I'll wait for the Lurkers to come back after the holiday weekend with some authoritative news. Same for not disturbing the hotel right now. I'll wait for the dust to settle a bit and then see what's what, it's just that it's so strange this happened 2 days after I made the reservation. Could turn out to be great, we'll see.
We like the Dip and I'm really not the Bal Harbour type. This will be just a 2-nt stay after a cruise from Port Everglades, plus flights in/out of FLL so I don't want to be trekking down to Miami, but I don't think there's anyway Starwood would do that - I'm sure the Sheraton Ft. Lauderdale or the W (or the Westin Ft. Laud) would be the default.
I just really love the Diplomat's pool because of the shady underside - no other hotel that I know of has that type of set-up.