Review:Worldmark Seaside

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

Worldmark Seaside 7/14/12-7/21/12

Unit 4418 - 1 bdr/1 bath

The resort is U shaped with the office, heated pool and 2 hot tubs in the middle. *It sits right on the beach and right on Broadway, the busiest commercial street in Seaside, OR. *It is 8 floors high. *The units closest to the ocean are the 3 bdr units at the end of each leg of the U. *The 2bdr units make up the rest of the units along the sides of the resort. *The 1 bdrs are across the base of the U, the farthest from the ocean, but, they have a straight-on view. *Covered parking is available in the attached parking garage.

The central location is great. *There is a wide concrete promenade that runs both north and south of the resort along the beach. *The beach is wide and a great place to fly a kite. *I counted a couple of dozen of them in the air one day. Part of the reason for that is that the ocean is coooold, even in July. *

The room was a good size. *Everything was in good shape. *There was a Murphy bed in the L/R instead of a pullout sofa. *In my opinion, that would have been much more comfortable to sleep on than any sofa bed ever made if we had brought guests with us. *There was also a gas fireplace in the L/R that we actually used a couple of times in the morning (in July!!) to take chill out of the air. *Every unit also has a plumbed in gas grill on the balcony with a table and a couple of chairs. *That's a nice feature for families who want to eat in. *We also had a rack sized washer and dryer in the unit.

We took the ride south to Tillamook to see the cheese being made. *That's good for about 15 minutes of fun. *Luckily the scenic views on the way made the trip more worthwhile. *On the way home we had lunch at the Pirates Cove. *It's a little pricey but it sits right on the water.

We rode north to Long Beach, WA. *Not a lot to see going in that direction. *Long Beach is similar but smaller than Seaside. *

We did not have a great week as far as the weather goes. *Only one sunny day all week. *Temps never reached 70. *Since we came here to escape the heat of the desert, we were ok with that.

Our restaurant reviews:
Boardwalk at the Shiloh - good bar food - we did not eat in the restaurant
Maggie's on the Prom - Easily the best meal we had all week, limited bar*
McKeowns - average
Norma's - Best chowder, good food. *Gets very crowded on weekends
Pignpancake - very forgettable omelets. *
Finn's - the place was half empty on Saturday night but they told us it would be 20 mins before we were seated. *We found the bar in the back and we were able to order from there immediately. *The food was ok but looking at all of the free tables and being told we had to wait put us off a bit. *

The resort has 10 percent off coupons for all of the nearby restaurants.

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

About how long of a drive is it to the Tillamook cheese factory?

Are there markets in walkable distance? We will mostly be eating in.

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

Tillamook is about an hour away. There is a Safeway less than a half mile away just before you turn left off 101 to get to the resort.

I forgot to mention that there is a gym with 4 treadmills, 4 bikes, 2 elipticals and weights and a game room with 2 pool tables, a ping pong table and about 10 pinball/ arcade games.

[StressCadet Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close StressCadet]

You are absolutely correct about the WM Murphy beds. They are way better than any sleeper sofa. My son (20) usually ends up on the murphy bed and he never complains. Many of the WM resorts have them (not all...but most)
Thanks for the great report!

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

Boardwalk at the Shiloh - good bar food - we did not eat in the restaurant
Maggie's on the Prom - Easily the best meal we had all week, limited bar*

Are both of these walking distance?
Was there a good kite shop on the boardwalk?

Been waiting over year, but my trip is finally within reach.

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

Are both of these walking distance?
Was there a good kite shop on the boardwalk?

Been waiting over year, but my trip is finally within reach.

The Shiloh is the building to the right of the WM looking towards the beach. Maggie's is a short walk in the other direction.

Don't know about the kites question.

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

My Seaside visit is coming up at the end of the month. Do you think I need to bring mostly cool day clothes?

And, can you refresh my memory about driving to Seaside from the Portland airport? Google maps shows it to be a 2 drive.

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

My old man memory says 90+ minutes but not 2 hours. There were a lot of people pulled over for speeding on the trip there and the trip back. It was cold when we were there in mid-July last year. Never hit 70. I just checked this weeks forecast and its all over the place. High of 80 tomorrow and then down to a high of 65 not too many days after that.

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

Looks like it will be cold and cloudy while I am there.
Is is worth driving down to Depoe Bay? It says they have the best whale watching 10 months out of the year, but it doesn't say which 10 months.

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

That depends, is 105 miles a long drive for you? It is for me. It's not exactly highway miles either. Lots of towns along the way.

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

I'm here and a bit bored. The drive from PDX to Seaside was gorgeous. I guess we will drive out and look for something to do. Looks like the Cannon Beach area has lots of things to look at and explore.

People seem a lot more comfortable letting their young kids run around unsupervised than what I am used to seeing in California beach areas. Makes me think it's a lot safer around here.

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

The pool's heated. There are air hockey and pool tables in the lounge at the back of the building. Ping Pong, too, I think. There is a small Aquarium north on the Prom. There's was a condo for sale just south on the Prom. If you have a spare 185K you could check it out and buy it and give your TS friends great summer rental rates. If all else fails, crack open a bottle of wine or your favorite adult beverage!

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

Adding on here regarding my recent stay, July 2013.

We had a 3 bedroom/2 bath deluxe unit. I was told it was a 3 bath, but that was by the owner and I think he was just mistaken.
Gas fireplace in the living room and grill on the patio, which was used every day. It was very nice to have the grill right there on our patio. Made all the difference in the world.

Master bedroom had king bed and large bathroom with jetted tub. Double pane windows helped with the noise, but if we even barely cracked open the window, the noise from the pool area was extremely loud.

One bedroom had a double bed. The other had 2 twins. There was a murphy bed in the living room, but we never pulled it out.

Having laundry in our room and enough detergent for 2 full loads was appreciated.

We were called every day and often more than once. They never asked us to attend a sales presentation, but asked if we had everything we needed, etc. The night when they called at 10pm annoyed me, but that only happened once.

We saw the pool close for about an hour after someone pooped in the pool. We watched them fish it out with a net and put up caution tape while they let the chemicals do their work. It grossed us all out enough that none of us used the pool. The 2 jacuzzis were very large, but always completely full of people. So, we didn't use those, either.

I didn't care for the town of Seaside. We drove south to Cannon beach twice, which was awesome. We did some nature hikes and visited Astoria to the north. It seemed like anywhere we went, we like more than we like the town of seaside. I have no desire to ever go back, but if I did, the resort was fine and I wouldn't have a problem with staying there again.

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

I agree about the noise. The U shaped configuration seems to make everything bounce around in there. We did not receive the daily calls but it was more than once that they called. One was a sales call. One time they called and asked for the person we rented from. I was going to try to do my best BocaBum imitation but since I have never talked to him it would have been tough. Somehow we missed out on Cannon beach. We have seen pools taped off at other resorts but we never saw the agonizing details that you guys saw. What was your warmest day as far as temperature? Did you have sun? We were cloudy for all but one day...

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

What was your warmest day as far as temperature? Did you have sun? We were cloudy for all but one day...

Around 60 with very high humidity. It was cold outside, but there were times when we would have run the air conditioner if there was one. We only had sun in Seaside for about an hour. It was very cloudy, no rain. We had one very cold and windy visit at Cannon Beach and one sunny visit. Just about everywhere else we went was sunny. The clouds seemed to like hanging around Seaside.

Forgot to mention the BigFoot bar/restaurant. I only had a beer there, but the theme of the place was all BigFoot stuff. According to the bartender, many people who go there are firm believers. We wanted to go back for a meal, but having a grill on our patio made it too easy to eat at the room.