A Trip to Find Answers
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 01/20/09
After reading so many negative reviews, both on this site and others, I decided to take a day, drive down with two of my grandchildren, and see for myself if this is where we wanted to vacation this summer. With it being a 3 hour drive (and a long week-end for the children), I could do this. This is what I found:
CLEANLINESS: I had read many reports of the place being dirty. We stayed in a family suite at the Palms, and I checked out Uncle Leroy's Cottage (a 2-story unit with 4 bedrooms) as well as a 4 bedroom unit at the Sandcastle. All were spotless - I couldn't see where complaints came from there.
CONDITION: Many reviews talked about it being old and rundown. I think this depends on what you're looking for. If you're wanting a plush hotel with every luxury in the book, then no, you're not going to find it. If, however, you're like many of us who are used to going to the beach and staying at "affordable" places, this place isn't bad. I certainly wouldn't call it run down, but it's not as modern and plush as some. Sandcastle was wonderful!
THINGS TO OFFER: Even though we came down in January and naturally the waterparks were not open, my grandkids thought they looked like terrific fun. There's a water park suitable for older kids as well as one for younger children, so that part would work well for us.
DISADVANTAGES: Sea MIst covers 14 acres and 3 blocks. The cottage that would accomodate my family was 2 1/2 blocks from ocean front and from the kiddie waterpark, and with 2 small ones, that would mean an awful lot of packing, walking, etc. - especially with the 2 older ones who would want to be going in a different direction to their age-appropriate park.
The four bedroom unit at Sandcastle would be WONDERFUL - it was huge, ocean front and very centrally located. However, its price was beyond our means. Also, you see much advertised about the Family Kingdom Water Park and Amusement Park, but to get the family package that includes those benefits, you pay a pretty good sum for that, as well. Still, you don't have to get that package, and to just use the water facilities provided at Sea Mist, it's $3/person per day.
PERSONNEL: Everyone I encountered spoke English (this was a big complaint I read about), and everyone was willing to help. I specifically asked to view rooms in different areas, and they willingly gave me a key and trusted me to go in, view these as long as I liked, then return the key.
CONCLUSION: We ended up not reserving it for our summer vacation, as much as we would have liked to. Why? I didn't want to be 2 1/2 blocks from ocean front, and we especially wanted one unit for all of us since this is to be a "family" vacation. The unit in Sand Castle is what I really wanted, but simply couldn't afford. (In the neighborhood of $5000 for a week - they couldn't tell me exactly, but it was probably more since it was ocean front.) I do feel the negative reviews are unfair - I'm glad I had the chance to check it out, and I hope others will benefit from this review.