Just back from Vero and OKW

[RLevy29]

We just got back today. Vero Beach resort is beautiful. We arrived about 11:30 and our room was not ready. The CM asked if we would like to have a pool view instead but we held out for the Ocean View that we had reserved. We were glad we did! We were in room 2329 which had a wonderful view of the ocean. The room itself was very comfortable.
We enjoyed the restaurants at the resort also. We especially liked the Green Cabin room on the outside deck.
The only complaint that we had was that outside of the resort there was not much to do. We did try snorkeling at Sebastian inlet and we rode bikes. This did force us to relax before going to WDW.
When we got to OKW at 11:30 our room was not ready. They gave us our room cards and information and told us to check back later. We went to Epcot for some lunch. About 1:30 I called and the room was ready. We didn't even have to return to the desk! Everything at the resort was great.
Any questions, let me know.

 

[Pig Pen]

Thanks for the report. Vero is my home resort and I have never been there! What kind of room did you have? I am wondering if the size and layout are similar to any of the onsite DVCs?

Thanks.

 

[Pinnie]

Thanks for the trip report, I am anxiously counting down my days to my BCV, Vero, OKW and Drum Corp visit!!!

pin

 

[Cruelladeville]

I was at Vero two weeks ago, and I thought it was lovely, too! I agree, the Inn rooms with the ocean view are fantastic! I slept SO well there, listening to the ocean every night. My only complaint was the pool situation--what is up with reserving your lounge chair for the week with your pool towel??? I have never seen that anywhere before, it sure seems rude to me. I went down to the pool between 7:30-8:00 in the morning, and over 100 chairs were already spoken for, even though I was the only person there. I talked to several people at the pool who indicated this is common. Most of those people didn't arrive at the pool till 1:30!! I decided against purchasing points now at this resort, for this reason, although I would like to revisit Vero again to see if I just happened upon a week when all the rude members visited.

 

[floridafam]

Cruelladeville,

What's up with the pool towel situation? Why didn't the lifeguards just move the towels?

 

[RLevy29]

Pig Pen: the room we had was like a studio at OKW because it had 2 queen beds instead of the sofabed. It was very comfortable.
Cruelladeville: I too noticed that pool towel thing. The other thing that was annoying was that people would leave their towels on the chairs after they left the pool. We saw the CMs walking around just picking up towels where there were no personal items. How lazy can you be not to put your towel in the towel return? Also there was a family who had snacks and just left the tray sitting on the table with all of there garbage! The trash can was about 2 feet away and birds were swooping down to enjoy the goodies they left. Just because you are on vacation does not give you the right to be a slob or inconsiderate of other people.

 

[Pig Pen]

THAT is rude!

Unless there was someone actually present, or some other personal belongings there, I would probably just "clean up" the towels and park my butt.

How can they get away with that? They were resort towels? Or personal beach towels?

 

[CarolMN]

Originally posted by Pig Pen
.....Unless there was someone actually present, or some other personal belongings there, I would probably just "clean up" the towels and park my butt.
...(snip)....

That's what we did - if it was just a towel, whether clean or dirty (and we returned those to the proper place), without any personal belongings and no one nearby, we just sat down. Actually, the first time we did this, I thought the life guards or Disney CMs just put the clean towels there for the convenience of the guests (silly me )!

No one ever said anything to us. If anyone thought we were rude, they never said so to us.

 

[PamOKW]

The "all day saving" of pool chairs isn't only done at Vero. The Travel Channel even included a mention of it when they were covering other non-Disney resorts (like in Vegas). I guess it's just another society "me first" thing. Of course, that means when "me" is ready to sit down, I'll move the towel.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Originally posted by RLevy29
...This did force us to relax before going to WDW.

Ahhh.... In my opinion this is the beauty of Vero Beach. No lines, no schedules and no "TOOT" of the angry horn!
I'm glad you enjoyed your stay at VB...

 

[ncligs]

We also just got back from VB tonight(friday), and I agree that is the only problem(towels at pool to save chairs) we ran into at VB. We were at the pool every morning by 8:30 am, and at least 30-40 front row lounge chairs had towels , beach bags on tables,etc on them. Then these people that must have put these towels down on the chairs around 7:30 am, didn't come out to the pool until around 10:00 -10:30 am.

We always got our 2 chairs with no problem because we were there usually from 8:15 to 10:30 am. But I think the problem lies with the CM's. All they have to do is go around and take the towels off, or put up a sign that says no saving of chairs unless that person is present.I asked a CM why they allow this saving of chairs, and she(CM) said they don't .

Originally posted by Pig Pen
How can they get away with that? They were resort towels? Or personal beach towels?

Both types of towels are over chairs(personal and resort). They get away with it because CM's do not do anything about it.

 

[jjcollins]

RLevy29 can i ask were you went snorkeling in Sebastian inlet ?? and did you have to book that with someone. We're of to Vero and OKW in OCT. We love the Green Cabin room

Thanks


jj......

 

[Tigger1]

I might just help the cms out next year and if there is lots of chairs with towels and no one at the pool, hehe, I am putting the towels to be cleaned. Maybe we could all start this, hehe, and those non beach towels go to lost and found.

As for Sebastion, more info please. I have never snorkled, do they have lessons in the ocean? I am not interested in paying high$$ to snorkle in the pool . Sebastion inlet is at state park I think. May find info at state park web site. I will look now.

Thanks Tigger

 

[RLevy29]

Sebastian inlet is about 7 miles north of the resort. You need to pay for park admission ($3.50) and they will give you a map of the park. You then go to the concession and rent a dive flag. The water was cold so if you have a wet suit ,bring it. They will tell you where you can snorkle. You also need to check the tides because you need to go at high tide. In my opinion, it wasn't very good but you do see some fish and coral, but the water was murky.
If you have never snorkeled this is not a good place to start because you need to be a fairly good swimmer. We are experienced snorkelers and scuba divers and we both had trouble with the current.I would suggest having some kind of pool training to learn to breathe through your mouth. They have a program for kids in the pool at the resort but I don't know about adults.

 

[Tigger1]

Maybe I could take snorkling at the YMCA.

Was there any sea shells? If so, being on a state park could you even take them?

Tigger

 

[vernon]

Just a word of caution about the Sebastian Inlet. It's a really pretty area and nice beach, but there are REALLY fast tides and strong currents in that area as well as predatory fish. It isn't the place for an inexperienced diver or a weak swimmer.

 

[RLevy29]

I really didn't notice any an abundance of shells. I don't think that you would be stopped from taking any . There are some on the beach area in front of the resort and I noticed that people were collecting them.