Quick trip report - Vero Beach and BoardWalk

[gtrist4life]

Quick trip report from our recent vacation to Vero Beach (March 24-28) and BoardWalk (March 28-30) plus a couple of pics too!

Vero Beach resort – terrible place, stay away, you do not want to go here

Seriously, it’s beautiful and we fell in love with the place. May have to do an add on here, if more people discover this hidden gem of DVC and it gets hard to book at 7 months. We had 3 inn rooms and they were great, roomy, and central (even though VB is not a huge resort)

Weather was perfect, beach and ocean were gorgeous, only downer was all the Man O Wars washing up from the easterly winds. Not much ocean time because of this. Highlight – Naturalist walk on the beach, she directed us south down the beach for about a mile and a half from the resort to the first turtle (big leatherback) nest they’d seen for the season! Don’t see that every day! – Also meals at Rips and Quilted Giraffe (Vero Beach proper) were excellent. Shutters and Bleachers meals were also very good. New Resort chef is having a positive impact!

BoardWalk – 2 nights is obviously too short, but we made the most of our stay. Saw most of the pre-F&G Epcot displays, Boardwalk had a wonderfully smelling White Chocolate Bunny/Egg/House creation in the lobby.
Highlights – Got to see Monster’s Inc Show, and rode Expedition Everest for the first time!
Lowlights – The crowds. It was crazy at the Magic Kingdom and at Fantasmic

Another great DVC trip in the books and planning for June 08 can begin!

Peace,
G4L

 

[bobbiwoz]

Oh, I'm so glad you enjoyed your VB, BWV stay! For us, it's getting to be rather hard to go to Florida and not visit VB. We need more vacation timeand money

Bobbi

 

[DisDaydreamer]

Our favorite place Thanks for the report.

 

[bjakmom]

Thank you sooo much for the Vero update - you made my day by telling me that there are already turtles nesting !!! I am taking my DNeph (9) to VB for a few days just to see the turtle nests (and maybe even a turtle if we're really, really lucky!!) - he is a turtle fanatic and this is a huge dream of his !! We can't wait to get to VB !

 

[Mahusky]

Glad you had a terrible time at VB I hope most people hate it!
JK!!! Leatherback not an everday occurence how about doen't happen at all in the 4 summers that I have been there. Wow that is GREAT!!!

 

[gtrist4life]

Bjakmom and Mahusky,
We were very fortunate to see the nest, didn't see the turtle, but the Naturalist said it was a leatherback nest, from the tracks you could tell it was a large turtle. It was a good walk to get there too. So cool!

Peace,
G4L

 

[DisDaydreamer]

Hoping you get to see turtles. Last year we went out late at night searching the beach and I ended up breaking a toe on a large rock on the beach... What the heck is a large rock doing on the beach!

Just sitting there for a rest I guess.

Anyway, we've yet to catch the buggers in transit, but we do find many nest with the evidence of the hatchlings going to the ocean (most of them).

Have a great time

 

[Halle]

We were in VB in August and the Naturalist was digging the nests out in the morning to rescue the baby turtles that were not able to get out on their own. What a wonderful experience it was, he gave the babies to some onlookers to take to the ocean and then he put some down on the sand and we followed them on their journey to the ocean. Can't wait to go back this August.

 

[SLM]

We were in VB March 17-24-our first visit-it was wonderful! What a beautiful resort-my husband says it will be pretty hard staying anywhere else! We also enjoyed two dinners at Shutters-I had read some not so very good reviews, but I think the new chef must be making a difference-the one thing I ordered and did not like and did not eat (and it was me, not the preparation) the CM insisted taking it off our bill. We asked to be seated on the ocean side (the glassed in room) both times-it was so nice! I'm glad you had such a good trip-isn't DVC great the way you can vacation so many different ways?

 

[Chim Chiminy]

Is your pic a view from a Garden View Inn Room? It looks so nice with all the palm trees.

 

[gtrist4life]

For our trip, we booked 3 garden view inn rooms, the pics I posted were from the room our family stayed in. I was obviously quite pleased as I would consider this an Ocean view room. The first pic is looking straight out the balcony, the second is just turning right on the balcony. The other two rooms we booked:

DW parents had a not so good view, they looked over the garden/maintenance storage lot, but beyond that they had a good view of the fountain area across the street from the resort.

DSIL and DBIL - I never got to see their view, but they said it overlooked the pool with a partial view of the ocean.

Overall we were very happy with the rooms and the views. Like all the DVC resorts the landscaping is beautiful and well manintained.

Peace,
G4L

 

[Lexxiefern]

Thanks for the report! Those are my 2 favorite resorts. We are going back to Vero in October and staying in a beach cottage!! But I think the turtles will all be gone by then. Thanks for sharing!

 

[madcoco]

Thanks for sharing. Glad you hated VB! The resort was supposed to be twice as big but so many people stayed away because of the high prices and terrible scenery that they sold off half the land across A1A to a developer. Well that's half true.
Wow a Leatherback! Great to hear! From the sounds of it this could be the start of something great for the Nesting season. Fingers cross for no hurricanes.
Remember to turn off the lights and don't disturb the ladies.
Human disturbance/distraction is one of the greatest factors for "False Crawls" and hatchlings headed the wrong direction. If anyone is interested in a Leatherback Blog:
http://www.floridaleatherbacks.com/

 

[DisDaydreamer]

If anyone is interested in a Leatherback Blog:
http://www.floridaleatherbacks.com/

Thanks... I'll be following this blog