Jason G.
Yelp
My partner and I went to Gasparilla for a long weekend, and overall, I loved the beach location and the seclusion of the location, but didn't like the dining services.
The best part about Gasparilla is definitely the access to the Beach Club, which is a short walk away. I was originally disappointed to find out that Gasparilla is located in the middle of an inlet and doesn't have direct beach access, but I got over that pretty quickly because it didn't matter as much. The Beach Club is pretty inclusive, no nickel and diming everyone for a chair or umbrella. The pool is nice, but I loved the ocean.
The room we had was two twin beds pushed together to make a king. I booked this room two months before we showed up, so I was surprised that they have that little amount of king beds to only have twins left over. They really tried to stress at check-in that there's a Tempur-pedic across both beds and you really can't tell that it's two beds, but that is just plain false. You can obviously tell it's two beds. It gave the whole room a"cruise" feeling, since that's what they do in any random Carnival room. And because of the room set up, they didn't have a bedside table on the far side of the bed, which was very inconvenient. Overall, the room was fine, but the set up was off. It did have a good linens, but scratchy towels, which is disappointing considering most people are going to get sunburn after going to the beach.
The grounds of Gasparilla were really nice. I really enjoyed the cozy and intimate bar (BV's, I believe), as well as all the backgammon tables that I definitely took advantage of. You feel like you're out of resort when you stay here, and basically the whole town is geared towards this resort or are private homes. There's basically no nightlife to speak of, and hotel bar closes at 11, so this is the place to unwind.
I really did not like the breakfast service at Gasparilla. Both breakfasts we had here were subpar, and rather shocking considering that other parts of the hotel are very nice. The generic buffet that they had was short on options and even more short on availability, considering that half the items were run out of most of the time and you have to wait for eggs or bacon or what have you. The servers never showed up, and the last thing you want to deal with in the morning is having to get your own coffee from the free coffee stand outside the restaurant, which inevitably is what my partner did had to get. The cooked entrées were also subpar, with the hash a particular stand out in a bad way. Buffet is $19, which is laughable. And they kept saying "we're not used to it being so busy"...is this the first time the hotel has filled up?! Made no sense.
Overall, I really liked Gasparilla. It's kind of a drive to get to know matter what airport you fly into, and but once you're there, the exclusivity and he didn't factor or charming. I recommend a room on the third floor, because there is no place with a "view," but at least you'll be high up.