Marriott's Ocean Pointe — Hotel in Palm Beach Shores

We checked in on a Saturday at the end of May for 7 nights. Ocean Front guarantee. We arrived at 2 PM and were not called for our 2 bedroom villa until 5 PM. I know they were busy at at almost full occupancy but some sort of accommodation should be offered (free drink tickets, extra Marriott points, free dinner etc. we were not offered anything for the inconvenience). Yet on the back side, they were knocking on the door at exactly 10 AM looking for us to be out. I called for a few extra minutes and was given 20 minutes (assuming it doesn't matter that I am a Marriott Gold member). |Back to the Villa. We were assigned a mid-floor far corner OF in the first building (forgot the name) It was fine, but didn't work for us, as the noise from the pool was horrible (when we checked in they were playing trivia with a loud microphone amplifier and you could even hear it with the doors closed), keep in the mind, this was at 5 PM, if you ask me, a little late, for pool activities creating that much noise.|If you have small kids and don't mind a more active location one of the first 2 buildings would be a good choice, but it was not the relaxing vibe we were looking for, so we went back to the desk and long story short were finally given the option of an Ocean View room in the Kingfisher building. This Villa was all around better. Corner unit on the 3rd floor and had views of the ocean and the inlet. We loved it. I think my son was disappointed to be farther away from the main pool, but it's only about 1 block of a walk and you can take the sidewalk or walk on the beach. While we waited for our room we ate at the main pool sit-down tiki bar and the server was very friendly, but the salad was sub-par and the drinks are incredibly expensive. I would recommend hitting up the liquor store or Publix if you plan to have cocktails throughout the day/week (example, a 6 oz. glass of basic wine was $12). The second day at the Kingfisher bar we ordered 2 drinks, 1 beer, a salad and nachos it was $75. Again, if it was served to me poolside and delicious food, I have no problem, but the food is take-away only from the bar and it's subpar food. (Note, the only sit down/get waited on place is the Tiki Bar at the main pool). After those 2 experiences we did not order any other drinks or food from the hotel bars. |Overall the resort is well cared for and nice. |I do wish there was more control over the music etc. at the pools. Some days at the Kingfisher building the bartender was blaring hip hop and other days the volume and type of music was more guest friendly. |Staff - some were friendly/helpful, some were not|Parking was never an issue, some is covered and some in an outdoor lot. |Not related to the resort, but some other recommendations |Juno Beach Fish house - Definitely recommend|Carmines La Trattoria - has a great happy hour (it's a little bit of a drive, but near The Gardens Mall if you have a rainy day and want to shop - it's a nice mall)|Sailfish Marina Restaurant - is overrated, so expensive and the food is fine, but nothing special, but if you do go, ask for your free piece of Key Lime pie. We didn't know about that until we ordered and paid for a piece. |There is a lovely walking path the runs through the neighborhood behind the hotel. Access via Inlet way, it's about 2 blocks up from the Kingfisher building. It is mostly shaded and you'll see some beautiful trees. There is also a sidewalk along the inlet waterway. Nice for those who have trouble walking in the sand. |Oh, lastly, this place has lots of scheduled activities, which is nice, so be sure to check out the daily schedule and you can rent chairs and umbrellas on the beach for $60/day or $15/hour. A little steep, so if you can bring your own, I would. I heard they'll do a deal for multiple days or a full week, but we had rainy weather, so I never...

This was our favorite MVC which is why we keep ok coming back. However, the last few years the property and experience has really gone downhill. We booked this trip in September 2024 and specifically requested to be in a building closer to the main lobby. Instead we were sent to the farthest building, the Kingfish which was undergoing repairs in its parking lot. This wasn’t that big of a deal, but we arrived at 1 pm and we were told we were checked in. Our room was not ready until 5. This is unacceptable as vacation club owners. Marriott had no problem pitching to us the “perks” being an owner, however failed to take that into consideration when we arrived. I can’t understand what took the staff so long to ready our room as it wasn’t very clean when we got inside. The cleanliness issue was really bad this trip. There has been a sugar packet outside the second floor elevator of the kingfish hulking for 3 days. No one on staff cleans anything. The pool chairs are either covered in food or completely broken and the towel situation is ridiculous. You have to order towels. We are a daily of 7. We ordered 10 towels and often only receiver 6. I suppose the expectation is we will wash towels on vacation, but I’m not going to do that. One evening we took a few towels on our way upstairs from the giant filled bins that were left in the parking garage. Security was quick to come knocking on our door to tell us we cannot do that. We apologized and offered to give them back. They said that we can keep the towels but don’t do it again as they keep track of how many are handed out. What a joke. They don’t clean the rooms unless you request it and pay for it. They should at a minimum replace the towels every day. Marriott needs to do better. There is no longer poolside drink service. In years past, there were servers taking drink orders at the pool, now you have to wait in line at the pool bars. The parking lot at Kingfish did not have a bar that would let people out of the lot, the bar was tossed to the side, so people were coming in and parking in already small lot (because they were repaving part of the lot) and those cars didn’t belong there. So I’m paying to park and stay here but others who are not paying are using our lot, taking up space, and walking to the beach. Where was Marriott security for this? The towel police were quick to jump on us, but not on people parking at the far away building. The door to our condo unit was left open twice when staff went in to drop off towels and to change out a fire extinguisher. We made Marriott aware of this, but they didn’t do anything. And although it could probably happen anywhere, the smoke detector in one of the bedrooms needed to be changed and it took over an hour to get the engineer out there to fix it after 3 security guards couldn’t get it done. The elevators were dirty and one day was soaking wet. We had to call to have someone mop it. The front desk in the bottom level of kingfish also couldn’t get us towels, so that person was essentially useless while they sat there. |Finally, there seemed to be blood and some other dried on bodily fluid on the sheets when we arrived. ||Again, we love the area, but there were too many little things that added up to be too much for us to want to...

I'm glad I didn't listen to the negative reviews on this property. As a Marriott Lifetime Platinum, I have stayed at many, many Marriott properties and am pretty particular. This one far exceeded my expectations. I did my research ahead of time, and found that the Pompano Building was the most recently renovated, so I selected that as my first choice for room (the property emailed me ahead of time asking for selections). We arrived at 1pm, and I didn't anticipate being able to check in until 4:00 but was pleasantly surprised when my status was acknowledged and I was given an immediate check-in. We were placed in the Pompano building in a corner villa furthest from the elevator. The room was beautiful!!! Newly renovated, spacious, gorgeous decor, super clean, facing the ocean and pool, with a wonderfully stocked kitchen (even salt/pepper, coffee, sweeteners, creamers, dish soap, starter packs of paper towels and laundry detergent, pool towels). The room also had shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hand soap, and lotion. We were even impressed by the very nice door leading to our balcony. Great lighting, drapery, new appliances, just spectacular, and very, very quiet. The pool area was very clean, although a little crowded as there was jackhammering going on at the other pool, so people came over to ours. We still managed to find chairs without a problem. Every evening the staff cleans up the pool area, straightens the chairs and umbrellas, etc. The whole property is very secure, you can't access any building or pool area without your keycard, which I found comforting as a woman. We did use the gym at our building twice. It is recently renovated as well with all new equipment, and they had the best exercise bike I've ever used. Very impressed. We utilized the Kingfish bar the first night, and it was small and messy with only one bartender. The On the Rocks bar was much nicer, neater, cleaner, and the food and drinks were good and reasonable. That bar area could use updating though. There was plenty of parking, some even covered, never had trouble finding a spot close to the building. They even provide luggage racks and shopping carts to bring your things from the lot to your room. Cleaning staff came twice during our stay (we declined the first time as the room was still clean). The Marketplace has the basic food and toiletry needs as well as takeout food, coffee, and ice cream. We were able to take nice walks through the surrounding neighborhood, and there is a great restaurant and bar at the nearby marina. This property is in a great spot, with a fantastic selection of restaurants and stores within a 7-mile radius, and not a ton of traffic. All in all, we had a great, relaxing stay, and I would highly...