See our Advertiser Disclosure and Editorial Note here.
A few weeks ago, before my daughter and I went on a cruise, we stayed two nights at Holiday Inn Club Vacations Cape Canaveral Beach Resort. We stayed for “free” using two free night certificates from our household Chase IHG credit cards. Honestly, I have very mixed feelings about our stay there.
What I Loved About the Resort
Location: Holiday Inn Club Vacations Cape Canaveral is located very close to the cruise port. When the cruise ships leave, they go right by the hotel’s beach. It was awesome to watch the gigantic ships pass by!
Beach: My daughter and I both loved the beach. It was about a 10- to 15-minute walk from the main building. Or, you could take the resort’s tram that came by the front every 10 minutes.
The sand was fine and the waves were fun.
For $20, we rented two lounge chairs and a table for the day. We visited the beach immediately after we checked in and stayed most of the day our second day. Thank goodness for the beach ice cream wagon.
Pools: The resort has a very large pool as well as a lazy river and water slide. The pool area was not crowded during our weekend stay.
On Saturday night, the hotel has a dive-in movie. At times, we were the only two there.
Other Amenities: Holiday Inn Club Vacations Cape Canaveral also has a mini-golf course, a movie theatre, an arcade and a kids’ club. The kids’ club was closed due to a remodel. It’s possible to spend a vacation entirely within the resort.
What I Didn’t Love
Studio Rooms/No Upgrades: Our free night certificate was good for a studio room, although the resort offers one- and two-bedroom villas. For families, a room with one queen bed and one sofa bed its not ideal. (In comparison, a free night certificate at Holiday Inn Vacations at Orange Lake Resort gets you a two-bedroom condo–see Leana’s review).
Our room was also a little dark, with just one window that looked upon an outside hallway wall.
No Pool Towels: This may seem like nitpicking, but it’s something I noticed compared to other resorts. The resort doesn’t offer pool towels at the pool. You have to use towels from your room. If you wanted to exchange your wet towels for new towels, you have to call the front desk from your room. To me, the policy made the hotel seem cheap.
Service: This is a tough one. I know that places are struggling to find employees, so good service has been more challenging all over the place. But, I had a few concerns at this resort.
When we first entered the hotel, there was a large stand-up sign that instructed me to get in a virtual queue for check-in. Ok, I did that. I was maybe 30 feet from the check-in desk, and there were three employees there talking with each other. They never acknowledged us or seemed to look at the virtual queue. After a few minutes of standing there, I simply walked up to the desk for check-in.
The check-in process took at least 20 minutes, way longer than necessary. Since I am a Platinum IHG member, I asked if there were any upgrades available. I also asked to keep the same room for both nights since we technically had two reservations, one for each night. The employee acted like she had never heard of this before, so she went to talk to the manager in the back a few times. She was gone a long time. Finally, she came back and said no upgrades were available and that we were lucky to keep the same room both nights.
And then, on our second day when I called to report a potential break-in, the front desk didn’t show the level of concern I would have expected in this situation. I’m still not sure why our room door was open, but looking back I wonder if this happened to any other rooms during our stay.
Overall Thoughts
It’s hard to wrap my head around my feelings for this resort. There are no other resorts that close to the cruise terminal where you can see the cruise ships sail out to see like that. The beach was divine.
On the other hand, I have concerns about the service and the security at the resort. My family has stayed in a few Hyatt resorts (like Hyatt Regency Coconut Point and Hyatt Regency Lost Pines) that feel more upscale with better service.
As I wrestled with the decision on whether or not to stay at this resort again before our next cruise, the decision was made for me. The resort has no room availability for our dates. If I were ever to return to this resort with my entire family, I would pay cash to get a 2-bedroom villa or see if a cash upgrade is available with a points/certificate reservation.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW VARIOUS CREDIT CARDS AND AVAILABLE SIGN-UP BONUSES
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
I stayed at the IHG club vacations cape Canaveral resort in late January 2021. They put us in a one bedroom condo type room with a sofa bed. It was very nicely decorated with plenty of room. I loved the grey wood look on the floor tile. The floor was dirty, but you could not see the dirt due to the design on the tile. I wiped up a water spill in the hall outside of the bathroom with a white towel and it looked black! We complained about it and a guy told us he cleaned it. But apparently only in 1 spot as my white socks turned dark quickly from walking around the condo each night. The lazy river was nice, our only complaint was they did not have strong enough jets to move the tubes and we would get stuck sometimes and had to push ourselves back into the weak current. We jokingly called it the geriatric lazy river. Other than the weak current it was enjoyable. The hot tub was broken the 3 nights we were there, and the first night the main lobby fountain broke and flooded the entire lobby area with water an inch deep. They seemed to be running on very minimal staff. Service was not great, but I think they were probably doing the best they could with so few workers. There were not many guests there and that might have been why the staffing was low. We enjoyed the small movie theater and the view from the balcony of the pool area. Out room was near the main office area. We were able to get a golf cart ride to the far building near the beach area. We did not get to see any cruise ships due to Covid. IHG advertised it as their best resort. It was nice, it had great potential, but it definitely needed some cleaning, maintenance, and a few more staff. I would stay here again, my small complaints were not enough to make me stay away.
@Clyn6 Thanks for your feedback! It does sound like staffing has been an issue here. Glad you were able to get a 1-bedroom with balcony.