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Here at Ocean watch in beautiful Myrtle Beach

KathyPet

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home of every chain restaurant in existence, more put put courses then any other town in the nation along with cheap T Shirt places and all you can eat $6.99 seafood buffets.
If you have any questions I will try to answer them but will not be able to give you price and incentive information as I will not be attending the sales presentation.
 

tmbacon

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AHH, Myrtle Beach - yes, it certainly is the Capital of Cheese, isn't it? ;)

This may be a strange question but I can't recall if they pipe in music by the pool area, or have any type of live music at all? We stayed next door at the Marriott Grande Dunes this summer and they had music piped in over there (and a lot of it was Jimmy Buffett which made us very happy :) )
 

kbreth

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Staying there next year

Hi. We will be staying there next June (so far for 1 week) with our 2 kids, they will be 7 and almost 3. I've never stayed there. What activities do they have for kids? and how is the pool areas . We have been to Myrtle Beach about 2 years ago just before they closed the amusement rides (forgot the name?) Just seeing what they have. Thanks
 

erm

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I will be there in 2 weeks. Is the resort very crowded this week? I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a villa in one of the front buildings. Which building are you in? I stayed at this resort in the Scallop building for one night in January and it was gorgeous even at that time of year. Enjoy your week!
 

KathyPet

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There is no piped in music in the pool area that I could hear. last night they had a live entertainer singing at the pool for about 3 hours. Mostly Jimmy Buffet type songs. We are on the 8th floor of the Conch building as far back towards the parking area as you can get. i would suggest that you go for a unit no higher than the 7th floor in Conch or Scallop only because their is no overhang on the outdoor patios on the top floor and thus sitting out there during the day is quite uncomfortable until the sun moves behind the building in the late afternoon.
The resort does not appear to be crowded although even at this time of the year by mid afternoon almost all of the pool chairs were occupied. As you would expect at this time of the year the people staying here are almost all "empty nesters" over a certain age with a few young couples either without children or with pre-schoolers mixed in.
The pools are a big disappointment to me. They are only 3.5 feet deep. Hardly enough for a adult to enjoy themselves in. If Marriott keeps reducing their pool depth pretty soon the only pools will be wading pools. Very disappointing.
Their are three wooden swings under trellises however unlike Grand OCean and Barony Beach the swings are way back behind the pool area thus when you sit their to relax you get a wonderful view of the snack bar.
There are lots of kids activities even at this time of the year and I am sure that during the summer there are probably lots more. Among the things I see on this week's activity guide are: Cartoons and Crafts, Story Time and crafts, Finger Painting, Kid's Art, DOra the Explorer Story time, family Sand Castle Building, Play Dough Fun, Blues Clues Story time, Kids Bingo, Kids Night In (Supervised) (Make your own pizza, watch a movie, have popcorn and play games ages 5-12) Camp Fire Bingo , Teddy Bear Time (make your own Teddy Bear) and Ghost Stories by the Campfire.
 

gores95

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Kathy I notice you own at MGO and MBY and are at Myrtle this week. How do you compare Ocean Watch to the HHI resorts? We have never been to either Myrtle or HHI and are planning to be in HHI in April 2009 (we chose HHI over Myrtle). We have a pending request in for either MGO, MBY or MSF so how would you compare those three as well.

Thanks.
 

bwenzel

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Kathy I notice you own at MGO and MBY and are at Myrtle this week. How do you compare Ocean Watch to the HHI resorts? We have never been to either Myrtle or HHI and are planning to be in HHI in April 2009 (we chose HHI over Myrtle). We have a pending request in for either MGO, MBY or MSF so how would you compare those three as well.

Thanks.

We own at Ocean Watch, Barony, and Ocean Pointe, and went to Ocean Watch for the first time this summer. We purchased a Gardenview unit at MOW mainly as a trader because we had always heard that Myrtle was kinda run down. Now that we have been there, the resort is so nice we never even left until the evenings, and then, we went where we wanted to go.

IMO, resort wise, Ocean Watch is much nicer than Barony and nicer than Ocean Pointe. Keep in mind, it is the newest of the three and our unit was less than one month old when we occupied. The pool areas are magnificent and we love the decor of the rooms, though the living area is definitely tighter than at Barony or Ocean Pointe.

Do we still love Barony and Ocean Pointe? Absolutely, and for different reasons, but for the quality of the resort only, we like Ocean Watch the best and are returning next year. Now we which we had purchased Ocean Front:( .

Bill
 

KathyPet

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Different Strokes for different folks

That is what makes life so interesting. This is my first visit to Ocean Watch. I traded Barony Beach for it. I must admit that I will not be returning. First of all the units themselves are very tight in the kitchen/Living/Dining area. Much smaller than GO or BB. The master bedroom is also smaller than either of GO or BB. The second bedroom is nicer and brighter than the second bedroom at GO and about the same as BB.
The property itself is not my cup of tea. Ocean Watch has a large number of units squeezed onto a relatively small amount of ocean front. There is not nearly the feeling of spaciousness on the property that there is at GO or BB. The area around the pool feels very crowded and squashed together to me. The lounge chairs are practically on top of each other and there are so many of them that there is very little walking space around the pool deck. As far as the landscaping goes it is not even a close contest. The Hilton head properties win hands down with much nicer and more extensive landscaping. As I mentioned before the shallow pools are a real downer for me. We are in gold season now and the resort does appear to be very full with empty nesters and a few young couples with preschoolers. During the summer when there are many more children around at the pool I cannot imagine how crowded it would be.. As far as the amenities are concerned there is not even a bicycle renting facility here unlike the HH properties. I enjoy riding a bike around HH and I also enjoy sitting in the swings and looking out over the dunes and the ocean at HH. At Ocean Watch the swings are all the way back behind the pool area and not up front near the beach.
The beaches themselves are equal as far as width and quality of sand so that's a draw.
Hilton Head island is much lovelier than Myrtle Beach which is one long strip of fast food restaurants and cheap T shirt places.
 

beachdiva

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Thanks for your mini-trip report. I almost bought at MOW, but in the end I didn't think it would have been the right property for me. You've confirmed my decision. Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip.
 

Steve A

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"Capital of Cheese":p

Not hardly!

We are the capital of cheese

From singers Lou and Peter Berryman

Lunch and cheese and dinner and cheese
Fall and cheese and winter and cheese
Chips and cheese and jerky and cheese
Nuts and cheese and turkey and cheese
Cheese with pies and peppers and peas
Snow and beer and cheese

Cheese and snow and hockey and snow
Cows and snow Milwaukee and snow
Boots and snow and dripping and snow
Ice and snow and slipping and snow
Wind and snow, a car that won't go
Beer and cheese and snow
 

javabean

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Thanks to all for this informative open and frank discussion. We also are going to HH in April 09 for the first time. We are confirmed into a garden villa at BB. Can't wait. We had requested Myrtle Beach or HH and the Barony unit was avaliable at the time.
 

bwenzel

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That is what makes life so interesting. This is my first visit to Ocean Watch. I traded Barony Beach for it. I must admit that I will not be returning. First of all the units themselves are very tight in the kitchen/Living/Dining area. Much smaller than GO or BB. The master bedroom is also smaller than either of GO or BB. The second bedroom is nicer and brighter than the second bedroom at GO and about the same as BB.
The property itself is not my cup of tea. Ocean Watch has a large number of units squeezed onto a relatively small amount of ocean front. There is not nearly the feeling of spaciousness on the property that there is at GO or BB. The area around the pool feels very crowded and squashed together to me. The lounge chairs are practically on top of each other and there are so many of them that there is very little walking space around the pool deck. As far as the landscaping goes it is not even a close contest. The Hilton head properties win hands down with much nicer and more extensive landscaping. As I mentioned before the shallow pools are a real downer for me. We are in gold season now and the resort does appear to be very full with empty nesters and a few young couples with preschoolers. During the summer when there are many more children around at the pool I cannot imagine how crowded it would be.. As far as the amenities are concerned there is not even a bicycle renting facility here unlike the HH properties. I enjoy riding a bike around HH and I also enjoy sitting in the swings and looking out over the dunes and the ocean at HH. At Ocean Watch the swings are all the way back behind the pool area and not up front near the beach.
The beaches themselves are equal as far as width and quality of sand so that's a draw.
Hilton Head island is much lovelier than Myrtle Beach which is one long strip of fast food restaurants and cheap T shirt places.

You raise some good points. Some of which I personally agree with and some I do not. The living/dining room area is definitely smaller and indeed tight, but we can live with it. We were fine with the bedrooms and absolutely loved the decor of the unit.

As far as the spaciousness feel, while I personally did not feel that way, I understand your point. The property is narrow and deep, yielding a smaller ocean front footprint, but if you like Barony footprint, you would love the spaciousness at Ocean Pointe; we do indeed.

The pools, while not having as spacious pool decks as at Barony, I thought were great, especially the new Woodsy pool with the trees providing great shade. I know, at least in parts, the pools were five feet deep, because I am only 5'5" tall and I was walking on tipsy toes. They are not, however, pools meant for doing laps. We also thought the main pools were great and the kids, 11 & 14, really loved the waterfall of the lower pool. Also thought the new indoor pool was really nice, though not near as nice as at Surf Watch, which is by far the nicest indoor pool area I have seen.

As far as the area is concerned, we absolutely love HHI, but for different reasons. I love, love, love the biking, both the trails and the fact that you can ride on the beach, my absoulte favorite thing to do in the evenings. For this reason only I rate the beach at HHI my favorite of the three with Myrtle Beach at second. The beach at Ocean Pointe has suffered erosion, at least the last time we were there, in 06, and had a significant slope to it. But, the water clarity at Ocean Pointe is simply beautiful and the view from our room, magnificent, the best of the three for sure.

As much as we love HHI, the area, when we were there for the 4th of July in 07, we were, frankly, bored. Other than fireworks, there was nothing special going on either on the island or at the resort. In fact the pool bar closed at 6:00pm! Ocean Pointe at least had extended pool bar hours for the 4th and that was nice. Myrtle Beach has a lot to do, that you can choose to do, or not, and we at least like the choice. We also think the restaurants on HHI are totally overpriced. We went to Charlie Crab's last time and our bill was nearly $400 for a party of six, with a few drinks and no bottles of wine. This was simply ridiculous.

So in conclusion, I love Tug because we can share our thoughts and opinions with one another, and learn from one another, and I am just honored to have the opportunity to discuss two resort that I own with another Tugger, regardless of personal preferences. It is truly a great experience.

Bill
 

KathyPet

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I must agree that if you want lots and lots of activity and things to do then Ocean Watch is your place. If you have kids between say 6-17 then they would love it here. Myrtle Beach has every kind of activity you could ask for including live performances in three of four large theaters. There is a Nascar speed race place where you can drive race cars, a alligator farm, many water parks with lots of slides and we do not have to even talk about the multitude of putt-putt courses and shopping venues. I don't think you could get bored here. .There is lots to do. I have not ventured over to the Woodland Pool yet but I am going to check it our tomorrow. One more negative though is the parking. We came in two nights in a row around 9 PM and both nights got the last available parking spot in the entire 3 story parking garage. I would say the resort appears to be about 90% occupied. if it gets to 100% I have no idea where people would go to park when there were no more spaces.
 

714

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We own at Ocean Watch, Barony, and Ocean Pointe, and went to Ocean Watch for the first time this summer. We purchased a Gardenview unit at MOW mainly as a trader because we had always heard that Myrtle was kinda run down. Now that we have been there, the resort is so nice we never even left until the evenings, and then, we went where we wanted to go.

IMO, resort wise, Ocean Watch is much nicer than Barony and nicer than Ocean Pointe. Keep in mind, it is the newest of the three and our unit was less than one month old when we occupied. The pool areas are magnificent and we love the decor of the rooms, though the living area is definitely tighter than at Barony or Ocean Pointe.

Do we still love Barony and Ocean Pointe? Absolutely, and for different reasons, but for the quality of the resort only, we like Ocean Watch the best and are returning next year. Now we which we had purchased Ocean Front:( .

Bill

Bill,
Knowing that we own the same resorts that you do, I agree w/you completly--Ocean Watch has the best decor in rooms, though a bit smaller, the pool areas, we think are wonderful both the main pool and the woodsy area and we did not feel the need to leave the resort in the evenings either, only to some different restaurants for dinner and then back. We were there in May and will definitely be returning. No need to venture into tacky Mrytle Beach for any reason since the resort is beautiful and in a very nice area.
We traded out Barony Beach for Surfwatch this July to try something different--you are right the indoor pool there is by far the best. And yes, HHI does get a bit quiet in the evenings--the pool bar, however, at Surfwatch now stays open until 7. Surfwatch is very nice and we would go back but see no reason not to go to our home resort on HHI. We are going back to BB next summer for the 4th of July. We walked down there and there were some upgrades to the pool areas and property looked really nice.
As for Ocean Pointe, we are headed there the end of Oct. and we love the view and the pools there---we are curious as to the condition of the beach due to erosion.
Guess we, like you, like all of our properties for different reasons.
J & R
 

Swice

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Reminder about photos

http://groups.msn.com/MarriottOceanWatchTimeshareOwners/shoebox.msnw

Reminder,
There are tons of photos of Ocean Watch posted.
Ocean Watch is my "home" resort, but we've only been there twice. The week the resort first opened and then this past June. We've gotten fantastic trades and bonus weeks.

Obviously by our past trading, we are not "Myrtle Beach" people. In fact, you could even say we're a bit snobby. However, I must say Myrtle Beach does seem to be ticking "up."

We have already deposited our week for next summer and already book our bonus week for Lawrence Welk Resort next June. Still haven't requested anything yet for our actual Ocean Watch week that's on deposit.

With airfare costs, there's a part of me that regrets not going back to Myrtle Beach next year.
 

KathyPet

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My last complaint I promise!

The weather here has really turned beautiful yesterday. Temps in the very low 80's during the day with no humidity. With the breeze coming in off the ocean you need a long sleeved shirt or a light sweater during the evening. So last night I thought I would open the bedroom windows to get the breeze and hear the ocean while we slept. Bedroom windows do not open! They are fixed glass panes!. No sliding screen on the door to the patio either. So if you thought you would enjoy this nice weather with your windows open you won't be doing it here.
 

Chemee

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This may be a strange question but I can't recall if they pipe in music by the pool area, or have any type of live music at all? We stayed next door at the Marriott Grande Dunes this summer and they had music piped in over there (and a lot of it was Jimmy Buffett which made us very happy :) )

When we were there in August, there was music piped into both pools. The band Kathy mentioned rotated between pools.

Also, MB is reinventing itself. There's the "old" MB and the "new" MB. The "old" MB is the T-shirt shops, fast food restaurants, the Pavillon, etc. I spent many vacations as a high school/college student enjoying the "old" Myrtle Beach. As an adult with different tastes, I haven't even ventured to "old" MB except for taking my son to the Pavillon amusement park, which is now closed. Lots of money has been spent reinventing MB. There's Barefoot Landing, Broadway at the Beach, the beautiful stadium of the minor league baseball team the MB Pelicans, Marriott Hotel, Marriott Ocean Watch, the Coastal Grand Mall, Grande Dunes development, the two Tanger shopping outlets, NASCAR Park, and all the theaters/shows (Cirque, Grand Ole Opry, Alabama, House of Blues, Dolly Parton, Medival Times). Plus this year's latest - the Hard Rock amusement park and the redevelopment of the closed down MB Air Force Base into The Market Common, which features upscale shops and restaurants, offices, and housing. Eventually, the area of the closed Pavillon amusement park will be redeveloped as well.

As for Ocean Watch, it's a great resort with a top notch staff and an even better beach front. People go between the pools and the beach so the pool area wasn't crowded when we were there in August. My only compliant has to be people reserving pool chairs with towels and not showing up until hours later, but that's nothing new.
 
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bwenzel

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Bill,
Knowing that we own the same resorts that you do, I agree w/you completly--Ocean Watch has the best decor in rooms, though a bit smaller, the pool areas, we think are wonderful both the main pool and the woodsy area and we did not feel the need to leave the resort in the evenings either, only to some different restaurants for dinner and then back. We were there in May and will definitely be returning. No need to venture into tacky Mrytle Beach for any reason since the resort is beautiful and in a very nice area.
We traded out Barony Beach for Surfwatch this July to try something different--you are right the indoor pool there is by far the best. And yes, HHI does get a bit quiet in the evenings--the pool bar, however, at Surfwatch now stays open until 7. Surfwatch is very nice and we would go back but see no reason not to go to our home resort on HHI. We are going back to BB next summer for the 4th of July. We walked down there and there were some upgrades to the pool areas and property looked really nice.
As for Ocean Pointe, we are headed there the end of Oct. and we love the view and the pools there---we are curious as to the condition of the beach due to erosion.
Guess we, like you, like all of our properties for different reasons.
J & R

Another thing I really like about HHI is the terrific cabanas they have for rent at Barony and Surf Watch. I'm not sure if you can see over the dunes at Barony, but you can at Surf Watch. WOW! You can rent these puppies per day and they come with a stocked refrigerator, great cushioned chairs, and I read some where even cool towels every so often. I've even seen a large circular bed configuration at Barony. Now you talking.:banana: Ocean Watch, unfortunately, does not have anything like the cabanas.

Bill
 
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