• Welcome to the FREE TUGBBS forums! The absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 31 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    All subscribers auto-entered to win all free TUG membership giveaways!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $24,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $24 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Grande Ocean owners update north side refurbishment

jd2601

jd2601

Tug Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
457
Reaction score
132
Location
Minneapolis
We are at Grande Ocean this week. I attended the owners update with Bob Spears. He went into some detail about the 10 year refurbishment that is scheduled for the North side. He does a very good job with owners and seems like a good guy.

He said originally the villas had a "beachy feel". The first 10 year major refurbishment they went for Charleston elegance. This time they will try and go back to a more beach feel.

They will try and go with more natural light. Heavy curtains and valances will go away. Not sure if tile will be changed. Cabinets will remain the same but refinished. Light over dinning room will be include a ceiling fan. Dining table base will be refinished and glass polished. Living room will get a four person couch. A large ottoman will be in front of couch and rollable ottomans in front of chair. The tops will have one side solid and able to flip the top for a tray.

Bathrooms will get new fixtures maybe quartz and glass tops. Jacuzzi in master will remain. They may try and separate from bedroom with shutters or shelving unit.

New headboard looked nice. Guest room closet will be reworked and open with storage units.

Some of the units last year replaced heating and air. Hopefully with energy savings they might be able to heat Pool Bar Jim's pool sometime in the future.

Hope I got most of this correct. This has not been approved by HOA so could change.

This week weather has been ok but not great. Could be worse snow at home. Any week at Grande Ocean is a great week.
 
We just left Grande Ocean Tuesday, and your comments are especially interesting because I kept saying how much I missed the lighter, more open feel I remembered. We were in Laughing Gull, and had a great balcony with anice view over the courtyard trees of the ocean, but inside, the heavy dark furniture and drapes just felt wrong for the beach. They had told us it was a refurbished unit when we checked in, and it did have granite counter tops and the furnishings looked newish, just dark and heavy.

However, we had not been to Grande Ocean since 2003, and this trip reminded us why we had enjoyed that week so much. What a great place! We loved Pool Bar Jim's and the new sandy firepit area, the pools, the trees, the beach. I can understand why owners would come back year after year! We had been at Barony for a week, visited Surf Watch one afternoon for the first time, and drove over to Shelter Cove to see Sunset Pointe and Harbour Point. Only had a drive by of Monarch, but really appreciate the different personalities of the properties we had time to wander. Wish we had so many choices in California!

So even though we had a great time at Grande Ocean, we hope they do lean toward a lighter, "beachy" approach to the interiors.
 
We also own at Barony. All the Marriotts are nice and each one has its pluses. We visited Barony this week. They added a fire pit in the courtyard side. They also moved the grills on the courtyard side. There are tables where the grills were and they made it somewhat like the grill area in the garden section.

There are some new hammocks and a very small splash pad between the ocean front and ocean side units. The workout room also got new equipment. All these improvements at Barony as well as the major changes last year (new garden pool, new outdoor kitchen at the garden units, and the new All You All grill but the ocean pool make Barony also a great resort.
 
I love the Charleston look at Grande Ocean. I think it is awesome and reflects the local South Carolina culture. I wish that they were keeping it for the next ten years. However, I understand that many people would prefer more of a beach feel. So, I just have to enjoy the current decor while it lasts. :)

Steve
 
We just left this morning after staying 16 nights. Outstanding resort and the staff is the best at providing services to their guests.

The only negative point for our stay was the weather it was the pit; very cool and it rain every other day.
 
I agree about the weather. I have not seen the sand blowing on the beach like this last week. We had a great room with view of the ocean in two directions. I rented chairs on the beach for the week and only ended up using it only 2 days. We only got on a bike ride once. Hope for better weather this fall.
 
Did you have a change to view the new Serenity Pool (Quiet Pool for adults only) located near the Maple building ? This pool was completed October 2012 and this will be the first summer that this pool will be open.
 
pedro47 said:
Did you have a change to view the new Serenity Pool (Quiet Pool for adults only) located near the Maple building ? This pool was completed October 2012 and this will be the first summer that this pool will be open.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the OceanWatch Villas at Grande Dunes resort in Myrtle Beach? I found an older TUG thread that talked about a new serenity pool near the Maple Building there, but haven't found anything about a new pool at Grande Ocean.
 
SueDonJ said:
Are you talking about the OceanWatch Villas at Grande Dunes resort in Myrtle Beach? I found an older TUG thread that talked about a new serenity pool near the Maple Building there, but haven't found anything about a new pool at Grande Ocean.
Click to expand...

Yes !! the new pool at Ocean Watch looks very nice.
 
Steve said:
I love the Charleston look at Grande Ocean. I think it is awesome and reflects the local South Carolina culture. I wish that they were keeping it for the next ten years. However, I understand that many people would prefer more of a beach feel. So, I just have to enjoy the current decor while it lasts. :)

Steve
Click to expand...

I've enjoyed the Charleston decor too----was very beautiful and homey.

I'm pretty sure the resulting decor will look a lot like Surfwatch's, though, which is much more contemporary. The way the "questionnaire" was worded when sent out to owners at GO in anticipation of the new interiors sort of gave an indication as to what was already favored----at least that's the impression I got. But it's OK, as it'll be something different.

To me, it almost read like "Would you prefer a sectional-type sofa with smaller ottomans, or nothing at all?" or .... "Would you prefer lighter drapes, or just hang old bed sheets?" LOL

We've rented there at SW a couple of times recently for long weekends in the off-season, and it's great. The sectional sofas are very nice, and they also have the two small ottomans with invertible trays/pillow-tops. The drapes will also be only vertical and hang from a visible horizontal rod (my prediction) like SW, and probably horiz stripes too.

Colors may differ, but I think you'll see the SW version in general. I'm surprised the jacuzzis at GO will survive, but many people like them, and it might be too costly to remove them anyway. What the heck, ladies need a tub sometimes, if only to shave their legs. That's all my wife and daughter use it for.

Personally, I like the change every few years. That's one thing about Marriotts, they stick to the refurbishment schedules very well, and they do a great job when the changes do occur. I love the ongoing changes outside too-----always improving, whether it's the addition or deletion of landscaping, pruning, adding new features (new pools, retro-heating the pools, etc.), making improvements to grill areas or creating entirely new grills/bars -----I mean the service kind, like at GO and big one at Barony, new big pool and kids' play area at Barony Garden phase, including slide, new outdoor grill area and tables, with outdoor HDTV at Barony Garden villas. Very nice, all.

And all without assessments......yes, reserve funds, but at least we know about it, and it's done in a proper manner. Almost all changes have resulted from owner requests, or at least intensive attempts to get comprehensive owner input.

to be honest, our summer weeks at GO for THAT maintenance fee of just over $1100???? That's a steal, imho.






.
 
Last edited:
To my fellow Tuggers, I was referring to the new Adult Serenity Pool at Ocean Watch in Myrtle Beach, SC.

I posted my answers to the wrong thread.

Please forgive me.
 
Last edited:
Quote

Colors may differ, but I think you'll see the SW version in general. I'm surprised the jacuzzis at GO will survive, but many people like them, and it might be too costly to remove them anyway. What the heck, ladies need a tub sometimes, if only to shave their legs. That's all my wife and daughter use it .


I asked about the jacuzzi tub. I was told since the second bathroom did not have a tub it would stay to bathe children. It would be very costly to redo 2nd bathroom to incorporate a tub. I was told they may get changed out during the following 5 year refurbishment.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top