Disney's Hilton Head Beach Resort a Trip Report **Completed**

I'm very anxious to go! I made the mistake of looking at the menu for Skull Creek and they are a part of a Restaurant Group with 9 restaurants on the island. I am now stuck between 4 of them.... ugguh!

We made it kind of late last night. I love it here and already planning on coming back. The cast members are amazing!!! I can't wait to share more with you all! I didn't bring the laptop and I suck typing on my phone lol. But I am so ready to share with you all!!!!!

The weekend was TOO SHORT!!! I love it here. Heading to breakfast in a bit then home. Fill you all in this evening!

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Me too! I was trying to convince Joe we weren't too far and we could run down for the day real quick. Didn't work at all...

We made it home. First of all I want to express just how amazing the Cast Members are here. It was overwhelming. I've ran into lots of nice CMs at Disney and on the cruises. These people blew them all out of the water. We had fantastic experiences with every single CM we ran into....

Moving along to the trip report.

Day 1

I took off from work at 2 on Friday so we could get a nice early start. Joe is normally home pretty early most days so I thought there would be no problem. We didn't leave until after 5... BUT, we were on the way.

We arrived around 7:30, of course it was dark and we couldn't tell much about the resort yet but it was lovely crossing the bridge and pulling up to the Live Oak Lodge. We were welcomed by a very friendly cast member from Texas. I can not remember his name to save my life and I lost the piece of paper I wrote a couple CM names on He loaded us up with information and sent us on our way. We were in room 1134 on the 3rd floor of the main building where we were checking in. (the only building with an elevator) Having a Keys to the World card felt so wrong yet so nostalgic! We also got First Visit buttons! (They did not have the 25th Anniversary DVC buttons yet) The room was very nice, I am a little disappointed in the lack of hidden Mickeys. I thought for sure there would be one or 2.

We didn't eat dinner on the way down so were pretty hungry. Right across the bridge is Shelter Cove with shops and restaurants. The resort has only one QS window open this time of year) I knew there was a Mexican restaurant so we walked over. Well, they were on Siesta until Feb so we ended up at Bucci's for Italian. This is one of the restaurants offering a 10% discount to Guests of the resort. We started with the fresh bread with herbed olive oil and caesar salads. The bread was sooooooooooo good. Joe had the Grouper special that came with a parmesan potato cake and asparagus. I went with the lobster ravioli in a sherry cream sauce. Both were excellent. I finished off my sauce with the bread! They had live music so we listened a bit then made the walk back ready for bed.

On the way back, I found all of their Christmas decorations and was in Heaven. I almost had Joe talked into putting one of the fully decorated trees in the car. He said we could make it fit LOL

The Local Dining list has 13 local restaurants that offer discounts. 3 are in walking distance at Shelter Cove and 2 are pizza places that deliver.

There are also several local golf courses that offer discounts for the resort.

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	Christmas decor!!!	324.18 KB

Oops, meant to add the restaurant list and the Tide Me Over menu

The three with the dash in front of them are in Shelter Cove

The 2 with dots are the pizza delivery joints

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Day 2

This was one of the first times Joe didn't have an early, crack of dawn, there is still dew on the ground tee times. So we were pretty lazy and slept in until 7

We checked out our deck and the view of the marsh and then made our way to Tide Me Over for breakfast. Joe got the Hilton Head Biscuit Sandwich and I got the Salted Caramel Banana Bread French Toast. The have mostly outside seating but we went into the Community Hall since there were no activities going on at the time. Both of us enjoyed our meals. The french toast was outstanding!!!!!

We ventured out onto the island to see what was close before dropping him off. He was playing Sea Pines Resort's Harbour Town Links. This is where the RBC Heritage tournament is played. From what I saw it was a beautiful course. I was going to ride with and take pics but the weather was much different from the original forecast ans sitting in a golf course in the cold wind was not my favorite thing to do. I headed out to explore the island, the resort and to do some shopping.

I scored some great deals at the Pandora outlet and the Hallmark store.

Then I went and explored the resort by foot. It really is beautiful and peaceful. Oaks and hammocks are everywhere. They have grills and picnic tables all over the place too. It's very homey and without the parks, I think a little more laid back. I saw a few kiddos but they were all pretty chill. I spoke with a ton of CM during my tour and had a blast with all of them. Question time with Aime and Dave was the best!!! I had a couple questions and they were having so much fun answering them I had to keep coming up with more.

There was hot apple cider in the lobby which I grabbed before heading to the room to rest.

Joe called and was almost done. I headed to the course to pick him up then we headed over to the Harbour Town Lighthouse and took the trip to the top. It was $4.00 per person and each level had island history as you go up. It's all stairs, no elevators. Great views from the top and a web cam that we tried to get in but it was pointed too higg and you could only see the tops of our heads even standing where you are supposed to.

By this time it was pushing 4pm and we hadn't ate since breakfast so we decided on an early dinner. We went to The Lodge for burgers. WOW!!! So good. Starters were Lumpia and Truffle Parmesan Tots. I had the Pimento Cheese Burger and Joe had the Porky. His was a pork burger with bbq and slaw. Mine had Cheddar, pimento cheese and wickles (spicy pickles) They both came with house made kettle chips. Not a thing was bad. All fresh, hot and delish!

The bartender directed us to the Purple Cow for desserts. We walked out with 4 cheesecakes, 2 cookies and had donuts while we were there.

Back to the room by 7 and we ended up staying in, watching football and eating cheesecake in bed. It was nice, if we had been home I would have been doing laundry

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	the dock	967.67 KB
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Today was check out. For the short time we were there, I fell in love with the resort! Just like the World, I hated leaving!

I was determined to sleep until 7:45 but that didn't happen, we were out the door heading to breakfast by 8. We went to Skillets. I kept hearing good things about it. I wish we had gone somewhere else. The service was bad and the food was meh.

As we were seated, the hostess looked at our waitress and said "I'm seating you a table" It was 10 minutes until we saw her, I had to ask someone if we could get drinks. She promised to get us everything quickly after waiting so long, which we did get our food quickly but I felt like she was way over compensating at this point and it was just making me more aggravated.
Joe had the french toast with a side of bacon and I had the skillets benedicts. Instead of english muffins, it was potato skins filled with bacon topped with cheese and hollandaise. I didn't want the cheese because hollandaise is delicious and sounds awful with cheese and the waitress was trying VERY hard to convince me otherwise. Eventually I got my way.

I didn't get much bacon, and the eggs were almost too cooked for poached eggs. I got hashbrowns as my side without thinking my main dish was served in potatoes but they were good and Joe at most of them. His toast was good with the honey butter.

All in all it was just ok. I wouldn't try it again with all of the options on the island.

Afterwards we headed into Georgia to hit the new outlets then headed home.

I can't wait to get back to this resort! I think it may be a summer trip with Blondie so we can check out the pool and beach and rent bikes!!!!

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I can't even imagine it would be good. And I like cheese too. LOL We had a great time, thanks!!!

I would say about 4.5-5 hours driving, It's right at an hour from 95 so while you can get up that way pretty quickly you have a 2 (sometimes 3 lane highway) with tons of traffic and traffic lights to deal with once you get off the interstate. But it's worth it if you have the time to take a couple days and head up that way. You can also hit Savannah while up that way!

I can't even imagine it would be good. And I like cheese too. LOL We had a great time, thanks!!!

I would say about 4.5-5 hours driving, It's right at an hour from 95 so while you can get up that way pretty quickly you have a 2 (sometimes 3 lane highway) with tons of traffic and traffic lights to deal with once you get off the interstate. But it's worth it if you have the time to take a couple days and head up that way. You can also hit Savannah while up that way!

Anytime!!! I would do spring or early fall. We are still usually warm enough for pools and beaches at that time. I want to say the 2nd or 3rd week in April is the Heritage tournament and the island will be packed! It's not really a "spring break" location, there are LOTS of retirees out there. We were the youngest at dinner Friday night

HA HA HA I got ya, going for the Princess 5k next month and of course in October for the Big Meet Up.

I am trying to convince Kerry to go down with me in April so that I can see you! There may also be some convincing of the hubby in there!

Thanks for reading everyone! We really did enjoy ourselves...

As I am sitting her thinking about it, I remembered a couple of things...

When we got back from dinner the first night, we had a message waiting on our phone. It was a personal message from the CM that checked us in. Not a generic recording. He called us by name to welcome us home again and was checking to make sure the room was ok and if there was anything we needed.

Bring your pins! I wish I had brought mine. I honestly was not expecting to be able to trade pins.

The first morning, we drove over to Tide Me Over... Mistake, the parking is not plentiful (we did find a spot there just isn't much) and the resort is really compact. I walked it that afternoon and it took maybe 5 minutes to get there. Walking along the back side is much quicker than the parking side.

If I remember anything else, I will add it.