Cocoa Beach Hotels
 

We are trying to decide between the Doubletree Hotel Cocoa Beach Oceanfront and the Best Western Oceanfront Resort. We will be there in mid-December. I have read all the Trip Advisor reviews (with a huge grain of salt), but was hoping to get some input from fellow Fodorites. This will be for 2 families, ours with teens and the other with younger children. Any input would be great, thanks!

I think the Doubletree is a nicer property, but the Best Western in within walking distance of the CB Pier if that interests you.

I can't remember if either has a kid's pool, but if there's anything in particular you need to know, I can go check it out for you - both are just up the road.

Ezmail me if you get the chance. ;-)

Thanks so much dsquared! I was hoping you would see this:) From what I could gather on various websites, I thought the Doubletree was nicer. The rate for that hotel is $229/nt, and BW is $149 (that is for the oceanside tower suites, the regular rooms are only $89). So while I know we wouldn't opt for the regular room there, I wasn't sure if the other was nice enough. Is the Doubletree worth that $229 rate, in your opinion? My husbands only requirement was that we were right on the beach, lol! As far as the BW being near the pier...I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I cannot stand Seaside, OR, so if it is similar, please let me know, lol!

hee...hee...nothing is quite like Seaside. No, it's not like that; just some restaurants, bars, a few souvenir shops - sometimes concerts are held there.

I know that the BW recently revamped some of their rooms. I'll go do a drive by tomorrow at lunch and take a look. I'll let you know what I find.

Oh that would be great, thank you! The rooms we are looking at are in the tower apparently, not in the 2 story building. We will probably stay at whichever hotel for about 4 nights before heading over to Disney. Still looking into those, but those are so overwhelming! We are planning on arriving a day or so before the launch and want to stay long enough incase there is a delay. Even if no delay, we can enjoy the beach. And I am SO relieved that we will not be experiencing Seaside ala Florida;)

Just got back from a drive down "hotel row."

There is a construction project in the front of the Best Western, but it is quite a way from the rooms. You would definitely want a tower room here as those are true oceanfront. Note however, that it looked to me like not all the tower rooms had an ocean view. The BW is a block from the pier which means the beach in front of the BW gets more traffic (not vehicle traffic, we're not Daytona ;-) )than the Doubletree would.

The Doubletree is a newer building (built a few years ago) which is nice but it does mean that the landscaping is still fairly minimal and the building is no architectural masterpiece.

Both BW and Doubletree are located far enough away from A1A (the main drag) that noise from the street shouldn't be a problem.

I talked to a co-worker who was in the hotel business here for a number of years. She said the BW is fine (again, for the tower rooms); she thought the Doubletree was pricey at $229. The Doubletree is in a more residential (condos) area.

Hope this helps.

Oh you are wonderful! Of course now to decide...sounds like we can't go wrong with either (as long as we get the right room at BW). I need to call my girlfriend and see if she has a preference now.

Hi mms,

When are you heading to Disney? We'll be in the area during mid-December, too!

We've stayed in some condos on Cocoa Beach that were basically directly across from the BW Oceanfront. The pier is nice to walk out on, lots of folks hang out there, but not in a bad way, lol!

Seeing a shuttle launch, how neat is that? Hope it takes off on time so you can view it. We've been on the beach when the shuttle came back in, and you could hear the sonic boom when it re-entered the atmosphere. It was cloudy so we couldn't see anything, but the noise was sure loud!

Just a thought re: Disney. The resorts will be in value season until around the 18th or 19th of December. Check mousesavers.com to see if there are any general public discounts, if not, they give AAA discounts during value season. And the parks will be decorated but less crowded than usual. It's a really good time of year to be there!

kopp, the shuttle woke me out of a sound sleep this morning!

mms, keep a watch on the date, as the director said this morning that they may try to move it forward.

Hi dsquared,

We LOVE Disney during the holidays. Everything is so bright and festive, the decorations are beautiful, and we especially like the Candlelight Processional at Epcot with the dinner package! Also the Very Merry Christmas Parade at Magic Kingdom with the Wooden Soldiers and the best-looking Santa!

Also, take time to visit the bigger Disney hotels to look at their decorations. The Beach Club has a big carousel made out of gingerbread (I mean BIG carousel); the Grand Floridian is unbelievable with a whole house made of gingerbread, even a sign that says so many thousands of cups of sugar, so many dozen eggs, etc., all went in to making the house. Really neat.

And at MGM, there is usually a time when it literally "snows" and you put on these special glasses and see angels flying in the skies. Cool!

I'm a Disney-aholic. We live in Texas but have annual passes. Never too old to enjoy Disney. Dopey's my favorite!

I am rushing out the door, so will post more later. But now my girlfriend and I are leaning towards the Hilton. Any comments?

Kopp--Yes, a friend of ours is an astronaut so invited us to his launch. We are pretty excited!

Dsquared--Thanks for the heads up on the possible date change. I know our friend will keep us posted...heck, he might have already emailed DH so I need to check. I do not want it forward though...tougher for the kids with school, lol! Our friend will be here visiting in a couple weeks so hopefully he will have more info for us.

And yes, any Disney help would be great! Haven't been since we lived there eons ago. The resorts there are almost overwhelming to decide on!

The Hilton is good and in a nice location.

Ok, dropped the boys at football and can think FL again, lol!

OMG, Disney sounds beautiful at Christmas! When we lived in Orlando we were only there from Feb. til Oct. so didn't see it then.

Looks like we might luck out with the Disney dates...thinking of being there from roughly the 16th til the 19th. Maybe tomorrow I can sit down and really check out that website and a few others and see what we want. The friends we are traveling with are great, but it just gets more complicated trying to find a place that works for their little kids and our older kids. Thankfully we have all traveled together before and it works:)

I was running around trying to feed cats, eat my own dinner, and pay attention to DH, but that's all done, so OK, back to the Hilton! If I remember correctly, they had started renovations in 2004 and then got whacked by the hurricanes in 2005. It's been completely renovated since then. Double-check with them, though, if a balcony is important to you. I don't think they installed balconies (which are a maintenance nightmare in our hot weather and salty air) in the reno. It's in a nice, quiet location, actually not far from the Doubletree.

Ok, we have the Hilton booked! I am so glad to hear that it has been redone. The reviews on TA sound good, and the pics I could find online look nice.

So, any Disney suggestions?

Hi mms,

You have to decide whether you want to stay on Disney property or off. You will get lots of pros and cons either way.

For me, the pros of staying on site are:
(1) the parks rotate early opening days, which gives about an hour extra. And sometimes they rotate closing time by an hour or so. Only park hotel guests can use this.
(2) If you don't have a car, there are buses that connect to the various parks as well as the monorail if you are on that line.
(3) well, I can't think of a third advantage.

Advantages to staying off Disney property:
(1) much cheaper! Lots of variety, from upscale Gaylord Palms or other mega places to Comfort Inns in Kissimmee.
(2) A car will get you anywhere you want to go in 10 minutes or less. Nothing is really that far.
(3) Escape from the Disney crowds. Sometimes you just need a break from everything Mickey.

Check allearsnet.com. They're a great resource, also disboards.com and mousesavers.com.

We have stayed on site several times, at the Caribbean and a couple times at the Beach Club. The BC has a wonderful pool area, like a sunken pirate ship, great for kids. Excellent location, walkable into Epcot, a real plus for us as we really enjoy the Illuminations. Negative is that rooms start about $350, and that's just a regular hotel room with 2 beds.

Nowadays we stay in Kissimmee. It's about 10 minutes by car. What used to be the Homewood Suites is now something like The Palms Villas, but it's basically a Homewood Suites, which means a one-bedroom condo like place, with a separate living room, 2 TVs, small kitchen with dining table. We love the extra room, even a free breakfast. Negative is that it's next to the freeway, but we can usually get a room on the far side which is very quiet. Rooms this December are cheap here with the new ownership--I mean cheap cheap, so you might want to check them out.

There are literally hundreds of hotels in the area running alongside the freeway by Disney. Get out a good map or go to GoogleEarth and take a look. They're everywhere. The further you go down Irlo Bronson Hwy., the more traffic you'll have, so be aware of that. There is even a Super Wal-Mart down there, so you can stock up on souvenirs and groceries.

There are also hundreds of homes available for rent, which might work well with your group. Not all require week stays either. I think on the allearsnet website they have some recommended places.

Gosh, I could go on but that's probably enough for now. Feel free to ask anything else. I'll be happy to help you.

You will enjoy it there at the pre-holiday time. Not too crowded, yet so beautiful!

kopp--Thank you! I think we will probably stay on Disney property. We can't do a rental home though since our dates could change due to the launch. So it makes the planning a bit more difficult. At least with the Hilton at CB being so reasonable, we can splurge on this portion of the trip and have it sort of even out. We will have a rental car for the CB portion, but will probably return it once we hit Disney. Sounds like we will be there at the same time!