Vero Beach 2012 thread closed... see 2013

[tillerrw]

So we are 30 days away from our first ever trip to DVB and we are very excited. It's a long weekend without the kids and we're at the beach! I have a few dinning questions I was hoping to get feedback on.

We will have a rental car and are driving down from MCO. We are stopping for dinner at the Chart House in Melbourne. I am seriously thinking about just keeping us at the resort for our whole stay (Apr 26-30) and dinning there. I know some regulars might have suggestions for off site dinning and I would love to hear those.

My big question is for this time of year should we make reservations now for Sonya's? The DVC CM I made the reservation for the room with heavily suggested we dine there during our trip. I read about the brunch on Sunday and am wondering about this as well. Are one or both worth it and should I make reservations now?

Thanks!

 

[festus105]

Sonya's is very nice. I would definitely recommend eating there at least once. I would suggest making a reservation. However there are some wonderful resturants outside of Vero really good and are less expensive. We enjoyed Squid Lips for seafood - neat atmosphere right on a pier on the intercoastal.

- Ken

 

[tillerrw]

Well I was able to get an 11 AM reservation for the brunch on Sunday but the best I could do was a 7:40 PM on Friday for Sonya's. There was nothing earlier than that or 7:50 PM on Saturday. Not sure we'll keep that one but the brunch we will for sure!

 

[PirateFrank]

Hi Vero lovers -

I have a question...were going to be at Vero through Easter sunday. Does anyone know where the nearest catholic church is? (I suspect there won't be services held at the resort, like at the contemporary, right?)

 

[chepic]

Hi Vero lovers -

I have a question...were going to be at Vero through Easter sunday. Does anyone know where the nearest catholic church is? (I suspect there won't be services held at the resort, like at the contemporary, right?)

Go out of the resort and take a left. There is a Catholic church about 1-1.5 mls up on the right. Very nice.

Have fun

Cheryl

 

[PirateFrank]

Go out of the resort and take a left. There is a Catholic church about 1-1.5 mls up on the right. Very nice.

Have fun

Cheryl

Hi Cheryl, is that Holy Cross?

 

[chepic]

Hi Cheryl, is that Holy Cross?

Yup, that would be it.

che

 

[DrMomof3]

We are heading to the airport in about 30 minutes to fly down to Vero Beach for the 1st time. Is there any information I can gather for the thread while we're there? We're returning home on Thursday night so I won't be able to report on Easter festivities at the resort.

Amanda

 

[dreaming4disney]

How nice of you
I would like to know about the surrounding activities like turtle watching and other things in the area. Also, any restaurant reports would be great. We are going at the end of June.

I hope you have a great trip.

 

[robhawk]

We followed the advice of tripadvisor for most of our restaurants. We liked Scampi Grille, Ocean Grille, & Riverside Cafe. We also did Sonya's and loved it but we were w/o kids for this trip. It would be expensive. We also loved the character breakfast!

Rob

 

[dreaming4disney]

We followed the advice of tripadvisor for most of our restaurants. We liked Scampi Grille, Ocean Grille, & Riverside Cafe. We also did Sonya's and loved it but we were w/o kids for this trip. It would be expensive. We also loved the character breakfast!

Rob

Rob,

Were the restaurants you mentioned good to take kids to? My kids ages are 12, 14,15.
We booked the breakfast w/ characters for the day we are leaving. I don't have any other reservations. We are going June 27th for 3 nights.

Thanks

 

[robhawk]

We also did the character breakfast on getaway day! Great way to finish up! We were spoiled cuz we could always take our kids anywhere. They were great eaters! They are now DD 22 DS 19. This was our first trip without them! Ocean Grille had a diverse menu. Riverside Cafe was right on the canal where you could see the sunset(630pm in Feb). It had a family section, bar section, and outside deck. They had a guitar player playing Seger, Buffet, Petty etc. He was very good. Scampi was like being in Little Italy. Tight seating and small but delicious food. Hope this helps. Have a great time!

Rob

 

[TiszBear]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank You! to all on this thread!

I got back on Friday afternoon after spending 2 weeks in Florida. The first part at Vero Beach and a few days at WDW. Vero beach was amazing and I can not wait to go back! Our room was on ocean view inn room and the it was so nice as was all who we encounted at the resort. I am now hooked. We had dinner one night at Mulligan's and at Squid Lips and just roamed the area. Best vacation in a long time!

Thank You all again.

 

[dreaming4disney]

We also did the character breakfast on getaway day! Great way to finish up! We were spoiled cuz we could always take our kids anywhere. They were great eaters! They are now DD 22 DS 19. This was our first trip without them! Ocean Grille had a diverse menu. Riverside Cafe was right on the canal where you could see the sunset(630pm in Feb). It had a family section, bar section, and outside deck. They had a guitar player playing Seger, Buffet, Petty etc. He was very good. Scampi was like being in Little Italy. Tight seating and small but delicious food. Hope this helps. Have a great time!

Rob

Thanks. I appreciate the names of a few places. I've never been to Vero before.

 

[marky]

Hi everyone,
We will be visiting Vero Beach from England in July, and cannot wait. Our family is so excited to be going back.
In previous years we have bought beach chairs from Walmart in Sebastian, and when we left, passed them onto other families to use.
Just wondered if anyone might be checking out of Vero when we arrive (16th July) and have any chairs they might not want to carry back home, or that we could part purchase with them.
Thanks for reading this.
Marky

 

[iloveokw]

Has anyone did this lately? How was it. Thanks.

 

[Lauralooneyfordisney]

Does anyone know if they have the menu posted for the Pirate dinner ahead of time so you know if you want to do it or not?

 

[DrMomof3]

Does anyone know if they have the menu posted for the Pirate dinner ahead of time so you know if you want to do it or not?

The pirate dinner was a family-style skillet so there were no menus. It was chicken and pulled pork (my family doesn't eat pork so they left it out for us), corn on the cob, roasted potatoes, mac n cheese, corn bread, and other dinner rolls. There were cupcakes for dessert. The food was so-so. The character interaction was fun. They did a little pirate ceremony with the kids. They provided autograph pages so when Goofy and Donald came to the table they signed. The characters were great and spent plenty of time at each table.

Amanda

 

[DrMomof3]

We returned late last night from a wonderful trip to Vero Beach. It was our 1st time there. We had a one bedroom villa in building 12 with a spectacular view of the parking lot. The villa was lovely despite the view. We flew into West Palm Beach airport and rented a car. We arrived in Vero Beach late Sunday night after stopping in Jupiter to visit a friend. The trip down was complicated by a stomach virus for my 8 year old which he promptly passed on to my husband.
Monday I took all 3 kids to the pool by myself (be impressed; they are 8, 6, and not quite 4) after a sit-down breakfast at Shutters. Wait-staff was great! The pool opens at 8am but the lifeguards and slide don't start until 10am. Life jackets are free. The poolside snack bar/counter service location was good. Kids meal come in pails with shovels attached. Bloody Mary's were quite popular it seemed (I finally tried one on Tuesday when my DH had recovered even to be vertical) and many guests started very early with the bar!
Monday night was the pirate dinner. Good experience with mediocre food. Tuesday was more pool and beach. My DH played mini-golf with my son. My son and I then rented a kayak from the beach which was very enjoyable. My daughter loved having her hair done by the pool (NOT cheap!).
We drove to Sebastian for dinner at Squid Lips. Apparently Tuesday night is shrimp night and even at 5:30pm there was an hour wait. Some nice grandmotherly type suggested Mulligan's which was just down the road. It was a good suggestion and we would certainly return there.
Wednesday my crazy DH woke us up at 5:45am so we could drive 2 hours to Disney (the APs were burning a hole in his pocket!). We had a lovely day at DHS and then Epcot. We left Disney at 8pm and arrived back before 10pm. (Kids slept in the car).
Thursday was check-out day. After collecting our stuff and putting in the car, we headed back to the pool/beach. We used the showers in the pool-side bathrooms to clean up and get ready to go. There was shampoo/conditioner/soap combo in the showers. Good enough for what we needed.
Weather was perfect. Resort was gorgeous.
I wish there were lifeguards on the beach as it was hard to watch multiple young children at once. We did bring the life jackets from the pool to the beach. Not sure if that's permitted but nobody said we couldn't. It definitely made me feel safer on the beach. I can certainly swim fine but I'm not a fantastic swimmer to rescue my children in the ocean so we were very, very cautious. (Not that I would be less cautious with a life guard but it would have decreased by anxiety a little bit.)

Amanda

 

[kasad68]

We will be at VB July 7th thru the 15th. 4th time at VB and we have been Vacation Clubers since 2001.