February 2017 Disney World Trip Report Part Four
Today is part four of my trip report from our February visit to Disney World. You can find Part One, Two, and Three in previous posts. Just a reminder, this was Melody's first visit to Disney World. This was our third park day, and we decided to go to Hollywood Studios that morning. Our plan was to go to Animal Kingdom that evening. The night before we did decide to skip Animal Kingdom because we wanted to go back to Epcot. We also didn't quite follow the plan down to each ride, but overall we stayed on track. Check it out below!
Like the previous day, we decide to sleep in until Melody woke up on her own. Because of this, we did not get in line for the bus until 9:25 a.m. Below is a snapshot of how long the bus line was. It was insane. Also like the previous day, it took us waiting until the second bus for there to be room.
We were at Hollywood Studios pretty fast, around 9:45 or so. We got lucky with the security line and we went to the far left. We basically walked right up to the security guy to get our bags checked. Always go left!
Because it was so close to 10 a.m., we went straight to the Baby Care Center. We had originally planned to do two things prior to this, but we knew there wasn't time at this point. We were the only people in the baby care center at this time, so I took a few pictures you can see below. This was probably the nicest appearing BCC, but it was the smallest by far! It contained two nursing rooms (only separated from the others by a curtain), a small kitchenette located inside of the room with the high chairs, couch, and TV, a room full of changing pads, and a toddler only bathroom. If you needed supplies, you had to go to the gift shop across the street to get them. There is signage for this above the TV. They also allow you to bring your strollers into this BCC.
After feeding Melody, we were pretty hungry ourselves. It was 10:30 at this point, and we knew we had a Fastpass that started around 11. So we didn't have time for a whole lot prior to our Fastpass. Since they closed Starring Rolls, we headed over to the Trolley Car Cafe. You can read my short review here. We found some seating and parked Melody in her stroller beside us while we ate.
After we finished our breakfast we headed towards Animation Courtyard. We stopped for a quick picture with a Photopass photographer. Not the best background, but it was the first photographer we saw that wasn't super busy. [Notice my super cute Flower and Garden Festival hat that Brad bought me last year as an anniversary present!]
We had a few minutes to kill, so we visited Launch Bay Cargo and looked at some of the Star Wars merchandise. We got in line for our Fastpass at Disney Jr. Live on Stage around 11 a.m. We waited maybe 10 minutes or so, then they let us in the theater. You can literally sit wherever you would like. The Fastpass doesn't guarantee a section or anything. There are three sections that are marked. You will be sitting on the ground as well. While the front row may seem appealing, I recommend at least a few rows back. We were three rows back and didn't have any trouble seeing. The closer you are, I think the harder it might be to see the back of the stage. Of course Melody fell asleep during the show.
The show finished up around 11:45 (so about 20-25 minutes long). We headed to Launch Bay so that Brad could explore it. Melody slept a little while longer too. We also looked through the Disney Studio Store since it was focused on Disney Jr items.
Then we went and used our Fastpass at Toy Story Mania. After we entered, they sent us to the new tracks. This was the first time I had been to that side. We had to wait a little bit because someone's glasses fell onto the track, and they had to find a way to get them so the ride could continue. But it was eventually resolved and we were on the ride! While in line, I moved Brad's Star Tours Fastpass to 12:30 to buy us some time.
While Brad rode Star Tours, Melody and I went over in front of MuppetVision and found some shade and relaxed. She was in a really good mood as you can see below!
After Brad finished his ride, we headed to PizzeRizzo for lunch. It was basically empty. That whole side of the park is empty now unfortunately. You can find my right up here, but below is a shot of the menu and Miss Melody and me.
Technically I had a Fastpass for Tower of Terror next, but I honestly didn't feel like riding it nor did Brad. So I changed it to MuppetVision. Not because you need a Fastpass for it, but because I wanted to be able to use a fourth Fastpass at Epcot that evening. Brad literally walked through the standby line as quickly as I walked through the Fastpass line. Melody wasn't impressed by this show. Of course she could not see what was going on since she could not wear the 3D glasses.
After MuppetVision, we headed back to the Baby Care Center for Melody's 2 pm bottle. Below are a couple of other pictures I took of the children only restroom. Unlike other centers, no adult restrooms were located here. It was much busier, but we were able to get a good seat and high chair to feed Melody.
When we finished feeding Melody, we headed to the boat dock to take a boat to The Beach Club. We hope to stay here one day, so I wanted Brad to take a walk around it. He has never visited any of the Epcot resorts. The boat is nice because you are not required to fold up your strollers. They have you store them in the back of the boat instead. It isn't always the quickest (or coolest) transportation option, but it was a nice change.
We got to the Beach Club around 3:30. We walked around the pool area, through the hotel, and around the DVC area. It is really nice. We are hoping to return to Disney later this year and stay in an Epcot DVC resort. We will see!
We walked over to Epcot after our tour of the resort. The back entrance is really nice due to the lack of people. This is another reason we would like to stay at one of these resorts. You still have security, and there is even an AP only line too! We headed straight for The Land of course. We had booked Fastpasses for Soarin' earlier in the day. We really were not sure how long the wait may be by the time we got there.
We arrived around 5 p.m. Brad rode first, then I took my turn. Melody hung out with each parent inside of Sunshine Seasons. Of course she cheesed it up as much as she could for all of the other guests!
We both finished up around 5:45 p.m. We knew Melody would be eating around 6, and we were both getting hungry too. So we decided to do Living with the Land one last time since it closed at 7.
After Living with the Land, we fed Melody her 6 p.m. bottle inside of Sunshine Seasons. We debated what we were going to do for dinner in the meantime. We were both EXHAUSTED (more so me than Brad). Part of me wanted the food from Garden Grill, but I wasn't sure about spending an hour at dinner and dealing with the characters. Melody wasn't far from napping, so I knew she wouldn't be much fun with them. I don't care for the Electric Umbrella. And again, a table service restaurant was going to be difficult with a tired baby. In the end, we decided to eat at Sunshine Seasons again. It sounded good and different, and it was the perfect way to end our trip.
After dinner, we went to MouseGears to finish up our souvenir shopping. Brad had a $25 gift card to spend, we wanted to get Melody a few things, and we also wanted to bring back a gift for our niece and best friend's baby. Since shopping took so long, we went back to the Baby Care Center at Epcot to feed Melody her solids at 8 p.m. We were lucky on our way out of the park because we found a Photopass photographer with a short line in front (or should I say behind) Spaceship Earth. This was the only picture we were missing from the three parks we had visited.
We left the parks around 8:50, and we made it back to our room around 9:30. We let Melody play a bit while we started packing. We didn't have an early flight, but I knew we would be sleeping in. Check out was at 11, so I didn't want to feel rushed. We fed Melody, bathed, and went to bed!
We didn't accomplish near the rides we had planned to, but we still had a great day. It was really hot, but it was much more relaxing on this day. The parks were not as crowded as we had seen them over the past few days. It made for a nice ending to our trip.
