Trip Report - September / October 2024

[Noreen411]

Introduction:
Noreen - I am a Senior Vice President at an Investment Banking Firm in New York City. I will be the author of the report.
Scott - My husband, Independent Contractor

I’m going to post a picture (or few) of Scott and I so you see what we look like









Others were supposed to join us for parts of the trip, but didn’t for various reasons:
Jen & Kevin: My sister and brother in law. They were on a cruise on Symphony of the Seas and had a port stop in Port Canaveral
Dana & Herman: They live in Florida. They were to meet us the same day as Jen & Kevin in Port Canaveral
Jen: Scott’s ex-wife. We were to meet her in Alabama

 

[Noreen411]

Planning:
Our plans ended up changing due to two hurricanes: Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. I don’t say this to sound whiny/complaining as I know many lost homes due to these hurricanes, we just had our vacation plans change so for us it wasn’t bad. I’m including the information since it impacted our trip.

This was to be our longest trip yet; the last few were a little over 2 weeks, but now we’re pushing 3 weeks.

Our original plan had us gone for about 3 weeks and were as follows:
Leave New Jersey Sunday 9/22/24, arrive in Hilton Head, South Carolina that evening, spend a few days there including meeting with a realtor on Monday 9/23/24
Leave Hilton Head, SC on Wednesday 9/25/24 and drive to Gulf Shores, Alabama, spend a few days there including meeting with a realtor on Thursday 9/26/24
Leave Gulf Shores, AL on Saturday 9/28/24 and drive to Florida, staying until Friday 10/11/24 then driving home arriving back in New Jersey on Saturday 10/12/24

This trip was to have a new component to it, well maybe not that new since we did something similar during our March 2024 trip…some location/possible house hunting for potential places to move down the road. We planned to stop at Hilton Head, SC for 3 nights and Gulf Shores, AL for 3 nights on the way to Florida. We planned to look around both areas and had two full days in each location. Since we were going to be at each of these hotels for more than just a quick overnight we booked hotels on 8/31/24 for each place rather than just booking on the fly like we normally do when we’re just stopping for a quick overnight stop on our drive. We didn’t need anything fancy since we’ll spend most of the time touring around, but it needs to be clean and comfortable. We never made it to Alabama this trip.

We planned to meet Jen, Kevin, Dana, and Herman on Tuesday 10/1/24 at Cocoa Beach, FL. That didn’t happen.
We planned to meet Jen (Scott’s ex-wife) in Alabama. That didn’t happen.

Due to the two hurricanes, this is how our trip ended up:
We left New Jersey Sunday 9/22/24 and arrived in Hilton Head, SC that evening as planned, we met with the realtor on Monday 9/23/24, then news of Hurricane Helene started. Since the hurricane was coming from the west side of Florida we would have been driving right towards it; even if we made it to Alabama, with all the people evacuating, traffic, trouble getting to Florida after, we ended up cancelling the Alabama portion of the trip and stayed in Hilton Head, SC until Saturday 9/28/24 and drove to Disney from SC that day. Hilton Head is beautiful so it’s not like it was bad spending a few extra days there. We had maybe 1/2 day where we were sort of stuck inside due to the hurricane and lost internet, but other than that we were OK.

We drove from Hilton Head, SC to Florida on Saturday 9/28/24 planning to stay until Friday 10/11/24. Hurricane Milton, predicted to be a category 5, was coming towards Florida. We were in Florida for Hurricane Ian 2 years ago and didn’t want to stay for another hurricane. We ended up leaving Tuesday 10/8/24 and got back to New Jersey Wednesday 10/9/24.

Lodging in South Carolina:
We stayed at Springhill Suites on Hilton Head Island South Carolina. I looked at Disney’s Hilton Head resort but they were booked for the dates we were originally going. That probably worked out for the best since when our plans changed, it was easy enough to extend our stay at Springhill Suites.

Lodging in Alabama:
We planned to stay at Staybridge Suites in Gulf Shores Alabama, but we didn’t make it to Alabama

Lodging in Florida:
We stayed at the sister resort to our timeshare, we stayed at Vistana Villages. We own one week in a 2 bedroom / 2 bathroom villa at Vistana Resort. When it’s just Scott and I, I like to book the 1 bedroom premium villa. If you don’t just book a regular week, you can use “options” and we have enough to stay for about 2 weeks in the 1 bedroom.

Since we already used our timeshare options this year for our March 2024 trip, we booked this as a regular cash (American Express) reservation. When you book using your options, you a choose the section of the resort you want, but as a cash reservation you don’t have that option. I booked the one bedroom premium and put in a request to be in the St Augustine section (where the big 24 hour gym is located).

Both Vistana Resort and Vistana Villages are great resorts; we enjoy the large 24 hour fitness center at Vistana Villages so have been choosing that resort lately when available.

Transportation:
We drove from Northern New Jersey. We’ve done the drive to Disney several times and prefer the flexibility it gives us over flying. Especially with a trip like this where we have multiple stops it makes it so much easier just to have our car with us rather than flying and having to rent cars as we go.

Activities:
We have Disney Annual passes that expired 9/27/24. I couldn’t renew until 60 days before they expire. We have to make reservations for the parks. With an annual passes we can make 5 reservations at a time. We have Incredipass as out of state passholders.

I renewed our annual passes on 8/30/24 - Incredipass with Memory Maker

We would buy the new Multi Attraction Lightening Lane as well as Individual Lightening Lanes for the attractions we wanted to experience. I didn’t keep track of exactly what I booked and the times. Staying offsite, we couldn’t book until 3 days in advance rather than the 7 days in advance those staying on Disney property can book.

Dining:
I had a handful of restaurants I wanted to try to get reservations for. I logged in at 60 days out each morning right before they opened and would book dinner. I kept checking and changing things as we went along

Routine:
We have a pretty normal (maybe boring) routine in the morning at Disney. We would go to the gym then once back in the villa would do laundry, use the jacuzzi, take our showers, and have breakfast before leaving for the park.

Misc:
I didn’t keep many notes this trip so am trying to recreate what we did from memory so I’m sure I’ll forget some stuff. I would send myself texts throughout the day to remind me what we did. Between the texts and the pictures, I’m hoping to remember most of it.

 

[Noreen411]

The summer before the trip - Real Life Updates
For years I’ve been complaining about my crooked front tooth. When I was in my 20’s I had metal braces for about 3 months to try to fix it, the braces came off, it looked great. I had a retainer for a few months and the orthodontist said I’m all set and I don’t need to wear the retainer anymore. Less than a year later the tooth was crooked again.

As I got older, it seems like it got worse and worse. I was very self-conscious of this crooked tooth. I’ve been thinking about this for a while but I finally went to a new orthodontist and got Invisalign early July 2024. It’s definitely a commitment as you need to take them out to eat and then floss/water-pik/brush your teeth and clean the Invisalign trays before putting them back in your mouth. It helps avoid afternoon snacks since it’s too much effort to go through that for a few M&Ms. You need to clean them with special cleaning tablets, not necessarily each time you take them out. I also have an ultrasonic cleaning machine for them. I started out switching to new trays every two weeks, but my visit with the orthodontist before our trip now has me changing trays every 10 days. There is a lot more to think about and plan for when it comes to caring for my teeth with Invisalign when we’re away. I am putting together a little pouch with things like a mini toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, etc that we’ll bring with us when we’re out for the day.

If you are familiar with my reports, you may remember the saga of what Scott called my mid-life crisis car; an adorable sporty little car in a bright electric blue (Sapphire Rocks Blue Metallic is the official color). It was very different than my normal boring (but I love) charcoal grey BMW 5 series that I’ve been leasing for the past many years; one lease would end and I would get a new one, same thing just newer year. As cute as the little sporty car was we had a lot of issues with it, things kept breaking, it would go to the dealer and they would have it for a while waiting on parts (I’d have a loaner to use but it’s not the same as having your own car). The lease on my little sporty car was up this summer and I planned to go back to my traditional 5 series and was ready to order one, but on the showroom floor another vehicle caught my eye. My new lease is an X3 in Brooklyn Grey (I’m from Brooklyn NY originally so the name stuck out for me). Normally I like dark colors for my car like Charcoal Grey, but I liked the way this one looked with the contrast of the Black M Line grill and accents. I remember seeing a white one with that trim and while I’m not a Star Wars person the first thing I thought of was those Storm Troopers. My car sort of has that Storm Trooper look to it too. We’re going to take my new car on this road trip.

We always start decorating for the holidays early. For the last few years we had the inside of the house fully decorated by Halloween. Not wanting the neighbors or anyone driving by thinking we are nuts, we don’t do the outside decorations until late November. The Hallmark channel has Christmas in July and we were watching some of the movies. On Sunday 7/28/24 Scott brought two of the Christmas trees up and we had the corner tree standing in the living room and the big spinning tree standing in the family room; they weren’t decorated at that point. However, a week or so later, we were going through some of the boxes and rather than just re-arranging the ornaments we started putting them on the trees. Before the end of August we had the corner tree, the big tree that spins, and one of the small trees up and decorated as well as the stockings hung and a few other decorations around the house.

General Real-Life Update
I’ve been dealing with some medical issues recently and it’s been getting progressively worse the last few years. Due to this, we’ve had to be more careful with what we’re planning and be flexible to change plans as we go if my medical issues cause difficulties.

 

[Noreen411]

The month before the trip
We were both busy at work trying to get things squared away knowing we would be away for 3 weeks.

Labor Day Weekend we did a dry run of packing the empty suitcases/tote/cooler/etc to see how we would put things in the car. We load the bags into the car then take pictures so when we pack them for real we know where everything goes. There is so much more room in this car than my little sporty one.

 

[Noreen411]

The week before the trip
Work continued to be busy for both of us as we finished wrapping things up.

I had an Orthodontist appointment and now I’m changing my Invisalign trays every 10 days (before it was every 2 weeks). Things seem to be going as expected (so he says).

Scott decided it was a good time to regrout (I think that’s what’s he called it) and seal things in the primary bathroom so we were using the guest bathroom this week.

We (mainly Scott) did a lot of cleaning since we like the house to be super clean before we go away. Not that it’s ever dirty, Scott’s always cleaning, but he’ll do even more before we go on vacation.

I received an email from Owner Services at Vistana Villages asking questions like how many keys we need, if we have a preference on villa location/floor, time we’re arriving, etc. Even though this is a cash (American Express) reservation, it’s nice that we’re still treated like owners.

I was in touch with the realtors for both South Carolina and Alabama confirming our plans to meet with each of them when we’re there.

Scott’s ex-father in law dropped off Michelle’s ashes for us to drive down to Alabama where Jen (Scott’s ex-wife) will meet us to pick them up. Michelle is Jen’s sister and she passed away recently. Jen lives in Louisiana and is about 2 hours from where we’ll be in Alabama so she will take the drive over, we’ll meet for dinner, and give her her sister’s ashes. We also have some other items to bring her that she had in NJ

 

[BellaBaby]

Glad to see a Noreen411 report! I've read several of your reports and am happy to follow along!

 

[DLo]

Read the Dining Reviews so ready for the trip report part .

 

[Noreen411]

Glad to see a Noreen411 report! I've read several of your reports and am happy to follow along!

Hi. Thank you for the kind words.

 

[Noreen411]

Read the Dining Reviews so ready for the trip report part .

Hi. I like to start with the dining review then I’m ready to tackle writing about the whole trip.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 9/21/24 (the day before the trip)
Scott took my car to be washed and waxed.

I went to get my manicure/pedicure. I chose a sparkly light peach color since we’ll be gone about 3 weeks. The manicure is shellac so hopefully it lasts the whole time we’re away. I expect it will start growing out and I don’t like when the plain nail starts to show but hopefully with a lighter color it won’t be as noticeable. Same thing if it should chip, with the lighter color it won’t be as noticeable.


I don’t know how to cook but can make a few things. One of the things I like to cook is Kodiak waffles usually with banana or blueberries. Scott bought me a new waffle maker and I’ve been using that; I’ve had it now maybe 6 months. It’s the flip over kind like they have in some of the hotels but a smaller, not industrial type one. I made some waffles to pack and bring to eat during the car ride for breakfast tomorrow. I forgot to take a picture of my waffles, but here’s the waffle maker.


Scott packed the car so it’s one less thing to worry about in the morning. Just a few little odds and ends will need to be packed up tomorrow morning.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 9/22/24
I was up early and did a step class around 2am. I know I’m dating myself, but I used to do Step classes when they were popular. I saw a Step and Step video on Amazon so ordered it a few years ago and I use it pretty regularly. After my workout I showered and got dressed.

We were originally planning to leave around 4/4:30 but ended up leaving more like 6. The benefit of the later start is that our local Starbucks was open so Scott got a breakfast sandwich and a vanilla latte. I put the address of the hotel in Hilton Head into the navigation in the car and it says we’re 833 miles away.

As we were driving on the highway, still in New Jersey, we saw a burning car totally on fire. It didn’t cause too much of a delay.


We stopped to get gas near the bottom of New Jersey. The rest stop didn’t have Starbucks, only Dunkin and Scott doesn’t like Dunkin so he didn’t get more coffee. When we’re on road trips he drinks a lot more coffee than he normally does.

We were in Delaware approximately 8:20 and Maryland 8:33. It’s so nice getting through a state so fast.

While it’s old fashioned I have Trip Tiks from AAA that I’ll follow along as we’re driving. I would announce each time we turned a page when Scott was driving. He wasn’t as excited about the Trip Tik as I was so when I drove he didn’t follow along. We also had the car navigation going. The car navigation and the Trip Tiks didn’t always agree on the route.

We stopped at a rest stop in Maryland but they didn’t have Starbucks either, just Peet’s so Scott got a Coke instead.

Driving through Maryland when we passed the pier, we saw a cruise ship. We haven’t been on a cruise since right before the Pandemic. We got off the Celebrity Silhouette March of 2020 and were one of the last sailings that was a normal sailing before the industry shut down for the Pandemic.

We saw another car on fire in Maryland, this one on the Northbound side. Traffic was backed up on the other side, but we still had a rubbernecking short delay on the southbound side.

We were in Virginia at 10:26. We stopped for gas at a rest stop. There was a family in a van with writing on the van saying they lost their house, the car is having trouble, etc. There were parents and a few kids with bins loaded up with what looked like a lot of their belongings. Maybe it was a scam, but I walked over and handed the father $20. They weren’t begging, I walked over to them. The father seemed very grateful.

We were in North Carolina at 2:05

We were in South Carolina at 4:45. We have a tradition of stopping at the Welcome Center and taking a picture of Scott on the cute swing they have so we continued that tradition. We’ll usually spend a few minutes sitting on the swing together just swinging and chatting about our trip.


Once we got off I95 and headed towards Hilton Head, it was starting to get dark. We didn’t get to see many sights/views as we were driving.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 9/22/24 Continued
We didn’t get to the hotel, SpringHill Suites, until about 8:35pm. This ride from home to Hilton Head should be the longest leg of the drive until we’re driving home.

We got checked in and brought our stuff to our room #117. When we checked in they handed us a welcome back bag with 2 bottles of water and some nuts and snacks.


The room is OK with a long set up. When you first walk in there is a little area with a coffee maker, ice bucket and some shelf space. There is a cabinet under that with a mini fridge and microwave. There is also some storage space in this cabinet.



To the right of that is the living room / desk area. I didn’t get the best shots of this area.



Moving into the room further there is a cabinet with two drawers. A TV is mounted on the wall above this. I forgot to take a picture of this area.

Moving into the bedroom area, you have a bed with a nightstand on each side both with a drawer. There is a closet with a few shelves and some hanging area.




The bathroom is directly across from the bed with a sliding smoked door. I like that the bathroom is fully contained, toilet/sink/shower in one room rather than some hotels that have the sink outside the bathroom. You can’t see through the smoked glass but it’s not very functional since when you turn on the bathroom light, if someone else is in the bed sleeping it’s very bright and wakes them. We found this out pretty quickly that first night.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 9/22/24 Continued
Knowing restaurants would start closing soon, after cleaning the room and dropping off our stuff we headed out to find dinner.

We found Giuseppi’s Pizza still open so went there and sat at the bar.

I had a Peach Tree Palmer and Scott had a Martini.


Scott had an Italian Hero; he loved his sandwich and said he wants to come back here for this sandwich again.


I had a personal pizza and got half with sausage so Scott could eat the sausage half. The pizza was just OK, kind of like frozen pizza.



We got Key Lime Pie and Zeppole’s to go. We tried the Zeppole’s and they weren’t like any Zeppole’s we’ve had before; they were bland and tasteless. We each tried one back in the hotel then tossed the rest. The Key Lime pie was the better of the two desserts; we put this in the fridge and tried it a few days later. The dessert pictures were taken back at the hotel.




This picture is outside Giuseppi’s as we were leaving with Scott holding our bag of to-go desserts.



Giuseppi’s was OK, Scott like it more than I did, but maybe I need to try something else on their menu.

We went back to the hotel, watched some TV, and fell asleep pretty quickly excited about the whole trip ahead of us.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/23/24
We went to the gym in the hotel around 6. This gym was bigger than most of the ones at the hotels we’ll stop at on the road during the drive. We were the only ones there. We intentionally look for hotels with 24 hour fitness centers.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/23/24 Continued
After our workout we showered and got dressed. We went to the included hotel breakfast. I love the waffle maker that they have here and made a waffle. They have all sorts of other items including several hot breakfast items, cold items, beverages, etc, it’s a nice selection/variety. Scott had the breakfast sandwich and an egg bite. We enjoy these included hotel breakfasts; it’s not a deal breaker if the hotel has it or not, but it’s nice when they do. There was also a fridge with bottles of water available.







Scott’s breakfast


My breakfast

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/23/24 Continued
Here is a picture of the outside of the hotel since it was dark last night when we got here and I forgot to take a picture then.


We met the realtor at Oyster Park in Bluffton, SC at 10. We were a little early so walked around where we were to meet her. She suggested this rather than meeting at an office since it was nice out.




We talked some more about what we’re looking for and she showed us what/where she scheduled us to go that day. We followed her in our car and she was in her car. She offered to drive us but we preferred to follow in our car. We went to 4 different communities seeing a house in each one. She also showed us the various amenities the different communities offer. This seems to be the norm when we’re looking at places lately; everything is in a community. We’re not used to that; we own a home in New Jersey, we don’t have an HOA or community with amenities or rules. We’re not sure how we feel about it. The homes seemed relatively close together in most of the communities. In one of them, the neighbor called out jokingly “We don’t like people from New Jersey here” (he saw our NJ plates). We talked with him for a bit and he was telling us how many of the people there were also from the Northeast. He loves it and highly recommended the community.

After touring with the realtor, we went back to Old town Bluffton to wander around.



We stopped at Corner Perk, a local coffee shop. Scott had a vanilla latte, I had an iced salted caramel latte. We shared a cranberry pecan chicken salad wrap. The wrap was good. The beverages weren’t as good as Starbucks. Scott didn’t finish his drink and he will usually drink any coffee.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/23/24 Continued
We walked around the town for a while to see what was there. It’s a cute little town. There were a lot of restaurants. The shops weren’t the standard stores you normally find in a shopping center, they were a bit more unique. We were wondering how they stayed in business since we didn’t see people shopping but saw plenty of people at the various restaurants.

We headed back to Hilton Head Island and drove to Coligny Beach and walked along the water. It’s so pretty. The beach area had changing rooms, bathrooms, outdoor showers, little faucets to wash the sand off your feet. These are all things we look for when we would go to a beach (normally on an island on a cruise stop). We didn’t have bathing suits with us this afternoon but could come back here to swim. We loved the little swings and the gathering areas they had.




As we were walking along the water, there was a sandbar that Scott walked out to. Only his feet and legs got wet so he convinced me to go there too. I don’t like to get wet in my clothes so was hesitant at first but walked out happy to stay dry.



As we’re driving around one of the things Scott loves is the trees; I think it’s called Spanish moss. They are so beautiful with the moss dangling (not sure if my pictures captured it well).



We stopped at Publix (a grocery store) for a few items then headed back to the hotel to drop off our stuff, shower, and change again. It’s hot out; the realtor even mentioned it’s unseasonably hot for this time of year.

 

[Paulaparm]

So glad to see a trip report from you! Sorry that your plans didn’t all work out.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/23/24 Continued
We’ve been googling trying to decide where to have dinner. We found a place called Salty Dog Cafe that sounded good so we followed the navigations directions there. We pulled up to a guard gate at Sea Pines resort assuming we got turned around but they said the restaurant was inside the resort and we had to pay $9 to enter since it was a private resort. We paid and followed the road to find Salty Dog. When we got there, it was crowded with a lot of people waiting. Scott didn’t like the vibe so we left.

We googled some more and drove to another restaurant that sounded good - Frankie Bones



The bar itself was full but there were bar tables so we sat at one of those. We liked the vibe better here. I had a Bourbon Peach Arnold Palmer and Scott had a Martini.



The cocktail napkins mentioned the Serg group and listed several restaurants that are all part of the group. The pizza place, Giuseppi’s, that we went to last night was also part of the Serg group.

For an appetizer we had the Bacon wrapped shrimp. This was very good. I thought the bacon could have been cooked a bit more but I like my bacon very well done. The shrimp were cooked perfectly.


We were brought bread and butter


The manager came over and we ended up chatting with him for a while. He was talking about living “on island” and how he loves it there.

For our entrees I had the filet Mignon with French fries. Scott had lobster macaroni and cheese. Often we’ll share an entree but I’m not a huge Mac & cheese fan while Scott loves it. Our food was really good. The Mac & cheese had a lot of lobster in it; I tried it and liked it too.




Since we didn’t share we had a decent amount of leftovers. Look how cute they boxed it up for us with the name of the restaurant and the date.


Even though we couldn’t finish our dinner, we still ordered dessert. Black Forest cake from their Oktoberfest special menu. This was just OK.


We really enjoyed our meal at Frankie Bones, other than the cake which was just OK.

Back at the hotel we watched some TV before going to bed.

 

[Noreen411]

So glad to see a trip report from you! Sorry that your plans didn’t all work out.

Hi. Thank you. We still had a great trip even with changing things around.