Cinderelli
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 22, 2000
- Messages
- 537
We just returned from 4 nites at Vero Beach (6/8 6/12) & another 3 nites off-site at WDW (6/12 6/15 - Cypress Pointe Grande Villas). We left Tampa around 11 AM and arrived at Vero at 2:00. This included a McDonalds drive-thru and a couple of auto tours around Vero golf courses. With no stops, we could have made it easily in 2.5 hours.
Check-in: Arrived to a wonderful CM (even tho she did not offer a Welcome Home, ha!). Our one-bedroom villa was ready (we requested only non-smoking, near a pool). She told us we would love her for the view we were getting, and we truly were impressed.
Unit Condition: We were in unit 1436, 3rd floor of a 3 story building. We were very pleased with our villa. The only complaints I would make (if I had to), was that the king bed seemed to sag a bit. Perhaps this was my perception upon entering the room (the bedskirt was sagging on the floor in the middle of the bed). The bedsheets at Vero were not as soft as the sheets we had in our 2 bedroom at Cypress Pointe Grand Villas in Orlando. The only other complaint was that the balcony was an enclosed balcony. When I sat on a chair on the balcony, I had no view. We do have younger children (although not that young anymore) and I thought if they were still toddlers, this would be an ideal room. In the future, we will request an open balcony. The unit was very clean and all fixtures, etc. were in great shape.
Unit View: We had a fantastic view from our living room windows of the ocean. The view is totally different that what we are accustomed to. We normally vacation on the Gulf of Mexico beaches and have a beach/ocean view. The views at Vero are not inclusive of the beach (at least as far as we could tell), but you do get a wonderful view of the ocean over the top of the immaculate and impressive foliage. Having never been to Hawaii, we imagined this is what it would be like. In a word, it was awesome.
Unit Noise: We did have one (maybe two) different familys stay in the studio that adjoined our villa. We did hear some children on a couple of occasions but never late at nite and it was never an issue. Other than that, we never even heard any birds (very unlike the Gulf Coast) and it was extremely peaceful.
Unit Location: Very close walk to the pool and main building. This is a small and lovely resort. I cant imagine not loving any building we would have been given.
Weather: Great. We did have afternoon rains on the first 2 afternoons we were there. It cleared up after a couple of hours and we were able to enjoy these stormy afternoons as quiet time.
Meals/Snacks: We had an awesome dinner to celebrate my DHs birthday on our first nite there. We dined at Sonyas for their Seafood Buffet. This really was an awesome buffet. We had boiled shrimp, large crablegs, conch chowder, lobster cakes, mussels, pastas, salads, bread, dips, and many other things (I cant remember). The dessert area features 4 different desserts (all wonderful). My DH was a little bummed as there wasnt a major chocolate dish, but we survived, ha! Our server (Betsy?) was wonderful. After wed finished, she brought him a delicious piece of cake with Happy Birthday written in chocolate on the sides of the plate and the entire restaurant (small place) sang to him. He was duly embarrassed and impressed. We also found a wonderful ice cream place in Vero (Swensons). It had sundaes reminding me of Beaches & Cream and a great staff. We also tried Vincents for pizza our last nite there. This was also in Vero. My DH loved it, I thought it was just OK.
Golf: My DH golfed at a course called Sand Ridge. It was a VERY nice course and extremely reasonably priced ($28.00 including balls). It is ranked like #4 for public golf courses. He was originally to play at Indian something or other, but found out they had just aerated their greens. We drove thru Sand Ridge on the way to Vero and he thought it looked great and proved to be so. He also golfed at Celebration over at WDW. This was only $30 (including balls) after 4:00 PM for FL Residents. This was another very nice course. He got rained out and has a raincheck to go back for another 9 holes sometime. Sounds like I need to plan another trip, ha!
Best Fun of the Trip: The kids loved playing in the pool and going down the slide. They wouldve ridden the slide all day. We also rented a wave-runner and this was a blast. We did the campfire this looked to be fun until my son was stung by a bee (on the neck) twice just as it was starting. We left and it was standing room only. I think several people were tripping over themselves to grab our bench as we were leaving. Also, the beach was so cool. The waves were huge (compared to the calm Gulf) and the kids had tremendous fun riding the waves. My DH walked the beach very early one morning and came back with 3 of the largest shells Ive ever seen. I thought he bought them somewhere. The next morning we all went out walking and couldnt find any. Apparently several of the parents who were in line behind him the day before (signing up for the unbirthday party with his bounty of shells) all beat us out the next morning (as we passed them heading back to the resort with their bounty, hee! Hee!) Really, these shells are so cool. The Unbirthday Party was a hit, but a very big must-do. My husband had to line up 45 minutes before Eb & Flows opened to make sure we got in (we had missed it the prior time). The kids also made t-shirts (Gyotaku?). They are cool and it was a lot of fun. We also had fun with my sons metal detector. We didnt find any treasure, but struck up some interesting conversations with other beach combers.
Strangest/Greatest Moment: The resort lost total power for about 3 hours on Tuesday nite. We had just gotten back from Swensons Ice Cream shop and were changing into our suits for a nite swim (around 8:20 PM) and the lights went out. We did still go for our nite swim however, around 9:00 I made the kids get out of the pool because I could no longer see them no lights in the pool either. They did still have power on the main floor of the main building, but no power in any of the rooms. We went upstairs and had a wonderful time chatting with our children. We finally went to sleep sometime after 10:30 and the lights all came on a little after 11:00, only to go back out for another 30 mins or so. Oh well, it gave us time to get up and turn everything off, ha! We always have at least one strange occurrence on each trip and this trip was no exception.
Disappointments: None really, probably only the enclosed balcony.
Best Memory: Seeing my kids run and jump, squealing with glee in the ocean. Doing the slide about a million times a day, until their legs just wouldnt climb the stairs another time. The huge ice cream sundaes at Swensons. The lovely chat my 9 yo DD and I had while the electricity was off.
Another successful DVC trip and another place we will definitely visit again. It truly was beautiful.
Thanks for reading! Happy Vacations to all!
Lissa
Check-in: Arrived to a wonderful CM (even tho she did not offer a Welcome Home, ha!). Our one-bedroom villa was ready (we requested only non-smoking, near a pool). She told us we would love her for the view we were getting, and we truly were impressed.
Unit Condition: We were in unit 1436, 3rd floor of a 3 story building. We were very pleased with our villa. The only complaints I would make (if I had to), was that the king bed seemed to sag a bit. Perhaps this was my perception upon entering the room (the bedskirt was sagging on the floor in the middle of the bed). The bedsheets at Vero were not as soft as the sheets we had in our 2 bedroom at Cypress Pointe Grand Villas in Orlando. The only other complaint was that the balcony was an enclosed balcony. When I sat on a chair on the balcony, I had no view. We do have younger children (although not that young anymore) and I thought if they were still toddlers, this would be an ideal room. In the future, we will request an open balcony. The unit was very clean and all fixtures, etc. were in great shape.
Unit View: We had a fantastic view from our living room windows of the ocean. The view is totally different that what we are accustomed to. We normally vacation on the Gulf of Mexico beaches and have a beach/ocean view. The views at Vero are not inclusive of the beach (at least as far as we could tell), but you do get a wonderful view of the ocean over the top of the immaculate and impressive foliage. Having never been to Hawaii, we imagined this is what it would be like. In a word, it was awesome.
Unit Noise: We did have one (maybe two) different familys stay in the studio that adjoined our villa. We did hear some children on a couple of occasions but never late at nite and it was never an issue. Other than that, we never even heard any birds (very unlike the Gulf Coast) and it was extremely peaceful.
Unit Location: Very close walk to the pool and main building. This is a small and lovely resort. I cant imagine not loving any building we would have been given.
Weather: Great. We did have afternoon rains on the first 2 afternoons we were there. It cleared up after a couple of hours and we were able to enjoy these stormy afternoons as quiet time.
Meals/Snacks: We had an awesome dinner to celebrate my DHs birthday on our first nite there. We dined at Sonyas for their Seafood Buffet. This really was an awesome buffet. We had boiled shrimp, large crablegs, conch chowder, lobster cakes, mussels, pastas, salads, bread, dips, and many other things (I cant remember). The dessert area features 4 different desserts (all wonderful). My DH was a little bummed as there wasnt a major chocolate dish, but we survived, ha! Our server (Betsy?) was wonderful. After wed finished, she brought him a delicious piece of cake with Happy Birthday written in chocolate on the sides of the plate and the entire restaurant (small place) sang to him. He was duly embarrassed and impressed. We also found a wonderful ice cream place in Vero (Swensons). It had sundaes reminding me of Beaches & Cream and a great staff. We also tried Vincents for pizza our last nite there. This was also in Vero. My DH loved it, I thought it was just OK.
Golf: My DH golfed at a course called Sand Ridge. It was a VERY nice course and extremely reasonably priced ($28.00 including balls). It is ranked like #4 for public golf courses. He was originally to play at Indian something or other, but found out they had just aerated their greens. We drove thru Sand Ridge on the way to Vero and he thought it looked great and proved to be so. He also golfed at Celebration over at WDW. This was only $30 (including balls) after 4:00 PM for FL Residents. This was another very nice course. He got rained out and has a raincheck to go back for another 9 holes sometime. Sounds like I need to plan another trip, ha!
Best Fun of the Trip: The kids loved playing in the pool and going down the slide. They wouldve ridden the slide all day. We also rented a wave-runner and this was a blast. We did the campfire this looked to be fun until my son was stung by a bee (on the neck) twice just as it was starting. We left and it was standing room only. I think several people were tripping over themselves to grab our bench as we were leaving. Also, the beach was so cool. The waves were huge (compared to the calm Gulf) and the kids had tremendous fun riding the waves. My DH walked the beach very early one morning and came back with 3 of the largest shells Ive ever seen. I thought he bought them somewhere. The next morning we all went out walking and couldnt find any. Apparently several of the parents who were in line behind him the day before (signing up for the unbirthday party with his bounty of shells) all beat us out the next morning (as we passed them heading back to the resort with their bounty, hee! Hee!) Really, these shells are so cool. The Unbirthday Party was a hit, but a very big must-do. My husband had to line up 45 minutes before Eb & Flows opened to make sure we got in (we had missed it the prior time). The kids also made t-shirts (Gyotaku?). They are cool and it was a lot of fun. We also had fun with my sons metal detector. We didnt find any treasure, but struck up some interesting conversations with other beach combers.
Strangest/Greatest Moment: The resort lost total power for about 3 hours on Tuesday nite. We had just gotten back from Swensons Ice Cream shop and were changing into our suits for a nite swim (around 8:20 PM) and the lights went out. We did still go for our nite swim however, around 9:00 I made the kids get out of the pool because I could no longer see them no lights in the pool either. They did still have power on the main floor of the main building, but no power in any of the rooms. We went upstairs and had a wonderful time chatting with our children. We finally went to sleep sometime after 10:30 and the lights all came on a little after 11:00, only to go back out for another 30 mins or so. Oh well, it gave us time to get up and turn everything off, ha! We always have at least one strange occurrence on each trip and this trip was no exception.
Disappointments: None really, probably only the enclosed balcony.
Best Memory: Seeing my kids run and jump, squealing with glee in the ocean. Doing the slide about a million times a day, until their legs just wouldnt climb the stairs another time. The huge ice cream sundaes at Swensons. The lovely chat my 9 yo DD and I had while the electricity was off.
Another successful DVC trip and another place we will definitely visit again. It truly was beautiful.
Thanks for reading! Happy Vacations to all!
Lissa
I'm trying so hard to actually save some points, but I keep finding reasons why we should go try Vero.
