Seaside Review -- Oct. 1-8

[toddclement]

After receiving a great deal of helpful info from this message board prior to our trip, I wanted to return the favor. Our family spent our annual week in Seaside much later than usual due to a cancellation caused by Dennis.

Seaside Beach Condition: The Seaside beach was spotty. Lots of black sand in some areas and none in others. If you picked your spot, it was fine. The beach was generally uncrowded and several evenings, it was deserted. The absence of walkways was a nuisance. The only access is behind the Seaside restaurants. I really don't buy that the stairs cannot be repaired at Seaside since other areas fixed theirs.

Red Tide: We caught the last of the red tide on Saturday, Oct. 1st. If this was the last of it, I am glad I was not there for the first of it. The beach smelled like 4 day old fish and the coughing and sneezing was definately there. I was really worried, but by Sunday afternoon, it was gone and did not reappear. I would not want to be there if it was present. Everyone who had been there before us said it ruined their days.

Water Quality: The water quality was horrible until Friday. The water looked like brown tea and visability was only a foot or two. It improved 50% by Friday and hopefully, it will be better.

The Biting Flies: They were there to a minor extent. Deep Woods off seemed to work. No major problems.

Food: Red Bar crabcakes were GREAT!!!!!!! Agelina's pizza was very good. Modica Market's muffins the greatest on earth. Shades and Pickles fast food fare was mediocre.

Customer Service: Always great at Seaside. Tennis pro was great and shop owners were very courteous. A neat new service is free movies for Seaside Cottage guests at a kiosk downtown. The selection was great.

Kids: My 4 and 7 year old thought they were in heavan.

Weather: Cloudy each day which kept it from getting too hot. Torrential downpours twice but ended fairly quickly. The prettiest day was the day we left.

Travel Costs: Don't forget American was running a 15,000 miles on-line special from DFW to Pensacola a month ago. Also, I did not know American fly into Fort Walton Beach. We will be flying there in the future. We rented a minivan from Dollar in Pensacola for $188 a week and it did great (except for getting stuck on the beach at Grayton while trying to find a Red Bar parking spot but that is another story......)

Summary: Great trip and wonderful time of year to be there. However, to justify Seaside's super premium price, they have to get the beach and its access back to snuff and based on what I heard while there, there really is no immediate plan to do so.

 

[Seasider]

Great review!

The Seaside dunes and walkovers were perfectly restored after Hurricane Ivan last year at a cost close to $1,000,000. I am sure that once hurricane and turtle season is over, restoration from this year's destruction will commence. Most of the money to do the repair work must be assessed from the individual homeowners. This year, there is more interest in doing more than a quick fix that will be washed away in the next storm.

 

[Kurt]

Thanks for the report!

I don't know what Seaside will do about the walkovers. Someone posted that they may not rebuild all of them and just have one on each end. My guess is that they're looking into aluminum removeable ones like many others are doing, including WaterColor.

Personally, I think it would be a travesty not to rebuild them. I don't live or rent there, and if I did, I would feel even more strongly about rebuilding. I understand that the Natchez stairs were unique and very expensive to build so I might consider rebuilding "normal" stairs there.

Seaside and the homeowners association should rebuild all of them, no matter how often they need to be done, and consider it a cost of doing business. And what a profitable and unique business it is.

I would be interested to hear other's views, especially homeowners. And updates.

 

[Mermaid]

Thanks for the report!

I don't know what Seaside will do about the walkovers. Someone posted that they may not rebuild all of them and just have one on each end. My guess is that they're looking into aluminum removeable ones like many others are doing, including WaterColor.

Personally, I think it would be a travesty not to rebuild them. I don't live or rent there, and if I did, I would feel even more strongly about rebuilding. I understand that the Natchez stairs were unique and very expensive to build so I might consider rebuilding "normal" stairs there.

Seaside and the homeowners association should rebuild all of them, no matter how often they need to be done, and consider it a cost of doing business. And what a profitable and unique business it is.

I would be interested to hear other's views, especially homeowners. And updates.

Kurt, it's funny that you said that, because my husband said exactly the same thing himself, word for word! We walked over to Seaside on Friday morning to Modica Market for coffee (we were really aiming for Seagrove Village Market but their brunch doesn't start until 10:30 am and we were up much earlier than that). Anyway, after some of their excellent coffee and fabulous muffins, we walked back to our condo via the beach rather than the walking/biking path. The sand path down the beach, right near Bud and Alley's, is STEEP! I don't think that's acceptable and hope that it's only a very short-term solution. My husband commented that when you stay at Seaside, you pay a premium price--and this we know from the many times we have rented at Seaside over the years--and for that price, you expect the whole enchilada. That doesn't mean beach access that is nothing more than a piled up mountain of sand, not when everyone else on the beach is rebuilding their steps. We can certainly understand Natchez walkover not being replaced exactly as is (that was indeed a work of art) but not to rebuild the other walkovers???? C'mon now, Seaside! You can do better than that......

 

[satx]

We stayed at Rosemary Beach this year after five years of staying at Seaside. None of the beaches look great, however, the Rosemary Beach area looks somewhat better than the Seaside beach. At least you had an actual walk-over--instead of having to travel down the dunes. The condition of the Seaside beach brought tears to my eyes.

Overall, we enjoyed Rosemary Beach. We also took advantage of the 15,000 mile fare sale and flew directly from DFW to Fort Walton Beach. The flight and the airport were great. We also loved the house we rented at Rosemary Beach. With the increased traffic on 30-A, being closer to the beach is far safer for our three children--ages 11, 9 and 4.

We have so many fond memories of Seaside and now of Rosemary Beach, but we won't be visiting the area any time soon. It's very expensive and we want perfect beaches to justify the expense. We will be looking elsewhere for our annual beach vacation for the next two to three years or until these beaches recover.

 

[Beach Runner]

Don't give up on SoWal! We rebuild our private walkover within a week after each storm (so 4 times in the past year). As owners, *we* want to be able to go to the beach without driving somewhere. We are only allowed 15 rentals a year by our covenants, and some of our owners don't rent at all. PM me if you want to know the names of rentals for which you can feel confident that a walkover will always be available within a week of a storm.

BTW we always stayed at Rosemary when we were building our home. The architecture there is beautiful; we plagiarized quite a few ideas while staying there. But it still has a "rental" atmosphere, as opposed to an atmosphere in which owners would never think of, for example, throwing trash on the beach or being noisy or not taking care of the beauty of the place.

 

[Rudyjohn]

We stayed at Rosemary Beach this year after five years of staying at Seaside. None of the beaches look great, however, the Rosemary Beach area looks somewhat better than the Seaside beach. At least you had an actual walk-over--instead of having to travel down the dunes. The condition of the Seaside beach brought tears to my eyes.

Overall, we enjoyed Rosemary Beach. We also took advantage of the 15,000 mile fare sale and flew directly from DFW to Fort Walton Beach. The flight and the airport were great. We also loved the house we rented at Rosemary Beach. With the increased traffic on 30-A, being closer to the beach is far safer for our three children--ages 11, 9 and 4.

We have so many fond memories of Seaside and now of Rosemary Beach, but we won't be visiting the area any time soon. It's very expensive and we want perfect beaches to justify the expense. We will be looking elsewhere for our annual beach vacation for the next two to three years or until these beaches recover.

We've been considering Rosemary Beach over Seaside. Would you say that Rosemary is better overall? What would your pros and cons be? We've thought that Seaside has been on the decline over the past 5-6 years.We want a "neighborhood" with the amenities, rather than a stand-alone condo.

 

[Beach Runner]

We've been considering Rosemary Beach over Seaside. Would you say that Rosemary is better overall? What would your pros and cons be? We've thought that Seaside has been on the decline over the past 5-6 years.We want a "neighborhood" with the amenities, rather than a stand-alone condo.

From a renter's point of view, I much prefer Rosemary as long as you're south of 30-A, and there are many such choices at Rosemary, as compared to Seaside. Crossing 30-A to get to the beach at Seaside is scary. And from our experience you can rent a much larger and nicer place at Rosemary than at Seaside for less money. Either resort drives me crazy after a while - too many people crammed in too small of a place. I prefer a private home with a private pool and not having to cross a road to get to the beach (aka my neighborhood).

 

[Rudyjohn]

From a renter's point of view, I much prefer Rosemary as long as you're south of 30-A, and there are many such choices at Rosemary, as compared to Seaside. Crossing 30-A to get to the beach at Seaside is scary. And from our experience you can rent a much larger and nicer place at Rosemary than at Seaside for less money. Either resort drives me crazy after a while - too many people crammed in too small of a place. I prefer a private home with a private pool and not having to cross a road to get to the beach (aka my neighborhood).

Thanks for the info. However, when I check Rosemary's rates, they actually seem to be much higher in price than Seaside, albiet newer and fresher rentals, etc. (The same goes for WaterColor.) It used to be back in the day when it was only Seaside, more or less, that seemed so $$$$. Now it's cheaper than a lot of places!!!

 

[whiteyfunn]

We've been considering Rosemary Beach over Seaside. Would you say that Rosemary is better overall? What would your pros and cons be? We've thought that Seaside has been on the decline over the past 5-6 years.We want a "neighborhood" with the amenities, rather than a stand-alone condo.

IMHO, I think Seaside is more of a "neighborhood" than Rosemary. But probably because I'm there more than I am at my house down the road.