Walk the boardwalk past Bruno's Pizza on any evening last fall and you'd have hit scaffolding. The dining room at 30°86°, the Beach Club's signature restaurant overlooking the Gulf, sat behind construction fencing from August 2025 through early this year, and the pool next to it went dark with it. If you'd tried to book a poolside dinner during that stretch, you were rerouted to Beach Break Grill or you walked the extra hundred yards to Bruno's for a slice instead.
That renovation wrapped months ago and 30°86° is back, seating the sunset crowd again. The Club also expanded its membership privileges to include amenities beyond the Beach Club.
The Restaurant That Went Dark for Six Months
The timeline is straightforward. 30°86° and its adjacent pool closed for renovation in August 2025 and stayed closed through early 2026, per the Watersound Inn's own guest guidance published last fall. For residents who lease out during peak months or who simply eat at the Club a few nights a week, that meant one fewer dining option and one fewer pool deck for the better part of two seasons. Beach Break Grill kept running, and Bruno's Pizza, sitting just past the Beach Club gate on Merchant's Row, absorbed the overflow the way it always has.
That's the visible half of the story. The renovation is the thing you could see from the boardwalk. The other half happened somewhere you'd have had to drive to notice.
Expanded Membership Amenities
Sometime in 2026, Watersound Club rolled out an expanded privilege it calls Member for a Stay, and the language describing it is specific about what changed: members and Inn guests now get access to the Camp Creek Pool Complex, the Wellness Center, the Racquet Center, and three dining venues that didn't exist as part of the original Beach Club package: 1936, ANR, and Bark 'N Brine. The Shark's Tooth Clubhouse was reworked into the deal too, with new menus and a lounge that wasn't part of the earlier offering.
Here's the shift in plain terms:
| What a Beach Club membership got you before | What it gets you now |
|---|---|
| Two zero-entry pools at the Beach Club, roughly 7,000 square feet each | Same two pools, plus the Camp Creek Pool Complex with a lazy river and waterslide |
| Dining at 30°86° and Beach Break Grill | Those two, plus 1936, ANR, and Bark 'N Brine |
| Beach access, bonfires, and paddleboard rentals | Same, plus a dedicated Wellness Center and Racquet Center |
| Golf privileges at Camp Creek and Shark's Tooth | Same courses, with a renovated Shark's Tooth Clubhouse |
None of this required a new fee schedule or a new sales pitch. It arrived as an expansion of what an existing membership already includes, as reflected on the Club's own site.
Where the New Amenities Are Located
Here's where the math gets interesting for anyone who actually lives inside the gates. Watersound Beach is built around three sections: the original Dunes core behind the main GateHouse, where Merchant's Row, the fitness center, and the cottages on Salt Box Lane sit; the Bridges section running toward Camp Creek Lake; and the Peninsula, the quietest and most private stretch, where some homesites carry their own dock access to the lake. Every one of those sections was built around walking to the beach, not driving to a golf course.
The new amenities sit at Camp Creek, adjacent to the golf course north of 30A. That's not a criticism of the expansion. A lazy river and a wellness center with steam rooms and a dedicated lap pool are real additions to what a membership buys. But if you bought a home on the Peninsula specifically because you wanted to leave your car parked and walk to the water, these additions are somewhere you may need a golf cart, or more likely a car, to reach. The membership got broader. The geography it covers got wider too, and the beach itself isn't where that width landed.
What Never Moved
Set the expansion aside and the neighborhood's actual daily rhythm hasn't changed at all. A short list of fixtures that have stayed exactly where they've always been:
- Bruno's Pizza, established in 1990, still sitting on Merchant's Row a few doors from the Watersound Inn
- The golf-cart-accessible boardwalks over the dunes, a feature no other gated community on 30A offers
- The private stretch of beach running more than a mile, with no public access point behind the gate
- The nightly beach bonfire program on the sand just past the Beach Club's boardwalk
Check the published booking window before you book.
Booking a Bonfire Depends on Which Door You Use
The bonfire program itself hasn't changed. The posted booking window differs across the pages that list it. The Club's own site lists bonfires as available in two-hour blocks between 4 and 8 p.m. daily. The Watersound Inn's guest-facing page and Camp Creek Inn's page both list a 5:30 to 9 p.m. window instead. Every version agrees on the parts that matter for planning: you need ten days' advance notice, a late cancellation carries a fee, and the Club will call off a bonfire if sustained winds hit 10 miles per hour, if the forecast crosses a 70 percent chance of rain, or if temperatures drop below freezing.
If you're a homeowner booking directly through Club membership rather than through a stay at one of the Inns, confirm your actual window before you plan an evening around it. The advance-notice and cancellation terms are consistent, but the posted time windows differ across the channels.
Reading Your Own Amenity Package
A few practical takeaways if you're trying to figure out what your dues actually buy this year rather than what they bought when you signed the paperwork:
- Check whether your renewal materials mention Member for a Stay by name. If they don't, you may be leaving Camp Creek Pool Complex and Racquet Center access on the table without realizing it's already included.
- If you're weighing a golf cart purchase or upgrade, factor in that the newest dining and wellness additions sit at Camp Creek, not at the Beach Club. The trip is longer than the walk to Bruno's.
- Before booking a bonfire, confirm the current time window with whichever access point applies to you. A ten-day lead time means there's no room to discover the mismatch the week you wanted the fire pit lit.
The neighborhood you moved into hasn't changed shape. The Club now offers amenities beyond the beach, including facilities on the golf and wellness side of its portfolio. Their locations are worth considering before your next renewal notice, whether or not you use all of the available amenities.
If you're weighing a move within Watersound Beach or comparing it to another gated 30A community, The Blankenship Group can walk you through what each section's HOA and Club structure actually includes before you make an offer. Request a private consultation to talk through the details that matter for your specific homesite.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
