 By Tom Crosby
(March 2008) The Crowne Plaza Resort at Hilton Head is considered a treasure among the nearly 3,000 properties managed or owned by International Hotels Group for the awards it has won over the past seven years due to outstanding service to individuals and groups. The Crowne Plaza Resort has received the prestigious AAA Four Diamond rating each year since 1994.
The Crowne Plaza Resort is easily reached via the Cross Island Toll Parkway (fee) because the parkway ends only a short distance from the entrance to Shipyard Plantation, home to Crowne Plaza Resort.
From the Shipyard gate, follow the signs carefully for 1.3 miles and the Crowne Plaza Resort entrance, will be on the right, just past the Van Der Meer Racquet Club sign.
Like many Hilton Head Island resorts, the Crowne Plaza Resort rests amidst a gated residential area with golf courses, bicycle and jogging paths, small ponds and lakes, and natural wildlife areas.
Valet parking, which costs $10 a day, is available. Leave the vehicle at the front while checking in and upon your return, the luggage will be removed and taken to your room. You can also park your car free, although spots close to the entrance may be hard to find, especially on summer weekends.
Upon check-in, you will be informed about the $12 a day resort facility fee that has become a Hilton Head Island trend. It covers free in-room wired internet access, local phone calls, regular and decaffeinated coffee packets, 24-hour access to the resort's fitness center, free transport to and from the Shipyard Golf Club and Faces Day Spa and a free USA Today paper Monday through Friday and a free Island Packet (the local paper) on Saturday and Sunday.
All of the five-story hotel's 340 rooms have a balcony or ground terrace. Rooms come with three different views - Island, which overlooks the gardens and lagoon with two sprouting waterfalls; Tropical courtyard, which views the greenery of the courtyard, and ocean Horizon, which looks out towards the beach and ocean.
Nine of the rooms are suites, which have the same features as a regular room but can be up to 400 square feet larger. Some suites have wet bars, pull out beds, L-shaped couches and a dining table.
The typical room has an understated nautical theme with blue and white patterned carpet, muted yellow striped wallpaper and a writing table with note pad and stationery, ice bucket and glasses (ice machines are located behind the elevators and at the end of the corridors), phone and desk lamp below a porthole-shaped, gold-edged mirror.
The 36 channel television set comes in what looks like a steamer trunk, part of the overall nautical theme of the hotel as part of Shipyard (get it?) Plantation. The trunk sits atop a white cabinet containing a mini bar and four clothes drawers. Similar white bedside tables with two drawers each grace each side of the bed, holding the phone and alarm clock/CD player.
A fold-out blue sleeper couch sits behind a coffee table holding a bound Hilton Head Island guidebook. Balconies have blue indoor/outdoor carpeting, a small plastic table and two blue and white chairs.
The closet houses a safe, iron and ironing board, as well as a spare pillow. A requested nightly turndown is also available.
Walls in nearly all rooms contain similar prints of shells and sailing ships. Heavy blue curtains provide black out protection from the early sun.
Rooms also have an in-room dining menu (breakfast is from 6 to 11:30 a.m., all day dining from 11:30 a.m. to midnight).
Bathroom amenities are provided by Re-Nu and include conditioning shampoo, shower cap, body lotion, facial soap and bath soap.
The room-long, white marble table and area contains one sink, a make-up mirror, tissues, soap dish, coffee maker and cups, hair dryer. Towel racks and faucet are chrome and shower is a tub/shower combination with a laundry line. The floor is a white, scuffed tile design.
Vertical blue and white wallpaper stripes define the public hallways, which also sport blue carpets decorated with patriotic-looking rectangular shapes full of festive stars and shapes. It all supports the nautical theme.
In the lobby, varnished wood gleams from sunlight reflected through a five-story high window that evokes comparisons with Hawaii from seasoned travelers. A 30-foot tall Florida palm -the only one on the Island - dominates the view just outside the atrium's window.
Polished white pine floors with a center seating area and four huge elephant ear potted plants also highlight the lobby, which has an adjacent sitting area for complimentary coffee and a color television.
Down a hallway with one side glass overlooking the manicured grounds, is Signals, a lounge that seats 120: Portz, an intimate fine dining restaurant that seats 36, and Brellas Cafe, a theme restaurant using beach umbrellas that offers sumptuous breakfast buffets. (Some packages at the Crowne Plaza Resort include complimentary breakfast vouchers. Ask about them). Waterside terrace dining outdoors is available, weather permitting.
On the grounds, tropical touches abound, with hammocks, lagoons and covered pavilions. Wooden bridges arch over waterways and the nearly 12 miles of gleaming white sand beach lures joggers, bikers and hikers. Island-wide, a separate company provides beach umbrellas and chairs.
 On the resort's 11 lushly groomed acres are a 60,000 gallon pool with 160 lounge chairs (get one early on a sold-out summer weekend) with nearby indoor pool and jacuzzi and in the summer a 7,000 square foot wooden pavilion provides kids activities on the first and third Sundays of the month.
During chilly weather, guests can use the 20,000-gallon heated indoor pool adjoining the fitness center.
Latitudes Limited is a clothing gift shop in the lobby, there are twenty outside clay and hard-surfaced tennis courts and three inside, 27 holes of golf, a nearby day spa, a 24-hour business center, and a children's program called Camp Castaway.
Special features: Signals Lounge for after dinner drinks, winner of numerous service-oriented awards, in-room safe, non smoking rooms, leisure activities desk, intra-resort shuttle, free morning coffee in the lobby, a pristine beach, baby sitting coordinator, indoor whirlpools and walks along the path of the well maintained Shipyard community. (Updated March 2008)
Book This Hotel Online | 
