I'll start with what was nice. The location of the Pelican Hill as well as the overall set of amenities are lovely. Definitely take advantage of the kids activities (story time, bubblemania, etc), the beach trolley, as well nearby Balboa Island. There are fire pits on the beach available as well. Ask for the Inspirato Newport Beach activity guide in addition to using the Pelican Hill concierge.
The shuttle service will take you anywhere on property as well as to a local center with a few nice restaurants.
The on property restaurants were lovely. I would say the Pelican grill was very nice for a special meal. My nephew even enjoyed the filet on the kids menu.
The Villa itself was very well appointed and the patio was a highlight. However, I'll say that there was some deferred maintenance that needed to be taken care of. This included shower handles and dishwashers that were broken. The maintenance staff quickly resolved them, but I wish they never happened to begin with. Also, when the listing says the internet is basic, we experienced it as unusable.
The Villa pool and clubhouse was very nice during the week. But the weekends were chaotic. The 4th of July was insane. It was not a relaxing or peaceful or exclusive environment - to the point where we couldn't find a single place to sit. It felt like there were people from outside the villas at the pool and the team there wasn't policing it well. It took over an hour to get a drink. I will avoid holidays there in the future.
The staff are exceptional and very accommodating - but I'll say are severely hampered by management and some technology issues. Hopefully the technology issues were limited to the transition to Marriott management, but I'm really unable to be sure. We were locked out of our Villa twice and a credit they applied for some items was lost. Their concierge texting service was so overwhelmed they occasionally didn't respond.