13.1 You Wish Upon A Star...a Tink Race and Mother's Day Trip Report! (complete)

[roxymama]

Oh secret Tiki room bathroom! I like! That's great that the waiter took back the Monte Cristo. I'm definitely intrigued of how I would like that dish. It looks good!

I think you have to be in a greasy/decadent/sweet mood. If you are craving that I'm sure it's good but it was just too much for my poor sis that day. I could tell she was dissapointed. Luckily we had some great meals on Sunday (spoiler!)

 

[rteetz]

I fell behind on some of the updates....

Love all of the photos! Those donuts looks awesome, I have seen a lot of photos of different DL donuts.

 

[AuntieBean]

On our way to Disneyland at 7:30 am on Saturday.


I liked how peaceful the park was so early in the day. I think because we were not running to one of the big rides, we were able to ride 6 or 7 things before 9 am!


Mr Toads is such a zippy, swervy ride! Woke me right up! I was bopping around Fantasyland while there was donut eating - I rode Pinocchio and Snow White.

I also went to check out the castle walk through but the stairs looked way too steep for that early in the morning.



Instead I spotted some nice people in line about to ride Snow White themselves. Later, I got the giggles shouting at Roxymama from the carousel. How else was she supposed to know where I ran off to?


I admit I like the Disneyland version of it's a small world better than WDW. I think it's the fun of trying to spot the Disney characters in the ride plus there is just way more stuff going on everywhere you look.

Alice's ride was my favorite of Disneyland - colorful, great music, fun mix of video screens and traditional animatronic type entertainment. And the ride goes out on the roof!

Peter Pan playing Hide and Seek with the kids was silly and unexpected- can you spot him?

 

[AuntieBean]

I think you have to be in a greasy/decadent/sweet mood. If you are craving that I'm sure it's good but it was just too much for my poor sis that day. I could tell she was dissapointed. Luckily we had some great meals on Sunday (spoiler!)

I bought into the sandwich hype! I kept hearing so many rave reviews of it over years but it was so oily the rest of the food was delicious and I could have had a large bowl of gumbo and been totally happy. I helped my mom finish her steak and are crusty tasty rolls

 

[AuntieBean]

I had to get a Dole whip and I made sure to ask the Tiki Room host if I had time to stand in line for tasty treats before the show and he said "The Dole Whip line is the fastest in Fantasyland!" And he was right - they had picture menus set out and the ladies back there had everything going like clockwork. I have a pet cockatiel and he talks and whistles but I have not taught Swoop how to sing the Tiki Room songs...I need to work on that!



The line for Jungle Cruise was short but we had to climb up stairs and then back down - it's definitely different having ride lines on the middle of sidewalks or traipsing up on the second story of buildings. There was an animatronic bird in line up there I didn't expect



Roxymamamama got a fancy drink at the Blue Bayou with a light up ice cube that changed colors. You could also turn it off with a little button on the bottom. Our waiter told us silly jokes - there was one about Cinderella playing soccer I can't remember and a PG-13 one about Ariel's seashells. I loved the ambiance of the restaurant even if the monte Cristo wasn't my best food choice. The rest of the meal was tasty and Roxymama's chicken looked scrumptious.



After Blue Bayou, we got a wheelchair exit pass to visit the Haunted Mansion in about 40 min and then fought the crowds and got to the Winnie the Pooh ride...it was closed. Instead we shopped over there and then poked around in the New Orleans square shops while we waited. I almost bought this hat -


Instead I bought a cuter hat!


Walking into the Haunted Mansion was so so dark! Mom had to hold onto Roxymama's purse and shuffle behind her and I could barely see too. Ambiance! Our ride stopped a few times and I got a good look at the hitchhiking ghosts.


After the ride, Roxy scooted off to her meetup and Mom and I went to watch Mickey's Magical Map. Mickey was running around inside the map visiting Mulan and Pocahontas and Stitch etc - there was puppetry and some acrobatics too - enjoyable and a great rest for the feets.



We decided to head back to the room and stopped at Great Moments with Mr Lincoln on the way out because I wanted to see his new animatronic design. It was a mini museum in there. And President Lincoln was impressive - you could see him sigh when speaking ...


Bonus photo of Roxymama showing me cute hats - it was so sunny I went with a hat with a brim but I definitely liked the Star Wars Mickey ears and the Alien from Toy story ones best

 

[McNs]

Loving the double pronged trip report! You guys should plan tandem trips more often!

Monte Cristo is my one remaining food on my list - planning on the Cafe Orleans version when we are there in September!

The impromptu character interactions are awesome, we have had a couple of instances bumping in to face characters (esp Peter) where they have had random conversations with our kids. Total magic.

The Tiki room is so cool, you all had me humming the song reading the report. But can you imagine it anywhere else? It would just be stupid. There is something magic about these things Walt had a hand in.

Looking forward to further instalments and pass on props to Roxymamamama for Soave Mountain! Hoping to get the rest of the family on that later this year ( they are all chickens)

 

[Sailormoon2]

The Tink Wine Glass is stunning, and the sweaty bands are always a great buy!! Good haul at an empty expo
Your outfit is soooo cute!! I can't wait to hear your race report!

 

[Ariel484]

So glad you came to the meet-up! Bean, thanks for letting us borrow her for a bit. Love that pic you got of roxymama and roxymama's mama from the carousel!

Nice 2-day haul from the expo! Sorry about the ornament...I totally would have grabbed one for you the day before! Also, mean to leave us with a cliffhanger like that!!

 

[roxymama]

Loving the double pronged trip report! You guys should plan tandem trips more often!

Monte Cristo is my one remaining food on my list - planning on the Cafe Orleans version when we are there in September!

The impromptu character interactions are awesome, we have had a couple of instances bumping in to face characters (esp Peter) where they have had random conversations with our kids. Total magic.

The Tiki room is so cool, you all had me humming the song reading the report. But can you imagine it anywhere else? It would just be stupid. There is something magic about these things Walt had a hand in.

Looking forward to further instalments and pass on props to Roxymamamama for Soave Mountain! Hoping to get the rest of the family on that later this year ( they are all chickens)

I enjoy the two-pronged TR as well, because I keep forgetting things that my sis includes (like the Haunted Mansion fastpass...doh!)

But I disagree on the Tiki Room song...perfectly ok to sing at any time and place (ok, maybe you are right on this one.) I read somewhere that Walt's original intention was to have the Tiki Room be a restaraunt or dining experience...so having the dole whips inside felt like the right thing to do.

The Tink Wine Glass is stunning, and the sweaty bands are always a great buy!! Good haul at an empty expo
Your outfit is soooo cute!! I can't wait to hear your race report!

I love the Tink Wine Glass. I hadn't even put it on my wishlist for merch until I saw it (it also has wings on the back.) I still haven't had a drink from it. I put it next to my wedding crystal in our big glass hutch in our dining room. So it may just end up being a showpiece

So glad you came to the meet-up! Bean, thanks for letting us borrow her for a bit. Love that pic you got of roxymama and roxymama's mama from the carousel!

Nice 2-day haul from the expo! Sorry about the ornament...I totally would have grabbed one for you the day before! Also, mean to leave us with a cliffhanger like that!!

I love that pic too. Mom didn't stand in very many lines after that point, so it's cool getting that pic of us together. I'm ok with the miss on the ornament...I pretty much knew it'd be a hot item and since I wasn't willing to wait in the crazy line on my arrival day I'd already said bye-bye to it. If I really wanted it that badly I would have waited. Luckily I do really like all the other stuff that I got!! Surprisingly I bought nothing from any of the other vendors but I think that's because I just recently was at two giant expos with the same exact type of booths.

And sorry for the cliffhanger. I was getting ready to write my race recap and it was late and my brain just wasn't going to remember details clear enough. Soon...

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Love your pretty ears! And seriously?? They're comfortable?? I can never wear ears, because I'm pretty sure I have a giant head and get super headaches when I try to wear ears I love the matching with your cute outfit too!

Cool that you guys had a dis-meet! Not surprised you had a good time (though I guarantee I would have stressed about a new social thing like that!).

Smart for calling it quits on the day when you knew you should have.

Can't wait to read more

(oh and I love seeing this trip from a different perspective from Bean!)

 

[run.minnie.miles]

I am trying realllly hard to not hum the tikiroom song right now! The last time I was there I was so tired and giggled like a little girl the entire time, sealing my love for all things tiki forever.

Sounds like a great meetup! I'm sad I didn't get to meet anyone an Princess... Like you said, I think this group might be "my people."

Bummer about the monte cristo! My mama used to make a french-toast version for Sunday breakfast after church and I loved it. Sometimes I think when you taste so much oil in fried things, the oil is old. Yuck.

Love your ears! So cute and love the matching!

 

[roxymama]

Love your pretty ears! And seriously?? They're comfortable?? I can never wear ears, because I'm pretty sure I have a giant head and get super headaches when I try to wear ears I love the matching with your cute outfit too!

Cool that you guys had a dis-meet! Not surprised you had a good time (though I guarantee I would have stressed about a new social thing like that!).

Smart for calling it quits on the day when you knew you should have.

Can't wait to read more

(oh and I love seeing this trip from a different perspective from Bean!)

I was surprised the orange ears were comfy too! I brought a cute pair of mint green sparkly ones from etsy that were just so heavy that I ended up never wearing them during Tink weekend. I just didn't want to get stuck carrying them around all day. At least my kiddo has taken them for her dress up box and wears them frequently now.

I am trying realllly hard to not hum the tikiroom song right now! The last time I was there I was so tired and giggled like a little girl the entire time, sealing my love for all things tiki forever.

Sounds like a great meetup! I'm sad I didn't get to meet anyone an Princess... Like you said, I think this group might be "my people."

Bummer about the monte cristo! My mama used to make a french-toast version for Sunday breakfast after church and I loved it. Sometimes I think when you taste so much oil in fried things, the oil is old. Yuck.

Love your ears! So cute and love the matching!

Yeah, the meetup was fun...I just wish I had thought to get myself an adult beverage. I was slamming water at that point in hopes of staying hydrated. I'm glad I'm not alone in my tiki-bird love

 

[ZellyB]

Trying to play catch up here!

Mr. Toad's was also our first ride followed by other dark rides. We had similar strategies clearly. We also didn't do Peter Pan though, that line! That picture of your Mom with the sword in the stone is so cute.

We missed out on doing the Alice ride and as I read you talk about it, I'm bummed we never made it back there. The shot of you in line by the little door is adorable.

Love the ears you bought. I've never done ears before. I think they'd bug me too much but I love how they look on everyone else.

Nice Expo haul and that jacket looks great on you.

@AuntieBean , loving your perspective. Yeah, I also got the Monte Cristo and was disappointed. I only ate one portion of it, but sadly, my waitress didn't offer to take it off my bill. LOL
The hat you bought is so cute, but I love that pirate one too!

 

[dancingtodisney]

This trip report is so much fun! I'm loving the second perspective from @AuntieBean too! It's so odd reading a Disney trip report about a Disney part I've never been to, it's great to see all pictures though.

So surprised to hear how short your walk is from your hotel!

I've got motion sickness that only really affects me on rides like Star Tours and the odd time Soarin but I'm totally fine on roller coasters!

Cars Land looks AWESOME! Love your Belle inspired outfit too!

Really hoping your legs are alright! It's so hard not to overdo it in the parks!

 

[Sailormoon2]

So it may just end up being a showpiece

See, this is what I meant to do with my W&D one, but, no, of course I drank out of it the very next day! LOL!

 

[AuntieBean]

Saturday cont...

Roxymamamama took a nap while I relaxed in the room and then Roxymama came back and showed us the Expo fun things she picked out. I loved the tiny shoelaces and hat on the stuffed runner Mickey.



We headed back to Tomorrowland. I don't think we visited Frontierland once but that's probably cause Mom didn't want to ride Big Thunder Mountain and then when I thought about riding it Sunday nights, we were worn out. Something for next time!

I am a big nerd! I planned ahead to wear only Disney related shirts on the trip (Friday was Marvel themed with Groot and Rocket, Saturday was a Star Wars and Adventure Time mash up shirt) so we had to go visit space on Star Wars shirt day.

We got our exit Mom Wheelchair pass for hyperspazzwackadoo Space Mountain and then figured out how to get up the Handicapped ramp for Galactic Grill. There were definitely parts of the trip it was hard to find the exit of rides and ramps for things. I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't WDW heh. Our AT-ST chicken nugget kids meals had delicious nuggets that were almost chicken strips - I got fries and apple slices with mine and Roxymama had a little smoothie and apple slices. Definitely enough food for an adult (Bean Tip) I also got a lemonade that had a floating glowing Death Star in it! That got immediately tucked into my purse to take home!



After we ate, we went to an exhibit of Star Wars stuff and I took photos of props and ships while Roxymama frolicked and I have photo proof - see...frolic!





If I had more room in my luggage I would have taken home this huge Ewok figurine! I can't remember if we shopped at Star traders before or after riding Spazz Mountain, but I did put serious work in making my droids. R2D2 and BB-8 are my favs and this droid building is exclusive to Disney parks. I'll get some photos taken of them to post.



Hyperspazzwog Mountain was so fast it made my eyes water! It was insane! What did I just ride?! The goofy selfie was from BEFORE the ride heheh



We headed back towards the front of the park as the Main Street Electrical Parade was starting in about 20 min. Wall to wall people waiting but a cast member told us we may be able to squish into the handicapped seating area up by the front of the park - success!



I did have to stand the whole parade so Roxymama made a good call heading back to the room. I sent her a video of Tink right after Tink floated by for good luck. I'll post a bunch of the photos from the parade next!

 

[Ariel484]

The parade situation in Disneyland is nutso. Glad you got a good spot!

 

[AuntieBean]

One "Must" for the trip for me was seeing the Main Street Electrical Parade. It has always looked fun and different on videos from other parades. The early evening parade starts by It's a small world and works its way to the front of the park and then it goes the other way at night. We were sitting right by the backstage doors where the parade floats parked between parades. The characters didn't stop dancing or being entertaining even though they were almost done.



I loved the bloopy sounds the turtles and caterpillars made as they scooted around. Is someone inside those little floats? Because they really spun around fast!



Peter Pan and Hook were sassing each other and there were some random shouty pirates up there too.



I think the theme of the weekend stuck with me as most of the pictures I took were of Peter Pan related with some Alice in Wonderland thrown in there. I took a bunch of videos too. There was a cute little kid in front of us shouting at Alice when she was asking us to raise our hands if it was our unbirthday

Look there is Tink back behind Smee!



At the very end of the parade, Pete had us all do something to make Elliot the Dragon turn invisible - I don't remember what it was but it was cute! I was grinning a lot when we headed back to the hotel at about 9:15 to get some sleep for 1/2 Marathon Day!



Good night Disneyland!



We could see the fireworks as we walked back to the hotel

 

[Sailormoon2]

You're so lucky to get to see the parade!! I miss that it is no longer at WDW.

 

[roxymama]

Tinkerbell Half Marathon Race Recap Part 1:

Thank you all for following along on my trip report thus far. This is the part I was most excited about writing and sorry for the delay as I got some great photopass pictures but had to re-size them so the disboards file size rules wouldn't get angry at me. I had initially thought my cell phone pics would be fine enough until I checked the photopass website later on Sunday and gosh darnit they sold me on buying the pics for the day and I'm really glad that I did. Plus $39 isn't all that bad considering what marathonfoto usually wants. Usually I'm quite frugal in that regard but this race was so special to me.
And here is why....

Getting ready and corrals and The Start:
I had gone to bed the previous night pretty early for me (but maybe not so early when considering west coast time vs central time) and Bean and I had already pre-planned our alarm clock strategy. Although I knew I'd be sweating a ton while running, I just like feeling so fresh and clean before I sweat that I decided to give myself enough time to shower (quietly.) I think we still managed to wake up roxymamama a little bit but she later told us she went back to sleep so all was forgiven.
I was so nervous I was visibly shaking/trembling as I was getting dressed and attempting (but pretty much failing) to stomach any of the water or gatorade or clif bar etc that I had set out for myself.
But I did hold steady enough to get some fun pics.

Can you see the shear terror in my eyes? I can. I don't know why I get like this before races. I blame lack of sleep and anxiety.
I wasn't sure about whether I should wear the wings or not even up to this point, but they were looking pretty cute.

And they made me feel like I had a costume so I kept them on. I felt like I'd know how I liked them after the long trek to the corrals.
Beanie had the cutest BB8 shirt on and it proved helpful to spot in the crowd later. Thanks again bean for waking up so early...us runners are kind of nuts with that.
I don't have pics of the walk to security but there was about a 20 minute wait from halfway up the road between Harbor and the normal checkpoints and every ART bus that unloaded had at least 30 weary fairies with the same expression on their face "oh no"...but then they seemed to open up like 3 more tents and all of a sudden the crowd just started moving rapidly. They even just were grabbing only like every 10th person or more to go through the medal detector and we got waved on through.
I didn't have a bag...only my armband with three gels in it, my earbuds, and a baggy of money/id,etc, and stupid feminine products (grumble mumble why now, why this weekend, grumble.) I packed very lowkey for this race, but forgot my sunglasses. Of all the things to forget I'm ok with that one.

As we walked leisurely-ish down the length of DTD my "I have to pee" signals started going off. So every little place that seemed open I'd look to see if they had a bathroom. Turns out a lot of storefronts (like Haagen Daz for example) have no bathrooms. But then I saw some public ones kind of tucked behind an opening and there were only like 3 women in line outside of it. THANK goodness! Everyone was in good spirits and honestly that bathroom break sort of calmed me down and brought me back to earth and my anxiety kind of went away-ish. So thanks all you chatty bathroom fairies for having a good 'ol time in there with us!
The lines for the Starbucks were nutso (not that I was going to put coffee in my system now, but just an observation) and the closer public bathroom to the end of DTD was pretty nutty too. And then we were at ESPN zone area and bean & I picked a glittered up stage in that spot to meet up instead of trying to brave the real family reunion area. Bean had the VIP spectator viewing wristband to get her into the park and ESPN zone and maybe the stands at the finish. She'll be around to fill you all in on her experience

So after a cattle herding segment to get our bibs checked (which didn't bother me too much; I'm kinda of used to it with the gigantic Chicago races I've attended) I was pointed to go left for my corral. I checked my watch and I had some time and the corrals didn't seem very full yet so I started a warm up jog in the wide open space along the sides of the corrals. The only thing I had to weave past was the giant porta potty lines (thanks again DTD public bathroom) and I only got a total of 6 different people commenting to me that I had plenty of time and I didn't need to run. I just smiled and kept on going. My legs were HEAVY and TIRED and I kinda needed this little jog. Right before B stopped and A started was a downhill so I took that a little fast and then decided that was enough and hopped into my nearly empty-ish corral.

I realize that balloon says A...but the openings were in the very back of the corrals, so this was the very front of the B people here. So you can see there's only maybe 5 rows of people between me and the blockade at the front of B. I instagrammed this not so great pic in the hopes one of my B-friends would see it and it WORKED. Hook, Line & an @Ariel484 commenting that she was gonna find me. Seconds later and there she was. I KNOW HER!

You can tell in this pic the sun was already coming up. Ariel had a very cute "throwaway" sweatshirt and if I was a size smaller and wasn't going to run a half marathon I would have stolen it back off the railing she left it on. @ZellyB & @Chris-Mo were apparently not too far behind us in the corral and next time please yell at us loudly and obnoxiously
But it was really helpful to have a familiar person with me...a good distraction and fun to just comment on everything going on out loud instead of inside my head.

They definitely stalled the race start by at least 9 minutes and had a women who I decided was a friend of Elsa for Disney (she had that look and that sound, but I was just making that up about her) sing the anthem and no characters, right?
Here's a terrible pic of the start line screen.

I felt like the wheelchairs and A were off in no time (A was never full as you can tell in the pic above...though there were a small group of people running into A and then across the start.) They led B up and we were off literally 2+ minutes after the first group. For the rest of the race I knew exactly how I was doing at the mile markers because my garmin watch was always about 2+ minutes faster than the clocks.
I shouted some sort of HAVE FUN or THIS IS IT or something to Ariel (who told me her plan was to be speedy to get to the characters and then see how it goes after) and my plan was to no be too speedy at first...just enough to get to the characters without demolishing my chances at not dieing later on out of the roads. I was to let all the insanely fast people including the 2:05 pacer just go on their merry way.

To be continued in Part Two...