Hilton Head Island status June 2020?

[ffxjack]

Anyone know what the status of the island's restaurants are? I called one of our favorites and they are open for dining in while the website of another seems to be only doing take out.

How about mini golf places?

 

[needvaca]

We’re here now. Most of the big popular restaurants are open, some with only their outside seating open. We drove by 2 big mini golf places yesterday and they were both open.

 

[ffxjack]

We’re here now. Most of the big popular restaurants are open, some with only their outside seating open. We drove by 2 big mini golf places yesterday and they were both open.

Thanks for the info.
Keeping my fingers crossed that the tennis program will be running next week but not holding my breath....

 

[jme]

We're here at Grande Ocean now, but we've been dining in. Not for a specific reason against going to our favorite places,
but just to be more together since we only have one week. Plus, our two grown children are with us,
one with her family (there's also our 15-month old granddaughter involved!!!!!! YES!!!).
Usually we have several consecutive weeks.
Anyway, everything appears to be pretty normal on the island, with most restaurants and businesses open.
Traffic coming in was heavy as usual, so people are obviously returning now en masse. That's good.
Grocery store parking lots are full, gas stations are full. The weather is very nice, so it will get even busier.
The beaches have been crowded, and I think, barring any major resurgences of the virus regionally, it'll only open up further.
Re the tennis program, just call the front desk for info. My wife does that too, at Grande Ocean, loves it, but not this trip,
so we haven't looked into it at all.

TIDE is out.

One unexpected visitor this week...to right of double palm trees is a nice-sized buck!

 

[pedro47]

jme, that was an excellent review and update of what happening on The Island.
I will give you a score of Ten out Ten. LOL.

Please enjoy your stay on The Island.

 

[jme]

from Grande Ocean again...it's been a great day.

 

[normab]

Wow is that a low tide!! The beach is twice as big during low tide compare to when we were there 2 weeks ago. And we were happy it was so large to encourage social distancing over the holiday weekend, when the crowds were big.

Enjoy!

 

[JIMinNC]

I would concur with jme's report, we were at our condo in Palmetto Dunes over Memorial Day weekend and again the first part of this week and the island seems to be getting back up to speed. Most of the restaurants are open, but with limited capacity (50% I think) due to social distancing rules, so getting in can be a challenge. We were quoted a 45 minute to an hour wait at Holy Tequila on Tuesday night, so we opted to just do their curbside pickup and took it back to the condo with our own margaritas! On Memorial Day we went into Harbour Town for a short visit and it was a bit slow crowd-wise for a holiday. As far as Harbour Town restaurants, the Quarterdeck was still closed, but I think the Crazy Crab was open, as was Harbourside. We've also been frequent takeout customers at Guiseppi's Pizza in Shelter Cove during our recent visits. So far we haven't dined out anywhere since the restaurants re-opened, but have a reservation at the Jazz Corner for Fathers Day. They re-open on Monday June 15 and will be operating with only about 40 patrons per show instead of the typical 90. They said they have also installed a new HVAC system with improved filtration and disinfectant and are also adopting all CDC recommendations for restaurants.

There is plenty of beach to space out at low tide, but if the tide comes in during peak beach time, it can be tough to keep your space, at least it was in Palmetto Dunes this week. Some people seem oblivious. I had a group of 5 or 6 plop down only about three feet from us this past week, forcing us to move elsewhere. Didn't want to make a scene.

 

[ffxjack]

Thanks for the real time updates and wonderful pictures all. I was somewhat on the fence of going down this year (MGO was at 3% occupancy when I check about a month ago) but looks like things are bouncing back.

Guess it's time to work on the dinner reservations now...any suggestions for a nice place that is taking reservations for dine in?

 

[pedro47]

jme, Thanks for the photos, it looks so peaceful.

 

[JIMinNC]

Guess it's time to work on the dinner reservations now...any suggestions for a nice place that is taking reservations for dine in?

Best way to get an idea is to go to OpenTable (either their app or website). Use Marty’s Hilton Head restaurant list on this board to decide your targets and then search on OpenTable for reservations. Not all HHI places use OpenTable but you can see many. Another site is Resy.

 

[jont]

Marty is back at Hilton Head. The world is almost back to normal.. love the pix good buddy. Is there a breakfast at Kenny B's in your near future?

 

[jme]

Marty is back at Hilton Head. The world is almost back to normal.. love the pix good buddy. Is there a breakfast at Kenny B's in your near future?

Ahhhh yes, glad to be back, too. It’s been way too long. But it’s been like a homecoming, all wonderfully familiar. It’s a great feeling. As for Kenny B’s, I’m not sure... I’ve wanted to do that every morning, but we’ve been dining in, big family breakfasts, so I’m enjoying that... totally foreign to me, but I’m never too old to learn, lol. Might see if they are open tomorrow morning tho, so we could eat breakfast before leaving the island. Thanks for the idea. You really know how to get through to me——Just dangle food. Btw, hope we’ll be able to see you guys later in the year. Working on it!

 

[cory30]

Marty, thanks for the excellent update and pictures. We will be checking in to Grande Ocean on Friday and your posts have me really looking forward to our stay.

 

[jme]

Marty, thanks for the excellent update and pictures. We will be checking in to Grande Ocean on Friday and your posts have me really looking forward to our stay.

Glad to do it. I think you'll find that everything is good, nothing really inconvenient.
When the beach calls you, you really don't think a whole lot about much else.
The sunrises and sunsets are still spectacular, and the constant waves and ocean breezes still mesmerize.

We felt normal.... far different from the "new normal" we were convinced about.....more like the old normal.
But then, it's Grande Ocean, and it can do that to you!

Spent a lot of time on the beach, and loved seeing the pools open and plenty of chairs available.......
many spaced as advertised, but there was no lack of chairs. Very nice to have free run of the pools.
We even grilled out several times, and learned they were cleaning the grills regularly.
Bike rental activity was normal, with many coming and going.

Only thing I noticed was that you were asked to enter the lobby thru the right-side door (South side lobby entrance)
and exit thru the left-side door (North door). I caught onto that quickly, lol.
The indoor pool's sliding glass middle door was open all the time during the day,
so that was convenient going in or out from the beach side of the building.
As mentioned in an earlier post, throw pillows were not present in the villas, but we never missed them.
If you typically like to use them, be sure to take a couple of yours from home!

The palm trees across the front part of the resort were trimmed a lot (in front of the OF bldgs)! You may not even notice it,
but I'd say at least 5-6 limbs were removed from each tree, leaving only the very top limbs...very pretty and nicely done.
You will definitely notice that the underbrush along the frontage within the defined dune areas has been extensively cleared out,
especially down near the South-side swings.
The scrubby trees on both sides of the S. boardwalk had all the low-level limbs totally removed, up to 4 or 5 feet.
You can now see the ocean from there.
It helps with the ventilation coming into the resort too....a nice breeze was always present.
The underbrush in front of the swings was always ugly, and prevented a view to the beach, but no more. It looks much cleaner.
Before they hauled off the various piles of trimmings, it looked like a war zone, but after, neat as a pin.

Hope all goes well and that the weather allows everybody a wonderful vacation. We all desperately need it.

Trimming had just begun....

photo below taken last Tuesday June 2:
this seemed to be the busiest day at pools and beach with weather pristine,
but still below the old normal.

 

[pedro47]

Thanks for the outstanding update sound like things are normal at GO.
That great. LOL.

 

[cory30]

Checked in this afternoon and received a nice surprise room assignment (3rd floor Seahorse). As we are using an Interval exchange I was going to be happy with any room on property but will definitely enjoy the view of both ocean and lagoons each day.

We own a couple of weeks at Grande Ocean and were originally scheduled to stay this same week on our home week but rescheduled that in April due to COVID concerns. We picked up the exchange in mid May once we were sure that travel restrictions were easing to some extent.

Weather is a bit rainy now but still very beautiful and relaxing.

 

[pedro47]

The Seahorse building is an excellent location at GO.
Look liked you have an Oceanside villa.

 

[cory30]

The Seahorse building is an excellent location at GO.
Look liked you have an Oceanside villa.

Actually I believe all units in Seahorse (and Sand Castle) are designated as Oceanfront even though some of the units have an angled view. We own two weeks (one deeded ocean front and one ocean side) and have been told we can only request these two buildings (plus front units in Dolphin and Star Fish) with our ocean front week. The guest services person at check in made a point of telling us we had been upgraded (we didn’t ask to be) so it was a pleasant surprise.

Whats funny is that if we had been staying here on our Ocean Front owner week I would not have considered this one of the better views. However, coming in as an exchanger with zero expectations we are very happy.

 

[Dean]

Actually I believe all units in Seahorse (and Sand Castle) are designated as Oceanfront even though some of the units have an angled view. We own two weeks (one deeded ocean front and one ocean side) and have been told we can only request these two buildings (plus front units in Dolphin and Star Fish) with our ocean front week. The guest services person at check in made a point of telling us we had been upgraded (we didn’t ask to be) so it was a pleasant surprise.

Whats funny is that if we had been staying here on our Ocean Front owner week I would not have considered this one of the better views. However, coming in as an exchanger with zero expectations we are very happy.

Agreed, I'm not a big fan of the side units on the 2 all OF buildings.

 

[Prooney1]

Bumping this thread back up.
Looking forward to a week at Surfwatch in about a month. Curious what others are experiencing now at Marriott resorts and on the island in general. Things somewhat normal? Anybody wearing masks?

thanks for any updates!

 

[ffxjack]

Just got back from another wonderful week at Grande Ocean. There were very few people wearing masks anywhere on the island and most stores were open but several were not allowing indoor dining. On site, Marriott limited number of people at each pool by eliminating many chairs and then at the end of the week required a reservation be made in advance. Grills available for usage and signs were on the elevators to allow only one person or group to be in at a time. We chose to only dine outdoors for the most part when dining out where tables were apart and took back food from many places. There were definitely places where people were packed together in line for food, not wearing masks, but I simply called in my order to pick up to avoid that situation.

Beach was crowded but everyone was spaced out.

I've never experienced such mild weather in June there. It's too bad the tennis clinics weren't running...

 

[JIMinNC]

We've been on the island every week or two off and on for the last few months. Crowds are definitely close to typical summer levels based on traffic and the number of people you see around. Big contrast to just a month or six weeks ago. Mask usage by tourists is frustratingly limited. We have done carryout at a few restaurants, but did our first dine-in last Sunday at The Jazz Corner. They have gone above and beyond to operate in a safe manner - capacity is limited to only about 40% of normal, all staff wear masks/gloves, temperature check on entry, patrons required to wear masks on entry/exit and anytime not at the table, they installed an expensive new filtration system on their HVAC system, and installed screens on all the microphones for the band. Seemed like a very safe environment.

I agree with @ffxjack that there is generally plenty of space on the beach, although things do tend to bunch up some when the tide comes in and shrinks the beach space. Fortunately most of the days we've been there, the core of the day was during lower tides, so there was room. I haven't been on the beach yet on a day when high tide was around midday when crowds are at the peak. From my tide chart, it looks like the next few days through the weekend is going to be high tide during midday, so it might get tight much of the day. By the time we are back on the island on June 29, high tide will be starting to shift back to late afternoon, but the beach is going to be a little small during the early-mid afternoon, so we'll see how that goes. Most people seem to be relatively respectful of keeping their distance, but every day there were always a handful of numbskulls who seem oblivious.

 

[pedro47]

Can you purchase 3 layer face masks on the Island for Covid-19 protection?

 

[jme]

Actually I believe all units in Seahorse (and Sand Castle) are designated as Oceanfront even though some of the units have an angled view. We own two weeks (one deeded ocean front and one ocean side) and have been told we can only request these two buildings (plus front units in Dolphin and Star Fish) with our ocean front week. The guest services person at check in made a point of telling us we had been upgraded (we didn’t ask to be) so it was a pleasant surprise.
Whats funny is that if we had been staying here on our Ocean Front owner week I would not have considered this one of the better views. However, coming in as an exchanger with zero expectations we are very happy.

The Seahorse building's "side view" Oceanfront villas which face the interior have become much better
since they trimmed the trees, which actually opened up the view a lot.
I'm sure they had a lot of complaints over the years but were limited in the ability to trim due to island codes.
Consisted of a certain % allowed per year........but over time the trimming began to make a huge difference.

The views used to be totally blocked except for a handful of top floor units being able to see the ocean at all, but it appears to me from
walking around that area that most of those units, at least floors 2 and above, have very nice (partial) ocean views from the balconies.
The whole North side is very quiet, and we like it a lot. We don't mind the lower floors in any building on the North side
which look into the trees....they're still beautiful and very relaxing. About 50% of the time we request a second floor/tree view
when we use our OS weeks, but we do like the ocean views with our OF weeks.

We were there from May 31-June 7 in Oceanfront 4th floor front corner unit of Dolphin bldg
(also had a concurrent 2nd unit next door in OS Dolphin), so I walked by Sea Horse a lot, and specifically noticed those balconies.