Marriott's Crystal Shores

This is our second time at Crystal Shores and we will be back again. The villas are beautiful and have everything you need for a wonderful week’s vacation. The balcony is the best with a table for two and two cushioned lounge chairs. The property is extremely clean and there are 3 pools, a grotto with water slide in a shaded area, an upper pool for quiet, and lower pool for families, music and activities. As long as we were out by 10 o’clock, we did not have a problem getting 2 chairs with umbrella. We walked on the beach in the morning but didn’t spend time during the day. Cabanas by the pool can be hard to get. We heard that certain status people can book months ahead so this is disappointing. Stilts and Pizza Cucina are the only restaurants on site but there are options right across the street. Also, great souvenir shopping across the street. The kids loved the ice cream and activities. Adults loved the Tom Brady fund raiser water bottles with boozy lemonade and free refills. 😀

Home away from home The hotel was beautiful and well maintained. Staff was friendly. The rooms are large and well equiped with everything you need for a comfortable stay. The resort is more a home away from home then a hotel.

First, the parking garage smelled of a strong odor of trash. The lobby/checkin was locked at 9:30pm when we arrived. Although we knocked and staff saw us, they ignored us. We walked to a different door to get in and again knocked, and again ignored. Finally, another guest let us in. The two associates were rude and didn’t even say hello or welcome. Checked us in to what we were promised, a full “ocean” view in a fully wheelchair accessible unit. We get to our room, and that was not what we received. We were put in a room with a very limited side view on the gulf on a loud service road side of the building. The room we were put in is not fully wheelchair accessible. You can not even get out onto the patio. The microwave and counter tops are too high to reach, and there was no bench in the roll in shower. When we called, we were informed a manager would call us. That never happened. The next day we woke up to the worst smell of garbage in our room. Our room was right in front of the trash shoot and it was enough to cause breathing problems. I called, spoke to a new front desk person who was very nice, was told a manager and room controller would call us back. Never happened. I called 90 mins later and the room controller answered, telling me other than a non-ada ramp for the patio, and an unauthorized shower chair for the bathroom, I was out of luck. Again, asked for a manager. Again, no response. These reasons led us to leave. In the end when we checked out, the manager said although she was aware of the situation, she had no clue I wanted to talk to her and didn’t feel that the situation warranted a call back. She did try ti appease us with another room, but again, was not a true ada wheelchair accessible room. It was a very disheartening experience. Their staff should be trained fully in what their ada units provide and what they don’t before someone books. They need to do something about the sickening trash odor threat filled their garage and the trash shoot next to room 511 that overwhelmed the room. Management should be on top of these issues and not wait for a guest to make multiple unanswered calls to address. In the end, we left a 7 day stay after 12 hours.