Disney’s Vero Beach Resort Photo Tour From July, 2011

We had the opportunity to visit Disney’s Vero Beach Resort (thanks to a friend who rented a Grand Villa Cottage for two nights!) While I wasn’t there long enough to do a regular photo walk, I have over 250 pictures around the resort that I hope you’ll enjoy.

We didn’t arrive until late in the evening, and I took photos of the bedrooms before the beds were touched. Each room had a towel animal, including a turtle and elephant. I always enjoy towel animals in my room, it’s something that sets Disney apart from other hotels! H20+ products were in each bathroom. We stayed in the Green Turtle Cottage, #1475. We have a video of the cottage here!

Two rooms included two queen beds, and the master bedroom included a king size bed, jacuzzi tub and glass shower. All the televisions are quite small. I was told it was because Disney wants everyone to leave the room and enjoy the activities, but it’d be nice if there was a large one for the living area for evenings.

Full size washer and dryer, with detergent supplied:

We went to the balcony and enjoyed a beautiful view of the moon after dining at the Green Cabin Room (which I’ll show some photos of later).

We brought cupcakes with us from my favorite cupcake bakery in Orlando, Sweet by Holly.

The Grand Villa cottages have a wonderful view of the beach, this was my first daytime view – wow! The best part of the villa is location, location, location. I thought it was a little odd at first to have the kitchen and living area on the second floor, but it makes total sense – everyone gets to enjoy the view, often with a meal. I’ll post now one of my only downsides about Disney’s Vero Beach Resort, and it’s that I thought the beds were too firm. I like to sink into a mattress, but there wasn’t any sinking to be had.

There aren’t a ton of Disney references, but Mickey and Minnie are in the artwork behind the front desk:

The lobby:

Jeff posing:

The Island Grove Packing Company is the general store here. I was happy they took my 20% premium annual passholder discount, it saved us from having to go to Publix for a few items. I like the artwork outside of the store as well, which includes Donald Duck advertising orange and grapefruit juice:

You can even find Duffy here:

Question of the day:

We had a nice meal at Shutters – Jeff had a “Disney Vacation Club” and I had a flatbread. The food was good, but we both preferred dining at the Green Cabin Room (I preferred the flatbread choices up there). I really enjoyed the atmosphere at Shutters, although some of the photos on the walls were a little unusual to me – like the lady below holding the lobster.

We were given a tour of both an ocean view room, as well as a 2-bedroom unit. I didn’t take many pictures inside the standard room due to space issues with 8 of us walking inside (it was very nice), but I did get photos inside the 2 bedroom villa.

We enjoyed part of the day on the beach, and Jeff put up our sun shelter. There were quite a few sea turtle nests that had tape to warn guests not to touch them (though the colors of the tape attracted kids). During the evening, it is very dark on the beach and at the resort to help keep the sea turtles from heading toward land. Our Grand Villa cottage was behind us here. We all got bit up pretty badly by no see-ums, I’m not sure how well spray protects against these aggressive bugs. We used a bug bite stick after we got home to help them stop itching.

Our friend led us through a tunnel that had quite a few Disney characters painted inside it:

On the other side of the tunnel:

Walking back across to the front of the resort: You can even see a topiary of Tic Toc Croc!

Walking back to our cottage before going to the campfire:

It didn’t take long for nightfall to set in. The campfire was pretty basic, with a sing-a-long of songs I didn’t recognize. Then everyone had s’mores (except us, we went to the pizza place that is just a few minutes by foot to get some dinner).

When you stay at Vero Beach, it’s like being on a cruise – your camera will fog up when you go outside. For some reason, it took a lot longer on the second morning for me to get the camera back to normal – but I decided to take a couple of photos with it first:

Our cottage:

I took photos around the pool area before mosts guests started arriving. The pool is nice – it was very warm, and there is a jacuzzi. There are quite a few other activities to enjoy, like miniature golf and a kids playground. We have a video of the pool area here!

I was surprised that the same refillable mugs that are at Walt Disney World are also at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort. I guess that means if the refillable mug test expands at Walt Disney World, it may end up here too!

Bleachers counter service near the pool:

There is a sauna, fitness center, biking, and more. These prices are from 2011, and are subject to change.

The game room is very small. There are a handful of games, and a Guitar Hero machine when I went in. Considering the number of kids who visit, it’d be nice if the game room was larger.

I continued my walk towards the children’s area, which features the Tiger Lily:

The playground is pretty standard:

The golf course has 9 holes:

I’m not sure what this is supposed to be:

Mickey Mouse head on the pool slide:

And a few last photos from the pool area (some signs I skipped due to the harsh sun on them an hour earlier):

We waited until everyone else had left to go back to Orlando, and then we took photos and video inside the cottage. The kitchen is really spacious, and so much of the artwork and design in the chairs (and on the stationary) is sea turtle related.

We went back to the Green Cabin Room and had a fantastic lunch with an even more specular view. I grouped together all of our Green Cabin Room photos from both visits, most were taken on the second visit. The first night, Jeff had a hamburger and I had a flatbread – see the hidden Mickey in the onions?