It was nice. As someone at the resort pointed out, it's a resort with the Disney name, not a Disney resort.
It took us 12.5 hours to drive down. We left at 4:30 am and pulled onto the resort island at 5:00 pm. Because WDWNewbie was kind enough to email me the activity sheet from her stay at the resort, we pushed to get there for the magic show at 7:00. B'Lou was great! We ran into Sam to verify the time (because the check-in lady only gave us our keys and a resort map...no activity info or restaurant/shopping/golf guides and she didn't say welcome home...) and we asked Sam where to go fast for dinner. We went to the diner and were back by 6:55 for the show. We told Sam it was DS4 birthday...making him DS5. He passed this info on to B'Lou and B'Lou pulled him up as an assistant. It was a great start to the vacation. Unfortunately, it was short lived.
I was very horomonal, very exhausted, and very stressed from the prior week. The week before we left, I had to bake for school Halloween parties, do a kids birthday party for DD7, bring everything in for said Halloween parties (3 classes worth), Trick-or-Treat with the kids, and do class parties for DD7 and DS5. That took me to Thursday, which is when I attempted to pack. Friday was spent getting the rental van (ours had 84K miles on it and renting one was a better idea). By the time Sunday morning hit, I was a wreck. I normally eat breakfast around 7:00 am. It was close to 9:00 am. We had nothing in the room except dry cereal. We were pushing for the magic show, so no grocery store stop. We just figured we'd eat out the first morning.
We walk over to the Mercantile and DH gets coffee. I figure I'll get tea soon enough, so I pass. We sign the kids up for Goofy Bingo, the boat craft, and the Naturalist talk on butterflies. DH decides we'll walk to the lodge to ask where to walk for breakfast. He neglects to tell me we're walking somewhere as I pester him to just go back and get the van (we were in 2512). Communication was not the best that morning. He finally tells me, as the kids are playing with the pool table, that we're walking over to Shelter Cove to eat. Ok, but could we please get going? On the walk over, the kids are being kids, but Mommy was short on patience. They're jumping off curbing, climbing the walls, throwing stuff in the marina. I was not a happy camper. We fine the Parrot Cove just opening. I order a cup of tea while we look over the menu. She brings a basket full to tea bags over. No "normal" tea. Only herbals. No go...I like my tea like the English, with cream and sugar. At this point, the kids are dancing on my last nerve and I can't get a cup of tea. I left DH with the kids and headed back to the resort. I went to the Mercantile and got a pint of milk (the only size for whole milk) and headed back to the unit. I had a cup of tea (I brought my own tea bags) and a toasted pop-tart. Not exactly what I had in mind for breakfast. I then called Member Services to see what my options were with my points because I was ready to pack up the van and head back to NJ. Member Services is closed on Sunday. I call the
DVC person at the front desk. They're not open on Sunday either. I call the front desk and ask about my points if I leave today. I end up speaking with Alisa, who was nice enough on the phone. She tells me that my points will go into a holding account and I have to use them by the end of my use year (June). We can't manage another vacation by then, so I tell her we'll suck it up here (yes, I used those words) for the week. She asked what was wrong, was there anything wrong with the unit. I told her that we stopped by the front desk this morning to request kitchen towels (there were none) and to request a new bottle of shampoo because the one in the master bath very obviously had been used. Other than that, the unit was in good condition. I told her about breakfast, that my blood sugar had dropped and that I was exhausted and it really had not been a good morning. Based on the morning, I could get this type of crap at home (yes, those were my words) why waste a vacation on it. She told me that if we decided to leave on Sunday, we would have to be out by 11:00 (check-out time). I told her we probably wouldn't leave Sunday because it was close to 10:00 and I had no idea where DH and the kids were because I left them at the restaurant. I had to talk to DH first. She said to call her if I had any further questions and that she would send housekeeping over to take care of the towels and shampoo. I thanked her and we hung up.
How's that for the first few hours of daylight on the first day? After DH and the kids got back, I totally broke down. Crying with a bit of screaming mixed in for good measure. That part lasted about 30 minutes. It took a good 2 hours for the redness to leave my face, and at least 2 more days to get past the foul mood. After the crying fit, the housekeeping came to inspect the unit. Melissa is head of housekeeping and apologized for the missing towels and used shampoo. She said she was going to personally clean the entire unit and change the sheets and towels. We told her that wasn't necessary, but she insisted on doing it anyway. She wanted to know when it would be convenient for us to have her in the unit. We told her we were headed out for bingo at 11:00, then lunch, boat painting, and the naturalist. We would probably be back in the unit around 4:00. She told us to call her when we left and she'd clean then. As we were discussing all this, there was another knock on the door. Alisa came down to see how everything was going. That really surprised me. She wanted to know if everything was okay with housekeeping and what we thought our plans were. I told her that the kids were signed up for 3 activities that afternoon and we would most likely be staying. She insisted on paying for the boat craft. We told her that wasn't necessary, but she insisted again. We thanked her and said it was very nice of her.
We went onto the activities for the kids. They had a blast. I still was not having a great day, but my demeanor had improved somewhat. By the campfire, all I wanted to do was sleep. I sat apart from most of the crowd to observe. I ended up sitting next to DH and participating. By Wednesday morning, I was in the rhythm of the resort and enjoyed the rest of the stay.
I thought the staff was exceptional. The nice thing about this resort is that you got to know the staff and they got to know you and your kids. I liked being near the pool. Our unit faced the water slide. Maybe not optimal for most people, but our kids had a great time sitting on the porch talking to the other kids going on the slide. Our kids also had time to make friends with the other kids at the resort. We did quite a few of the activities. B'Lou was great (magic, stories/music, pirate scavenger hunt, Shadow). Gwennith (I spelled that wrong), the naturalist was good (butterflies and muck, Suzanne for astronomy). Connie gave us the behind the Ears tour and did the Good Night reading. Bradford, Sam, Shannon, Pamela, and Kara were the rec people we saw the most. We took advantage of the kids night out. We went to Alexanders and they went to see Chicken Little.
The weather was warm enough for the kids to swim 4 days out of the 6 we were there. DH swam too while I got a chocolate chip cookie, cold milk, and 2 magazines and watched from the sidelines. We went into Savannah on Friday and took a trolley tour.
We decided if we had a choice of a week in Cape May, NJ or HH, we'd choose HH. However, we'd choose the parks anyday over HH. It was nice and I was eventually able to relax. The drawback for us was no restaurant on site. The snackbars were okay, but Tide Me Over and Signals were only open from 11 - 3. The mercantile was open from 8-5. Unfortunately, we're early risers, even on vacation. I don't mind eating breakfast and lunch in the unit, but I'm eating dinner out on vacation. Having to decide where to go and figure out when to eat to be back in time for the evening activities was a pain. Because DH works in Manhattan, we normally eat dinner around 7 pm. We were eating at 5 pm or so to get the activities in. This was very early for us and DH and I found we just weren't hungry. We usually brought half our dinner back to the unit for lunch the next day.
WDWNewbie...I did say hello to B'Lou and Gweneth for you. They both remembered you and your daughter. B'Lou was surprised I knew you and asked how...I told him Disboards and he nodded his head.
Now for DHs experiences (very abbreviated!): he lost his voice on the ride down, had a chest cold, got pink-eye (Dr. up here was nice enough to call Rx in down there), fell in the tub reaching for soap and dislocated his shoulder, slipped again reaching for the soap and bruised his knee. AND he had to deal with me!!! Amazingly, he didn't complain. My DH is a pretty great guy!!!
If anyone has any questions, I'd be glad to answer them.
--Michelle
PS One thing that I really liked was the pillows. I know, it sounds odd. They were nice and fluffy. I usually sleep on down pillows and these were polyester. I should have asked where they got them because I'd buy them for my bed!
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but I know I'll have to do some. 
