Mrspaceman2
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2007
- Messages
- 18
My wife, and our two boys (12 and 9) just got back (on 9/20) from our first DVC trip; a week at HH. If this trip is any indication of our future with DVC, then we made an excellent investment.
Where to start?
Facts -
We stayed in a 2BR villa. We invited friends along to help keep our kids entertained (we also enjoy their company), Mom and three kids (one girl and two boys, ages 7, 10 and 12). Upon arrival we were given a choice villas, marsh view or pool view. We chose the pool view with the thought that we would let the kids wander down to the pool and we would only be a "scream" away.
Reservations -
We made the reservations 7 months out (we are AKV owners). No problems. Actually made a reservation for 9 (though only 8 showed), again no problem.
Service -
From the moment we walked in the door to the time we left, the staff could not have been friendlier or more helpful. Our one incident for the week was the result of a lapse in the cleaning crew prior to our arrival was handled quickly even though it was "after hours". And Disney HH went the extra yard of refunding a full nights worth of points and gave us a "goodie" bag full of Disney stuff. Bravo for Disney. Everyone makes mistakes and it is impossible to control the actions of all the staff, so what matters is how a company handles the problem and whether there are repeats. I can't speak to the repeats, but Disney HH gets points for its responsiveness and good will.
Unit itself -
Again this is our first stay at a DVC resort and we were very happy with the room. (with the exception of the lapse), the rooms were clean and in good order. No signs of over-use or neglect. My only negative comments and these are personal - appliances are very noisy (dishwasher and washer/dryer). Also it would be nice to have more than just eight of every kitchen item. These two conspired to force us to run the noisy appliances while we were in the unit. This hampered conversation and inhibited movie watching. A positive comment is that they put real blinds in the units which darken the room sufficiently enough to sleep. Beds were surprisingly comfortable.
The resort itself -
Like the rest of Disney - - very well kept with not a branch out of place. The pool was clean. Horseshoe and shuffle board areas had all the supplies.
As most of you know, there are no full service restaurants at HH, the two quick service restaurants had food that was good, reasonably priced, served in adequate portions. However, in the best traditions of Disney "quick" service, the food service was very slow. Usually 15 minutes between order and arrival of food. This was a result of cooking to order, which is good, but good short order cooks can have food ready quickly w/o compromising quality. If anyone would like a copy of the menus (I scanned them in), send me a private message with your email address. Assuming I can figure out how to use PMing (new to the boards), I'll send you a copy. One additional note on the food is that we did not miss the full service restaurant. Plenty of choices within walking distance, more in biking distance and even more if you care to drive.
The beach house, which we used everyday was very accessible. We drove, but you can get there by Shuttle or Bike. The beach house is right on the beach (duh) and has a nice pool as well. No slide, but our kids didn't miss it. The beach itself is wonderful; clean, wide with shallow water that goes pretty far out (compared to Vero). The water temperature was perfect, no one got cold, though I can't say the same about sun burns
. At this time of year, the beaches were not crowded. Only negative comment is the map they give you at the front desk could be better. Map shows a "Y" vs. a rotary. Ignore the "Y" and head through the first guard gate that you see. Bear left after that and the beach house is on your left. One last note on the beach. This comes out of ignorance and being spoiled by my in-laws beach house; the chairs and umbrellas nicely laid out on the beach don't below to the resort, they are for rent. $30/day, $18 for each next consecutive day, $11 for each additional chair beyond two. This seemed quite expensive to us, particularly if you are not big planners and don't know when and if you are going to the beach until you wake up that day. My advice (and what we did after day one) is to go to Walmart (down the road 4 miles) and buy yourself two chairs and a good (avoid the cheap ones due to the wind) beach umbrella. At the cost of about $40 dollars, you'll be ahead in a day or two. If you can't fit them in the car on the way home, pass them to another DVCer.
Activities -
Our family made use of many of the activities, some free, some paid.
Specifically:
Campfire (free): Well we could only get our two (we are too old to do "kiddy" activity) boys to go to the campfire with a mention of Smores. Let's put it this way, my 9 year old is still singing and dancing the Mrs Gooneybird song/dance. I wish I had video taped our 12 year old . . . sigh, no blackmail. That's one for the parents . . .
Resort tour (free) - Carol our tour guide was very pleasent, and knowledgeable about the resort and DVC in general. Tour included a game to find the hidden mickey game.
Hilton Head History Tour (costs) - Carol again with Al driving the van. Apparantly she knows as much about HH history as she knows about the resort. Van took us from the resort with several stops including a light house, a civil war fort (Mitchel), an historic Taby (type of construction) home site, a museum, and a beach overlook Port Royal. Plenty of history mixed with a little bit of "the best of modern HH" on the ride between stops. Tour lasted about three hours and included a history "quiz" (with prizes) on the way back to the resort. A very enjoyable morning.
Sand Sculptures (free) - I'm sorry that I can't remember the name of the person running this activity, but she did a great job! We had three families participating and each was able to produce a sand sculpture that made you say "wow, we did that?!".
Ghosts and Legends of the Low Country (free) - an hour of funny and not too scary ghost stories with a little bit of fiddle. Told by "Blue Crab", who also pops up occasionally with music and other entertainment. Enjoyed by the whole family.
Shrimp Boil at the Beach (costs) - This was unremarkable for the price. Plenty of unremarkable food. Desert was good. Many of the tables were in the sun. Those that weren't were too far away to here Blue Crab and the music.
Dolphin Trip (costs, 10% discount on Wed) - Chris was our tour guide. Just our family of four and Chris on 20' boat with canopy. We saw a couple of Dolphins, one actively herding fish and feeding. Though it would have been nice to see more activity, Chris made up for it by his running commentary on growing up in the area and his giving us the ocean view of the Island. The high speed, high tide run through the salt marsh was a highlight for the kids.
Fishing (rental fee for tackle, bait is free) - the kids fished. The fish got fat on bait. No fish lost their lives that day.
Biking (rental fee) - We ended up renting bikes on day four. Given the small cost difference between renting for one day ($18) vs. the length of your stay ($25), I wish we had rented them on day one. All the bikes were in good shape. Helmets, locks and baskets were free. Our kids loved just tooling around the resort. We headed off resort on the bikes for lunch. In the end I wish we had time to explore more as the island is full of bike paths, though many of them (by necessity) cross roads, which can be tough when you have little ones.
Movies (Free)
Good selection of (well) Disney movies. Great way to wind the kids down after a day at the beach and give the adults some grown up time.
Again, I've scanned a copy of the activity sheet at the resort for that week. Has activity descriptions and costs. If anyone would like a copy send me your email address via PM.
HH in general
In general, we had a very pleasant laid back vacation. A nice combination of relaxation, mental stimulation (reading and history tour) and activity. Clearly we were not on the island during high season, so its hard to judge how a summer vacation would be. The weather for the week started of hot (low 90's) and humid. Towards the end of the week, it was in the low to mid 80s. Still humid, but the lower temperature, was wonderful. Apparantly, it stays sort of like that through Nov. As we are not big lovers of the heat, our next trip to HH will be late Sep/early Oct.
Again, every one had a good time and no one was left with any significant complaints.
Where to start?
Facts -
We stayed in a 2BR villa. We invited friends along to help keep our kids entertained (we also enjoy their company), Mom and three kids (one girl and two boys, ages 7, 10 and 12). Upon arrival we were given a choice villas, marsh view or pool view. We chose the pool view with the thought that we would let the kids wander down to the pool and we would only be a "scream" away.
Reservations -
We made the reservations 7 months out (we are AKV owners). No problems. Actually made a reservation for 9 (though only 8 showed), again no problem.
Service -
From the moment we walked in the door to the time we left, the staff could not have been friendlier or more helpful. Our one incident for the week was the result of a lapse in the cleaning crew prior to our arrival was handled quickly even though it was "after hours". And Disney HH went the extra yard of refunding a full nights worth of points and gave us a "goodie" bag full of Disney stuff. Bravo for Disney. Everyone makes mistakes and it is impossible to control the actions of all the staff, so what matters is how a company handles the problem and whether there are repeats. I can't speak to the repeats, but Disney HH gets points for its responsiveness and good will.
Unit itself -
Again this is our first stay at a DVC resort and we were very happy with the room. (with the exception of the lapse), the rooms were clean and in good order. No signs of over-use or neglect. My only negative comments and these are personal - appliances are very noisy (dishwasher and washer/dryer). Also it would be nice to have more than just eight of every kitchen item. These two conspired to force us to run the noisy appliances while we were in the unit. This hampered conversation and inhibited movie watching. A positive comment is that they put real blinds in the units which darken the room sufficiently enough to sleep. Beds were surprisingly comfortable.
The resort itself -
Like the rest of Disney - - very well kept with not a branch out of place. The pool was clean. Horseshoe and shuffle board areas had all the supplies.
As most of you know, there are no full service restaurants at HH, the two quick service restaurants had food that was good, reasonably priced, served in adequate portions. However, in the best traditions of Disney "quick" service, the food service was very slow. Usually 15 minutes between order and arrival of food. This was a result of cooking to order, which is good, but good short order cooks can have food ready quickly w/o compromising quality. If anyone would like a copy of the menus (I scanned them in), send me a private message with your email address. Assuming I can figure out how to use PMing (new to the boards), I'll send you a copy. One additional note on the food is that we did not miss the full service restaurant. Plenty of choices within walking distance, more in biking distance and even more if you care to drive.
The beach house, which we used everyday was very accessible. We drove, but you can get there by Shuttle or Bike. The beach house is right on the beach (duh) and has a nice pool as well. No slide, but our kids didn't miss it. The beach itself is wonderful; clean, wide with shallow water that goes pretty far out (compared to Vero). The water temperature was perfect, no one got cold, though I can't say the same about sun burns
. At this time of year, the beaches were not crowded. Only negative comment is the map they give you at the front desk could be better. Map shows a "Y" vs. a rotary. Ignore the "Y" and head through the first guard gate that you see. Bear left after that and the beach house is on your left. One last note on the beach. This comes out of ignorance and being spoiled by my in-laws beach house; the chairs and umbrellas nicely laid out on the beach don't below to the resort, they are for rent. $30/day, $18 for each next consecutive day, $11 for each additional chair beyond two. This seemed quite expensive to us, particularly if you are not big planners and don't know when and if you are going to the beach until you wake up that day. My advice (and what we did after day one) is to go to Walmart (down the road 4 miles) and buy yourself two chairs and a good (avoid the cheap ones due to the wind) beach umbrella. At the cost of about $40 dollars, you'll be ahead in a day or two. If you can't fit them in the car on the way home, pass them to another DVCer.Activities -
Our family made use of many of the activities, some free, some paid.
Specifically:
Campfire (free): Well we could only get our two (we are too old to do "kiddy" activity) boys to go to the campfire with a mention of Smores. Let's put it this way, my 9 year old is still singing and dancing the Mrs Gooneybird song/dance. I wish I had video taped our 12 year old . . . sigh, no blackmail. That's one for the parents . . .
Resort tour (free) - Carol our tour guide was very pleasent, and knowledgeable about the resort and DVC in general. Tour included a game to find the hidden mickey game.
Hilton Head History Tour (costs) - Carol again with Al driving the van. Apparantly she knows as much about HH history as she knows about the resort. Van took us from the resort with several stops including a light house, a civil war fort (Mitchel), an historic Taby (type of construction) home site, a museum, and a beach overlook Port Royal. Plenty of history mixed with a little bit of "the best of modern HH" on the ride between stops. Tour lasted about three hours and included a history "quiz" (with prizes) on the way back to the resort. A very enjoyable morning.
Sand Sculptures (free) - I'm sorry that I can't remember the name of the person running this activity, but she did a great job! We had three families participating and each was able to produce a sand sculpture that made you say "wow, we did that?!".
Ghosts and Legends of the Low Country (free) - an hour of funny and not too scary ghost stories with a little bit of fiddle. Told by "Blue Crab", who also pops up occasionally with music and other entertainment. Enjoyed by the whole family.
Shrimp Boil at the Beach (costs) - This was unremarkable for the price. Plenty of unremarkable food. Desert was good. Many of the tables were in the sun. Those that weren't were too far away to here Blue Crab and the music.
Dolphin Trip (costs, 10% discount on Wed) - Chris was our tour guide. Just our family of four and Chris on 20' boat with canopy. We saw a couple of Dolphins, one actively herding fish and feeding. Though it would have been nice to see more activity, Chris made up for it by his running commentary on growing up in the area and his giving us the ocean view of the Island. The high speed, high tide run through the salt marsh was a highlight for the kids.
Fishing (rental fee for tackle, bait is free) - the kids fished. The fish got fat on bait. No fish lost their lives that day.
Biking (rental fee) - We ended up renting bikes on day four. Given the small cost difference between renting for one day ($18) vs. the length of your stay ($25), I wish we had rented them on day one. All the bikes were in good shape. Helmets, locks and baskets were free. Our kids loved just tooling around the resort. We headed off resort on the bikes for lunch. In the end I wish we had time to explore more as the island is full of bike paths, though many of them (by necessity) cross roads, which can be tough when you have little ones.
Movies (Free)
Good selection of (well) Disney movies. Great way to wind the kids down after a day at the beach and give the adults some grown up time.
Again, I've scanned a copy of the activity sheet at the resort for that week. Has activity descriptions and costs. If anyone would like a copy send me your email address via PM.
HH in general
In general, we had a very pleasant laid back vacation. A nice combination of relaxation, mental stimulation (reading and history tour) and activity. Clearly we were not on the island during high season, so its hard to judge how a summer vacation would be. The weather for the week started of hot (low 90's) and humid. Towards the end of the week, it was in the low to mid 80s. Still humid, but the lower temperature, was wonderful. Apparantly, it stays sort of like that through Nov. As we are not big lovers of the heat, our next trip to HH will be late Sep/early Oct.
Again, every one had a good time and no one was left with any significant complaints.
