The Rovers Return - 20 years and counting - Part 8

[BONZO]

Tuesday 12th August


Cast List

Me: No introduction required, I suspect most of you know me by now!
DW: Long suffering DW of the above
Alex: 15 - Coaster and Disney freak
Laura: 13 - Style queen


We were up at about 8.30 today – and roused the girls with some difficulty!

We managed to entice them out of bed by reminding them that we had an ADR for Cape May Buffet for breakfast, which we’d never been to before. We showered and dressed and got down there in double quick time. Only a short wait before we were seated at a table lined with paper for us to draw on. Such a simple thing to do but good fun for all of us! The food was excellent – all the usual hot food as well as bagels, toast, muffins, smoked salmon, cream cheese, 3 different sorts of jam, lots of different fruits, muesli, grits, oatmeal, dried cranberries, yoghurt, Mickey waffles etc.

The characters all came round as well – Minnie, Goofy and Chip and Dale. All in all a lovely breakfast – not cheap at about $80 but good quality. We’ll definitely do this one again.

Curious doodling!

We headed back to room, slowly packed and then loaded up the car ready for our next move. We had split all our things into 4 wheeled holdalls now, one for each of us, so we each just packed our own things so it didn’t take long. After loading up the car we walked into Epcot just to tour the countries, and took pictures of the girls with diff hats on in each country. Oh how we miss the days when the girls loved doing the Kidcot fun stops! We stopped briefly in Norway to do Maelstrom.

Madhatters!



After a quick snack (girls had McDonalds fries, I had a pretzel and Alison had a hotdog) we headed back to the car to leave for our first ever visit to Vero Beach.

BCV family shower complete with family!

Forever blowing bubbles!

 

[BONZO]

The weather was horrendous on the way – torrential rain meant I had to slow down to about 20 mph in places! On the way we also had that “Duel” moment when we passed an 18 wheeler and swapped places on the dual carriageway as we went along the miles.

Sleeping beauties on way to Vero – note spacious luggage capacity!

When we got close to Vero Beach we managed to get totally lost so stopped in a petrol station to ask directions (well, it looked a bit scary so I didn’t go in – I sent Alison in instead!!) The people in there assured us we were just about half a mile along the road from Disney’s VB resort so off we drove. Hmmmm, after about 2 miles we decided that they’d given us dodgy directions. So, we pulled up at the next petrol station and I sent Alison out again - hooray got the correct direction this time!

We turned the car round and drove back from whence we same and finally got to VB at about 5pm. The setting was lovely – obviously an exclusive area, and very quiet – hardly any shops nearby at all!

We parked out the front and went to check in with very pleasant front desk staff. They told us we had some items waiting for us and would deliver them – oh goody we thought – boogie boards from Tinktatoo!

We moved the car into the parking garage (it was slightly bizarre parking underneath the hotel!) collected a luggage trolley and rode up in the lift to the rooms. Got two adjoining ocean view inn rooms – 2318/9, not connecting – which wasn’t a problem and the balconies were adjoining though. The views were stunning!

In one of the rooms were 2 beach chairs and an umbrella, as well as boogie boards. How nice we thought – Tinktatoo left us chairs and an umbrella as well!


The rooms were not as luxurious as BCV but still very very nice. We loved overlooking the sea (I can’t imagine staying here and not having a sea view, so I expect we’ll always book Ocean view inn rooms now).

Bed view towards balcony

Bogs and basin

Bijou kitchenette

Armoire etc



We unpacked then (still raining) headed out to get some dinner. We drove around for a bit and failed to anything at all but as the troops were getting peckish we stopped near a Walmart to eat at a place called Woody’s Bar B Q in Sebastian which was basic but cheap. (The food was served on plastic plates which was a bit bizarre!)

L: kids burger, fries, onion rings, soda
A: Adult burger, fries, soda
A: 3 meat salad, soda
S: Meatloaf, BBQ beans, mash, gravy, soda

About $38

After eating we popped into Walmart to buy some essentials - beer, soda, water, cookies, Gatorade, crisps etc.

We were back to VB by about 9.45 – and as it had stopped raining we had a look around the resort and the beach area before heading back to the room for a drink and some more Olympics.

 

[Tammy Stringer]

Lovely picture of the girls in the whirlpool bath - looks a bit near to overflowing though Did you have any incidents with that?

Tam

 

[natalielongstaff]

great shower ! its huge

 

[SusanEllen]

Lovely picture of the girls in the whirlpool bath - looks a bit near to overflowing though Did you have any incidents with that?

Tam

FYI For those who might not know--Tammy's vacation bathroom disasters are legendary. She is comforted by the fact that there are others who have had to make emergency plumber calls. Please, submit your stories directly to T. Stringer via PM.

Having said that, I, too, am impressed with the the bubble bath shot, as much as anything by the fact that you got them to do it! This is the sort of thing that parents usually can only get away with until the kids start talking.

Also think the hat series is a great idea and the girls looked darling in their various poses.

Shaun, I'm truly impressed with your vast knowledge of movies--this time a very old made-for-television movie Duel that would have slipped into obscurity if not for it being the first movie directed by a very young Steven Spielberg. Bravo. I'd like to play a game of movie trivia with you sometime.

 

[MorningGlory]

Great stuff Shaun, have enjoyed spending the last couple of hours reading up on all your reports!

Will be sure to look out for the next instalment

 

[irongirlof12]

VB looks lovely

 

[BONZO]

Hi gang,

Just preparing the next report.

The Bubble bath / whirlpool incident simply came from the desire to use all available facilities in the room "just for the hell of it" to be honest.

I poured a little of the shower gel in but it slowly "glooped out" so I thought I'd put it under the tap to make is more runny. The trouble was it all got washing in and coupled with jets blasting away we were awash with bubbles!

Think "The Fog" but with foam creeping eveywhere!

Seemed a shame to waste all those bubbles so we took it in turns to dive in!

Mysterious floating head

i'll try and fit in some more film references to see if anyone pics up on them!

 

[Kevin Stringer]

i'll try and fit in some more film references to see if anyone pics up on them!

Well, that last photo reminds me of a bad horror film for some reason. The Creature From the Black Lagoon perhaps?

Kev

 

[mark&sue]

I have liked the idea of staying at VB but there does not seem to be a lot of other bars and restaurants outside judging by what I have read in other trip reports. Is this the case?


susan

 

[Snowy-girls]

I noticed Duel -do i get a prize ??.
Pics are great,fabulous room at VB .x.

 

[Pinky166]

Great photos.

I love the hats idea!

 

[florida sun]

Lovely photos Shaun and a great room