Beavis n Butters: Marathon Trip 09 *Updated with Pictures*

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Let me start out with a warning. This is my very first trip report. Actually, I’ll use ‘our’ instead of ‘my’, as I will be reporting with considerable help from my wife. So, with further ado, here we go…

Shortly after my wife and I completed the Disney Marathon in 2008 with my father, it was time to register for the 2009. I had gotten the hankering to do the goofy challenge, and my wife (who had decided she would retire from full marathons... foreshadowing….) decided it would be fun to initiate her mother into the extreme distance running circuit by coercing her into running the half marathon.

This would possibly take quite a bit of coercion, considering her mother had never run a distance greater than 10k, and didn’t particularly care for that length of race. And so our story begins…

At this time, my dear wife has reminded me that you, the reader, have no clue who any of us are. So I’d better take care of that. First, there’s me. To protect the innocent, I’ll go by the name of ‘Butters’. I’m a civil engineer who enjoys long walks on the beach… sorry, not that type of report. Anyway, I am 26 years old. My fascination with Disney began when my wife (whose biography is coming up shortly) took me to Disney World in college. My first roller coaster was the Rockin’ Rollercoaster, and my first circular raft ride was Kali River Rapids. Oh, and my first ever marathon was at Disney World in 2005. But enough about me. Let’s meet the next contestant…

My wife, who goes by the name of Beavis (and yes, this is true and was in no way because of me) is a retired accountant. Yes, I am married to a MUCH OLDER woman. She’s 27. She had been to Disney World three times before she met me, and has always been a great admirer of Disney films. And she has a mother…

Her mother’s code name is MataMata (for the purposes of this trip report, that is pronounced MAAhhtAAA MAAAAAAHTAAAaa!!! ). It’s a somewhat long story as to why that is her code name. Actually it’s not long at all. I just choose not to say. She’s super awesome, and runs a heck of a good 5k. However, she doesn’t really go in for these ‘distance things’. Here, ‘distance things’ is defined as anything above a 5k. She went on a spring break trip to Disney when she was in college as well… back in 1976. We weren’t there for it, but I hear it was great. Incidentally, MY parents went in 1976 as well. Again, I wasn’t there, but I’m sure it was great.

MataMata, Beavis, & Butters

 

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Now that the cast has been introduced, back to the story. A lot of interesting and unrelated things occurred between our registration, our coercion of MataMata into registering for the half marathon, and us getting to the day we started our trip from Oklahoma City (where Beavis and I reside) down to Orlando (which is that little city right up north and east of Disney World, used as a general approximation. You get the idea.). But it seems relatively immaterial, and therefore won’t be mentioned at this time.

On January 6, we headed out from OKC (as we like to call it) at about 5:30pm to pick up MataMata in Fayetteville, Arkansas. About 3 hours later, we got to Fayetteville and packed up the MataMata luggage. We then promptly rolled out at 9:18pm (times are Central Standard, of course). And we didn’t stop driving until… we stopped for gas about 5 miles down the road. Seriously though, we drove straight through the night to get to Orlando at 4:30pm (Eastern time zone now) the next day. What can I say, we’re super cool like that. Once we got into town, we stopped at the pickup point for MataMata’s park tickets. We got them at a UPS store. It was all very cloak and dagger. And touristy . Anyway, we had used a discount travel website to book our first night’s stay at the last minute. You know, the one where you don’t know where the hotel is until you pay for it. We decided that the price was pretty good ($33 for one night at a three star hotel), and the place should be fine as long as it wasn’t near Old Town, which is actually a very small town in Florida right between Kissimmee and Celebration. We entered our billing info, registered, and found out our hotel was Seralago… in OLD TOWN! Brrrk!

But I digress… We checked in to the Seralago hotel, and were very pleased to find that we didn’t pay any more than the $33 we had committed to. This is because the hotel was about on par with a $33 hotel. Other than that, it was great. And the beds worked. Of course, we weren’t to discover that important piece of information for quite some time because we had to… go to EPCOT! Which I prefer to keep in all caps because I was trying to yell it. Just that once.

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

I am SO not a runner but I'm in for reading!! Great start!

 

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Once we got to the park, we flashed our annual passes (ok, just one of them) for free parking and were ‘Amazed’ on row 36. I then tried to run up ahead of the group to use my annual pass to buy a ‘Tables in Wonderland’ pass from guest services. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very fast, but the group was nice enough to wait for me. TIW pass in hand, we all entered the park and made our way to the Earth … Spaceship Earth. I use the bond naming pattern for this ride because the ride is now narrated by ‘M’. Get it?

Spaceship Earth is one of the coolest rides at Epcot now. I’m not being facetious. The other rides are great and all, but this one takes your picture. Just as a word of advice, make sure it’s a good picture. We always do.

After we travelled back to our time and got off the ride, we headed to Morocco, for a delightful dining experience at one of the best, and easiest to get in to, restaurants at Epcot: Restaurant Marrakesh. However, on the way we had a rather shocking round of ‘Canadian Roulette’ as we like to call it. We will go into greater detail on both topics in a forthcoming ‘Dining review’.

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

how are you writing this so fast? my own TR is taking months! (but I am a wee bit of a lazy Daisy)


oh, I hope the Canadian story is a good one!

 

[Gobbles!]

I am SO not a runner but I'm in for reading!! Great start!

I appreciate the encouragement. So far we've got two or three days worth that we're putting up. Then we'll have to let the suspense build... at least until tomorrow.

 

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how are you writing this so fast? my own TR is taking months! (but I am a wee bit of a lazy Daisy)


oh, I hope the Canadian story is a good one!

We pre-typed part of it in Word, and we're pasting it in. We had a snow day today, which helps. Don't get too excited about the Canadian roulette reference. It's a food game we play, and it probably just amuses us.

 

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Dinner dined upon, we were ready to boldly saunter forth into the night. We traveled over to Japan to explore the koi ponds. Next, we hit Italy and tossed coins into the miniature Trevi Fountain. Having thrown away our money so early in the trip, we went over to the new restaurant in Italy, that used to be Alfredo’s. Beavis and I mourned the loss of one third of the Alfredo’s franchise, and longingly described the greatness of the original Fettucini Alfredo, prepared tableside and so good. MataMata was properly impressed, and seemed to properly understand the gravity of the loss. I say this because she suggested (or maybe I did and she agreed) that the only thing to do now was get some good German beer.

 

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And so we did. More on that in the ‘Dining report’. Although I must say, there really isn’t much more to the beer story than to say we got some beer. And it was good. HOWEVER, on the way to Germany to buy beer, MataMata (who works in railroad logistics) spotted a terrible situation. A train had derailed in the German train garden. Fortunately, she was there to act quickly. She made a few calls. And now I will change subjects, much the way the writers for lost do, to pique the interest, and then postpone the payoff to a later date.

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

We pre-typed part of it in Word, and we're pasting it in. We had a snow day today, which helps. Don't get too excited about the Canadian roulette reference. It's a food game we play, and it probably just amuses us.

all the better if it's a food game!!

 

[Gobbles!]

Next up was one of Beavis’ favorite places: Norway. While in Norway, we rode Viking ships that were hijacked by trolls, and almost went backwards over the falls. We also found out that we were not the first to pass that way, nor would we be the last. Suspense. Intrigue. Water. Great ride. But that’s not why Beavis loves the place so much. After the ride, we went through the gift shop, past the $398,000 sweaters (ok, more like $550) and straight to the fragrance area. She’s madly addicted to the lotion, perfume, and … ok, we don’t really remember a third thing. But things come in threes, and I’m sure she loves it too.

After Beavis lotioned up and got all good smelling, we went to find our spot for Illuminations. For those of you who don’t know what Illuminations is, or why I can confidently say ‘Illuminations is’ without using bad grammar, you should read posts by people who know how to properly report a trip, and come back with the required knowledge. The spot we chose was south of Mexico. No, I’m not talking about Brazil (although there were about a Brazillion tour groups from there). The area between that gift shop place and the bridge to Mexico. It turned out to be a pretty good spot because of the wind that night (it was blowing away from us).

With the fireworks over, we journeyed forth to imaginatively discover our creativity in the exploration to find our car. We did. It was Amazing. 36. We got in and drove to Seralago for the evening.

 

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DAY 2:

Thursday morning, we checked out of Seralago and went to the greatest attraction in the greater Orlando area. I speak of course of Publix. This is a grocery store. It’s such a glorious grocer. Nice alliteration. Thank you. You’re welcome. But I digress. While at Publix, we got some chocodile wafers and some Try Me Tiger Sauce (our whole excuse for going to Florida. Oklahoma doesn’t carry this stuff, and it’s good). Next, we cruised our former homesite at Celebration, and stopped at the local Starbucks for a drink. Finally, we headed out to check into the place we would call home for the rest of our trip: Old Key West.

 

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At check-in, the nice man at the counter informed us that we couldn’t make him tell us where the room was, so we decided to go to the Animal Kingdom instead. We didn’t want a stupid room anyways. As a point of truth, the guy gave us our keys and said to call after 4 for the room number. We happily and gratefully thanked him for his help, and headed out to the parks.

By the time we got to the lot (using our resort pass this time to change things up), they were assigning parking in the Dinosaur lot. We were on row 36. Again. That’s Disney magic. I know because a cast member came up when we parked and gave me one of those ‘Magical Moment’ certificates with the moment filled out “parked in row 36 twice in a row”. And I’d thought we threw them off with the resort pass! Note: That didn’t really happen. We did park on row 36 though. Pretty cool, huh?

Although the tram was located conveniently right next to where we were parked, we decided it would be best to walk the relatively short distance to the gates. Besides, the tram was full, and they wouldn’t let us on, even if we wanted on. However, we beat the tram to the gate. That’s karma.

 

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On park entry, we headed straight to where the spoonbills were nesting. Beavis took a moment to get reacquainted with them, as she used to visit them quite often when we lived in Celebration. With their tearful reunion over, Beavis thought it was time we found them a tissue and carry on.

We passed the remainder of the veritable myriad of animals on our way to Discovery Island with great interest and attention, ending up on Discovery Island

with the Village Beatniks performing. We stopped to listen, but they knew talent when they saw it, and almost begged us to come up and join in. Although we hadn’t rehearsed, I think we did pretty well, and the band assured us that we were by far the finest tuned rod players they had ever seen, and made us honorary Beatniks. Super cool. Which reminds me, I need to update my resume…

After the impromptu concert, we headed over to Dinoland USA. We had heard there was a time travel experience where we could go back in time and see REAL dinosaurs. On the way, we said hello to the American crocodile.

I feel kind of bad for this guy, because people first of all don’t believe there is such a thing. Second, people who see him think he’s not real. I assure you that he IS real, and therefore DOES exist. Anyway, we headed to the Dinoland Institute, where Dr. Huxtable - I mean Dr. Marsh – told us all about the time travel deal, before one of her workers went rogue and… but I don’t want to ruin it for everyone. Let’s just say he wasn’t running for President. During our ride, a voice behind me (possibly that rogue agent) kept yelling that he didn’t think we would make it, saying, “We’re not going to make it! We’re not going to make it!” Turns out, he was right. The vehicle came to a complete halt right in front of the … well it stopped for a while because the ride broke down. And in a strategic spot.

 

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After that near-death time travel experience, we decided to get a fastpass to take a calming train ride up Everest. I didn’t know they could do that!

On the way, we checked times for ‘Finding Nemo, the Musical’. MataMata had never seen the original. We assured her she was in for… something.

Next up, we took an expedition on Kali River Rapids. We learned a very valuable lesson about how terrible illegal logging is. Especially if you’re a truck driver. That’s right kids: only LEGAL logging is appropriate.

Once we narrowly escaped death on the rapids, we were treated to a jungle trek by the Maharajah. He’s got a lovely bunch of animals, but I must say, his buildings are kind of falling apart. Interestingly, he hid a lot of Mickeys all over the walls.

Can you spot the hidden Mickey in this next picture?

While we were trekking, MataMata was clipped by a bird in the aviary. It must have been upset that she was wearing a bat shirt and not a pretty bird shirt. But she was wearing the bat shirt because she really likes bats, and was planning to visit them. Which she did.

 

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After the trek, we headed back to Nemo (as they call it, whoever ‘they’ are).

Having never seen the movie, MataMata thought it was a GREAT production. Beavis and I, however, were distracted. It appeared that all the characters were puppets with PEOPLE holding them. And we could SEE them. Actually, that was our reaction the first time we saw the show, when it first opened. This was our second viewing, and we both liked it a great deal more.

After the show, we made our way to a calming, relaxing train ride up to the peak of Everest. Talk about taking the work out of the accomplishment, right? Well, as it turned out there was a bit of an accident when we got on the train, that proved to be near-fatal. And we saw a giant… but I don’t want to ruin it for you. If the train ride is still going, there’s probably nothing for YOU to worry about when you go there.

 

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Next, we proceeded to go where everyone goes after Expedition Everest: to Yak (and Yeti). Get it? Then we trekked all the way to Africa, where we got fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safari. We had to wait SO LONG for the fastpasses to come in to effect. SO LONG, for those of you who don’t know, is approximately five minutes. It was the last round of fastpasses for the day, so that’s that. While waiting SO LONG (which it occurs to me that most parents know exactly how SO LONG is, as their kids probably remind them often when they have to wait patiently for something… but I digress) we went over to the nearby pretzel stand (because pretzels are indigenous to Africa) and got some pretzels. Five minutes later, we got in the fastpass line for the safari, and to make a long story short (too late) began our two week safari.

Unfortunately, the safari had to be cut short for… unforeseen circumstances. But it was still a pretty cool trip. We got to see what was described as ‘irrefutable proof that these animals aren’t animatronics’ when we came around a corner to find a hippo… taking care of business. All over a wall.

Yeah.
And we got a really good view of the lions. The male was prowling.

Pretty cool.

 

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After the safari, we decided to venture into the Pangani Forest to see what was there. We got to see animal keepers in their natural habitat. They were stationing the bachelor gorilla troupe to go in for the night.

Afterwards, we got to speak with Keeper Jon about keeping. It was interesting and very informative.

At this point, the park was eerily quiet. This made us realize that closing time was 5 minutes ago. We slowly left the park. Towards the exit, it got somewhat crowded with others in our situation. The guy behind me accidentally lost control of his double-wide (stroller), with the terrified kids still sitting in it. Fortunately, I was only about a foot in front of it. I saved the day, by stopping the cart with my heel. Ouch. He and I both tried to pretend it didn’t happen, but the children were upset, and Beavis looked over at me and said, “Did you just get run over by a stroller?” To which I had to nod. Once I was forced to acknowledge this act, the dad was also forced to live up to what he had done. He apologized several times. I said it was no problem. And quite understandable. The children were still upset, until we all rounded a corner and saw Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy waving goodbye.

Then, all was right with the world.

We ventured forth (and no, I’m not going to come up with a clever reference to butterflies, unicorns, and dinosaurs. That game is only for the Epcot parking area) to the Dinosaur lot, got in our car and headed off to the Wide World of Sports for… the EXPO!! (marathon expo and packet pickup)

 

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Once we got to the expo,

we made our way to packet pickup, and then to get our goody bags.

I got in the goofy line, and Beavis and MataMata got in the Half marathon line. Here is my experience in the goofy line:

The lines are marked according to the shirt size you sign up for. I got in the ‘Large’ line because I’m ‘Large’. Anyway, as it turns out NOBODY is in the ‘Small’ line, so the lady there tells me to go over to her. I say, “but I’m Large”. She says, “I don’t care”. So I go over there, and she registers me, and does a great job of it. When she gives me my goody bag, she says, “Make sure the shirts are all the right size”. I say, “ok, I will”. Then she insists I check while she’s watching just to make sure it’s right, and she checks it too. Such great customer service. They’re all Large shirts, and I head on my way.

Apparently, in the amount of time it took to process me, a line of ‘Small’ people had formed behind me. Beavis and MataMata then came over, to find me being processed through the ‘Small’ line. What a jerk. Honestly. That’s probably what they must have been thinking. Probably what the ‘Small’ people behind me were thinking too. Then I came over to meet with my group, and they informed me that I was in the wrong line. I told them that I knew that and had checked, and everything was cool. They, being super awesome and stuff, weren’t convinced. Out of concern for me (and probably trying to avoid having to see my ‘Large’ (although more toward ‘Medium’) frame in a ‘Small’ technical shirt), they insisted that I check again. And it was a good thing they made me do this because I realized… that everything was in order and all the shirts were ‘Large’. Whew, that was a close one.

Now, the experience Beavis and MataMata had was a little different. They got their stuff without incident.

 

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After getting our bags, we worked the expo. While there, we got our sunspots checked, got a foot scan, tried on some Spira spring shoes, said ‘hi’ to the guy at the Fleet Feet Orlando booth (we talk to him every year), saw one of the guys we used to run with when we lived in Celebration, and I got a goofy challenge coat. This was something that Beavis and I were kicking ourselves about earlier in 2007, when we each ran the goofy challenge. We WERE planning to get one of the super cool jackets, but they sold out before we got a chance to get one. We vowed that if we ever ran the challenge again, we’d get a jacket.

Once we had finished with the expo, we headed to our room, which we had ascertained the whereabouts of on the way out of the Animal Kingdom. The room (2116) was great, although notable in the fact that it was a handicapped room. We were initially disappointed, because this meant we couldn’t take an ice bath. But then we realized that ice baths are lame. And it’s tough to step into a bathtub after long distance running.

We unloaded the car, and changed into our warmer clothes, so that we could head to… Downtown Disney! We went there to scout out a place for dinner. Beavis and I had heard about the new T-Rex restaurant opening, and so we checked the place out on the way to our fine dinner at the Earl of Sandwich.

While there, we also visited the World of Disney,

the pantry, etc… and most notably Ghiradelli’s.

Now, here’s a fun fact for you: when you go into the Ghiradelli STORE to browse around, you get a FREE sample of chocolate. Every time we have been, it has been a peanut butter filled chocolate. Come to think of it, we should check those peanut butter recalls… but still it’s pretty cool. Finally, we headed back to OKW for the evening.