Rain had been predicted for race day. When Mickey called me for my wake-up call at 4:15 a.m., it was still dry outside. My teammate who was staying with me and I got dressed in our race jerseys and shorts, gathering all our gear, had breakfast, called down for the valet to bring the car around, and traipsed down to the lobby. It was 4:45. I was getting a little antsy as we were supposed to be at the staging area by 5 a.m., and the sole valet was taking awhile to bring the car around. Just as the car pulled up, it starts to rain...
My teammate and I looked at each other with wry grins on our faces. We'd rolled out of our beds for THIS?! In case the rain stopped in time for the race, we went to the Milk House anyway. By the time we got there, it was pouring. We ran through the rain to the Milk House and waited for announcements. As we knew would happen, the race itself was canceled, and the skate "tour" was on. We grabbed our finishers' medals (for a race we'd never even started) and went back to the BoardWalk. After changing clothes, we went down to the Bakery for breakfast. The rain had stopped at this point, so we sat outside to watch the people doing the skate tour go by on the opposite shore by the Yacht and Beach Clubs. Quite a few of them fell. At first, I wrote this off to inexperience. It was the back of the pack where the less experienced skaters usually are. Later, when I walked that section of the course, I realized it was truly dangerous - down a hill to a tight, narrow right turn and almost immediately on to wet boardwalk. Disney does alot of things right - designing skate race courses is not one of them.
I went back to the room to take a nap and call DisneyFreak43. My teammate took the car to go visit with the rest of our teammates at the house. I ask you - you come to Orlando for a vacation, and you sit around playing cards at a house? What's wrong with this picture?!
DisneyFreak called me not long after I lay down, and we agreed to meet at the Magic Kingdom. I caught a bus over to the park, renewed my Annual Pass (there was a small mix-up, but the CMs were great about fixing it quickly), and passed through the gates.
The first glipse of the redesigned Castle is breathtaking. Except for the medallion at the front (which changes to show the 5 different Disney castles), I hope they leave it the way it is with all the characters around it. This is what it looks like now:
Cinderellabration was going on, so I stayed to watch that. The costumes are gorgeous. Afterwards, I headed off to the Haunted Mansion (one of the few Disney rides I've never been on as it has definate potential to freak me out a little too much) to meet DisneyFreak and her family. On the way, in an unbelieveable coincidence, I ran into neighbors from my hometown in NY. We visited for a bit, then went our separate ways.
I caught up with DisneyFreak, and we hung out for a few hours. We went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and Pirates of the Carribean. Sadly, none of the pirates here have been remodeled to look like Johnny Depp or Orlando Bloom. A grave oversight, if you ask me.
We grabbed lunch from the Tomorrowland Noodle Station. I was not impressed with the chicken stir-fry with lo mein noodles. There was too much dark meat for me, and the noodles were mushy. The spring roll was OK, though. The boys were NOT in favor of the noodle soup, though DisneyFreak and her husband seemed to like their choices.
Our next stop was Buzz Lightyear's Space Rangers. The sign outside said there was a wait time of 55 minutes, but the line wasn't long at all. In fact, the sign was wrong because we pretty much walked on. All of the rides that day were walk-on. Me and my competitve self got a little carried away, trying to get the highest score. I came in second. As we still had time before our Space Mountain FastPasses, we went on again. I came in second again. Oh, well. Sometimes it's best to know when to quit the field.
So we took a shopping break. Before I knew it, it was 2:30. Time to run back to the hotel and head off to my massage at Saratoga Springs Spa. I bid DisneyFreak and family good-bye and headed off. I grabbed my teammate from BWV, and we just about ran to MGM to catch an SSR bus. The biggest problem with Disney transportation is that it doesn't go hotel to hotel. It can be very frustrating. This was one of those times as we were now cutting it close even though we'd given ourselves an hour to go from BWV to SSR.
We arrived just in time for our massages. These were heavenly. The spa gives you robes and sandals to wear around the locker room and lounge area. There's a steam room, a sauna and a jacuzzi to use if you get the early or want to lounge afterwards. I feel so pampered and spoiled when I go.
We levitated back to our rooms, got dinner at Big River Grille, enjoyed the entertainment on the boardwalk, and then, because we'd been up since 4:15 a.m., went to sleep at 9 p.m. It was a VERY long day!
My teammate and I looked at each other with wry grins on our faces. We'd rolled out of our beds for THIS?! In case the rain stopped in time for the race, we went to the Milk House anyway. By the time we got there, it was pouring. We ran through the rain to the Milk House and waited for announcements. As we knew would happen, the race itself was canceled, and the skate "tour" was on. We grabbed our finishers' medals (for a race we'd never even started) and went back to the BoardWalk. After changing clothes, we went down to the Bakery for breakfast. The rain had stopped at this point, so we sat outside to watch the people doing the skate tour go by on the opposite shore by the Yacht and Beach Clubs. Quite a few of them fell. At first, I wrote this off to inexperience. It was the back of the pack where the less experienced skaters usually are. Later, when I walked that section of the course, I realized it was truly dangerous - down a hill to a tight, narrow right turn and almost immediately on to wet boardwalk. Disney does alot of things right - designing skate race courses is not one of them.
I went back to the room to take a nap and call DisneyFreak43. My teammate took the car to go visit with the rest of our teammates at the house. I ask you - you come to Orlando for a vacation, and you sit around playing cards at a house? What's wrong with this picture?!
DisneyFreak called me not long after I lay down, and we agreed to meet at the Magic Kingdom. I caught a bus over to the park, renewed my Annual Pass (there was a small mix-up, but the CMs were great about fixing it quickly), and passed through the gates.
The first glipse of the redesigned Castle is breathtaking. Except for the medallion at the front (which changes to show the 5 different Disney castles), I hope they leave it the way it is with all the characters around it. This is what it looks like now:
Cinderellabration was going on, so I stayed to watch that. The costumes are gorgeous. Afterwards, I headed off to the Haunted Mansion (one of the few Disney rides I've never been on as it has definate potential to freak me out a little too much) to meet DisneyFreak and her family. On the way, in an unbelieveable coincidence, I ran into neighbors from my hometown in NY. We visited for a bit, then went our separate ways.
I caught up with DisneyFreak, and we hung out for a few hours. We went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and Pirates of the Carribean. Sadly, none of the pirates here have been remodeled to look like Johnny Depp or Orlando Bloom. A grave oversight, if you ask me.
We grabbed lunch from the Tomorrowland Noodle Station. I was not impressed with the chicken stir-fry with lo mein noodles. There was too much dark meat for me, and the noodles were mushy. The spring roll was OK, though. The boys were NOT in favor of the noodle soup, though DisneyFreak and her husband seemed to like their choices.
Our next stop was Buzz Lightyear's Space Rangers. The sign outside said there was a wait time of 55 minutes, but the line wasn't long at all. In fact, the sign was wrong because we pretty much walked on. All of the rides that day were walk-on. Me and my competitve self got a little carried away, trying to get the highest score. I came in second. As we still had time before our Space Mountain FastPasses, we went on again. I came in second again. Oh, well. Sometimes it's best to know when to quit the field.
So we took a shopping break. Before I knew it, it was 2:30. Time to run back to the hotel and head off to my massage at Saratoga Springs Spa. I bid DisneyFreak and family good-bye and headed off. I grabbed my teammate from BWV, and we just about ran to MGM to catch an SSR bus. The biggest problem with Disney transportation is that it doesn't go hotel to hotel. It can be very frustrating. This was one of those times as we were now cutting it close even though we'd given ourselves an hour to go from BWV to SSR.
We arrived just in time for our massages. These were heavenly. The spa gives you robes and sandals to wear around the locker room and lounge area. There's a steam room, a sauna and a jacuzzi to use if you get the early or want to lounge afterwards. I feel so pampered and spoiled when I go.
We levitated back to our rooms, got dinner at Big River Grille, enjoyed the entertainment on the boardwalk, and then, because we'd been up since 4:15 a.m., went to sleep at 9 p.m. It was a VERY long day!
