We decided to arrive 2 nights before our Disney cruise to give ourselves a buffer in case of travel delays. I was excited for the cruise and initially thought maybe it was too much time. (For our Disney cruise review, click here.) In the end, I did not mind the extra time in Fort Lauderdale to relax and run some last minute errands before the cruise.
We stayed at Le Méridien Dania Beach at Fort Lauderdale Airport since have Marriott Bonvoy privileges. We landed late in the evening. Unfortunately, despite being an airport hotel, when we called for the hotel shuttle, they did not recognize our airline (Porter Airlines). As a result, it took quite a while for them to figure out which terminal to pick us up.
When we arrived to our rooms, we realized our requested crib was not there. This is not unusual from our past experiences with hotels. The manager was apologetic and personally delivered a pack and play. We had also requested a connecting room when booking, but we were disappointed to find out at check in that this was not available. However, when we arrived at one of the room, we noticed the connecting room next to one of our rooms was still available, so we were able to get connecting rooms after all so it was uncertain why they were not able to accomodate this at check-in. Overall, all of this did delay us settling in after a tiring travel day.
The next day, we ate breakfast in the Bonvoy lounge. It was a continental breakfast with a few hot items (dried sausages, scrambled eggs, cold and dry eggs benedict). Overall, it was a bit disappointing.
After breakfast, we took a walk around the hotel and our little toddler was intrigued by the pool. Even though it was a bit chilly, she enjoyed the shallow end of the pool and the beautiful outdoor deck furniture. I took this opportunity to check out the gym which was clean and not busy at all. In fact, I was the only person in the gym and the cleaner came in during my session to wipe down equipment.
For lunch, we ate on the patio of the hotel restaurant. They survived standard American sandwiches, burgers, chicken tenders, pizza, and fries. It was ok. Nothing too remarkable.
After lunch, our toddler took a little nap while we took a break and arranged transport to the mall for tonight. Again, miscommunication occurred with the hotel as they booked a private transport for us but we had requested a car seat and when the shuttle arrived, there was no car seat, which really defeats the whole purpose of private transport since we could’ve gotten an Uber for much less.
Nevertheless, we made it to the Sawgrass Mill mall. It was a huge mall and had plenty to see. You could likely spend an entire day there. We managed to get some last minute Disney merchandise from Marshalls and The Character Store in preparation for our trip. We also managed to pick up a few essentials for the cruise, such as reusable water bottle and some motion sickness medication. For dinner, we ate at Rainforest Cafe thinking it will be a easy family friendly place. Unfortunately for our toddler, it was very upsetting to see the mechanical jungle animals so we all didn’t have the most pleasant dinner experience as we rushed to finish our meals while pacifying our upset toddler. The food itself was unremarkable. Time flew by as it was getting late and our driver was waiting for us to drive us back to the hotel.
The next morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel’s main restaurant downstairs and it was much better than our experience in the lounge. They had an a la carte menu which I much preferred. They also allowed different guests at the same table to have buffet and others to have a la carte which was usually not allowed.
Parenting tip: If you have limited luggage space, no need to pack all the diapers/wipes for your cruise. I managed to squeeze in a last minute Instacart order for some diapers, hand sanitizers and other essentials that we did not get the chance to pick up yesterday at the mall. It uses the same app as their Canadian equivalent so that was convenient.
Our private transfer to the port for our cruise right on time and had the car seat that we had requested as well. It was a much better experience dealing directly with our driver instead of through the hotel.
Overall, despite the nice pool and fitness centre, there was quite a bit of miscommunication at this hotel, so we would probably chose another accommodation next time if we were to sail out of Fort Lauderdale again.
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