She's Going Solo! ToT 10 Miler, MNSSHP, & F&W! (W/PICS) *UPDATED (finally) ON 1/20!*

[DisneyBelle27]

Day 1: In which our intrepid explorer gets very little sleep, embarks on a journey on an aeroplane, gets soaking wet, and experiences her 1st ever MNSSHP (all w/out passing out from exhaustion!)

Friday, 9/28/12-Monday, 10/1/12

My first ever solo trip began eeaaarrrlllyyy Friday morning, when my alarm went off at 3:30am. Only for Disney would I ever happily get up at 3:30am, especially after going to bed at 12:30am and probably getting a grand total of 2 hours of sleep! My wonderful boyfriend drove me to Newark Airport and, miracle of miracles, my flight went off without a hitch. Finally, after my plane ride, I got to board this:

And then finally, I was home!

My trip was for 4 days and 3 nights. I had a 6:15am flight out of Newark, NJ Friday, and a 7:59pm flight home on Monday. I had planned the trip around running my first EVER Disney race, the ToT 10 Miler, it was my first WDW solo trip, and I was aiming to squeeze as much awesomeness as possible into my limited time!!

I arrived to ASSp around 9:30am, checked in, but of course my room wasn't ready yet, so I headed right out to MK! This was my 1st time being in the World at this time of year. The fall decorations were awesome!

Some Halloween merch:

Gotta love the crane. VACATION RUINED. WHERE'S MY GF UPGRADE?!?!

Boy was it hot and humid! At this point I was getting a little stressed about just how hot it would be for my night race the next night. There were a decent number of people in MK but it didn't feel overwhelmingly crowded, except, of course, for the walkway through Fantasy Land in front of Peter Pan's Flight. There could be 2 people in the whole park and it would still feel crowded there! Lol. Overall, for this entire day (including when I return to the park later for MNSSHP), through a little strategic planning and efficient use of the FP system, I don't think I waited more than around 10 minutes for ANY ride! And being solo was awesome, I could do whatever I wanted, without having to worry about anyone else!

So, let's see what I accomplished:

Rides/Attractions:
Swiss Family Tree House, Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan's Flight, Winnie the Pooh, Haunted Mansion, It's a Small World

Foods:
fried shrimp basket at Columbia Harbor House, pineapple Dole Whip float (sooo perfect for such a hot day!)

Dole Whip float:

Swiss Family Treehouse:

It's a Small World:

Jungle Cruise:

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (my 1st time!)

Haunted Mansion:

At this point I needed to leave, so I could take a bus back to my hotel in order to take a bus to the ESPN WWoS Complex for packet pickup for my race. Oh yeah, and then actually see the inside of my room for a couple minutes!

But fear not, my dear readers, this was only MK part 1 for this day, I will return later in the evening for MNSSHP & get all those great headliners in!

Coming up in my next post: the rest of Day 1

 

[Aulika]

Yeah ! A solo trip report and a runDisney race ! I want to hear all about your trip !

 

[DisneyBelle27]

Day 1 continued...

So it was time to head over to ESPN WWoS, my first ever time there (if you haven't noticed, this trip is filled with "firsts" for me: solo trip, ESPN WWoS, Disney race, MNSSHP, and F&W Festival!), to pick up my race packet. Here's what the Health and Fitness Expo looked like:

Checking in and bib pickup was all the way at the very back wall, Runner Relations was in the back right, where I submitted my proof of time to get out of Corral D and into Corral A, and along the right wall was where you picked up the included t-shirt and bag-check bag. I had also preordered the limited edition Inaugural Tower of Terror 10 Miler race pin. Here's my loot! Oh, and the tshirt glows in the dark! Woot!

Really not sure what the ToT has to do with Stitch, but Disney seems to like to throw him around indiscriminately. Oh well.

For anyone interested, the bag they provide for bag check is a large, sturdy, clear plastic, drawstring bag. It's HUGE!!

So, I tried to head out back to my hotel and in typical Florida fashion it started to POUR the minute I stepped outside, so I hung out under the entrance awning and chatted with a fellow solo runner who was also hanging out there. The rain let up (or so I thought) so I made a beeline for the bus, when, of course, it started pouring again. This is where the "get soaking wet" part comes in, .

Ah, good ol' subtropical weather (this is a view from the ASSp food court, where I warmed up w/a hot cup of what Disney likes to call coffee):

Anywho, the rain finally stopped, and I made my way over to my room where, thanks to Magical Express, my bag was waiting for me.

Sorry, I forgot to take a pic before I made a mess :

As you can see, it's typical Disney (lack of) quality room lighting!

Well, I took a brief nap (remember, I'm running on about 2 hours of sleep at this point!), and then got ready for my first MNSSHP!!

My "costume":

I know, I know, it's not much! I just loved those ears though, the look of them and the little hat on top made me think steampunk, lol. But wait til you see my costume for the race!!

And off to the party we go!

MNSSHP was awesome!! I didn't do any of the trick or treating or character meets, because I wanted to focus on seeing the parade, the fireworks, and hitting the headliner rides that I'd missed earlier in the day.

The parade was FABULOUS, probably one of the best Disney parades I've seen! I really loved the Haunted Mansion/gravediggers section!

Sadly, I do not have a fancy schmancy camera (anyone feel like buying me a present? Lol), so you'll have to bear with my night time pics, I did the best I could!

Time for the Boo to You parade!

The fireworks were fun too, with some fun music, but at least to me, nothing amazingly out of the ordinary for Disney.

In terms of rides I basically walked onto:

Astro Orbiter, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Haunted Mansion (again). It was great!

Buzz Lightyear:

Big Thunder Mountain:

Food-wise, I had chicken nuggets and fries from Cosmic Ray's, and funnel cake from Sleepy Hollow. Mmmmmmm....funnel cake.....now I want some more!!

Oh, and I got this totally awesome ornament earlier in the day at the Christmas shop in Liberty Square!! I ended up finding Sally and the mayor the next day at HS, in the Villains in Vogue shop.

Coming Soon!! Day 2: Hollywood Studios and the ToT 10 Miler! Stay tuned folks!!

 

[disney_runner]

Awesome! My friends were caught in that downpour at AK that day, yikes! You sure accomplished a lot on your first day.

 

[penni520]

Can't wait to read more and of course see the picture's. I will be going on my 3rd Solo trip next year...I just love going all by myself. No one to answer to

 

[IheartDDuck]

Joining! I can't wait to hear about your first Disney run.

 

[DisneyBelle27]

Day 2 In which our intrepid explorer heads to the bright lights of Hollywood, takes a too-short nap, makes an ill-fated trip to DTD, and perspires like never before in her first Disney race.

So, day 2 begins, and I drag myself out of bed after yesterday's marathon length. But hey, I'm in Walt Disney World, who the heck needs sleep?!

I get ready, nosh on one of my money-saving Nature Valley granola bars packed in my luggage, fill up my refillable mug with a cup of "coffee" in the food court, and hop a bus to Hollywood Studios!

Gotta love the streetmosphere!

HS is not my favorite of the Disney parks, I think it could do with some expansions, but I still love it! One awesome exhibit that I think a lot of people overlook is Walt Disney: One Man's Dream.

Some of the highlights:

Walt's 2nd grade desk

model for Main Street, U.S.A.

Walt's office

model for Adventureland

New Fantasyland expansion

model for the Tree of Life

Ok, sorry, I'll stop with the museum stuff now!

The park was not overly crowded, because it was closing super early because of the race. I still didn't make it onto Toy Story Mania though, since the wait got up to over an hour, and fp's out past 4, which was after I wanted to leave the park. Le sigh. Such is life.

I did get on The Great Movie Ride, Star Tours (my 1st time on the new, revamped version, very cool!), Tower of Terror, and Rock n' Roller Coaster.

For lunch I had the chicken bleu sandwich at the ABC Commissary. It's a grilled chicken breast on a bun, with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and bleu cheese dressing. It was pretty good, although the dressing wasn't as bleu cheese-tasting as I like.

Not long before I left, I enjoyed one of these:

It was excellent! Fresh, warm, and not at all dry. Yum!

Now, I ended up leaving at this point, and went on to make my one real tactical error of my trip. I knew that it was Frankenweenie Weekend at DTD, and that Jack Skellington and Sally were appearing as characters for the first time ever. So I left the park early, took a 1/2 hour nap in my room, and headed over to DTD. I arrived around 5:20, and the 2 characters were supposed to start appearing at 6pm. I must have been having a brain dead moment, thinking I'd have time to see them. I arrived, took one look at this line,

turned around, and headed back to the hotel. I did at least snap a few pics of some Lego sculptures I hadn't seen before:

And a little bit of fall decor

Coming up next, the ToT 10 Miler, Villains Hollywood Bash, and sheer exhaustion!!!

Stay tuned for part 2 of Day 2

 

[DisneyBelle27]

Yeah ! A solo trip report and a runDisney race ! I want to hear all about your trip !

Awesome! My friends were caught in that downpour at AK that day, yikes! You sure accomplished a lot on your first day.

Oh man was that some crazy rain!

Can't wait to read more and of course see the picture's. I will be going on my 3rd Solo trip next year...I just love going all by myself. No one to answer to

Joining! I can't wait to hear about your first Disney run.

everyone to my TR! So excited to see you here. Can't wait to get more of my trip posted, I should have at least the rest of day 2 up sometime today!

 

[DisneyBelle27]

Day 2 Continued...

So, before my tactical DTD error I had already put on my running capris, sports bra, tank top, and LOTS of glitter. It made for some interesting bus ride conversations!

When I got back to ASSp I realized I should probably grab some dinner, since the race wouldn't start until 10pm and I needed some sustenance to make it 10 miles! So I had a beef and bleu sandwich on foccacia (that might not be spelled right, lol), some coffee (to help me stay up late!) and more water. All day I'd been hydrating because I was afraid of showing up to the race dehydrated .

After my early dinner I headed back to my room to finish up my costume. It kind of came together in pieces, with no real solid concept, but I ended up deciding I was a night fairy, since it was a night race! I had black wings, a black tutu that lights up (sadly, you can't see the lights in the pic), and a small mask that, while running, I ended up wearing on my forehead like a tiara so it wouldn't drive me nuts!

my race costume!

I had also done a lot of pre-planning when it came to my bag check bag. I had extra plastic shopping bags for wet clothes and sneakers, clean tank top, shorts, underwear, and flip flops, freshening wipes to take a "sponge bath" with after the race, face wipes, deodorant, and advil. All of these things would become life savers, as you'll see!

Buses to the meeting point for the race started running at 7, and since I didn't want to feel rushed or stressed I hopped onto a bus around 7:15ish. Mistake! Lol. I didn't really think about just how early I'd be, and traveling solo too! I spent a lot of time wandering around the massive parking lot we were set up in, looking at costumes and people-watching. They had some food kiosks, a ToT bellhop dj, a bunch of photo ops with various backdrops and crazy long lines, and a million porta potties.

At this point, dear readers, I'd like to share a little lesson in the importance of not being a sheep. There were a whole bunch of porta potties out in the open area, and a fairly large row of them in each of the gated-off corrals. The ones out in the open area had a bunch of lines about 15 people deep. I looked at them and shook my head. I walked over to my corral, A, showed my bib to the person manning the entrance, strolled down to a porta potty on the end of the row, and ended up having to take the wrapper off the tp! Let me tell you, there is no better porta potty than a pristine, unused one!!!

I can't stress this tip enough, and it applies to a lot of things in the park. Bag check lines, park entrance lines at the turnstiles, food kiosks with multiple lines. People are natural followers, and if you take a minute to look around you can almost always significantly decrease your wait time!!

Fortunately, after a while I ran into the guy who I'd met while waiting out the torrential downpour the day before at packet pickup, so for the remainder of the time, right up til the start of the race (since he was in my corral) I had someone to pass the time with! He was running in a kilt with his family's tartan, which I thought was pretty cool!

Finally, a little after 9:15pm, Corral A was walked to the starting line, followed by the other corrals, in order. Here's what it looked like, this is just my corral! The silly thing was, we all had to squeeze through that narrow opening in the gates there, so the start of the race was a little anticlimactic, with a slow walk to even get to that point!

Corral A, waiting at the start line:

After 2 wheelchair starts, and our slow crawl through the start line, we were finally off! Man was it HOT and HUUUMMMIIIDDDD!!!!! 78 degrees w/a heat index of 81, and 84% humidity for the duration of the ENTIRE race!! I definitely had not had the opportunity to train in those conditions recently!

Let me give you a little of my running background. If I was at my peak, I should have been running this race at around a 9ish minute per mile pace (8:30 in normal conditions, but I'm guesstimating slowing down with the heat/humidity). However, at the beginning of the summer I injured my knee running my first 1/2 marathon, and spent about a month and a 1/2 with no running and being in physical therapy. It's only fairly recently that I've been able to really start it back up again, and obviously I've had nowhere near enough time to get back up to what my pace should be. So, my whole goal for this race was to run as much of it as I could, finish it, and HAVE FUN! This was the furthest distance I'd done since before my injury, the longest I'd gone since my recovery was only 6 miles!

So, the race was pretty cool, with a number of characters along the way, areas with spooky music and lighting, and a cool section connecting the highway to the WWoS Complex that was a trail through the woods with some spooky scenes and lighting set up! The race left HS, went to the entrance to AK and u-turned through the gates, back down the highway, through the trail through the woods, around warning track of the baseball field and the track at WWoS, back out the entrance, onto the highway, through the HS entrance,

around the side to enter through the Lights, Motors, show, through the Streets areas, through the costume sewing room area of the Backlot ride, across the park in front of the hat, out into backstage, around the back of ToT, and across the finish line, not actually right next to the ToT but pretty close to it.

Overall, the race was pretty cool, but I've heard from those who have run other Disney races that the entertainment along the course was lacking. The humidity was the real killer!!! It was kind of like running through a swimming pool, . I didn't see any of this myself, but I heard a number of people got sick because of the conditions. I managed to run the first 7 1/4 miles straight, w/1 fast bathroom stop, and grabbing Powerade at the water stations, but unfortunately I ended up with some cramping and had to walk parts of the end. Overall, I probably walked about a mile to a mile and a 1/2 of the race, but I mixed it in with running, and ran across the finish line!!!

Crossing the finish line!!!

Here are the general race stats:
-10,000 registered participants
-8,724 finishers

So, my results:
time - 1:57
overall place - 2,928/8,724 finishers
gender place - 1,482/5,653 females

Overall, considering my background coming into this race, and the weather conditions, I was pretty pleased!

As we were funneled past the finish line and up into the park I was given two bottles of Powerade, a banana, and a RunDisney snack box with things like a Clif protein bar, crackers and cheese spread, trail mix, etc.

I sloowwwllly made my way over to bag pickup, which was in the Indiana Jones arena, got my bag very quickly, and took a quick look at the changing tents, which were just big tents, completely open inside, with no privacy. I said, screw that, and went to a restroom, where I had a nice private stall all to myself!!

Remember how I said my pre-planned bag packing was a life saver? It really was! I was able to change out of all my sweaty running clothes (which weighed about 10lbs w/sweat, lol), clean all of myself up with wipes, put on fresh, clean clothes and flip flops, wash my face, use some deodorant, and apply a little mascara. I felt AWESOME, and felt so bad for all the people I saw afterwards, walking around in their hot, sweaty running gear!

I headed over to the Backlot Express and grabbed a well-deserved hot dog, fries, and Yuengling beer! Boy, did that hit the spot!!! And every time someone walked into the restaurant with a medal on, all the CM's working there cheered and clapped!

I definitely earned this! Hot dog & fries, yuengling, free Powerade, and my finisher medal!

Better view of the medal. It glows in the dark and the elevator moves up and down!

At this point, after the previous marathon of a day, a morning in the parks, the DTD debacle, and a 10 mile race in the heat/humidity I was BEAT! But, I still wanted to do some rides. It was around 1:40ish and I checked my Disney mobile magic app for wait times, and sadly, ToT and Toy Story Mania were both around a 1/2 hour!! There was no way I was waiting that long, and I was definitely too tired to stay really late, when the lines would go down. At least I'd gotten to do ToT earlier in the day! So, I went and did Star Tours again, and then headed over and saw MuppetVision 3D. At that point, around 2:15, I threw in the towel, and headed out to catch a bus. Fortunately, since Disney had chartered a bunch of coach buses, there were a ton lined up, so I got on one immediately, got back to my resort, cleaned up and got ready for bed, lay down, and passed out IMMEDIATELY!

Overall, it was a pretty awesome day!

Coming soon, to a TR near you!! Day 3, my first ever Food & Wine Festival at Epcot!! Keep your eyes peeled!

 

[Disneychix]

Awesome job on the TOT 10 miler! I was thre too and it really did feel like running through a pool!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I haven't been to MNSSHP in years, but everyone says that the parade is definitely one of the best parts. And Hallowishes.

I agree about HS, it's not my favorite park either, but the attractions that they do have I love.

One Man's Dream is a must do for me every time, because I always like to see if there is anything new there. Plus, I'm a museum freak, so it's kind of like a mini museum to me.

Very cute, I like the race costume!

Wow, considering what you had been through with your first 1/2 marathon, that's really good ranking!

I'm going to have to remember your trick for bringing something to change, a magic bag if you will. My SIL and I have a goal of doing a 1/2 marathon at Disney, so that will come in handy.

 

[disney_runner]

Wow, great race details! You did an awesome job with your pace, especially considering your recovery and training just prior. Excellent planning for changing clothes. I look forward to doing this race in a few years - the medal is awesome!

 

[raraavis]

great job on the race!!

 

[bellaally]

Congrats on running the tot, I am thinking of running for next year, can wait to hear more of your trips

 

[DisneyBelle27]

Awesome job on the TOT 10 miler! I was thre too and it really did feel like running through a pool!

Thanks! Yeah, it was crazy!!

I haven't been to MNSSHP in years, but everyone says that the parade is definitely one of the best parts. And Hallowishes.

I agree about HS, it's not my favorite park either, but the attractions that they do have I love.

One Man's Dream is a must do for me every time, because I always like to see if there is anything new there. Plus, I'm a museum freak, so it's kind of like a mini museum to me.

Very cute, I like the race costume!

Wow, considering what you had been through with your first 1/2 marathon, that's really good ranking!

I'm going to have to remember your trick for bringing something to change, a magic bag if you will. My SIL and I have a goal of doing a 1/2 marathon at Disney, so that will come in handy.

Thanks! Yeah, I felt soooooooo much better after I cleaned myself up and changed, almost like a new person!

Wow, great race details! You did an awesome job with your pace, especially considering your recovery and training just prior. Excellent planning for changing clothes. I look forward to doing this race in a few years - the medal is awesome!

Thanks! The medal is so cool, I love it!

great job on the race!!

Thank you!!

Congrats on running the tot, I am thinking of running for next year, can wait to hear more of your trips

Thanks!




Ok, hopefully I'll have some more updates up tomorrow!!

 

[DisneyBelle27]

Day 3 In which our intrepid explorer recovers from her hot and super humid, late night race by running around Epcot, experiencing her first Food & Wine Festival, dining solo at Rose & Crown, and viewing her favorite Disney fireworks show

Well, I had been figuring I'd sleep in quite late Sunday morning, considering the night before was my 10 mile race, followed by the Villians Hollywood Bash, and I didn't even leave the park until 2:15am! BUT, of course, being in WDW, I woke up around 8:something am, started thinking about my upcoming day at Epcot, tried in vain to fall back asleep, and then gave up. My feet were sore, aching, and blistered but that certainly wasn't going to inhibit me having a blast!

So, I got myself up, cleaned, dressed, and sunscreened, out the door on my aching feet, caffeinated at the food court en route to the bus stop, and over to Epcot, which I absolutely LOVE!

cranberry bog (F&W Festival was sponsored by Ocean Spray this year)

My plan of action was to hit up some of the rides in Future World first, since it was still relatively early, then head over to Food & Wine, then back for a few more rides, over to my reservation @ Rose & Crown, and watch IllumiNations from the patio there.

First thing I did was fastpass Soarin', then went over to The Seas and rode Nemo. Such a cute ride!

"Mine. Mine. Mine! Mine."

I love manatees!

After that it was off to Spaceship Earth, the ride inside the "giant golf ball".

ancient Egypt:

I guess when you ride solo they play matchmaker!

Next up was Living with the Land, which I hadn't been on in eons, but thoroughly enjoyed!!

I need some of these plants in my backyard!

mmm, tilapia...

A random restroom observation:

Thanks Disney, but I'm pretty sure I know what that hook is for.

Last stop before going over to World Showcase was Club Cool, from Coca Cola, where you can try these international Coke products for free (yes, I used the word 'free' when talking about Disney!!!):


Krest Ginger Ale from Mozambique
Fanta Kolita from Costa Rica
Beverly from Italy
Vegeta Beta from Japan
Kinley Lemon from Israel
Lift Apple from Mexico
Smart Watermelon from China
Mezzo Mix from Germany

Personally, my faves are the watermelon one from China, and the ginger ale from Mozambique because it actually tastes like ginger! And for a good time, tell someone that you absolutely LOOOOVVVEEE the Beverly, and they just HAVE to try it, then get your camera ready for the famous 'Beverly face'!!!

And then it was time to head over to World Showcase!

Food & Wine Festival

(no, I didn't get there at night, but I didn't get this pic til I was leaving, lol)

First stops were Craft Beers for some Berry Weiss beer and the Caribbean for Jerk Spiced Chicken Drumstick with Mango Chutney. YUM!!

Then, it was off to Scandinavia for the Taste of Scandinavia: Cured Salmon, Herring and Shrimp Salad, which was also quite good!

Somewhere around this time I hopped onto Maelstrom, in Norway, and the Gran Fiesta Tour, in Mexico.

poor Donald!

I love the open market feel inside the temple in Mexico!

Ok, the last food item I had before heading back to Future World for some rides (but not the last of the day!!) was the Lettuce Wrap with Roast Pork and Kimchi Slaw.

This was good, but not as good as I was expecting...

...and this beer flight from the Brewer's Collection:

these were the first 4 listed here:

the Berliner Kindl Dark (I think, it was the really dark one I believe) had a neat smoky flavor and the grapefruit one was just really cool! (disclaimer: I am in no way any kind of beer expert or connoisseur!)

Anyway, I'll leave off here for now. Hopefully, I'll get the 2nd half of Day 3 up this evening as well!

Coming Soon! Part 2 of Day3!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Isn't it crazy how easy it is to wake up in the morning in WDW? I always have such a hard time at home, but there NO PROBLEM!

I adore the F&W festival. It's my absolute favorite time of year to go. Mostly because I can partake in libations and feel okay with it because everyone else is doing it!

 

[DisneyBelle27]

Day 3 continued...

It was about time to go and use my fastpass for Soarin', one of my all-time favorite Disney rides! Disney nerd alert: the music from it is actually the ringtone on my phone! Well, except for right now, since it's currently "This is Halloween" from Nightmare Before Christmas, to fit the season.

Thank god for fastpass! When I got in the fastpass line the standby line was a posted 110 minute wait!!!! I spent a little bit of time chatting with my fellow queue-mates about the absurdity of that wait time!!

The film itself could use some cleaning, and I really wish they would make some new films, of different parts of the world, but I still absolutely LOVE this ride! It just makes me happy!!

From there I went over to Mission Space and rode the orange (more extreme) version. This is another ride I love, and the line never seems terribly long, since I think people are afraid of it/get sick on it/just don't care for it, which works out for me!

Now, I may have been running around Disney parks for 2 1/2 straight days, with a 10 mile race thrown in there, and a couple late nights, but there is no laziness in my family when it comes to walking!! So, even though I'd already started at Mexico and made it all the way around to Germany, I headed back to World Showcase and started right back towards Mexico again, so I could take a little more time exploring those countries. As I passed through Mexico I stopped back into the temple and had the blood orange margarita from La Cava...quite tasty, I must say, and with a very interesting, kind of spicy rim on the glass!

Some random pics from Japan:

drummers in Japan:

that's one big drum!

and koi pond:

I love the Mitsukoshi Department Store in Japan, it has such fun stuff!!

My Neighbor Totoro chinaware!! (I love Miyazaki movies)

And Studio Ghibli miniature kits!!

I continued on around the World and stopped at the cheese booth for the Cheese Fondue with Sourdough Bread, and Hops & Barley in the American pavilion for the official Festival beer, the 17th Anniversary Festival Beer Samuel Adams® Chocolate Bock. How can you go wrong with chocolate beer?? I had wanted to try one of the lobster items here but I was also trying to avoid going totally broke so I decided to pass this time!

Moving on, I next stopped in the U.K.

English Channel, aka British Revolution band:

Gotta have a Guinness!!

This spot, in the Guinness pic, is one of my favorite places to sit and relax in the World Showcase. It's right behind the quick service fish n chips stand in the U.K., with tables and benches right by the water. So pretty! And at this point, it just felt soooo good to sit and get off my feet for a bit!

So, I was almost done with my World tour! My last items were the Lobster and Seafood Fishermans Pie from Ireland, which was pretty tasty....

...and then on to Canada...

....for the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup (also served in the restaurant in Canada, Le Cellier), which is awesomely delicious!

At this point, I had some time to kill before my 7:50pm reservation at Rose & Crown Pub in the U.K. so I decided to head over to Spaceship Earth for a second ride. Why not, right?

Afrofabulous!

Apparently, Disney is very open-minded. This time around I get to marry a girl! And with blue hair no less!

As I was exiting the ride I noticed the sky was looking ominous so I started heading back to the U.K. Right as I arrived at the pub, still about 15 minutes early for my reservation, the skies opened up, so I very luckily managed to squeeze inside the pub and not get soaking wet right before dinner!

Right around the time I needed to check in the rain fortunately had mostly let up, since the check-in for the restaurant portion is outside and uncovered!

I had a lovely little table to myself inside, and enjoyed a delicious dinner of fish and chips (thoroughly saturated with malt vinegar!) and Boddington's Pub Ale.

I finished my dinner and paid my bill with perfect timing, about 5 minutes before the start of IllumiNations at 9pm! So I headed outside to the patio behind the restaurant, right on the water, and had a wonderful, uncrowded, unobstructed view of my absolute favorite Disney fireworks show! I don't know what it is, but I just LOVE this show, and the music for it is some of my all-time favorite music!

So, at this point, the park was 'closed' (@9pm), but ever since the ride Test Track has been closed for it's extensive refurbishment they've been keeping Soarin' and Living With the Land open until 10pm!! They do publish this on the times guide but I think a lot of people don't notice it, and a lot of people are just rushing to get out of the park after the fireworks. So, I booked it over to The Land Pavillion, as the majority of the people were booking it out of the park and literally walked onto Soarin', walked right off, and then walked right onto Living With the Land, which was running practically empty. What a great way to end the night, on an almost empty boat ride, legs propped up in front of me, drifting through the totally relaxing Living With the Land ride, right after having walked onto one of the rides at Disney that has THE longest wait times!!

I made my leisurely way over to the buses, hopped on mine, and headed off to my well-earned rest!

Announcing, the dazzling conclusion, coming soon, Day 4 at Animal Kingdom!

 

[DisneyBelle27]

Isn't it crazy how easy it is to wake up in the morning in WDW? I always have such a hard time at home, but there NO PROBLEM!

I adore the F&W festival. It's my absolute favorite time of year to go. Mostly because I can partake in libations and feel okay with it because everyone else is doing it!

OMG, I know! The only place I'm ever a morning person is WDW!!

And I absolutely loved my first F&W Festival! I can't wait to go back!!

 

[disney_runner]

Thoroughly impressed with your adventures this day! Last year, after doing the W&D Half, I was so wiped out the next day. You're a trooper!

Oh that rain! We were at MNSSHP that night, waiting out the rain at Woody's dance party. It seemed to take forever! Well, it very much delayed the first parade - may have actually canceled it, I'm not entirely sure. Glad you could take cover in the bar. That would have been much better for me. Oh well.