Destin, FL - Day 2

Today we got up trying to attempt to get the Internet working again, since this is a working vacation for my husband. No such luck. I called and emailed Sunset Resort Rentals again with no such luck so we headed down to the beach with our dog in tow. That lasted 30 minutes until the sheriff who drives up and down the beach stopped to ask if we had a permit for the dog on the beach. I said no and where do we go to get one. Well the news got worst as only residents are aloud to get permits and dogs are only aloud during certain hours. When I was researching places to stay Miramer Beach came up as one of the best and most dog friendly areas. Well, sad to say I was wrong. Now our doggie is stuck in the condo all day and she's not excited about that. At least we didn't get a ticket, but this didn't settle well with me on this condo situation and I was about to break down crying.

Finally someone contacted me at 9am from Sunset Resort Rentals. They use a code system for the door to get in and out instead of dealing with a key. That's fine, but when you can't get in the back door that goes to the beach there's a problem! Turns out when we got our confirmation packet they put the wrong code on our sheet. We where really lucky the front door worked otherwise we would have had to get a hotel since no one answered the phone when we got here at 5:00pm to check in yesterday. The poor girl on the phone got an earful from me and I kept saying I just wanted to go home. She had me email all of my concerns, which I wasn't thrilled to do, but having things in writing is always the best thing to do since she sent it to the property owner and their supervisor.

List of issues:
I'm not happy in regards to the lock and not being able to get ahold of anyone when we got here at 4pm We are lucky the wrong code given to us worked on one door otherwise we would have had an added expense for a hotel last night.


The Internet not working is a HUGE issue. This is a working vacation for us and if unable to connect then we need to leave and head home now. The only network name pulling up is Belkin.38c2 and you need a password to connect to it.


A sheriff told us this morning our dog is not allowed on the beach unless we are a resident. I wish this would have been communicated to us otherwise we would have not brought her. I understand we are probably 1 out of 30 people that have had this issue but you need to list on your site that the unit is dog friendly however the county is not. Here's what I sent them:


The blinds in the bedroom are torn up.

The main entrance door that goes out to parking has a busted secondary security lock. This does not make me feel safe. Also the code 1928 that was given to us is also written on the railing in the stairwell to the beach.

The patio screen off the eating area is leaning against the wall. We did our best to put it back on the sliding glass door.

The phone doesn't work in the living room we found a plug that worked in the bedroom.

As far as the cleaning person I think they where in a huge hurry and didn't care. The bedside lamp bulb was out. 3 lights in the bathroom is out. Laundry area had towels thrown all over the dryer in the washer and on the floor. There's food stuck to the burner on the stove top so when u turn on the burner the area fills with smoke. We are expected to wash our own dishes which is understandable but the only abrasive utensil available is a paper towel and no abrasive brush therefore difficult to completely clean pots and pans cleanly.

I expected to have some issues being that the place is older, but when I am paying $150 a night for somewhere I want to be somewhat comfortable and safe but I don't even feel that here. To be honest I'm ready to pack up everything and head home first thing in the morning. I would like to know if there would be some reimbursement if we did that. I really hope that you update the website with a little more information so the next person isn't blindsided like I was.

Please have the owner call us first thing on Monday morning because if the Internet issue can't be resolved we need get on the road for our 9hr drive home so we can return back to work Tuesday morning and to know a return policy if we left tomorrow if the Internet can't be resolved?

How is that for a complaint list? That didn't mention the beach access area being a mess with toys, old floats, and bags of trash thrown all over, bedroom ac doesn't work, and the list goes on. They where accommodating and said that the unit next door was just cleaned and we could move in there since that's where the Internet jack was. We moved all our stuff over and this condo 9B is in much better condition. Pictures from their site can be found HERE. Anyway enough fussing about what's wrong I'm gonna move on to the more positive things. The condo is right on the beach which is really nice. For some reason there's a wave of algae floating in so it's a little green near the shoreline, but once you swim out past that it's crystal clear. There where guys walking up and down the beach checking for any oil that has made it to shore, but so far didn't look like they had any samples. We got to swim all day then headed in to take showers and head to dinner.

We headed to a place called Baytowne Wharf in Sandestin Village which is in a resort area and you would never know it's there unless you saw it online. The place is really well done and makes you feel like your in a little town with streets and all. We ate dinner at Acme Oyster House even though we had been to the one in New Orleans I had a hankering for oysters and knew they had large ones.



While I munched on my dozen oysters, my husband ordered a cup of seafood gumbo and a bowl of shrimp etouffee. The gumbo was bland, but the etouffee was really good. I don't feel we got $17.00 worth of etouffee, but at least it was good. After dinner we walked around to see what other restaurants they had to offer looking for possible places to eat later in the week then headed back to the condo to walk our dog on the beach (keeping an eye out for the sheriff) and watch the sunset.