Pre Cruise Stay in January - your advice please

[mama2mickeyfans]

Hello all,
Looking for your recs on 1 nt pre-cruise stay for January. We've done the Hyatt thing (would totally do again for the convenience alone if it wasn't so darn expensive - with 5 ppl we have to book 2 rooms and at that point it's crazy $$)

We will be a party of 5-- 3A2K and we want to minimize travel stress- so prefer to avoiding renting a car and the hassle that entails. Shuttles are better... Shopping for our three six packs to take aboard is a plus but not a must. Free breakfast would be very nice. Something to do (pool, sightsee) for a few hours would be nice. We like nice-ish, clean hotels, and want at least 2Q beds and a sleeper sofa (so probably a suite type).

Been reading up on
Homewood Suites. New, nice, breakfast. Location not exciting. looking around $300 per night
Best Western Cocoa Beach: Breakfast, location, grocery store, etc. Rooms seem dated (?) around $180-200 per night. i haven't seen this one come up on the boards in a few years, is it any good still?
Country Inn and suites - $200 per night, possibly includes breakfast? not sure about amenities or location.
Radisson Resort - I don't know much about this one, I can get it for around $200 but don't think it has breakfast?
Should I consider others? Four Points, hampton?

Give me your hotel and transportation recs please! Thank you!

 

[Dug720]

It's at MCO, but I'm a big fan of Hampton Inn & Suites Gateway. It's like a 5 minute shuttle from MCO.

I don't know of any that have a shuttle to Cocoa Beach, so you'd be looking at either renting or essentially the cost of a car service to the port from the MCO area anyway. If you want to stay in the port area though, we stayed in the Country Inn & Suites and had a really good experience there. My parents have even stayed there a couple more times, and if it was gross they wouldn't do that.

 

[lspst8]

We stayed at Country Inn and Suites in March. Free breakfast is included. Our room was nicer than I expected with a sitting area and a bedroom area. There was a pool, but we didn't use it. I would stay there again without hesitation.

 

[mama2mickeyfans]

Thanks!

Yes adding in the transportation is an additional cost, but adding in the hired shuttle service from MCO to Cocoa Beach/ Port area hotels still comes out cheaper than Hyatt MCO plus DCL xfer. I will have to look into the Hampton inn at MCO. What transportation did you then use to port? (did you shuttle back to MCO and use Disney?) Was the shuttle free to/from MCO? Was there anything in the area for dinner/groceries?

did CI&S have a shuttle to port? I know this hotel comes up a lot here with consistently positive reviews.

 

[mama2mickeyfans]

Wow Dug that Hampton is a great value! The shuttle around the area to get us to a dinner restaurant and/or a beer stop is just perfect. The AAA rate is hard to beat, and I assume it's easy to shuttle back to MCO for the Disney xfer (which although pricey I, I mean, my kids, enjoyed.) Thanks for the rec!!