Silver Beach W1704 is a great family home base on the Emerald Coast. 4.5 stars, could be improved another half-star if Compass Resort after-hours support was improved. Would return. You would be very happy here.
Penthouse is exactly as pictured on Compass Resort's website. Views, are, of course, fantastic. Pools are clean and large and well-maintained (the east one appears to be heated). Two fenced-in lawns are great for ball games. At least 3 gas grills are available at the west end (and perhaps at the east end, too). Convenient access right on the beach, great beach service (penthouse comes with 1 set of 2 beach chairs and 1 umbrella; beach service also offers many activities and a snack bar). Note the sun sets on the north side of the building at the time of our visit.
Very convenient to everything. We love Merlin's Pizza, Starbucks (at Matthews Drive), Publix at Paradise Key, Marina Cafe, The Back Porch (can walk to it on the beach), Lousianna Lagnaippe. Only Vue on 30a was a longer drive, but well worth it. Lots of shopping around. Consider the rather constant and busy traffic flow when traveling (for example, it took us 25-35 minutes to get to the Baytowne Wharf shopping district).
We've stayed at two other beach resorts in the area, and found this penthouse to be the most well-stocked (especially important to us in the kitchen). We loved the glass coffee cups and crystal beverage glasses in particular. The *functioning* ice machine was awesome. The kitchen had every item we needed to make meals, including more than enough dinnerware, 3 coffee machines (one is a Keurig), casserole dishes, utensils, two 4-slot toasters, barware including multiple wine openers, toaster oven, electric can opener, etc. Furnishings are alignment with the capacity -- the dining room table seats 10 or 12, as does the living room. Spacious pantry, largest refrigerator to accomodate perishable food for 10. The only thing we (always) bring with us is a knife sharpener. Washer and dryer are in the utility room located at the end of the 2nd-floor hallway and worked well.
Parking is clearly numbered/reserved (big bonus), adequate and spacious -- no near misses with lots of cement columns and enough room to back out and make turns with SUVs. Minus a half-star for missing instructions in the after-hours packet: our parking tags were for spaces 26 and 27...which are not marked. Our penthouse came with a two-car garage in the parking structure (very nice!), so look for "W1704" way on top of the garage door instead. There is an external garage door key pad (code is not provided in instructions) and one garage door opener (which is not for the parking structure door, which was randomly closed on 2 of our 7-day stay--use your key fob and not your garage door code for that).
Three key fobs were provided, so we coordinated (family of 10). Key fobs are needed for all doors (parking structure, door to elevators from garage, lobby, beach-side entrances) *except* the entrance to the penthouse, where the physical key is required and does not open the deadbolt lock (we found out the hard way). Again, minus a bit on the rating for absent instructions. Would be much more convenient if after-hours key drop were located at the garage level (it is outside the lobby doors) and instructions addressed what to do with the garage door opener. Rubber bracelets are provided; we didn't notice anyone checking for them at the entrances to the beach or pool area.
The penthouse provides generous "starter" items (minus a tiny bit on the rating for an inaccurate and much shorter list provided via phone call by Compass Resorts). 2 rolls of single-ply toilet paper, 2 facial soaps and 2 bath soaps in each bathroom. 2-ounce bottle of dish soap, scrubbie, 3 dishwasher detergent tabs and 3 trash can liners in the kitchen. I think there may have been 1-2 rolls of paper towel as well. We missed a broom, and found the vacuum cleaner to be on its way out. We did find dirty dinner plates half-way through the stack; in the dishwasher they went.
5 bedrooms are all very clean and comfy and well-appointed. Linens are white and clean (although we found one used towel in one bathroom). Only the master suite is on the beach side. 2 kings, 1 queen and 1 two twins are on the north side; one king and the two twins is upstairs. The kings have en-suite bathrooms. Each floor has one bathroom not in a bedroom. Kings also have balconies (I didn't check the other two rooms). The downstairs king shares a wall with the kitchen; I didn't notice any noise. Road noise was not disturbing unless a particularly loud car or semi drove by.
Air conditioning functioned very well, with a control on each level.
Rating would be 5 stars if after-hours support were improved. Compass Resorts provides and encourages use of its "Guest Portal", where we found little useful information (we already know our reservation number). "After-hours" instructions would be significantly improved IMHO: in addition to the content about rules and fines for unreturned key fobs, content about how to use what is provided in the packet would be fantastic, especially for customers that are travel-weary arriving after dark. In particular: penthouses have garages inside the parking structure and are NOT labeled with the parking space numbers on the provided car door tags (ours were 26 and 27 for W1704; I reluctantly had to call the emergency number to figure it out). Garage door opener is for this garage and not for the gate at the entrance to the parking structure, which opens via key fob and not the garage door opener code). This gate was randomly closed 2 of the 7 days of our stay. Provide the garage door key pad code in the packet, especially since only one garage door opener is provided. Key fobs work all over EXCEPT for the door to the penthouse, where the physical key works EXCEPT for the deadbolt lock. It would even be helpful to note that the "CheckIn" option in the Guest Portal doesn't appear until (xx?) hours before the 4-6pm checkin window....and I'm not sure what I did to get the "Check In" to change to "Check Out".
Great instructions on where the after-hours key drop was located. Key drop would be even more conveniently located if it were on the garage level instead of the lobby level. Instructions for the garage door opener would have been very helpful. We left ours inside the garage because we didn't know if it would fit in the key drop (seems like it would, in hindsight) and how you would know it was for this unit even if we did. I left messages via the Guest Portal in at least two places (check-out notes, Guest Services request) and still received a call from the lobby asking where our stuff was.