many Hilton Head questions

[pouncingpluto]

I'm not a DVC member, but my boyfriend and I were looking for something to do for New Year's Eve, and Hilton Head is only a couple hours' drive from my parents', where I'll be after Christmas.
So, I'm thinking about a three-night stay at Disney's Hilton Head resort in a one-bedroom villa (MUST HAVE HOT TUB )over New Year's.

1. I know this is off-season. Is too much going to be closed to make it worthwhile? Will the pool be closed?

2. Will the Christmas decorations still be up? Are they good?

3. Is there anything special for New Year's Eve? How about anything special if we drive somewhere else on the island?

4. Is there a restaurant at the resort? I guess there are restaurants nearby if we'd like to go out for a special meal. Otherwise, we can stop by a grocery store to stock up our kitchen.

5. I saw some people mention that Hilton Head is not on the beach, but Disney says it has 12 miles of beach. What's the scoop?

Thank you!
Kerry

 

[canda]

The 1 bd are hard to come by. There are not many of them. There are 300 rest. on HHI. I don't know how many close for the season. THe pool is heated, but that depends on where you are from if you go swimming. You won't find to many southern folk swimming. Disney is talking of the 12 miles that are public beach of Hilton Head Island. Disney does have a private beach house in a residental area that you have to go through a guard to get to. It is a great beach house.

 

[CarolA]

Having been to HH over Christmas it is probably too cold to swim!

The Disney HH resort is not on the beach. You can shuttle or drive over to the Disney Beach house in the Palmetto Dunes resort where there is a lot of beach (12 miles is probably the entire island, but you can walk on all of it!)

Personally, I don't think HH is going to be hopping for New Year's. After all it is mainly a retirement community!

 

[DownNeckBoy]

My family will be going down to HH for NYE also. Most of the hotels there should have some form of NYE celebration, if you are looking to go out that night. We plan to be spending the night at the resort.

Good luck with your planning!

 

[pouncingpluto]

Hi DownNeckBoy,

I'm glad to know we're not the only ones with this idea... otherwise I'd begin to think we were crazy!

We made our reservations... 4 nights in a one-bedroom. I'm looking forward to it, because on one hand it sounds like we can hole up and be cut off from the world when we want, but if we want to go out for a nice dinner, or maybe to a New Year's celebration, we have that option, too. Also, I hope there are some good activities going on at the resort, even at that slow time.

 

[DownNeckBoy]

Pouncing

No, you are not alone. There will be a fair amount of people there. I remember reading a thread in January about this which gave me the idea to do it. The resort will fill up more as it gets closer to NYE, then most will cut out of there in the next day or so.

I have invited down my BIL and SIL and their families and will be happily sipping a single malt in one of the GV's. (We also plan a day trip into either Charleston or Savannah, which are both very lovely towns!)

Hope to see you there!

 

[kamgen]

We will also be at HH for New Years. We are from Michigan, so the weather there will be nicer for us.
We were in HH in March and loved it, we even swam a few times.
We plan to play golf and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere after a busy holiday!

Kamy

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

We were at HH resort this last NYE - the resort was at 100% capacity from Christmas thru NYE, though it was hard to tell because you didn't see lots of people.

1) The pool at trhe resort and at the beach house will both be open, heated and on a sunny day lots of fun. The hot tub is great no matter when. They even had the water slide open peridically during the days.

2) The Christmas decorations will still be up - certainly nothing as extravegant as what you would find at WDW though.

3) They have NYE activities planned for the kids at the resort - a pizza party for the teens and something else for the younger set. Nothing for the adults, and as the spouse and I are not major party animals, we didn't examine what might have been available in the area.

4) There's a snack-bar at the resort which is open during the day. No restaurant at the resort though a couple of places within easy walking distance. We saw a few places closed seasonally, but they were generally in the minority.

5) I think the beach house question has already been answered - it's a very nice location, with a wonderful view and good access to the beach.

 

[pouncingpluto]

Thank you so much for this info! I'm really looking forward to it. It's actually quite a cheap getaway, since it's a very short driving distance from my parents'.

The hot tub is essential, and if there's a chance the swimming pool will be open and warm enough to use, that would be icing on the cake!

I'm glad to hear that the Xmas decorations will still be up.

Regarding NYE activities, we're not really party animals either, but it would be nice to get dressed up and do something a little special. I'm sure we can find something, even if it's just a celebratory dinner.

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

The swimming pool at the resort is heated to 80 degress (or so) and is open year-round (except for maintenance). We had a number of sunny days where we had a great time swimming (as did a number of other families).

The pool at the beach house is also heated, and as I recall is designed for activties like water volleyball.

One thing we took with us were some heavy cotton type bath robes; these were great when getting out of the pool or hot tub, as the outside air temps could be on the chilly side. The robes were well worth the investment in cost and luggage space.

Really, there's nothing major to be impressed with by the decorations though - basically some lights thrown on different bushes and maybe a few fake deer (w/lights) placed around and the lobby was decorated. At least from what I remember. I do recall that some members had taken some lights to put on their balconies (similar to what people do at OKW).