My own "oh-so-special" Sea Gardens experience...
Anyone have any advice or concerns about the Waterfalls building, or the resort in general?
Waterfalls buildings are actually twofold --- North and South sections are entirely separated by pool, walkways, vegetation. Waterfalls are toward the rear (west) end of the property. Ocean Palms is the rearmost (westernmost) building (i.e., furthest away from A1A). The two buildings on the Ocean side of A1A are North Oceanside and South Oceanside. I never saw the inside of any Waterfalls units.
I stayed in a 2BR, 2nd floor unit in the Key West building at Sea Gardens for a week last winter (Key West building is off by itself, across NE 6th St.). My unfortunate personal experiences and recollections follow:
1. When I left the front desk to get my parking pass at the "concierge" desk, a
very pushy "concierge" named Maite (pronounced like "mighty") hounded me to attend an "owner update" (at an entirely different Wyndham facility, located a mile away). I politely but firmly told her that I would
not even consider attending
any such "meeting" at
any time and that I didn't want any "gifts" either (just my parking pass, please). Nonetheless, "Maite" left several different notes on my unit door and several phone messages during several days of my stay. In one such unwelcome call, she informed me that she had (independently) scheduled me to attend a "session" one day anyhow at a specified "assigned" time. As promised, I did not attend, nor did I ever even remotely
consider attending. The day after after
not attending the sales pitch (obviously just
masquerading as an alleged "owners' meeting"), what came next was...
2. My nice Citizens watch mysteriously disappeared from the kitchen counter within my unit during a very specific 45 minute time period while I was over at the Exercise Room in the Ocean Palms section. Whether coincidence or not I won't ever know, but "Maite" left (still another) meeting invitation note during that same time period
and housekeeping had been in the unit for towel changes, etc. When I inquired further, of course no one knew anything at all about my watch. It had clearly been stolen --- I just don't know by whom. Ironically, there
was a small safe in one bedroom closet (...my oversight for not having put my watch in there with my wallet, which was
already locked in that safe) during that particular 45 minute absence.
3. In the middle of the night (literally) one night, about eight local young thugs jumped the wrought iron fence and with a lot of loud noise, fanfare and profanity, proceeded to swim and jump around in the Key West pool --- some were fully clothed, some had stripped down to their underwear (one to even less).
They scattered about a half hour / 45 minutes later when a police cruiser arrived on NE 6th St. (I didn't call in a complaint, but maybe someone else had finally done so).
I frankly didn't care at all for Pompano Beach. It's an old and tired city in decline and
long past its' prime, with no "community" feel nor any discernible "soul" to it at all. I would never return. Fortunately, the fixed week I own at Sea Gardens had already been converted to Fairshare Plus (now Club Wyndham) points by the previous owner. I acquired this week for next to nothing beyond paying transfer costs, so it was nearly a zero cost acquisition. In the future I will just "credit pool" the associated 182k Wyndham points with Wyndham before the use year begins and use those points to go somewhere else within Wyndham instead.
I've enjoyed virtually every timeshare facility and location I've ever visited over the past three decades, always viewing each new trip as an "adventure". Sea Gardens and Pompano Beach were both noteworthy exceptions to this experience. The facility itself is overall a decent enough place, but my recommendation is to arrive without any overly high expectations so you won't be disappointed...and
lock up your valuables.
Just my own personal opinion, of course, but one based upon a full week of direct, first hand experience.
