Worth it to pay cash? Room for 11 adults and 5 kids?

[Erikarate]

We are DVC members and always go a few times a year to WDW, our "big" trip being in July. Last summer my whole family got together in the outer banks, NC and rented a HUGE beachhouse with plenty of bedrooms for all. We had a fantastic time, however everyone seems to want to try something new. I proposed HHI and the guys were into it because of the golf and such and I would like to stay at Disney HHI resort as I know that Disney has the best in terms of accomodations and activities.

So I still have to convince my whole family, other than my DH and kids of course, that Disney HHI resort is the place to be. There are the following families to accomodate:

DH, me, DD 8, DS 6
My sister, B-I-L, niece 5
my mom and dad
My Aunt (and maybe SO)
Cousin and DH
Cousin and DH and DS 5, DS 2 1/2

(ages of kids will be at time of trip, which hopefully will be August 2003)

I'm thinking either two grand villas or 1 grand villa, 2 studios and a 1 bedroom (which I hearthey can combine to make a 3 bedroom). Question is can this be done? Preferrably these rooms would be all together?

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[RobDoc]

You will likely find it difficult to get any of the rooms you mention with a cash reservation in August. That is still a busy season at the resort and the first priority is to reserve villas with points.

You might find something on a weekend for cash, but will be challenged during the week. There are only 5 GV's, each in a different building. I think there is only 1 combination of studios and a 1BR which could comprise a 3BR. That is located in the lodge and I believe is the only handicapped accessible villa of that size. If you require accessibility, you may be able to reserve it with points. None of the true GV's are accessible.

You can also consider renting a beach house at Sea Pines or Palmetto Dunes at HH. These are reasonably priced and likely similar to what you previously found in NC .

Good luck!

 

[ncligs]

Erikarate,

Further info on the GV's at HH. My family had 2 GV's at HH last summer in July. Four members of my family are DVC members, so we transfered points to reserve the GV's at the 11 month window.
Like Doc has mentioned above there are only 5 GV's at HH, and you will not get them next to each other .
We also did the Nags Head NC beachouse on the ocean , 3 weeks ago.

 

[CarolA]

While I love DVC, I think that for the money you can probably rent a really nice house in Hilton Head. They have some that will fit the whole family and probably are closer to the beach (and may even come with a pool). I have used Shoreline Rentals in the past and had no problems with them. I used to vacation in HH a lot and I really am not that fond of the Disney location. I much perfer to be in one of the Plantations (perferably Sea Pines.)

 

[Erikarate]

Thanks for the replies...

ncligs, - we were in Rodanthe and as beautiful as it was being right on the beach, we felt a bit isolated. We drove 20 minutes or more to Nags Head or south to Avon for restaurants and entertainment. BTW we love Dirty Dicks Crab Shack!!! My DH still talks about their soft shell crab sandwich!!

CarolA- I've thought about other accomodations, but I just LOVE the list of activities that they have at Disney...I will call and see what they suggest...

I think in the end it is more costly to rent points for the trip (we only have 450pp/year which is alot, but not enough for 2 grand villas and we like I said go on our own a few times to WDW on those points). I think I figured out that a Sunday to Saturday visit at $700/night would be $4200 whereas if we rented points at $10pp for the same # of days it would be I think like $5600 ( I can't load the calculator at this time for some reason...).

Anyway, I guess if we had at least 1 grand villa where we could congregate and then maybe rooms in the same building it would work...