The home was right on the beach in the first row, you can sit on the deck and watch the ocean as well as the sun rise. During high tide, there is a narrow strip of beach maybe 10-15 feet, where you can stay dry, during low tide the ocean moves out and there are some rock formations that are fun to explore. Even during labor day weekend, the beach was not too busy and there was plenty of space. The house was fairly clean, but could have been better, several of the mattress covers were dirty and had holes in them. When our child dropped a toy beneath the couch, there were old food crumbs down there. There is a queen bed in one room, 2 twins in another, and a pullout couch in the living room. One of the twin beds has a pullout mattress underneath it, but the mattress cover was dingy, and full of sand. The kitchen had everything that we needed. The parking had enough space for 2 cars, and there were some pool noodles, umbrellas and body boards in there as well. The front door lock was tricky to unlock from the inside for our kids and older aunt, -- we usually had to wait a few minutes when coming back for them to open the door for us. We then just stopped using that lock and used only the deadbolt. We also took the key with us to open it from the outside rather than waiting in 95 degree heat for them to open the door from the inside.
A nice feature is access to both indoor and outdoor pools right across the street which was a nice change from the ocean and would give you an optional activity to do in case of rain.
Keys and parking passes must be picked up and dropped off at the Carolina Beach realty office in Carolina Beach about 6 or 7 minutes up the road and easy to find in a strip mall on the main road. They give you a code to access a lockbox at their office for after hours pickup, and a drop box to drop the keys after hours as well. Checkout was at 10 am. We checked out at 10, and called the office to ask if could drop off the keys later which they said was no problem. We then went to the pool for an hour, then changed in the community main building which houses the indoor pool, office, gym, and large bathrooms with showers. We then dropped off the keys in the drop box around 11:30am.