Vero Beach/AKL Trip Report 3/31/09 - 4/4/09 with photos

[Minnie824]

We’re just back from a wonderful (but short) spring break. We planned on Vero Beach from Mar 31-Apr 4 but ended up Apr 3-4 at AKL. It was myself, DH, DD7, DD5

We arrived on Tues, Mar 31 around 4 and got our car, and drove to Vero Beach. We rented from Dollar and got a Ford Edge. Nice car, however the wait at Dollar was horrible! Over 30 min just to get the car. It was a pretty straight forward route to Vero Beach, but we ran into some heavy thunderstorms. Apparently, that day was record rainfall for Vero Beach. We got in and went to Shutters for dinner. We all loved Shutters…the food and service were excellent. Since it was late, kids were tired, and it was pouring, we didn’t get to do too much else, except look around the Inn and look in the shop. Oh, we had an ocean view Inn room… 2224. It was on the second floor, 2 doors down from the Green Cabin room. The room was very nice. Everything in great condition, great view. We loved the location as well, since we didn’t need to deal with the elevator and could just walk up the steps.
Here are some photos of the resort/view from our 1st day:
Our view:

lobby:

View to the right from our balcony..this is the outside seating for the Green Cabin Room:

Store:

Will post more from the other days soon.

 

[fers31]

Can't view the pictures. Don't know if it's the computer I'm on or the format of the pics.

 

[Minnie824]

Day 2 – Wednesday, April 1.
Was a little cloudy in the morning, but that was fine. We headed down to the beach and pool until lunch. Lunch at Bleachers, which was really good. We got our refillable mugs as well, which came in handy. We did mini golf in the afternoon and walked around. Drove around the area, but not too many shops for us to look in. Had dinner at Shutters again. Around our shopping time, we realized that we are not beach people, and although we loved the resort, we couldn’t do 3 more days of the same thing. The kids would get bored (so would DH & I). We like the beach and swimming, but 4-5 days of it with not much else to do wasn’t for us. I’m sure there were things to do if we would have driven a bit further to other towns, etc, but since we have annual passes, we decided to drive to Disney instead. We called and booked a standard room for AKL for Friday night.

Wed night after dinner we went to the campfire. The kids loved this! It was about 40 min long and so much fun. And, we even met people not only from the same town as us, but only one subdivision over! (There were lots of Chicago people down there). We didn’t stay for the actual smores because the kids were tired and we were still full from our dinner/desserts at Shutters.

Photos from the day:
Pool:

beach:

walkway to beach:

eb & flos:

arcade and hair wraps:

fitness room:

part of the mini golf:

campfire:

Will post more soon!

 

[Minnie824]

Hmm...maybe its the site I'm using for the photos...which site do people use to post photos from? I'm trying kodak gallery, maybe I need to use something else.

 

[lisareniff]

I'm viewing them just fine.

Great pictures! We are going to VB next Winter/spring and looking forward to it!!

 

[Minnie824]

Day 3 – Thursday, April 2.
Today was a repeat for the most part…beach, swim, lunch at Bleachers, mini golf. We did go to Nino’s for dinner though. We really liked it as well! They had very good New York style pizza and you could tell it was good because there were tons of people picking up pizzas the whole time we were there. We had great weather today too. No rain, all sun and in the 80s probably.

Not too many new pictures:

 

[Minnie824]

Day 4 – Friday, April 3.
We got up early and were on the road by 7:20 for Disney. Got there almost exactly 2 hours later. As we arrived, there was a massive rain cloud, it seemed almost right over Disney. It downpoured as we pulled into AKL. We had a standard room reserved, and we got put in a room w/a view. It was to the left off the main lobby, on the same floor, last room at the end..3142. It overlooked the savannah. The room was perfect for us, especially just for a night. We loved the location and seeing the animals was great. However, if I had booked a savannah view room, I may not have been as thrilled, due to the large roof and building to our left. Maybe it is considered just a good standard view room though. Not sure. Anyway, loved the hotel. This was our first time there and it really made us look forward to our stay at Kidani (our home) in August!

View:

main entrance:

We headed to MK after the rain stopped, about 10am. We got on Pirates with no line, got FPs for BTMRR, went to HM with no line, had lunch at Caseys (seats open inside and not much line), went to Aladdin with a 5 min wait, then used our FPs for BTMRR. This was all within 2 hours! I was shocked since it was spring break, but maybe the rains held people off a bit. After that we went to Small World then left to break for a bit.

decorated bus:

back at the hotel:

our view of kidani:

Dinner was at Kona Café which was really good as usual. (the lobby of the Poly is always freezing though!) Then we went back to MK and got FPs for Buzz, went on TTA, went to Barnstormer, the back on Buzz. Then DD7 wanted to go on Space Mtn. which had wait times constantly moving between 50-80 min. She has never waited in a line that long but since it’ll be closed in Aug, she wanted to wait. We were in line for 5 min and the luckiest thing happened…this nice girl came up and gave us 2 fastpasses! They had expired only by 10 min but we thought we’d try. However I didn’t want to leave our space in line in case they didn’t work, and the nicest family in front of us said they’d keep our spot if they didn’t. So if any of you are on the DIS, thank you SO much! All of you made our day! The fastpasses worked and we were able to ride and be out in 15 min!

Then we drove the Indy cars with only a 15 min wait! After that we headed to the Main St. Bakery for a yummy dessert. I wish I would have taken a picture of the ice cream cookie sandwich….it was HUGE! Then we headed to Mickey’s Philharmagic then left. We got so much stuff in that day…we were surprised. We headed to the parks expecting huge crowds, but after being there Thanksgiving last year, this was nothing!

 

[Minnie824]

Day 5 – Sat, April 4.
Today we packed up and checked out, put the luggage in the car and headed to Epcot for opening. We didn’t have a lot of time before the flight, but went to do two things… First we headed to Soarin and got on in about 10 min. Then we headed over to Test Track, it had a 20 min wait (this was at 9:30) and we went on that. Then we headed to the Poly for a quick lunch at Capt Cooks. We could tell Epcot was getting crowded already. Not sure if it was because it was a weekend, or people coming in for Easter week. We left early for the airport, expecting a long wait at security, but it was the shortest lines we had seen!

Epcot:

Soarin:

Overall we had a great trip!
Food -> Dinners are a highlight of vacation for us and we love trying new restaurants. We were happy with everything this trip…Shutters, Bleachers, Nino’s, Casey’s, Kona Café, Capt Cooks. All the wait staff was friendly everywhere and the food was very good. The crowds weren't as bad as we thought at Disney. We loved both resorts and would definitely return to both. Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[gtrist4life]

Glad you had a great trip. We did almost the same trip a week earlier.
We were at Vero for 5 nights, and AKL for one night. We also ate at Nino's (TWICE)

 

[Minnie824]

Glad you had a great trip. We did almost the same trip a week earlier.
We were at Vero for 5 nights, and AKL for one night. We also ate at Nino's (TWICE)

Thats too funny! We would have definitely been back to Nino's if we were there longer! It was great!

 

[Good Ol Gal]

Great Trip Report and thanks for all the Vero pictures!

We're going there for the first time in June. We're not sure if we're beach people either, so we're doing WDW for 5 nights, then VB for 2 nights.

Where is Nino's? Is it at VB??
Are the refillable mugs a resort specific one? How much did it cost?

 

[cj9200]

Sounds like you had a good time. Great pictures. We like Vero but I am also not a beach person unless it is scuba diving under the water. More than a couple of days, I get a bit stir crazy. Last time we were there, we had the room right next to yours, the one closest to the Green Cabin Room. Really nice view.

 

[DisDaydreamer]

Thanks for the reports and pics. Sounds like you had a great time

 

[Minnie824]

Great Trip Report and thanks for all the Vero pictures!

We're going there for the first time in June. We're not sure if we're beach people either, so we're doing WDW for 5 nights, then VB for 2 nights.

Where is Nino's? Is it at VB??
Are the refillable mugs a resort specific one? How much did it cost?

Nino's is in vero beach...if you take a left out of the resort onto A1A (I think thats the name of the road) you keep going about 10 min then take a left on 60. Then a right at the end...Ocean drive I think? Its about 2 min down the road on your left. Easy to find.

Refillable mugs were $13. Theres a place to fill them by Bleachers by the pool. They looked the same as the mugs in Disney, but technically they're resort specific. Don't think anyone would see a difference though? Have fun! I think 2 nights there is perfect. Try to do the campfire....that was a lot of fun.

 

[cogero]

what a great report. Sounds like a great trip.

 

[Good Ol Gal]

Nino's is in vero beach...if you take a left out of the resort onto A1A (I think thats the name of the road) you keep going about 10 min then take a left on 60. Then a right at the end...Ocean drive I think? Its about 2 min down the road on your left. Easy to find.

Refillable mugs were $13. Theres a place to fill them by Bleachers by the pool. They looked the same as the mugs in Disney, but technically they're resort specific. Don't think anyone would see a difference though? Have fun! I think 2 nights there is perfect. Try to do the campfire....that was a lot of fun.

Thanks for the info.

Too bad about the mugs, I was actually hoping that they were resort specific. It would be a nice souvie.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Great pictures! I miss going to VB this year!

Bobbi