Review - Carmel Bay ⭐️
All photos, Aria Christen, all rights reserved
Edit (July 2022) - Unfortunately Carmel Bay has now shut
Recently Aria and I had been talking about the glut of tropical / beach themed resorts in Second Life, and the need for something a bit different.
Cue the opening of Carmel Bay, which is most definitely not a beach place. Instead, owned by Damon and Artie Jackman, Carmel Bay is a Yosemite Valley themed town and National Park with a mix of accommodation to rent on a nightly basis.
We stayed here for a week, starting in the “Legolas” glamping experience, before moving onto the higher end “Breezy Bungalow.”
Overall, we thought Artie and Damon have created something well designed, fun and immersive.
We were also impressed with the levels of service and care, experienced not only by ourselves but by two friends of ours who were staying there at the same time.
The photos are Aria’s and the words mine, but this write-up reflects both of our experiences.
Carmel Bay website for more information.
Overall look and feel
Carmel Bay includes a small town with two streets filled with shops, eateries and a cinema, and then a larger National Park section.
The two glamping experiences (“Legolas” and “Meteor”) are on a small hill at the centre of Carmel Bay, while six larger vacation rentals are around the sim.
Artie and Damon obviously want to promote Carmel Bay as a wedding venue, so it has a dedicated wedding spot. Then there are a number of dining venues you can book located around the sim.
A few things impressed us with the overall look and feel. First of all, the attention to detail, for example printed menus in the food places, and the fact that the cinema is an actual cinema (we assume you could rent this out).
I’m of course not from the US, but Aria is, and she commented that the town street looks like how a vacation community like this would really look.
The landscaping was also really nicely done, and there are plenty of hidden cuddle and hang out spots throughout the park.
Overall - 4 / 5
The rooms
We first of all stayed in Legolas to give us a bit of an outdoor living experience. This faces a small pond and includes a raised platform with a bedroom. On the ground level, there’s an open air sitting and dining area and outside shower.
Meanwhile the Breezy Bungalow, where we transferred to, is more of a standard house with kitchen, living room, bedroom and upstairs study.
The Breezy Bungalow does have an attractive pool at the front and private dining area facing the lake, but it does not have a bathroom. This for me is a noticeable omission, as I’m big into realism and for the facilities to mirror RL.
However, we liked our stay at the Legolas glamping spot very much, it’s both scenic and fairly private, and our recommendation would be to stay here or at the other glamping place (Meteor), which is actually where our friends rented.
In fact, the owners should maybe consider making more of these.
The price difference is 495L (for the glamping accommodation) vs 795L.
Note that there is also an 80s themed “Bueller Bueller” house, which we thought would be a good place for a group of friends to have a party.
Overall - 3 / 5
Facilities
There’s a Teegle Pet horse rezzer, which you can use to ride around the sim. You can use this, and much of the other facilities whether you are staying here or not.
The main street includes food trucks, a realistic looking Korean-food themed cafe, a bakery, candy store, cinema and bar.
There are also a number of RP dining options. We chose the Encanto Cove, themed after the movie of the same name.
I haven’t seen the movie, but Aria is a huge fan, and liked how the dishes were themed after different characters in the film.
We were also impressed by the level of personalisation and service. For example, the menus had our names on them, and were also quite short with a handful of options under appetiser, main course and desert - this is a good thing, a lot of SL RP restaurants present you with a huge confusing menu (not a good sign in RL either).
We were also sent a personalised thank you note after our dinner.
Finally, parts of the Sim can be hired as either a wedding or a live music / performance venue.
Overall - 4 / 5
Animations
There are Nutmeg beds in the accommodation, as a brand it’s fine, but it does present you with menu options that say ‘cuddle 1’, ‘sex 2’, etc, which if you are going there as a couple, isn’t that helpful, you kind of need the descriptions to be obvious.
However, it does include FF as well as MF options.
The beds aside, the cuddle and dining anims in the rest of Carmel Bay worked well enough for us.
Overall - 3 / 5
Other considerations
Lag was a factor for us, Aria found it hard to do pictures in Black Dragon. I had to keep graphics settings on my mac in medium most of the time
As mentioned, two friends of ours stayed here at the same time as we did. When one had to go into hospital for a day, the owners extended their rental. Overall we found Artie and Damon to be super helpful to guests
This is a moderate sim, there are adult anims in the accommodation
Prices are 495L for the glamping spots and 795L a night for the houses / villas.
Overall
This is a brand new place, and clearly there are still one or two things that are being ironed out, for example direct TPs to the houses / facilities don’t work (you always go direct to the entrance).
Also, some kind of bathroom in the bungalows would be good, as a lot of couples do enjoy the romantic bath side of things (and it’s good for realism).
However, the bigger picture is that we were both very impressed.
The attention to detail in terms of the landscaping and the design of the town is excellent. And the personalisation with the dinner RP and level of service is some of the best we’ve seen.
As a result, Carmel Bay is highly recommended. We’d suggest it for family RP, groups of friends, couples….anyone really looking for something a bit more rustic and outdoors.
Carmel Bay website for more information.
