Ethan's First Trip to Walt Disney World: Beach Club Villas and Epcot

On our first full day at Disney, we left Pop Century to stay at the Beach Club Villas.  That morning the food court at Pop Century was so packed that we couldn't stand to wait in a long line for a fast-food breakfast (or even just coffee) so we ate some breakfast bars I brought and headed over to the Beach Club to check in (transportation courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa Wade).  Disney did transfer our luggage for us -- a nice service but this time our luggage wasn't brought to our room, just to bell services at our new hotel.

The interior of our room was nice (minus the popcorn, fruit-loops, and receipts the previous guests left on the floor and housekeeping didn't bother cleaning up).  Our view would have been OK (it was of a courtyard and car turnaround/front lobby area) but there were ugly green construction lifts all over and we were right above the designated smoking area.  We called to see if we could change rooms but were told the hotel was full but there might be a possibility of moving on a later date in our stay.  The next time we asked, they were still full.  So, unfortunately, with the construction noise Ethan couldn't nap very well in the room and we couldn't use the balcony because of the smoky smell (it seemed someone was always smoking in the designated smoking area).

Our view of construction from our room balcony

Our view of the designated smoking area and ashtray
(that's the corner of our balcony in the foreground).

Construction noise video during one of Ethan's naptimes 

(this was relatively quiet construction noise). 

After checking in and grabbing a quick breakfast at the Beach Club Marketplace, we walked over to Epcot.  It took about 5-minutes walk to the park, which was great.  We headed for Journey to Imagination, thinking that would make a great first ride for Ethan, but he fell fast asleep on the walk there.  Instead, Cayne, dad, and I rode "Soarin", which was a fun ride, while mom stayed with the napping baby.  Ethan had woken up when we finished and we decided to ride "Living with the Land" and the mom, dad, and Cayne used our Rider's Pass to ride Soarin' while I took Ethan to the Baby Care Center to feed him.  It worked out pretty well -- the Baby Care Center was really nice, cool, and quiet!

Eating breakfast in the Solarium at the Beach Club

Waiting for Soarin'...Cayne's first ever theme park ride!

The five of us met Sarah and Nathaniel for lunch at the Coral Reef Restuarant.  We weren't super hungry after our breakfast so planned to order appetizers but doing that must have really upset our waiter because he was very rude with us during our whole lunch...not a good introduction to Disney Dining.  It was a very uncomfortable experience, although seeing the fish in the aquarium is always fun.  After lunch, Ethan enjoyed "The Seas with Nemo and Friends", although I don't think it was as neat as "The Living Seas" used to be.  We also rode "Spaceship Earth", "Universe of Energy" (Ethan napped on that one), "Mission to Mars", and "Test Track" (those last two without Ethan).

That evening we went back to Epcot for some delicious fish and chips (at the United Kingdom Pavilion) and tacos and churros (at the Mexican Pavilion).  Ethan was pretty tired and fussy by the time we got our tacos, so we ended up taking them with us back to our room for a relaxing meal after putting him to bed.