PGA National Resort

staying for 3 days to play golf. Nice enough place, ok rooms but amazingly the resort has no real room service. I ordered a steak and salad with a desert on line and it arrived in boxes like it was take out. No plates, cutlery or anything. as there is nothing in the room and no way of eating it. By the time I got a plate and a knife and fork from one of the restaurants it was of course cold. Spoke to managers, staff, and it is very clear that no one here cares.

Outstanding! The staff couldn’t have been more accommodating. Since this is a very dog friendly resort, I had no problems enjoying it with my dog. The lovely young woman at the front desk made certain that I had a room which accessed a large grassy area and it was perfect for navigating my walks with my dog. The valet staff were like family. They took care of my car as if it were their own and made it very easy for me to access it each time I left and returned. The restaurants were great. The lobby is beautiful and the swimming pool area is gorgeous. A friend came and visited me and the lobby was a wonderful area to enjoy a chat with my friend. The most important thing is that this is a very happy place. The staff are amazing. Thank you PGA for making your resort a home away from home!

Where do i start? We booked a one week vacation so my 20 something son could work on his golf game, i could play some tennis, and my wife could play some pickleball, and we would all relax. Weeks before we came we couldn’t get any consistent information from the tennis people as to lesson times and clinics for pickleball and tennis. We almost cancelled our flights it was so disorganized. Golf wasn’t much better, but eventually my son reached someone at the golf center, and we got what we could from the racket sports people. We arrived at midday in our rental car, and were checked into our 2 bedroom cottage. These cottages are not actually on the property, they are in an adjacent community made up mostly of more permanent residents. The facilities there are minimal, but the cottages are literally 1000 steps from the main hotel, so it wasn’t that big a deal. Would have been nice if they told us that up front when we booked, though. The cottage was clean and reasonably comfortable, except there was not a stitch of decoration anywhere, and the outdoor furniture had no shade and no lounge chair. In Florida. Useless. We had trouble sleeping the first night, because the primary bed was sponge. Apparently it was on warped boards instead of a box spring, so the next day they brought plywood to put under the mattress, and it was somewhat better. There were holders for q tips, cotton balls, etc, but none were there. There was one towel per person, which is difficult in a sports resort in a very hot state. After we asked 3 times we were given additional towels. There were light bulbs out in the living room, and a socket in the second bedroom was hanging off the wall. Again, these items were fixed after we asked a couple of times, but why didn’t someone check the place before we got there? As we used items in the room we noticed that they were not replaced. Toilet paper was a particular issue. Apparently you have to ask for them to bring more. A) Why? And B) if that’s the case, maybe tell us? We had lunch the first day at Honeybelle. We were THE ONLY PEOPLE there. And the service was almost nonexistent. i should mention that we entered from the pool side, since that’s how we found the restaurant, and we were told we could sit anywhere. The host later made a point to come see us. To welcome us to the restaurant you might think? No, to say that in the future we should stop at the front table before sitting down. Duly chastised, we got menus quickly enough, and they took our orders, but then everyone began to drag the outdoor furniture around making an ungodly fingernails on the chalkboard (millennials, feel free to google “chalkboard”) racket, and when we had questions or needed water the people dragging stuff apparently spoke little or no English, so we couldn’t find a waitress. The food was pretty good, but nothing special. I can’t imagine how they got a James Beard award. Breakfast at Birdys the next day was much more professional, and the milk shakes were top notch. The tennis and pickleball center is a hot mess. Everyone there is really nice, but there is no central booking system for lessons and clinics. The result is that you ask the person at the computer if there are open lesson times, they then say they don’t know but they will check with the pros, then you wait for someone to finish up a lesson and get back to you. So you’re stuck waiting it out and you can’t plan the rest of your day. And you can sign up for clinics, but if they don’t get enough people they cancel the day before anyway, so you are stuck with nothing for the day. There should be a central booking system, so that each pro works whatever hours they work, they each have slots to fill, and the system shows all the open slots. How hard is that? Everyone else in the country does it. There is no real way to get into games, they don’t organize anything like that, and the one open mixed doubles night is run by a local person (who is very nice by the way), but the club has no way to get you into that game either. The pros themselves are fine, but they need about 3 more of them. Plenty of empty courts, no pros. And when i wanted to go on a court myself to practice serving, they said they don’t give out balls for people to practice. And if i wanted to use a free pickleball court to play with my wife, they charge $15 a day to borrow a paddle. The golf is much better organized, yet still confusing. Apparently there are 2 golf programs there. The first is the PGA group. The second is an independent school that works out of the golf area. My son did the PGA, and my wife did the other one, and they were both very happy. Score one for golf. Each night we went out to dinner with friends in different towns. We typically came home after 8, when the guards close the gates to the cottage community. The first night we came home we were asked for ID, which we gave the guard, who then called the hotel while we waited 10 minutes to get in. He told us we need a gate pass. The next morning we went to the front desk and asked for a gate pass, but we were told there was no such thing, so night 2 we got stopped again, and detained again. We were assured a second time that there was no gate pass, and that the guard was given a list every night of who was staying and we should have been let right in. Night 3 was Super Bowl Sunday, and having left our party mid 3rd quarter of the blowout, we got back in time to watch most of the 4th quarter. But no. This time they wouldn’t let us in at all, so we went to the main hotel and they gave us a ticket that apparently hangs on the rear view mirror. We were given one when we checked in, but it just said our departure date, and it said nothing about the car, parking, a gate, or anything, so we hung it on the door for housekeeping. Who knew? Now they let us in, but we missed pretty much all of the 4th quarter. And the next day the hotel called us to explain that the community hires their own security at that gate, so it’s not really their fault. I told them that we contracted with them, and we couldn’t care less who hires the gate guards, it was the hotel’s responsibility to get us easy access to our room, and to explain what the parking pass was. How hard is it to print, “Car Pass” or “Please put this in the car” on the otherwise blank pass? Other facilities include a pool area at the main hotel, which is very nice. There are plenty of chairs and umbrellas during the week, but it gets tight on the weekends. Apparently there are a lot of local people who are members who come on the weekends. The food and drinks at the pool come from Honeybelles, and it was fine. The burgers and pizzas were actually better than fine, and the service at the pool is far better than the service we got in the restaurant itself. There is a bit of an attack bird issue after you eat, but if you make sure they take your stuff away when you are done it’s not too bad. There is a really nice gym at the tennis center, never crowded and with lots of equipment, along with another pool. The pool is almost always empty, but there is no shade of any kind and no service. The spa at the hotel looks nice, but the prices are ludicrous. $225 plus taxes plus 20% for a one hour massage. Even if you get a $200 a day facility credit with your room, like we did, the would use that up plus $100 to get a massage. We heard the gym at the hotel itself was okay, but we never actually saw it. The steak restaurant on the premises, the Butcher’s Club, is highly rated, and we have a reservation for Saturday. Can’t really tell you much about it except that it’s priced like a NY steakhouse. All in all this has been a reasonably enjoyable vacation, but to call this a five star hotel is a joke. It is a 3 star experience, with friendly yet poorly trained staff. If you go in with that expectation you will be fine, especially if you’re a golfer not a tennis player. The resort was recently purchased by an experienced hospitality firm, so hopefully it will be improving steadily over the next couple of years. Would i recommend it? Not right now. Would i discourage someone from staying here? No, wouldn’t do that either, but I’m not likely to come back, mostly because of the racket program.

I stay at this hotel because my father is a member of the community, so I really wish the experience would be better when the rates are so expensive. 5 star prices for sure, but not a 5 star stay: Cost: Everything is overpriced and they add 20% gratuity automatically (even at the “market” for bottled drinks, snacks, and coffee) so no one working there has any incentive to provide great service. Oh and be careful of the “free breakfast” because it is actually just a $25 credit. Rooms and Pool: The rooms are okay, but the decor somehow looks very dated even though they just redid it a few years ago. The pool area is very nice, but the towels are unbelievably cheap and thin, so you need at least four of them to even cover the lounge. Service: My biggest issue with my most recent stay is with the pool waitstaff and the bartender (Brendan maybe? His arm was in a sling). I ordered a margarita without any extra sugar when I arrived at the pool. A bit later, my dad stopped by and we had lunch and I ordered a 2nd drink. When my dad got the tab for the lunch, I saw the drink was $30 because the bartender had poured top shelf tequila. I immediately closed out my own tab which was about $37 (one drink, tax, and auto 20% tip). After I walked away my dad says he asked this bartender about it, and the bartender said I had requested that tequila. You know, it’s one thing to pour expensive liquor in a MIXED drink without asking, but to then lie about it…. $74 for two drinks SMH The next day I was wiser and when I ordered from the waiter walking around I specifically requested “well or house” tequila. He delivered my drink and never came back for two and a half hours. I guess I didn’t deserve any service because I wasn’t with a large group ordering a whole bunch of expensive drinks, like the people at the other end of the pool who did receive attention. I had to go find the guy to close my tab. The girl who checked me out took the $37 charge from Saturday off my bill, thanks for that… but the whole thing was awkward and uncomfortable for no reason. And then to be ignored the next day by another employee… this visit put such a bad taste in my mouth. Just to give credit where it is due: the housekeeping services were lovely and Angel at Honeybelle was too.

Soft towels, frozen drinks and sunshine. Danielle at the pool was so attentive and sweet. She remembered our orders from previous days and knew what we wanted before we did. Very professional. She made a relaxing pool day with friends even better!