Part 2 Disney's Vero Beach Resort
We received a call from Interval International telling us that a unit was available at Disney's Vero Beach Resort. It was a true efficiency and much smaller than what we had requested, but units come up so rarely they wanted to know if we were interested. We were, and we accepted it. Thus, the first week in February was spent there.
From the Auto Train in Sanford we decided to stay off of I95 and took Route 1 instead. It probably did take us longer to get there, but the driving was more relaxed, and it brought us out much closer to our final destination. At one point we got behind a huge funeral procession that really slowed things down.
The resort was very easy to find with the excellent directions that were provided. It is not in Vero Beach city limits but in a very tiny town called Orchid on Route A1A on what is called the Orchid Island. (We found out later that Vero Beach mailing addresses seem to cover a huge area).
Sometimes Disney, as well as they do things, is just too much to stomach, especially, after being seriously sleep deprived. Had I been well rested I might have viewed all of the following differently.
We were greeted at the check in desk with a chirpy, "Welcome home."
We got checked in, found our parking garage, loaded up a luggage cart, got in the elevator to go to our unit which we had been told was on the fourth floor. There was no fourth floor! Pulled the cart out of the elevator, tried to find the employee—errr "cast member" that had just been in the garage and could not find her
I headed back to the check-in desk but for some reason in my foggy brain never got there, but turned around and went back to the parking garage where there was no sign of Paul. I decided to prop my self up against the pole in front of the elevator thinking that he'd eventually show up. I thought about sitting in the car, but realized he wouldn't see me. Sure enough, he'd found the employee—um, "cast member" we'd been looking for, and they had gone up to our unit. She explained that the front desk is not supposed to but sometimes counts the garage as a floor. We were actually on the 3rd floor. We later noticed that the room numbers were on the other side of the elevator, but the luggage cart had obscured them.
We had just showered and crawled into bed for a much needed nap when there was a knock at the door and a cheerful voice announcing, "Housekeeping." She was delivering our Tinker Bell pins for the pin exchange. As she handed them to me she left saying, "Have a magical day!" (We brought the pins home to our granddaughter).
After a much needed nap we decided to go to the Green Cabin for a drink before dinner. This is a bar area upstairs in the main building of the resort. There is a limited food menu there as well. On a rainy, cold night it was cozy and welcoming. The daytime view is outstanding.
There are 2 restaurants downstairs in the main building: Shutters which is a family restaurant and Sonya's which is more upscale. There was a 20 minute or so wait for Shutters, and we were told that there was no wait for Sonya's. Took a look a the menu and decide we'd wait for Shutters. We never did eat at Sonya's. The executive chef there was featured in one of the area's up-scale magazines, but we did not find the menu that enticing. We did eat in Shutters several times. The food was quite good; although we thought the portions were too large and the soup was way too hot. Both restaurants are open to the public, and you are asked if you are a guest at the host station.
After dinner, a quick stop in the very well stocked, expensive mini-store to get some basic things that were needed for breakfast and lunch the next day.
The furnishings were very nice and quite comfortable except for the lighting which was terrible. We had a beautiful view from our balcony out over the gardens to the ocean. Unfortunately, it was too cold and rainy most of the time we were there to use it. It was nice to hear the waves at night.
We knew at the outset that the kitchen was very limited. That was the understatement of the year. There was a toaster, a very small bar sink, a microwave—but nothing to use in it to heat things, and a very small under counter refrigerator. The refrigerator was a problem. If it was cold enough to keep things in the freezer frozen, the things in the lower compartment would also freeze. To accommodate things in the lower compartment ice cream would turn to soup. There were exactly 3 utensils—a corkscrew, a "church key", and the "mystery gadget". I think it was for juicing an orange, but still don't know for sure. What really kind of annoyed me is that Disney makes a big deal about ecology, etc. then provided 4 paper plates, 4 paper bowls, 8 paper cups, 8 Styrofoam cups and plastic eating utensils. This was all replenished at mid-stay. Paul's take is that they want you in their restaurants. I think he hit that right on the nose. The other amenities in the unit were very high quality soaps, shampoo, etc. A complimentary full size washer and dryer was located in the garage.
We did have one minor problem in the unit that was addressed pronto. Every time I plugged the toaster into the wall outlet a herd of ants came out of the outlet. As I returned from the office, a maintenance worker pulled into the garage on a golf cart. I asked if he was coming to our unit and gave him our unit number except I gave him a non-existent unit number. I realized what I had done when I got back to the unit and thought about trying to find him to give him the right number. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and there he was. I jokingly said, "Well you found us anyway." He laughed and said he was just going to start knocking on doors when the front desk got in touch with him about our problem and gave him the correct unit number.
Disney Vero Beach is a lovely resort. On our second day after going back across the Indian River to Route 1 to the very nice nearby Publix grocery, we went for a long walk around the resort. The grounds are beautiful.
The pool area is very nice and has a fantastic sliding board that kids would have a ball using. Before we left we'd received a letter saying that the pool would be under repair the week we were there. The first 3 days we were there it was cold and rainy. By the time the sun came out the pool, but not the slide, was open. It was still too cool to use the pool. As a result of the construction, they were offering free miniature golf (there is usually a very nominal charge). The course is 9 holes and challenging enough for adults, but easy enough for children to enjoy. There is a bar and food is available in the pool area.
The beach is also beautiful, and we did manage to take a walk on the beach one day. To go out onto the beach and to return to the resort property you must use your key card. It is the same with the swimming pool area.
There are lots of organized activities available everyday mostly for children, but some for adults. There are tennis courts, basketball courts, lawn bowling, croquet and numerous other things to do. There is enough to do at the resort that you could have a wonderful vacation without leaving the grounds.
There are also some spa services available. I decided to book a ½ session Swedish massage. When I called for reservations I was told to meet the massage therapist at "the cannon" and was given directions from our unit. Neither of us could remember seeing a cannon so we went looking for it. We couldn't find it so went inside to the desk to ask and were told , " It is that way." Went back outside and went "that way", still did not find it. I decided to go back to our unit and call for better directions. On my way back I met the maintenance manager who asked if he could help me with anything. He told me the cannon was inside the main building and where in the main building. Once we found it, I waited there for the massage therapist expecting a woman. A huge bear of man showed up and asked if I was "Susan." He was terrific, highly qualified and licensed for many different types of massage.
The resort itself is modeled after one of the original resorts in Vero Beach. I was looking at the photo gallery of old Vero Beach and did a double take because the Disney resort looks almost identical to the old resort.
Every "cast member" we encountered was smiling and genuinely tried to make you feel welcome. Some went out of their way like the woman who stopped what she was doing and offered to take a picture of us together.
We'd prefer a larger unit, but would certainly return to this resort.
Sue
