Harborside question

[malyons]

Looking for the collective experience of the Starwood owners out there...I want to take a trip next August to Orlando, and the week we will go falls on my 5 year wedding anniversary, so wife and I are considering bringing along grandma and grandpa to stay with the kids and taking 2 or 3 nights away and letting them stay in the timeshare. Question is this - is it possible to get a "nightly" stay at Harborside if I call right at the start of the 90 day window? I know it's impossible to tell what supply/demand will be so many months from now, but has anyone ever been able to use staroptions to get into that resort for just a couple nights? Small studio would be fine since it's just the 2 of us for 2 nights.

Thanks in advance, I know many of you out there have tried this!

 

[mariawolf]

Haven't tried this but you should know that gold season is very popular so unless you are going in very late August when kids may have returned to school I would say your chances are pretty slim. June/July/August are very popular months as kids are out of school and this is usually a "sold" out time.

 

[malyons]

yes, my daughter will be 3 and my other child isn't even born yet (due in april!), so we can be flexible as we have no school to deal with. Anniversary is Aug 14th, but we can work around that if it means getting to Atlantis somewhere close, it's the thought that counts .

Realized I didn't say this before, but thought I'd pass along our idea to all of you....the reason we're looking at Harborside is because you can actually get a "cruise" to and from the bahamas out of cape canaveral, which is about 45 min from orlando, for less than $150 per person. We started off thinking about a 3 day cruise then realized we have a few extra staroptions and thought we'd try to go check out Harborside! What a great way to use our extras if we can work it out

 

[clsmit]

That week wasn't sold out this year, at least it didn't seem so, so you have a pretty good chance of getting something during the week. Good luck!

 

[Transit]

I know it's impossible to tell what supply/demand will be so many months from now, but has anyone ever been able to use staroptions to get into that resort for just a couple nights? Small studio would be fine since it's just the 2 of us for 2 nights.

Anythings possible. Harborside has small 1 bedrooms but no studios.

We started off thinking about a 3 day cruise then realized we have a few extra staroptions and thought we'd try to go check out Harborside! What a great way to use our extras if we can work it out

It may be hard to book both within 90 days.If you don't book the cruise early will it still be $150 within 90 days of departure ? You can see if you can book the towers paying for them and canceling ( check the cancellation policy at Atlantis) if you get a unit at Harborside.Good luck

 

[tomandrobin]

The closer you get to your travel date, the better the odds you can get a room. There are always last minute cancelations. I have asked the question several times and have been told there was availability the week before.

 

[malyons]

It may be hard to book both within 90 days.If you don't book the cruise early will it still be $150 within 90 days of departure ? You can see if you can book the towers paying for them and canceling ( check the cancellation policy at Atlantis) if you get a unit at Harborside.Good luck

thanks for all of your input! as I look again this morning I was wrong about the departure port of this "cruise," however. It is actually out of Ft Lauderdale, not Orlando . What it is though is just a 1 day cruise each way that shuttles you from lauderdale to the bahamas, it leaves at 7:45am and arrives at 1:00pm, and then on the day you come home it leaves bahamas at 4:45pm and arrives at 10pm. So I guess my answer is, yes, it'll still be $150 (round trip) as it is almost more of a shuttle service. although they do serve you meals and have a deck to lay out and enjoy the ride. To me just seems like an inexpensive and fun way to get over to nassau. thanks again, after hearing a couple of your experiences I have a glimmer of hope I might be able to make this work (now we just have to trade into lauderdale instead of Orlando, which complicates things a bit more of course)

 

[calgarygary]

I believe the one day cruise you are looking at may be with either discovery or imperial majesty and suggest you visit cruisecritic.com for information about them. Personally, after seeing their ships in Nassau, I wouldn't consider cruising with them a fun way to get there but you might. I used Carnival to get to Nassau and had a great time.

If you are flexible with travel dates, I think going at the end of Aug. vs. the middle will increase your odds of getting Harborside for a few nights as the resort is definitely not at full capacity then. Remember though, you are planning during hurricane season and getting to Nassau by ship is a pure crap shoot. We did that this year but I would never do it again. The port and cruising were impacted by Gustav & Hannah during our stay and we left just before Ike. Had our plans been just a couple days different, we would have paid for a cruise to Nassau and had the port dropped from the itinerary.

 

[ljwhit]

There's a cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale that goes to Grand Bahama Island with the times you are talking about. Thats the Discovery Cruise Line. I think the Majesty Cruise goes out of Miami but I wouldn't swear to that. Just make sure your not looking at the Discovery or you'll end up on the wrong island.

 

[svntug]

BahamasAir.com

You may want to look at Bahamasair.com. They have inexpensive, direct flights from Orlando to Nassau a couple times a day.