Nice Hotel by the Tampa Port?

We're cruising out of Tampa next May and are looking for a 3 or 4 star Hotel in the Tampa Bay area. We're coming in 2 days early and want to explore and enjoy Tampa as much as we can before we ship out on a Sunday. We're an older couple who enjoys the beach, a good restaurant like Famous Dave's or something like that, a bar for a couple of cold drinks etc..We're not into the Disney thing or Aquariums. We'd like to find a nice hotel on the beach if possible. We used Priceline last time and got a $300 + room at the Westin for $65 and would love to do something like that again. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to stay and what to do?