Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort

Resort has never looked better with the updated units. These are larger units than many other timeshares as it is not a converted motel/hotel. Fitness center is now larger as it was doubled in size. Free parking is available for one car.

Have stayed here 3 times and loved it each time. Lovely place - easy walk to the beach. Restaurant on the property is actually very good. Nice views from both sides of the building. Very convenient to everything we want to do in Fort Lauderdale. Plenty of room in the one and two bedroom units. Highly recommend. We want to buy here after such good experiences.

We just visited FLBR for the first time after purchasing a time share week last year sight unseen, other than the internet photos. We normally stay at 4 or 5 star resorts and we were pleasantly surprised with our purchase - the two bedroom unit was very clean, spacious and nicely decorated. Everything was new and the unit was well equipped. They have done an excellent job upgrading the resort and the service was great.

The location is fabulous if you like being close to Fort Lauderdale Beach - we were inspired by the many joggers and walkers who walk along the boardwalk each morning so we joined in. Great little new coffee shop on A1A called "St Barts" for coffee, breakfast, lunch. Good food and friendly service. An easy and enjoyable walk along A1A to many great restaurants, shops and bars and of course the never ending beach area. You could easily stay at this resort and not need a rental car unless you plan to do some day trips. The Galleria Mall is right next door too - great restaurants and lots of fancy shops.

On cooler days we did some short day trips to South Beach, Boca Raton, and West Palm Beach -- all are about a 45 min drive away. Shopping at Sawgrass Mills outlet mall is great too - straight up Sunrise Drive about 40 minutes away.

We took the advice of many travellers before us and took the water taxi along the intercoastal waterway to downtown. Very enjoyable and highly recommended but plan ahead so you can get good value for the all day $ 15 per adult pass. The water taxi operators are friendly and give a great overview of the rich and famous houses along the waterway and other sites.

Overall, we are very pleased with our week at FLBR and will definitely be going back next year with family or friends in tow. Enjoy!

Our family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids aged 12 and 14) stayed at this resort for a week in July. We had fantastic weather the entire week. While the odd shower blew through the area, it never rained on us. Most of the time it was sunny. While hot and humid this time of year, it was not as bad as we expected.

The ocean was warm (estimated mid 80s) and very calm all week -- almost dead calm in the mornings. This was a big change from around the same time last year, when we had a week of roaring surf just up the road in Pompano Beach. I guess it all depends on the winds and weather at the time of your visit.

Wear your sunscreen if you are a pale white northerner like I am. I did, but still got burnt in the late afternoon after reading on the beach for an hour following an ocean swim.

The ocean itself was nice for swimming but otherwise uninteresting. Close to shore it is all sand. To see anything with a mask and snorkel, you have to go farther out than the lifeguards (9AM - 5PM) will allow. There are other beaches in the area with snorkeling closer to shore. Showers are available at the beach entrances for washing off salt and sand.

The resort is located at the very northern end of the Fort Lauderdale beach wall, which is lit with a colorful neon rope light at night. The resort is a short walk from the beach, with shops and restaurants lining the route. There was some covered parking, but most of the time the covered spots were taken and we ended up parking in the sun. The resort has a restaurant and bar which we didn't use (we only tried on Wednesday, the one day they are closed). There were no BBQs for guest use.

The pool was a very plain rectangle with a maximum depth of 6 feet. The water was warm and clean and our kids enjoyed playing there. There was also a hot tub on the sun deck above the restaurant.

We stayed in a 2 bedroom ocean view lock off unit on the 6th floor. The larger side of the lock off had a full kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom, king bedroom, sofa bed, Murphy (wall) bed, and balcony overlooking the pool area and the ocean in the distance. The smaller side of the lock off was more of a studio, with a partial kitchen, king bedroom with dining table by the window, and bathroom. The air conditioning kept the unit quite comfortable. The internet speed was adequate, but just. The unit had a fairly roomy safe for locking up valuables (mandatory weekly fee applies). We were happy with the furnishings and appliances in the unit and everything seemed to be in working order. There seemed to be far too few dishes for our party of 4, however. I can't imagine how 8 would have fared.

These units had no laundry facilities. Laundry could be done downstairs or in a laundry just up the street towards the beach. We used the on-site laundry at $1.50 per load for the washer and $1.50 per load for the dryer (total $3 per load of laundry).

There seems to be quite a bit of renovation going on. Weekdays we heard quite a bit of construction noise: hammering, hammer drills in concrete, etc. That's fine during the day, but one morning, the noise started before 8 AM, much to our annoyance.

We attended a sales presentation for Vacation Villages Voyages, an RCI-like timeshare exchange program that promises better availability than the standard RCI membership. We had doubts the post sale availability of units would be as good as they suggested so we didn't buy. Plus we hate the "buy now or never return" high pressure sales (the sales lady actually wrote "no return" on our interview form to underscore the opportunity we were blowing). From what we understood, this wasn't a timeshare ownership, but more of a very costly club that would give you the right to book vacations through them. The cost to join was about $12K, dropping to about $8K if you have a current or former military or government employee somewhere in your family tree. They gave us $55 and breakfast for our time. The staff person who signed us up for the presentation assured me it would only take an hour. In actual fact, it took over two before they took our "no" for an answer. The sales lady said "we ate breakfast" and that didn't count towards the hour. I should have went with my gut. Two hours of our time on vacation was not worth the $55 remuneration.

The elevators were very slow. On Friday, it seemed the whole building was checking out between 9 and 10 AM and every elevator that passed us in a 20 minute interval was chock-a-block full. In desperation, some people just took multiple trips on the stairs or got onto "up" elevators on lower floors, which no doubt stopped at every one of the 17 floors to the top before stopping at every one of the 17 floors again on the way back down. At the suggestion of a staffer who sympathized with our plight, we used the service elevator at the end of the hallway. My suggestion: fully pack on the eve of your departure and move most of your stuff down to your car very early on departure day.

We thought this was a nice resort in a nice area. We felt it deserved its RCI Silver Crown rating and we would be happen to return.

Since our last visit in 2008, when we were not an owner, we noticed additional renovations to the resort including the sauna and restrooms, a newly opened spa and free WiFi in every unit. Our stay was most enjoyable and we went to the beach often as it is only a block away, used the pool, hot tub and sauna. In addition, we had drinks and burgers poolside, served by the bartender working the poolside bar. We took advantage of the discounted spa package for manicures, pedicures and massages but we did not use the fitness center (LOL) or the two computers located in the lobby as we had our own computers.

We stayed in our 2BR/2B lockout, unit #1205 from Jan. 8th - Jan. 15th which is located on the 12th floor at the southeast corner of the building with great views of the Atlantic Ocean. The furnishings were of higher quality then some other resorts. They used real sofa and chairs instead of the typical uncomfortable wicker furniture. There was a dinning room table that seats six, a murphy bed and pull out sofa. The king size bed in the lock off unit was a bit worn as it was high in the center, but sagged on the sides. I heard that they are currently replacing mattresses so hopefully next year this will not be of a concern. The living room had a TV with working remote and a DVD and VHS player. The two bedrooms both had working remotes and reception was good. The one issue was that there wasn't a TV guide available, either on the TV or a printout.

The kitchen had a full size refrigerator, full size stove, dishwasher, microwave, coffee maker and blender. A double sink with garbage disposal, spray hose and granite counter tops. The one thing that I noticed but was not a big issue was that it did not have an ice maker in the freezer. If you need lots of ice, there is an ice machine, which always had plenty of ice in it. There were able kitchen supplies and cleaning supplies to clean up.

No problems with check-in. Since we were leaving a different resort the morning of our check-in, we called the FLBR and asked if our room might be available early or at least a place to store our belongings until check-in. Rosa at the front desk advised me that our room was ready and we could check-in immediately. This was awesome as we moved from one resort to the next without any inconvenience, a huge plus. There was a sign posted for a safe fee of $2.00 per day or $10.00 per week. We were not charged this fee on this visit and I am assuming it was because we are owners now because in 2008 we were charged the $10.00 for the week. I believe this is just a fee that they get from RCI exchangers.

There was a 'First Date' event planned for Sunday morning by the concierge and activities director to discuss different events at the resort (mostly for adults, as I did not hear about kid activities), excursions to other destinations like Key West and the Bahamas. There were representatives from different companies like the Everglades Tours and the Duck Tour to sell their events which was nice. We took advantage of the 50% off coupon to visit the Bonnett museum and got information on the Water Taxi to see homes of the rich and famous and to sight see along the intracoastal waterways.

A vehicle is helpful to fully take advantage of the area but there are many restaurants and bars within walking distance. So if you want to walk to places, there are plenty but we enjoyed having a vehicle to travel to many more areas for the full exposure to Fort Lauderdale.

As this was our second visit to the FLBR and being an owner recently, we are throughly pleased with the resort and look forward to traveling to our unit next January 2012.