Best Things Nearby:The private beach is just across the street, and the channel is located on the back side of the condo. There is fishing off the dock, as well as boat and ski-doo rides and rentals within a couple of miles. For the Florida visitor missing the theme park rides, no worries, as Busch Gardens is located just in Tampa. Water parks, a top-10 family-rated zoo, a hands-on science museum, and a renowned children's museum are also within a reasonable drive.Best Things About the Resort:This resort has a very nice fishing dock on the channel side for residents of the condo. This is also where the barbeques are located. Across the street, toward the front, is the priv
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The private beach is just across the street, and the channel is located on the back side of the condo. There is fishing off the dock, as well as boat and ski-doo rides and rentals within a couple of miles. For the Florida visitor missing the theme park rides, no worries, as Busch Gardens is located just in Tampa. Water parks, a top-10 family-rated zoo, a hands-on science museum, and a renowned children's museum are also within a reasonable drive.
Best Things About the Resort:
This resort has a very nice fishing dock on the channel side for residents of the condo. This is also where the barbeques are located. Across the street, toward the front, is the private white-sugar sand beach with lounge chairs and umbrellas available.
Resort Experience:
This was our first visit to Florida without a visit to "the Mouse." We must have been there during an off-week, as we have never had such marginal service at an RCI property before. The first thing we noticed was that the only bathroom in our one-bedroom condo was accessed THROUGH the master bedroom. That should truly make this a non-private, four-person room, as anyone needing the facilities had to traipse through the master to get there.
The following morning, the entire condo was without hot water, as the water heater had gone out. Since we were up before the office opened, we had no way of knowing what was happening until after 9am. Who knows how many of us took cold showers that morning?
If these had been the only issues, we'd have overlooked them as kismet, but alas, we continued our week with additional unnecessary problems. After the cold shower, we headed to a very nice little grocery store down the street. Upon our return, a hinge fell out of the cupboard door and came crashing down. We wondered why this hadn't been caught by housekeeping during the clean-up from the previous week's tenants. Once again, we found ourselves calling the front desk for a maintenance issue. After explaining that the cupboard door was half hanging off the wall, I was informed that maintenance had "gone off island" for the remainder of the day and that she could call if I thought it was enough of an "emergency." I told her that we would likely be very upset if the door came down in the middle of the night but to do what she thought she should do. Maintenance arrived shortly thereafter.
We were traveling with my 4-year-old son, so we perused the activities schedule to plan out our week. Since it was Easter week, we rearranged our outing schedule to allow for the Easter-egg hunt on Wednesday. My son was very excited and looking forward to the hunt. When Wednesday arrived, we showed up for the hunt, whereupon we were told that it was yesterday. Yesterday? They managed to call every unit to inform them of the sales opportunities, yet they couldn't inform those who had registered for the Easter egg hunt that they'd printed it on the wrong day?? Augh!
The condo wasn't all bad, though. Housekeeping was more than helpful when we needed clean sheets, more towels, and additional dish soap. They always arrived within minutes of a call and were very cheerful. The pool and spa were also well-maintained and had excellent showers and footbaths to keep sand out of the facilities.
It was a great vacation; we just wished our accommodations had kept up with our expectations from prior experiences at other resorts. We'll most likely go back there since we have family in the area, but only for that reason. At least it wasn't hurricane season!
- Unit Type: 1 Bedroom
- Activities: Fair
- Amenities: Good
- Unit Satisfaction: Fair
- Family Friendliness: Good
- Service: Poor
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