What a wonderful home for a family! This was our first family vacation in 12 years and my kids are now grown and married with kids of their own. We were four blocks from the beach and three blocks from Ginny’s (great food, cinnamon rolls to die for!) Each of the couples had an ensuite. And we had a room for the kiddies too! Plenty of room for everyone to eat together, play cards or watch TV. The pool was a great size for sunning or playing. A huge covered area for those of us who can’t take too much sun. The kitchen is spacious with a large fridge. A local rental company had dropped off all the baby things we needed and so travel was light. A large golf cart got us around great with room for car seats for the little ones. (A must have for local laws.) I called ahead about beach towels and told there weren’t any but that was not the case. There are 8 beach towels. Also a hair dryer. (things I wouldn’t have had to pack had I known.) The grill was out of gas so we filled it. (your welcome) The upstairs alarm was on the floor when we got to the home as it looks like the adhesive wasn’t holding. We reported this. Then we realized that these alarms are SO loud the downstairs one would wake up the baby. ARGH. It is a safety feature we understand but if you want to come in from the outside there is no way to quiet it. Terrible design. the sliding door to the porch is huge and heavy and extremely difficult to open. (no worries that a two year old could do it) There is salt and pepper. We had to buy plastic wrap, foil, dish soap, dish sponge, trash bags, etc. We didn’t mind but of course how do you use those all up in one week? Hope the next family can use them. The couches have off white slip covers which was a constand point of stress for this Gigi and the momma when you have a two year old. Perhaps darker color would be a better choice. There needs to be a trash can in the downstairs area and some of the room didn’t not have trash cans either. The upstairs bedrooms really need ceiling fans. The rooms run hot at night. The is a need for a fan on the porch and REALLY need one in the downstairs outdoor area. There was no broom. Just a little whisk broom and the vacuum cleaner. Cleaning the floor was a challenge. The food from every restaurant was great! We loved the island and the house and our planning for a trip in 2021! thank you all!
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Jill, thank you so much for taking the time to let us know about your stay at Southern Exposure. It is such an amazing home and we are thrilled that you and your family had a well-deserved and long-overdue vacation together! We will definitely pass along your comments about the fans and the furnishings to the owners for thier consideration. Since this home is not on our linen program, we couldn’t guarantee the presence of beach towels so I’m glad that they were there fo your use. The alarms are quite loud, but as you stated, it is a safety feature mandated by the city which was instituted after a tragic event with a toddler getting out to the pool area of a home here on the island. Better safe than sorry when it comes to safety features. Anna Maria Vacations does provide a list of the items that we provide for our guests to use. There should have been a starter pack of dishsoap, trash bags, toilet paper, etc. We do not provide any items that are food related as guests have expressed concerns regarding the possibility of tampering ~ we chose to err on the side of caution. There is a dollar store on the island that sells small amounts of most necessary items for a week’s stay. We hope that we can welcome you back to Southern Exposure in the near future!
