garettdoyle
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2004
- Messages
- 110
My family and I just returned from an 8 night stay at the DVC Hilton Head Resort. Let me give you a bit of my background to put some perspective on my comments. My wife and I are in our early 30s and we have two daughters (4 years and 21 months) and we all went on the trip. We live in Golden, CO (western suburbs of Denver). This was our 2nd trip to Hilton Head. In July 2003, we spent one week at the Marriott Grande Ocean (which is a great property!). During this trip in 2003, we took a drive over to Shelter Cove and walked around the DVC resort out of curiousity. My brother also stayed at DVC HH for a week a few years back. In addition, we are not DVC owners and we don't own any timeshares at all, and don't plan too. All this said, we knew what to expect and I think my opinions are pretty objectives as I have no long term commitment to DVC or other time share.
We flew from Denver to Washington DC and connected to Savanah then rented a car. We left our house early Sunday morning and arrived at the DVC HH around 8:30 PM Sunday night. Needless to say, it was a long day. One of the major disadvantages for people in the western US from vacationing in HH is the lack of direct flights to anywhere close to HH. At least with WDW in FL, you can get direct flights to Orlando.
WEATHER (4/25/04-5/3/04)
One of reasons we decided to go for 8 nights was in case of bad weather, our chances would be better for a couple of beach/pool days. It was between 78-81 degrees most of the days with partly to mostly sunny. It rained 3-4 times during our stay. Two of the rain storms lasted more than 30 minutes. Overall, the weather was about what I expected based on researching average weather for this time of year. We brought and planned rain day activities, so the rain didn't really interupt our plans. Travel Hint: Plan for the worst and hope for the best, especially when it comes to weather. Suggested rainy day activities: movies (go to theatre or watch in room), Mall (nice mall less than a mile away), Barnes & Noble, Local Museum, Disney Planned Activities (Goofy Bingo, Nature talks, etc), eat out, and in room activities (coloring books, puzzles, read, board games). I know some of these sound obvious, but you will need to bring some of the supplies with you.
Resort/Room
We were in building 19, room 1911. It was nice and close to the parking, just acrossing from Shelter Cove. It was a relatively close walk to the pool. The whole resort seemed seemed quiet and uncrowded. According to the front desk attendant, the resort was at 97-100% of capacity our entire stay. We had a 2 bedroom villa. Just as a comparison to the Marriott Grande Ocean, the bedrooms and bathrooms at DVC HH are much bigger whereas the kitchen and living area at the Marriott Grande Ocean are much bigger. The room sizes at both resorts are about the same (1300 sq ft). It was very roomy for our family of four. The 2 bedroom unit can supposedly sleep 8 but I don't know where everyone would fit at the dinner table as 6 would have been pretty tight.
As far as the condition of our room, it was good but we did have a couple of minor issues. The biggest in my opinion is the condition of the carpet in the room. It was dirty enough that it caused my white socks to get dirty when I walked on it. They need to either deep clean the carpet or replace it. The carpet is visible very dirty. Second, we had to have the master bath shower door fixed twice during our stay as the door would not close. This really didn't bother me too much as both times they were great about fixing it promptly. I thought the kitchen could be better stocked (no salt & pepper???) but it was adequate. When are they going to add DVD players? The decoration and feel of the room was great, well themed. Nice deck (big enough to actually eat on!).
DVC ACTIVITIES
We did participate in many of the Disney planned activities. Here is a quick review of each:
Shrimp Boil - Expensive ($25 adult/$9 for kids). The food was ok but not great. The entertainment by B'lou Crabbe was good. We don't regret going but I am not sure we would do it again.
Campfire - Fun. Good energy from CMs. My 4 year old loves S'mores (Disney provided for free)
Trip to Pinckney Island - 3 hour trip plus van ride (free). Nature hike led by Christopher the naturalist. Great trip, highly recommend it. BTW, we didn't take our stroller and we wish we had. It is a 3 mile walk.
Build a Dog House craft project - Build Shadow's (the dog) graham cracker house (basic holiday gingerbread type project). Our four year old liked it. A little pricey at $12 (1.5 hours)
Fishin' Pole Theatre - Puppet show with B'lou Crabbe telling, singining and playing instruments. Great. A+. Loved it so much we sent twice (same story both times). (Free, 30-45 minutes)
Sweet Good nights - Stories, cookies and milk. Good but it was a bit crowded (get there early!). (Free, 30-45 minutes)
Goofy Bingo - well, its just what it sounds like.
(Free, 60 minutes)
We actually did a couple of more activities and they were also pretty good (meet Shadow the dog, other story times, nature class). In general, I would say that the activities were really great. Compared to other hotels/resorts, they were outstanding. Everything was run very professionally. If you don't take advantage of these, you are really missing out on one of the major parts of this resort. If these type of activities don't interest you, you may want to stay somewhere else. If you are purely interested in the beach, the Marriott Grande might be a better fit for you.
Other non-DVC activities
BIKES - We rented bikes the day before we were going to leave. We enjoyed riding on the bike paths around the island. From a cost perspective, we should have just rented them for the entire stay, it would not have been much more money. Oh well. It was nice being able to rent right on property. It would be nice if they had bike racks outside each villa. As it is now, everyone just parks their bikes where ever.
BEACH - We went to the beach about half the days we were in HH. It was only slightly inconvenient that we had to drive to the beach house. It was nice having the beach house so close (bathrooms, snacks, drinks, etc.) to the beach. The ocean was about 73 degrees. Warm enough to get in but not as warm as the pool. There were a few more jelly fish out than I cared to see but I still went in.
MALL - HH mall is just a mile or so away from DVC HH. There are two achor stores (can't remember which two, one might have been Saks 5th Avenue), small food court (pizza place, Chick-fila, coffee shop, and something else), and lots of speciality stores (Bath and body works, Waldens, Victoria Secrets, and the usual list you see at the neighborhood mall). There was also a nice play area in the middle for kids.
FOOD - We ate most of our meals in the room. Taking a 4 year old and 21 month old out to dinner is not the most relaxing activity!!! We purchased our groceries at the Piggley Wiggley. It seemed like an ok grocery store. It was not as big as the stores in big city but served our purpose fine. The prices were a bit higher than back at home but not outrageous. We did eat out a few times. We had pizza delivered from Guesippes. It was good, but not outstanding. We ate dinner at the HH Brewery. It was good. large menu, and fairly priced. We ate Cracker Barrell (same as any other Cracker Barrel). The deli in Shelter Cove was really good. The food from the counter service by the pool and beach house was ok. Typical fastfood, nothing special but acceptable. With over 250+ restaurants on the island of HH, I am sure you can find something to your liking.
If you have never been to HH, it would be wise to check out the available activities prior to going. It is not like WDW where activities are in your face, you have to plan a little.
OVERALL
We very much enjoyed our trip, I would give our trip overall an A. Everything pretty much went as planned. It was a very relaxing week. We were able to spend a lot of good quality time together as a family on this trip. It was much more relaxing than a week at WDW. A trip to HH is much different than going to theme parks. Would we come back? Yes. Would we stay at DVC HH again? Yes.
The people that seem to be dissappointed in this particular DVC resort are ones that didn't have a good understanding on the type of resort this is. Its relatively small (around 100 rooms). No Disney characters. No full service restaurants. Limited activities compared to WDW. These are all the reasons we enjoyed it. Come here to relax. Go to WDW to play (and play hard!!).
We flew from Denver to Washington DC and connected to Savanah then rented a car. We left our house early Sunday morning and arrived at the DVC HH around 8:30 PM Sunday night. Needless to say, it was a long day. One of the major disadvantages for people in the western US from vacationing in HH is the lack of direct flights to anywhere close to HH. At least with WDW in FL, you can get direct flights to Orlando.
WEATHER (4/25/04-5/3/04)
One of reasons we decided to go for 8 nights was in case of bad weather, our chances would be better for a couple of beach/pool days. It was between 78-81 degrees most of the days with partly to mostly sunny. It rained 3-4 times during our stay. Two of the rain storms lasted more than 30 minutes. Overall, the weather was about what I expected based on researching average weather for this time of year. We brought and planned rain day activities, so the rain didn't really interupt our plans. Travel Hint: Plan for the worst and hope for the best, especially when it comes to weather. Suggested rainy day activities: movies (go to theatre or watch in room), Mall (nice mall less than a mile away), Barnes & Noble, Local Museum, Disney Planned Activities (Goofy Bingo, Nature talks, etc), eat out, and in room activities (coloring books, puzzles, read, board games). I know some of these sound obvious, but you will need to bring some of the supplies with you.
Resort/Room
We were in building 19, room 1911. It was nice and close to the parking, just acrossing from Shelter Cove. It was a relatively close walk to the pool. The whole resort seemed seemed quiet and uncrowded. According to the front desk attendant, the resort was at 97-100% of capacity our entire stay. We had a 2 bedroom villa. Just as a comparison to the Marriott Grande Ocean, the bedrooms and bathrooms at DVC HH are much bigger whereas the kitchen and living area at the Marriott Grande Ocean are much bigger. The room sizes at both resorts are about the same (1300 sq ft). It was very roomy for our family of four. The 2 bedroom unit can supposedly sleep 8 but I don't know where everyone would fit at the dinner table as 6 would have been pretty tight.
As far as the condition of our room, it was good but we did have a couple of minor issues. The biggest in my opinion is the condition of the carpet in the room. It was dirty enough that it caused my white socks to get dirty when I walked on it. They need to either deep clean the carpet or replace it. The carpet is visible very dirty. Second, we had to have the master bath shower door fixed twice during our stay as the door would not close. This really didn't bother me too much as both times they were great about fixing it promptly. I thought the kitchen could be better stocked (no salt & pepper???) but it was adequate. When are they going to add DVD players? The decoration and feel of the room was great, well themed. Nice deck (big enough to actually eat on!).
DVC ACTIVITIES
We did participate in many of the Disney planned activities. Here is a quick review of each:
Shrimp Boil - Expensive ($25 adult/$9 for kids). The food was ok but not great. The entertainment by B'lou Crabbe was good. We don't regret going but I am not sure we would do it again.
Campfire - Fun. Good energy from CMs. My 4 year old loves S'mores (Disney provided for free)
Trip to Pinckney Island - 3 hour trip plus van ride (free). Nature hike led by Christopher the naturalist. Great trip, highly recommend it. BTW, we didn't take our stroller and we wish we had. It is a 3 mile walk.
Build a Dog House craft project - Build Shadow's (the dog) graham cracker house (basic holiday gingerbread type project). Our four year old liked it. A little pricey at $12 (1.5 hours)
Fishin' Pole Theatre - Puppet show with B'lou Crabbe telling, singining and playing instruments. Great. A+. Loved it so much we sent twice (same story both times). (Free, 30-45 minutes)
Sweet Good nights - Stories, cookies and milk. Good but it was a bit crowded (get there early!). (Free, 30-45 minutes)
Goofy Bingo - well, its just what it sounds like.
(Free, 60 minutes)We actually did a couple of more activities and they were also pretty good (meet Shadow the dog, other story times, nature class). In general, I would say that the activities were really great. Compared to other hotels/resorts, they were outstanding. Everything was run very professionally. If you don't take advantage of these, you are really missing out on one of the major parts of this resort. If these type of activities don't interest you, you may want to stay somewhere else. If you are purely interested in the beach, the Marriott Grande might be a better fit for you.
Other non-DVC activities
BIKES - We rented bikes the day before we were going to leave. We enjoyed riding on the bike paths around the island. From a cost perspective, we should have just rented them for the entire stay, it would not have been much more money. Oh well. It was nice being able to rent right on property. It would be nice if they had bike racks outside each villa. As it is now, everyone just parks their bikes where ever.
BEACH - We went to the beach about half the days we were in HH. It was only slightly inconvenient that we had to drive to the beach house. It was nice having the beach house so close (bathrooms, snacks, drinks, etc.) to the beach. The ocean was about 73 degrees. Warm enough to get in but not as warm as the pool. There were a few more jelly fish out than I cared to see but I still went in.
MALL - HH mall is just a mile or so away from DVC HH. There are two achor stores (can't remember which two, one might have been Saks 5th Avenue), small food court (pizza place, Chick-fila, coffee shop, and something else), and lots of speciality stores (Bath and body works, Waldens, Victoria Secrets, and the usual list you see at the neighborhood mall). There was also a nice play area in the middle for kids.
FOOD - We ate most of our meals in the room. Taking a 4 year old and 21 month old out to dinner is not the most relaxing activity!!! We purchased our groceries at the Piggley Wiggley. It seemed like an ok grocery store. It was not as big as the stores in big city but served our purpose fine. The prices were a bit higher than back at home but not outrageous. We did eat out a few times. We had pizza delivered from Guesippes. It was good, but not outstanding. We ate dinner at the HH Brewery. It was good. large menu, and fairly priced. We ate Cracker Barrell (same as any other Cracker Barrel). The deli in Shelter Cove was really good. The food from the counter service by the pool and beach house was ok. Typical fastfood, nothing special but acceptable. With over 250+ restaurants on the island of HH, I am sure you can find something to your liking.
If you have never been to HH, it would be wise to check out the available activities prior to going. It is not like WDW where activities are in your face, you have to plan a little.
OVERALL
We very much enjoyed our trip, I would give our trip overall an A. Everything pretty much went as planned. It was a very relaxing week. We were able to spend a lot of good quality time together as a family on this trip. It was much more relaxing than a week at WDW. A trip to HH is much different than going to theme parks. Would we come back? Yes. Would we stay at DVC HH again? Yes.
The people that seem to be dissappointed in this particular DVC resort are ones that didn't have a good understanding on the type of resort this is. Its relatively small (around 100 rooms). No Disney characters. No full service restaurants. Limited activities compared to WDW. These are all the reasons we enjoyed it. Come here to relax. Go to WDW to play (and play hard!!).
