To long trip report on Vero Beach

[996turbos]

My wife, son and I went to Disney's Vero Beach last weekend 7/15-7/17. Let me start by saying I've stayed at most of the resorts at WDW. Everything from the Grand Floridian to Old Key West a stop at Yacht and Beach Club, Wilderness Lodge, and Port Orleans. I've also taken 7 Disney cruises. That said I love Disney. My trip to Vero however was far from perfect and hopefully the exception and not the rule. The resort was a bit small compared to on property resorts at WDW. We were greated with the "welcome home" theme by most CM. Felt pretty good at first. When checking in I asked about the view. The desk clerk replied very firmly that the rooms are not sold by view. When my wife made a comment on room view the clerk restated in a very forceful way that the rooms were not sold by view. The manor was as if to say "Look stupid, I just told your husband this. Pay attention." We let it slide as "a guy having a bad day". The man then proudly pointed out he's been here for 8 years I believe. We found this kind of attitude replayed by several CM's at Vero. I told my wife that the way people acted at Vero would not be tolerated at WDW. You could just feel the difference. We checked into our room which was a 1 bedroom suite. The room was nice in size. The care and maintenance was somewhat poor. There were missing knobs on the bedroom TV hutch, the counter felt sticky, kitchen cabinet doors were warped and would not close properly, and there were sugar ant everywhere. When we called maintenance about the ants, they responded, "What do you want us to do? Send someone now? We said now would be fine???!!! Again, an off attitude. We called for dinner reservations for Sonya's. We requested 7:00pm. She said 6:40 was available. We said fine. She then said come at 7:00 if you like, it's no problem. Right! We showed up at 6:50. The very nice lady at the front door said they were booked and had no record of our call for a reservation. Her name was Nancy. She was accually a great CM. Truely cared and explained that thier new reservation system was not updating her and the person we spoke to didn't take time to let them know we were coming. The three of us were seated at a 2 person table due to lack of space. the empty 4 top tables filled up 10-15 minutes after we were seated. Our server seemed a bit angry we were seated in her section and also seemed overwhelmed. We ordered our dinner and waited and waited. When the meal came out we cut into our steaks. Mine was tough and my son's was over cooked as was my wifes prime rib. When my wife mentioned this to the server she said the lighting in here is dark. The steak was right if my wife didn't believe her she would take her into the kitchen and show her under better light. Now I kid you not, we have not raised our voices at anyone nor were we rude despite our rude treatment. My wife accepted her invitation to go into the kitchen area and inspect the steak and prime rib. New food was promptly offered. When my wife returned to out little table the manager, who saw my wife at the kitchen area came out to ask about our meal. I explained what had transpired. He apoligized and offered free desert. As I told him, I didn't care about desert rather I wanted him to have some feedback that he could use in training. He was very nice and like Nancy wanted to do the right thing. He even followed me outside to apologize again. Very nice guy. We visted over the next 2 days a couple of times. He and Nancy were truely the high point of the trip. The $85.00 I spent was a waste. And yes I still tipped the server but only 10%.

On Sunday I had breakfest while my wife signed up our son for activities. Shutters was very nice. Breakfest was good as was our dinner there that night(skip Sonya's-not worth the money IMO). My son tired of the group activities so they went to the pool for the day. I joined them later. An intresting note. A few times a day the lifeguard is tested by a fake person on the bottom of the pool. He said he has up to 15 seconds to spot the test piece-a flat mat that sinks to the bottom-and rescue it. At first it was a bit scary to think it was real! Afterwards we all clapped and cheered his passing the "test".

Random thoughts are as followed, The ants in our room are probably a problem for the resort in general. The guy came with the correct bait in hand. The no see-ums never seemed to bother us but my wife had several bug bites that she believes came from the bed. I didn't seem afftected. I think she just tastes better than me The internet is only available in the lobby at $5.00 per 1/2 hour on an out of date computer. They said they had dial up-ugh!-in the rooms but be prepared to have your own dial up account. Internet should be free IMHO. The turtle themes for the resort is very nice. We saw nests marked out on the beach. Over all there just wasn't the same Disney magic for us in Vero. I do not think we will go back. Please don't take this as Disney bashing. Other people we know love Vero Beach. It's just not right for us.

 

[KathyRN137]

Thank you for sharing with us.

Kathy