HHI - Trip Report - Even Though I Stink at These!

[nocruisecontrol]

Who: Me - DD and SIL and their 3 children: 10 month old twins and 2 year old son. DD (7 months pregnant) and her 2 children: 10 year old daughter and 1 year old son.

What: Five Nights at Hilton Head

Where: 2 Bedroom Villa. Building 16.

When: September 5th through September 10th


Day 1 - Monday, Labor Day, September 5th
Weather - Sunny - High 86 Low 75

This was a 5-star vacation. The negatives are listed below - to get them all quickly out of the way. Although at the end, I will give you a few things from our wish list from the trip.

My daughter and son in law arrived in Hilton Head on September 5th, Labor Day, with their 3 children, 10-month old twins and 2 year old son. I can't attest to the check-in, but apparently it was quick and easy for them. It almost wasn't however. I had forgotten to use on-line check in and I, and my other daughter and her children would not be arriving until late Tuesday. So on Monday morning, I tried to check in using my phone.

Yeah, well that wasn't happening. I could access the site but not log in no matter what I did. So I did the next best thing and called member services - to find out that the office was closed for the holiday. They referred me to the regular Disney number. I sort of suspected this was not going to be a good thing. It wasn't. The person on the phone didn't have a clue how to help me, but she finally located a direct number for the resort.

I called the resort and told her that my daughter was coming and that I wouldn't be there until the next day. I also stated I didn't think this was an issue because she was listed in the room with me but I wanted to be sure. That's when I was told that my name was the only one on the reservation. That couldn't be correct, I said, because I had originally paid cash for the reservations and had given everyone's name who was staying in the two bedroom villa. I had been wait listed to use my points and the only question they asked when they called me was whether they could use next year's points as well. Apparently member services decided that typing in all nine names and ages was too much work (?) so someone just put in my name alone.

Luckily the woman at the resort was extremely nice and patient and she took down all the information and assured me that my daughter could check in. I also provided a credit card number (again, as I had given one when I made the reservation) so that there would be no issues for my daughter. Only after we had checked out did my daughter tell me that she had been asked to provide a card, which she did, and while I thought I was paying for everything during our stay, she was actually getting charged. I can't tell you how furious I was.

The second check in issue? I had requested ground floor accommodations because we had 4 very small children with us - 10-month old twins, a one year old and a two year old, with diaper bags, pack n plays, strollers, etc. Well that request didn't happen either - we were on the upper level (3 flights of stairs) with older women below us who looked totally upset each and every time we saw them during the week. We're sorry. Kids run and jump and cry. We did our best to settle them down but obviously weren't successful 100% of the time.

Check-in was about the only thing that happened on that first day. My DD and DSIL found the building and the room, hauled all their stuff up 3 flights of stairs, along with the kids and crashed after their long drive from Illinois. My DD did go down to the gift shop to try and buy milk for DGS2 but all that was available was skim milk - which she bought and he didn't touch after the first sip.

No "real" pics from day 1 but my granddaughter and I went back later in the week to take the photos we would have taken had we been there to check in.

Live Oak Lodge - Check in is here, along with some very lovely public areas. I believe there are also studio rooms located in this building.

 

[El&Asmom]

Can't wait for the rest. Dh and I will be there in less than a week. Can't wait.

 

[sandieb]

Love having pictures with the trip report. Very nice pictures of Live Oak Lodge!

 

[saintstickets]

Glad to find this TR. DW and I will be at HHI for the first time at the end of October. Looking forward to your TR for tips and tricks at HHI.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I also LOVE HHI and will anxiously await more from your report. Help keep me going until Thanksgiving. It's surprising you got an upper level room although you'd requested first floor. I've only heard reports from people who did the opposite-requested top floor but got first.

 

[tammyandtommy]

More please we leave in 2 weeks!

 

[lilpooh108]

Great start...i have to agree with you about the names on reservation thing---for some reason for my upcoming trip, MS has never been able to get our names right. There are 5 names attached to our reservation, when there are only 3 people staying there (the 2 additional are variations of our names misspelled).

Please post more pics!

 

[nocruisecontrol]

Thank you for reading.

Day 2
September 6th - Tuesday
Weather: High 84 Low 82 Sunny



DD and DSIL decided to pack the kids in the stroller and check out the surrounding area. Just across from the resort is Shelter Cove - which is a mix of residential condos, restaurants and stores. They came upon a mexican restaurant and decided to eat lunch there. It is called San Miguel's Mexican Cafe and they enjoyed it very much. On the way back, they stopped to check out the pool area of the resort, before walking back to the room. Directly behind our building were horseshoe pits, which fascinated DGS2, so they spent some time letting him play before returning to the room. My daughter then headed out to the Wal-Mart she had seen as they were driving to the hotel to try and buy some groceries. As she was there, we called to say we were a few minutes away.

I was confused trying to find the resort, not realizing that you had to turn into what appeared to be a shopping center area (Shelter Cove) and I spent a little bit turning around ( and turning around) before my daughter was able to point out the signs for the resort. The resort entrance is gated, and there is a call button to ring the front desk. We did that and were admitted. Our building was very near the entrance and although parking seemed scarce, I was able to park in front of the building (probably in the space my daughter had vacated). Then we had the pleasure of hauling all of our stuff up the 3 flights of stairs. I know not everyone can get the first floor rooms but, seriously, a family with 4 little ones?

Luggage carts will help at least get your stuff from your car to the building. I think they are scattered at different locations among the buildings.

About 7:00 PM we headed out to walk to the pool area. The pool area was a very short walk from our building. There is a large pool (The Big Dipper) that has a water slide. Lifeguards were on duty until about 5:00 PM but the pool was open until 10:00 PM, although the water slide closes when the lifeguards leave. There is also a small kiddy pool, and a large hot tub for adults. I took some photos with my cell phone but can't get them to post properly. I will come back and add them.

In this area there is also a ping pong table, an arts and crafts room and a pier that leads out into the water, where you can fish. Upstairs there is the Tide Me Over snack bar, an arcade (that we didn't visit) and a small gift/souvenir shop (where they sell Micky Bars!). We finished up our visit to this area with Micky Bars for all and headed back to the room.

Pier out to the little fishing area. They sell bait and and you can rent (I think) fishing poles for the kids.

Once the little ones were in bed, it occurred to us that we were hungry. So my DD and SIL set out in search of fast food around 11:00 PM. Oops. Too late. They didn't find anything open. You're warned. If you are starving, though, and it's late, there is a Diner that is at least open late and may be open all night, not certain. But it's quite close.

Tomorrow we head for the beach.