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Ocean/Beach vacations

Npat12

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Hello, we are planning are vacations for 2021. We are planning on a beach resort. I have a couple questions. I did get/find info to my questions on Panama City Beach and Towers on the Grove.

Was also looking at Clearwater Beach. Don’t like the fact you can’t pick oceanfront rooms. So I am not sure which ones are. Was looking at the 2 BR presidential. Does anybody know if these are Oceanfront. Do they charge daily parking fees there. I thought I read that somewhere.

Also looking at Emerald Grande. But can’t find anything available. I did see posts of people not seeing inventory. I checked 13 months out and nothing. Is this that popular and hard to get into or is something else going on. Looking at the points charts. They do seem very high though.

We drive a conversion van. So obviously we can’t park in parking garages. Does these resorts also have parking that can accommodate bigger vehicles and not park in the garage. I did see Clearwater said anything above 7’2” would have to park offsite at owners expense. Is offsite parking close. Thank you in advance.
 

cbyrne1174

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If you want guarantee FL ocean front, you have to stay at either PCB or Ocean Walk in a 2 bedroom lock-off or 3 bedroom deluxe.

Clearwater has a mandatory deposit, but parking is free and 1 per unit. Clearwater is hard to get into, but anything deluxe or presidential has a good view. Here is my view from the 1 bedroom presidential I stayed in:

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1 bedrooms are in the back of the resort facing the intercoastal or ocean view, 2 bedrooms are mostly ocean view with a few ocean front I believe. I don't think the ocean view rooms are bad at this resort because you can also see the intercoastal. Here is a video of the 1 bedroom presidential ocean view:

 

harveyhaddixfan

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All rooms in PCB are Gulf-Front. I think you’d be ok parking in the garage there. If not, you could probably arrange to use one of the short term spots next to the garage. If you do PCB and want the best view, book an upper level room. That’ll put you on the 10th floor up to the 23rd. I believe 24 & 25 are all presidential 2 & 3 BR. You can’t beat the white sandy beach steps away here!
 

jules54

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We’ve stayed at PBC a few times during their Spring bike week. There is tons of parking and also a gravel lot in the back of parking garage for big vehicles or trailers. Had one bedroom ocean view both times. Upper level and lower level.
If it doesn’t have to be Florida you might consider Myrtle Beach.
 

KSellers

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I’m interested in this thread also. My family wants to book a beach vacation for June of 2021. I’m open to anywhere from Myrtle beach, anywhere on the Florida Atlantic, or Florida gulf. Our 3 kiddos will be 8, 5, & 3. Looking for 2 or 3 bedrooms, kids activities, pools & kids pools with slides or splash pads are a plus. Where will have the best ocean water for sand & swiming?
 

harveyhaddixfan

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I’m interested in this thread also. My family wants to book a beach vacation for June of 2021. I’m open to anywhere from Myrtle beach, anywhere on the Florida Atlantic, or Florida gulf. Our 3 kiddos will be 8, 5, & 3. Looking for 2 or 3 bedrooms, kids activities, pools & kids pools with slides or splash pads are a plus. Where will have the best ocean water for sand & swiming?

You could get by with a 1BR deluxe at PCB. There’s 2 bunk beds and a sleeper sofas along with 2 bathrooms. There’s a zero entry kids pool with some added water features.
 

bendadin

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Someone might be able to chime in here but the 4 bedroom at Clearwater might be all oceanfront. We've never had a 4 bedroom but our 2 bedroom deluxe still had a beautiful view. We were just a couple units in from the front. We enjoyed our oceanfront view to the right of us. A friend had a 2 bedroom PR and they were directly above our unit, but a few floors up. At Clearwater, do not book a non-deluxe unit. Those are right over the parking garage roof (where the employees come zooming in with their car radios often pretty loud.) You get 1 spot at Clearwater. I sent my daughter to a 2 bedroom PR and they had to pay the daily parking for the second car (which I find ridiculous when you are in larger units.)

Emerald Grande didn't have anything past the first week of September. I was told that it was because the PR units were coming back into inventory, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. I have read that you need to take the boat shuttle over to the beach so if you want to walk on the beach early morning or late evening, you won't be doing that there.
 

chapjim

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Royal Vista in Pompano Beach.
 

OutSkiing

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If you want guarantee FL ocean front, you have to stay at either PCB or Ocean Walk in a 2 bedroom lock-off or 3 bedroom deluxe.

Clearwater has a mandatory deposit, but parking is free and 1 per unit. Clearwater is hard to get into, but anything deluxe or presidential has a good view. Here is my view from the 1 bedroom presidential I stayed in:

View attachment 20983

1 bedrooms are in the back of the resort facing the intercoastal or ocean view, 2 bedrooms are mostly ocean view with a few ocean front I believe. I don't think the ocean view rooms are bad at this resort because you can also see the intercoastal. Here is a video of the 1 bedroom presidential ocean view:

We stayed in a 1 br presidential at Clearwater and loved it too. But it is actually an intercoastal view, not ocean view. I believe only the 2 bedrooms have ocean view. There may be more to see with the intercoastal because it opens to the large bay area.

Bob
 

cbyrne1174

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We stayed in a 1 br presidential at Clearwater and loved it too. But it is actually an intercoastal view, not ocean view. I believe only the 2 bedrooms have ocean view. There may be more to see with the intercoastal because it opens to the large bay area.

Bob

50% are intercoastal, 50% are ocean view. There are 2 floor plans. If you watch the video I linked, you will see the couple had the floor plan that was opposite yours. These are pictures of the 1 bedroom floorplan that faces the intercoastal. This is probably the floorplan you had. Next time, you can ask for the other floor plan that has 2 balconies and an ocean view (like in the video). I don't mind the intercoastal floor plan, as you can see in the picture, there's a lot of wide open space. I plan on having 1 more kid (2 total) and I don't care to spend the money on a 2 bedroom to sleep some freeloading kids lol, so it gives the kids more room in the main area to spread out.

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OutSkiing

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Okay .. first time the video was not 'playing' .. I had to click repeatedly to get it jumping through the video. Now I see yours had two balconies. Yes ours had 1 balcony and you could see the pool around the corner if you put your head over the railing.

I believe the 2 bedroom deluxe is same points as 1 bedroom presidential. All in all a nice place.

Thanks for sharing the nice video!

Bob
 

Npat12

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We have narrowed it down to Clearwater and PCB. Wife is leaning towards Clearwater because rooms look nicer based off pictures and going with the 2 BR presidential. From researching it sounds like the the 2BR Pres. have really good ocean views if not oceanfront. But the guaranteed upper level ocean fronts at PCB are tempting. Based solely On being guaranteed OF.

We have been to Myrtle beach quite a bit. So will try other beaches next year. Even though the 3Br’s at Tower On the grove and Seawatch sound nice. And never been to those.
 

cbyrne1174

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We have narrowed it down to Clearwater and PCB. Wife is leaning towards Clearwater because rooms look nicer based off pictures and going with the 2 BR presidential. From researching it sounds like the the 2BR Pres. have really good ocean views if not oceanfront. But the guaranteed upper level ocean fronts at PCB are tempting. Based solely On being guaranteed OF.

We have been to Myrtle beach quite a bit. So will try other beaches next year. Even though the 3Br’s at Tower On the grove and Seawatch sound nice. And never been to those.

I'm very observant when it comes to knowing unit layout of the southeastern resorts that I can drive to. I've only stayed 1 night at Clearwater, but I drive there for the day all the time since it's 45 mins away from me. I'm still like 90% sure this is the unit layout of the resort based on the videos I've watched and the floor plan I saw in my unit. Floors 16-19 are presidentials with the top 2 (I think) being presidential reserve. The 2 bedroom presidentials are all OF or OV, 8/16 of the 1 bedroom presidentials are ocean view and 8/16 are causeway view. Idk how many 2 or 4 bedrooms there are because I don't care to ever pay for one TBH. I do know that it's really hard to reserve on in the summer during the 10 month window.

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