Waterfront Serenity (Unit A): Hot Tub & Views

The house was beautifully appointed and in a lovely location right on the Balboa Bay. We walked most locations while there.One big problem with the property (as it related to staying there with kids) was very unreliable internet. My kids are 4-10 years old, and to wind down in the evening we wanted to turn on a movie. The internet was regularly failing. I was able to connect a TV to my phone’s wireless hotspot, but that works for a single TV, so everyone has to be in the central room. If you’re staying there with people who all have their own devices I’m sure it’s fine. The cleaners were late getting out, preventing us from accessing the property until about 30 minutes after our scheduled check-in time. VRBO compensated us for this, but it definitely made getting in stressful (4 kids in the car for 6 hours, you can imagine).Overall the property was very nice, it was wonderful to be able to open the bay-facing doors, but for the price I was pretty frustrated with the experience. For over 1,000 a night, my expectation is that things are seamless, and they really were not.

The home was wonderful and had plenty of room for a group of 6 adults. We did cook every night so the kitchen was a little tight if you really like to cook, but we made it work. It had most of the kitchen products we liked, but I would bring some storage items if you like leftovers to eat the next day. We loved playing games on the 2nd level, and we loved the location and views day & night. We enjoyed opening all the doors each night as we cooked. We did not use the advertised hot tub due to the fact that it did not have enough water, was not clean, nor had any chemicals in it. Sort of a bummer for 2 in our group. We had two cars which there was room for, but very very tight to pull in and out. Would stay again, if we go back to Newport!

Overall we had a very nice stay.One smoke alarm was chirping when we arrived and then another at 6am on departure day. Make up mirror in 2nd floor front bedroom is broken and neither ice maker works