ZerasPride
DVC Member Since 2001
- Joined
- Sep 1, 1999
- Messages
- 4,279
My husband and I just returned from a great week at Hilton Head and I wanted to share our experiences. Ill break my report down by category because its easier for me to remember things that way.
TRAVEL
We drove the 12 hours from Cleveland to HH and made great time. I am not normally a fan of driving long distances but the time really seemed to fly by. The directions I printed off from expedia.com said it would take 12-1/2 hours and I figured with stops for food, gas and other necessities it would take us about 14 hours. I think the fact that we traveled on a Sunday helped with the traffic being so light because from our front door to checking in at Live Oak Lodge it took 12 hours exactly including stops. We will definitely continue to drive to HH. This was our third trip and except for a wrong turn on I-26 on the way home, it was smooth sailing.
ACCOMMODATIONS
We reserved a one bedroom villa. It was in good shape. Our villa number was 1132 on the third floor of Live Oak Lodge. I would recommend it for several reasons. It was a non-smoking, non-handicapped marsh view and its right off the elevators. When you are entering the property through the security gate and glance up at the third floor, you can see the corner of a porch. Thats villa 1132. When you are sitting in one of the rocking chairs you have a wonderful view of the marsh right in front of your unit. The only negative and its a very minor one that I can think of, is the fact that the unit backs up to the elevator and you can hear elevator noise from the bedroom when the elevator is in use. At first I was a little irritated by the noise but after a day or two, it was like a gentle hum that didnt bother me at all. DH said it didnt bother him one bit. The hum of the elevator did not detract from our vacation experience at all. I will say on our final morning, you could tell people were checking out because you could hear the humming of the elevator pretty early in the morning. I rolled over and went right back to sleep though so as I said, it wasnt a loud noise. I just wanted to comment on that in case someone gets this villa in the future.
CAST MEMBERS
I want to say a special thank you to the CMs at HH. I know at least one of you posts on this board (it was nice meeting you at the font desk). They really helped to make our week special. I know I left Chef Gordon a message and Im not sure if he peeks on the board from time to time but DH and I are truly sorry the member social was cancelled. We hope to meet you in person next time. I dont know if its the smaller size of this resort or the fact that it was a very quiet week but every CM we met seemed to recognize us and several knew it was our anniversary so we thank you for the special touches and kind words expressed. We also loved having our anniversary posted on the resorts information channel. It was neat seeing our names everyday!
ACTIVITIES
As some of you may remember, we canceled our Disney cruise for this trip to HH and Im so glad we did. I do want to take the cruise one day and Im sure we will but this week was so relaxing in our spacious villa. We did absolutely nothing! I know we could have relaxed on the cruise but I dont think we could have spread out and had as much peace and quiet as we did at Hilton Head. We had planned to do the dolphin cruise, the campfire and visit Savannah (dinner at Lady and Sons) but none of those things ever happened. And again we loved every minute of doing absolutely nothing. The resort was very quiet this week and we felt as if we were almost the only ones there. We did spend some time lying out in the sun and swimming. We played endless games of ping pong and had Big Murggys Den all to ourselves most afternoons. We enjoyed the yummy chocolate chip cookies and lemonade that was available every afternoon from 3-5 and met some nice guests/members along the way. We did do some shopping at the outlet centers down 278 and that was fun. The shops are gearing up for the holidays and many of them have sales going on through Thanksgiving if anyone will be visiting the island soon.
FOOD
No trip to Hilton Head would be complete without some good eating. We are fairly unadventurous when it comes to food and like your basic meat and potatoes. So we ate at Fuddruckers which is our traditional first night dinner. We stopped at Piggly Wiggly for some supplies for the room after dinner that first night. I had planned to make a couple of meals in the room but quickly changed my mind on that! The front desk CMs that checked us in recommend the Mellow Mushroom right down the street from Sea Pine Circle for good pizza. It was very good and while many restaurants were pretty near empty, this place was jumping with locals even on a weeknight. Well definitely be back there again. We had a good dinner at Nicks Steak and Seafood. I thought the restaurant was called Crabby Nicks, my mistake. Anyway, its not a fancy place but we enjoyed our meal there. When you leave the resort, make a right on 278 and its about 10 miles or so up the road on the left-hand side. I had one of the best and most tender steaks of my life. You could almost cut it with your fork. It came with fried shrimp and a baked potato and my DH had a cheese steak sandwich which was huge!! We were so stuffed we couldnt even think about dessert. A wonderful meal and well definitely be back. We also ate at Tide Me Over for lunch everyday. Again, not adventurous dining but everything is cooked to order and the chicken fingers were awesome!
We also had a special anniversary dinner at Old Oyster Factory. The food was good. I convinced DH to try the Oyster Savannah for our appetizer and we both agreed it was excellent. That says a lot for people who like simple foods. I had the fish, fried shrimp and grilled shrimp with garlic mash potatoes and it was very good. DH had a chicken breast dish covered with a special sauce and rice which he pronounced very good as well. We split this incredible dessert that had people at the tables around us asking if they could get spoons and try it! It was very good. I cant remember the name of it now, but it was yellow cake and vanilla ice cream with heavy whipping cream in a sort of tower on a large plate surrounded by melted Belgian chocolate and slivered almonds with sliced strawberry on top. It was so large we both could not finish it. Our table faced the water and had a lovely view.
WEATHER
For the most part, we had sunny days with blue skys and fluffy white clouds. We did have one day where it rained for several hours straight but by the afternoon it cleared up and was sunny and bright. It was warm enough to swim in the pool and sun yourself at least 2 of the days we were there so we took advantage of it. One night it rained most of the night but had cleared up by morning and was sunny. The day we left (Friday) I almost wanted to cry. It was such a beautiful and warm day and I dreaded coming back to Cleveland with our cold weather. Although I will say it has been warm here at home but I know the cold weather is coming soon!
FINAL THOUGHTS AND OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
As we were going over the bridge away from the island, James Taylors Going to Carolina in my Mind came on the radio and it made me so sad. I didnt want to leave. We had a wonderful week. I would love to visit Hilton Head the week before Thanksgiving every year because the place and the island itself seem deserted (maybe we can once DS is out of high school). We were so lazy this week and didnt get to do many of the activities we had planned but well be back next year (isnt DVC wonderful?) so we will definitely have our list of must dos and plan on doing them. DH and I have talked for a couple of years now about relocating to the south and weve narrowed it down to Charlotte, NC or Beaufort, SC. We talked to several CMs that have relocated to South Carolina and they had nice things to say about Beaufort. Anyway, it wouldnt be for a few more years so we have plenty of time to research and get a feel for these cities. I cant wait for December so I can make our Thanksgiving week reservations. My sister and BIL and my DS who was disappointed he wasnt invited on this trip are all looking forward to joining us next year. Well probably be booking a 2 bedroom for my family and a one bedroom for sister and her husband. They are already talking about it.
Well thats about it. I hope I didnt bore you guys to tears with our experiences. If you have any questions, feel free. If you are going to Hilton Head soon, you are in for a treat! If you havent tried the resort yet and are wondering if you should, let me put my two cents in make a reservation, what are you waiting for?
Have a Disney day all!!!
TRAVEL
We drove the 12 hours from Cleveland to HH and made great time. I am not normally a fan of driving long distances but the time really seemed to fly by. The directions I printed off from expedia.com said it would take 12-1/2 hours and I figured with stops for food, gas and other necessities it would take us about 14 hours. I think the fact that we traveled on a Sunday helped with the traffic being so light because from our front door to checking in at Live Oak Lodge it took 12 hours exactly including stops. We will definitely continue to drive to HH. This was our third trip and except for a wrong turn on I-26 on the way home, it was smooth sailing.
ACCOMMODATIONS
We reserved a one bedroom villa. It was in good shape. Our villa number was 1132 on the third floor of Live Oak Lodge. I would recommend it for several reasons. It was a non-smoking, non-handicapped marsh view and its right off the elevators. When you are entering the property through the security gate and glance up at the third floor, you can see the corner of a porch. Thats villa 1132. When you are sitting in one of the rocking chairs you have a wonderful view of the marsh right in front of your unit. The only negative and its a very minor one that I can think of, is the fact that the unit backs up to the elevator and you can hear elevator noise from the bedroom when the elevator is in use. At first I was a little irritated by the noise but after a day or two, it was like a gentle hum that didnt bother me at all. DH said it didnt bother him one bit. The hum of the elevator did not detract from our vacation experience at all. I will say on our final morning, you could tell people were checking out because you could hear the humming of the elevator pretty early in the morning. I rolled over and went right back to sleep though so as I said, it wasnt a loud noise. I just wanted to comment on that in case someone gets this villa in the future.
CAST MEMBERS
I want to say a special thank you to the CMs at HH. I know at least one of you posts on this board (it was nice meeting you at the font desk). They really helped to make our week special. I know I left Chef Gordon a message and Im not sure if he peeks on the board from time to time but DH and I are truly sorry the member social was cancelled. We hope to meet you in person next time. I dont know if its the smaller size of this resort or the fact that it was a very quiet week but every CM we met seemed to recognize us and several knew it was our anniversary so we thank you for the special touches and kind words expressed. We also loved having our anniversary posted on the resorts information channel. It was neat seeing our names everyday!
ACTIVITIES
As some of you may remember, we canceled our Disney cruise for this trip to HH and Im so glad we did. I do want to take the cruise one day and Im sure we will but this week was so relaxing in our spacious villa. We did absolutely nothing! I know we could have relaxed on the cruise but I dont think we could have spread out and had as much peace and quiet as we did at Hilton Head. We had planned to do the dolphin cruise, the campfire and visit Savannah (dinner at Lady and Sons) but none of those things ever happened. And again we loved every minute of doing absolutely nothing. The resort was very quiet this week and we felt as if we were almost the only ones there. We did spend some time lying out in the sun and swimming. We played endless games of ping pong and had Big Murggys Den all to ourselves most afternoons. We enjoyed the yummy chocolate chip cookies and lemonade that was available every afternoon from 3-5 and met some nice guests/members along the way. We did do some shopping at the outlet centers down 278 and that was fun. The shops are gearing up for the holidays and many of them have sales going on through Thanksgiving if anyone will be visiting the island soon.
FOOD
No trip to Hilton Head would be complete without some good eating. We are fairly unadventurous when it comes to food and like your basic meat and potatoes. So we ate at Fuddruckers which is our traditional first night dinner. We stopped at Piggly Wiggly for some supplies for the room after dinner that first night. I had planned to make a couple of meals in the room but quickly changed my mind on that! The front desk CMs that checked us in recommend the Mellow Mushroom right down the street from Sea Pine Circle for good pizza. It was very good and while many restaurants were pretty near empty, this place was jumping with locals even on a weeknight. Well definitely be back there again. We had a good dinner at Nicks Steak and Seafood. I thought the restaurant was called Crabby Nicks, my mistake. Anyway, its not a fancy place but we enjoyed our meal there. When you leave the resort, make a right on 278 and its about 10 miles or so up the road on the left-hand side. I had one of the best and most tender steaks of my life. You could almost cut it with your fork. It came with fried shrimp and a baked potato and my DH had a cheese steak sandwich which was huge!! We were so stuffed we couldnt even think about dessert. A wonderful meal and well definitely be back. We also ate at Tide Me Over for lunch everyday. Again, not adventurous dining but everything is cooked to order and the chicken fingers were awesome!
We also had a special anniversary dinner at Old Oyster Factory. The food was good. I convinced DH to try the Oyster Savannah for our appetizer and we both agreed it was excellent. That says a lot for people who like simple foods. I had the fish, fried shrimp and grilled shrimp with garlic mash potatoes and it was very good. DH had a chicken breast dish covered with a special sauce and rice which he pronounced very good as well. We split this incredible dessert that had people at the tables around us asking if they could get spoons and try it! It was very good. I cant remember the name of it now, but it was yellow cake and vanilla ice cream with heavy whipping cream in a sort of tower on a large plate surrounded by melted Belgian chocolate and slivered almonds with sliced strawberry on top. It was so large we both could not finish it. Our table faced the water and had a lovely view.
WEATHER
For the most part, we had sunny days with blue skys and fluffy white clouds. We did have one day where it rained for several hours straight but by the afternoon it cleared up and was sunny and bright. It was warm enough to swim in the pool and sun yourself at least 2 of the days we were there so we took advantage of it. One night it rained most of the night but had cleared up by morning and was sunny. The day we left (Friday) I almost wanted to cry. It was such a beautiful and warm day and I dreaded coming back to Cleveland with our cold weather. Although I will say it has been warm here at home but I know the cold weather is coming soon!
FINAL THOUGHTS AND OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
As we were going over the bridge away from the island, James Taylors Going to Carolina in my Mind came on the radio and it made me so sad. I didnt want to leave. We had a wonderful week. I would love to visit Hilton Head the week before Thanksgiving every year because the place and the island itself seem deserted (maybe we can once DS is out of high school). We were so lazy this week and didnt get to do many of the activities we had planned but well be back next year (isnt DVC wonderful?) so we will definitely have our list of must dos and plan on doing them. DH and I have talked for a couple of years now about relocating to the south and weve narrowed it down to Charlotte, NC or Beaufort, SC. We talked to several CMs that have relocated to South Carolina and they had nice things to say about Beaufort. Anyway, it wouldnt be for a few more years so we have plenty of time to research and get a feel for these cities. I cant wait for December so I can make our Thanksgiving week reservations. My sister and BIL and my DS who was disappointed he wasnt invited on this trip are all looking forward to joining us next year. Well probably be booking a 2 bedroom for my family and a one bedroom for sister and her husband. They are already talking about it.
Well thats about it. I hope I didnt bore you guys to tears with our experiences. If you have any questions, feel free. If you are going to Hilton Head soon, you are in for a treat! If you havent tried the resort yet and are wondering if you should, let me put my two cents in make a reservation, what are you waiting for?
Have a Disney day all!!!
Great trip report. Can't wait for my first visit to HH.
July
