[boo's_parents]

Summary: Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort is a great place to enjoy a relaxing family vacation that provides lots of beach and pool time, as well as the ablity to enjoy the natural wonders of Hilton Head island. They provide a full program of activities for the kids with an awesome staff. B'Lou Crabbe and Shadow are the greeters at the resort that provide entertainment and/or
participate in activities. B'Lou is an amazing cast member - a Disney treasure.

Saturday 7/29
We arrived at Hilton Head after 1 1/2 days of driving from CT (15.5 hours, ugh!) Upon arrival at 2:30 pm, we were "Welcomed Home" by the courteous cast members at the front desk, had complimentary lemonade and cookies, and unloaded our luggage to our Studio room right in Live Oaks Lodge. It was extremely convenient to be able to park under the building and take an elevator up to the third floor. The room was very spacious for a studio and had a balcony that overlooked the marsh. We spent our first day getting acclimated to the layout of the resort, which is overwhelming at first, but once you "get it", it's very easy to get around. We spent the afternoon at the big dipper pool - the kids loved it. Our 7 year old rode the slide about 200 times during the week, and our 5 year old found the 3' depth near the stairs to be perfect for her to "swim".

One of the drawbacks of this resort is not having a full service restaurant on site. This is somewhat alleviated by having the Harbourside shops and resturants about 100 yards away, on the other side of Shelter Cove. We ate at Little Venice (Italian) on Saturday night, which was pretty good food/service. The benefit of the restaurants not being owned/operated by Disney is you don't pay Disney prices.

After dinner, we walked through the shops, which were kind of underwhelming. We drove to the Piggly Wiggly to get groceries and made it back to Great Oaks Lodge for 8:00pm - Big Murgie's Den for Ghost Stories with B'Lou Crabbe. These stories were all related to the history of the Islands of South Carolina. They weren't scary, per se. But they were VERY interesting and delivered incredibly well by B'Lou.

Now, I was expecting B'Lou Crabbe to be a Disney character in some kind of a red crab suit or something. I couldn't have been more wrong. I was able to speak to B'Lou at a few of the events and he's a real person with an incredible knowledge of history and many gifts (music, magic, and storytelling being a few.) In my opinion, he is Disney's best kept secret and an absolute treasure.

Sunday 7/30
Another hot day (as were all). We drove to Disney's Beach House and spent the morning at the beach. (You can also take a shuttle to the beach house, which is about a mile away. That shuttle runs every 15 minutes...we chose to drive since we had all our beach stuff in the mini-van and it would have been more of a pain to take it out than it was to drive. Parking is plentiful at the beach house, although we heard that it could fill up in the afternoon.

What an awesome beach...nice sand, great waves for boogie boarding, and warm (82 degrees) water. We didn't find many nice seashells all week. Usually, at cape cod, we find tons of large, cool shells. We did find some dead star fish which we thought about soaking in bleach and hardening, but ended up abandoning that idea. We never really found the beach to be crowded. Here's a tip though - if you drive, bring chairs, blankets, umbrella's - otherwise you'll be renting them on the beach. We had our fill of the sand/surf and went up to the Beach House deck and swam in the pool for a while and had lunch from the little burger shop there. That was typical Disney counter service type food. Not bad.

We drove back to the resort and met B'Lou's sidekick, "Shadow" for the first time. Shadow is a Golden Retriever with an amazing demeaner. My 5 year old is still walking around with her stuffed "Shadow" a week later. We're furiously deflecting the pressure for a dog now. We went swimming at the big dipper pool - the recreation staff organized pool games for the kids while we relaxed. We drove to Tony Roma's for dinner (never been there before.) Not bad. We played Mini-Golf at a Pirate themed course right on route 278.

That evening, the recreation staff had a campfire with games, songs, and s'mores. The kids loved it. This is a great time for me to jump on my soapbox and say how great the recreation programs are and how great the staff is with the kids. I can't say enough good things about them.

Monday 7/31
We decided to relax at the big dipper pool in the morning. Both kids painted Anchor's in an arts/crafts project. We got lunch at the resort and the kids did a neat craft called Gyotaku, which is essentially painting a dead fish and transposing the image on a tee shirt. Nice souvenir!!!

We walked out to the pier that afternoon and some kids that were crabbing gave us their crab net and some bait to try it out. My 7 year old caught a blue crab in about 5 minutes. The look on her face was priceless.

We ate dinner at the mexican restuarant right at Shelter Cove - San Miguel's. Authentic Mexican food, right down to the flies with outside patio seating. The food was good going down, but within an hour, neither my wife or I were feeling great. We were all pretty tired anyway and made it an early night.

Tuesday 8/1
We did the beach/beach house in the morning, then came back to the resort in the afternoon. We decided to drive around the island a bit and got sucked into entering Sea Pines ($5 "guest" fee to enter). I'm kind of a lighthouse buff, and even though we knew the Harbourtown lighthouse is fake, it is on a lot of post cards and stuff and I wanted to see it. Well, for $2, you get the privilege of walking to the top and see their gift shop. Nice view from up there, but fairly underwhelming.

We made it back to the resort for another activity, Shadow's Bunny Hunt. This was basically walking Shadow around the resort with B'Lou while he told stories. The kids loved it. From there, we went back to the big dipper pool for the Star Spangled BBQ, which was a BBQ dinner and all kinds of games/activities until 9:00pm, when a barge on Broad Creek fired off a Fireworks display. Not exactly MK or Epcot Fireworks, but not bad. It was a beautiful "kiss goodnight" to a wonderful day.

Wednesday 8/2
We booked a dolphin tour at 11:00 am, which was an hour and a half of crusing down Broad Creek to the InterCoastal Waterway and back. We probably saw 25 or 30 dolphins, some as close as 2 feet away, heads out of the water. It was really cool. Our captain (Kyle) was a very nice guy and answered lots of questions, provided lots of interesting information. If you ever get a chance to do this, I'd highly recommend it.

We got back to the resort by 12:30, had lunch and spent the afternoon at the big dipper pool. The kids did another craft (built beach bags) and we ended up eating dinner at Giussepe's pizza at the Shelter Cove plaza. We ended the night back at the resort with another Campfire/S'mores.

Thursday 8/3
More beach/pools...We met up with B'Lou Crabbe and Shadow again and got to listen to "Shadow's Tales", which were more stories about Shadow and how she was "adopted" by the resort. We also did an educational craft about Shark's teeth, where a naturalist taught the kids about sharks and their teeth, then they got to build a necklace with real shark's teeth. They also did a craft creating Flower Pots and Petal Pens. We spent more pool time and then attended an event that was strangely disappointing, yet wonderful.

It was Edmund's Family Low Country Boil - a shrimp boil at the Beach House. It was a beautiful evening, with a nice sea breeze coming across the deck of the Beach House. We got there early to make sure we got a nice table overlooking the ocean. We got some cocktails while our kids played
and a few people arrived...and that was it for people. Counting us four, there were 12 people that attended.

Disney put out a spread that matched (or surpassed) the food at Mickey's Backyard BBQ or Hoop De Doo. It was fantastic. They had face painting for the kids, the pool was open...B'Lou was playing Low Country music and providing entertainment. It was awesome...except there were only a handful of people there. It was very odd.

But this is where it became wonderful. B'Lou entertained the kids, he entertained the adults. He told stories, he did magic. It ended up being such an intimate affair, it was so cool. He took what could have been a disaster and wove it into the most enjoyable event we attended. Even better than the BBQ and fireworks. It was kind of indescribable.

Friday 8/4
We spent a lot of time at the beach...this was to be our last full day at Hilton Head. The kids attended the "Unbirthday Party" at the resort, which they enjoyed. They really enjoyed the crafts and the staff there. By the end of the trip, we knew them by name and they knew our kids by name. We ate dinner at Scott's Fish Market, right at Shelter Cove/Harbourside. Very good food, but a bit expensive. A storm came through as we ate and that evening's campfire was canceled in favor of Goofy's Bingo. The kids played Goofy Bingo and had fun, but I have to say I was disappointed that they didn't get another campfire...the campfires were very enjoyable.

Well, that's the trip report. Hope this helps folks decide if Hilton Head is right for them!

[ssn]

Thanks for the TR Boo. I've always been interested in visiting the Hilton Head resort. We also live in CT so the 15 plus hour drive doesn't sound too tempting but definately doable! Are you a DVC member? We're not, but can we still stay there? We stayed at the Vero Beach hotel a few years back and loved it. The kids activities at Hilton Head sound amazing! Thanks again!

[lovemysons]

I have also wondered about the Hilton Head resort. Thanks for posting your trip report. It sounds like a rather appealing place to spend your vacation.

[mickaholic4077]

Were there any Disney characters to meet and greet?

[pirateprincess]

I was wondering too if you have to be a DVC member to stay there.

Great TR by the way!

[boo's_parents]

You don't have to be a DVC member to stay there (we are, though). You can book it just like a hotel, but I'm pretty sure they are near capacity during the busy summer season, so you'd have to book early.

There are no Disney characters there...just B'Lou and Shadow. Honestly, we didn't miss not having characters there. There are plenty of Disney touches though (hidden Mickey's and such), it's "Disney Clean" and of course the Disney service. Some folks we spoke to that have vacationed at other resorts on Hilton Head said that Disney, by far, at the most/best kids activity programs. So, that's something to think about.

[mickey]

I love HH, great trip report. I have been twice, once using an AP discount rate they had and once exchanging our of our Marriott Weeks. Even though I am a DVC member, I still haven't used points staying there. If you can travel during the off season (summer and holidays are busy), you can usually find screaming discounts. We stayed in a 2 bedroom villa for something like $99 per night our first trip. I would love to go again someday, there are fun things to do for everyone. Golf, beach and food, what more could you ask for?

[A Goofy Family]

Great Trip Report Boo!! Thanks so much! Sure makes us anxious for March to get here so we can experience HH too! It all sounds so wonderful and relaxing, we'll probably soak up HH a few days and also plan day trips to Savannah & Charleston. We'll be driving from Central Texas...17-20 hours, depending on the driver. Sure hope they do the campfires in March. It'll be my 1st time to the Atlantic!!

[A Goofy Family]

Originally Posted by mickey

I love HH, great trip report. I have been twice, once using an AP discount rate they had and once exchanging our of our Marriott Weeks. Even though I am a DVC member, I still haven't used points staying there. If you can travel during the off season (summer and holidays are busy), you can usually find screaming discounts. We stayed in a 2 bedroom villa for something like $99 per night our first trip. I would love to go again someday, there are fun things to do for everyone. Golf, beach and food, what more could you ask for?

Did you stay at the DVC Resort @ HH both times? We'll be there midMarch, wonder if they will have screaming discounts then??? Did you go through DVC or call HH resort directly to get the great rate??? Our friends are looking to go with us, but are not DVC members...heck at $99 per night for a 2 bedroom, I'd pay out of pocket for that and upgrade our rooms at WDW next time with the points saved on this trip.

[BDavis932]

Thanks so much for the wonderful TR BooParents! I can't wait to go in March! It sounds so relaxing, beautiful, and fun for all!

Do you have any pictures you can share???

[PrincessPooh]

Great TR! Definately something I'd like to do one day. Did you have any pics to share with us??

[boo's_parents]

Literally downloading some pics from the computer right now. I'll be putting some up on Photobucket and attaching some links...

[Dana]

Sounds like the ideal trip to me. Like the others, I have wondered about HH. Thanks for sharing the report.

[BDavis932]

Originally Posted by boo's_parents

Literally downloading some pics from the computer right now. I'll be putting some up on Photobucket and attaching some links...

Can't wait to see them!!!!!

[BDavis932]

Originally Posted by boo's_parents

Literally downloading some pics from the computer right now. I'll be putting some up on Photobucket and attaching some links...

I'm having vacation withdrawals, lol!! Were you able to get your photos up? I can't wait to see them!

Tomorrow is our 7 month window to book so we are booking our ressies tomorrow for Hilton Head!