Lap Child Diaries: May 2012 - Westin Diplomat Review

Hotel Stay Details
Hotel: The Westin Diplomat - Beach
Dates: May 25-28, 2012
Rate Paid: 4,800 SPG points + $90/night
Regular Rate: $305/night (including taxes)
Total $ Savings: $645
Point Redemption Value: 4.5 cents/pt

Another weekend trip = another Starwood hotel using points. We arrived in Ft Lauderdale safe and sound (Flight # 7 for me) for my father's annual baseball birthday weekend. The hotel my parents booked was about 30 minutes from the Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL) in the beachside town of Hollywood, Florida.

Even though it's not in actual Miami, the Westin Diplomat (Beach location) is a very popular Starwood hotel in the Miami metro area because they have a lot of suites and ocean-facing rooms. They also have a reputation for treating SPG Platinum and Gold members very well (frequent complimentary upgrades to enhanced rooms). Of course, we wanted a nice hotel room for the weekend but didn't want to pay a lot for it, so we again used our SPG points for the "Cash & Points" redemption, saving my family $645 over the 3 day long weekend.

The redemption, however, only got us a Superior King Bed with a Resort view, but my father read on TripAdvisor that calling a few days in advance (after they could predict room availability) and mentioning it was a special occaison (birthday) would often lead to securing an enhanced room upgrade (ocean view w/ balcony) so that he wouldn't have to beg for one at check-in. And it worked! View from our 31st floor balcony to the right.

My father also found out that they had self-parking available across the street for $20/day (vs. $24+ tip + waiting for valet). So we parked and walked across the bridge right to the front of the hotel. But the one downside is that the bridge crossing the street and front door does have some stairs (but no ramp) that are tough when you're carrying a baby and luggage. Of course, I couldn't walk yet so I got carried in my car seat, but I could imagine.

Check in was fine (no line at 5PM when I arrived), though the reception didn't immediately see that we were booked for an upgraded ocean-view room. The guy asked if we wanted a King and initially told me the only ocean-view King rooms were just the handicap accessible ones. My father told him that he had called ahead and already pre-reserved a regular ocean-view room. He had to do some searching and adjusting but somehow magically found a regular ocean-view king bed room available. Must suck whatever guy got bumped out of his ocean-view room for checking in after us. Early bird...

The hotel guests are given wrist-bands to wear so the hotel employees can identify who are paying guests and who are just visitors. While people complain about the wrist-band system, I thought it was much better than having to fight non-guest visitors for chairs at the pool.

Also, I loved that they controlled the typical bad behavior by prohibiting people from just "reserving" pool chairs by leaving a towel on 4 chairs. You have to actively be using your chairs or else they free them up for people who need them.

The pools were great and crowded but not as bad as other kid-friendly beach resorts I've been at. They have cabanas that you can rent by the pool but the regular chairs are free. Towels are provided free as well.

The chairs on the beach however must be rented though. Apparently, if you just want the pool without the beach, you're better off taking the free shuttle to the sister Golf property because it's much less crowded. But we actually liked being around the other families/kids.

So now that I was almost 7 months old, my mother decided that I could start to play in the pool. I got a little freaked out at first when my toes hit the water and I realized that I couldn't touch the ground, but after a while, I really started to enjoy splashing around.

Of course, my mother read some news article about babies needing sun protection so I was wearing this silly hat, but I was having a lot more fun than the expression on my face would suggest.