We were there in December at a meeting at the Holiday Inn - a real dump! Unfortunately, ALL the Cocoa Beach hotels tend to book out for launches, so we were stuck there the night of the launch. Then moved to the Doubletree, which wasn't too awful. I had to hassle afterwards to get Hilton credit for the stay, however.

The pad's much too far away to see from the hotels in Cocoa Beach. And since the hotel rooms orient towards the ocean, east, and the Cape is roughly north, I can't think of where you could watch from a hotel room. Maybe one on the causeway side, where you could be looking northeast? I wouldn't trust it, though, without checking in person.

About half of our group went to the Cape for the launch (and loved it). The rest of us just went down to the beach to watch. It was a little more distant than I'd hoped for, but still pretty neat. The night launch was quite the fireworks display.

Alternatively, lots of people park on the causeway for a closer view - but you have to spend hours there to get a space, because people show up early.

Good luck - let us know how it goes!