The house is in a great neighborhood and located just down from a shopping plaza with a grocery store, Duck Donuts, Dirty Dick's Crab Shack and some other stores, which was nice. There's also a little elevated path across the street that leads to a small private beach which was cool. Lots of space for all of us to relax and loved that the bedrooms were almost all king beds, and really comfy ones at that - we all had a great night's sleep every night we stayed! The furnishings are super outdated though and really unappealing (e.g., coral walls, red couch) and not enough comfy seating in the TV room for more than 5/6 people unfortunately. A giant sectional would be a welcome upgrade, same with ottomans instead of clunky (and dangerous) glass coffee table/side tables. The "grill" was a hot mess, which we spent a solid 30 mins scrubbing down - it looks like one of those cheap camping grills you'd see at a rest stop. Investing in a real, proper gas grill would be a welcome upgrade too. The pool and hot tub were great, although the pool is quite small. We were shocked at the charge to heat it and disappointed the 'max temp' was only 80 degrees (for context, we have a 20x40 large inground pool at our house, and the actual cost to heat it to 90 degrees, which is what we keep it at, is less than 10% of what we were charged for Coral Castle... and we live in the next state so I can't believe it's NC power rates that make up that 90% upcharge). The elevator also malfunctioned while we were there and when we reported it, we got a message saying "sorry, we'll let the local management team know" but it was never fixed. Luckily we were all able-bodied but that could have been a huge issue had we had a handicapped person in our party. We were also surprised at the lack of outdoor furniture (again for context, we have multiple cushioned loungers and outdoor sofas at our house) but suppose that may be on account of the insane winds that apparently impact the outer banks every day. Overall I give Coral Castle 4 stars - it definitely has the potential to be 5, but needs updated furnishings, a better grill, and more reasonable pool heating charges.
