Seacrest 414

The view from Seacrest 501 A was beautiful, and we still had a nice week at the beach. The people handling my concerns also responded right away. But the condo wasn’t ready for us, and the lack of basic supplies made the stay frustrating. We got a text at 12:20 telling us to go straight to the condo. The door code didn’t work after four tries, even though we followed the directions and pressed the check button. The woman had already left, but she unlocked it remotely and reset the code. There was no welcome packet with the internet code or checkout time. They brought one after we arrived. There was only one plate, one saucer, no cups, two forks, one bowl, and very little else. They later brought two plates and two tiny cups that overflowed when we used the Keurig. I had to use a mixing bowl for cereal or wash the only bowl for the two of us. There’s no dishwasher, though there weren’t many dishes to wash anyway. The unit wasn’t equipped well for a weeklong stay. We got one roll of toilet paper. The fridge was only half size and had no freezer, yet one of our Cokes froze at the top and exploded. There’s no way to get ice at Seacrest, so bring some or, like us, bring a countertop ice maker. One of the two chairs was broken, though they did fix it, and neither chair was comfortable. Using the toaster oven set off the smoke alarm, so be ready for that noise. The trash cans are tiny and need frequent emptying. The internet was slow. The advertised heated pool was cold, and there was no hot tub. We watched people using the next-door condo’s genuinely heated pool instead. It felt more like a hotel room, except nobody cleaned the towels or changed the bed. Unit 501A seems like the neglected sibling of 501AB. We’ve been coming to Destin for years, but we won’t stay in the Fort Walton Okaloosa area again. Even in February, traffic was so congested that we wished we’d turned right and continued into Destin instead of left. The condo was pretty and the view helped make the week enjoyable, but they should have made sure everything was in order before we arrived.