The Boring Stuff, or How This Trip Came to Be
It could be that I'm just really nosy, but I love hearing about how people ended up at Disney and how they planned their trips. Probably why I lurk on the PTR forum - but that has given me lots of "inside" information on how to plan a trip, so no shame in that game. This trip was in the cards for a while, and I wanted to just give the basic information as to how we ended up on a 9-day deluxe adventure!
A few years ago (I think October 2017), I was going to pick up my bib at for the Marine Corps Marathon 10k with my friend B, who I had run the 2015 Princess Half with and was (at that point) planning to go to Disney with in December 2017. On the bus, we were talking about how we should do a Disney race together again, and thus, the idea of Star Wars Challenge 2019 was born.
We did go in December 2017 and we had a great time together. We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter, spent a lot of time at Disney Springs, and we were both in agreement that it was not enough time in the parks to get everything done that we wanted to over 4 days (plus the crowds were NUTS because it was right before Christmas).
Fast forward to a few months later, and we nailed down that we (at that point, my BF F, B, and her husband P) were going to do the races and stay a few days later so that we could actually enjoy our time at the parks. In discussing where to stay, we quickly narrowed it down to the Crescent Lake area because it was walkable to two parks! How can you beat that? Last May, we rented points at the Boardwalk for the longest trip I've ever taken to Disney World - 9 whole days! It was shockingly affordable, and I don't know that I'll ever be able to go back to paying rack rate at a Disney hotel.
In August of last year, luckily right before race sign ups, F realized that his spring break (he works at a school here in DC) was going to be the week BEFORE the races, not the week of, like it had been in years past. So, quite sadly, our foursome became a bit of a third wheel situation. I was especially sad because he had never been to WDW and I was looking forward to seeing alllll of his reactions to everything, and I had already rented non-refundable points for a night at what I thought would be his favorite hotel - Wilderness Lodge - on Tuesday night so that we could do a solo day in the Magic Kingdom for his first Disney experience.
Oh well, we can't get everything we want?
I started training for the races in January, started making lists upon lists of things I wanted to do in the parks and things I wanted to take with me. There's something just so comforting about planning a vacation. B&P ended up having a year of Disney - they bought Annual Passes in September, and they went a few times over the course of the year. I just bought an 8 day ticket (and sadly left a day unused 
) early this year, and since they had been a few times, I was able to mostly choose our FPs. For some reason, our FP window opened a whole day early, and I was able to get every ride we wanted - Slinky Dog! Flight of Passage! Mine Train! All the Mountains! - needless to say, we were all pumped.
We continued to train, we bought costumes, we packed, and in early April, the adventure began!
