Do NOT be tempted to stay here!!!!
By Joy, 06/25/08
My best analogy of this "Resort" is this: You see what looks to be a beautiful woman - you get closer and get a good look and realize that she has the trappings of good looks but is very unattractive close up.
This is Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach to a "T". The lobby has been extenstively renovated and the pool area has also been renovated. Both are pluses - also right on the beach - another plus. THEN you get into your room (we stayed in the King Suite - ocean front for $300 per night) and you realize that all is not well at this "resort". The walls are paper thin - you can hear EVERYTHING (which was really a bummer when the people next door had a party until 1:30 am and our calls to the manager were met with voice mail).
There was water dripping from the vent - it was freezing in our room - we called maintenance and a guy showed up, explained he had to climb into the vent to activate the "heat" and opened up the ceiling to reveal a rusted out system. He explained that the system is very old and so he had to manually turn on the heat and he was not even sure it would work (luckily it did)! I kid you not! The bathrooms are redone in marbel - nice - but you have to overlook the cheap furniture and carpeting and the lime green chipped interior paint. Bottom line: the rooms are old, ugly, and cheap.
Let me next address the quality of people who stay at this resort. This can be a cheap place to be by the beach (if you get the garden view rooms). So you get cheap kinda people here. Let's see - in the jacuzzi with my 5 year old son there was a very drunk man who could barely stand, a tatooed man talking about his eight years in prison for a bar fight, and gaggle of unsupervised children fighting with the water. Oh yes, there was also a family reunion of very quality folk who were rolling around the "resort" drunk and rude.
PLEASE - do yourself a favor - DO NOT STAY HERE...the place is seedy, run down, and very badly managed. I could not even find a manager to complain to - I had to speek with a clerk. Where was the manager? No one knew.
I have no idea why this place has other good review. I read them before I stayed here and felt reassured - what a huge mistake.
I don't know you but I want to save you from this place. DO NOT STAY HERE!!!!!
