Let me start by saying that this was the most wonderful vacation we have had in a long time. We were planning on driving to Orlando for a one night stay and a stop at Blizzard Beach. We live 2 hours from Disney and 40 minutes from Vero Beach. We decided to change are reservations and stay here. We check in at 10:00 a.m. no extra charge. Large extra clean rooms with refrig., microwave, and the bathroom was huge. I booked an ocean view room because if you are staying on the ocean why look at a parking all night. We moved our dining table to the patio and had waterfront dinning. It was so relaxing watching the sun rise. The kids loved jumping in the waves, making sand castles , then going to pool and having fun on the water-slide. We had a wonderful view of the space shuttle. You do need a car if you are staying a long time or bring a cooler of food with you because the price of food is high ( Its Disney) In 10 minutes you are near a pizza hut, burger king, and other places. Next time we will stay at least two to three night. This was a true family being together vacation. If only they allowed dogs. : ( . I would recommend this hotel to everyone.

Go here with the kids after a couple of days at Disney World and you will be very happy. The previous review hits it right on the nose with her description... so I wont' repeat the details. My children had more fun at the Vero Beach resort than in Orlando. It was a two hour drive from Orlando.

We are not Disney Vacation Club members and that's O.K. You can book this hotel as guest. We were not offered any one-bedrooms.. all that was available for non-quests was in the "Inn" which is the main building. The rooms in the "Inn" are very basic. Can use a little updating. Try to get an ocean view or evern the pool/ocean was a great location.

We ate at Shutters for breakfast, it was very good. Didn't make it to Sonia's. And we really enjoyed the pool side snack bar. The food was excellent (great all white chiken fingers and turkey wraps) and great Cocktails. Loved the GrandMargaritas!!!

The pool was the highlight for us. Our 9 and 6 year olds loved the BIG slide and the little one enjoyed the pirate ship/splash area. We stayed at the pool and beach from morning to night (literally... til 6 or 8 pm some nights.) I didn't see my little one much. She was on her own in the gated pool area that has activities, a game room, and she loved running over to the recreation desk to get noodles, water bomb balls, etc. (at no charge). They do charge a fee to ride bikes (I think 7$ an hour) and play minature golf. Sign-up early for the un-birthday party. The kids decorated cupcakes, played games, pinata and received a loaded goody bag. They also have a camp-fire on Wed and Fri. (I think) where the whold family sings songs and makes smores.

We are beach people, but at this resort I actually enjoyed the pool area better. There isn't much of a beach left, the water was very rough, there are no life gaurds (due to fact that it is a public beach) and you have to pay to rent beach chairs.

Beware of the no-seeums... Bring your bug spray... they are out there. Strange things is .... I was the only one to get bit... and I mean attacked. I have bites all over the bottoms of my legs, arms, and chest.

Overall, this is a wonderful place to get away. Keep in mind there is not much to do on the outside. There are some good restaurants, but you have to travel about 20 minutes or more.

We would love to go back!

We are DVC Members and after being at the parks for 5 days, this was definitely the place to unwind. Weather was great, no issue with bugs and with a 1 BR villa, it allowed us to cook in the room and keep the expenses down. Shutters on Saturday morning with Goofy and Donald was just enough Disney for the kids. The rest of the time they enjoyed all the acitivites that were offered like fishing, t-shirt and mug painting and mini-golf. The pool was great with a large waterslide for all ages and the beach was great too. A little surprised that DVC members had to pay for their beach chairs as we only rented them one of the 5 days we were there. Otherwise, the cost can really add up.

Rooms were clean, staff was great and the view was wonderful. It is a great place to relax and feel comfortable that the kids are in a safe place.

We plan to return next year.

My wife and 2 year old son stayed here the first week of September for an entire week. We stayed in one of the 1BR Villas. We had a full kitchen, LR, and private BR. The bathroom had a huge Jacuzzi in it. One very disappointing thing was the room was filthy when we checked in. The floors, counters, and bathrooms look like the did a cursory cleaning only. After a family spends a week in a room like this the hotel needs to do a better job cleaning the rooms. We didn't want our son walking on the floors they were so filthy. We called housekeeping, and they came in the next day to do a better job. We are not neat freaks, but when you find hair still in the bathroom sinks, it tells you that they did not put too much effort into cleaning. Enough said on that since this was really the only low point we had for the whole week.

Here are the high points:

Resort & Grounds - were very well kept and manicured. Very clean.

Pool - The pool was a lot of fun for the kids. They have a water pirate ship for the little kids that my 2 year old could not get enough of. He played for hours in it. They also have a great jungle gym next to the pirate ship that he loved also. The big pool has a giant water slide in it for both kids and adults to use. It was great.

Beach - The beach was very nice. There was no lifeguard though which was a little unsettling, since the waves were huge due to a hurricane that was way offshore that week. They have rentals available like beach chairs and jet skis.

Restaurants - We did not want to go out looking for food, so we ate in Shutters 5 of 7 nights. The food was very good, and the wait staff very responsive, especially since we had a 2 year old with us. I did not think the food was expensive, I actually thought it was very reasonable. Maybe we are just used to NY, HI, and Caribbean prices...

Bugs - After all of the other reviews were were a little nervous about the potential bug problem. I have to say after being there for one whole week, we did not get bitten by one single bug! They must have moved out before we got there. No one else seemed to be having problems either.

Crabs - There are tons of them all over the place. They are a lot of fun to watch though. They like to hang out in the garages, and can startle you, but they will not bother you. My son loved watching them, and still talks about them.

Parking - In the garages is kind of tight. If you get a spot inside underneath, hold onto it, or you might loose it, and have to park outside. It was very convenient to load our stuff into the car in the garage, with the elevator right there.

I'm not sure if we would go back here or not. We had a very nice week, and the staff was very good. We might try another location in the future, but we did have a great time, and would reccomend it to freinds and family.