Hampton Inn FLL North

[dougp26364]

I just wanted to post a note on our pre-cruise stay at the FLL Hampton Inn north hotel.

 

We arrived late (11:00 PM) and called for pick up from the courtesy phone located by baggage claim at FLL. Surprisingly, there were a LOT of people arriving and waiting for hotel vans at this hour. They arrived to pick us up in about 10 minutes but we did have to fight a crowd at the hotel courtesy van pick up location just to get on our shuttle.

 

As we arrived late, we didn't have a lot of selection of times to take the free shuttle from the hotel to the pier. We elected to leave our name off the list and just take a taxi the next morning. The room was clean and quite. It was a very nice room and nicer than the typical economy room one would expect from budget hotel chains such as econolodge (just an example). We had booked the room online for $119/night which was $135 after taxes. Prior to this on a previous cruise we had spent a sleepless night at the Comfort Inn cruise port south for $69 before taxes. IMO, the extra $50 to stay at the Hampton Inn was money well spent.

 

We did not eat the free continental breakfast the next morning. By the time I got down there (around 10:00 AM) it had been pretty picked over and they had run out of some things like eggs and waffles. This was the only bad thing about the stay IMO. Coffee and tea were available 24 hours in the breakfast area.

 

When we arrived at the desk the next morning to check out and call for a taxi, the shuttle driver was at the desk. He volunteered to take us to the pier without charge. This also doubled as a drive to pick up passengers departing ships and coming into the hotel for post-cruise stays. So, we ended up getting the van all to ourselves to go the the ship rather than packing in with everyone else on the scheduled trips. A very nice touch to say the least and yes, I did tip the driver well for his generousity in volunteering to take us to our pier.

 

All in all this was a great hotel to spend a pre-night cruise if you're mostly interested in getting a good nights sleep. Comfortable, affordable rooms and great service from the staff. They could have done better with the free breakfast but, the number of guests I saw there hitting the breakfast foods hard may have had an impact on that. It might have just been that this group was over indulging before heading out for the day.

[Bequia]

Great review, that was really nice of the shuttle driver indeed.