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Amy1118

By Amy1118,
in Royal Caribbean International

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love2cruise4ever

love2cruise4ever

Posted
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I think that you will feel confortable walking from The inter-continental to Bayside, you may want to avoid the rest of Downtown at night, only becouse after 6-8pm all the offices are close and you don't see many people in the street but the inter-continental is on the same block where bayside is and all of then are on the water edge, If you think of it as a city block (is really more than a city block) you will have the intercontinental in one corner, the park in the middle and bayside in the other corner. When checking into the hotel ask for a high floor and with a room lokking at bayside. If they give you a room looking at the pool, you will be looking at the back of the building and you will not be able to see the port. If you get the room on the park side from your room you will be able to see the whole park (the park is just a big open space where the city usually do big parties on the weekend, you may see one the day you are here in which case you will see a lot of people here) , and at the end Bayside, then you will get a good feeling of where everything else and you will feel confortable becouse when you walk to bayside you will have in your mind a view of the whole area and therefore it would be dificult for you to get lost. Enjoy.

 

p.s. In the Inter-Continental , they have a restaurant on the pool level (which is about the 8th floor of the building) with awesome views of the water. They have really good pizza there. :)

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stones902

stones902

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We stayed at the Intercontinental about 2 years ago. It is an excellent choice provided that you do not need to stay on the beach. Bayside is a great place to hang out. It has a Hard Rock Cafe and Bubba Gumps among other restaruants. The Intercontinental also provided us with a complimentary upgrade into a "business class room". Our accomodations overlooked the river (not the port) but our view was not a big deal for us at all. None of the rooms in the Intercontinental have balconies.

 

The hotel has a very nice pool area that is usually not crowded. There are several fine restarants on the property but be prepared to spend some $$$ to eat there. One morning, we had the buffet breakfast which ran us $17pp. To help defray the cost, you can eat a couple of meals somewhere at Bayside. All in all, a nice hotel that I would stay at again.

 

I would not recommend the Holiday Inn. Although it is also near Bayside, this property is pretty run down (it used to be a Best Western). Maybe OK for an overnight stay, if I had a couple of days I would definitely opt for the Intercontinental.

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CoBob

CoBob

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We actually stayed at the Hyatt and WALKED to Bayside and back from there. We never had a problem with anyone. There is also a nice little coffee shop catty corner across the street to the left where we ate the morning of the cruise. If you don't want to walk then the cab to Bayside is only about $4.

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muscleman

muscleman

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Stones902, we stay at the Intercontinental on for our pre-cruise stay and the beach is right there pass the pool. We loved this hotel because it's right at the beach. I will stay at this hotel next time but I will come two days early instead of one.

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love2cruise4ever

love2cruise4ever

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seattlelover, ...."Mandarin Oriental", now we are talking!!!! :-) , very , very nice hotel. The main restaunt "azul" is awesome if you pass the initial shock of the $25 bottle of water (that is regular bottle water, they have some other bottle of waters that are more expensive).

 

the hotel is in Brickel Key, an island only a small bridge away from Brickell Ave. About 10 blocks from Downtown and maybe a couple of milles from the port. You probably can see the port across the bay from one of the high floor. If you are into SPA, and was planing to spend money on the cruise SPA, forget it, do it at the Mandarin and you will be much more happy. Enjoy it.!!!!

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seattlelover

seattlelover

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Love2cruise4ever - thanks for replying. Now we did know this was an expensive hotel but how can $25 be justified for a bottle of water! We got a great deal for our room rate and that was what swayed us to book there. A nice little pre cruise luxury :) We hadn't really planned on eating there, hopefully will have a wander round. Can you recommend a nice restaurant(maybe seafood) in the area?

Thanks in advance, Bev

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momofmeg

momofmeg

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This is a great tread. I have friend taking their first cruise on Explorer Aug. 29-they have not booked a room yet and had asked us about this. They seem to think we know everything as we have cruised a lot but we have only once cruised out of Miami and we took a same day flight that time. I will direct them here. Ya'll are so great-surely one of these places they can get a room. Thanks again.

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stones902

stones902

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Muscleman,

 

Maybe you can answer an off topic question for me since you are familar with the Intercontinental in San Juan. We are booked in November for the Wyndam El San Juan which is next to the Intercontinental. I am unfamilar with the property but have been told that they share a nice beach, have a great pool, etc. Are there other restaurants, shops etc. in the area to visit other that just in the hotels?

 

Any impressions that you can give me regarding the Wyndam El San Juan, Intercontinental San Juan or the Isla Verde area would be appreciated. Thanks!

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love2cruise4ever

love2cruise4ever

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For seattlelover , the $25.00 bottle of water was a blue bottle... very beautifull, the water , well just taste to me like, just that water :-)

 

Seafood Restaurant: There are a few great restaurant not too far away from the oriental. Capital Grill and Morton's are a few blocks from the Mandarin but they are steaks houses and not seafood. There is a great brazilian restaurant call Porcao, in the buiding right across the water from the Oriental. The building (rather the buildings becouse it is a complex of four ) is called the four Ambassadors. There is a great Spanish restaurant (food from Spain rather than Spanish meaning South American or Cuban food) about a 10 minutes taxi cab called Casa Juancho, you can see the menu at www.casajuancho.com , the best Seafood Paella you can have in Miami is here. Finally in Bayside there is a Buble Gump (sp??) restaurant, this is a seafood restaurant based on the movie by Tom Hank.

 

for tones902:

 

about San juan hotels; I just came back on a cruise on the AOS from San Juan. The area you are refering to and where the El San Juan Hotel is located is called Isla Verde. Inter-Continental is next door to the El San Juan, they share the same beach. a lot of people think that Isla Verde is a great beach but once you see the beaches in some of the other islands I think you will concluded that it is not such a great beach. In any case is a nice one nonetheless. The Lobby of El San Juan hotel is a great place. The service in the hotel is another thing. I have been talked that is not that good. But the hotel is really nice. here is a link to another review I posted from my last cruise that will give you info in hotels and restaurants around Isla Verde

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=68028&highlight=aos

 

Enjoy!!!

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Amy1118

Amy1118

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Bayside is separated from the Intercontinental by a lovely park ... I actually like the park better than Bayside. What are they offering for an RCI package?

 

emeraldcity,

 

It's $152.00 for one night, single at the Intercontinental including transfers. The Hyatt Regency is 131.00 and the Wyndham Grand Bay is 183.00

 

Amy

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AngieBaby161

AngieBaby161

Posted
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NJEWERS,

 

Welcome aboard. Amy & I are going to try to keep in touch during the next 14 months (:eek: egads that seems like forever!) as things begin to plan out. I have tried to allow email from members, but as of yet can not get it to work. No answer yet from CC. Until then lets use this thread until it gets closer and we can start our own meet and mingle thread:o This is our 2nd cruise and we can not wait either...lists are already started, and I pulled out our laynards from last cruise already

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1cruise2U

1cruise2U

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This is not on the beach but the Embassy Suite has price of 159.99 that includes airport transfer to hotel the night before and transfer to the pier, evening reception and full cooked to order breakfast. I like the Embassy Suite, but I can't tell you anyting about this location.

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Amy1118

Amy1118

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Hi all!

 

Thanks to all the great info gleaned here, which was seconded by a Miami native who is a good friend's sister-in-law, I've booked the Intercontinental. I want to thank all who responded. I've really learned a lot and got some great ideas about what to do if I get there early enough.

 

Welcome NJEWERS! Is this your first RCI cruise? I've been on the Rhapsody twice but I'm really looking forward to the Radiance!

 

cynangie, I set up my AOL acct last night but let's see what we hear from CC before I screw up my courage to post it here, even if it is probably impermanent.

 

If anyone else on the sailing finds this thread we should probably just start a roll call.

 

Keep in touch,

Amy

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AngieBaby161

AngieBaby161

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It appears that email is not enabled on this site. FYI...you can add another user name on your AOL account, actually up to 10 I think. That address could be used for posting and not your main account. You would have to log on to AOL with that extra name to get your emails to that name. Once we exchanged emails you could then delete that name off your account without affecting your main account. I might be able to do this with my new provider, I will check.

 

Your price mentioned for the Intercontential said:

 

It's $152.00 for one night, single at the Intercontinental including transfers. The Hyatt Regency is 131.00 and the Wyndham Grand Bay is 183.00

 

How did you get the transfers? Through RCI or the hotel or something else?

Is transfers from airport to hotel, and from hotel to port?

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