February 2017 Disney World Trip Report Part Five
This wraps up my trip reports for our February 2017 Disney World visit. It was Melody's first time at Disney World. You can read about all of our days here (one, two, three, four). We did not visit a park on this day. I had contemplated it since our flight wasn't until that afternoon, but seeing that we had Melody with us, I thought it would be too difficult. If it were just Brad and me, I think we could have easily visited a park on this day.
We opted to sleep in since we were really in no rush to leave. We did not have to be at the Magical Express until around 1:30 p.m. Checkout was at 11:00 a.m., so that was our only real deadline that morning. We got up and took our time getting ready. We wanted Melody to have some time to just sit and not be confined in any way. We also had to make sure we had everything packed in all of the right bags. We didn't want to exceed the weight limits for each bag, and we wanted to make sure we had everything we needed in our carryons. Melody did enjoy just sitting and playing!
We left the room around 10:30 or so and headed to check our luggage. Each Disney hotel has a location where you can check your luggage. You do not have to be using the Magical Express to use this service. It is super quick. We were finished within 10 minutes at most. All bags were under the weight limits too!
We decided to walk over to the Art of Animation and take some pictures. We also wanted to try their food court for lunch. Below are a few pictures of our walk. Depending on your pace and location, it is around a 10 minute walk. It took a little less than 10 minutes to get from the food court at Pop Century to the food court at Art of Animation. And that included a few stops to take pictures.
We opted to eat at the food court at the Art of Animation. We arrived a few minutes before 11. They were still serving nothing but breakfast, so we found a booth and sat for a few minutes. We headed back to the food area a few minutes after 11. I wanted a sandwich, but apparently the sandwich shop did not open until 11:30 (super frustrating). Everything was also so confusing here. There were a lot of just "walk up and get it" stations. Like the pizza below...you just walk up and get. At other food courts that offer pizza, you also get a side item, but it wasn't clear here. It was a very poor setup.
Below are the pictures of our lunch. Brad got a plain burger with french fries and chips. Apparently it came with two side items. I picked up cheese pizza. The burger was just ok. It was simply a burger. I personally enjoyed the fries and chips. They were pretty good. My pizza was really good. It was hot and seemed fresh. Lots and lots of cheese on the pizza too.
After lunch, we took a few more pictures of the resort and decided to kill some time shopping and playing in the arcade. Of all my adult visits to Disney World, I had never spent any time in the arcade. It was actually a fun way to end our trip. We got $5 worth of credit. You can see the credits and costs below. I don't think Melody was super impressed!
After we played and shopped at the Art of Animation, we headed back to Pop Century to also do some shopping. We were not shopping for anything in particular, but we had some time to kill. We then decided to sit in the food court area and relax until it was time to go wait at the Magical Express bus stop. Melody enjoyed getting to sit on the table and just spread out and play.
Our Magical Express bus arrived right on time (around 1:30 p.m.). We headed straight to the airport without making any stops at any other resorts. We arrived at the airport around 2 or so. It was a really quick trip. We had to go to the Southwest counter to get Melody a ticket since we did not buy her a seat. The Orlando airport was great in handling the three of us along with our stroller, car seat, formula, and baby food. It was a really great experience. We were through security and at our gate around 2:30 p.m. I fed Melody as soon as we made it to our gate, and Brad went and got us some better food at McDonald's. Poor Melody had been stopped up (if you catch my drift). Thankfully she was able to take care of that before we boarded the plane! We started boarding around 4 p.m. We were lucky enough to be in Boarding Group A this time around! (Side note-Brad decided to use her stroller toy strap to attach her toy to her ankle. Needless to say, it did not work!)
We were seated by 4:06 p.m.! We took a quick selfie while Melody was still awake. The flight attendant said we were her best loading flight of the day! We were ready early for take off. Melody did really good, and she feel asleep not too long after take off in her daddy's arms. He also took a nap! We landed in Memphis around 5:30 p.m. (central time). By the way, I love to take pictures of Melody sleeping! They are so precious.
Overall the trip was AMAZING! Melody did so well on her first trip to Disney World, and she did great flying too. I intend to write about traveling to Disney with a baby. It is definitely a much different trip. I also plan to write about my tips for flying with a baby. Our two flights do not make me a professional by any means, but I did learn a lot that I hope will help me (and others) on future flights. I know it is hard to believe, but I am already planning our next Disney World trip!
