Chapter 12: Why Don’t You Make Like A Tree…And Get Outta Here.
We needed a getaway.
Do we really need a reason? We live in Delaware. We’d been back in school for 3 months. It was starting to get colder. My birthday was coming up. Good enough?
Julie had been looking to do a weekend trip for my birthday after her little NYC birthday jaunt had gone so well back in March. We’d wanted to try out
Disney’s Hilton Head Resort for a few years now, and we knew the rates dropped in November as winter approached. However, we also knew that South Carolina stayed warmer much longer than Delaware, so we thought November would be a good chance to take advantage of some shoulder season rates with nicer weather. With a family of 6, we’d need a 2-bedroom suite. One night in September, we looked it up and found availability in mid-November for a long weekend. Perfect. We decided to make the reservation the next day.
The next day, there was no availability.
Undeterred, Julie called the resort directly. After several minutes of conversation, she came back to me with the verdict: good news and bad news. The good news was that they had a room! The bad news was that the only room available was a grand villa. It was almost twice the cost of a 2-bedroom suite, well outside our budget.
Undeterred, Julie set out calling friends. The more, the merrier! If we could just find some
suckers close friends who would be willing to hang out with us for a weekend, we could split the cost, enjoy the grand villa, and still have our getaway within budget. It wasn’t long before two of our close friends decided the chance at a long weekend in a Disney resort was worth the risk of being seen with us.
We left on a Friday afternoon, picking the kids up from school and heading straight out. We took US 301 to bypass Washington D.C. We figured it was better to go the long way and keep moving than try and deal with the D.C. Beltway during the afternoon rush hour. I believe the red lines on Google Maps that afternoon told us our strategy was correct. It was slow going, but we got to Richmond, VA around dinner time, stopped at a Chick Fil-A, and then made it to our hotel in Roanoke Rapids, NC that evening.
Another boring drive (lots of those in this TR lately) got us through North and South Carolina. We made it to Hilton Head Island just before 3:00 p.m. or so.
The main ring road around the island is Business Route 278, which we took to the Shelter Cove development. The entrance to the Disney resort is not readily apparent from the main road, save for one sign near Shelter Cove. You have to turn onto King Neptune Drive and then make your way through the development/shopping center roads and parking area. Disney’s resort is actually located on its own separate island in the bay that separates Hilton Head from the mainland. You reach the resort over a little causeway bridge behind the Shelter Cove harbor.
That little bridge is enough to convey the same feeling as driving under the Disney World gates: you are now inside the Disney bubble. Ahhh….
The first building you see is the main lobby, the Live Oak Lodge. We parked there, grateful not to have to drive on I-95 any longer.
Drew and his friend checked out the home of Shadow, the official mascot® of Disney’s Hilton Head Resort.
We checked in and immediately felt like we were ensconced once again in Disney magic. The lobby had free chocolate-chip cookies available as well as hot apple cider (which my friends may or may not have referred to as Liquid Crack). This was their first-ever stay at a Disney resort, so it was fun watching them enjoy the customer service. The desk clerk gave us a run-down of the resort and activities and even though it was November, she pointed out where the swimming pools were. I asked if they were heated. She said yes. I asked if the air around the swimming pools was heated. She said no.
We got our room assignment and moved our cars to parking spaces more convenient to our building. We saw evidence that the days were still getting shorter at this time of year.
My friends were celebrating their anniversary over this weekend, the day before my birthday. We discovered that the cast members had already left a message for them right by the steps leading to our room.
At this point, they were probably ready to sit through a DVC sales presentation.
We went up to the second floor and entered our room. Behold the Grand Villa! (Sorry the photos aren’t great. We were in a hurry to take them before the kids trashed the room. With our kids, we only had about 7 seconds before it was unrecognizable.)
As you enter, you step into an entryway. The 2-story living room is directly ahead (complete with wood-burning fireplace). Now our friends were ready to make their DVC down payment.
To the left is the dining area and kitchen.
To the right is the master bedroom (with its own balcony and full bathroom).
Upstairs (it was cool having a 2-story hotel room) are two bedrooms, both with their own full bathrooms. They both looked pretty much the same.
Disney details abound. This was on a bench in the hall, under the coat rack.
My kids have not been to Disney World since 2012 and have not been on any Disney property since 2014, so they were pretty excited to be back in the bubble. Of course, they immediately started telling us they needed to go back to Disney World.
I understood.
Here’s the outside of our building. Our balcony is that big one on the second floor. Behind it on the left (behind the tree branch) is the balcony from the master bedroom. The third floor windows were part of our villa as well. The whole resort had a very laid-back, comfortable feel. It’s so contained and isolated that it feels like a quiet getaway resort in the middle of a huge resort town. Hard to pull that off, but they did.
Rule #1 of a Disney resort stay states that you must explore every nook and cranny of your resort the minute you finish unpacking, so we set out to do just that. The resort is made up of several buildings that hold studios, 1- and 2-bedroom suites, and the occasional grand villa. In between the buildings are well-kept grounds and several game areas, all set up and ready for guests to play (a basketball court, bocce, giant checkers, shuffleboard, putting green for golf, horseshoes, etc.). No need to go to the front desk to sign anything out—just grab a ball and play.
(Yes, they lowered the basket to about 6 feet—easier to dunk that way.)
The main pool, community hall, and gift shop are housed in a building on the back corner of the property. A path from there leads to a fishing pier in the Harbor River, part of that back bay area.
Of course, we had to walk out there to see the view. This guy was there to greet us.
Looking east:
And to the west:
There’s another photo-op back at the start of the pier.
We went out to dinner in the hopes of beating the 6:00 rush (remember, Rope Drop works at restaurants, too) and succeeded. We ate at a place named
One Hot Mama’s (named after Julie, obviously). The main reason we came here was because the menu boasted smoked fried chicken, which we all felt like we had to try.
We should have split the platters—each dish came with 4 huge pieces of chicken. But darned if it didn’t have a smoked flavor to it. It was really good! I’d definitely order that again.
Afterwards, we decided to return to the room and put the little kids in bed. Then we sat and enjoyed our family’s traditional heartwarming Thanksgiving movie:
Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. Best Thanksgiving movie ever.
Coming Up Next: This is a much different vacation for our family. We’re basically goofing off the whole weekend!
I guess it was good that you did not get our hopes up by amending the thread title.
Dang! Now that's funny. Did you really ask that?
