Thought I’d throw a little update out there for anyone that’s planning to vacation in the Ft Walton Beach area. This trip has been a blast!! Our condo is on Okaloosa Island right on the beach and I’ve been having so much fun, I only made it out to Starcade one day.
Today in particular has been amazing. We’ve been going on morning beach strolls everyday, but today the wife and I got up at the crack of dawn and went for a 6 mile hike down the beach towards Destin. Someone made some huge, beautiful sand sculptures along the beach of sharks and sea turtles, so that was unexpected and awesome to see.
We made it out into the dunes where there’s no hotels or condos and the water was so calm and clear we decided to go for a swim. We found ourselves offshore sharing the water with a pod of dolphins!! After the dolphins left, we swam back to a sandbar about 20-30 yards from the beach where the water was only knee deep and waded a couple of miles back toward the condo, just enjoying nature. We watched herons and pelicans catch fish, saw lots of big crabs, jellyfish, all different kinds of other fish. At some point, a small school of fish started following me trying to eat my feet. :lol: They stayed with me for a good 1/2 mile at least, just nibbling at my toes and heels until we decided to head back to shore and finish the walk back on the beach.
Starcade was like a time capsule. The place looks like a snapshot straight out of the 80’s. I imagine that pool room was jumping back in the day!
The layout is pretty sweet. There is a front room with a bar, 13 Valley bar tables, and one 9ft Diamond. A set of doors takes you into a separate back room with 11 9ft Gold Crowns and 1 9ft Diamond. The back room looks like a purpose built tournament room, with built-in spectator chairs and tables for players at every table. Behind the players chairs is elevated movie theater style seating for railbirds all around the room, with ample area for people to walk around without entering the tournament area.
The pool special is tough to beat...$10 per person open to close on any table but the Diamond, which is charged hourly. The tables were in great condition, covered in tournament blue 860 and the balls were slick, clean, and freshly polished.
Downsides...the lights, with the exception of the Diamond light over the Diamond table, were noticeably dim in the back room, the smoke smell gave me a headache, and our clothes smelled like an ashtray when we left. Although the room is cool the way it is, it could seriously use some updating. I blame the headache more on the fact that I’m just not used to being around smoke anymore. It wasn’t smokey in there at all...just the smell.
Overall though, very cool room and I’d love to come back and play there again anytime I find myself in the area. If you’re around, Starcade is definitely worth checking out. It’s been so much fun here, I hate that we have to leave tomorrow.
Edit: I did not take these pictures. These pics were the best quality I could find online of Starcade’s front and back rooms. In the picture of the back room, the table lighting looks much brighter that what I saw when I visited.
