A very overdue Holiday TR ~ A toddler, a reunion & Thanksgiving ~ Update 9/17

[Sunset Cliffs]

We drove back to the Marriott after getting a call that our room was ready. Todd and Angelyn went in to get the keys while the rest of us waited in the cars. We waited a long time when finally Todd came back and said that our room was ready but Angelyn’s was not. We all went to find our rooms and followed the map to our building at the very back of the property. We were put into building 88 and our room was on the first floor so we were able to park right in front of our door and unload our stuff.

The rooms are really nice. We had traded for a 2 bedroom, but ours ended up being more of like a one bedroom and a studio room next to each other. It was huge! Much bigger than we expected it to be.

Our first view of the room.

The kitchen

The door in this picture led out to a screened in patio. We had absolutely NO view, because we were on the ground floor and they had planted box hedges right next to it. So it was a bummer we couldn’t see anything, it also meant we had no one looking in our room either, so that was nice.

Looking back at the front door & kitchen.

Our master bedroom was a decent size with a king bed. The bathroom was gigantic, which cut into the space of the actual bedroom. Overall it had a lot of space, but we had brought an air mattress for Dylan to sleep on and we couldn’t figure out where to put him.

We realized that there was a chaise lounge that could be shoved right up next to the bed, so we put Dylan’s bedding on that and that is where he slept for the week. He never rolled out of it one time and I’m sure it was more comfortable for him than the air mattress.

Mega soaking tub! I have never seen a larger tub. EVER!

My parent’s side was a full 1 bedroom studio with its own sofa & small kitchen. There was a door by the kitchen that connected the rooms, but we could have closed that and acted like it was 2 separate units. They had their own entrance door to the outside.

You can see that they had their own separate patio too, and they had a slightly better view than us.

Looking back at their front door. There was a mini kitchen in the entry way, and the entrance to their bathroom was there too.

Angelyn finally got her room and it was almost directly above us 6th floor. Once they got in their room, they saw that they had an amazing view, including being able to see Seaworld. At night, they could see the fireworks going off at Seaworld. Their room was more of a standard 2 bedroom, although their layout was similar to ours. We were all very happy with the amount of space.

We started to unpack and I put Dylan down for nap at 5:30, which was pretty late for him but he was getting a bit crabby. While he slept, we were all pretty lazy due to being full from lunch. No one was hungry or wanted to do anything at all. So we decided to just have a relaxing night.

Dylan woke up after a couple of hours, and Angelyn & Bryan came down to our room at 10:30 pm to watch the King’s game. It’s so weird watching basketball on the East coast because the west coast games start so late. The Kings are our favorite team though, and we didn’t want to miss a game if it was on TV. Around 10:00 we started to get hungry, so Todd & I walked over to get Pizza Hut that is on property, but it had just closed. That was a bummer because pizza and cheese bread had sounded so good! Since we were out, we took a couple of minutes to walk around & looked at the main pool as well as the kids pool. We were definitely impressed with the property. I will post more pictures of the grounds later. We couldn’t wait to spend time wandering around over the next few days.

Angelyn & Bryan left around 11:45 and I put Dylan to bed at midnight. I was so tired, since it had been a very long day. Dylan had other plans though, since he had such a late nap. He wanted to be up and playing. Since his bed was touching our bed, he was right next to me & kept waking me up. I was almost begging him to fall asleep and leave me alone. Lol. Todd had me switch sides of the bed with him since he was still up watching the game, and I finally fell asleep around 12:30. It was a great Thanksgiving day!

 

[MEK]

Great update. That Thanksgiving meal at Olivia's looks so yummy! Now that's what I'm talking about! Was that a special just for Thanksgiving? The restaurant is so cute. Can't wait to see it for myself in December. What a beautiful day it was.

Your new digs look pretty nice. Glad you were happy with the size and location of the room. Very nice!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Great update. That Thanksgiving meal at Olivia's looks so yummy! Now that's what I'm talking about! Was that a special just for Thanksgiving? The restaurant is so cute. Can't wait to see it for myself in December. What a beautiful day it was.

Your new digs look pretty nice. Glad you were happy with the size and location of the room. Very nice!

I'm pretty sure that it was a Thanksgiving special. I found a link to it on All Ears under the Thanksgiving section. I think we paid around $20 per person for the meal. It was SO good, and the restaurant is really cute. I hope you enjoy it in December.

 

[tinkgurl]

HI! What was Dylan for Halloween? Little Guy was the Wolverine! I'll have to send you a picture sometime. I don't know why it didn't send that one to your e-mail when I tried.

 

[pinkxray]

Olivia's looks very good and seemed to be a great choice for Thanksgiving

The Marriott looks beautiful. POR is pretty but the small rooms can't compare to that.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

HI! What was Dylan for Halloween? Little Guy was the Wolverine! I'll have to send you a picture sometime. I don't know why it didn't send that one to your e-mail when I tried.

He was Spiderman this year. It had all the fake muscles and everything. It looked so cute on him. I would love to see pictures of Wolverine!! Maybe you could PM me your email and I will try emailing you first. I checked my spam last time and it wasn't there either. Weird!

Olivia's looks very good and seemed to be a great choice for Thanksgiving

The Marriott looks beautiful. POR is pretty but the small rooms can't compare to that.

We were really happy that we chose Olivia's for Thanksgiving. We realized that we wanted a sit down place, rather than a buffet, but I didn't want it to feel too formal. Olivia's was perfect!

The Marriott had very large rooms, but POR had a lot more charm. I think I have more pictures of the property to post later.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Friday, November 26, 2010

We woke up at 8:30 this morning because the alarm on my phone went off . We had set it the morning before when we were at POR and I guess we had just snoozed it, but not really turned it off. That was a little annoying considering this was one of the days where we were planning on sleeping in late. Instead, we all woke up & had a lazy morning just hanging out at the condo.

Our plan was to avoid going to the parks for the majority of the Thanksgiving weekend, since we knew that they get incredibly busy, so today was a wide open day to do whatever we wanted. We talked about going shopping, but it was Black Friday & we knew every shopping place we went to would be crazy, so we decided to skip it. Angelyn’s family decided to go to Wet & Wild for the day. This day was Bryan’s actual birthday, and that is what he wanted to spend the day doing. It was pretty overcast on this day, so they said there was hardly anyone there. It turned out to be a perfect day to go and they had a great time.

We were going to take Dylan swimming in the kid’s pool, but when we went outside, it was cooler than previous days and it was windy, so we changed our minds since we thought he might get too cold. I was bummed about that because I know he loves to go swimming.

Around 11:30 we decided to brave DTD and just deal with the crowds. We hurried to get ready and left the condo around noon. The fastest way to DTD meant that we had to drive by the Premium Outlets that we had considered shopping at. As we drove past them, we had no problem getting by, but traffic going the other way was backed up all the way to the SR-535 & into the intersection! Crazy! Even with the traffic it did not take us that long to get to DTD.

Right before we pulled into the parking lot, Dylan said he had to go potty RIGHT NOW, so Todd dropped us all off by the T-Rex restaurant, & I ran him into the bathroom. He did not have an accident, and he really had to go! I was so happy that his potty training had not been completely derailed by the trip. The parking lot was pretty full so it took Todd a while to find a spot. We waited at the Lego store for him, and Dylan played on the slide outside the store. Then he got interested in the Lego stations outside so we helped him build a house with the Legos.

It was pretty busy at DTD. A lot of people were out shopping and there were tons of kids near the Lego area. It is a great place for them to play and get some energy out, but the slide was packed with kids and there was some pushing going on since some parents were not paying attention. You can see from this picture the crowd level.

Dylan has never shown an interest in Legos before, but he had a great time. He was so proud of his house that he built.

Todd showed up and we walked around looking at the window displays for a few minutes while we decided what to do. The whole Lego area is a lot of fun to look at and take pictures of.

We were hungry so we walked around to eat somewhere that I had only heard about but never been to.

Earl of Sandwich! I was so excited to eat here after reading so many rave reviews. The problem is that it was super crowded and the line was incredibly long. We didn’t have anywhere to be, so we went to look for a table while my dad and Todd got in line. My mom was able to find a great table inside, and the guys only had to wait 10 minutes in line, even though it looked much longer.

The line they were standing in. It wrapped all the way back to the exit on the other side of the building.

While we were waiting for food, my mom and Dylan were switching sunglasses and he thought it was so funny how small his glasses were on her.

We didn’t wait too long for our food. Dad & I got Hawaiian BBQ sandwich,

Todd got the Montaque sandwich,

And mom got Mediterranean salad with tuna. Hers was supposed to be a wrap, but my dad didn’t realize you had to choose a salad or wrap, so she got a salad. It still looked good to me!

We got Dylan got PB&J sandwich, and I think it was $4.00. I was a little annoyed that a PBJ was that expensive, but when it showed up at the table, I understood. It was a hot sandwich, and it was wonderful.

My TR notes say “IT WAS BOMB!” so I guess that means that we all really liked it. Ha, ha. We definitely will eat here again. I’m so glad that this restaurant lived up to its hype and that we weren’t disappointed. The meal was definitely worth the wait!

It was almost 2:00 by that point & we knew that Dylan would need to nap soon, so we split up to shop for an hour before going home. As soon as we walked outside, Dylan saw the carousel and wanted to go on it. We normally would not pay for him to do this, since he can ride the carousel at the MK for free, but it had been 2 days since we had got to a park and I think we were having withdrawal symptoms from rides. Lol.

After the ride was over, we went to the Christmas store first & spent most of time looking for our annual ornament that we get. I can’t even say how much I love this store. I think it’s because we have a tradition to pick an ornament on each of our trips, so it is a little nostalgia thing for me. We picked a cute one. It looks like a Mickey/Santa hat w/ fur on it.

We told Dylan he could pick his own ornament, so he picked some Toy Story bell ornaments. He was pretty happy about it, and it was fun for him to hang them on our tree when we got home from the trip.

We had just enough time to go to Goofy’s Candy Kitchen for some treats. When we got inside, it was outrageously busy. Wall to wall people. We didn’t want to wait in a line to get custom treats made, and since we knew we would be back later in the trip we just picked up some rice crispy treats for us & a sucker for Dylan. This sucker became my best friend later on, because he never ate it on the trip and when we got home I used it as his incentive for potty training. Without going into TMI, he had the peeing part down, but the other part was very scary for him, so his “Big Purple Disney Sucker” was the reward whenever he would go.

We all met back up and piled into the car & drove home. We completely avoided driving in the area near the outlets because we could tell the traffic was still very backed up. Once back at the condo, I took a nap while Dylan napped. Todd did a lot of work on the lap top while we slept. After our naps we got ready to go back out for Bryan’s birthday dinner.

 

[Dugette]

The new resort looks pretty nice. So much space!

Sounds like a relaxing Black Friday (except for the whole alarm going off early thing!) Yummy, Earl of Sandwich! I haven't tried the Hawaiian sandwich, but that's on my list of ones I'd like to try...looks good! I don't think I've ever seen a pic of their PB&J, but it looks pretty tasty! Cute ornament you picked out too! Glad you had a good time at Downtown Disney on that busy shopping day!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

The new resort looks pretty nice. So much space!

Sounds like a relaxing Black Friday (except for the whole alarm going off early thing!) Yummy, Earl of Sandwich! I haven't tried the Hawaiian sandwich, but that's on my list of ones I'd like to try...looks good! I don't think I've ever seen a pic of their PB&J, but it looks pretty tasty! Cute ornament you picked out too! Glad you had a good time at Downtown Disney on that busy shopping day!

The new place was very nice. Different vibe than Disney, but we really did enjoy having so much space.

Earl of Sandwich was everything I'd hoped it would be. It sounds a bit ridiculous to say that about a sandwich place, but I LOVE sandwiches and could eat them all the time. The Hawaiian was awesome too but honestly there were 4 different ones that I wanted to try.

It's so much fun picking an ornament each trip because it gives you such fun memeories to talk about later when you are decorating your tree from year to year.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

After our naps, we got ready to go to dinner for Bryan’s birthday.

This is what Dylan’s hair looked like when he woke up from his nap.

Angelyn, Bryan & Elijah came down at 7:00 so we could all go together, but Todd got a work call before they got there that lasted a long time. While we were waiting, Dylan was sitting on the couch playing a game on my iPad. At this point, I had only had the iPad for a couple of months and my dad & Elijah had never played with one. So pretty soon, they were on the couch with Dylan, watching him play. I thought it was hilarious that a 3 year old was showing 2 grown ups how to use new technology. Honestly, it amazes me how complex the iPad is, but they have made it so easy to operate that a toddler can figure it out. Pretty brilliant.

Apparently I was checking email while we were waiting too.

We had purchased a ball at Walmart for Dylan to play with during the week. He loves to play with a ball and it really helps him burn off energy during the day. He has developed a love for volleyball, since that is what Todd coaches, and he spends a lot of time during his days serving, passing, and hitting the ball. He is pretty coordinated for his age. He asked Bryan to play with him and it was so cute watching the 2 of them hit the ball back & forth.

Finally, Todd was done with his work call, so we left and drove to Miller’s Ale House for dinner. This is a place I heard about on another Disser’s TR, and we found it on our last trip. The food is SO good and it is really affordable. It is sort of a sports bar and there are TV’s everywhere with all the different sports playing. It is located off the SR-535, right past the turn off to DTD. This meant we drove by the Premium Outlets again and this time we did not get so lucky with the traffic. It was really backed up and we moved along at a snail’s pace. We were hungry by this point, so sitting in traffic did not help our moods. When we finally got around to the intersection at the 535, we saw the problem. People were zooming around the left side and cutting in at the last minute because they didn’t want to wait in line. We saw 3 almost accidents. I was so glad to get out of there without our rental car getting dinged!

We finally got to Miller’s Ale House at 8:00. It was fairly busy, which was surprising because it usually is around half full. The server said we would have to wait for a table for 8 or we could split between 2 tables of 4 and be seated right away. We opted for 2 tables because we all were starving and didn’t want to wait. Todd, Dylan and I sat with Elijah at one table, while my parents sat with Angelyn and Bryan in the booth right behind us. Dylan kept trying to talk & play w/ my mom over the back of the booth, and he kept interrupting their conversation.

Let me just say that this restaurant is really good, but it’s not for people who are on any sort of a strict diet. They have a very big menu and they do have a selection of salads, etc., but their food is a lot of “comfort food” that is battered, fried and greasy. I got Zingers & fries (covered in cheese & bacon),

Todd got ribs & a potato,

Elijah got fish & chips.

I brought the left overs of Dylan’s sandwich from lunch at EoS, & he shared my food too. I’m not sure what everyone got at the other table, but all were very happy with their food. During dinner, Elijah got on a long talk about Fantasy-type movies. I made the mistake of saying I didn’t like those types of movies that much, using Lord Of The Rings as an example. He was shocked that I didn’t like them, and he tried to “convince” me how wrong I was. I explained that I’m glad I saw LOTR, but wouldn’t probably watch them over & over because they aren’t my style of movies. He kept questioning me and he “was just trying to understand” what I had against those movies. Grrrrr. Round and round and round. We argued without actually “arguing” for 20 minutes and at the end of dinner, I was worn out. I finally told him I was done with the conversation, and started to watch a football game. He (ironically) made a comment that he didn’t like watching football, so I asked him why and he just said he wasn’t that into football. I could have pushed the issue and said “I just don’t understand…” but I let it go. Yes, I acted like an adult. Ha, ha. He is a very intelligent kid (well, by kid I mean he’s 18), and it’s funny to think about it now, but at the time I just remember feeling wiped out by the conversation.

The plan after dinner had been to go watch fireworks from the beach at the Polynesian, we didn’t get done with dinner until 10:00 and we all were tired. We skipped the fireworks and drove back to the condo. Angelyn & Bryan went to the hot tub, and Todd asked them if we could come up to their room after Dylan went to bed to watch a football game that was on TV. I was still trying to get Dylan down for bed at 11:30, so Todd went without me and I stayed w/ Dylan. I don’t know why he was so hyper this night, but he refused to fall asleep. I finally gave up on the idea of watching the football game and laid down to go to sleep, but Dylan kept talking to me. Finally at 12:30 he drifted off, and so did I.

At 2:00 am, the phone in our room started ringing. It was Todd on the phone and he said he was locked out of the condo. I hung up and walked to the front door and opened it, but he wasn’t outside. I was so confused, but I left the front door propped and went back to bed. A few minutes later Todd came in. Apparently his key would not work in the front door, so he said he was banging on the door but none of us heard him since our bedroom doors were closed. He remembered that my parents had their own front door, so he banged on theirs….until he realized that it was the wrong door! He said he freaked out and took off running up the 6 flights of stairs back to Angelyn’s room. Oh, I forgot to mention that he had left his cell phone in our room, so he didn’t have a phone to call my cell. Elijah was still awake upstairs so he let him in to use their phone to call me. We figured we would get his key fixed the next day. When we got up the next morning, we tried the key in the door and it worked. Weird. That’s when my mom said, “Well, maybe it’s because I used the bolt on the door when I locked up for the night.” So we tried it and that was the problem. I could not stop laughing because I was picturing Todd banging on a bunch of doors, all because my mom was safety conscious!

 

[MEK]

Oh No! I can just imagine all the commotion Todd caused by getting locked out of the condo.

That Miller's place sounds pretty yummy. I can't see your pics right now, but your description of the food is making me quite hungry. I am actually thinking about venturing off property for a meal while we are there in December, so maybe this is a good choice. We'll see - there are so many things I want to do and only a short time to do them all.

I do know how some conversations can be exhausting. I think once you have small children you use up all your energy and who fills like mustering it up for a debate.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Oh No! I can just imagine all the commotion Todd caused by getting locked out of the condo.

That Miller's place sounds pretty yummy. I can't see your pics right now, but your description of the food is making me quite hungry. I am actually thinking about venturing off property for a meal while we are there in December, so maybe this is a good choice. We'll see - there are so many things I want to do and only a short time to do them all.

I do know how some conversations can be exhausting. I think once you have small children you use up all your energy and who fills like mustering it up for a debate.

It was so funny the next morning when Todd was telling me about banging on the wrong door. He was wearing flip flops and he said his shoe flew off when he started running and he had to go back for it. It's like a bad comedy movie.

Miller's is like a hidden gem to us. It is literally 3 minutes from the Crossroads area outside DTD, so it's close and it is rarely ever crowded. Plus, we have liked everything we have ever eaten there. If you decide you want to try it, I can give you directions on how to get there.

It's amazing how exhausting those conversations can be! Elijah is a smart kid, and he likes to debate things. I just didn't care to get into the finer points of LOTR.

 

[Dugette]

Way late on commenting on the last update, but here goes:

Love the pic of Dylan teaching adults how to use the iPad!

Those food pics are making me hungry! Yum!

I'm with you on the Lord of the Rings thing. Years ago, a friend insisted that I would like the movies (I hadn't seen them) and put in the DVD of the first one and made me watch. I was bored out of my mind and fell asleep during it. Just not my thing...and I knew it was not my thing. Never did see any more of them. I don't know if I could've held back on turning things around with that football comment.

Poor Todd, getting locked out late at night and running from the wrong room!

 

[eandesmom]

Ok I am multiple updates behind, arrgh!


Your thanksgiving meals sounds yummy! Olivia's has always looked good to me. Walmart on Thanksgiving though is a little less magical. Everytime I see a TR where they go to Millers all I can think of is..

YUM

and

Heart attack on a plate.



Fun occasionally but some TR's it seems like multiple nights there. I'd put on 10 pounds!

I can so relate to the LOTR convo...Taylor can be like that.

Todd locking himself out.

Why will you never get there at Christmas? Does the scheduling just not work for you? We love going right around Thanksgiving because the lights are up, but you don't get the holiday crowds of Christams (other than the actualy Thanksgiving weekend days). Win-win. It is seriously my favorite time to visit.

Your description of the beignets made me laugh because it's so true!

I'd love to go but we traveled once, the day after and it was a nightmare. We were up till midnight on xmas day and then had to take off the next day. The kids are all at ages where they can't miss school and that makes the window really short. With a blended family, and a large one on my side, there is just a ton going on leading up to xmas and we can't really take just the E's. So it leaves the week after. It's possible, but not probable. I'd been really hoping to do one with my side of the family but for a variety of reasons it can't happen next year, long shot for 2013. I think for Jeff the only way he'd go at that time of year is if a larger gathering forced the issue or after K graduates HS. Never say never though, he whines alot but continues to surprise me!

I tell you, beignets on thanksgiving morning...now that is something I'd be thankful for!

 

[Bell<3Disney]

I am finally caught up, I remember you telling me that you were writing you trip report finally but then I forgot to go look for it.

By the way I am totally jealous that your ticker only says 3 weeks and mine says 4!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Hi everyone! Yes, an actual update has been made on this TR. I am embarrassed to say that it has been over 6 months. I won't give you excuses...life just got in the way. I was looking at pictures the other day and realized how much I wanted to finish this. Hopefully some people will still read it, but if not, I want to finish it to preserve the memories with my family. Thanks in advance if you comment!!

Friday, November 27, 2010

I couldn’t fall back asleep after Todd woke me up. I drifted off, but still woke up at 8:30. Grrr. Is that the way it always goes? The days that I CAN sleep in, I really can’t. No one else was up yet, so I spent time writing TR on the patio. It was much colder today, very overcast. During my time of self-reflection, I realized that I was feeling a bit a down. Not sure why. Maybe I was too tired from lack of sleep. I also was wondering if the details of the trip were weighing me down, rather than just allowing myself to enjoy the moment. I think part of it is because Todd & I have had no time to just be by ourselves & although traveling with a group is fun, it can be much more work than when it’s just 2 people. Also, Dylan has been getting spoiled by all of the attention, and along with the time change was acting up a little. Then I started to feel bad because I was in DISNEY WORLD and I was not happy like I should be. Has anyone else ever felt this way? After writing all of that out, I started to feel better. I think that I just needed a little alone time to re-charge before spending time with the group again.

Everyone woke up at 10. Dylan was a little earlier, but he wanted to play on my iPad so that kept him quiet until everyone got up.

Today was hotel viewing day. I wanted to shop but knew the crowds would be really bad. Angelyn called & said they were going to the pool. They wanted us to go but it was too cold for Dylan. I told her we might go around 1:00, before his nap when it warms up. They decided to go anyways and we got ready to hit a couple hotels to see the Christmas decorations and have lunch before coming back to swim & Dylan’s nap.

Dylan was ready to go, and wanted to bring his balloon animal that we had gotten at OKW.

We left before noon and as we were leaving, saw Angelyn & Bryan walking back from the pool. They were going to Miller’s Ale House for lunch again, then planned on taking a nap since they stayed up so late. It made me happy that they liked Miller’s so much that they wanted to go back. (On a funny side note, they just moved to Boston and she sent me a text after they had lived there for a few weeks to tell me that they had found a Miller’s Ale House not too far from their house. Ha, ha!) We went to Coronado Springs hotel to check it out and see the lights. It is a really pretty hotel.

The decorations were nice, and the lobby was impressive. My favorite part of the lobby was the fountain and the lights in the Registration area.

We went into the gift store & shopped for a few minutes. Later tonight, we were going to have a Dis meet with Becky (ladybugmom) and her family, and I wanted to get a gift for Becky’s girls. We found them the cutest princess pens, complete with fluffy pink feathers. I also got Dylan a Mickey pen, and myself a Mickey iPad cover.

While we were shopping, Todd had gone outside to take more pictures. The outside of this resort is definitely the prettiest part. Talk about feeling like you are on vacation!! This area just made me want to sit down and relax.

Dylan, keeping himself entertained.

Dylan liked the fountain and wanted to throw money in it again. There were 2 other boys playing on the ledge, and they almost fell in a couple times. Todd was pretending to video Dylan, but was honestly hoping to get them falling in the fountain on video. LOL.

We had lunch in the Pepper Market, since we were hungry and had never eaten there before.

The food was pretty good, but we felt like it was very confusing how they seat you and give you a punch card for your food, but then you get a server as well?? Not really sure about the whole scenario there. There is also 10% service charge, which they said is for the cooks, not the waitress…isn’t that what the cost of the food should cover? In my opinion, the whole set up is a huge negative when it comes to deciding whether to stay there or not, considering this is the only food court. I wouldn’t want to deal with it every time I ate there.

I had alfredo pasta & Todd had the nachos. Both were good, but nothing special.

I don’t remember what my parents had, but my dad got an ice cream for dessert and Dylan was all over that. Considering how much my dad loves ice cream, it was a real show of “grandpa love” to share it with him. Lol. Dylan knows he is being a stinker. Look at his face.

After lunch, wandered out towards the pool. There is a lot of pretty things to look at here.

Continued in next post...

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Continued...

Checking out the pool and slide.

We let Dylan play on the playground for a while. It had a lot of different things for him to do, and he was a happy little kid.

He was scared to go down the slide “with the dark tunnel” so my dad was trying to coax him down. He ended up not doing it.

This was an area for kids to dig in the sand and discover the buried treasure. I thought this was so cool.

We walked back to the entrance. Mom was really impressed with the hotel and took a million pictures. I agree that the grounds were really nice and the rooms look pretty. I am still partial to POR though.

Sorry for all the pictures, but it was hard not to keep taking them! We stayed until about 3:00 then were going to go to the Caribbean Beach hotel, but decided to get back to let Dylan swim and then nap. We got back and quickly changed. We went to the pool nearest our room (2 minute walk) and since it was overcast, no one there. Dylan brought his ball & had a great time. Unfortunately for me, I squished my toe underneath one of the pool chairs. It hurt so bad and I thought I had broken it. Luckily I didn’t, but it was hard to walk around on it for the next couple of days. We swam for about ½ hour, then went back to get him to nap. He was still awake at 5:00, so once he fell asleep we had to wake him right back up. We had to leave a little before 7:00 to make our ADR at WL at 7:30. I hoped he would be a good boy for dinner. I was really weird to not see Angelyn all day, but I think they enjoyed resting and taking advantage of using the amenities at the resort. She took these pictures from her balcony of the view. They were up on the top floor, so they were able to see SeaWorld and their fireworks each night.

You can see some of the buildings in the back of that picture from SeaWorld.

This is a hole from the golf course on the other side.

They had a much better view that us, so it was nice to go up there in the evenings and enjoy their view.

Up next…our Dis meet and dinner at the WL!

 

[Dugette]

Yay, you're back!

Very cool to see all those pics of Coronado. That was where we almost stayed during part of our December 2010 trip, until we managed that crazy Polynesian Club upgrade for the whole trip. Looks nice. I did hear that they recently changed their food court to a more traditional set-up, so hopefully that awkwardness has improved. Looks like a nice way to spend the afternoon.

 

[tinkgurl]

So glad to hear from you! I've been missing you and Dylan!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Yay, you're back!

Very cool to see all those pics of Coronado. That was where we almost stayed during part of our December 2010 trip, until we managed that crazy Polynesian Club upgrade for the whole trip. Looks nice. I did hear that they recently changed their food court to a more traditional set-up, so hopefully that awkwardness has improved. Looks like a nice way to spend the afternoon.

I really like CS, but I think you got the better end of the deal to stay at the Poly! I'm glad to hear that they have changed the food court. It's been over a year now since we were there, so my info is probably outdated. It was so confusing and we kept saying, "Wait, what else do we have to pay for?" lol.

So glad to hear from you! I've been missing you and Dylan!

Hi Tink!! I have missed you too! When I got back on the Dis, I realized that I had no way to check in and say hi to you. Are you going to be doing a PTR for your honeymoon? How are your wedding plans going? It's not much longer!!