WDW in October vs. Hilton Head in March: a tale of two trips NEW! 10/6 p20

[mickeystoontown]

Somehow, I got unsubscribed from your trip report? So, I spent my entire lunch hour and more (shhhhh, don't tell the boss) catching up. There's no way that I can comment on everything that I want to. I'm with the girls....any trip to Disney is waaaay to short. I wanna live there forever.

Your time at HHI looks absolutely wonderful. Relaxing yet still giving you enough to see and do that you didn't get bored. The pictures around the area and the resort are beautiful!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Well we made it home tonight after a great trip!! I will try to wrap this up soon and get started on the Alaska trip!! It was amazing!

 

[MeMom]

Well we made it home tonight after a great trip!! I will try to wrap this up soon and get started on the Alaska trip!! It was amazing!

I bet. I know your pictures will be A-MAZING!

 

[Poolrat]

Welcome home and looking forward to hearing about Alaska.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Welcome home Sheree!!

 

[KatMark]

Welcome home( we fly home tomorrow and hope to spend Labor Day catching up

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Cant wait to hear what the girls liked the best!!

 

[micandminforever]

Well we made it home tonight after a great trip!! I will try to wrap this up soon and get started on the Alaska trip!! It was amazing!

Welcome home and I can't wait to read about the Alaska trip. My DH's family is thinking about going in 2015, so I need all the hints I can find.

 

[jenseib]

Welcome home. I can't wait to hear about that one!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Welcome home! I can hardly wait to hear about the Alaskan cruise. It's always been a dream of mine to fulfill my daddy's dream of going to Alaska. After he retired, he was too sick to travel so I want to do it in his memory.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

HOLY CATS! I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted here! I promise, I'm not quite done! I will finish this and I will start one for Alaska! This is the first day I have had more than an hour down time to catch up on the DIS!

I've got pics of the Biltmore estate and I think souvenirs left to do here. Let me see how much more photobucket can manage before I have to start paying!

 

[jenseib]

HOLY CATS! I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted here! I promise, I'm not quite done! I will finish this and I will start one for Alaska! This is the first day I have had more than an hour down time to catch up on the DIS!

I've got pics of the Biltmore estate and I think souvenirs left to do here. Let me see how much more photobucket can manage before I have to start paying!

switch to flickr. It holds quite a bit for free. Way more than photobucket and doesn't have those stupid limits per month

 

[MeMom]

HOLY CATS! I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted here! I promise, I'm not quite done! I will finish this and I will start one for Alaska! This is the first day I have had more than an hour down time to catch up on the DIS!

I've got pics of the Biltmore estate and I think souvenirs left to do here. Let me see how much more photobucket can manage before I have to start paying!

I totally understand. I have never had less DIS time than I do these days. School and adding on the part-time job have sucked up all my DIS time. It is nice to catch up some on weekends.

If it makes you feel any better, the photobucket fee really isn't that much, and we think it is worth it to have so many pictures. Every once in a while, it runs slow, but for the most part, we like it. We've also thought about playing around with Flickr.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Thanks to any of you who are still hanging around here!

After we left South Carolina, we headed to Asheville North Carolina for a night. We had plans to meet up with my college roommate Melissa and have dinner with her. We got a room for the night and had bought tickets to the Biltmore Estate for the next day.
First we were able to go to part of the estate - the farm area that afternoon.
They have a farm area with animals (Sarah was in heaven!) and historical information. There's also a winery and they have tastings (for free!) so we tried to taste a bunch of them. It was nice because they allowed kids in and gave them grape juice to taste! Of course there's a gift shop too! Yup, we bought some wines and treats to take home.

Sarah immediately made friends with Bert the horse, and his friend Chester.





People were taking a segway tour!




















cont. in next post

 

[Mndisneygirl]

This is in the little "town square" type area with restaurants, ice cream shop, gift shop and winery, and a sort of museum area.





Of course we stopped in the ice cream shop too!






We had a wonderful dinner at a place Melissa suggested. Apparently, Asheville is quite a foodie town! It's also very beautiful!!

The next morning we were off to the estate - the "house" and the greenhouse, gardens...You could not take pictures in the house itself, but here's what we did get to take pictures of...







Not a bad view...

Can't believe they don't have a swingset in the back yard!


And, I know you've been waiting for the big frontal view...




fancy gates


looking back across the front yard



fish pond


There were lots of rose and flower gardens but they were not in bloom yet.



I bet they are gorgeous about a month or so later in the year!

cont.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

cont.



The greenhouse


I think those kids are wearing Pluto hats!








More outside of the "house"




And that, my friends, is the end of our Biltmore tour. We did make one more stop to say goodbye to Bert and Chester before we left. All the way home, Sarah kept asking if we could bring Bert home. Sadly for Sarah, we could not.

Next up - souvenirs and hopefully, a link to my Alaska TR. Need to figure out a title!!!

 

[KatMark]

Sheree, welcome back we missed you.

What a fun afternoon/next day. The weather looks gorgeous, the Biltmore looks gorgeous, the flowers are beautiful. Glad you got to see your college roommate too.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Here's what we brought home!

I use this for coffee to take to work almost all the time now!

yummy wine!



No dishwasher for this mug!


Dave loves this!

A couple of magnets to add to the collection on the refrigerator


Christmas ornaments


Sweet grass rose and cuticle cream (I know they don't go together - but they were in the same area for the picture)



Stuff from Nourish in Savannah


Stuff from Savannah Bee Company in - Yup, Savannah!
We also got some honey - apparently I didn't take a picture of it. But we tasted honey and picked our favorite and brought it home!

All in all, a great trip! The girls liked HHI for the swimming and fun activities, and they enjoyed having their own bedroom and bathroom. Dave and I really loved how everything was so relaxed and stress-free! I definitely would go back!

Sarah says she prefers HHI over WDW unless it's a special season like Christmas or Halloween at WDW. She claims she's done all the rides she plans to do.
Paige preferred HHI too. When I asked which one they'd rather do, she said HHI. Paige even said, I've already done the Halloween party! So she doesn't need to go back! I was stunned!
I highly doubt they would object to another WDW trip though.
Of course, I would go back for anything again - especially the Food and Wine Festival!

As we are shopping airfare - we are reconsidering our next spring break trip! We have Grand Californian booked for 5 nights. We were planning to fly to Vegas cuz it's cheaper, and drive to LA. Then maybe take a couple days in San Diego. But that makes it more expensive. For a little more, we could go to Aulani!! Then the little frugal elf inside my head says, "HHI is cheaper!" and no park tickets to buy. But it's also been a year since we were at WDW. Now I don't know WHAT to do!!!

Holy moly!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Great ending to your HHI TR Sheree! Looks like you all had a great time. I am really shocked that the girls would choose HHI over WDW though!!

The Biltmore looks beautiful! We always say we are going to go there during one of our Charlotte trips, but we never seem to make it.

That is quite the decision you have about the next trip... We have been contemplating next summer. Really thinking about biting the bullet and finally heading out to Disneyland!! But, we've been close to going before and always seem to end up back at WDW! I wish we could do Hawaii, but the airfare is ridiculous and I'm not sure about that long of a flight.

 

[KatMark]

What a great collection of souvenirs.

You do have a dilemma there. All of your suggested ideas sound great!