Please compare water clarity—Ocean Pointe and Crystal Shores

[Quilter]

I have reservations at Crystal Shores next April.

We’re owners at OP and the water here is just beautiful. Crystal clear.

For those who have been to both, how do they compare?

 

[rickandcindy23]

Marco Island water is gorgeous, blue, crystal clear. I loved it there. We had back-to-back exchanges via II in January.

 

[2disneydads]

I've always preferred the water on Singer Island. It's already beautifully clear.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[dioxide45]

I have yet to see crystal clear water at Ocean Pointe, too much wave action. When I think of clear water, I think of Belize, Aruba or Bahamas but never Florida.

 

[Dean]

We preferred the beach at Crystal Shores by far.

 

[Superchief]

I find the water clarity on Singer Island to vary significantly by season and weather. It seems there are more clear water days in spring and summer, but I rarely see clear water in October-Nov when we typically go. We prefer the beach at Crystal shores because the white sand is prettier and beaches are much wider than Singer Island. The water is warmer and more calm, but there sharp shells in the sand as you enter the water. Beach walking is much easier at Crystal Shores because the sand is harder. I have gotten occasional leg cramps after long walks on Singer Island, especially during high tide due to the soft sand.

I find the beach at Ocean Pointe to be too narrow, but the water is beautiful on the clear, calm days. Oceana Palms definitely has a wider beach than Ocean Pointe, but Crystal Shore's beach is much larger than either.

 

[jimf41]

Clarity of water depends on a lot of different factors. Ocean Pointe 's waters are crystal in the Summer and early Fall. Late Fall And into early Spring its rough water and that churns up the bottom so it's not so clear. Marco is on the Gulf and while we've only been there in September the water was clear enough. The beach at Marco is what turns me off. It's primarily crushed sea shells not pure sand. That makes it cooler to walk on but it's very rough on your feet. Everybody walking or running on the beach was wearing some type of shoes.

If you go up the coast a little further at Siesta Key it's the same seashell/sand combo but much finer and easier to walk on without shoes.

 

[Quilter]

I found this webcam:

https://www.jwmarco.com/Webcam-68.html

I grew up in Florida and our preferred beach (near home) was Clearwater. Sarasota and Bradenton when we were in that area.

On the good days at Ocean Pointe we’ve had beautiful water. The seaweed puts off some people but I’ve gotten my head around it in several ways. First, it’s not slimy. It bobs and is easily pushed aside. The next thing I found about it is the benefits for the garden. Now I want to drive a truck down and take it home with me.

https://ashs.org/news/news.asp?id=403565

How many have found red tide to mess with your vacation at Marco.?

 

[KarenP]

I found this webcam:

https://www.jwmarco.com/Webcam-68.html

I grew up in Florida and our preferred beach (near home) was Clearwater. Sarasota and Bradenton when we were in that area.

On the good days at Ocean Pointe we’ve had beautiful water. The seaweed puts off some people but I’ve gotten my head around it in several ways. First, it’s not slimy. It bobs and is easily pushed aside. The next thing I found about it is the benefits for the garden. Now I want to drive a truck down and take it home with me.

https://ashs.org/news/news.asp?id=403565

How many have found red tide to mess with your vacation at Marco.?

Red tide was a big issue for us at Ocean Pointe last October. Could not go on the beach and on a couple of days had burning eyes and throat a bit near the pool.

 

[Quilter]

I began this thread after talking with a NJ woman who was visiting different areas of Florida looking for a retirement condo. She had been to St. Pete beach and said the water at OP was much clearer.

My first concern was simply water clarity but this thread has led me to many web links about Red Tide in the Gulf. I even found where it migrated through the Miami area over to the East Coast last October, like KarenP mentioned.

My sister recently asked if I had heard about the woman who died 2 days after walking the beach in Destin and my BIL asked if I had heard of someone contacting a flesh eating virus from the beach in Florida. Taking a lead from both of those comments I did look for and find news reports cautioning beachgoers about brackish waters (intercostal), open wounds in the water, and any signs of infection after being in the water.

We just spent a week at OP with the most beautiful weather and crystal clear water. We were fortunate to have storms blow around the area but never bother our days on the beach. The biggest impact to our stay was the crowding of the resort. This was totally understandable since it was 4th of July, summer break and OP is a great family resort. We worked around this by going out to the beach.

I guess another impact to our stay was the day the lifeguard at the public beach cleared the water after someone spotted a shark. When the whistle blew I was talking with the NJ woman I mentioned earlier. She was oblivious to the whistle and what it meant. I told her something was up and we needed to go in. While we were making our way to shore the green flag was being replaced with the red and then the lifeguard blew the airhorn. The shark was swimming north to south and came within 10' of the waters edge as it went by the OP beach. It was towards dinner time and a storm appeared imminent (although it blew away). We had enough beach for that day and came back a couple days later.

Information instead of ignorance. That's the purpose of certain websites.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/redtide-florida/
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-07-flesh-eating-bacteria-florida.html