The cottage was exactly as pictured, quaint, clean, and comfortable. Check in was simple (key under the mat!). If I could transport the cottage to a different community I would stay in it again.
The River Dunes was a complete and utter disappointment. The website bills it as a "bustling harbor village" and nothing could be further from the truth. We arrived on Thursday afternoon. The one shop to buy a snack closed at 5. The restaurant is not open for dinner on Thursday (which I now see IS indicated, sort of, on the website but it certainly wasn't CLEAR).
Even though there was a bar, it wasn't staffed. We spoke to an employee and said "we'll see you tomorrow and Saturday for dinner then?" and he said "great". Options were minimal but we drove to Oriental for dinner.
On Saturday we spent the day in New Bern, which was fun. We returned to the cottage in the late afternoon. I called to make a dinner reservation and got a voicemail that said "we check this throughout dinner and will call you back". They didn't call so we walked over around 6pm, to find the restaurant closed AGAIN because of a "resident event". The employee we spoke to suggested we drive to New Bern for dinner (it's a 45 minute each way drive that we'd already done). She also explained that the restaurant would not be open for dinner on Saturday night EITHER because of the resident weekend. It was by now after closing time to even buy a microwavable meal at the "Provision Shop". Again, no bar, no coffee shop, no where to get anything so we drove back to Oriental for a horrible dinner and checked out a day early, forfeiting the cost of one night and incurring a hotel cost elsewhere. Maybe the Harbor Club is 'bustling' in season? but I honestly wouldn't recommend it.