If I could give this marina no stars I would! Horrible stay! Wasted five nights of my annual boat vacation here, wish I had a do-over! Our slip was near the public restroom which is conveniently located next to a liquor store. This attracts the local homeless, drunks, druggies and other undesirables! This is Martha's Vineyard?
Experience:
1. No Customer Service. The Dock Master (DM) and his staff are very inattentive with a love it or leave it attitude. No dock hands to help tie up, simply a girl with a clipboard who checks you in so they can immediately charge your credit card. When I told the DM our slip with a beautiful view of the public restroom was disgusting, he offered a slip near the entrance of the harbor that was rocking and rolling...couldn't stand up without holding on. When you offer two crappy choices and tell folks you provided options, that's not okay! The DM reminded me that this was a public dock, not a private marina.. It's run by the government, no surprise it had a DMV feel! I guess that makes looking at a public restroom for a week's vacation okay.
2. I vacationed on an episode of COPS! When we told the DM about the vagrants, he gave me the Chief of Police's phone number and told me he had already met with on the matter. He believed if I contacted the Chief, it might be helpful...I didn't out of fear of retaliation from my new, high-class neighbors. We did end up calling the police the following day to remove a drugged-out guy who was sitting on the bench on the dock behind our boat screaming obscenities at 10pm.
3. A lovely view of the urinals! My sister has a larger boat and was placed in a slip directly behind the dodgy public restroom. She has two little girls who all enjoyed a view of the men's urinals! Can you imagine waiting all year for a beautiful Martha's Vineyard vacation only to end up watching drunks urinate? She spent two days there before the DM moved her to a different slip. At least it was an educational vacation for the girls who learned about the drug problem in Oak Bluffs!
4. Not a great marina for boats traveling together! The Marina's layout is less than optimal when traveling with a group of boats. Each year we travel with a family flotilla made up of five-boats. Most of the time we can dock near one another. With the layout of this marina we had to walk a half mile to see each other. We made reservations months in advanced and requested to be closer to each other, it's obvious that this wasn't considered. Because we were so far apart, it really fragmented the families and didn't allow for group fun.
5. Dirty Boat! Because the slips are so close to the road, your boat is constantly filthy! If you don't mind black, sticky road dirt, you're okay!
6. No Privacy! The public sidewalk/ boardwalk is up against the bulkhead. People visiting Oak Bluffs in need of a restroom stop to peer inside you boat. You feel like you're in a fishbowl!
7. No Amenities! Oh yeah, there was one, THE PUBLIC RESTROOM!
The rest of the island was beautiful...Edgartown, Vineyard Haven! I will need some time to consider if I will ever go back to MV to try different location. read more