Discovering Vero Beach

[CaptainMidnight]

Yes, I belive the property across the street was sold, so that they will not be building on the non-beach side of A1A. Personally, I'm glad they won't. I wouldn't want to stay that far away from the beach and the pool. When I saw the expansion plans, they did not include an additional pool on the other side of the street. I believe Disney still owns a pie shaped piece of land just south of the property on the beach side which would allow space for an additional building there. And, across the street, they do have all the maintenance buildings, etc. So they will need to keep some space over there. A little expansion of this resort would be fine with me, but as an owner, I'm glad it won't be having major building on the non-ocean side. At one point I was able to find a map of the expansion plans for Vero online, but I haven't been able to find it again.

DVC also had land in other places that they ended up selling, some was near Disneyland. The onsite resorts seem to sell much better than off site resorts at this point, but personally I am very glad the offsite choices for beach vacations exsist. Heck, that's why we bought there, we don't want to go to WDW every vacation, we like to relax by the beach in addition to going to Disney World. That's the beauty of DVC, different choices for different tastes. We also wouldn't mind a bit visiting HH. People are finding it difficult to get reservations at Vero and HH during some times of the year at teh 7 month window, that certainly speaks to the success of these two resorts, even if they have been a little slower at selling out than the rapid sales we've seen at WLV and BC.

 

[Barb]

We'll be trying VB for the first time at the end of our June trip. We're using it as our wind down after a week at VWL. We'll be there for 3 nights. Looking forward to it.

 

[PamOKW]

I'm sure PamOKW could tell you

LOL! I don't know everything.

I was just wondering myself if anyone had heard if the property was sold. I know someone saw it advertised in the Wall Street Journal quite some time ago.

I agree that I'm spoiled by being so close to the ocean. One of the reasons I bought an add-on there was to increase the odds that I wouldn't have to stay on the non-ocean side once it was built. I'm curious also as to who might have purchased the property and what there plans will be.

 

[Mrs. Snowgod]

We own 2/3 of our points at VB, and plan to go home there for the first time this June. 1/2 hour from my DM, so we can visit and have a getaway at the same time.

 

[ncligs]

We are looking forward to our 1st visit to VB on June 30th for 4 nites, then up to OKW for 3 nites.

 

[Desperado]

When reviewing older info about Vero beach, there seems to be a viewpoint that Vero was a big mistake. I noticed one person keeps bringing up very negative comments about the place. Is it a nice place to visist or should it not be considered? Would anyone buy membership there?

 

[antnee]

We hope to be able to try VB soon during spring training se we can watch the Mets play the Dodgers

 

[hoosiergirl]

We stayed at VB three times as an addition to our OKW vacation and always wished we had spent more time there (VB). This past January we stayed at VB first before going to Boardwalk--and ended up cancelling BW and just staying at VB the whole week!!! It was so relaxing we didn't want to leave! (We had never stayed at BW but didn't regret giving up the opportunity!) We came home and added on 100 pts. at VB! So--YES! Desperado, people still do buy membership there!

 

[KarenB]

VB is our home resort and we can't wait to stay there for the first time this June. We will be spending 4 days ot VWL and 4 days at VB.

When we bought into DVC, we used Magical Beginnings which made the purchase more affordable. At first, I wondered if we made a mistake because we did want to spend a lot of vacation time trying out different DVC resorts. But know I feel we made a good choice. We are flexible as to where we stay at WDW, since we feel each DVC resort on property has good qualities about them.

But since VB is small, I like having that 11 month window to secure that part of the trip and to be flexible with the 7 month window at WDW.

I think that in the future, we will find that we will spend most of our time at VB. But for now, we will enjoy splitting the time between WDW and VB.


aahhhhh....but then there is HH!!! Spent last JUne there and fell in love with it!!

Karen

 

[CaptainMidnight]

We greatly enjoy our relaxing visits to Vero Beach, and there's no way we consider it a mistake. We like to go to Disney sometimes, not every single vacation. So, Vero seemed like a good choice for us. Sometimes, given the young age of our children, a beach and a pool is a recipie for a fantastic reconnection and relaxation time. It also works well for us in combination with WDW time to have some park time and beach time.

I wouldn't read too much in to negative comments about Vero, in fact I don't know if I'd read anything into them, we love the resort and are very happy we invested there. The rule of thumb is invest where you think you'll want to stay most often and expecially during peak seasons, when reservations may be hard to get. There are resales available for Vero. Depending on how many points your buying, you may want to consider splitting your points between two resorts. There are several threads about doing that to your advantage for the 11 month window.

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

Originally posted by Desperado
When reviewing older info about Vero beach, there seems to be a viewpoint that Vero was a big mistake. I noticed one person keeps bringing up very negative comments about the place. Is it a nice place to visist or should it not be considered? Would anyone buy membership there?

The references you are seeing are generally toward Vero being a financial mistake for Disney; Hilton Head gets lumped in to the same catagory usually. Both HH and VB have taken much longer for Disney to sell than any other resort, and it is sometimes suspected that the reason that Disney hasn't done any other off-property resorts is because of the lackluster sales pace at HH & VB.

I think it's generally agreed by everyone that both resorts are wonderful vacation locations; they aren't a WDW vacation, but that's why they are a particularly nice option to have.

 

[PamOKW]

I agree with Firefighter Mickey that even the "unnamed person" with the negative comments generally qualifies those statements by saying that the resort itself is deluxe. The question is whether people are "misled" into buying at Vero when their intention is to stay at WDW. True, it's easier to book at your home resort with the advantage but it is certainly not impossible to book at WDW with a membership at Vero or HHI.

Originally, when DVC was getting into building offsite resorts, I was concerned about the impact of all these offsite people competing to stay at OKW. Surprisingly, DVC abandoned the offsite plans when the discovered how many resorts they could continue to build at WDW and still have people knocking each other down to buy. The concern now seems to be the reverse. Chances are very good that you will find somewhere at WDW even with very little notice but, as the popularity of Vero and HHI grows, thousands will be competing for the very limited villas at these resorts.

If you really enjoy these resorts, having home resort advantage is becoming more valuable.