After our normal hotel changed management and was overrun by pests, we gave Coral Beach a shot, and I’m so glad we did. The room and facilities were clean, and ALL the staff were friendly. BE SURE TO BOOK DIRECTLY THROUGH THE CORAL BEACH WEBSITE AND NOT THROUGH A THIRD-PARTY BOOKING SERVICE. Not only do you get a better deal, but you get the option for the add-on packages which are well worth the small extra cost. We met several people who didn’t get the benefit of the free daily bowling or free breakfast. The breakfast at Sea Level Restaurant is excellent. The food is fresh, and the portions are generous. Angie served us for several days in a row and she was amazing. They were a bit short staffed at times, and she was running her butt off to take care of everyone, yet she maintained her friendly nature. On our last day, we had someone new, and she was equally awesome.
For the price and amenities, I can see why this was voted best family resort by Travel Channel. This will be our new home-away-from-home.
A few other things of note:
The good:
- The kitchen had a full-sized trash can. We only ate out once, so this was a big plus for us.
- Convenient ice and vending
- Accessible parking on site with no fighting for spaces (granted, we visited in the off-season)
- You can change the line-in on the TV, so you can bring your own stick or game system. We’ve been locked out on other TV’s before, so this was great.
- There were TWO closets in the room
- No fighting over pool towels. There were plenty.
- This seems silly, but the fridge opened towards the kitchen. With such a narrow space, this was always a pain at the other hotel because the fridge opened the wrong way.
The not-so-good:
- The water pressure sucked
- The toilet is extremely low. One member of our party has mobility issues and standing from the toilet was difficult.
- The murphy bed had a dangerous spring sticking up at the end
- The walls are pretty thin and it’s NOISY during the morning time when everyone is getting ready and going out
- I think this is an issue everywhere, but people smoke cigarettes and weed on their balconies. There’s no way of knowing exactly where it’s coming from, so I imagine that’s pretty hard to enforce.
- If you’re charging to the room card, they’ll add a 20% gratuity to all services, including bowling.
- Not enough chairs around the indoor pool
- There is no ADA chair for either pool. This would have been helpful for us.
