A Return Trip to HHI

udflyer00

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jul 7, 2004
Hello fellow DIS'ers,

I thought this would be fun, I haven't written a trip report in many years, but since this is only our 2nd trip to HHI I wanted to share the experience.

Trip setup: 1st trip back to HHI in ~3 years.
Cast of Characters:
Myself-Mark
The Mrs
The Kids:
Eric(14)
Haley(12)
Luke(9)
Emily(7)
Grandma T(The Mrs's Mom)
Grandpa T(The Mrs's Dad)

So as DVC'ers in Ohio with school age kids The Mrs only allows us to vacation during school breaks. So we usually try to get AP's and make 3 trips in a year; Summer, Christmas, Summer. Well this summer is our off summer so we were lucky enough to get a 2 bedroom in back at Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort. We really enjoyed our first stay here we were excited to get a room during the week we wanted. This trip we have the in-laws join us.

Departure: We hit the road after work this past Friday, and traveling with the in-laws we divided then11 hour drive in half. We spent our 1st night at a nice Hampton Inn in Hillsville, VA. We hit the road Saturday morning to finish off the trip. We drove the final 5ish hours and finally arrived on the island. Saving a few points we spent Saturday night right next door at Days Inn. It was an okay stay, beds were a little uncomfortable, but it served its purpose, a place to sleep. Saturday night we did a lot of swimming and then a dinner at the Big Bamboo Cafe in Coligny Plaza. The food was okay, but our service was pretty bad, which was disappointing.. We made it through the meal, but it was a bummer as we really enjoyed this place out last trip. After dinner we checked out a few shops that were still open.

Sunday: check-in day!! We checked out of the Day Inn and headed next-door to check-in. A room was ready but we waited as we were hoping for a room near the pool. With 4 kids it was important to be near all the excitement. So we just checked in and headed back to the shops of Coligny Plaza for some more shopping and to pickup the kids airbrush shirts. Man did they come out great! Geoff the artist did a great job. From there our room still wasn't ready so being from Ohio we headed to the best themed restaurant on the island, Mangiamos... lol. All OSU Buckeye memorabilia everywhere. It was our 1st time there and we really enjoyed our lunch. While we were eating we got the text that our room was ready so back to the resort to finally unload the van. Grandma and Grandpa T have been able to join us on several trips to Orlando because as a family of 6 we have to get a room big enough that they can come along no problems, but what was great was their 1st impression of the HHI room. Once he door opened and Grandma T got done checking it out she gasp, "Man this is swank!"... The room theming in the HHI rooms is so much different than the OKW room we usually have, and really does give you that upscale rustic feel. After we unloaded we headed to the pool for some much needed pool time. We swam for about 3 hours.. lol. Before we headed back up to the room to get ready for the evening. Everyone but Haley and I ate some of the food we brought for dinner, but we splurged for some all you can eat seafood at Captain Gillans. Oh man did it hit the spot! The crab leg clusters weren't like the China buffet ones we'd get back home.. lol. And I even had some oysters! Unfortunately for Haley and I we only had about 50 minutes to enjoy our dinner as The Mrs told us we'd better be back for the campfire at 7. We made it back but some rain forced it indoors. Although we didn't have a real fire we still had a GREAT time with Chale and Ally. Our team, Team 'Ally'gators won the Cheeky, Cheeky challenge even though it was ruled a tie.. . After the fun songs and dancing it was time for some s'mores to get us ready for the nights movie, A Bug's Life. Again due to the rain it was indoors but it was still nice to unwind. After the movie the 3 older kids and Grandpa T wanted to do some night fishing so we got the poles ready and headed to the end kf the pier. It was just our group and we spent about an hour fishing in the darkness. Luke was the most successful as he landed about 6 small sharks, but we were only able to pull in 4 of them; Eric and I each caught one, while Grandpa T and Haley came up empty. We decided to pull in the lines about midnight to turn in for the evening. After we got the rest in bed I headed up to the Shelter Cove Kroger's to pickup some milk, juices, bread, and lunch meat only to return to a little mess. With all the excitement, heat, food, late bedtime, little Emily had a but of a "Protein Spill".. . Special thanks to the front desk for promptly getting us some new blankets and pillows at such a late hour. Now with everyone settled in, again, we were all off to bed.

That's the start of our week trip. I don't have a computer with me so I'm trying to write these updates on my phone so please forgive any grammatical errors. Also, I will try to add photos as I know everyone loves pictures.

I hope you all will tune in for the rest of our 1st trip back to HHI in 3 years.

Until next time,
Mark
 
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Monday:. After a late night I slept in a bit, ~10:30 for me only to find it raining a bit outside. However the kids were not hinder by a little rain and Grandma and Grandpa T had Haley, Luke, and Emily out at thr pool. I'm not sure how long they had been out there but they were having a great time despite rain. All you can do as it's pretty much the forecast for today; rain, rain, and more rain unfortunately. We got ready, had a little snack in the room and headed up to Big Murgies Den for some Tunes, Tales, and Tricks with B'Lou and Shadow. It was a great show. We really like B'Lou, great guy, great entertainer, and the B'Lou we remember from our last trip so it was cool to see a friendly face these few years later. Back to be room following the show to pass a little time until we headed back for Ghost Stories with B'Lou. Again, another great hour of fun. Many funny moments throughout his story. After the ghost stories back to the room to finish our Pixar Shorts rental to pass some more time. The rain is a real bummer, but Emily and Luke talked Grandma T into taking them back to the pool until we figure out what's for dinner. We're thinking The Crab Shack as we did this las trip and our kids had a fun time because they have Hemirt Crab races where the kids can bet on a crab and if it wins they have a chance at some fun prizes. We'll see where we end up, but that's the front runner right now. I'll be back to wrap up the day later.

So until then, thanks for following along.

Mark

Monday Update:
Well we did end up at the Crazy Crab for dinner however despite the rain hermit crab races were cancelled. Bummer. :( But despite that we still had a great dinner, expensive for 8, but it was good. We got 2 free shrimp appetizers from the "Big Fat Coupon" book we picked up at the Days Inn. That is one nice thing we have found of staying off site prior is the chain hotels have all the touristy coupons books and such. After dinner we headed back to the room for a fun night in. We stopped at the lodge and Emily and Grandma T got some games from Big Murgie's Den. When we got back to the room half of us watched Star Wars The Force Awakens I "rented" from the mercantile. I saw rented as you can check out 2 movies at a time for free. Grandpa T hadn't seen the new movie so he really enjoyed it. Followin the movie the kids and I were going to try our luck at some night fishing again, but we're turned away as the pier was closed due to the tropical storm and rain that was still passing through. So back to the room to turn in o guess...
 
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Woot! My in laws are also in Hilton Head this week! (But they're over in Sea Pines)
I shall vacation vicariously through your TR and them.
 
Woot! My in laws are also in Hilton Head this week! (But they're over in Sea Pines)
I shall vacation vicariously through your TR and them.
Thanks fencergirl for following along. I'm hoping I can add a littlle something each day. :-)
 
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Tuesday:
Well the rain was finally gone. So for the first time on our vacation we were headed to the beach!! And just like tourists we stayed too long and didn't use enough sunscreen.. ha-ha. We got to the beach about 10:30 and the plan was to stay and play until the Pirate Pool Games at 2:30. So we got to the beach house and found a great parking spot underneath and after picking up a few towels we were ready for some fun in the sun. I tell you what the passing storm had made some HUGE waves... They were a blast to bodysurf on, but man you had to really fight the undercurrent that wanted to sweep you down the beach. We played in the waves and the sand for about 90 minutes before the sand and salt water finally got to us. So up to the beach house for chlorinated fun! Ha-ha. We picked up lunch from Signals at the beach house and everyone enjoyed their selection. We played a bit more, but it was only about 1:30ish.. another hour until the games we had planned to participate in. Grandma T bought us dole whip floats to help pass some time. Finally it was games time. The Disney Recreation crew ran a variety of games for about an hour and everyone had a great time, but now it was time to finally get out of the sun and head back to the room and assess the "damage". Haha. Let me just mention, The Mrs, Eric, and Luke are all redheads so they should've been bathing in sunscreen all afternoon, but only had a few applications. Lol. We all freshened up and planned to have dinner at Giuseppe's and then head back to the beach house for the first Pirate Pool Party of the season. From 6-7:20 they were hosting Pirate carnival games, 7:20-8 ice cream cannonball drop, and then 8-9 a dance party. Well after freshening up with showers and jacuzzi baths and lots of aloe Emily and Luke were out. So plans to turn and burn back out to dinner to make it back for the pirate games was slowly diminishing. Oh well it's a just go with the flow tyoe vacation right?? So a few of us decided to take a little walk out the pier to checkout the low tide. Being from the north that is still an interesting thing to is that the water just comes and goes. Lol. Finally about 5:30-5:45 is we called Giuseppe's to check on the wait for 8 and they actually had no wait so unfortunately had to wake up the little ones and off to dinner we went. Dinner was great. We were all in the mood for a little pizza so it hit the spot. We finished up with dinner about 6:50ish so packed up the van and headed off to the beach house to try and catch the tail end of the games. We made it!! Yay! We all got some bandanas and necklaces before the 2nd half of the party kicked off. After the dance party it was back to the room to truly unwind for he night. More aloe, more board gaming, and just more lounging. Not that interesting, but we'll needed. After a few shows Haley and I headed out to the pier about 11:15 as she really wanted another crack at catching something after being blanked the other night. After an hour of fishing she had finally caught her shark and I had caught 2. It's really fun to catch but I do feel bad they are so little and it can be pretty hard to get the hook out sometimes. But by 12:30 it was time to get it wrapped up to head back to finally call and end to the day.

Not sure what's on the schedule for Wednesday other than hopefully an outside campfire party at 7 and possibly Shannon Tanner in Shelter Cove at 8:30. Other than those things not sure sure what the day will have in store for us. So until then ttyl.

Mark
 
Enjoying your trip report! Took my first trip to HHI in April and loved it. It's fun to picture lots of the places and things you're mentioning.
 
Enjoying your trip report! Took my first trip to HHI in April and loved it. It's fun to picture lots of the places and things you're mentioning.
Thanks for following along travelbug. As I mentioned it's our 1st trip back, and only our 2md trip overall to this little DVC secret. We are having a great trip, it's sad that it's almost over.. :-(
 


Wednesday update....

It's sad that our trip is almost over, but I guess we can't stay on vacation forever unfortunately... At least I figure out that way to make piles and piles of greenbacks.. lol

So after a normal morning with breakfast in the room we packed up our van to head into Harbortown and Sea Pines. We started in Harbortown to take a trip up the lighthouse. We were lucky enough to find a spot in the little lot right by the dock near the lighthouse. We made our way into the lighthouse and paid for our admission. For those wondering it was $4 for everyone 6 and up for the lighthouse museum trek. However before we started our journey we had to head back into the shops area for a potty stop. On our last trip to the lighthouse Emily was only 4 and as soon as we got to the top had to potty so back down the steps The Mrs went to then trek back up to meet us. So we decided to curb that urge before we started and hit the restrooms 1st. So after that back on track at the lighthouse. It was a nice stroll up to the top. The older kids weren't to interested in all the history points you can read about on the way up. So we made our way up to thentop and took in the great view. We also used the time to connect with our family back home using the lighthouse webcam. It was hot out so the kids fussed a bit but the relatives back in Ohio were excited to see us online. So we headed down. I took my time to read a lot of the history snip-its and it's very interesting. I recommend taking the time to try and read some of it. By the time I made it to the bottom the kids had talked Grandma T into some ice cream. I joined in, how could turn down a milkshake. Once we got out the Hilton Head Barbershop Chapter was setting up for their 4 song set. We sat down to enjoy their songs and enjoy our cold treat which hit the spot as it was 94° today. After the songs we loaded up the van to head over to the South Beach Marina to take in the Salty Dog. When we got there, ~1:15, I put our name in as a party of 8 it can take awhile.for a table sometimes. Thankfully it was after lunch so we only had a 35-45 minute wait. So we took the time to head into the shops area where we couldn't resist picking up a few Salty Dog items. It was finally time for our lunch. Let me just say our food.was good, but it took over an hour for us to get our food. It wasn't just our table as we overheard the group next to us mention to the manager they had also been waiting over an hour with no food. He gave the same answer to them that we got, a line about the burgers taking longer to make then expected. So mental note if go don't order the burger or you might have a long wait. Lol. But once we got our food it was very good, just an unfortunate wait to get it. Once we left we started to head out of the Sea Pines area and literally with the exit gate in site realized we forgot to head back into one of the Salty Dog shirt shops so I could try on a polo for a Father's Day gift. Ha-ha. So after the detour back we were back on our way. A brief stop by the Del Sol store in Coligny Plaza to pickup something and quick trip across the street as Haley wanted to spend the last of her birthday money on a emoji pillow. After that stop back to the hotel to unwind, eat some leftovers, a brief swim and to enjoy an outdoor campfire with Chale and Ali. We had a great time at the campfire and Emily even got to ring the bell to kick things off. After our s'mores we waited for the line to die down to get a family photo with Chale and Ali to always remember them. Following the campfire we walked across the bridge to catch the 8:30 Shannon Tanner show. I know a lot of regular vacationers we know mention Gregg Russell in Harbortown, but we've only seen Shannon Tanner on our trips and really enjoy his family show. His show runs about an hour so we headed back to the room. I know we are on vacation, but we got wrapped up in a new episode of cutthroat kitchen.. ha-ha. After that wrapped up the kids and I headed out to the pier for some night fishing again. However we weren't the only ones this time, we were #3-#8 and for those who know the little house on the pier that's not much area for all of this. To add to it the current was floating our bobbers into each other in our party. So eventually our determination outlasted the others in the late hours and the others plus Luke and Haley headed back to the room leaving Eric, myself, and little Emily who was dying to catch something since everyone else had gotten something. Well Eric got the 1st lite shark. Things weren't hitting like they were the other night. I don'tknow if the new moon had anything to.do with that, but it was SLOW. We had to hold out though and hope Emily would catch something... finally about midnight it happened, Emily's bobber disappeared. She started realing and thankfully she had something. However it wouldn't just real in easily... it kept dodging back and forth under the dock as we got it close. We finnally got it up and out and while I was getting the camera ready it cut the line.. on the dock though so we were okay. We snapped a picture with her shark and we packed up to head off to bed. The bugs were bad this night so I was happy she finally got her fish as my legs got ATE up.. haha The things we do for our kids.

So off to bed with only 1 full day left.. we are going to pack as much as we can in!!

Until the morning thanks again for following along.

Mark
 
Well as you may see from the timestamp I'm writing this so late as I don't want our vacation to end... but I guess all good things come to an end so here we go.

Thursday download:
For a change of pace I got up a little earlier this morning, about 9:15ish to find out The Mrs, Grandpa T, Eric, and Emily had been up awhile. The Mrs wanted to catch the Rabbit Hunt with B'Lou and Shadow. We enjoyed a nice walk around the resort while hearing fun stories from the South about Beer Rabbit and his pals. It was a nice walk and concluded in front of the Oak Lodge where many pictures with B'Lou and Shadow commenced. Always a great time seeing them, but it was bitter sweet as it would be our last for this trip. After the rabbit hunt it was time to change into our swimsuits and hit the road as we had Jet Ski reservations at 12, and they asked us to arrive 30min prior for the safety brief. Well getting 8 to all head in the same direction can be tough, but we finally made it to Sea Monkeys near the beginning of 278. It was our 1st time renting with them and we had a great time. Huge open area to really open it up and we even saw a few dolphins! One note about that for anyone thinking about renting a jet ski be sure to sunblock your KNEES!!! Not something that we thought about and the tops of our knees got burnt. Lol. After that everyone was starving so Grandma T ordered me to hit the closest McDonald's for some quick lunch and milkshakes. Everyone enjoyed their order but I held out to eat at the hotel. I had the Cajun tacos and a piña colada smoothie. It was good. After that it was off to the pool for some poolside karaoke . The girls were very excited for this one, the boys not so much so I bought Eric a crab net and off to the pier he and Luke went. It was perfect timing as it was lower tide and you could really see the crabs walking around. Eric was excited he actually caught, and released, 3 blue crabs. They crabbed and we swam until ~5-5:15 when it was time to get cleaned up for whatever we were planning for dinner. I talked the family into letting us try a little local place B'Lou suggested, Kenny B's. We had never been there before and man was it good. We did takeout as we were signed up for the 7pm Goofy Bingo. I'm glad we gave it a try and went with call ahead ordering because when Eric and I arrived they were lined up to the door. However in the time it took us to reach the front our order was being bagged up and we were off again. When. I got home we scarfed it down as we only had about 15 minutes before bingo. I'm glad we hurried because we had a great time with the bingo. Our hosts were Earl and Shannon and then had us rolling throughout the game. So much fun we wanted to play another session but the 8 pm was booked up. So we would have to wait until 9 to try and squeeze 1 more game in. Back to the room to work on our packing. :'-(. But before we knew it it was 8:50 and we headed back. As Tim and Julie mentioned no one was scheduled for the 9 so we could see if anyone besides our group would play. I'm glad we went back as we had another full session and had a blast. Tim and Shannon were our hosts for the 9 show and again had us rolling at times. So much energy with those 2. After bingo it was back to packing. Once that had settled down i took Eric, Haley, and Emily back out to the pier for 1 last fishing trip. It was SLOW going bit we were out there from ~10:30-12:30, and Eric and Haley were able to catch a shark again. Emily didnt get anything but she had a fun time casting and feeling. Back to the room to put the kids to bed before I could run to the Shelter Cove Kroger for some last minute items for the morning. On my way back I stopped in the lodge to get a fresh weekly guide and Map as those are my collectibles.. lol. While I was in the lodge I was helped by Donald. Man what a wealth of knowledge and fun facts. We chatted and chatted until I realized it was a little after 2... I truly hate the last night and hate for them to end. But again to come full circle we have to get home to our jobs, but more importantly we need to get home for our 4-legged friends.

So with that our Hilton Head Island vacation draws to a close. Nothing left but the drive home. If anyone has any questions please feel free to post and I'll try to answer you back while the details are still fresh. :-)

TTFN,
Mark
 
Hi Mark:

Thanks for the awesome trip report. My family and I are headed to HHI resort for the second time in July. During our last trip, we missed the fireworks on Tuesday night at Shelter Cover. I was wondering if you happened to have any tips on the best viewing spots for the weekly fireworks display?
 

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