Click Here to take a 360 Panorama Tour of Disney Vero Beach Resort from VirtualEscape!

When we walked into the lobby of Disney's Vero Beach Resort, the first thought that passed through my head was "Wow - just like a Disney resort, but without Walt Disney World".

Well, duh.

Disney's Vero Beach Resort (DVBR) is, of course, exactly that. I don't know what it is about Disney resorts that make them feel different from other resorts. It's not that they are necessarily better, they simply have a feel that's all their own. Maybe it's the little touches; the attention to detail, the "theme-ing", the music playing softly in the background, the friendliness of the staff. But then other first class resorts have attention to detail, themes, soft music and friendly staffs. So maybe it's just me.

                                               

My wife Andie, our two kids Natalie (5 ½) and Charlotte (1 ½), and I would be spending the better part of a week at this resort, arriving the evening of March 27th and leaving on April 1st. This was our annual winter trip to a warm climate. In fact it was, of course, early spring, but it's nice to leave the cruel winter weather of the northeast for a week in the tropics (sort of), knowing that when we returned the weather would start getting warmer. Besides, Nat is in her first official year of school (kindergarten), and we selected this week to travel because she's on Spring Break. She also had a week in February, but getting to a guaranteed warm climate in February would require traveling further than we wanted to with 2 small children. The irony is that it took much longer to get to Vero than it had any right. Our plane left at 2:00 PM on Saturday, we had to switch planes in Atlanta, fly to Melbourne then drive an hour to Vero. We walked into the hotel lobby at about 9:00 that night.

All the buildings take their exterior design cues from the historic architecture of the area. I'm not familiar with the particular style, but it has something of a Craftsman style feel about it with multiple steep gables, a variety of roof lines and fairly prominent overhangs. I can say that there are many paintings and photographs of historic Vero Beach buildings throughout the resort and the heritage is clear. All the buildings are painted in a light muddy brown.

The lobby is a large, open space with a vaulted ceiling and exposed cream colored beams. There are many reminders of the history and natural surroundings in the lobby, as well as many references to the area's number one industry - growing citrus fruit. Near the entrance there is a wonderful mosaic on the floor with compass points and a large image of a sea turtle. Inside the lobby you'll find the check-in desk, DVC information and guest services, the resort's two restaurants and one lounge, and a small store called The Island Grove Packing Company. It's a charming little store with many of the little things you might suddenly find yourself needing: drinks, various food items like cereal and cookies, suntan lotion and sunscreen and, of course, Disney merchandise. This is also where you get DVC or DVBR logo clothing (gotta get that DVBR T-shirt!). There is a small area with mostly pirate (and Peter Pan) themed toys, a fact that earned this establishment the nomenclature "The Pirate Store" by Nat.

This trip was also the first time we had the opportunity to use our membership in Disney's Vacation Club (DVC).

DVBR has several types of rooms. The largest are the 3 bedroom Beach Cottages, which sleep up to 12 and are stand-alone structures. There are 6 of these cottages; one is used as a model. There are also 4 "Vacation Homes", each of which house several Studio, One Bedroom, Two Bedroom and Studio units (pictured is a bedroom in a Beach Cottage). Actually there are only One Bedrooms and Studios, as the two are attached to make the Two Bedroom units. The main building, which houses the restaurants and the lobby, also boasts over 80 "Inn Rooms". These rooms are a tad smaller than the Studios and with a more conventional hotel room configuration.

Our room was a Studio (room 1417 in vacation home 14) on the ground floor. Most DVC rooms are larger than most traditional hotel rooms although the studios are what I would consider about the size of a larger than usual hotel room. There was a queen-size bed and a sofa with a pull-out bed. The bathroom wasn't bad (though not *nearly* as nice as the master bathrooms in the 1 bedroom units with their Jacuzzi tubs - see photo), and there was a small refrigerator and microwave. There was a TV in a hutch with drawers and more drawers in a small dresser next to the bed. One of my biggest complaints about the room was the lack of drawer space. Not nearly enough for 2 adults and 2 kids. I think this is because the room was designed more as the 2nd bedroom in a 2 bedroom unit. The room was tastefully appointed, with pale pink walls (one wall was a pale blue) and nice details. It was a bit cramped for the four of us over 6 days, but a nice room overall.

The room also had a small patio. Being on the ground floor, when we first arrived it seemed a little claustrophobic because it was surrounded by tall plants. It just so happened that the ground-keeping staff arrived on our second day there and trimmed the plants back, and the claustrophobia was replaced by a lack of privacy - or light. You see, the bulk of the light for the room came through the glass door that opened to the patio, and if we wanted any privacy we had to pull the shade down. Oh well, that's what comes of requesting a ground floor room (Andie's preference, not mine).

Being a timeshare property, the services are somewhat different than you would find in a regular hotel. The main difference is you don't get daily maid service. Much of the hotel is occupied by people who paid cash and are not members of DVC (referred to as "guests" as opposed to "members" - guests account for about half of the people who stay at DVBR according to one employee (or "Cast Member", using Disney's parlance), and I assume the "guests" get full maid service. You do get "Trash & Towel" service every few days. This amounts to someone coming to your room and emptying the trash and replacing the towels. We found this to be perfectly acceptable - we always thought of daily maid service at hotels as overkill anyway. With a baby in diapers I will admit that the trash gets a bit ripe - we ended up emptying it ourselves. In the future I think we'll bring small trash bags to put the dirty diapers in before putting them in the trash.

Disney Banner Network