Sunset Cliffs
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2009
- Messages
- 1,017
After a full morning at Epcot, we got back to the condo at 3:15 to put Dylan down for his nap. We all rested for a while and around 5:30 my parents left for the conference that my dad needed to go to. Dylan woke up soon after, so we all got ready to go get some dinner. It was a cloudy out but it looked like it was going to be a great night weather-wise.
We decided to try to get into Beaches & Cream for dinner. We have eaten here before and I really wanted to get a No Way Jose. We drove over to the Beach Club and parked in the parking lot. We realized that we had never come in the front doors before we usually will visit the Boardwalk and then walk around to the Beach Club and come in the back way. Weve never seen how pretty the front of this resort is. I love visiting the beach, and the architecture here is so perfectly beachy that it makes me happy.
We walked around the hotel for a while and took pictures. Previously, we have visited here during the holiday season, so we have pictures of the lobby decorated with Christmas décor, but we had none of the lobby as it usually is. It is nice with how light & airy it feels. The furniture itself feels more formal but the overall atmosphere is very casual.
We checked out the gift shop and found a room called The Solarium. Let me just say that if I was staying at this hotel, I would have found some time to go to this room and read a book for a while. It looked so peaceful & quiet in there!
We got to Beaches & Cream and there was an hour wait to get seated. It really irritates me that this is a place that you cannot get an ADR for, considering there is always such a long wait to get in. We decided not to wait, because Dylan was hungry and getting antsy already, so we made a plan to come back around 9:00 and get just ice cream.
We walked to Epcot and went to France to get some dinner. We went back to the Boulangerie Patisserie because we saw that they had sandwiches there. We split a turkey sandwich and got another Napoleon
. We had brought a PBJ sandwich for Dylan to eat, so I went to sit with him at the indoor seating while Todd stood in line for the food. We sat in the back corner because Dylan was getting a little feisty and I didnt want him to bother everyone else.
Our turkey sandwich & Napoleon. The sandwich was good, but the bread was toasted so it was harder than expected and much messier! We had crumbs everywhere by the time that we got done eating it. We couldnt even blame the mess on Dylan.
Dylan was starting to be a naughty boy, and Im sure its because he was sick of being in his stroller. He was ready to get out & run. We tried to explain to him that we just needed to finish eating and he could get out, but he started doing the arch-your-back-and-cry thing and he wouldnt stop. So we put him in a time out by turning his stroller around to face the wall. As soon as we did it, he stopped crying instantly. It was pretty funny. For some reason, using a time out on him works really well, and most of the time he only needs to do it once and he forgets that he was being bad. I know, we are lucky!
His time out.
We finished eating and headed over to Morocco. On the way there we let Dylan get out of his stroller and run. There is a big grassy area right there and all he wanted to do was run on the grass and walk along the curb. We stood there for about 10 minutes and let him get on the curb, jump off the curb, get on the curb, jump off the curb. He was having a great time. You could hear the music coming from Morocco and I realized that it was MoRockin playing. We have never seen them before so we walked over that way.
When we got there, a lot of people were watching them but we were able to get close enough for Dylan to see them and to see the belly dancer. Todd decides to pipe in and say, Nobody told me there was a dancer! Dylan started dancing too, until he realized that we were videotaping him and that others were watching him. Then he got embarrassed and stopped. MoRockin was really good and it was a lot of fun to listen to them play. I wish that we would have done more of that on this trip. It is easy to walk right by and not even see the entertainment when you are on a mission to get somewhere.
We walked by the American Adventure and there was a band playing in the outdoor theater area. They were an Eagles cover band and they were pretty good! We walked to Japan because we have never taken much time to explore this area. We stopped out front and watched the Koi fish for a while. Dylan watched them for quite a while and was happy to point out all of the different fish.
We walked through the shops and saw the pick-a-pearl station. It was full of people crowding around it. I have to think that they make a lot of money on this because all of the people create such a hype about it, and it makes others want to do it.
We found some great placemats here. They are rectangle in shape and they are made of bamboo. They had them stained in different colors, but we picked a dark brown stain. I dont have any pictures of them but I will have to add it later. They are so pretty, and SO heavy. I couldnt believe that they were only $5.00 each! Their value seemed much more to me than what they were charging for them. I almost didnt buy them because they were so heavy and I was worried about packing them in my suitcase for the flight home. I thought for sure that they would put my bag over the weight limit. Todd convinced me that it would be ok, so we ended up buying 6 of them. I just love them and Im so glad he talked me into it. I will try & take a picture soon and post it.
We walked over to Italy as it was starting to get dark. This is a lovely area already, but when all of the lights come on, it is even better. I guess we didnt take very many pictures this night, but I know that we took a lot of video.
As we were leaving, we saw a CM walking around with a little girl that was probably 3 years old. You could tell that she was lost and was looking for her parents. I wanted to watch to see what they do when they find a lost child (I hope that never happens to us!) and she just kept holding her hand and walking very slowly in the area where she was found. You could tell that a lot of people were standing around watching because the little girl looked so scared. They finally found the parents not too far away, and they were sitting on a bench. The CM walked up with the girl and said, She was lost and couldnt find you. The parents looked surprised and said, Oh, thanks. And that was it! They didnt even realize that she was missing!!! Everyone watching the situation was instantly disgusted with the parents because they looked totally unconcerned. (We walked back by them about ½ hour later and the parents were standing and talking. The little girl was wandering away again and they didnt even notice. Grrrr.).
It was 8:30 so we decided to watch Illuminations over by France so that when it was over we could get right out and walk back over to Beaches & Cream. We stopped to take some pictures next to the water. I was holding Dylan and Todd was getting the camera ready. I dont remember what I was saying to Dylan but all of a sudden he grabbed my head and hugged me really hard. It was like a death grip on my head but it was so sweet.
I love when he decides to get affectionate out of nowhere. The best part is that Todd got a picture of it. Sorry they are so dark
..
Then a nice man came up and offered to take a picture of all of us together. I love when people do that!! Unfortunately, it came out very dark too, but I like it anyway because it comes with a good memory.
By now the clouds were rolling in and getting really dark. We stopped to listen to the Eagles band on the way back to France and they were playing Hotel California (which I LOVE!). We took some video and then kept walking. The entire sky was black by now and the wind was kicking up. We talked about our options, and we decided to leave. We didnt want to be pushing Dylans stroller through a lot of people while they were trying to get out of the rain. I was really disappointed because I wanted to see Illuminations but it is just another thing to add to our list for the next trip.
We walked back to the Beach Club rather than waiting for the boat. We stopped at the bridge to take some video and enjoy the view. We heard Illuminations starting and felt that the wind was getting worse, so we didnt stay there for long. As we were about 2 minutes from the hotel, it started raining fat drops of rain. There were people on the beach that had settled in to watch a movie on a big screen, and they all started running inside. We made it to Beaches & Cream and it was still an hour wait to get in. We didnt want to wait, so we walked back to our cars in the rain. We had the cover pulled over Dylan on his stroller and we were using our umbrellas. Dylan kept stretching out his hands to feel the raindrops. Then the lightning and thunder started, so I was glad we were so close to our car.
We got home about 9:45, much earlier than we had wanted to get home. It continued to rain through the night. Dylan played with his ball until my parents got home at 11:00 and then we all went to bed around midnight.
We decided to try to get into Beaches & Cream for dinner. We have eaten here before and I really wanted to get a No Way Jose. We drove over to the Beach Club and parked in the parking lot. We realized that we had never come in the front doors before we usually will visit the Boardwalk and then walk around to the Beach Club and come in the back way. Weve never seen how pretty the front of this resort is. I love visiting the beach, and the architecture here is so perfectly beachy that it makes me happy.
We walked around the hotel for a while and took pictures. Previously, we have visited here during the holiday season, so we have pictures of the lobby decorated with Christmas décor, but we had none of the lobby as it usually is. It is nice with how light & airy it feels. The furniture itself feels more formal but the overall atmosphere is very casual.
We checked out the gift shop and found a room called The Solarium. Let me just say that if I was staying at this hotel, I would have found some time to go to this room and read a book for a while. It looked so peaceful & quiet in there!
We got to Beaches & Cream and there was an hour wait to get seated. It really irritates me that this is a place that you cannot get an ADR for, considering there is always such a long wait to get in. We decided not to wait, because Dylan was hungry and getting antsy already, so we made a plan to come back around 9:00 and get just ice cream.
We walked to Epcot and went to France to get some dinner. We went back to the Boulangerie Patisserie because we saw that they had sandwiches there. We split a turkey sandwich and got another Napoleon
. We had brought a PBJ sandwich for Dylan to eat, so I went to sit with him at the indoor seating while Todd stood in line for the food. We sat in the back corner because Dylan was getting a little feisty and I didnt want him to bother everyone else.Our turkey sandwich & Napoleon. The sandwich was good, but the bread was toasted so it was harder than expected and much messier! We had crumbs everywhere by the time that we got done eating it. We couldnt even blame the mess on Dylan.
Dylan was starting to be a naughty boy, and Im sure its because he was sick of being in his stroller. He was ready to get out & run. We tried to explain to him that we just needed to finish eating and he could get out, but he started doing the arch-your-back-and-cry thing and he wouldnt stop. So we put him in a time out by turning his stroller around to face the wall. As soon as we did it, he stopped crying instantly. It was pretty funny. For some reason, using a time out on him works really well, and most of the time he only needs to do it once and he forgets that he was being bad. I know, we are lucky!
His time out.
We finished eating and headed over to Morocco. On the way there we let Dylan get out of his stroller and run. There is a big grassy area right there and all he wanted to do was run on the grass and walk along the curb. We stood there for about 10 minutes and let him get on the curb, jump off the curb, get on the curb, jump off the curb. He was having a great time. You could hear the music coming from Morocco and I realized that it was MoRockin playing. We have never seen them before so we walked over that way.
When we got there, a lot of people were watching them but we were able to get close enough for Dylan to see them and to see the belly dancer. Todd decides to pipe in and say, Nobody told me there was a dancer!
Dylan started dancing too, until he realized that we were videotaping him and that others were watching him. Then he got embarrassed and stopped. MoRockin was really good and it was a lot of fun to listen to them play. I wish that we would have done more of that on this trip. It is easy to walk right by and not even see the entertainment when you are on a mission to get somewhere.We walked by the American Adventure and there was a band playing in the outdoor theater area. They were an Eagles cover band and they were pretty good! We walked to Japan because we have never taken much time to explore this area. We stopped out front and watched the Koi fish for a while. Dylan watched them for quite a while and was happy to point out all of the different fish.
We walked through the shops and saw the pick-a-pearl station. It was full of people crowding around it. I have to think that they make a lot of money on this because all of the people create such a hype about it, and it makes others want to do it.
We found some great placemats here. They are rectangle in shape and they are made of bamboo. They had them stained in different colors, but we picked a dark brown stain. I dont have any pictures of them but I will have to add it later. They are so pretty, and SO heavy. I couldnt believe that they were only $5.00 each! Their value seemed much more to me than what they were charging for them. I almost didnt buy them because they were so heavy and I was worried about packing them in my suitcase for the flight home. I thought for sure that they would put my bag over the weight limit. Todd convinced me that it would be ok, so we ended up buying 6 of them. I just love them and Im so glad he talked me into it. I will try & take a picture soon and post it.
We walked over to Italy as it was starting to get dark. This is a lovely area already, but when all of the lights come on, it is even better. I guess we didnt take very many pictures this night, but I know that we took a lot of video.
As we were leaving, we saw a CM walking around with a little girl that was probably 3 years old. You could tell that she was lost and was looking for her parents. I wanted to watch to see what they do when they find a lost child (I hope that never happens to us!) and she just kept holding her hand and walking very slowly in the area where she was found. You could tell that a lot of people were standing around watching because the little girl looked so scared. They finally found the parents not too far away, and they were sitting on a bench. The CM walked up with the girl and said, She was lost and couldnt find you. The parents looked surprised and said, Oh, thanks. And that was it! They didnt even realize that she was missing!!! Everyone watching the situation was instantly disgusted with the parents because they looked totally unconcerned. (We walked back by them about ½ hour later and the parents were standing and talking. The little girl was wandering away again and they didnt even notice. Grrrr.).
It was 8:30 so we decided to watch Illuminations over by France so that when it was over we could get right out and walk back over to Beaches & Cream. We stopped to take some pictures next to the water. I was holding Dylan and Todd was getting the camera ready. I dont remember what I was saying to Dylan but all of a sudden he grabbed my head and hugged me really hard. It was like a death grip on my head but it was so sweet.
I love when he decides to get affectionate out of nowhere. The best part is that Todd got a picture of it. Sorry they are so dark
..Then a nice man came up and offered to take a picture of all of us together. I love when people do that!! Unfortunately, it came out very dark too, but I like it anyway because it comes with a good memory.
By now the clouds were rolling in and getting really dark. We stopped to listen to the Eagles band on the way back to France and they were playing Hotel California (which I LOVE!). We took some video and then kept walking. The entire sky was black by now and the wind was kicking up. We talked about our options, and we decided to leave. We didnt want to be pushing Dylans stroller through a lot of people while they were trying to get out of the rain. I was really disappointed because I wanted to see Illuminations but it is just another thing to add to our list for the next trip.
We walked back to the Beach Club rather than waiting for the boat. We stopped at the bridge to take some video and enjoy the view. We heard Illuminations starting and felt that the wind was getting worse, so we didnt stay there for long. As we were about 2 minutes from the hotel, it started raining fat drops of rain. There were people on the beach that had settled in to watch a movie on a big screen, and they all started running inside. We made it to Beaches & Cream and it was still an hour wait to get in. We didnt want to wait, so we walked back to our cars in the rain. We had the cover pulled over Dylan on his stroller and we were using our umbrellas. Dylan kept stretching out his hands to feel the raindrops. Then the lightning and thunder started, so I was glad we were so close to our car.
We got home about 9:45, much earlier than we had wanted to get home. It continued to rain through the night. Dylan played with his ball until my parents got home at 11:00 and then we all went to bed around midnight.
Love the pic of his time-out! So glad you found something that worked. 
to see/hear about the celebrity sighting.
I just love those little moments. It was great you got it captured on film!
