DarthVader92
Theme Park Operations
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2005
- Messages
- 536
Here is the entire review that I wrote up of Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina. I encourage you to read on if you are deciding to stay there.
Let me first preface by saying that we are Disney vacation club members and when we drove down to Florida march 2012 we decided to spend one night at Disney's Hilton Head Island resort. First of all, when driving up to this resort I found it very difficult to actually find this resort. Hilton head is probably one of the most popular tourist destinations in the east coast next to Central Florida and most likely number one in all of south Carolina. The city is very built up with numerous restaurants and hotels and the Disney resort was tucked away behind on of the Marriott hotels. Very weird it was also that we did not see any signs for Disney's Hilton head within five miles of there resort. This was very peculiar to me, but one should also realize that this resort is not like the other vacation club resorts most of us are used to at the Walt Disney World Resort. This resort is definitely not one of the vacation club resorts most of us are used to due to its lack of dining as well.
This review will cover three main topics including dining, the room, and the theming of the overall resort. Now for those that follow me frequently on Facebook saw my post that I am not impressed with Disney's Hilton Head resort and that was because of the dining. When a guest is hungry he or she can dine at Tide me over and a small little bar type dining at the beach house.........and that is it. Tide me over is the only dining available on property and let me also say that this location is quick service only. There is no table service on Disney property. This puzzled me, because I know that a resort makes its most money with the food and beverage. So, how does this resort make most of its money. Believe me I tried asking numerous cast members during this less than 24 hour stay, but none could answer the question. Perhaps if I had asked the general manager she might have known, if she wasn't on the Disney Fantasy preview cruise. But out of the dozen or so cast members that were "on stage" (as we cast members call it) did not know what is the revenue driving machine on the hotel property, but they could explain to me the lack of dining on property.
Shelter cove (the owners of the property that includes the Disney vacation club property and numerous other hotels and restaurants that surround the Disney resort) has a strict rule that there cannot be any table service restaurants available to hotel guests only unless it is open to the general public. With this in mind, Disney decided to keep the resort to its members only and develop a small quick service restaurant available between the hours of 8am to 5pm only. This meant that during the dinner hours all guests need to do dinner on there own. There is no dinner available to guests at the resort. A guest would either have to bring in food from a supermarket and make it in their hotel (provided they booked either a one or two bedroom or a grand villa) or dine at one of the several locations about 1/4 of a mile outside the resort. We decided to look for the bonefish grill located SUPPOSEDLY three tenths of a mile away from Hilton Head according to tripadvisor. So, we decided to walk over to the restaurant due to its close proximity. Needless to say the excellent restaurant was over a mile away, and we decided to give up and dine at the Hilton Head Diner which offered fairly decent food at a reasonable price. We did get the chance to have breakfast the next morning at Tide Me Over, and we very pleased wi the good food and the good prices. But to restate my issue with the resort is that it has one quick service location on property and it is only open for breakfast and lunch. Thankfully that was the big rant about Hilton Head and now I can talk all about the good stuff.
When we arrived at the resort our room was thankfully ready and thanks to Disney's online check in service available at all Disney resorts regardless whether or not it is at Walt Disney World or Disneyland. Coincidentally, our room was in the same building as the check-in and a good 50 feet from the check in desk. We requested with our DVC points a studio for the one night and it was only ten points to stay in that room. A studio is a typical room you would find anywhere with two queen beds, bathroom, a tv, etc. When we entered the studio, we noticed something very odd with the studio and noticed that it was a handicapped accessible room. I found it very odd that they stuck us in there, but it did give us extra room to move around. The room was very well themed with the attention to detail kept from the rest of the resort. We then turned in from the kitchen area and were greeted by a queen bed and a pull-out sofa bed. My parents slept on the queen bed which was very relaxing as as my pull-out bed. Coincidentally, I opened up the bed and noticed a big mark on the bottom of the bed that was facing me when I took off the cushions that said "designed exclusively for Disney." I found this statement rather interesting, because Disney seems to homogenize most of its merchandise and the fact that there bed is designed for Disney surprises me. Anyway, both beds were very comfortable and our view was spectacular. Again, being that we had a handicapped accessible room we had a larger balcony then the other rooms. Other than those key things the room was very comfortable and similar to many other Disney hotels. The h2o products were available in the bathrooms as was the Disney info channel on the television.
The rooms were very nice as was the incredible theming and attention to detail throughout the resort. The resort (in my opinion) looks like no other resort I have ever seen. The resort is unique and has a design all of its own. It's fifteen acres include about 20 different buildings as well as an area with the pool and merchandise location. The pool looked very nice and the children did seem to enjoy it. The merchandise location had many dvc unique merchandise as well as special Hilton head merchandise. The other merchandise available was many Disney products that they have at any resort such as swim gear, plushes, shirts with Disney characters on them, as well as food for you to purchase and make in the room. The food was not that great and appealing also, so I believe this is not a supplement for not having dining available after 5pm. I also noticed that the bag available when you purchase something in the store is the exact same Disney parks bag that they have at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. They couldn't apparently make a bag that said Hilton was and/or Dvc, but I digress.
Another example of excellent theming is Shadow the dog. This dog has apparently been on the Disney property since the resort opened. When you walk into the Check in area from outside shadow's house is nestled in a nice little spot for all to see. Sadly, we did not see Shadow but according to cast members shadow is usually seen everyday around the resort.
Hilton head is a very nice property, but has an issue with its dining. If Disney made it a point to make deals with the neighboring restaurants and provide transportation for you to the different resorts then I might be inclined to give them a higher rating, but for now my rating is a 60 out of 100. Disney lost 40 points for there lack of dining on property. Please be reminded that I am not telling people to not visit the resort I am merely informing you that this is what I experienced and you should take it into consideration when visiting. I believe that the resort is merely a one night stay resort where a family may want to typically stay one or two nights. I feel that a family could make this there one night stop when driving down i95 to Walt Disney world (depending on where you are coming from). Would I stay there again? If we were driving down to Walt Disney world and had enough points available then I most likely would spend another night at Disney's Hilton Head Resort. But before I arrive at the resort I will be inclined to purchasing some food at the local supermarket prior to arriving.
Here is a link to the video I made showing off Disney's Hilton Head and its beautifulness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKaX6ebqocQ
AS ALWAYS SUBSCRIBE IF YOU ENJOY!!!!
Let me first preface by saying that we are Disney vacation club members and when we drove down to Florida march 2012 we decided to spend one night at Disney's Hilton Head Island resort. First of all, when driving up to this resort I found it very difficult to actually find this resort. Hilton head is probably one of the most popular tourist destinations in the east coast next to Central Florida and most likely number one in all of south Carolina. The city is very built up with numerous restaurants and hotels and the Disney resort was tucked away behind on of the Marriott hotels. Very weird it was also that we did not see any signs for Disney's Hilton head within five miles of there resort. This was very peculiar to me, but one should also realize that this resort is not like the other vacation club resorts most of us are used to at the Walt Disney World Resort. This resort is definitely not one of the vacation club resorts most of us are used to due to its lack of dining as well.
This review will cover three main topics including dining, the room, and the theming of the overall resort. Now for those that follow me frequently on Facebook saw my post that I am not impressed with Disney's Hilton Head resort and that was because of the dining. When a guest is hungry he or she can dine at Tide me over and a small little bar type dining at the beach house.........and that is it. Tide me over is the only dining available on property and let me also say that this location is quick service only. There is no table service on Disney property. This puzzled me, because I know that a resort makes its most money with the food and beverage. So, how does this resort make most of its money. Believe me I tried asking numerous cast members during this less than 24 hour stay, but none could answer the question. Perhaps if I had asked the general manager she might have known, if she wasn't on the Disney Fantasy preview cruise. But out of the dozen or so cast members that were "on stage" (as we cast members call it) did not know what is the revenue driving machine on the hotel property, but they could explain to me the lack of dining on property.
Shelter cove (the owners of the property that includes the Disney vacation club property and numerous other hotels and restaurants that surround the Disney resort) has a strict rule that there cannot be any table service restaurants available to hotel guests only unless it is open to the general public. With this in mind, Disney decided to keep the resort to its members only and develop a small quick service restaurant available between the hours of 8am to 5pm only. This meant that during the dinner hours all guests need to do dinner on there own. There is no dinner available to guests at the resort. A guest would either have to bring in food from a supermarket and make it in their hotel (provided they booked either a one or two bedroom or a grand villa) or dine at one of the several locations about 1/4 of a mile outside the resort. We decided to look for the bonefish grill located SUPPOSEDLY three tenths of a mile away from Hilton Head according to tripadvisor. So, we decided to walk over to the restaurant due to its close proximity. Needless to say the excellent restaurant was over a mile away, and we decided to give up and dine at the Hilton Head Diner which offered fairly decent food at a reasonable price. We did get the chance to have breakfast the next morning at Tide Me Over, and we very pleased wi the good food and the good prices. But to restate my issue with the resort is that it has one quick service location on property and it is only open for breakfast and lunch. Thankfully that was the big rant about Hilton Head and now I can talk all about the good stuff.
When we arrived at the resort our room was thankfully ready and thanks to Disney's online check in service available at all Disney resorts regardless whether or not it is at Walt Disney World or Disneyland. Coincidentally, our room was in the same building as the check-in and a good 50 feet from the check in desk. We requested with our DVC points a studio for the one night and it was only ten points to stay in that room. A studio is a typical room you would find anywhere with two queen beds, bathroom, a tv, etc. When we entered the studio, we noticed something very odd with the studio and noticed that it was a handicapped accessible room. I found it very odd that they stuck us in there, but it did give us extra room to move around. The room was very well themed with the attention to detail kept from the rest of the resort. We then turned in from the kitchen area and were greeted by a queen bed and a pull-out sofa bed. My parents slept on the queen bed which was very relaxing as as my pull-out bed. Coincidentally, I opened up the bed and noticed a big mark on the bottom of the bed that was facing me when I took off the cushions that said "designed exclusively for Disney." I found this statement rather interesting, because Disney seems to homogenize most of its merchandise and the fact that there bed is designed for Disney surprises me. Anyway, both beds were very comfortable and our view was spectacular. Again, being that we had a handicapped accessible room we had a larger balcony then the other rooms. Other than those key things the room was very comfortable and similar to many other Disney hotels. The h2o products were available in the bathrooms as was the Disney info channel on the television.
The rooms were very nice as was the incredible theming and attention to detail throughout the resort. The resort (in my opinion) looks like no other resort I have ever seen. The resort is unique and has a design all of its own. It's fifteen acres include about 20 different buildings as well as an area with the pool and merchandise location. The pool looked very nice and the children did seem to enjoy it. The merchandise location had many dvc unique merchandise as well as special Hilton head merchandise. The other merchandise available was many Disney products that they have at any resort such as swim gear, plushes, shirts with Disney characters on them, as well as food for you to purchase and make in the room. The food was not that great and appealing also, so I believe this is not a supplement for not having dining available after 5pm. I also noticed that the bag available when you purchase something in the store is the exact same Disney parks bag that they have at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. They couldn't apparently make a bag that said Hilton was and/or Dvc, but I digress.
Another example of excellent theming is Shadow the dog. This dog has apparently been on the Disney property since the resort opened. When you walk into the Check in area from outside shadow's house is nestled in a nice little spot for all to see. Sadly, we did not see Shadow but according to cast members shadow is usually seen everyday around the resort.
Hilton head is a very nice property, but has an issue with its dining. If Disney made it a point to make deals with the neighboring restaurants and provide transportation for you to the different resorts then I might be inclined to give them a higher rating, but for now my rating is a 60 out of 100. Disney lost 40 points for there lack of dining on property. Please be reminded that I am not telling people to not visit the resort I am merely informing you that this is what I experienced and you should take it into consideration when visiting. I believe that the resort is merely a one night stay resort where a family may want to typically stay one or two nights. I feel that a family could make this there one night stop when driving down i95 to Walt Disney world (depending on where you are coming from). Would I stay there again? If we were driving down to Walt Disney world and had enough points available then I most likely would spend another night at Disney's Hilton Head Resort. But before I arrive at the resort I will be inclined to purchasing some food at the local supermarket prior to arriving.
Here is a link to the video I made showing off Disney's Hilton Head and its beautifulness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKaX6ebqocQ
AS ALWAYS SUBSCRIBE IF YOU ENJOY!!!!
