fallonkendra
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2015
I can't believe I'm about to do this. We had a plan, and it was going to be perfect.
We went to Disneyland in April 2015 (worth noting - we went to Anaheim for NHL playoff hockey and just filled the days in between games with going to Disney parks), fell in love with it, came home and decided on going to Walt Disney World in January 2016 (link to that trip report and the dining report in my signature!). Luke decided while on our last trip to aim for a full marathon (he ran the 10km on that trip), so we decided we would be back to WDW in January 2018 for Marathon Weekend - giving him enough time to train properly and work up to a long distance. In order to satisfy our thirst for Disney, we would head back to Disneyland in 2017 (which is much closer for us, living in western Canada), either for Stars Wars race weekend in January or TinkerBell race weekend in May so he could run a half marathon.
Then, Valentine's Day weekend rolled around, and being the romantics that we are, we headed to an NHL game between our beloved Oilers (we live in Edmonton) and Luke's hometown team of the Winnipeg Jets. We even sprang for seats not in the nosebleed section! (Even the cheapest seats here are $75+...). As luck would have it, it was Jordan Eberle's 400th career game in the league, and to celebrate they were hosting an in-game contest - you just had to create funny captions for pictures they put up on the Jumbotron using twitter, and include your seat number. The top three as chosen by members of the Oilers social media staff were then paraded out in front of everyone, and the entire audience was shown the three captions. Then, they went through the captions again one by one and had the audience cheer for their favourite. Out of the 16,000 people there, I think 15,000 of them cheered for Luke - it wasn't even close... Now onto his prize for winning - an all-expenses paid trip to Anaheim to see the Oilers play the Ducks, and he was allowed to bring me along! So two weeks later (thank goodness we both keep our passports up to date at all times) we were flown to LA with a group of other winners from various contests, along with a writer from Sportsnet and a representative of the Oilers. From there, we were bussed to a hotel in Anaheim, and then off for a private tour of the hockey arena, followed by supper and row 6 seats to watch the game.
After the game ended, the group decided they wanted to go for a few drinks, so I quickly suggested Downtown Disney to get my Disney fix! Everyone agreed, and the entire group headed to House of Blues and proceeded to get drunk - except me - I went to World of Disney and spent a few hours browsing and doing some shopping . The next day was a Saturday, and it was up to us how we wanted to spend it - so of course Luke and I decided on Disneyland! We originally booked an early breakfast reservation for the Plaza Inn, but decided to cancel it the night before when we found out that another surprise of our trip was that we were in the same hotel as the entire Oilers team, and they had arranged for a few of them to meet us on the Saturday morning. I'm sorry Minnie Mouse, but meeting Connor McDavid will win over the Plaza Inn every time...
Just look at my big goofy grin! This was an exciting moment in my life, and worth cancelling a reservation for...And yes, I was already wearing my Lilo and Stitch dress, ready for the day! Once the team had all loaded onto their bus and drove away to head to the airport, Luke and I caught a cab and headed straight to Disneyland, where we bought park-hoppers and put in a solid 14 hour day (Disneyland Park was open until midnight!).
Once we were back in Edmonton, we got to talking about future Disney trips and we realized we now really wanted to go back to Florida! Don't get me wrong, we both LOVE California and Disneyland, but you really only need 3 days to fully cover the two parks and we try to get away for at least a week every January to escape the snow and cold. That means we'd be looking at other things to do, probably renting a car and driving to San Diego or something, changing hotels a few times, etc. Plus, we hadn't planned on being back to DL at all in 2016, and even though we only had a single day we covered both parks really well (and the only cost was admission since our flights and hotel were paid for by the Oilers!). So it was then decided - we were going back to Orlando in January 2017 so Luke could run the half marathon there!
Also - our plan is still to go back again for marathon weekend 2018, so it's shaping up to be three WDW January trips in a row! We'd also like to get back to DL at some point, either 2017 or 2018 so Luke can run another half marathon and get his coast to coast medal
We went to Disneyland in April 2015 (worth noting - we went to Anaheim for NHL playoff hockey and just filled the days in between games with going to Disney parks), fell in love with it, came home and decided on going to Walt Disney World in January 2016 (link to that trip report and the dining report in my signature!). Luke decided while on our last trip to aim for a full marathon (he ran the 10km on that trip), so we decided we would be back to WDW in January 2018 for Marathon Weekend - giving him enough time to train properly and work up to a long distance. In order to satisfy our thirst for Disney, we would head back to Disneyland in 2017 (which is much closer for us, living in western Canada), either for Stars Wars race weekend in January or TinkerBell race weekend in May so he could run a half marathon.
Then, Valentine's Day weekend rolled around, and being the romantics that we are, we headed to an NHL game between our beloved Oilers (we live in Edmonton) and Luke's hometown team of the Winnipeg Jets. We even sprang for seats not in the nosebleed section! (Even the cheapest seats here are $75+...). As luck would have it, it was Jordan Eberle's 400th career game in the league, and to celebrate they were hosting an in-game contest - you just had to create funny captions for pictures they put up on the Jumbotron using twitter, and include your seat number. The top three as chosen by members of the Oilers social media staff were then paraded out in front of everyone, and the entire audience was shown the three captions. Then, they went through the captions again one by one and had the audience cheer for their favourite. Out of the 16,000 people there, I think 15,000 of them cheered for Luke - it wasn't even close... Now onto his prize for winning - an all-expenses paid trip to Anaheim to see the Oilers play the Ducks, and he was allowed to bring me along! So two weeks later (thank goodness we both keep our passports up to date at all times) we were flown to LA with a group of other winners from various contests, along with a writer from Sportsnet and a representative of the Oilers. From there, we were bussed to a hotel in Anaheim, and then off for a private tour of the hockey arena, followed by supper and row 6 seats to watch the game.
After the game ended, the group decided they wanted to go for a few drinks, so I quickly suggested Downtown Disney to get my Disney fix! Everyone agreed, and the entire group headed to House of Blues and proceeded to get drunk - except me - I went to World of Disney and spent a few hours browsing and doing some shopping . The next day was a Saturday, and it was up to us how we wanted to spend it - so of course Luke and I decided on Disneyland! We originally booked an early breakfast reservation for the Plaza Inn, but decided to cancel it the night before when we found out that another surprise of our trip was that we were in the same hotel as the entire Oilers team, and they had arranged for a few of them to meet us on the Saturday morning. I'm sorry Minnie Mouse, but meeting Connor McDavid will win over the Plaza Inn every time...
Just look at my big goofy grin! This was an exciting moment in my life, and worth cancelling a reservation for...And yes, I was already wearing my Lilo and Stitch dress, ready for the day! Once the team had all loaded onto their bus and drove away to head to the airport, Luke and I caught a cab and headed straight to Disneyland, where we bought park-hoppers and put in a solid 14 hour day (Disneyland Park was open until midnight!).
Once we were back in Edmonton, we got to talking about future Disney trips and we realized we now really wanted to go back to Florida! Don't get me wrong, we both LOVE California and Disneyland, but you really only need 3 days to fully cover the two parks and we try to get away for at least a week every January to escape the snow and cold. That means we'd be looking at other things to do, probably renting a car and driving to San Diego or something, changing hotels a few times, etc. Plus, we hadn't planned on being back to DL at all in 2016, and even though we only had a single day we covered both parks really well (and the only cost was admission since our flights and hotel were paid for by the Oilers!). So it was then decided - we were going back to Orlando in January 2017 so Luke could run the half marathon there!
Also - our plan is still to go back again for marathon weekend 2018, so it's shaping up to be three WDW January trips in a row! We'd also like to get back to DL at some point, either 2017 or 2018 so Luke can run another half marathon and get his coast to coast medal
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