Fred in Colorado

Location: Depoe Bay, Oregon

Date of visit: October, 2004
Reviewer: Fred in Colorado

Resort/Unit Description: Situated on a bluff overlooking the Pacific ocean, this is probably one of the most popular resorts in the WorldMark family. When we first became involved with WorldMark in 2001 it was the "poster child" that was featured at the sales meetings. That is now changing, with the new predominately featured resorts being the large resorts with many amenities such as Las Vegas and Indio.

There are 11 three story buildings in the resort complex, all facing the ocean. The original phase 1 units face the ocean directly and the phase 2 units face a small bay. We occupied a ground floor 2 bedroom unit in phase 1. The layout is outside wall with a window that opens and then master suite. The dining area adjoins the living room and has a sliding glass door to the patio with the second bedroom and kitchen being nearer the main entrance from the parking lot. We left the master suite doors and the outside windows and patio door open every night. The windows have provisions to be locked open, but not the door. We put the box fan that was in the closet in front of the window to pull in fresh air.

It is a few blocks from the resort to downtown Depoe Bay. We walked into town several times. Depoe Bay itself is a small coastal town with shops and restaurants typical of a tourist town. We took a whale watching boat ride out of the harbor but did not see any whales on that trip. Some of the restaurants we visited were the Sea Hag in Depoe Bay; the Whale's Tale in Newport, which was my favorite; Port Dock One in Newport where you can watch the noisy sea lions below the deck; and Mo's, also in Newport.

The Good: Location, location, location. It has been reported that often you can watch whales from your deck at the resort, but that was not the case for us. We did spot and watch a whale in the bay while we were in town one day. Depoe Bay promotes itself as the whale watching capital of the Oregon, we would have been disappointed if we had not seen at least one whale.

The Bad: If you had 6 people in the 2 Br unit it would be very inconvenient. The living room contains a sleeper couch (no Murphy Bed here) so you would probably want to close the Master Suite doors. That would make it very stuffy in the bedroom since with the door closed there would be no ventilation from the outside windows in the living area. A ceiling fan in the master suite would be a welcome addition or perhaps a "fan" position on the central heat to circulate air.