We are staying in Miami the night before our cruise. Is there a motel close enough to the port to walk to? I have looked it up &amp; found that Holiday Inn at Marina Park &amp; Howard Johnson Port of Miami were close. Any opinions on these? Or do you know of a motel that provides shuttle service (that is not too expensive?)It would be fun to stay on the beach the night before if it wouldn't cost a fortune to get to the ship the next day.<BR>Thanks for your help!

The one thing about Miami ( or any big city ) is don't go cheap. You don't know where you are-or-who's around you.<BR><BR>We stay at the Biscayne Bay Marriott it has restaurants, even a little mall with grocery/hot food store.<BR><BR>Get a room on the southside with a balcony, you can see the ships.<BR><BR>The taxi should be $10 or less-or see if thier airport shuttle will take you to the port.

I recommended you rent a car/van on your other thread. If you do this, when you return the car, the car rental company will take you to the port. If you return the car in a 24 hr. period you will only get charged for 1 day rental.

This is a no-brainer! Go to priceline.com and bid for a 3-star downtown Miami hotel. My friends on cruisecritic.com did this and got Hyatt for 42 bucks. Even if hotel doesn't shuttle you, the cab is only a couple dollars. If you need info on this, go post it on the cruisecritic board or do a search. Someone will walk you through the whole process. There's no reason to pay a lot of money pre-cruise. One tip, avoid the ramada and any of the Days Inn hotels in Miami. Total dumps.

I agree with the above, and suggest using either Priceline or Hotwire.<BR><BR>You can get help, advice, and find out what hotels others have received, along with the prices paid at www.BetterBidding.com

LLindaC is right; priceline is the way to go. We stayed in Miami for our pre-cruise night in Jan. 2001 and got Hyatt Regency Downtown on Priceline for around $40 ($195 on Expedia). The hotel didn't offer shuttle service, but the cab ride was under $10.<BR>My advice: bid around $40-45 for a 4-star in Miami-Downtown.