I am considering a trip in late June and my kids have loved the pools at Shores of Panama and Long Beach Resort, but we are looking into staying at Calypso this time.

The only reservation I have about the property is that the pools look a bit generic when compared to others, and I wonder about sun exposure during the day and number of pool chairs available. We liked both SOP and LBR because there is some shade available during hot parts of the day, and the lounge chairs are plentiful and scattered around everywhere rather than lined up in long rows.

Does anyone have experience with Calypso?

Yes, bad experience with the Calypso. As I mentioned in the other post concerning the pool and beach lounges.

We were supposed to stay at the Shores of Panama last year over the 4th but were moved to the Calypso because the certificate of occupancy was not in place at SOP. We arrived early (10 am) in the morning and was told it would be a couple hours before our room was ready. It was 4 o'clock before they said we could get in the room. I think they told us that just to get us out of their hair. Checking in was horrendous. I was nervous, I thought there was going to be a full scale riot. One of the elevators was down, I heard it dropped 6 floors before stopping. There were not enough luggage carts so people were fighting over them. People were keeping them in their rooms while checking in and out. When we got to our room, thankfully we were only on the 3rd floor, they were still cleaning it. And they did not do a good job of it. We had to go behind them and finish the job. The room itself was nice with nice furnishings.

Because of the lack of property, there is very little place to unload your vehicle.

This year I am trying the Shores of Panama. How was your stay there?? I am really nervous about it's location in that little bend. Traffice can be very bad there. How was it getting in and out? I'll be there over the 4th, I'm sure it will be insane.

My kids (11 and 9 at the time) were absolutely thrilled with the pool at SOP, but we were there in October so there were no crowds. There is a traffic light at the intersection with Front Beach Road, so maybe that would make it a bit easier to get in and out when there is a lot of traffic.

We have stayed at Long Beach Resort for many years, so several of my dislikes with SOP should be taken with LBR as a reference.

1) I was concerned that the parking deck might be an issue during peak season. I'm not a big fan of parking decks and it was not completely painted and marked at the time, bit it seemed a little tight for maneuvering even with a normal car. If you are on a high floor it might take a while to get in and out when crowded.

2) I really didn't like having the building shaped like a U. The views from most of the condos looked primarily over the pool and also at the other side of the building, so there was no sense of privacy on the balconies. The balconies also seemed small. I guess I'm spoiled with the balconies and frontage at LBR.

3) There is a single beach access point at the center of the complex, so if you are staying inside the 'U' and not on the ends you have to walk all the way around the pool to get to the beach.

4) They play music fairly loudly around the pool all day, probably to dampen the crowd noise unside the 'U', but it is annoying both at the pool and on the balconies. During the day I could not hear the surf at all.

These are probably minor issues compared to the good points, though. Especially the pool.

Welcome to the forums Bigfoot!

And thanks for the informative posts.... I'm sure many people will find them helpful!

Thanks Bigfoot365. You had some really good points. Some things I had considered and some I hadn't. This will be my 3rd new resort in the last 3 years. I guess each has their good and bad points. Something to say about staying with the tried and true resorts.

Pool chairs and space around them seems to be a problem that people don't worry about until they have arrived and checked into their condo. Long Beach has had to step up security checking pool tags to make sure that only Long Beach guest are using the pools. You can see a path where people jump over the fence to get onto Long Beach from Shores. There is one complex down the street that has over 400 condos and only room for 50 chairs around their pool. Alot of them walk the beach and try to come up the beach access to use the pools, too.

A note on the u-shaped and curved buildings, people on floors high up can have a view of the lower floor condos and what is going on in them.

Rumor is that this Summer has suddenly started to book out at Long Beach. July 4th week is full and the rest of the weeks are going fast as people realize that PCB is the best place.

By the way, Long Beach is where it all started!

Actually one of our concerns with Long Beach Resort over the past few years is that security has become lax. Years ago you were guaranteed to be confronted by a security guard if you didn't have an arm band, but the last couple of years we haven't bothered to take one with us. We would see a guard occasionally but never were questioned.

Hi! We just stayed at the Shores of Panama May 10 for a week and a half.

Yes it's a beautiful complex, but there are problems there!!
First, going to park the car up by where our floor was took a long time to drive up and the garage wasn't crowded since it was May.
I can see a problem at busy times because there are only 4 elevators for that giant building!!!
One of the elevators went out that was by our area of the building and it took a very long time to get the elevator!

One day there was some heavy showers and the rain was not draining off the balconies that faced the outer areas and it ran back into the elevator shafts and messed up the wiring ----that is why it was shut down and they didn't have someone in to fix it for 3 days!!
As soon as that one was fixed, the other one went out!
We figured to park on the lower floors instead of driving all the way up to the top floor of the garage since that is where we were staying.
There are some that are reserved spots and some aren't - so you can park there.
We would then walk in on the first floor and take the elevator up.

The air conditioning went out one night in our room! I called the front desk but they didn't do anything.

They give you free DVD movie rentals but they are cheap and half of them don't work!

There are NO soda machines or snack machines anywhere on the property!!
They want you to buy everything from them at their stands (which are not open that much). They add a $2 service charge to anything you buy!
They don't handle cash so they give you a little card to add all your purchases to.

I prefer the sun to be around the pool, and this pool is absolutely awesome, but it shades up way too much for me! There were lots of lounge chairs though which was good. They didn't have the outdoor tiki bar open yet either. The hot tub is nice but looked like it hadn't been cleaned from all the oil and dirt on the sides!

There is a small work out room for men & women separately but they are real far off in a section of the building that is secluded and it seems like anyone can just go in the door.

Again, I find this alot, the housekeeping people did NOT DO A GOOD JOB when cleaning. I found hairs and crumbs on the floors. Someone is making a killing by supposedly posing as cleaners for these condos!!

People were very nice that work there, but I don't think I would go back but maybe would in the off-peak season and when they have some things fixed there.

The SECURITY is almost non-existent.

The weather was great and had a good time, but I just don't have much to recommend this place right now.

We stayed at the Calypso for 3 days last June, and loved it! I didn't spend much time at the pool so I can't comment on how much it's actually in the sun, but everything else was great. When we were there they were still working on some things, but I'm sure it's all finished now. The bed in our room was amazing, it might have been the most comfortable I've ever slept in. The only complaint I had (and it's a small one) is that the big armoire that the TV was in in the bedroom was in the corner by the door that goes out onto the balcony, and the bed was so big that you had to almost crawl over the bed to get out the door from the bedroom. Overall though, it was great.

We visit Panama City Beach twice each year, once during the summer, and once off-season. We've stayed at Edgewater during the summer because of the excellent pool, but we've been staying at the Calypso in late October and love it. Compared to Edgewater, the rooms are much fresher with beautiful granite, high ceilings / wide doors, and free internet access. A nice place to stay if you're not looking for a large pool. You can easily walk to Pier Park and Gulf World as well.

During months when I want to enjoy a pool, I might look elsewhere. But otherwise, Calypso is great!

What about check in at the Calypso and the elevators and the parking? Thanks for all your great comments!!

The office is on the condo side, and we had no problems at all checking in. It was right at check in time before our unit was ready. We did have problems finding a cart, but got lucky and ran into a lady on the elevator taking hers back. We never had problems with parking, and never had to wait long on an elevator. The elevators were fast.

I was wondering if you can bring coolers down by the pool at Calypso? Thanks...

I forgot to say the Shores of Panama were all free Wi-Fi in the condos and outside pool area and lobby areas so that was nice. I'm not sure if Edgewater has that or not.

The SOP told the people they had to keep their coolers over the fence on the beach side. Just not in the pool area.