7/5 - 7/8 Stay in 2BDRM - 2812. We have been staying at HH
DVC since 1999. It is our home resort. These are my/our thoughts and people's opinions can be different without it being the end of the free world as we know it. We live in Greenville, SC. Our family is mixed over the virus, masks, etc. There were 4 of us on this trip -- wife, husband and 2 of our 3 sons (17 and 20). Our 22 year old son (former Clemson student w/3 roommates; 2 of whom had the virus - with no impacts) now works and did not accompany us. He has been one of two of our family who think that the virus is the end of the world, beyond dangerous, etc. He stayed in the apartment working from home, social distancing, quarantining until he returned to work.
We drive down early in the morning (4 hour drive) and arrived a little before 10:00am. I checked us in, wearing a mask for the first time, getting our keys. Again, these are my/our opinions/impressions of Disney and our visit, etc. Over time we have found Disney to be something that we tolerate. Our kids have enjoyed over 40 to 50 extended trips (depending on the age of the child) to various Disney resorts (some non-DVC but more DVC than not). We have stayed at all but the Poly and Copper River DVCs in Orlando. Old Key West and Saratoga are our favorites. We have been to HH DVC around 18 or so times and Vero Beach 3 times. We had a Vero Beach spring break trip and an early June Hilton Head trip cancelled due the closings. Stumbled on this reservation by accident. Our other stays were in an Inn room for the 3 of us at Vero and a 1BDRM for the 4 of us at HH. Do not really need a 2BDRM at HH but lucky to get anything at this point. Many will be losing lots of points. We now have booked HH for October so we will be clean on points. Got a little off topic there but the main point is that we have seen Disney for what it is for us and that is a giant money sucking machine. DVC has allowed us to enjoy nice stays (all of our points were resale purchases) but we have not been star struck by Disney for a very long time.
So when I checked in on Sunday the exuberance of the clerk was a tad much when so much of the resort was basically unavailable......at least the several of the things that our sons enjoy. Our room was not ready (as expected) so we headed to the beach house after getting our vehicle pass. July 4th weekend can be a tough parking spot find down there with others allowed to park in the lot that Disney does not exclusive use over. The time of day helped and we got a spot on the surface lot. We asked about moving 1 chair to a 3 chair grouping (Disney is using the word pod) and was told no due to social distancing in place so we took (2) 3 chair groupings for the 4 of us. Their rules but we wasted 4 chairs and the social distancing would have worked just fine where these chairs were placed. Just relaxed by the pool. The beach on the 4th is a mess so we did not even bother with our umbrella or beach chairs. We did grab lunch here for the 4 of us (lucky for us it was the weekend) using some old discounted (from Sam's Club) Disney gift cards that our youngest had taken on a school trip to Disney several years back. The food prices here are terrible and we rarely buy food from here but we had the cards and the timing worked. Wife ordered the food and it was brought to us in a large paper bag for social distancing purposes.
We got the text that the room was ready around 1:30pm so we headed up and put our stuff in the room and headed to the resort pool. Had no issue finding chairs but we did have to use 3 chairs over behind the water slide and 2 chairs about 20 feet from the kiddie pool. We did later move to a group of four chairs when others left. Not wanting to make this a trip report so I will ease up and give our impressions of what we encountered. Our room did over look the pool (not our favorite - the first time that had happened since our first stay in '99) but it by the non-smoking gate on the water side so it was convenient for this trip since we never really anything much else at the resort except for the pool.
The weather forecast was miserable for us after Sunday but wound up being a B- considering the forecast. Our sons could not play basketball, shoot pool, play corn hole or shuffle board. They did walk to the Lodge (even though I told them not a chance) to see if there any cookies one night. We total understand social distancing and wearing a mask inside (it is the "law" per the government.
We shopped at Krogers on Sunday night but we had most of our snacks. We did pick up ice and chocolate milk for making ice cream. We did that for the first time at a Disney resort and it was a great idea. We dined inside at Wayback Burger on Sunday night. Dined at Fish Camp (had a reservation that was made in advance) on Monday night. Had a late lunch at Fiesta Fresh on Tuesday due to a storm that came in around 4:00PM. We had a pizza from Guiseppi's at the pool on Wednesday on our check out day.
We felt like the trip was lessened by the restrictions in place due to the virus. We had points that we needed to use so we were lucky to do so. We did not return to the beach house because the chance of rain was so great that we did not want to deal with the beach set-up.
A couple of things that I do not understand is not having Signals open every day at the beach house (it is the height of summer). Also, the bar was not open there when we at the beach house on Sunday........why? Also, with so little to to.......why did the pools not open at 8:00am as they always have in the past. The resort pool opened at 9:00am and the beach pool did not open until 10:00am. Makes zero sense.
We understand the tragedy that this virus has caused so many families. We were glad to be able to visit the resort but for us this was the usual great Hilton Head DVC trip that we have based on how we navigate all things Disney. This trip was a low C- but it was better than no trip at all due to the points that would have just been lost.