My family of 4 stayed at the Ocean Reef July 29th through August 6th '07. Stayed in the Parlor suite. The view was great...ocean front! Good sized room. We had 2 queen beds + queen size sofa bed. Kitchen is limited, especially the fridge space (under the counter size) with no place to store food but we managed ok. Rooms would need to be updated or at least the bathroom redone. The staff didn't pay much attention to us at all. A simple smile while crossing one another is usual custom at 2 other hotels we've stayed at in the last 2 years but not at this hotel. While check in no one at the front desk told us that we needed a password to get onto internet and that the key to the in room safe would not be available until the next morning...we had to ask about these things afterwards, we had to find out through "trial and error" The maids and cleaning staff don't speak english, so hard to get any info from them. We chose to leave a tip at the end of our stay (instead of every morning) for the cleaning lady but the front desk staff couldn't even tell us if she would be the same one all week. Not enough pools for the size of the hotel. This hotel is situated on the North side of town, but we've noticed that it's not as quiet an area as it was when we had stayed in the same area 2 yrs ago. If the city and police don't get control of the night time activity on the beach, Myrtle beach will not be the family area it once was...this is not the hotel's fault.

Ok, I'm obviously in the minority, but I just don't see the attraction nof Myrtle Beach. It's a fun place to go while in colleg on spring break, but as a grown up now, I just don't get it. With other nice beach communities not far from Myrtle Beach, like Wilmingon, Charleston, and Hilton Head, why do people continue to flock to Myrtle Beach??? So why did I go? Family form the north chose the vacation this year. We had a 3 bedroom 2 bath condo. The layout was fine. The condo smelled like hair perm solution. The kitchen was fine and had all cooking items we needed. We were on the 15th floor and overlooked the ocean. The pools were always crowded. A member in our group had to go to the pool at 7am to grab seats around the pool. The elevators were HOT the entire time. The last 2 days 3 of the 4 elevators were in operation. The beds were all hard and squeaked with each breath taken. The towels were small. The housekeeping staff were friendly and hardworking. Parking was hard to find beacause it was so crowded. So, go to Myrtle if you must...but you may want to skip Ocean Reef and opt for the Sheraton instead.

We enjoyed our stay at the Ocean Reef from July 30th, 2007 to August 6th, 2007. We stayed in a two-bedroom condo with two full baths, living room and full kitchen in the North Tower. It was perfect for our family of four, with a king-size bed in the master bedroom and two queens in the other bedroom for our 7-year-old twins.
We arrived in the early evening and the check-in process took maybe 15 minutes or so. During our stay all of the employees were very friendly and helpful. The condo was kept spotless the entire time we were there, and they provided four big bath towels, hand towels and wash cloths for each bathroom each day. The condo was cleaned each day while we were out enjoying the beach or other attractions in Myrtle Beach. It was nice to come in from the beach or pool and just throw the swimsuits in the washing machine, along with some other clothes. I had very few dirty clothes to deal with upon arriving home! Each bedroom had its own TV, and the living room had one too. We were all able to unpack all of our clothes in the many drawers and closets provided. Our condo was on the second floor right off the elevator at the front of the building, so I was pleasantly surprised that we had a pretty nice ocean view off of both of our two balconies.
There is a Wal Mart down the street where we purchased a couple of beach chairs, and many sand toys and shovels for our son who loves to build sand castles. Luckily I had read a review that said not to buy a beach umbrella or else you'll have to set it up behind the umbrellas provided by the hotel. We decided to skip it since we like to hang out closer to the water. The beach was great, and the pool area was a lot of fun too. This is a great place for families!
The only negative experience we had while at the Ocean Reef was the one day we decided to have lunch at their restaurant out on the porch. We sat for quite some time without anyone coming to bring menus or anything. I saw another lady go inside and come out with menus. Her group sat for a while longer and got up and left. I walked inside and asked, "Is anyone working out there?" The lady at the front hostess stand handed me some menus and said, "If they see you with menus, they will come and wait on you." We waited a bit longer and then decided to go up to our condo and eat leftover pizza and bowls of cereal for lunch. That was our only attempt to eat at the hotel's restaurant.
There is a lot to do in the area and tons of restaurants. We enjoyed the putt-putt courses, the NASCAR restaurant and park and Broadway at the Beach. Broadway at the Beach has a Margaritaville Restaurant, which was fun, and some rides that the kids loved! It reminded me a lot of Downtown Disney with all of the shops and restaurants surrounding a small body of water. We also got ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery, which was wonderful!
We would definitely return to Ocean Reef and stay in the same accommodations. I'm not sure if the older part of the hotel is as nice as what we had, but our condo was super clean and very comfortable.

I was very disappionted with our stay at Ocean Reef Resort. First of all, the keys that they gave us would not open the door. When we finally got in the room, it smelled very strange. The room definitely needed renovations. The bath tub looked nasty. I wouldn't let my kids take a bath at all. The maid woke us up every single morning, even though we continued to tell her to come back later. The carpet felt nasty under my feet. The pools were so crowded. I could never get a chair during the day. I thought from the reviews that it was going to be a really nice place. I was disappointed to say the least.