Marriot North Fort Lauderdale

[fredthecarman]

Has anyone stayed at The Marriot North in Fort Lauderdale.

What were your feelings about it?

[coiran]

Nice place, but not any good dining places nearby - also a long way from the port - if you have the Princess pkg OK - if not it will probably be a $25 - $30 taxi ride.

 

Ron

[fredthecarman]

Thanks Ron. As long as it is clean and cmfy, We're OK. We are with Princess pre-cruise package but will probably grab a cab to get to the port earlier. Thanks again.

[luckylulu]

It is a very nice place. I agree about no nearby places to eat but we called the front desk and got phone numbers of several places that deliver...pizza, etc. BYW...great bedding.

[cdncruzer]

As mentioned...nice place to stay. Rooms clean and comfy. Nice little boardwalk through the nature preserve.

 

There were a few restaurants/shops in a mall that were a short walk away (corner of North Andrews and Cypress Creek) Long Horn's was one of them...couple of fast food places..?Moon lite Diner, Dunkin' Donuts, etc. If you use Google Earth, you can get a good visual of the area.

 

I agree... grab a taxi to the port. The Princess transfers were a long and painful process.

[shofer]

We just returned from the Grand Princess yesterday and stayed at the Marriott North pre-cruise. There are several restaurants about a block away across Andrews Ave. Hooters, Chammps, Sweet Tomatoes, Longhorn, Dunkin' Donuts, and I think an Italian place. There is no liquor store nearby so that squashed any plans we had about bringing wine/beer on board.

 

There is also a restaurant in the hotel which was pricey for dinner but very reasonable for breakfast w/the hot buffet @ $13.95/pp. You could get the cold buffet for $8.95 which was cereal & sweet rolls or order off the menu.

 

The property was very nice. Typical Marriott look. The rooms were clean & comfortable. Not spectacular or luxurious but suitable for one night.

 

There were a huge number of people staying pre-cruise for Holland America, Princess and some for Royal Caribbean. I think they had at least 10 buses for Holland America and about 6 for Princess. We were the last Princess bus to leave and it is about a 20 minute ride to the pier. Got there about 2 PM and check in was very quick with no long lines or hassles.

 

We thought the Princess package was very reasonable considering hotel prices for February.

[windango]

We stayed there as part of a Princess package in November and were very pleased. It's a beautiful hotel with lovely grounds and we felt very safe. I agree with the previous posters about food nearby...it's pretty limited. I thought the breakfast buffet in the hotel was horribly overpriced at $14 a person (sorry Shofer!) but it was tasty. We stayed there after our cruise as well and ate dinner in the dining room then too. The dinner buffet didn't appeal to us (few choices) and the regular menu was very limited as well. I think we both had the chicken fettucine alfredo and it was very good. About $13, which I thought was reasonable for dinner. I was really surpirsed they didn't have more of a selection for such a large hotel, maybe most people eat elsewhere? Anyway, I think you'll like it, the beds were very comfortable and they had great pillows. In fact, mom and I both agreed they were one of the most comfortable beds we'd ever slept on.

[windango]

Oh...and yes the transfer to the ship took forever. Especially when you're in a hurry to get on board. A tip we learned (too late, unfortunately) was to go down really early to get your pass for the buses. We went down at the appointed time (in fact about 10 minutes before the appointed time) and our transfer pass was for the 4th bus already. I think if you go down WAY before the appointed time and get your pass, you can go back up to your room and get ready and you can get an earlier bus that way. It seemed like it took about 30 minutes between buses, so maybe they were staggering then to reduce congestion. Or maybe they only had 2 buses!! Either way the check in process was the easiest I've ever had. There was absolutely NO wait at all and the whole thing took about 5 minutes. Maybe they had it timed right or maybe we were lucky. I just remember standing in line for 30-45 minutes on our last cruise out of San Francisco. This was so much better!

[shofer]

An addendum to this as DH just reminded me, was that there were 6 of us and Marriott added a 15% gratuity onto the check for a buffet were we served ourselves. The waitress brought coffee and juice only. We thought the price was reasonable as we stay at a Marriott in the Chicago area 5 times a year and their buffet is $14.95/pp which is still cheaper than the big Champagne Sunday Brunch they offer which is $28.95/pp.

[Ava411]

Thanks to all. I've been "lurking" for a while, looking for posts on this Princess pre-cruise hotel. I've been on Tripadvisor as well as Google Earth, and it looked good, so we booked it. But your comments in this post answered a lot of my questions. I didn't realize there would be enough people there to fill 4 buses, that was a surprise. We stayed at a Marriott in LA one day before our Mexican Riveria cruise and there were 4 people being transferred to the ship.

I expected the same, silly me! Also, we will be here in April, and I thought we would be out of the way of the spring break revelers.

[kingmankruiser]

Thanks to all. I've been "lurking" for a while, looking for posts on this Princess pre-cruise hotel. I've been on Tripadvisor as well as Google Earth, and it looked good, so we booked it. But your comments in this post answered a lot of my questions. I didn't realize there would be enough people there to fill 4 buses, that was a surprise. We stayed at a Marriott in LA one day before our Mexican Riveria cruise and there were 4 people being transferred to the ship.

I expected the same, silly me! Also, we will be here in April, and I thought we would be out of the way of the spring break revelers.

 

We to are booked for this hotel and maybe we'll hit some nice weather and we can walk down for breakfast and dinner. Leaving on Princess April 25th. Good advice, thanks will check on bus pass early. I get so anxious to be at the dock, I'd rather sit there and wait, rather than wait for a bus:mad:

[senior lady]

We stayed there before our Panama Canal cruise. It was a nice hotel, just not much around there. We talked the hotel shuttle driver into taking us to the 24hr Walmart and we ran in and got our pop, water, and wine for the cruise:D

 

We didn't want to wait for the buses, so we shared a cab with our friends. It was $20 a couple. We got to the ship before any of the buses and got on the ship fast. The people on the buses didn't start showing up until around 2pm. We were unpacked and enjoying a "cocktail" by that time:cool:

[windango]

Actually Ava, I know for a fact there were buses after ours, but I don't know how many. If I had to guess I would say there might have been 5 or 6 buses in all.?? I'm not sure how many people each bus carried but there were a ton of people milling around waiting for them. I also don't know how many ships Princess had leaving from Ft Lauderdale that day, it could have been several, which would account for all the people. Either way, once we got off the bus, the embarkation was a breeze!

[NeurosurgeryNP]

We stayed there in January for 3 nights pre-cruise - 1 on our own and 2 with Princess Package. The one night on our own was double the price per night that we paid through Princess (about $110 for the two of use per night) but we could not get a 3rd night there under the package and we did not want to move hotels after only one night. We did get a rental car and put many many miles on it. The hotel itself was excellent we thought. Comfortable beds, clean, friendly staff. As for our transfers, we got down to the room early and got a number 1 pass and we felt that the transfers in our case were quick and painless. We got to the peir by 12 noon. There is a shopping mall across the street, as well as a Hooters, and several fast food chains nearby.

[GKCruisers]

We are sailing on the Grand Princess on April 5 and staying at the Marriott North the night before. We are planning on using the Princess transfer to the pier. Since this is our first cruise we are totally unfamiliar with this transfer/embarkment process. My question is how early should be go downstairs at the hotel to get bus passes?

[SheltieLady]

The hotel is very nice for a pre-night stay but it so far from the port, we stayed there last year with Royal Caribbean also people cruising with Princess and Holland America were there too.

 

I agree with the other post about how pricey the restaurant is, we did dinner there as we were so tired from travelling all day.

 

For the cruise which we are in the planning stages off we will not book this hotel we want something closer to the port.

 

 

Christine

[shofer]

We are sailing on the Grand Princess on April 5 and staying at the Marriott North the night before. We are planning on using the Princess transfer to the pier. Since this is our first cruise we are totally unfamiliar with this transfer/embarkment process. My question is how early should be go downstairs at the hotel to get bus passes?

 

When you check in, the hotel will give you a letter explaining where and when to meet w/the Princess rep to get your bus assignment. They call it pre-check in but all they do is give you the health questionnaire to fill out and give you a colored piece of paper to designate which bus you go on. This was our ninth cruise and it was pretty painless. Frankly, I would rather sit in the airconditioned hotel lobby than be standing in a long line at the pier. We were the last Princess bus on our 2/2/08 sailing and we just walked right in to check in and were on the ship in about 10 minutes. Very easy and painless.

[shofer]

The hotel is very nice for a pre-night stay but it so far from the port, we stayed there last year with Royal Caribbean also people cruising with Princess and Holland America were there too.

 

I agree with the other post about how pricey the restaurant is, we did dinner there as we were so tired from travelling all day.

 

For the cruise which we are in the planning stages off we will not book this hotel we want something closer to the port.

 

We booked the hotel on our own in Feb-2007 leaving out of Ft Lauderdale for a Panama Canal cruise. It was Super Bowl week and the game was in Miami and rooms were hard to come by. We ended up at a Holiday Inn Express on SR-84 for $180/night thru Priceline w/taxes, etc. We were about 10 minutes from the port and took the hotel shuttle there. This deal through Princess was much more reasonable and it was 20 minutes to the port. Of course there was no Super Bowl in FLA this year.