Celebrity Silhouette Ft. Lauderdale but Booked Hotel in Miami

[Yvonne]

I made a mistake and booked a Hilton Hotel in Miami for 2 nights before our cruise leaves out of Ft. Lauderdale on January 4th.  I thought it left out of Miami.  Oops.  Decided to see about changing hotels.  We are booked on points, 42,000 points per night.  To change to a similar style room in Ft. Lauderdale is 167,000 points per night.  Yikes!  Thinking we should just keep our reservation in Miami then drive to the port.  How long of a drive would that be and what would you do if you had made the dumb mistake I did in booking a room at the wrong port?

[davekathy]

4 minutes ago, Yvonne said:

I made a mistake and booked a Hilton Hotel in Miami for 2 nights before our cruise leaves out of Ft. Lauderdale on January 4th.  I thought it left out of Miami.  Oops.  Decided to see about changing hotels.  We are booked on points, 42,000 points per night.  To change to a similar style room in Ft. Lauderdale is 167,000 points per night.  Yikes!  Thinking we should just keep our reservation in Miami then drive to the port.  How long of a drive would that be and what would you do if you had made the dumb mistake I did in booking a room at the wrong port?

I'd cancel the Miami Hilton and book another Hilton property (Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites) in Fort Lauderdale. 

[KKB]

If you can't get a FLL hotel for similar points, it makes much more sense to stay in MIA.

It's about a $30-40 30 min. Lyft ride, so it is worth it.

We usually fly into FLL even if we are leaving from MIA since it is typically cheaper.

Edited June 12, 2021 by KKB

[rotoal]

7 minutes ago, Yvonne said:

I made a mistake and booked a Hilton Hotel in Miami for 2 nights before our cruise leaves out of Ft. Lauderdale on January 4th.  I thought it left out of Miami.  Oops.  Decided to see about changing hotels.  We are booked on points, 42,000 points per night.  To change to a similar style room in Ft. Lauderdale is 167,000 points per night.  Yikes!  Thinking we should just keep our reservation in Miami then drive to the port.  How long of a drive would that be and what would you do if you had made the dumb mistake I did in booking a room at the wrong port?

It is only half an hour or so in light traffic from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale.   Certainly not worth wasting more than 100,000 hotel points to be closer to the port.

[lazydayz]

You can do a goggle search from the hotel address to the port.  Probably an hour drive, max. But unless the first hotel is in a fun location, I would likely cancel it if I could get my points refunded then just look around for a deal in FLL. 

[Jeremiah1212]

We do it on purpose sometimes because there are many more higher end hotels in Miami vs. FLL so you can stretch your points more. You can easily Uber for the same amount it would take you to use points + cash to get a comparable hotel. There aren't many decent Hilton options for less than 60k points a night.

[Yvonne]

21 minutes ago, KKB said:

If you can't get a FLL hotel for similar points, it makes much more sense to stay in MIA.

It's about a $30-40 30 min. Lyft ride, so it is worth it.

We usually fly into FLL even if we are leaving from MIA since it is typically cheaper.

We will have our own car.

[Yvonne]

7 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

We do it on purpose sometimes because there are many more higher end hotels in Miami vs. FLL so you can stretch your points more. You can easily Uber for the same amount it would take you to use points + cash to get a comparable hotel. There aren't many decent Hilton options for less than 60k points a night.

The hotel in Miami is the Doubletree Grand on Biscayne Bay and we have a room with a balcony facing the water, it has 5 or 6 restaurants right on site.  My jaw just about dropped to the floor when I searched for a similar Hilton in Ft. Lauderdale and saw the points difference.  Maybe it’s because I booked the Miami hotel in January when the pandemic was bad, now things are opening back up so the hotels are charging more.  

[KKB]

4 minutes ago, Yvonne said:

We will have our own car.

Then it's a NO brainer to stay in Miami!

[Team Stag]

4 minutes ago, Yvonne said:

We will have our own car.

It's an easy drive.  If you have your own car, no worries at all.  Enjoy the stay in Miami!

[Justprettynpink]

7 minutes ago, Yvonne said:

We will have our own car.

Stay where you are the drive is easy!    Consider parking in Park n Go....

[lostchild]

My family coming from UK did that on purpose last time we cruised out from Ft. Lauderdale.  It was closer to the airport they came in (MIA) and Miami beaches are more famous than Ft. Lauderdale. They went to Miami a few days earlier to enjoy the beaches.    We, on the other hand, just went straight to FLL the night before and stayed at a hotel there like most other folks.

[gfkcruiser]

Last time we sailed - December, 2019,  our cruise on Silhouette was moved from Ft. lauderdale to Miami.   Could happen again! 

[delondin]

57 minutes ago, lostchild said:

My family coming from UK did that on purpose last time we cruised out from Ft. Lauderdale.  It was closer to the airport they came in (MIA) and Miami beaches are more famous than Ft. Lauderdale. They went to Miami a few days earlier to enjoy the beaches.    We, on the other hand, just went straight to FLL the night before and stayed at a hotel there like most other folks.

We are flying to Miami and sailing from ft Lauderdale want a couple of nights pre and post cruise. Can’t decide which way round to stay. It will be over the spring break period so what do you think would be better?  

[gerelmx]

I will change to Hilton Fort Lauderdale  Marina, and book  HIGH FLOOR WATER VIEW BALCONY, great views to the cruise port, easy access to the water taxi, etc.

 

This is a view of the Silhouette from our room

[Jeremiah1212]

30 minutes ago, delondin said:

We are flying to Miami and sailing from ft Lauderdale want a couple of nights pre and post cruise. Can’t decide which way round to stay. It will be over the spring break period so what do you think would be better?  

 

Miami is much more than just South Beach, but South Beach itself during spring break is not for the faint of heart. 

[Yvonne]

20 hours ago, gerelmx said:

I will change to Hilton Fort Lauderdale  Marina, and book  HIGH FLOOR WATER VIEW BALCONY, great views to the cruise port, easy access to the water taxi, etc.

 

This is a view of the Silhouette from our room

Yeah, not going to do that when the first night for that type of room is 202,000 points.  Second night even more.  We’ll keep our Miami room.

[Turtles06]

OP: the Florida Departures forum here on CC is a great place to ask your question: 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/386-florida-departures/

[Yvonne]

4 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

OP: the Florida Departures forum here on CC is a great place to ask your question: 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/386-florida-departures/

I would have preferred to have it remain where it was.  

[rkacruiser]

6 hours ago, Yvonne said:

We’ll keep our Miami room.

 

A wise decision, in my opinion.  Since you have your own car, plan on using US 1 to drive from Miami to Port Everglades.  US 1 goes right by the entrance to the Port and at the time of morning you will be doing your drive, the traffic will be light to reasonable.  Yes, there's many stop lights.  But, it's a much more pleasant and interesting drive than using I-95.  I used US 1 in 2020 to get to and from Miami from Port Everglades.