Captains Quarters Resort

The pool was overflowing and its heater wasn’t working. Doors around the pool were left open, and we saw stray cats and an opossum getting in. Nobody was watching the arcade, and its token machine was empty, so we couldn’t play. Then, without warning, the water stopped in the middle of the night. I was given one free day out of my five-day stay, but the whole experience was awful and I’ll never go back. Our keys didn’t work when we arrived, so I had to go down four times for replacements. We were on the sixth floor where renovations were happening, and the maintenance noise carried through the night. The shower was awful and the curtains barely closed. Our phone never worked, even after I kept reporting it, so there was no housekeeping unless we called, and I had to go downstairs each time I needed something. Security wasn’t doing its job, and the arcade was unattended. There was so much more wrong. If they can’t keep the business running in winter, they should close.

We were there for our second wedding anniversary. It started out well, but got worse. People smoking pot on the balcony below us meant we had to keep our balcony door shut, making it hard to enjoy the ocean. The next day, police were at the Polynesian next door, and we felt unsafe because we didn’t know what was happening. Security was poor: the two white women guards were good, but the others seemed more concerned with phone chargers or sitting on their phones. That same day, someone pulled the ninth-floor fire alarm, the arcade had no staff, and our room phone didn’t work. Before leaving, I noticed the air unit plugged into a box with its power strip cord frayed and wires exposed. The outlet we used for our fan had no faceplate. It was a terrible stay this year, and we won’t return.

The staff were amazing, and the rooms are some of the nicest I’ve stayed in at Myrtle Beach, with several sizes and options. There are multiple pools and hot tubs, so you’re not crowded in with 30 or 40 people. Inside, there are two lazy rivers, one for toddlers and one for everyone else, plus a large children’s splash area and an arcade. The building is being remodeled after a fire about a year ago.

The Ocean Front Double Suite sleeps eight, but it was just my wife and me. I used the Murphy bed by the balcony while she slept in the room with the double beds. We keep different hours, and I wish there were at least a pull-across or pull-down wicker divider between the kitchen entrance and the Murphy bed area. It wouldn’t even need to be a door. Without something there, anyone else staying in the suite has no privacy, and light and noise from the double-bed room, kitchen, or bathroom can bother you if someone gets up early. There was no remote in the double-bed room when we arrived. After driving for hours, we called the front desk repeatedly without getting through, so we had to walk there and ask. The attendant had a heavy accent that made her hard to understand, and wasn’t friendly. Another person was unfriendly when we returned the keys at checkout and my wife asked for a receipt. There were good things about the stay and the rooms too, but these were the negatives.