The Pearl Of Navarre Beach — Local services in Santa Rosa Island

We stayed in unit #804. The unit itself is really nicely decorated and The Pearl itself is in an amazing location. However, this unit has a few flaws that need addressed, what I consider, rather immediately. For a condo to be beachfront and cost $2,100 for a 5 night stay, you’d think or hope you could get a decent night rest. However, this units beds, all 3 of them are in desperate need of replacement. The mattress and box springs are squeaky, outdated, mattress are worn out and have “sink holes” in them where people lay. Very uncomfortable. To the point that my wife actually got up and slept on the couch one night. Very disappointing.||||In the units specific listing, it said there would be beach chairs available every day for this unit - however, you have to beat everyone down to the beach each morning, as The Pearl only allows a certain amount of chairs put out each day, with most of them having specific names written on them that you can’t use. If you’re late to the beach (8:30-9AM) you won’t have a chair to sit in and the beach helper will not find you one either. But of course, you can rent one for $40/day. Say what? Yeah…that’s right. ||||Elevator waits: just be ready to wait. There is only two elevators for the entire property and with 17 floors of units… you do the math. Sometimes we would wait up to 15 minutes for an elevator to come to the 8th floor… when you have a 9 year old wanting to hit the beach, that seems like a day trip waiting on the elevator. ||||Cathy, the person over the property, or at least the one responsible for our stay, didn’T answer text or emails after we arrived. Service before hand was ok, but after sale service was poor at best. We had people around our unit, smoking on the balconies, even thoug it was specifically listed not to… so we got to enjoy the smell of stank cigars all of our trip, along with people blasting music on Bluetooth speakers at all hours of the night. I text, emailed and tried to contact Cathy, but with zero response. Again, very disappointing. ||||Unit #804 is a nice unit, but in what I looked up to be estimated to be a $500,000 condo, you’d at least hope to be sleeping on a nice mattress, and the plugs for electricity are out of reach for normal phone charges. Some lamps for the nightstands would be much more sufficient with built-in plugs to allow things to be plugged in. ||||Also, the TV skips… which is not a big deal, but some needs to address it at some point. We were hanging out chilling and relaxing, watching the Food network channel, and all the channels started skipping so bad we couldn’t watch it anymore. This happened multiple days. ||||Overall, the beach at Navarre and the local food scene and atmosphere saved this trip for us, but for $2,100 on a 5 night stay… we will be staying somewhere else the next time we...

Condo #1502

The good: The location of the building is prime, close to the Navarre pier and directly on the beach. This unit is oceanfront with great views. Paradise Rentals, the company managing the condo, was very friendly and helpful in answering questions and getting issues resolved. There’s a built in bar area that is quite convenient and a great area for storing drinks/mixers you bring with you. There are tons of carts available to help you load/unload your belongings.

Not-So-Good: The master bedroom has patio doors opening onto the balcony but no curtains. This is not only a privacy concern - at night, people can see into the unit if you’re buy the sliding glass doors; if people are on the balcony, they can see into the bedroom - but makes sleeping quite difficult. Eye masks were provided, but that did little to prevent waking up from the light streaming in each mornings The patio is quite narrow with little room for movement and, because of the walls on each side, low visibility except directly in front unless you lean against the balcony. The only lights in the bedrooms are lamps. There’s no overhead lights, although there’s ceiling fans in both bedrooms, and this makes getting ready in the bedrooms, particularly the secondary bedroom without huge windows, challenging in the dim light. The living room and dining room are very dimly lit. The decor is stuffy and formal. The sofa is very well loved and has dips in places from wear. There were 3 ice makers in the unit: 1 large one built into the bar, the one in the freezer, and a countertop one. Neither the bar unit or the one in the freezer worked, and the counter top unit has mold visible all over the inside. When we called, we were brought a new counter top unit quickly; however, that only created about a 1/2 cup of ice at a time (think Sonic ice), so we still had to buy bags of ice daily for our cooler, etc. The chair rental in front of the building sets up insanely early every day and takes up the entire beach in front of this building and the one next to it. When we woke up by 6:30, they were already set up every day we were there. This means that, if you’re using the rental service, you either have to wake up insanely early or trek down the beach to find a spot to set up. There are 2 small pools but they have no shade. Using them during the day is quite miserable, as there is no escape...

We stayed in unit 1104, which was a decent unit, but over priced. I know I only paid for the time of year, 2nd week in June, but I think the unit needs to match the price. Beds were very comfortable, view is great, size of the unit was good. The furnishings were ok on the comfort level. The armoire that holds the TV needs serious repair, the drawers under the TV are all messed up. If you aren't careful they will fall completely on your feet! The TV and remote were difficult to figure out, (which is normal for my husband, but not me, and I had trouble with it). The dryer takes forever to dry something! The utensils and pots and pans were Dollar store quality. I expected more for $2200.!! The beach chair service was HORRIBLE! We paid for the week in advance, everyday I had to search for my chairs that weren't there. They would say oh I thought I had you set up (everyday) so they would set me up on the back of the beach! There were alot of the pop up canopy's on the beach that took up room, I didn't know why, well it took me a few days to figure it out. The Beach service people wouldn't get there til almost 8 (all the other condos chairs were out by 6:30ish). I finally went to Walmart bought the cheapest chairs I could find, got up at 7 and went to reserve me a spot on the beach. While talking to others (that were putting up tents) they were treated the same way by beach service, so they bought tents to reserve their spots too. One night they didn't pick up chairs and umbrellas til really late, 8-9pm, they were drunk or messed up when they got there. After their night out they were late getting there the next morning, and that afternoon took chairs up at 4pm! The last day of my service, the guy MOVED MY walmart chairs and rental chairs to accommodate a tall skinny blonde! I was furious, gave him a piece of my mind! In going to the beach for the last 30 years and renting beach chairs, NO ONE has EVER come close to being this bad! EVER! I love Navarre Beach, but won't be going back...