Jacqueline Rosenberger

Review of SurfStudio

I give it four stars. It's not for everyone. I'll ...

I give it four stars. It's not for everyone. I'll tell you what my experience was, and you can decide if it's something you might like. The location is unparalleled, first off. When you walk out of your room, you are almost on the beach. In 20 steps, you're in the sand. There was some construction going on in most of the rooms when we arrived, so we were upgraded to a better room. We had a view of both the ocean and the pool. This was excellent. It was fun to watch the cruise ships at night. However, keep in mind that all the rooms are on the first floor. This wasn't a problem at first, when we had the place to ourselves. After a few more people arrived though, we suddenly had a choice of a view or privacy. In some ways, a second floor balcony would be preferable in this respect. The lack of signs and rules is refreshing. My husband and I took glasses of wine to the deck the first night and sipped while we sat in lounge chairs while we watched the waves. We brought out a pot of coffee one morning and watched the sun come up. There are no hours posted on the pool, so I think it's possible to go swimming there whenever you feel like it. It's nice to be treated like a grownup. It's not all roses, though--there was no phone in our room. Everyone has a cell nowadays, so it was not problem. Still, it's one of those things you expect. The mount for the TV was falling off the wall in the bedroom area. As another reviewer mentioned, the pillows suck. My pillows smelled so strongly of suntan oil that I had trouble sleeping the first night and slept with a doubled up clean beach towel under my head. The shower seemed oddly small and very dark, though the water pressure was good and I didn't have any trouble with the drainage. Several items in the kitchen needed to be washed before they were used. Wi-fi was unusable for more than 30 minutes a day, and when it rained one evening, the layout of the sitting area/kitchen made it impossible to easily watch TV. We ended up going to bed because the angle was better (yes, two TVs in the room). That said, the deck with lots of chairs on it is very nice to have, and that end of Cocoa Beach is less commercial and crowded than it is farther north. Overall, the room was a little too expensive for what we got. I have family in Cocoa Beach, so I will definitely be returning to the area. However, we're gonna stay somewhere else. For $100 per night, I'd come back. At $160/night, my expectations were a lot higher. And now that I look at the site and see $115/night quoted for the current season, I feel ripped off. So, three stars.