BE's Never Ending TR -- That kind of ... Ended? Or did it?

[leinalani]

Hello Jazz -

Just wanted to thank you for your trip reports! They helped us plan our first trip to Disneyland and made it super memorable. I love your pics and I've enjoyed reading about your adventures. Thanks for taking the time to put it all together and helping people like us made the best use of their time in the parks. Mahalo!

 

[Belle Ella]

Wow -- lookie everyone -- we have over 1,000 posts here. Thats just totally awesome!!​

leinalani, I'm very glad to hear you've enjoyed my TR's and that they've been a help to you. I love writing TR's but it's always great to know that we really aren't just writing them for ourselves.

 

[blabbermouth]

Wow -- lookie everyone -- we have over 1,000 posts here. Thats just totally awesome!!​

leinalani, I'm very glad to hear you've enjoyed my TR's and that they've been a help to you. I love writing TR's but it's always great to know that we really aren't just writing them for ourselves.

Wow, and I can't believe you have over 10,000 posts, amazing!

Happy weekend to you too, even though it's almost over, and congrats on your first training run.

 

[Belle Ella]

Thanks Kelsey! I wont lie though, my weekend officially starts tomorrow thanks to my work schedule. I'll get Monday.Tuesday off and then it's back to work on Wednesday. Not that I'll be doing much, I don't think, except training and breakfast plans with my friend.

And what can I say, I have a DIS posting obsession. At least it's been spread out over 4 years. Then again I didn't start posting regularly until aboult 2009. Like I said, posting obsession.

 

[merrrydeath]

I have to buy a blockout ticket for Sunday the 4th. BOOOO!! Worth it though So that Saturday doesn't have MM hours(the Friday does instead), but Sunday DOES have MM. Not looking good for Monday.

 

[Belle Ella]

Aw man Meredith, I totally forgot about blockout days. How much are the blockout passes? Kinda glad I splurged on the Premium. At least we've both gotten our money's worth out of ours resectively, right? When yours expires do you plan on renewing it? I know I did a big old happy dance when they announced us Northern Californians could do the payment plans now as well so I can renew mine next year without having to downgrade to the Deluxe. And sigh. So there is MM on Sunday and not Monday. Why couldn't they just do no MM on both race days, lol. I suppose the Half takes place so much earlier that they can still fit it in like normal.

 

[merrrydeath]

I did too. I had yet to come upon a trip where all but the Premium passes are blocked out. It's 50 something for a blockout ticket. I'm not too worried about it. Then there's the old question of since so many APs are blocked out, you'd assume there'd maybe be less crowds because of it. Though it's also a holiday so people will still come. There's the 1/2 too...soo I have NO idea how to predict crowds!

I definitely got even more use out of my AP than I thought I would. By the time renewal comes around, I'll have done 6 trips. I was going to renew anyway, but the payment plan made it that much more exciting! I hadn't thought up upgrading to a premium, but it would be easier to do so with the payment plan... I don't ever park there though so I wonder if the higher discounts would make up for it.

 

[Belle Ella]

Well, from what I've heard Labor Day Weekend isn't usually too bad but who knows really. We'll just have to find out for ourselves. But if people are trying to get in before Pirates closes on he 6th or 7th who knows. But it's Disneyland so I'm not worried.

Well, my opinion is to upgrade to the Premium. But as I've told others I'm an enabler. You never know if you may end up needing free parking for whatever reason. I used it during the Divas trip because I couldn't get my car to the hotel where I was rooming with Laurie and Michelle until the evning because of the deal they had with the Carousel for parking. It was nice to have it then. But the discounts on food add up and I usualy do my fair bit of shopping while I'm there as well. The payment plans will take the bite out of the price and then you don't have to deal with a blockout pass if you ever do go when it comes up again.

 

[smile4stamps]

I was looking at the pricing of the Annual Passes on the Monthly plan. My hubby gets $35 of Starbucks money automatically loaded on his Sbux card every month. It would be just about the same for me to renew my AP! Lol! Besides the Diva trip though I don't have anything planned after my October trip though.

 

[Belle Ella]

But at least you'd have the option for more!!

 

[smile4stamps]

But at least you'd have the option for more!!

Yeah... but I don't have friends that like to go to DL (or if they do they have kids and can't go without them) and I like company!

 

[Belle Ella]

That's why we keep making friends on the DIS because I have the same problem (minus the kids part)! Haha. Like how Meredith is going to do a few days with me in September.

 

[merrrydeath]

I have months to decide but I very well may get a Premium.

 

[Belle Ella]

Haha! That's the way to to go When does yours expire again? I don't renew until Deceber but considering I already have 2 trips lined up for next year I am most definitely renewing, no questions asked.

I wont be posting details until tomorrow's update but I just got off the phone for dining reservations!

 

[merrrydeath]

I'm not sure. December 3, 4, 5th? I think I got mine a day before you got yours.

 

[Belle Ella]

That makes sense! Yeah, mine is December 6. Just a reminder we were both there at the same time, huh?

 

[BACON]

I'm just posting to subscribe to your awesome thread. I hope to run into you during marathon weekend!

 

[smile4stamps]

It's Tuesday!!!

I can't wait for the update!!

 

[Belle Ella]

Thanks for subbing BACON! Hope to see you there and good luck with the 5K and the Half (you're doing both right?)

Hey, hey, Paula! I'm hoping to get it posted before I leave for breakfast but it will definitely be done today.

 

[Belle Ella]

It's time to report back!

​

Look at that! I'm remembering to post my second official TR Tuesday! I'm pretty excited about that and hopefully I can keep it up. It's funny how some people I know think that 2 months out (well, less than 2 months technically) there couldn't possibly be anything for me to be doing already planning wise, but if there's one thing we DIS'ers understand it's how that is soooooo not the case. It's actually been a pretty fun and busy week for me in the planning department, mind you my "planning" is two-fold and involves my training for the Star Tour 5K (can I just go ahead and refer to it as my Starship 5K?). I mentioned in last Tuesday's update that I was giving a brand new training program a shot - a training program by the official runDisney training guru, Jeff Galloway - and I stuck by my word and made it through Week #1! I did have to tweak my running days around a little bit but here's to hoping I'll stick to the plan 100% for this upcoming week. I'll start off with a quick run-down of how this week's training went, but I promise I'll talk more about the fun stuff too (unless you think the running is the fun stuff)! I just really need to keep everything out in the open training wise or else I fear that I'll slide off the path once again and we don't want that. So that's where we'll start!

Training Week 1

All data gathered using RunKeeper and Ultimate 5K Apps for iPhone​

So I decided to plan my weeks out just as listed on Jeff Galloway's website for the 5K training and do a walk/run/walk/run/walk/off/long-run schedule for the week with my running days being the days that I use his Ultimate 5K iPhone App. Let's see how that panned out ...

Tuesday 7/5:
Total miles: 3.80
Pace: 19.12 min/mi
Time: 1:12:56
Calories: 326
^ data from RunKeeper

Wednesday 7/6:
No run

Thursday 7/7:
Total miles: 2.04
Pace: 14:21 min/mi
Time: 29:19
Calories: 218
^ data from RunKeeper

Distance: .98 mi
Duration: 16 min
Average pace: 9.2 mi
^ data from day 1 of Ultimate 5K

I listed both the RunKeeper data and the Ultimate 5K data because I'm running outside and misjudged the distance by quite a bit so I did even more walking outside of the 3-minute cool down that was part of the program. I technically did a little more than what I posted for my entire workout with RunKeeper. I tried going out once only to find out .25mi in that my earbuds were dying. I was not going to just walk the entire thing and I wanted to make sure I did Day 1 the right way so I went back home, drove to Target (home of my Team Member discount) to grab some new earbuds, drove home, and got right back to business! That's what I call dedication right there. Then again, maybe I would have shown more dedication to just keep pushing through without my music and running cues.

Friday 7/8:
Total miles: 3.84
Pace: 17.01 min/mi
Time: 1:05:21
Calories: 358
^ data from RunKeeper

Saturday 7/9:
Distance: 1.03 mi
Duration: 18 min
Average pace: 10.2 mi
^ data from day 1 of Ultimate 5K

I accidentally stopped my RunKeeper activity at some point during today's run so I'm omitting the data that it gathered. Oops. I'll try not to do that next time. I'm guessing I did an extra .3 mi after I finished the Ultimate 5K portion because once again I misjudged the distance. Hopefully I'll get this right for my long run on Monday!

Sunday 7/10:
Off day!

Monday 7/11:
Unfortunately I have no data to input for Monday. After my warm-up stretching and warm-up walk I was able to make it about .25mi into my "long run" (this week was only going to be 1mi) before a tightness in my right leg forced me to stop. It was not a fun experience and I'm sure the sight of me limping home was a funny one indeed. I'm hoping it's something that can be easily avoided another time by adding some more stretching and a longer warm-up walk into the mix. Either way I'm taking time off today and instead of my walk I'll probably do some yoga at home as a sort of cross-training exercise and to keep my muscles loose before I pick back up tomorrow, just to give my leg a little more rest - although thankfully I'm feeling so, so, so much better than yesterday. It's frustrating, but you have to live with it.

So that's my take on Week #1. It may not have ended the way that I hoped but I like to think it was pretty successful otherwise. I am definitely enjoying my two training Apps and would recommend them so far. One neat feature about Jeff Galloway's Ultimate 5K App is a feature that (a) let's you load your own playlist into the mix but also (b) picks the tempo that's right for your warm-ups, walks, and runs even slowing down and speeding the beat up to match you. It's a great motivator although it does make me giggle from time to time when a song I know so well gets all bent out of shape fasty-forwarded and all that. It's amusing.

Hopefully next week I'll have some better news to report back on! But now it's time to move on. And since I know this is getting wordy (remember, I tend to babble for no apparent reason) I'll be sure to include some pretty-pretty-pictures to break up the monotony of words. But thanks for sticking with me anyway!

Now for the fun stuff! As of today only 52 days stand between me and D-Day (Departure-day or Disney-day depending on how you look at it)! That's absolutely no time at all when you think about it. In my world I always say that once you get under that 60 day window when you're able to make dining reservations it's all downhill from there. Just in case there is any confusions from this TR to past ones Disneyland no longer refers to these meal reservations as Priority Seating (PS) as it has in the past, although it really works just the same so I'm not 100% where/when/why the change took place. I honestly prefer the Priority Seating term, probably because I loved the shorter PS abbreviation, go figure. Let me get back on track here before I go off rambling on a tangent, which I can do all too easily. So where was I? Oh yeah, that 60 day window (or 2 months) where you can make these dining reservations! I have been patiently waiting until every day of my trip fell within that window so I could call and place all of my reservations at once and also for the Disneyland Calendar to post every day for my trip since certain hours were going to determine what day I ended up doing a few things. Well, I can officially say that as of yesterday my dining reservations have been made! This is plenty cause for celebration if you ask me. So let's break things down ...

Blue Bayou - I know there are plenty of varying opinions found on the DIS but here is mine: BB is a must do at Disneyland. I say this simply for the ambiance and the fact that you are inside Pirates of the Caribbean but the food has always been beyond mouthwatering every time I have dined there. But I'm sure this is like beating a dead horse with a stick coming from me as I'm pretty sure I have made the same comments for each and every PTR/TR I have done. It's still just as true for me, and also a no-brainer that I've made a reservation.

I've decided to book my lunch for the day I arrive, Friday (September 2) at 11:40am. Yes, as of right now this means I am looking at a solo-dinning experience but I'll take it. It's also been noted that I will be celebrating my birthday and here's to hoping I can get a waterside table without too long a wait.

Minnie & Friends Breakfast in the Park - I'm starting to think I need to adopt a new adage: once you go for a Character Meal you never turn back! Well, something like that. I think I can count on one finger how many times I have gone to Disneyland since my first Character Meal experience and not done at least one. They are just too fun for me to pass up. M&F just so happened to be my first over character meal back in 2009, and as the name suggests Minnie Mouse is your host while you dine at the Plaza Inn located inside Disneyland (so obviously you need Park admission). Once it was decided that Meredith would be coming along for a couple of days talk of doing this particular meal popped up and was decided upon and then it was just a question of which day. Here is a handy-dandy little tip I have picked up over the years: You can do M&F on a Magic Morning (early entry into Disneyland 1 hour before it opens to the general public) even if your admission doesn't include said MM, like ours doesn't since we will both be AP holders staying off-site. This is the strategy we wanted to take advantage of so we could do a character meal without loosing too much in the way of morning Park time, which is valuable to say the least. It was interesting waiting to see which days MM would be offered since the Half Marathon events took place in the early morning hours and we assumed would impact when MM would be offered. We were keeping our fingers crossed that both weekend MM's (they are usually offered on days that start with T or S) would be rescheduled for Friday and Monday respectively, and so I have been keeping a close eye on that calendar. The hope was that we could do M&F on Monday morning during MM if it was offered and that would be that! As it turns out there will be MM on Friday instead of Saturday, but Sunday's MM still stands. So M&F on Sunday it is! The only small hiccup would have been the fact that Meredith's AP is blocked out on Sunday but she'll be able to pickup a blockout pass before our reservation time since there should be at least one ticket booth open before the start of MM.

So we have officially made breakfast reservations for Sunday (September 4) at 8:10am.

Well, I think that everyone who stuck around for this post deserves something colorful so here are a couple of photos from my previous M&F dining experiences:

That's all I've got for you today folks, see you on the other side!

continue the adventure here​