We are cruising out of Tampa on May 25th on the Legend for DH 60th B-Day. Our daughter lives only 30 minutes from the Port but we wanted a special night before the cruise and to be close to the port. Checked out all our choices and knew I wanted down by the Port. My desires were the Grand Hyatt or the Marriot. The total price with taxes was running between $155.00 and $175.00. My first choice was the Grand Hyatt.

Wanting the best price I could get I decided to take my chances and name my price with Priceline. Yesterday I did it for $60.00 and was rejected. You can only bid every 24 hrs unless you are willing to change your location or star rating and I was not. Well, I just did it again for a 4 star hotel for $75.00 and it was accepted and I got the Grand Hyatt for $75.00..........yippee! Total cost $97.19 including travel insurance. I realize this may put us on the 2nd floor and with a city view instead of a Bay view but I will see what happens when we get there. Maybe they will upgrade us. I paid this much for a room at Quality Inn last month and no perks.

Congrats on your great deal. Priceline is excellent and you can always be guaranteed that when you bid for a certain quality of hotel, you will get it. Here is the method I use. Log on to hotwire.com, which does not allow you to bid, but does show you highly discounted hotel rates you can choose without knowing the hotel. Assuming that hotwire and priceline use the same hotels generally, I use hotwire as a gauge for what an acceptable price would be, then I typically bid 15-20 lower than the hotwire price. It has worked over and over. I have gotten some amazing hotel deals for really cheap.

By the way, priceline name your own price is fantastic for rental cars too, if you are traveling by air to another city.

Have fun on your cruise!

Happy Birthday to your hubby and congrats on your great deal! Don't you just love saving money I hope the Grand Hyatt is absolutely grand!

Waterart I just checked out Hotwire. I will do that next time. They show the 4 star hotel at $86.00 so I did beat that. The hotel sounds wonderful so I am excited. This is going to be a special vacation.

Congrats SanDee! Sounds like an awesome deal.

Dwayne