I should have written this review sooner, we stayed here in September 2011 and I forgot all about reviewing until today! Well, there is good and bad when you stay at the Plantation. I think a LOT depends on what unit you get. We used a rental website where owners list their condos for rent (don't know if I am allowed to say the website in a review?) and were very careful to choose a rental that had lots of good reviews. Our unit was clean, updated and reasonable. The owner was very easy to work with. We were in the first Plantation East building. There are pretty good kind of side views of the gulf from balconies in this building. There is also a pretty good walk down to the beach. Not really very far, just a few minutes, but we were midway in the building and had to cross part of parking lot, then pass by outdoor pool, get onto the boardwalk and trek on down. This felt like forever when we were toting beach chairs and such. The beach was very uncrowded and we enjoyed that. We did not use the outdoor pools of this resort. The indoor pool complex could use some cleaning and updating. A small arcade within the indoor pool unit sucked down my son's money without letting him play games. Nobody around to complain to or get a refund. The hot tub was good sized, but had some big nasty dirty spots hovering in the water for several days until we scooped them out. We used the indoor pool four nights and the whole time we were there, there was a dirty red solo cup sitting near the hot tub. This was never moved. We stayed six nights and for the first three, the washer and dryer on our floor were out of order. This was fixed before we left. The elevator seemed really kind of old, groaning and scary, but it got us to the third floor every time! LOL. You have to pass thru a small security gate to get onto the Plantation and the security guys were always friendly and helpful. There is supposedly a small coffee shop on site, but this was closed for the winter, I guess, and we did not have that info until we walked over only to find a sign on the door. We did enjoy the solitude of staying out on Fort Morgan, but it is quite a ways out from Gulf Shores. I would recommend going to WalMart in Gulf Shores for groceries and stocking up. There is a newer looking Dollar General about half way down Fort Morgan Road toward the Plantation that is very well stocked as well. If you have people in your group who want to be close to all the action, this resort may not be for you because the drive into town and back can be very time consuming. The part we stayed in, Plantation East, is definitely not a high falutin' place, so if you are looking for luxury, this end of the Plantation might not be for you, and as I said, so much depends on the unit you rent, I think, which can make the difference between a good and a not so good stay. We did enjoy our stay here, overall -- we were on the beach! :)