Watercolor Inn, Florida, Review
MM
Destin/Ft. Walton)
The Watercolor Inn is an absolutely gorgeous boutique hotel nestled
within a new resort community in the Florida panhandle. Straddling
scenic Highway 30 a few yards from the Gulf Coast, Watercolor features
striking architecture and superb quality touches in landscape design
and construction.
Unfortunately, abysmal service means that Watercolor delivers a poor
resort value. The staff at Watercolor is invariably friendly and
eternally chipper. Service however resembles your average Ramada Inn.
With a basic room rate of $250 per night, guests have a right to
dramatically better treatment.
My family and I rented a four-bedroom "cottage" for a reunion in May
2003. Our unit, Buttercup 144, was spacious, beautifully decorated
and extremely comfortable. Our only complaint with our 3,000 square
foot plus "cottage" was a lack of window coverings in the guesthouse
adjacent to the main cottage. The result was copious sunlight serving
as an alarm clock every morning at 6:00 a.m.
Our biggest disappointment was the newly opened Baithouse Restaurant.
Billed as a casual dining facility, dinner at the Baithouse runs about
$30 per person. The staff is charmingly enthusiastic but seemingly
have never worked, or even eaten, in an upscale dining establishment.
When making reservations I inquired about the corkage fee. The hostess
had never heard of corkage and thought I was joking when I explained
that I did indeed want to bring my own wine to dinner. The restaurant
does not allow patrons to bring their own wine.
The ordering process became quite arduous when our very pleasant young
waiter couldn't answer a single question about items on the menu. That
should have been the signal to order drinks and appetizers and move
elsewhere for our main meal. But having flown across the country and
driven for three hours we decided that convenience outweighed the
potential for culinary disaster.
As dining disasters go, the Baithouse Restaurant worked hard to earn a
thoroughly mediocre rating. The restaurant was certainly consistent.
Virtually everything served was slightly off. My steamed shellfish
platter had been cooked to leather like consistency. Others in my
party left behind most of the grilled fish and the only enjoyable
entrée was a rather pricey chicken. Speaking of pricey, wine prices
at Watercolor are stratospheric. We paid $24 for a bottle of Cline
Oakley Vin Rouge which sells for $5.99 at my local wine shop. Most
restaurants charge two to three times the wholesale cost of a bottle
of wine which meant that my bottle should have cost $15 at the
Baithouse.
Service in other areas of Watercolor is equally spotty. We spent most
of our time at the lovely pool near the Boat House complex because the
main pool was terribly overcrowded. The Boat House pool had plenty of
room, due in part to the fact that no towels were available despite
numerous requests. The resort has a lovely white sand beach swept by
cooling breezes off the Gulf of Mexico. My party of seven was
graciously greeted by the beach attendant who helped us set out beach
chairs and towels. And then asked for my room number so he could
charge us $10 per chair.
Watercolor also boasts a high-end restaurant named a Fish Out of
Water. The menu looked enticing but having suffered through a
miserable dining experience the previous evening we decided not to
risk another disappointing meal in Watercolor. We ended up eating a
fantastic pizza from a beach joint down the street called Barney's
washing down the pizza with the $120 bottle of Turley Zinfandel I
wanted to drink with our meal at the Baithouse.
In summary Watercolor has the potential to be a great resort. But
they have to either lower their prices to match their average service
or dramatically increase the level and quality of service to match
their premium prices.
We will avoid returning to Watercolor until we read some positive
reviews showing that Watercolor has its act together.