Our Getaway to Crown Reef Resort in Myrtle Beach

I won a trip from Purex Insiders and Crown Reef Resort, but all opinions are our own.

We just got back from an amazing 4 nights away! When was the last time you went away without the kids? For us, it had been since our honeymoon (a little over 4 years ago).

Instead of that long drive (which we just took 3 weeks prior with the boys), we flew from BWI to Myrtle Beach. I didn’t even realize MB had an airport, but they do! It’s small and cute, but has everything you need. The Crown Reef Resort shuttle picked us up from baggage claim and dropped us off at the resort check-in. I was a little nervous about arriving so early in the morning (10am) and that our room wouldn’t be ready, but after just about 10 minutes, we were handed our keys and off we went!

I was taken away by the massive size (514 rooms) of this resort! We found an elevator and located our room on the 8th floor. This is the beautiful room we discovered upon walking in!

This is not your average hotel room. There were four separate rooms: a bedroom, a kitchen,  a bathroom, and a living room. You can shut the doors between the living room and kitchen and living rooms. The bedroom has two queen beds, a closet, a dresser, a chair, and a television. In the kitchen, we found brand new appliances, pots, pans, and dishes, a coffee maker, toaster, just about anything you’d want in your kitchen at home- it was here.  A full kitchen is a must for us on vacation. We like being able to save money and cook meals in house instead of eating out every meal, especially with children. The living room had a pull-out couch, a chair, a bed that folded down from the wall, another television, and a dining room table with four chairs. And… then there’s the balcony!

This is straight out from our balcony:

And then straight down,  you can see one of the MANY pools that the Crown Reef offers.

We had a lazy day Thursday after we arrived. We spread out, watched tv, and generally just hung out. The suite was so much more than just a room. We never felt like we were boxed in or confined because it was so roomy. At one point, Tom was watching something in the bedroom and I was watching something else in the living room. It was just nice to veg out and be ourselves without little people pulling on us and demanding things.

Eventually, we drug ourselves out of the room and went to check out the Loco Gecko for a late lunch. Sure, a lot of hotels and resorts have restaurants attached, but they’re not always really worth eating at. This was definitely an exception and I’d eat here any day. Tom had a burger (I didn’t pay attention what kind because I was trying to decide) and I finally decided upon a Broken Taco salad. It was delicious and practically licked the bowl clean!

After lunch we took a walk down the beach to the pier. It was beautiful and so peaceful to just wander around. When we got back to the room, some more laziness ensued, we had Chinese delivered and spent the evening relaxing.

In the morning, I walked out on the balcony and caught this:

Yup, from our balcony! How awesome is that? We sat on the balcony and Tom had his coffee while watching the sun come up.

We ate breakfast 3 times from the buffet. It’s not a free buffet, but in my opinion- totally worth the money. The food was great: pancakes or french toast, sausage, bacon, eggs, fresh fruit, sausage gravy and biscuits, and more. It was a little confusing because it was served in the Grab & Go Grill and Coffee Bar every day except our last. It apparently went back up to the 3rd floor dining room.

During our stay we took a few walks on the beach, Tom played in the ocean, we swam in some of the pools, floated around in the lazy river, went down some water slides, played some arcade games, indulged in some ice cream, spent some time in the hot tub, ate a ton of food, and completely enjoyed ourselves.

The Crown Reef has undergone a major remodel in the past year. As I said earlier, the rooms have brand new appliances, new paint on the walls (some walls are completely new), and pretty much new everything! While we were there, we saw quite a bit being done as they are continuously improving things. We passed painters many times, but they certainly weren’t in the way. If you’ve been here before, it certainly looks different now! I hear the elevators are next up on the upgrades.

They spent over $2 million on the waterpark addition to the resort and it is awesome! I only went down the TWISTER body slide once. It took my breath away it was so fast. Also, I like being able to sit up and see where I’m going. The kids were lined up for this one though. The EXPLOSION tube waterslide was my favorite of the two. It was fast and fun! Adults and kids were both taking advantage of this one! The lazy river was probably my favorite thing to do down in the pool area though. Nothing beats parking your butt in a tube and floating around. At 575 feet, it’s the longest oceanfront lazy river in Myrtle Beach.

The lazy river, waterpark, and several pools will remain open all year. They’re working on enclosing the water park area right now.

My biggest complaint about our stay is the large amount of children that were running around the pool/spa area unattended. That’s not Crown Reef’s fault though. I can’t imagine the amount of staff they would need to just collect these kids and deliver them back to their parents. I couldn’t get over the amount of kids that were jumping in and out of the hot tubs and the lazy river. It just completely blew my mind that there were no parents in sight.

Anyway… other than that, our stay was amazing and we would definitely stay at Crown Reef again. As you can see, it’s a great place for families with kids or without. It truly is a resort that you don’t need to leave. The food on-site is great, there are games for the kids to play and prizes they can earn, a waterpark,  and oceanfront beach access.

Connect with Crown Reef on Facebook, Twitter, and their website.