Edited the wiki.
This place is awesome! Highly recommended.
While
@mmgfarb was battling
half the Jewish community in America in FLL we were enjoying this nice and quiet waterfront community.
The only downsides to it (for us) are the lack of direct flights from JFK and the lack of food. We were originally booked on AA from LGA with a stop in CLT but as time went on we realized the hassle of lga with a stopover and figuring out what to pack and how given that we needed lots of items for Shabbos and the thought of all the checked bags we'd have to pay for made us decide to drive there instead. So thanks the priceline's cancellation policy we cancelled the tix and psyched ourselves up for the 10.5 hour drive.
Driving allowed us to take anything and everything we wanted and in this case we literally needed the kitchen sink since we'd have to make all the meals ourselves and we'd also not have to worry about renting a car and car seat etc..
So we packed up the car and off we went, we left about 8:30 pm and with one stop for gas we got there at 7:30 am. At about 1:15 am in the middle of nowhere traffic came to a complete standstill for 20 minutes so with that delay and the stop for gas we made the trip in 11 hours.
We stayed at the dunes village, (added it to the wiki) (shoutout to
@Avs175 and
@efflpetzel for their help) for their water parks which were great, the kids loved it. Got a spacious 2 bedroom for $129/night after all tax and fees because it's off season. The same room in the summer is well over $300.
The dunes is very old and very dated but we stayed for the waterparks since it's the only one that has it indoors. Almost every hotel in MYR has some sort of "water park" but they are all outside and in 50 degrees that's not really an option.
After being in the waterpark for the whole morning we set out to walmart to get all the items we needed that were not brought along and then off to the Food Lion (added to wiki) to see what kosher items they offered.
We also strolled down the boardwalk which was amazing, I've never been to a beach town "off season" (Miami is always busy it's just a matter of
how busy) and it was so pleasant, peaceful and quiet. Yes, it wasn't hot or humid by far and you couldn't go swimming outside and certainly couldn't go into the ocean but it wasn't that cold either, during the day it was in the high 50's - 60 and only at night did it get cold enough to make you want to go inside.
Another thing we liked about the dunes was that the water park was only open to registered guests of the hotel unlike kalahari and camelback which allow day passes which make the place even more crowded and unbearable. I'd say there were less then 10 people at anytime including us in the water park which was exactly what we wanted and why we even schlepped out there to begin with.
There are lots of activities to do and they are all located within a few minutes of each other but lots of them are seasonal and were closed. But if we had more time we would've done the trampoline park (added to wiki) the ripley aquarium and the wax museum which were indoors and open.
For Shabbos we stayed at the Ocean 22 Hilton (added to wiki) because it was closer to chabad, the dunes is about a 45 min walk and the hilton is 20 min. The hilton is light years ahead of the dunes in terms of look and feel, it's newly built and it was nice to be back in a modern place. We booked a 1 bedroom because it's much, much more expensive it was $160/night but in the back of my mind I knew that it's off season so I figured at checkin I'd ask for a 2 bedroom and that's exactly what I did and sure enough she upgraded it on the spot :-)
Chabad was a mix of chabad and sefardi, I've never been to anything like it before and I was caught off guard. I went for shacharis on Thursday morning which was called for 8 at 7:55 when I showed up there was 1 guy there :-( and they finally got started about 8:20 and 9:15 they were just finishing laining :-( :-(. I had been there for an hour and fifteen minutes already and they still were not done. We were intending on going to chabad for lunch on Shabbos but after my experience on Thursday I realized that it would not work for us. I am not a yekki by blood but I am by personality and if time means nothing I can't stand it. So we ran to food lion and bought stuff for a chulent.
On Shabbos at chabad I met a guy (much older then me) from Brooklyn who said he's been coming here for random Shabbosim for years because he loves the peace and quiet it offers.
After Shabbos the kids went swimming in the indoor pool and again we were the only ones there, woo hoo! Sunday morning we headed back, stopped for krispy kreme and gas in VA and we got back Sunday night also took 11 hours.
All in all a great time was had by all, I can't say I'd make the drive again anytime soon and I would first look for direct flights but for those who do have direct flights this is a great getaway.
PS. After telling over my chabad experience to some people they told me that chabad is notorious when it comes to time. I always thought it was chasidim who have no concept of time but I see now chabad also.