I won't say I'm in love...but I am!! A Feb '14 GSC PTR! (NEW 2/9)

[Eight]

Hurray for Boardwalk Villas working out! That'll be awesome! I'd love to stay there someday. I always say I'm going to check the Boardwalk area out sometime, but then I never do, so I am looking forward to hearing about it.

I've never rented DVC points, but it seems like such a good idea. I'm so tempted to try, but generally I don't book that far ahead in advance, so I probably wouldn't be able to stay where I wanted.

 

[emilyindisney]

Hurray for Boardwalk Villas working out! That'll be awesome! I'd love to stay there someday. I always say I'm going to check the Boardwalk area out sometime, but then I never do, so I am looking forward to hearing about it.

I've never rented DVC points, but it seems like such a good idea. I'm so tempted to try, but generally I don't book that far ahead in advance, so I probably wouldn't be able to stay where I wanted.

I'm excited to see what sort of night entertainment is out. I've heard great things about some of the performers. I'm also helping to catch the Water Parade though I'm not sure it goes by the Boardwalk.

It does take some commitment. If you want to book a specific location you definitely need to do so early, and most bookings are nonrefundable (which was a little scary to sign off on!) Sometimes you can get points for really cheap on last minute trips!

 

[disneyhorselover]

Hurray for Boardwalk Villas working out! That'll be awesome! I'd love to stay there someday. I always say I'm going to check the Boardwalk area out sometime, but then I never do, so I am looking forward to hearing about it.

I've been to the boardwalk a few times before and definitely recommend checking it out. The best place there by far is Jellyrolls-so much fun and the entertainment is so worth the cover charge! Too bad SOMEONE will be a month shy of 21 so we'll have to skip it on this trip ....guess that means we'll have to go back to Disney again very soon!

 

[emilyindisney]

I've been to the boardwalk a few times before and definitely recommend checking it out. The best place there by far is Jellyrolls-so much fun and the entertainment is so worth the cover charge! Too bad SOMEONE will be a month shy of 21 so we'll have to skip it on this trip ....guess that means we'll have to go back to Disney again very soon!

 

[emilyindisney]

Before we start, I wanted to include another running update. I ran another race this past weekend. It was a women's only 5k.

It was so hot I wasn't feeling #1 when I finished but I made it none the less!

At the race, I also picked up these really cute pins for us to wear in our Disney races (and probably at our other races together before we leave!)

At the party store, I also got crowns and magic wands for us!

As this entire PTR has implied thus far, we're doing the GSC. Of course, that wasn't how the trip started out. Orginially, there was no GSC so we planned to run the Royal Family 5k and the Half Marathon. When the GSC was announced, we ABSOLUTELY had to change our plans to do that. Not only is the inaugural year, but we're medal addicts and couldn't pass on the chance to get another one!

After Glass Slipper Challenge was announced, it felt like we had to wait FOREVER for registration to open! Registration opened June 11th at noon. Luckily both Emily and I had the day off and could be home for registration.

As the date crept closer, I spent a great deal of time lurking in the PHM thread on this board, and fed off the anxiety of people there who will also worried about getting a spot. Given how fast the Dumbo Double Dare sold out, it seemed that a very fast GSC sellout was possible and probable.

Of course, Cait was texting me and talking about all this and making me nervous too!

There was also a technical issue that allowed people to register before the normal date, which added to my anxiety, but luckily runDisney sorted that out right away. Kind of stinks for those people who had their early registration voided, but then, I guess they shouldn't have tried to cheat the system to begin with! I went on a training run about an hour before registration, figuring that I'd have to run fast enough to make it back in time! It worked, and I was on the computer ready to go at 11:55!!

I skyped Emily so we could chat and register at the same time.

We both opened up the registration site at noon and were dumbfounded when it said sold out! Still determined we tried registering anyways.

Luckily registration went smoothly, we each registered for GSC and both managed to not buy ALL the merchandise and picked out a glass slipper pin.

Seeing as we obviously registered, maybe we'd opened the website just a little too soon and were seeing that the early registration was sold out. No matter- all's well that ends well!

Now it was official, we are really really doing this!

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[emmysmommy]

Congratulations on successfully registering! How awesome!!

As much as I run I've never competed in even a 5K. I'm sure after the first time I compete and have a medal I may catch the running competitively bug! But for now, I just enjoy lacing up my running shoes and logging my miles so I can eat more cake!!

 

[Eight]

Those buttons are awesome!

I'm glad registration went smoothly! And I'm glad Disney voided the early registrations, I heard about that drama, and I think it's great they actually did something about it instead of allowing people to exploit that glitch.

 

[annmarieda]

Thought I would follow along! I too am one of those "january WDW half..so no phm this year" people...so I have to live vicariously somehow!!

 

[LB1122]

So fun that you will be running in the race. I see you did a color run...I would so love to do one, but am not supposed to run on my knees unless it is a treadmill. (working on that is a goal, but I do yoga 5 days a week so I can eat more junk food!!) I am enjoying your reports and look forward to cheering you on!!!

 

[emilyindisney]

Welcome one and all!

Anne, I wish I was doing marathon weekend! I'll be excited to read about your experience!

The color run was a lot of fun. I probably wouldn't pay to do it again (the price is a little steep) but definitely something to experience once!

This will be our last update for a few weeks because I'll be doing some traveling! Hopefully I'll have some beautiful pictures to share with our next update.

 

[annmarieda]

Welcome one and all!

Anne, I wish I was doing marathon weekend! I'll be excited to read about your experience!

The color run was a lot of fun. I probably wouldn't pay to do it again (the price is a little steep) but definitely something to experience once!

This will be our last update for a few weeks because I'll be doing some traveling! Hopefully I'll have some beautiful pictures to share with our next update.

Safe travels!!!

 

[emmysmommy]

I'm looking forward to seeing your beautiful pictures and hearing about your travels! Have fun!

 

[LB1122]

Safe Travels.

 

[emilyindisney]

Safe travels!!!

I'm looking forward to seeing your beautiful pictures and hearing about your travels! Have fun!

Safe Travels.

Thanks everyone! I'm glad to be home, and excited to be working on some updates for ya'll!

 

[jockey]

Loved your report from your last trip. I too am doing the PHM it's my first Dh is doing the enchanted 10k and the kids are participating in kids races on the Friday. Sooo excited, tho a bit nervous too

 

[emilyindisney]

Loved your report from your last trip. I too am doing the PHM it's my first Dh is doing the enchanted 10k and the kids are participating in kids races on the Friday. Sooo excited, tho a bit nervous too

How fun! I know someone who did last year's Princess as her first half and says that nothing else compares to what an awesome time she had! Its awesome that you're family is participating in the whole race weekend!

 

[emilyindisney]

As I mentioned, I spent the last few weeks travelling on non-Disney vacations (sometimes I forget those exist, haha!) I wanted to share a little bit about each trip with you guys before I get back to sharing our Disney plans.

The first trip was a seven night cruise with 40-something members of my extended family, matching t-shirts and all. That's right- we cruised to Bermuda on a family reunion (and we all made it back in one piece!) The trip was a blast and the ship, the newest in Norwegian's fleet, was beautiful.

The ship was New York themed, thus the giant statue of liberty on the hull!

We called a couple weeks before and got a free upgrade to an unfilled handicap room which was fantastic! So much space! It was awesome to not be bumping into each other all the time.

Water slides by the pool!

This deck had a ton of restaurants on it with outdoor seating that was really cool.

After three days at sea we arrived in Bermuda. We got up at 5:00 that morning to see the ship dock in Bermuda, which was pretty cool. The sunrise was awesome too! Not the most relaxing vacation experience but definitely worthwhile.

Our first stop was the famed Horseshoe Bay Beach! Even though the sand was not as pink as I was anticpating (it was more of a subtle color), the beach was still stunning. The water was warm and clear, and the snorkeling was fantastic!

On our second day, we took the ferry to Hamilton for some shopping. This was the 'big city' part of the island.

Our last day we spent in King's Wharf. A small group of us all went on a jetski tour together in the morning. I had never jetskied before so I was mildly terrified as we were flying over the tops of waving coming out of the harbor. I got used to it, thanksfully! The tour took us our to a shipwreck to feed fish, over a coral reef, to a private beach where we got off and swam, and finally back to the harbor. It was adventours and I'm sure will be story we repeat at the holiday get-togethers for years to come!

I got home from the cruise on a Sunday afternoon and had an early flight to Chicago the following Tuesday. My sorority's national convention was in town for the weekend so my sisters and I decided to go a little earlier and see what the city had to offer.

I was amazed at how clean and quiet the city was!

Our first stop: Lincoln Park Zoo. Admission is free and the zoo was great! Better than Central Park Zoo, IMO.

We stopped at a cupcake bakery for a vacation-dinner (because vacation is the only time cupcakes for dinner are completely excusable.)

Definitely a delicious decision!

The next day we visited 'the bean' in Chicago's Millennium Park. I don't actually know what the real name for this is, but it sure was cool!

Making one of my sorority symbols, the infinity sign, with myself!

After that we stopped at a man-made stream-like thing to make some wishes! I'm not sure this is what it was intended for but it seems like human nature to want to throw money into standing bodies of water.

I totally didn't get the coin into the water on this shot. I actually don't think I made it in the picture we took after this too, haha!

We also swung by the set of NBC's Chicago Fire! We didn't see any celebrities but we saw lots of set pieces and crew members milling about. Definitely a cool experience!

Now that I'm finally back home I've only got a week left until I move into my new apartment and start work on campus again. I can't believe the summer went by so quickly!

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[emilyindisney]

With those trips out of the way, I'm ready to jump back into my usually daily Disney planning! I'll be going it alone for the next two weeks, though, while Caitlin is in Canada for work. Luckily, I'll carry on for the both of us and share our tentative plans and ADRs for our trip. Here we go:

Day One (Friday):

We haven't booked flights yet but the goal is to be at BWVs by noon to meet up with R (who'll be driving) and check-in. Our next course of action will be to get our race stuff from the expo and get out of there! I've heard that can be a bit of a mob scene so I don't think we'll be hanging around long. Next we're hoping for an early dinner.

ADR alert: Ohana!

I've been dying to try Ohana for dinner and Dsis finally caved! We're hoping to get something early (around 5ish.)

After that we're hoping to tour the monorail resorts, ending back at the Poly where we'll indulge in Dole Whip and watch Wishes from the beach. Wishes in my all time favorite thing ever. Literally. I tear up every time I listen to the soundtrack (which is pretty often) so I'm really excited to be starting the trip with this!

Day Two (Saturday):

Cait and I will be up early and headed to the Enchanted 10k. They haven't realized the course map yet, but word is it'll be running through the Epcot Resort Area so hopefully R and MJ will come down to the Boardwalk to cheer us on!

After the 10k, we'll be headed for a late breakfast.

ADR alert: Cape May Cafe!

I'm pumped because this is a character meal! It's always more relaxing to have characters come to you while eating than have to stand in line and wait to see them, IMO.

Saturday afternoon we'd like to go mini-golfing so we can cross that off of our Disney bucket list. After that we're planning on heading to DTD. I'd also like to cross Characters in Flight off of my Disney bucket list so I'm hoping the weather will cooperate and I'll be able to go up. We're planning to do a QS dinner here. We've heard good things about Earl of Sandwich- thoughts? Are there other QS places around here you like better?

Day Three (Sunday):

Cait and I will be up even earlier and on our way to run the Princess Half Marathon! MJ and R will be open fairly early too because they'd like to watch us run through MK.

After the race we're going to relax and enjoy the resort before an afternoon at Epcot. Originally we weren't planning on doing any parks at all, but decided we'd have more than enough time to walk over to Epcot and still do everything we wanted to do outside of the parks.

Possible ADR alert: Via Napoli or Chefs de France

We still on the fence dining-wise for this day. We could just eat around the world, as there are plenty of tasty treats to fill us up without sititng down. However, Cait would love to try Via Napoli and I'd like to look into Chefs de France.

Day Four (Monday):

We're starting this day off with a return to Poly for breakfast.

ADR alert: Kona Cafe

I've heard too many awesome reviews of Tonga Toast for us to pass this place up. Plus, Poly is beautiful so I don't mind another visit.

My mom loves giraffes, so we're hoping to go over to AKL this day to check out the resort and see the animal viewing in the back. We've heard they do resort/kitchen tours here and are hoping to do something like that.

We're hoping to have a late afternoon/early evening flight home this day to make all those plans possible.

Our ADR window doesn't actually open up for another two weeks so we'll see if all our dining options come together. Fingers crossed!

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[jewels1916]

Hi Emily and Co! I finished reading your TR from your earlier trip with your DSis and am getting on board with this PTR! Mad props for all your running. Running one of the Disney races is on my bucket list, but I'm not ready for that yet!

My DSis and I are in the early, early stages of planning our first trip to the World together (well, together as in just us, we've been as a family of four and five before and back in Feb we were there with our parents to celebrate Kelsey's 21st birthday!). We're planning on December of 2014 so far, but reading your plans is going to help me wait that long, long time!

I haven't been to Via Napoli, but we went to Les Chefs de France while we were there in February and it ended up being our favorite meal of the trip!

Anyway, I'm subbing! Thanks for your great reports and trip reports! It makes the time between trips a little more manageable.

Courtney

 

[emilyindisney]

Hi Emily and Co! I finished reading your TR from your earlier trip with your DSis and am getting on board with this PTR! Mad props for all your running. Running one of the Disney races is on my bucket list, but I'm not ready for that yet!

My DSis and I are in the early, early stages of planning our first trip to the World together (well, together as in just us, we've been as a family of four and five before and back in Feb we were there with our parents to celebrate Kelsey's 21st birthday!). We're planning on December of 2014 so far, but reading your plans is going to help me wait that long, long time!

I haven't been to Via Napoli, but we went to Les Chefs de France while we were there in February and it ended up being our favorite meal of the trip!

Anyway, I'm subbing! Thanks for your great reports and trip reports! It makes the time between trips a little more manageable.

Courtney

Hi! I love meeting other Disney-sister-duos!

We loved traveling just the two of us on our last trip! We're very much in sync with our Disney obsession so it worked out really well. This trip we're traveling with our Mom and one of DSis' friends so its been hard to have to share some of the planning power with anyone but each other, haha!

Thank you for your thoughts of Les Chefs de France! I just finished a TR with a great review of the food that really has me thinking that's where I want to put my vote. I suppose I have to give DMom a vote too but maybe I can sway her to my side!

I love to read other people's experience and I'm glad to hear you enjoy reading mine too!