Disney has a beach resort? Count me in! Update - Day 6

[aaarcher86]

Hi! The whole famn damily will be visiting Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort from 6/8 - 6/15! I figured I'd get my feet wet with a trip report on this resort and get some practice for a possible TR for our WDW trip later this year

It's been roughly 3 years since our kids have been to the beach. I'm crazy excited to get them back to it! The Mr. and I were in HHI a few years ago for a few days for business and loved the little bits we got to experience! We don't have many opportunities to head to community pool, so we'll also be throwing our kids in and hoping for the best. Sink or swim guys!

In the end, if I can get some rest, play in the sand with my kids, eat my weight in crab legs, and see dolphins I'm a happy camper. Find a sand dollar? Bonus points!

The Gang

Me - Type A, semi-spoiled, video game extraordinaire



Cecil - laid back, salt water fish enthusiast, gags when confronted with condiments



Skyler (8 ) - quirky, loves ballet, moods can change with the weather



Danica (6) - sarcastic, people pleaser, prone to randomly breaking out into song and dance



The Jood - Teacher, thespian, unable to perform a task without humming



Saturday we have 3 separate dance recitals from 3p - 7:30p (kill me now) before we drive through the night and end up in HHI early Sunday morning. It still hasn't quite registered that the trip is only a few days away. I haven't packed (tomorrow I swear!), I haven't finalized our plans, and I haven't confirmed all our TV shows are recording. I did buy books to read today though - baby steps.

Softball just started, school ends Friday, dance finishes up Saturday and then we leave... I think my brain is just completely shutting down. This will be a welcome break

If there's anything specific you'd like me to find out or look for while we're there just let me know here! We definitely have Salty Dog, Lawton Stables, and a few unlimited crab leg joints on the schedule! The kids will be doing some of the artsy projects the resort offers and we have the Pirate buffet at the resort scheduled for Tuesday

Level of excitement on a scale of 1 - Tom Cruise...

Arrival Day Part 1
Arrival Day Part 2
Day 1 - Monday
Day 2 - Tuesday
Day 3 - Wednesday
Day 4 - Thursday
Day 5 - Friday Part 1
Day 5 - Friday Part 2
Day 6 - Saturday

 

[PoppyGirl]

It's been a long time since I followed a trip report! Can't wait to see where this goes!

 

[mguilford1]

Following along!!! The girls are adorable! Funny when you get to put faces to names. I coached softball for 15 years it did not leave much time for vacations unless you consider random hotels each weekend and being out on a sandy, sunny softball field sweating.....vacation LOL but it was one of the best times of our lives and I miss it!!!!

 

[SusieBea]

I'm in! Disney introduced us to HHead, and we enjoyed it so much we bought a vacation home there. (It's Disney's fault ) When you go to the Salty Dog and Lawton, I would suggest (unsolicited advice - sorry) that you also go down to Harbour Town. Check out the local publications available at grocery store exits. There is entertainment for kiddos there periodically and a wonderful playground - oh, and shopping, did I mention shopping? Have a great trip. I'm anxious to read more.

 

[aaarcher86]

As I was lazily Facebooking earlier today I noticed this news story. WHAT THE WHAT?!

http://www.fox19.com/story/25687038...l&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Honestly, if I saw this behemoth while jogging I'd probably try to take a selfie at a distance with it. I always look for alligators in the ponds around Disney and never happen to see one. I saw a tiny one once in Myrtle Beach and tried to touch it with my big toe. I was unsuccessful. No lectures - I know I shouldn't

Cecil also informed me that he threw up last night and again this morning when he took the kids to school. Lovely. He slept for a good 5 hours and seems fine. Fingers crossed. He ate 2 bowls of cereal, so in my opinion, he's well enough to get outside and change the brake pads on my car! Get to it, Sir!

 

[aaarcher86]

It's been a long time since I followed a trip report! Can't wait to see where this goes!

Awesome! Thanks for hanging around!

Following along!!! The girls are adorable! Funny when you get to put faces to names. I coached softball for 15 years it did not leave much time for vacations unless you consider random hotels each weekend and being out on a sandy, sunny softball field sweating.....vacation LOL but it was one of the best times of our lives and I miss it!!!!

Thanks! The kids are cute, but don't let it fool you! May is always a rough month. The end of soccer, the last leg of dance, and the beginning of softball all come together! I'm still not sure whether the kids really love softball itself or just playing in the dirt, but we'll see!

I'm in! Disney introduced us to HHead, and we enjoyed it so much we bought a vacation home there. (It's Disney's fault ) When you go to the Salty Dog and Lawton, I would suggest (unsolicited advice - sorry) that you also go down to Harbour Town. Check out the local publications available at grocery store exits. There is entertainment for kiddos there periodically and a wonderful playground - oh, and shopping, did I mention shopping? Have a great trip. I'm anxious to read more.

A vacation home? How fun! We're hoping to move to SC in 3 - 4 years. It's always been the Myrtle Beach area in my husband's head, but I'm really considering the Hilton Head area. I love all the activities in Myrtle but I adore the beaches at Hilton Head.

I know we've been to Harbour Town and definitely plan on it again with the kids. I can't quite orient myself to where everything is on the island from the last time we were there. Is Harbour Town the area inside South Beach with Salty Dog? With the lighthouse? Or that the little area that is next to the resort? Hopefully it will all come back to me when we get there!

Thanks for the publications tip. I was wondering if they had anything like that around the area. We're going to hit up the Kroger near the resort for our breakfast and lunch meals so I'll snag some while we are there!

 

[ProudMommyof2]

You are going to love HHI! It was a pure joy to watch my family actually relax on vacation and HHI is so beautiful!

 

[SusieBea]

I know we've been to Harbour Town and definitely plan on it again with the kids. I can't quite orient myself to where everything is on the island from the last time we were there. Is Harbour Town the area inside South Beach with Salty Dog? With the lighthouse? Or that the little area that is next to the resort? Hopefully it will all come back to me when we get there!

Harbour Town, the Salty Dog restaurant, and Lawton Stables are all within Sea Pines Plantation at the south end of the Island.

 

[KristiMc]

Heading out from the Cleveland area Saturday morning. Staying outside of Savannah Saturday night and will tour Savannah Sunday morning and have lunch at Paula Deen's before heading to HHI in the afternoon.

See you there!

 

[aaarcher86]

Heading out from the Cleveland area Saturday morning. Staying outside of Savannah Saturday night and will tour Savannah Sunday morning and have lunch at Paula Deen's before heading to HHI in the afternoon. See you there!

Awesome! See you there! We should be in early Sunday. The forecast is looking pretty bleak for the week (ohai Dr. Seuss!). Hoping that changes!

 

[aaarcher86]

Harbour Town, the Salty Dog restaurant, and Lawton Stables are all within Sea Pines Plantation at the south end of the Island.

Awesome thanks!

 

[aaarcher86]

You are going to love HHI! It was a pure joy to watch my family actually relax on vacation and HHI is so beautiful!

IM sure we will love it! Can't wait!

 

[scottb8888]

Check in with Mike the pool guy! He is a wealth of information!

 

[lovewdwdvc]

What are your average hours per day reading?

 

[CocosMeme]

We just got back from our HHI trip (June1-8) and it was wonderful! Don't forget to rent bicycles from the resort. It was so much fun. We rode them over to the beach pool. We loved going over to the Shelter Cove restaurants for dinner. You can walk and almost all of them have nightly entertainment. Harbour Town was great. I know you will love the trip. Oh - they had a Pirate Party by the pool one night that was lots of fun. Kayak tour was fun too.

 

[aaarcher86]

Hey all! Sorry it's taken so long to get started. I have zero idea how it's already been almost 2 weeks that we've been home I feel like we haven't stopped since we've been back!

On to it then...

Arrival day


The drive down was uneventful. It actually ended up taking closer to 11 hours which was a nice surprise since I thought it was 12ish. After sitting through 3 dance recitals over the course of 6.5 hours, anything taken off the time was a welcome relief!

Dance recitals were successful. There was a shoe malfunction, a floppy cartwheel, and I quit attempting to change their makeup theme after dance #2... but we made it through alive! A few highlights:







After driving through the night, we ended up at Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort about 8:30am. I had done online check in 2 days prior and put our estimated arrival time as 8:00am. I got out of the car...

While the kids get out...



It must be nice to fall asleep, wake up 10 hours later, and BOOM! you're at the beach

We had requested building 31 with a marsh view. We ended up in building 30 with a view of the courtyard. While it wasn't what I was originally hoping for (because DOLPHINS), after driving all night, I was just happy to get a room so early. The check in gal gave us a few information/coupon booklets, a map of the island, our room keys, and were off.

As we walked in I noticed there was no paw print on the floor, and the doors were light colored - we were in a refurbished room. Fine by me! I don't know what I'm missing, but I thought the theme was great. The room itself was spacious, bright, fun!

There were a few cosmetic kinks with the room (a huge scratch down the master door showing the green paint underneath, caulk in the shower completely peeling out, etc) but nothing that anyone cared about. I was a little surprised since the refurbishment is relatively new.

Please note, every time you see Miss Danica in a shot it was followed by a 'gosh darn it, Danica.' She just doesn't understand the importance of this process

Entrance/Living room/Kitchen/balcony area

 

[aaarcher86]

Master bedroom/bath

Now, I don’t know how Disney managed to do it, but these pillows are made of clouds. CLOUDS. They’re a tiny piece of heaven, and my pillows at home have disappointed me every, single, night that I’ve been home ever since.

Now, we all see the mirror on the left side of this picture that spans the length of the door, yes? Since I took these pictures on arrival day, what you don’t see is my face imprint on this very mirror. Sadly, when this door was closed and I was sleepily trudging to the restroom in the middle of the night, I managed to smack straight into it. And the first time it happened I managed a hat trick combo of face, hand, and knee. I don’t know if The Jood actually smacked into the mirror on her door or not, but she did finally confide (after hearing her scream 2 nights in a row) that she thought her reflection was someone else. So, just leave this open. Always.

Good thing Danica's here to let us know she approves of this bathroom!

After we got all of our luggage off the car and into the rooms, we took a look around the resort and went over to Tide Me Over for breakfast. We all snagged a refillable drink mug which was a godsend when we were at the beach. I was so crazed with hunger that I forgot to snag a picture of the menu, but there wasn’t a huge amount of things to choose from. The kids and Cecil all ordered Mickey waffles (duh!) with a side of bacon or sausage, The Jood ordered a parfait, and I grabbed a breakfast sandwich (scrambled eggs, cheese, and bacon on a biscuit) with a side of hash browns (which ended up being tator tots, essentially). The hash browns were at least 2 – 3 servings so we all ended up sharing. The parfait The Jood ordered was either child sized or incredibly small, but still tasty.
After breakfast, we dropped my mom off at church for noon mass at Holy Family Catholic Church.

http://www.holyfamilyhhi.org/

While she was there, we ran over to an auto parts store and grabbed all the goodies to change the back breaks on my car. Because why wouldn’t they go out the day we get to our vacation destination?! Afterwards, we ran over to Kroger and grabbed munchies for the resort room. I will say, that we ended up with a lot of food uneaten. Our normal vacation spots are directly on the beach and it’s easy to walk back to the room for lunch and snacks. With Disney’s HHI resort, since the beach is a short drive away, it’s really unappealing to load up all our stuff to come back after 2ish hours on the beach, eat, then load it up and go back to the beach. We ended up eating at Signals a lot more during this trip than we had anticipated.

Once we snagged The Jood and went back to the resort we really took it easy. We unpacked the groceries and took showers while Cecil changed the brakes on my car. And wouldn’t ya know, as soon as he had gotten underway the sky opened up and it started pouring! He powered through, finished the brakes, and took an extra long shower to get off all the grime. Even when it’s raining it’s warm, so he did say it wasn’t terrible! One of the maintenance guys really came through for him when he needed a set of pliers and hung out with him while he finished up. Cecil was really appreciative and kind of awe struck that the worker was so overly helpful and friendly! It was nice to see that the Disney spirit carries over to their beach property!

Once everyone was showered, dressed, and ready to go, we ended up heading over to Nick’s Steak and Seafood for dinner. Unlimited crab legs needed to happen, and they had a good variety of options for everyone else (as if they matter when it comes to unlimited crab legs!). They’re also located about 2 seconds up the road.

http://www.nickssteakandseafood.com/

We were there about 5:00pm for an early dinner so we could get to bed and relax the rest of the evening. Food wise, everything was fine. Nothing exceptional. This happened:

We were all pretty disappointed in my performance, honestly. I can normally bang out at least a bucket and a half of shelf remnants, but today, I just wasn’t super hungry. I vowed to do better next time, and we hit the road to grab a quick look at the beach/beach house before heading back to the room for the night.

Since you have to drive INTO Palmetto Dunes to get to Disney’s Beach house we ended up being all kerfluffled. ‘Nope, not the right way. Let’s turn around.’ ‘But this is the right road on the map.’ ‘This obviously isn’t it.’ You get the picture. We ended up just saying ‘let’s just keep driving this way until they tell us to stop’ and once we got to the guard shack we asked if we were going the right way. We were.

We parked at the beach house, checked out the pool, made mental notes of the menu at Signals, and walked down to the beach. The kids were ecstatic! Danica hasn’t been to a real beach since she was a toddler, and she immediately ran to the water, kicked it around, played in the sand, laughed, danced… you get the picture. It was a joyous moment for her. I don’t think either one of the kids really realized were at the beach until that moment. Skyler was a bit more subdued about her enthusiasm, but it was there.

We walked around for about 20 minutes or so and went back to the resort. At this point it was close to 7:30pm and we were all beat. We had to pry the kids out of the sand with promises to come back in the morning and reassurance that we’d be here all week. The Jood and the kids were in the second bedroom while Cecil and myself took the master. We all sacked out in bed, with the pillows given by the gods, and looked forward to the rest of the week.

 

[KristiMc]

We were in 1612. I had also asked for a marsh view but did not get it. When we checked in around 1:30 on 6/8 they said we could wait for one of the marsh view rooms in the main lodge, but we were wanting to get to our room so we took it. It ended up being a nice view.

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Great start! So lucky your room was ready so early! We got lost our first trek to the beach house as well. I love the look of the renovated rooms but I am sad they got rid of the full size picnic table on the deck.

 

[aaarcher86]

What are your average hours per day reading?

I didn't really get to start reading until 2 or 3 days in. Once I finally got started I ended up getting a good 2.5 - 3 hours collectively per day while the kids were swimming or in bed at night.

I tried reading on the patio one night while the kids were out with my mom and only lasted about 20 minutes - ants and mosquitoes are not for me!