I stayed at the resort back in December 2010, but I still can't get this place out of my head and not in a good way. Whoever they paid to do their website is amazing and should get a medal because the resort looks NOTHING like the website.
Driving to the hotel from the airport is easy if you have directions & a map. When you pull into the entrance, it looks nice enough, but there is no parking in front of the lobby. They have the nicest buildings up front. As you drive to your room, I noticed the buildings get worse & worse. NONE of the buildings match each other. It looks like 5 different hotels are on one property.
We booked a room with a garden view. We got a room on the 2nd floor. We didn't have a room with a garden view, but we did get a view of the inlet (almost the beach), but there's a nice road running in front of our view....... Before leaving I did read reviews about the smell of the rooms and I though those people just weren't used to staying at beach hotels. Boy those people weren't kidding!! The smell is horrible!! I've stayed at many beach hotels/cottages etc and they never smelled like this. It smells like mold, wet sand, and cheap cleaning supplies. The 3 nights we were there, I didn't see any roaches (at least I didn't see any). As soon as we got to our room, we opened up the doors & the windows to air everything out, but as soon as you leave for the day, the room gets that nice aroma again. We did have a broken window in our room and the guy that came to "fix" it, just used a trash bag & duct tape until it could be completely fixed after we left. I would bet money that it still hasn't been fixed....... The rooms in short reminded me of bad military housing. If you ever lived in military housing, you will just "love" the concrete cinder blocks...
The kitchen we didn't use. We kept bottled water in the fridge and that's it. I didn't notice the appliances or silverware to be dirty though.
I think the location is good if you have a car. It's a short drive to Sea World and you can walk to the beach down the street. I think it's Mission Beach and they do have a carnival type thing that is always running. It has one of the oldest working wooden roller coaster which is pretty cool. It is about a 30 minute drive to the San Diego Zoo, but it's worth it.
The restaurant on the resort is OK. The food we had wasn't good, but it's wasn't bad either. Service is a hit or miss, but nothing to really complain about.
The rescued Seals, were very active when I was there. They were playing with each other and they were entertaining. They seemed like they were well fed.
I will never stay here again. The price just doesn't match the rooms/grounds. For $400.00 + dollars a night, I can get a nice suite in Vegas. Do yourself a favor and stay elsewhere.
hotel reviews