Marriott's Crystal Shores — Hotel in Marco Island

Wow - the sunsets, the villa, the team members and activities, the beach !!!||- - - - - - - -||September, 2024 Visit||We visited Marco Island for our 25th anniversary, per a recommendation from friends; we’re glad we went… what a great trip.||Part of the reason we picked Marco Island is because there is a Marriott Vacation Club property there - Marriott’s Crystal Shores.||This was a great pick by my wonderful wife!||At the Marriott, we enjoyed:|- fantastic sunsets|- relaxing, in the room and by the pool and at the beach|- making food in our room and enjoying it on the balcony|- coffee on the balcony each morning|- fun at the pool - bocci, golf, trivia, socializing and more|- beach / ocean time|- in-room laundry|- a nice bottle of wine, a welcome / anniversary gift from John, the General Manager - thank you!||Away from the Marriott, we enjoyed:|- anniversary dinner at 844 Gulf & Prime restaurant, about 7 minutes across Marco Island|- taking an airboat ride with Corey Billie (about 15 minutes away on the Tamiami Trail (TAmpa to MIAMI))|- visiting the smallest post office in the US, on Ochopee, FL (near Everglades City), located on the Tamiami Trail|- dinner at Del Mar, in Naples||- - -||The Property||Marriott’s Crystal Shores is located on the southwest corner of Marco Island, at the intersection of Winterberry & Collier.||The property is in the water; there is a short boardwalk, from the lower pool, across the dunes, to the sand / beach / ocean.||Most Marriott Vacation clubs are more like apartment complexes - villas in buildings usually shorter than six stories tall; Crystal Shores and some other locations are taller high rises / towers. I was curious what I would think about being in a (semi-) high rise… the tower did not matter, and in fact, us staying on the 7th of 14 floors was great as it provided wonderful sunset views!||One tower was built in 2008 or so; Marriott purchased it in 2014 or 2015, and then added the other two buildings; the rooms have been renovated since 2022 or so - they are nice (below).||One section of the exterior is decorated with palm leaves; the entrance has two waterfalls, one from the lobby level to the sidewalk level; another from above the lobby level to where you park for check-in.||There are:|- 3 swimming pools|- 3 hot tubs|- a water lily pond|- ping pong / table tennis, pool, shuffleboard|- a bar for pizza and drinks|- a restaurant with beach views with a full food and drink menu|- activities by the pool through the day, including: water basketball (small balls shot into 5 gallon buckets), nerf water golf, bocci, trivia, karaoke, and more||- - -||The room||We stayed in a two bedroom villa||- 1 king bedroom with bath, and a TV|- 1 two-queen bedroom with bath, and a TV|- Full kitchen - stove, microwave, refrigerator, dish washer; island|- Living room with TV|- Balcony with Hurricane doors; and table and four chairs for eating; and two chaise lounges for relaxing… or waking up with coffee|- Laundry / washer/dryer in the room||- - -||Nearby groceries|all are driving distance||- The Publix, on Barfield - recommended as this is the closest grocery and the store with the largest overall selection, and with the most gluten-free (GF) items (including the Blue Diamond crackers made from rice flower and almonds - highly recommended!); to get there, drive straight away from Crystal Shores, on Winterberry, turn left on Barfield and it will be on your right||- another Publix, located on Collier, toward the Collier bridge onto Marco Island|- the Winn Dixie is open the latest, located in Collier, toward the Collier bridge onto Marco Island||- - -||Parking||Most parking is in a two-level underground garage, with some uncovered parking also offered||- - -||Orange lighting||The orange lighting seen in the photos, along the hallways leading to the rooms is the real color; presumably used to provide light for us without confusing the sea turtles during their hatching season - it’s quite a nice effect at night.||- - -||Thank you, Tamela, GM John, the Concierges, and the rest of the Crystal Shores team, for helping us plan and have a great...

We are in our second day of a five day stay. There is some construction but hasn't bothered us. The parking is under the facility in a garage which makes it nice to have your car out of the weather and the heat. We are in a 2 bed / 2 bath unit in the new building. The room is fabulous.The kitchen is fully stocked with everything from paper products, dishwasher detergent, hot pads, pots and pans, utensils and dishware. The furniture is new and the beds are comfortable. There is a front load washer and dryer and two containers of laundry detergent. My only comment is that the couch in the living space is not comfortable to sit on. It's very hard and the seat is short so difficult to really get comfy on it. The dining table easily seats six. You can pull the stools over from the bar to put up to 3 more at the dining table. The balcony is very large - great view and has 2 super comfortable lounge chairs and a table with chairs. Great place to sit and watch the sunset. There are 2 pools. They are constructing a 3rd pool. The pools are not large but with the facility at full capacity this week the pools are not crowded. One pool has a slide that the kids have enjoyed. We have rented a cabana that faces the pool with the slide each day - $60 per day - well worth it. It is very large with a TV, couches, refrigerator, and safe. There are only six cabanas so you should call ahead to reserve. If I had any complaints it would be the signage to the buildings and pools. It took us longer than it has at other facilities to figure out how to get everywhere. The staff has been nice. The bellman were slow. We finally took in our bags and groceries. They do have carts for groceries and luggage. There is a Publix grocery store just a couple miles away as well as a McDonald's. That's all we have used so far. We had lunch at Stilts, the restaurant on the property, and enjoyed the fish tacos, hamburger, grouper sandwich and kids chicken tenders. A little pricey but very good. We would definitely eat there again. There is direct access to the beach. There is a booth operated by a private company that rents beach umbrellas ($25/day), chairs ($7each/day), paddle boats, wave runners, kayaks, and some other stuff. We are going to rent the paddle boats today. You do have to like being in the pool, going to the beach and the water activities because that is about all there is to do. That's why we are here - to get in the water and relax. There is no daily housekeeping service. You put your trash in the trash shute. If you need anything the housekeeping staff will help you. We are going on an airboat ride through the everglades on Thursday. If we had known the facilities were so nice we would have planned on staying longer than 5 days. There is no charge for parking. There is free wifi in the rooms and around the facility. Definitely recommend...

First, the parking garage smelled of a strong odor of trash. The lobby/checkin was locked at 9:30pm when we arrived. Although we knocked and staff saw us, they ignored us. We walked to a different door to get in and again knocked, and again ignored. Finally, another guest let us in. The two associates were rude and didn’t even say hello or welcome. Checked us in to what we were promised, a full “ocean” view in a fully wheelchair accessible unit. We get to our room, and that was not what we received. We were put in a room with a very limited side view on the gulf on a loud service road side of the building. The room we were put in is not fully wheelchair accessible. You can not even get out onto the patio. The microwave and counter tops are too high to reach, and there was no bench in the roll in shower. When we called, we were informed a manager would call us. That never happened. The next day we woke up to the worst smell of garbage in our room. Our room was right in front of the trash shoot and it was enough to cause breathing problems. I called, spoke to a new front desk person who was very nice, was told a manager and room controller would call us back. Never happened. I called 90 mins later and the room controller answered, telling me other than a non-ada ramp for the patio, and an unauthorized shower chair for the bathroom, I was out of luck. Again, asked for a manager. Again, no response. ||These reasons led us to leave. In the end when we checked out, the manager said although she was aware of the situation, she had no clue I wanted to talk to her and didn’t feel that the situation warranted a call back. She did try ti appease us with another room, but again, was not a true ada wheelchair accessible room. ||It was a very disheartening experience. Their staff should be trained fully in what their ada units provide and what they don’t before someone books. They need to do something about the sickening trash odor threat filled their garage and the trash shoot next to room 511 that overwhelmed the room. ||Management should be on top of these issues and not wait for a guest to make multiple unanswered calls to address.||In the end, we left a 7 day stay...