2012 Hilton Head Thread-Tips, Tricks, Roll Call..

[Andrea_loves_Disney]

We are here!! We love the resort as I thought we would, but the dreary weather is kind of a bummer! No rain today, thankfully, but still overcast and cool-ish. We went to Stacks Pancakes for breakfast and now we are just hanging out ... We had planned to do beach or pool today but it is not looking so good for that! We may try and do the dolphin boatride today instead of tomorrow... Look for us... Me, Andrea, DH Kyle (tall and thin) DD Megan 16 long wavy hair and Evan (12) always wearing a cartoon type baseball hat. Weather looks better for tomorrow for pool and beach. I'll try and post again but I am on my iPhone and it is sort of awkward! :
(sitting on the porch now and it's sprinkling!! Arg!!

 

[Simba's Mom]

We are here!! We love the resort as I thought we would, but the dreary weather is kind of a bummer! No rain today, thankfully, but still overcast and cool-ish. We went to Stacks Pancakes for breakfast and now we are just hanging out ... We had planned to do beach or pool today but it is not looking so good for that! We may try and do the dolphin boatride today instead of tomorrow... Look for us... Me, Andrea, DH Kyle (tall and thin) DD Megan 16 long wavy hair and Evan (12) always wearing a cartoon type baseball hat. Weather looks better for tomorrow for pool and beach. I'll try and post again but I am on my iPhone and it is sort of awkward! :
(sitting on the porch now and it's sprinkling!! Arg!!

Stacks Pancakes! My mouth still waters at the thought of their pancakes with fresh fruit topping that I had last November. I hope they still have them when we go this year.

 

[udflyer00]

Andrea,

I just saw your post that you arrived. Unfortunately we ship out tomorrow bright and early so i doubt we'll get to meet. Maybe here in the future... we have loved our first trip to HHI and now it will be hard to juggle this into the vacation trips.

Unfortunately the weather the last 2 days has been scattered showers, but i think its going to start clearing up now. Even with the rain today we were able to get our dolphin tour in with Captain Scott booked through Disney. He was great a got us right next to several dolphins. Hopefully you have a great trip as well. What building are you in? We took the members tour around the the resort Wednesday which was great and very informative. I know your kids are way past it but we learned (saw for the 1st time) that there is a playground on property. We didnt make it over to it, but the kids were excited to see it.

Hope you have a great trip!

Mark

 

[WolfpackFan]

Well looks like we might finally get a nice day but unfortunately we head home today. Oh well, we had a great time in spite of the weather. Now to start planning for next year's trip (actually we plan on coming twice next year). When I get home I will upload all my pictures and will post the link here.

 

[WolfpackFan]

Here are the links to my HHI pictures from last week.

For pictures taken with my digital camera click here.

For pictures taken with my iPhone click here.

 

[WolfpackFan]

One thing we noticed on our HH trip last week - there is a lot of dead grass or straw that has washed up on the HH beach. I mean a lot. I've never noticed this dead straw before. Has anyone else noticed and does anyone know what caused it? It is like the dead grass next to the resort pier, but this is coming from the ocean. I'm just curious what causes it.

 

[iloveokw]

Sitting on our porch in HH, checked in yesterday. Hopefully we brought good weather with us. So far it is great.

 

[udflyer00]

Just wanted to say we got home yesterday after a long 13 hour drive... It always seems to take longer on the way home for some reason?? haha This was our first trip to this GREAT resort, and now I'm looking back and wondering why it took us so long to go... I was worried that is was going to be a "sit on the beach" vacation, but it was anything but that. We had so much to with kids activities at the resort, Shannon Tanner at Shelter Cove, the Beach House, site seeing, etc. that often it was hard to pick and choose what we wanted to do. We had great weather, a bit of rain our last 2 days, but with fair skin kids this is sometimes a good thing as we didn't get burnt up, which most likely could've happened since I'd say we spent 3-5 hours at the resort pool each day... It was just so convenient to hope in between events to pass the time. Other from the few showers I think it was still low-mid 80's most days so it was perfect to be outside in. And it did clear up long enough on our last day for us to get our (orginally scheduled, then back on again) Dolphin cruise with Captain Scott.

All-in-all it was a great time! The Resort is great, and more importantly so are the cast members. Each one made us feel a part of the family, and that is the exact reason we love Disney! We had to have seen B'Lou at each one of his activities during the week, what a great story-teller and showman. He dazzled our minds and the kids with magic tricks and mind reading. If you go I can only recommend that you try to see his bits, I don't think you'd regret it.

It was also nice to meet those also staying at the resort. I could tell from looking at it, but was shocked to learn that there are only 122 units, so the resort pool never really seemed "overcrowded", which allowed me to meet some of the other families staying there. I even met a few that were on their very first DVC stays. We've only been members since 2004, and have only gone to the park, but it was nice to share some stories with members that were excited for what the future had to bring, and also hear what brought them into the DVC family. I'm such a people person it was nice to stike up a convesation.

All I ask is please continue to share your stories for those with trips to come. If I knew how to post pictures I'd post up a few, but I don't have shutterbug or flickr accounts. If anyone has questions don't hesitate to ask, and if it's something I can answer I'd be happy to help!!

If anyone gets room 2611 this summer or fall, all i have so say is that is the best with kids!!! Haha

Thats about it for now, I'm sure I'll add more this week as I'm sitting at my desk at work, but I just wanted to post up this little brain dump to share our excitement from our first trip.

PS- If anyone sees Joey around the pool, tell him little Emily from Ohio says hi!!!

TTYL,
Mark

 

[iloveokw]

My husband and 20 yr old daughter did the Zip Line Hilton Head out of Broad Creek Marina today and LOVED it! A offsite activity for someone looking for something new to do here on the island.

 

[MinnieGi]

My husband and 20 yr old daughter did the Zip Line Hilton Head out of Broad Creek Marina today and LOVED it! A offsite activity for someone looking for something new to do here on the island.

They have a zip line line now? That sounds cool. Do you take a boat to the zip line or is it right there?

 

[MinnieGi]

Just wanted to say we got home yesterday after a long 13 hour drive... It always seems to take longer on the way home for some reason?? haha This was our first trip to this GREAT resort, and now I'm looking back and wondering why it took us so long to go... I was worried that is was going to be a "sit on the beach" vacation, but it was anything but that. We had so much to with kids activities at the resort, Shannon Tanner at Shelter Cove, the Beach House, site seeing, etc. that often it was hard to pick and choose what we wanted to do. We had great weather, a bit of rain our last 2 days, but with fair skin kids this is sometimes a good thing as we didn't get burnt up, which most likely could've happened since I'd say we spent 3-5 hours at the resort pool each day... It was just so convenient to hope in between events to pass the time. Other from the few showers I think it was still low-mid 80's most days so it was perfect to be outside in. And it did clear up long enough on our last day for us to get our (orginally scheduled, then back on again) Dolphin cruise with Captain Scott.

All-in-all it was a great time! The Resort is great, and more importantly so are the cast members. Each one made us feel a part of the family, and that is the exact reason we love Disney! We had to have seen B'Lou at each one of his activities during the week, what a great story-teller and showman. He dazzled our minds and the kids with magic tricks and mind reading. If you go I can only recommend that you try to see his bits, I don't think you'd regret it.

It was also nice to meet those also staying at the resort. I could tell from looking at it, but was shocked to learn that there are only 122 units, so the resort pool never really seemed "overcrowded", which allowed me to meet some of the other families staying there. I even met a few that were on their very first DVC stays. We've only been members since 2004, and have only gone to the park, but it was nice to share some stories with members that were excited for what the future had to bring, and also hear what brought them into the DVC family. I'm such a people person it was nice to stike up a convesation.

All I ask is please continue to share your stories for those with trips to come. If I knew how to post pictures I'd post up a few, but I don't have shutterbug or flickr accounts. If anyone has questions don't hesitate to ask, and if it's something I can answer I'd be happy to help!!

If anyone gets room 2611 this summer or fall, all i have so say is that is the best with kids!!! Haha

Thats about it for now, I'm sure I'll add more this week as I'm sitting at my desk at work, but I just wanted to post up this little brain dump to share our excitement from our first trip.

PS- If anyone sees Joey around the pool, tell him little Emily from Ohio says hi!!!

TTYL,
Mark

SO glad to hear you all had a great time...we love HHI!! I agree there is so much to do here, but you can also really relax if you want to also. We're leaving in two weeks and can't wait!!

 

[Andrea_loves_Disney]

Hi HHI lovers! We are home...I am back at work...
But we had a GREAT time last week. I really appreciate all the tips and info here before we left. I am going to post a mini trip report on the main DVC Resorts page... I think more people will see it there. So look for it soon!

Wolfpackfan and Mark (uderflyer00) Sorry we didn't meet up!! After a couple days of rain and no pool...we were out and about on the island and I didn't really have a chance to look for people. I did have one embarrassing moment...I saw a family at the pool that looked like someone I thought had posted here that they were going to be there... asked her if she was on the DisBoards ....and she had no idea what I was talking about! It's hard to explain it to someone who doesn't have a clue what it is! Arg!!

 

[WolfpackFan]

Andrea - We would have been hard to miss. I'm 60'ish, bald with a paunch (okay, a beer belly ) and DS is a free spirit looking kind of person (in the old days we would call them hippies). DW is the only one that looks normal.

 

[Andrea_loves_Disney]

Andrea - We would have been hard to miss. I'm 60'ish, bald with a paunch (okay, a beer belly ) and DS is a free spirit looking kind of person (in the old days we would call them hippies). DW is the only one that looks normal.

We were at the resort pool on Thursday afternoon and the beach pool on Friday... I didn't see you! Also spent a fair amount of time crabbing from the pier in the late afternoon Thurs,Friday and Saturday with Evan... That was a lot of fun!!! I am sorry we missed you!!

 

[Laurabearz]

My husband and 20 yr old daughter did the Zip Line Hilton Head out of Broad Creek Marina today and LOVED it! A offsite activity for someone looking for something new to do here on the island.

Wow $90 per person...

 

[udflyer00]

Can someone tell me what type of exercise equipment the gym has? Thanks so much!

Laura,

I wanted to let you know that I popped my head into the workout room real quick for you while we were there last week and they looked to have a fairly decect setup. They had 2-3 treadmills, 1 stairclimber, 1 excersices bike, 1 elipitical, 2 racks of dumbbells, and one of the large cable machines (not the sit down style, but the type you can stand in the middle and do cable flys from the left and right side).

I hope that helps.. I didn't use it, but it looked like it had a good bit of equipment.



Mark

 

[udflyer00]

I also wanted to add for those that may be interested and have kids under 16, that Harbourtown Adventures in Harbourtown allows minors to drive with an adult on the waverunner with them. I took our 2 oldest kids, ages 10 & 8 and they had an absolute blast being able to drive the waverunner... I called a few of the others that advertised waverunner rentals, but they did not allow anyone without a drivers license to drive, with an adult or not. So I just wanted to mention that if you might be interested.

www.harbourtownadventures.com/waverunners/

Their rates were:
$104 for a single
$114 for a double
$124 for a triple

Hope this information might help someone else...

Mark

 

[mickeyplanner]

For all of you who just returned. Do you remember what time the beach house and pool closed? I heard reports that both close at 5pm.

 

[WolfpackFan]

The Beach House closed at 8:00. The pool closed later, but not sure what time.

 

[bigkidz]

We are going to HHI for our first DVC visit. I always hear how nice it is. I have fallen in love with Savannah too tho. Does anyone know if there is a shuttle or ferry to Savannah from HH resort?? Or does disney offer shuttle service? Does anyone have any recommendations for our 2 day stay there? We are going November 1 and I was surprised they were almost booked except for 2 bedroom, guess it's not a "seasonal" place.