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