Disney's Vero Beach Resort
Facilities
Disney's Vero Beach Resort is themed, not surprisingly, as a summer,
sea-side, nautical resort. Since I've never been to the resort personally,
I've based this write-up on the trip reports of Jose Sanchez (HMXN12C@prodigy.com),
Darla Rice (ILuvDVC@aol.com), and Sue Holland (WDW1972@aol.com) who
visited the resort in 1996, 1997, and 1998 respectively.
Any similarity to the information that these folks have written is
entirely intentional.
Disney's Vero Beach Resort (Photo by Sue Holland)
Location
Disney's Vero Beach Resort is located South and East of Walt Disney
World about 120 miles away. The resort itself is located just
off route A1A on the shore, so the wonderful views of the Atlantic
are visible just outside your window (if you spring for a ocean-view
room). (Note: You'll pay $3.25 or more in tolls
coming from WDW.)
Theme
The resort is themed as a sea-side resort, similar to the Yacht
Club at WDW, but with it's own flair. From the minute you
enter the grand atrium towering three floors above, you're greeted
with the sights (and sounds) of the seaside. It's not uncommon
to hear a seaman in the lobby singing nautical tunes to a guitar
accompaniment. The resort truly feels like the summer beach
resort that it is.
The Resort's Main Building (Photo by Sue Holland)
Security is a little tighter here than at the Walt Disney World
resorts. There is a guard that keeps non-guests
from taking advantage of the facilities. All entrances to
the each of the buildings, pool, community hall, and fitness center
requires your room key card.
Mornings begin much later here (as opposed to the hustle &
bustle of WDW) w/late risers finally making it to the pool/beach
areas by around 9:30 or 10:00 am.
One really nice thing at Vero is the parking is under the building,
so the car doesn’t get hot. This is especially nice during the summer
months when the temperatures are higher than normal.
Restaurants
There are two on-site restaurants, Shutter's and Sonya's. Shutter's
is the more casual of the two offering available outside dining.
They try to "play up" Sonya's as the more elegant dining
spot, with suggested dress being "resort casual"
There are also two different menus and yet both share the same kitchen...and
guess what?...you can order from either menu at either establishment.
They do not tell you this up front, but when asked, they acted as
if we should have already known!
Regardless, both restaurants are very good. The fresh fish
is excellent but pasta, pizza, steak, meatloaf, and chicken are
available, too. There is plenty of selection. Service
is reported to be slow, but that's not untypical of the WDW restaurants,
either.
The pool bar and grille has a very limited menu, but suffices for
lighter meals and snacks. There's also an oceanfront lounge if all
you want is a drink.
Accommodations
Each room is tastefully decorated with a nautical motif with coral
pinks and seafoam greens. The decor & color scheme is
prettier than OKW, by more than one report. The units
are laid out exactly very much like OKW, but a bit smaller. The
studio, like at BW and HHI have a queen bed and a sleep sofa.
The inn rooms are similar to the studio, but a tad bit bigger.
The one- and two-bedroom units have the stack washer/dryer like
at the BW, and the white cabinets in the kitchen, again, are similar
to the ones at BW if not identical. The two-bedroom is a combination
of a one-bedroom & connecting studio.
The studio rooms include a small kitchenette (Photo by Sue Holland)
Only the Ocean View Inn Rooms and Beach Cottages have guaranteed
views of the ocean, and even then it will be just the water - no
beach or waves. The Garden View Inn Room may have a view of a large
lake, and although normally when I’m at the beach I insist on being
ocean front, at this resort the garden view may not be any less
pretty than the ocean view.
A beach cottage (Photo by Sue Holland)
The Beach Cottages ("Villa") are beautiful, with 3 bedrooms
and 3 bathrooms downstairs. Upstairs was the kitchen/dining/living
room area. This central space is somewhat small, considering
you’d have 3 bedrooms worth of people gathered here. It’s not nearly
as spacious as the common area of the grand villa at OKW.
There are six beach cottages at the resort.
Activities
The beach is definitely the main attraction at this resort.
It's smaller than Daytona, and once in the water it drops off quickly.
For that reason, it is not a good beach for boogie boarding.
The sand is brown, rather than white. There were shells on the beach
(ouch, ouch - walking on them can be a pain). The resort has beach
chairs & umbrellas for rent (boogie boards too).
The mini golf is only 9 holes, and nothing fancy, but it was fun.
The member’s price is cheap, and you can pay a special rate to get
unlimited mini golf for your length of stay. Unless you golf early
in the day, wear shoes because the carpet gets very hot!
In the Community Hall, you'll find a lot of arcade games, foosball,
and other activities. In addition, Eb & Flo’s rents tennis
equipment, bikes, and other sports equipment.
The resort's pool (Photo by Sue Holland)
The pool area is very impressive. The Crows Nest water
slide (with a nice corkscrew) beats the Albatross slide at Y&B
hands down! The pool opens at 8:00am and closes at 10:00pm.
For the toddler set, a scaled down version of a pirate ship offers
sliding, water geysers and working water cannons. This area
also has a hot tub, Anchors Aweigh (the fitness center) and a masseuse.
Nightly children's activities (yes, even for us big kids) included
the Turtle Patrol (an escorted beach observation of the turtles
coming ashore/egg laying), feature films in the Community Hall,
and a campfire sing-a-long with roasted marshmallows and s'mores.
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