Flexter on Trip Advisor 9 months ago
05/02/2022, 08:58 AM
Beautiful hotel, very friendly people
The hotel is beautiful and very well situated. The rooms were excellent and ours had a decent view. The pool and amenities were well maintain but they were very crowded. Walking distance to all sorts of entertainment and restaurants (McGuires across the street is a must). The staff and guests were incredibly pleasant and friendly. The king mattress in our room was incredibly comfortable!!! There is a spa with a weight room (very important to me) and it was loaded with free weights and machines and is the best hotel weight room that I have seen. The only minor draw back to the hotel itself was the lack of direct access to a beach. Having said that, they do have a private breach but that is only accessible by a shuttle boat during daylight hours. There are some very nice municipal parks with small beaches in the subdivision across the street behind McGuires. The one real significant issue I had revolved around the hotel's private beach. There is a private shuttle that runs every half an hour and the beach is absolutely gorgeous. The problem is that it is located on the outlet to the ocean and the first day we went there it was a bit choppy. There are 2 lifeguard shacks that are not in use at each end of the beach (about 400 yds apart) and a small sign warning of Rip currents at one of the shacks but they are not visible from where the boat lets you off and where the chairs and umbrellas are located. While we were enjoying the sun, there was a middle aged man wading in the ocean. Being a former lifeguard, I have the unconscious habit of noticing such things. All of a sudden he was out in the deep water and obviously struggling. He was obviously a swimmer but could make no headway towards the beach. He started calling for help, as did a woman standing on the beach who saw his difficulty. Being a retired police officer, retired Infantry officer as well as a former lifeguard I felt compelled to help, as did 3 other public spirited citizens. We headed out into the water and as soon as it got up to my shoulders I was literally ripped off my feet and dragged out into the deeper water. I instantly recognized the rip, as did the other 3 "rescuers" to and, sad to say, we had to ignore the hapless swimmer (He finally flipped over on his back and eased his was with the current to where he got back into shore) and concentrate on not drowning ourselves. I am very fit and a very strong swimmer and it was all I could do to get back into shallower water. The one guy that was close to me was going under when I finally managed to get my feet down and pull him that extra couple of feet til he could stand. It was only by the grace of God that there weren't 4 or 5 of us that didn't drown. While this was going on, my wife went and got one of the beach staff to help but they had NO rescue equipment at all. After checking with his boss, 9-11 was called and the police boat went by after we all managed to get out. I reported this to the boat crew on the trip back to the hotel and suggested that, in addition to pointing out that there should be no solids flushed down the boat toilet, they should probably mention to the patrons the possibility of serious rip currents. He assured me that he would. I reported this incident to the front desk at the hotel and the clerk assured me that the manager would call me but that never happened. We went back to the beach two days later and the same boat crew was on the shuttle but they were only concerned about solids being flushed and no mention was made of the possible current. To be fair, that day was very calm and there was not rip. The hotel should have, at a minimum, signs visible to everyone getting off the boat warning of rips, a flag indicating risk and at least some type of rescue equipment such as a ring buoy available. I suffer from PTSD from my service and the thought that I couldn't save the person that was drowning, and very narrowly escaped from drowning myself did play havoc on the rest of my vacation. I was very disappointed that the hotel management didn't contact me about this and that the boat crew didn't tell people about the possible danger!