a Comfort Suites in Vero Beach that had a room that they had taken out of inventory because the electronic lock does not work. The manager had to use her physical master key to let us in. After 12 hours on the road, I don't mind. We don't plan on leaving the room until it's time for breakfast in the morning. We haven't paid this much for a hotel room since we stayed at the Mansion at Turtle Creek.

 

I've learned my lesson to check out hotels for the dates we're cruising if we drive down to the port again and to go ahead and a make a reservation if they look like they're selling out.

[Host CJSKIDS]

It's a 3 day weekend and school break up north and it's season. The boat show is going on down here in Miami and the hotels are crazy!! We looked at hotels up in Fort Lauderdale to meet our friends who are cruising with you tomorrow (we are getting on the Crown) and couldn't get over the prices.

 

Glad you were able to find something. Have a great cruise tomorrow!

[geoherb]

Thanks. Our room is very comfortable. Certainly beats spending the night in the car.

[BlueHerons]

It's President's Week.

 

It's one of the busiest weeks of the year.

 

Carolyn, we are coming down Monday for the boat show, I'll shoot you an email if you want to meet for a drink at The Craftsman or somewhere.

[Flymia]

Regardless of the three major events going on, its a three-day federal holiday. Of course its going to be busy in Florida on Presidents Day.

 

Good thing you found a hotel!

[PNVA28210]

I was booking another overnight hotel stay for next month and just was curious about hotels with park and go rates for our Feb. 2019 cruise. As I am not a NASCAR fan but, generally know the 500 is in early/mid Feb. I pulled up the available hotels and there were only a few already! I checked another site and a little pop-up said that 88% hotels in the area were already full. I then looked up when the race was. Low and behold it is race week. Lucky for us we found a cheap place to crash after our long drive from the Charlotte, NC area. Most of the ones that were still available over $200 and, still had to pay extra to leave car. But, we found a place in Titusville for under $100 and a free cancelation policy and just plan on parking at the cruise terminal like we did last time. But miss the parking discount voucher they offered a few years ago.:( Glad you found a place. Because our next option was just sleep in the car. Lol.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

Keith

[Clarea]

We are driving down to Fort Lauderdale from North Carolina for our cruise that leaves tomorrow. We've only driven once before and did not have any problems getting a hotel along the way last time. Little did I know that major league baseball spring training is going on in the Port Saint Lucie area and the Daytona 500 is taking place tomorrow. Hotels are booked up from Jacksonville to Fort Lauderdale. I found a few rooms available online for tonight in the Fort Lauderdale area but they were outrageous. We lucked up on a Comfort Suites in Vero Beach that had a room that they had taken out of inventory because the electronic lock does not work. The manager had to use her physical master key to let us in. After 12 hours on the road, I don't mind. We don't plan on leaving the room until it's time for breakfast in the morning. We haven't paid this much for a hotel room since we stayed at the Mansion at Turtle Creek.

 

I've learned my lesson to check out hotels for the dates we're cruising if we drive down to the port again and to go ahead and a make a reservation if they look like they're selling out.

Thanks for sharing.

[geoherb]

The drive back was much nicer. I checked on hotel availability in Georgia before we left the ship. There were plenty of rooms at good prices, so I did not worry about not finding one when we were ready to stop for the night. We ended up stopping in Richmond Hill, Georgia, and booked a night at a 2.5* hotel through Hotwire on my phone. It was not a great place--more of a motel than a hotel. But the room was clean and the breakfast tasty and it cost 20 percent of what our night in Vero Beach did.

[Keith1010]

Glad the drive home went well.

 

When I was young (those were the days) we took a family trip down to Florida and I remember my parents did not make hotel reservations (well back then mainly motels) and I remember my father driving until around 3:00 AM when we finally found a place with a vacancy. That experience stuck with me and I learned that there is no cost to having reservations all in place.

 

Thanks again for sharing your experience.

 

Keith