South Seas

Under new ownership, South Seas is just not anywhere close to what it used to be. It used to be a fun, family-oriented resort with an old Florida beachy vibe. The new ownership is trying to completely change the vibe to something more "exclusive" that completely misses the mark for why people come to Captiva in the first place. Examples: (1) The new buildings they have built do not fit at all with the rest of the resort or with Captiva's funky old Florida charm. They are completely lacking in character. (2) They have a lot of nonsensical rules that are unfriendly and degrade the customer experience. For example, I was told I had to pour out my cup of coffee when entering the pool area because I had not bought it at one of their on site coffee shops (instead I bought it at a local off site shop -- gotta support the local economy!). They also restrict golf carts to those purchased from them (at 2x the price of the local vendors off site!). Final example -- no throwing balls in the pool (wouldn't want kids to have any fun now would we?!?). (3) They restrict access to even the most basic amenities to those who rent through the resort (even the fishing pier, and the new restaurants, which makes no economic sense for them). I realize that the new owners bought the resort right before back to back hurricanes caused extensive damage, and I am sympathetic to their financial plight. But if they want to get people back to the resort and start making money, they are going about it completely the wrong way -- with a very unfriendly and offputting approach!

Would appreciate any and all feedback from the community. I have a 3 bdrm 2 bath villa reserved at South Seas starting tomorrow. For the past week, including today, I've made 7 calls to ask what kind of coffee filter is to be used in the villa. The coffee filters available come prefilled with coffee which I will not use. Can anyone help with names and direct phone numbers of staff at the resort with some sense of responsibility and courtesy, who will be likely to answer my question? Imagine how frustrating it is to spend 9000 for 5 nights and receive this kind of "service". Thanks much.

Grounds are lovely, staff was very kind and friendly but room was sub par! The rate you charge is a luxury price tag so luxury accommodations is them expected. This was FAR from the case. Our beach villa had ants crawling all over the kitchen walls, counter and floor. The place smelt like a fish was caught and sliced up right on the counter. The room it self is very outdated. Would not recommend your resort.

On the positive side, South Seas is located on Captiva island, where the beaches are beautiful and the vibe is very laid back. Unfortunately, South Seas, much like the rest of Captiva, still appears to be trying to recover from Hurricane Ian. We stayed in two-bedroom beach "villa", which is really a condo. The unit was mostly clean, but definitely still had hair in the bathrooms and small bugs in the kitchen. Our unit didn't have a kitchen garbage can and we never received one despite asking every day for the first four days of our stay. The appliances in the unit were damaged and never appeared to have been installed correctly (dishwasher kept wanting to come out of the counter, the drawer on the bottom of the oven wouldn't close, and the fridge was severely uneven). We've stayed in a number of timeshare condos and these might be the loudest we've ever stayed in. You could hear everything through the walls in other units and if people were in the common areas/entryways to the units, it sounded like they might as well have been inside our unit. The staff is very friendly, but they appear to be severely short staffed. With the exception of the "steakhouse" restaurant, all of the others appeared to close between 5-6pm. This meant we had to walk into town any time we wanted to go out for dinner. The trolley is supposed to run every 20 minutes, but that also appears to end between 5-6pm. We were told about a silent disco the resort was having, but the trolley driver and main desk didn't appear to have any of that information, so had we not told the trolley driver we wanted to be picked up at 9:30pm after it was done, we'd have been left walking the 2 miles from that end of the resort back to our unit. There are also the resort fees. We expect to pay a resort fee for the unit. South Seas charges the fees per adult. Apparently we were supposed to be told about this when we checked in. The person who checked us in, Rex, never bothered to explain any of that to us. It wasn't until we got home and saw our final bill (which also wasn't available to us when we checked out due to "computer problems", so it was email to us) that we learned of the additional charges. There does appear to be a fair amount of nickel and diming on things. All in all the resort is trying to make a comeback. We talked to other people who'd stayed before Hurricane Ian and they said it was amazing back then. Now, the resort seems to be struggling to find workers. For what we were hoping was going to be a top-notch resort, South Seas left a lot to be desired. We'd love to go back to Captiva, but I don't know if we'll ever be back to South Seas.

We stayed at South Seas Island Resort and came away pretty disappointed—especially given the price point. To start with the positive, the location is undeniably beautiful. Captiva is a great area, and the setting itself is exactly what you’d hope for. But beyond that, the experience just didn’t match what you’re paying for. Our room had multiple basic maintenance issues: - The sink wouldn’t drain (hard to believe this wasn’t noticed during cleaning) - The dishwasher didn’t work - One of the TVs in the room didn’t function at all These are important details—they’re the kind of things you expect to be handled before a guest arrives, particularly at this price level. It seemed like the staff and management just aren’t focused on providing excellent service. Service across the property also felt very average at best. Nothing stood out in a positive way, and responsiveness was lacking. Another miss was at Flipper's on the Bay at Captiva Landing. We waited about 40 minutes for a very simple order (chicken tenders and hummus), and the pool was only about a quarter full. It makes you wonder how things would operate if the place were actually busy. Overall, the setting is great, but the execution just isn’t there right now. At this price point, expectations are higher—and this didn’t come close to meeting them.