It was finally time for a vacation.  In years past our default vacation destination was Florida, but now that we lived near Orlando where should we go?  We had discussed visiting Georgia or Louisiana that would have been within a reasonable drive.  Then after some further discussions we actually decided that Florida still had plenty of places we could visit and eventually chose Miami as our destination.

However with our two young daughters we wanted to try and minimize how much time we spent in the car, so we decided to make a stop about half way.  When I was checking out where we could stop I recognized Vero Beach and remembered that Disney had a Resort there.  I booked a room and we were all set for our week-long trip to Southern Florida.

The drive from Orlando to Vero Beach was pretty straight forward and thankfully our daughters both napped most of the way.  Once we arrive security welcomed us home in standard Disney fashion.

At check-in we received our First time visitor pins, and were shown to our room.

After dropping out luggage in the room we decided it was time to wonder around the resort a bit and get our bearings.  There is a Spa on site which my wife took advantage of.  I took our girls outside for some fresh ocean air.

There is a large Mickey shaped pool with a pretty big water slide.  As we walked by they were actually having water slide races which seemed to be popular with the kids.

There are some tall bushes in between the resort property and beach.  At first I thought it was a little strange but as you find out more about the Sea Turtles that uses these beaches for nesting the bushes service an important purpose.  More on that later.  There was an access path through the bushes that takes you out to the beach.  The Atlantic ocean was beautiful and something we hadn’t seen in a while since leaving Jersey.  This is where we spent most of our time on the beach and in the ocean, our girls just loved it.

Eventually we headed back into the resort and found the quick service dining area and grabbed some dinner.  As you can see from the sign above I was also pleasantly surprised to find they offered Dole Whip which we enjoyed a few times during our short stay.

Remember I mentioned the Sea Turtles and the tall bushes by the beach?  Once we were back in our room we noticed the above card on one of the tables.  It explained more about the nesting sea turtles and requests that guests keep their window curtains closed after certain hours at night.  The baby sea turtles use light reflecting off the water to navigate back to the ocean once hatched.  Any artificial light can cause confusion.  So that is why the request for the curtains, and also for the tall bushes which are part of the nesting groups and also help keep out any noise or stray light.

On our way back to our room we cut through the main lobby and found the two pressed coin machines I had heard were in the resort.

The first machine only had one design that pressed on a quarter.

The image on this coin is of the two famous Pixar Sea Turtles Crush and Squirt from Finding Nemo.

The second machine is the standard three design electric machine that pressed pennies.

The images on these coins were of the Disney Vero Beach Resort Logo, Classic Mickey, and Surfing Mickey.  It had been a long a day, with some fun on the beach and exploring this fantastic resort.  We made our way back to our room and all crashed (after making sure our curtains were closed).

Unfortunately during our trip we didn’t see any turtles, but this place was really a lot of fun.  The resort and staff did feel just like the Disney resorts we are used to but without having to worry about racing to a theme park it was really relaxing.

Day one of our vacation was in the books and we were looking forward to making out way to Miami.  Plus I promise there will be plenty more pressed pennies to find.