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Our Getaway to Crown Reef Resort in Myrtle Beach

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I may make money when you purchase through them.

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!

Crown Reef Resort MB

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!

Crown Reef Room in Myrtle Beach

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:

View from balcony at Crown Reef

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

pool below our room at Crown Reef

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!

lunch at Loco Gecko

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:

sunrise MB

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.

Playing in the Fun Zone at Crown Reef

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.

Water Fun at Crown Reef

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.

On the Beach at Crown Reef MB

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marriage// Myrtle Beach// Purex Insider// reviews// travel// vacation13 Comments

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Comments

  1. Christina Shirley says

    October 15, 2014 at 11:19 AM

    Looks like a great trip. I want to go float down a lazy river now.

    Reply
  2. Christina Shirley says

    October 15, 2014 at 11:50 AM

    Looks like a great trip and a beautiful resort! I totally want to go now 🙂

    Reply
  3. Christina Shirley says

    October 15, 2014 at 12:05 PM

    Oh my gosh, it looks like you guys had a great time! I want to go!

    Reply
  4. Christina Shirley says

    October 15, 2014 at 12:11 PM

    OOOO I wanna go right now

    Reply
  5. Christina Shirley says

    October 15, 2014 at 3:38 PM

    My husband and I desperately need a little getaway, just the two of us! This looks like a wonderful place to stay. 🙂

    Reply
  6. Christina Shirley says

    October 15, 2014 at 4:13 PM

    What an amazing trip! Jealous! I’ve never been to Myrtle Beach before but have wanted to go ever since I saw the movie Shag!

    Reply
  7. Christina Shirley says

    October 15, 2014 at 5:54 PM

    Oh how nice that you won this vacation! So jealous, looks like you had a great time!

    Reply
  8. Christina Shirley says

    October 16, 2014 at 9:22 AM

    How fun! Looks like a great getaway 🙂

    Reply
  9. Christina Shirley says

    October 16, 2014 at 12:15 PM

    Looks like so much fun?

    Reply
  10. Christina Shirley says

    October 18, 2014 at 6:25 PM

    That view look so nice! And the pool looks pretty awesome too 🙂

    Reply
  11. Rosie says

    August 1, 2015 at 2:14 PM

    I was just looking at Myrtle Beach that a former co-worker has moved there, and I was thinking how nice it would be to live there! Wow, this is spectacular, it didn’t occur to me to take a vacation there, it is soo nice.

    Reply
  12. Christina Almond says

    August 3, 2015 at 3:45 PM

    Wow…that looks really awesome! Nice that you had the chance to go! 🙂

    Reply
  13. daria says

    December 5, 2015 at 1:21 AM

    Excellent review. You really make me want to stay there.

    Reply

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Meet Christina

Welcome to The Shirley Journey! I'm Christina, a thirty-something mom to two little boys. I love binge watching my favorite shows, whipping up tasty things in the kitchen with the kids, traveling with the family, and taking in all the craziness that is life in a house of boys. Grab a snack and hang out. Read More…

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