My wife and our three kids stayed at Carillon in “Rock Lobster,” which has a shared heated pool and hot tub with a smaller house called “Love Shack.” We were orginally going to stay in another house in Carillon, but were told a few days before our arrival that this home was in need of a roof replacement. While we were initially disappointed, the change to “Rock Lobster” was a blessing in disguise. The home is just off the beach (one house was between us and the beautiful Gulf of Mexico). The sugar sand was squeaky clean and full of shells for the kids to find and play in. While the water was a bit cool during our visit (late March through the first week of April), we still jumped in and played in the waves many times. We reserved an umbrella and two beach loungers for beach days, which helped not have to haul much to the beach. We also reserved a golf cart since we didn’t rent a car, which helped us get around the lake to get to ice cream, lunch, dinner/drinks and shopping in the town center that was really fun.
The house itself was really well-maintained and clean. There were two bedrooms with full bathrooms on the first floor, a second bedroom and full bathroom on the second floor with the kitchen and awesome wraparound balcony with barstools and tables to eat or drink coffee outside, and the third floor had three bunk beds and amazing views of the ocean. Each bedroom had its own TV with streaming services and cable. The kitchen was well equipped and we cooked daily to save money by not going out that much. Uber was easy to get and we were able to spend a few hours at Rosemary Beach, which was nice, but way too crowded for us. We liked it more laid back and quiet for our family getaway (we have three young kids).
Carillon has several pools that other residents share via gate access, but they aren’t heated like ours was. We spent more time in the pool and hot tub than we did at the beach or o
