Driving there; Plantation Inn??? Pensacola; Where did the Holiday Inn go?

[bpr2002]

My DH and I are driving to WDW in late November; We had reservations for the first night in Pensacola at the Holiday Inn Express on Hwy 29. Now, I find out by accident that the hotel building was bought and is now called the Plantation Inn. I can't get them to answer the phone to confirm that they will honor our reservations. Our reservation is for the day after Thanksgiving so hotel space is in shortage. What other hotels would you all recommend for an overnight stay on the drive down? Anything in Pensacola, Tallahasee?

Thank you!

 

[NotUrsula]

Remember that Pensacola was really badly hammered by Hurricane Ivan. It might not just be that your hotel is not answering the phones, it might be that they have no phone service right now, or that the hotel itself might have sustained structural damage.

Hotel rooms in that area are going to be at a premium in the coming weeks; there are a lot of people homeless right now.

 

[don8life]

We stayed at a Plantation in on the way down. This was in Georgia though. VERY NICE place. Very clean, friendly. The one we stopped at offered a nice free continental br. If you do stay there try the english muffins, they were awesome.

Good Luck!

 

[denecarter]

Pensacola is our "normal" stop when driving.

Have stayed at Fairfield Inn once... it was good.

Stayed at a Holiday Inn Express just south of I-10 twice... it was, to put it nicely, horrible. The lobby looked okay, but the rooms we had were not... since I did Priceline both times, I wondered if they gave me the "leftovers".

Anyway, next time we stop in Pensacola we plan to stay at Fairfield Inn again.

Assuming they aren't damaged, the info is:

Fairfield Inn
7325 N Davis Hwy (I think aka Hwy 291)
850-484-8001
Exit 13 South of I-10

 

[JulieWent]

There are many parts of Pensacola without phone service (or electricity or clean water) right now. That may well be why you aren't getting though. There are also many businesses that are damaged so badly that they will not be reopening soon.

I second the suggestion of the Fairfield Inn mentioned above. We have stayed there several times. (It is not far from my in-laws' house, and we stay there when we need space of our own.) There is also a Courtyard by Marriott in that same area. You can confirm whether these places are available by dealing with their national offices, also.

Julie

 

[bpr2002]

Thank you for the replies, everyone. I hope I didn't sound disrespectful in my original post. I didn't mean to belittle the destruction of the hurricanes. I'm just freaking out because everything we've planned for our trip has fallen through so far. This trip is one of the only happy things my family will experience this year. Thank you for the suggestions.

 

[Deb & Bill]

You do have a route around Escambia Bay, don't you? The bridge is not supposed to be repaired for 18 months or more.

 

[JulieWent]

That's funny, Deb and Bill. I actually rebooted my computer because I started thinking about this post and realized that.

You didn't sound disrespectful. I know how horrible it can be to have things go to pieces, believe me.

But I wanted to warn you that the path you're talking about leads straight to the I-10 bridge over Escambia Bay. There is really no way that that bridge is going to be open by Thanksgiving. My guess is that there will be a major detour because you can't just close an interstate that's as well-traveled and important as I-10 is, but as of right now, they have not reported what that detour will be. But all the hotels we've discussed on this thread are within 5 miles of the bridge. My bet is that the detour will begin before that corridor.

To be on the safe side, you may want to plan your stop for further down I-10 past Pensacola. (Or for between Mobile and Pensacola, but that's kind of a short way from Baton Rouge.) Tallahassee may be a ways, though. (It's about 3 hours from Pensacola.) Something in between, maybe?

Good luck. Ivan has messed things up for a lot of people. (My in-laws can't get into Pensacola from Milton to check on their business. My sister-in-law lost the roof on her house. My god-parents lost their entire house.) The Bay Bridge is going to make things nightmarish travel-wise for a good while.

Julie

 

[mareed]

We'll be coming from Houston on Dec. 18 and planned to drive to Marianna, FL which is between Pensacola and Tallahassee. Looks like we'll be past the bridge, and hopefully it's repaired or there is a detour that's not too far out of the way by then. Anyone have any information on this?

 

[JulieWent]

Mareed,
As I said, I'm sure there will be a detour of some kind, but this bridge was wiped out. It will take almost two years to rebuild. You may want to start looking at a map to look for routes around the Escambia Bay Bridge. It doesn't exist anymore.

Julie

 

[mareed]

I'm not familiar with the area at all. What do I look up on Mapquest or something like that to find this bridge? What city do I list?

 

[3for Me]

I, too would strongly recomend that you stay in the Tallahasee area, and find out more information on detours shortly before your trip. Pensacola is a mess right now, and unfortunately some areas of Alabama, close in the vicinity are as well.

good luck!

 

[NotUrsula]

If you go to this page of the FL DOT site, and click on the link for "Detour Routes for I-10" you'll get the latest information on the situation in Escambia:

http://www.dot.state.fl.us/publicinformationoffice/trafficwarnings.htm

 

[mareed]

NotUrsula - Thank you very much for the link. That is excellent information and I'll be sure to check it out again closer to my trip.

 

[denecarter]

Luckily, I don't have to take the detour, I'll just take a different route. I-20 East to I-49 South to I-10 East, etc. is our usual path from Dallas/Fort Worth to WDW. For Christmas, it will be easy enough from me to stay on I-20 and take the "northern" route to Montgomery then down to Tallahasee.

Gonna miss my usual way... creature of habit. Know where to stop, familiar with exits, etc. But hey, if this is my only problem then I have no problems.

I'll just think of it as a new adventure.

 

[greendoor678]

Have a look at this thread for some more info/links regarding the I-10 closure.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=653006

I called the Florida DOT and was advised that the I-10 bridge in Pensacola is in fact destroyed. The operator told me that the bridge is "not there, it's in the water".
Therefore, I must agree with the other poster that this will be a major restoration project that will take a year or so to complete.

Florida DOT has a detour that will take you from I-10 to US90 past Pensacola.

 

[carriep1657]

There is definitely a hotel shortage in Pensacola and it will persist for some time. My family had a trip planned for next week to visit relatives. Our reservations were at the Residence Inn. They called to say they will not be taking any guests until next year due to damage from Ivan.

We have cancelled the trip. We are unable to stay with family members because only one has a home that is currently safe for habitation.

I agree that you'd be better off if you could drive on to Tallahassee.

 

[needawdwtrip]

Just checked dot.state.fl board. We're going to disney in November from Mobile and the I-10 detour has you exiting from I-10 at exit 5 in Florda. Travel east on US90 to SR281 than south On SR281 to re-enter I-10 at exit 22. If you've seen any pictures of the I-10 bridge around this area you will know that it is not opening anytime soon, so you might as well make other hotel plans. We're stopping in Lake City, Fl (right where you exit I-10 and head south down the peninsula) because we're leaving so late in the afternoon and do not know how much extra time this detour is going to add to the trip.
All these hurricanes have put a damper on things so I definitely need the vacation
Come on November and the end of Hurricane season.
If anyone has taken this detour, let us know the travel time.