Every Wish That We Put Into Motion.... (comments welcome!)

Slowly adding the trip report...

Let's start off by saying: Successful Dopey #3!

Sunday:
Our flight was scheduled to take off at 7am, and our airport is tiny, so we didn't show up until about 5:30.
IMG_5559.jpegAm I riding Star Tours, or driving to the airport?

Once we had pushed back from the gate our pilot informed us that we had to wait for de-icing and that it should only take 10min or so. In actuality, it took about 25min, which made us start to worry. The time between our flights was only 41 min, and while there were 2 other flights a few hours later we could get bumped to, we wanted to arrive as early as possible to enjoy one of the few sunny/warm days at Disney! We were still taxiing to our gate in Chicago when we got an alert that our (next) flight was boarding, and then that it would be a 21min walk from our landing gate to our departure gate. YIKES! We were nearly the last people to board our plane from Chicago to Orlando, and then they held the flight for a few extra minutes because (based on comments the flight and gate attendants made) they were waiting for passengers from a flight from LAX.

After we landed, we grabbed our bags and went to the Hertz desk to wait in line because I had been unable to do the online check-in (pesky expiring drivers license!) I ended up doubling back to pick up our VTP toll tag since the line had about 10 people in front of us. At the counter we were informed that it would be an extra $13.50/day for my husband to drive?! Even with signage directly behind them about gold members have a free second driver. So silly. We loaded all of our stuff into the first rental car, and then discovered that the parking brake wouldn't disengage. Like....you couldn't push the button to lower the handle for it and put it in gear, so then we had to unload everything and put it in a different car. When we got to the security gate to exit the garage the attendant there couldn't figure out my temporary license expiration and was about to send us back and kick us out of the car. Like really? We had the inside person's signature all over the paperwork and why would that be there because he also checked all of that! But in the end, things worked out and off we went to pick up our groceries and grab some off-property lunch.

We got a room-ready text early (because we checked the app) but we were trying to keep our studio for when we moved to 2br lockoff later in the week (something we would end up NOT doing) so we stopped at the lobby to see if there was any possible way they could accommodate that request, and after about 25min they were! We were surprised, but happy to not have to "change rooms" other than hauling our stuff to the other bedroom in the afternoon. While we are very good at packing up everything and changing resorts (lots of practice!) we don't really enjoy it.
IMG_5600.jpeg
I think we ate dinner at Polite Pig that night, but I honestly don't remember at this point. At Arribas Brothers in DS I convinced DH to not wait to buy one of the handmade Christmas trees on display that had Mickey-shaped ornaments and it's a good thing, because it was the last one they had! Super cute and only about $50!

IMG_5704.jpeg

We also ordered our sketch at the Art of Disney where they told us it could be up to a month as Monica Willis was taking MW off. This was a huge exaggeration because it was shipped and got home before we did!

Monday: Beignets!
IMG_5569.jpegDH and I decided to take the DS boats around to POR and POFQ because we've never been to those resorts (we've booked them in the past, but ended up cancelling or being moved) AND I wanted to try the beignets.

We stopped to look at something in the lobby at SSR and happened upon Chip, Dale, and Daisy who were all out visiting the resort! As it happened, we also saw them at both of the Port Orleans resorts. Were they following us? Since this was the nicest day of the week, we also spent some time at the pool and hot tub. This was also the day that BIL/SIL broke the news to us that they wouldn't be making it down for the weekend, which really threw us for a loop as that was going to have a major impact on our room (we don't need a 2br for 2 people!) and our park day (I had already purchased $LL) AND meant that DH and I now had an entire park day to ourselves, and DH's golf partner wouldn't be there. And there were dining reservation that needed altered or cancelled. I called and offered the extra room to my parents who live a few hours away in the winter, we called DS1 to see if he was interested in coming down for the weekend (he declined) and we tried to think of anyone else from home that might be able to swing a last-minute Disney weekend. In the end, no one came down, but it all worked out. A fun surprise was that during the day, someone from the resort stopped at our room and left a little good luck bag (mini snickers bar, horse shoe, and a note) for the race weekend! This was unexpected, and very cute. Disney knows all.
IMG_5574.jpeg
 
Last edited:
I had a good luck magnet on my door at All Star Sports which was a really nice surprise. I find it interesting that some of the resorts really get into the rD weekends and help make the runners feel special but the parks seem to prefer that we don't exist. It's quite the disconnect.
 
How nice! Old Key West didn't do anything (except wake me up from my daily naps for their security checks!).

Yeah. 4 of us in a 2BR at OKW and there was no acknowledgement (also no sponge in the kitchen to wash dishes and no lids for the cups)
 
How nice! Old Key West didn't do anything (except wake me up from my daily naps for their security checks!).

@superchime & @jmasgat - did OKW have a welcome back celebration? I stayed there in 2018 and I remember there being something but the specifics are hazy at this point.

I think there was something in the lobby and by the pool but i never went in there. The game room had supplies to make posters.
In 2022 OKW had the big frame you can hold that has the resort name on it and then a thing at the bottom that says the event, foam rollers, yoga mats, a fruit bowl (oranges/bananas/apples), and bottled water near the hot tub by the sauna at the main pool, but nothing specific when you get off the bus.

This year and last year SSR had the big frame, rubber duck keychains (why??), madri-gras type necklaces, and a couple of other things. I know they've also done a "runners area" at the hot tub at the main pool, but we never checked it out since it was so cold this year and we had a hot tub by the building we were in.
 
Tuesday:
We started Tuesday off with breakfast at Whispering Canyon Cafe over at WL. This was so much fun and I can completely see us taking the kids there for breakfast in the future. Our server was a hoot, the server with the table next to us was the perfect blend of sass and service, and about midway through our meal 2 people came in and sat the the table behind us, and one of them was a ventriloquist and brought their pig puppet that was wearing mickey ears?! They interacted a little with the surrounding tables and when a discussion about breakfast meats, specifically bacon, came up the puppet made the comment that, "This place is worse than the Cracker Barrel" which was the prefect cap on the whole exchange. The mimosa flight was everything I hoped it would be, and I did manage to finish the whole thing, which is saying something since our server asked if we were running the races and I made the mistake of mentioning staying hydrated and was promptly served a 2qt jar of ice water.

IMG_5580.jpeg

"Ohhh, what lock screen is on your phone? Classic Frozen Castle. I love it!"
IMG_5579.jpeg


My parents had declined our invitation at this point, and while I was sure the answer would be "sorry, no" from DVC, we stopped at the front desk of the resort to see if there was anything that could be done to downsize our reservation. They front desk had to call Member Services, and the hold time was 20min, so we decided to call on our own back at the room. When we finally got through and explained the whole situation the CM told us she would put us on hold and talk to a manager. I was absolutely SHOCKED when she came back a few minutes later to tell us that they had separated the 1br from the studio, restored our points to normal status (not holding), AND un-borrowed some of the points as well! This is something (separating a 2br lock-off) that I've read repeatedly that they do not do ever. And the fact that they restored our UY was just icing on the cake! Pixie Dusted for sure!

Our evening plan was a monorail crawl, and let me preface this with the fact that I'm a massive lightweight when it comes to alcohol. As responsible people, we figured out a way to utilize Disney transportation for the whole thing, which was surprisingly easy. We took a park bus to MK and then walked over the the Contemporary to start at the Outer Rim. I got a pineapple mule, which is something that was repeated on a few drink menus. I will not get it again as it was neither pineapple-y nor ginger-y, and there was a mint leaf in it? It was weird and I didn't like it. Then we wandered around until we found the Steakhouse 71 lounge (CR is a very confusing resort layout for me) and the drink menu for that was a bit of a head-scratcher for someone who usually just gets a margarita or a seltzer. I ended up getting something that said "Chocolate Bitters" in the ingredient list because I figured it would be a bit dark-chocolate-y. I was not. It was like a bourbon manhattan I think? No thanks. I finished it, but that was it for me for the night for drinks. We got the macaroni and cheese which was pretty good, but definitely not amazing. We monorailed to the GF a had drinks out on the balcony (we were the only ones out there!) of the Enchanted Rose. Got the truffle fries and YUM. I could eat a lot of those! That could have been the bourbon talking though.
IMG_5589.jpeg
And our last stop was the Tambu Lounge at the Poly, where we sat at the bar and ate Ohana noodles and I ordered (key word) the pomegranate lemonade and DH got the Back Scratcher (and was then surprised when it was served with a physical back scratcher.) My lemonade was so syrupy sweet it was almost un-drinkable. After that, we bussed back to Disney Springs and walked to the resort. DH stopped at Polite Pig for some more food to bring to the room. Easy peasy.

Wednesday:
Expo day! DH and I split up our F&F lists on MDE, and both went for VQs with parties of 4. I got through first, and we ended up with group 2 or 5 or something really low that we were able to share with 2 other board-regulars. The lines were silly, as usual. The crush for Dopey stuff was silly, as usual. The line out by the soccer fields for the 3rd-party expo/shirt building was new to me! While I prefer the shorter walk of just going up the stairs post-bib pickup, I understand that it's probably a lot safer to route people the way they did (less potential for trips/falls or pushing on the concrete steps.) I got my annual expo cider, and the fun new race weekend cup. I have a feeling weekend-specific cups are going to become a thing because it's a super easy way for them to make money. We had intended to eat lunch at the ESPN grill, but nothing sounded particularly good so after our shopping and meeting up with a few people for a few minutes, we headed out for the afternoon. We ate lunch at Pepe by Jose Andres and I was very underwhelmed. There was also a woman in there with her family that complained about everything and scraped her chair super-loudly across the floor every time she went back up to the counter with a grievance. Dinner was at Sanaa, because it's not a race weekend if I don't get the bread service! SIL and I were supposed to eat there on Thursday night while the husbands golfed, so I had to get my fix another way! Then it was an early bedtime because my usual mode on race weekend is what is sleep?

Next up…races!
 
Last edited:
Thursday! 5k day: Also, Happy Birthday to me!
Let me start by saying the the 5k is my least favorite distance of all of the Disney races. It's crowded, people are all over on both sides of the course trying to mug for photopass, and the lines for characters can be pretty ridiculously long. I realized on 5k morning that I had not brought warm enough throw-away layers, so I put a poncho over the top to cut down on the wind. Having it be in the high 30s/low 40s and humid AND windy at 4am is not the Florida weather I wanted. DH and I stopped for a few selfies and someone took our pic in front of SSE for us. Neither of us shed our warm, extra layers, which ended up being super helpful because it meant DH had an extra coat for me to wear on 10k morning. Post-race we were both cold, but I was wanting to try to get some of the character pics by the stage. The lines were crazy long on the left side, but the line for Clara Cluck was really short so I hopped in that one while DH grabbed a beer. The only character we stopped for on-course was Thumper. A few other looked interesting, and if it hadn't been so cold we may have gotten in line for the old Hag, or Pinocchio.

Once we got back to the room and cleaned up, we packed all of our stuff up because we were moving rooms. Shocking. We never do this! We had decided that it would be good to try to find some indoor stuff to do, and I wanted to stay off my feet as much as possible, so we went to the movie theater and watched Mufasa. It was cute, but some of the songs feel really didn't fit the vibe of the movie (Bye-Bye?! That was so disconnected!) I didn't want to walk far to get lunch, so we decided to try out Summerhouse. DH was unimpressed with his pasta dish, but I enjoyed my butternut squash ravioli. The prices are definitely on the higher side for what you get compared to some other places (DH ordered a whiskey sour and it was $19?!) in DS, so that's probably a 1 and done for us. With BIL/SIL not coming down, that put me in the position to go golfing with DH, something that has been on his "Disney bucket list" for a couple of years now. Since the weather was so cold we decided to see if they would allow us to start sooner (2:30) than our 4pm tee time, and we lucked out that there was no one on the schedule ahead of us! We played "best ball" between the 2 of us....I haven't golfed in 20 years....and had a nice time. I quit doing anything but putt after hole 14 because I could feel that I was using unfamiliar muscles in my left leg and hip, and didn't want to cause issues for the remaining races. We managed to get all 18 holes in before dark, something that would NOT have happened if we had kept our 4pm start. Pizza from the QS at the resort for dinner, and then it was another early bedtime. Of course, I had all of my anxious wake-ups on this night instead of Saturday night, but I was freaking out that I was going to have THREE nights of no sleep.

Friday! 10k day:
Thank you to everyone who participated in the group costume! It was so fun to see so many at the lightpole in the flag shirts and skirts. Also, it was FREEZING. I wore DH's leftover fleece jacket, and the under armour infrared cold-gear leggings I brought as a last-resort in case it got as cold as the forecast said. This was a great move on my part because I did manage to mostly stay warm this race. Being able to see your breath in Florida is ridiculous. I was also absolutely exhausted, and NOT "feeling it." Similar to the 5k, the course was crowded again, the lines were just long enough that I didn't want to stop and get cold (even bathroom stops were dicey because my sweat would just freeze and I'd get the shivers again.) We stopped for Pan and Wendy and a few more selfies. We completely missed out on our photopass in front of SSE because someone came sprinting up in front of us from the opposite side of the course. Oh well. I asked DH if he wanted to circle back (it was right by the bathrooms) but he said no so we just finished the race and called it a day. We did catch up to The Expert during this run, and she felt the same way I did about running. We stayed together for a few miles, and then separated when one of us made a stop for something (I'm fuzzy on the details at this point.) We stopped near Guardians to grab a VQ as this was one of our 2 park days. No post-race characters or beverages this day.

Our VQ for Guardians ended up running right into our $LL for it, so we rode it back-to-back and then headed out to wander around. This was originally intended to be DH's real DATW day with his brother, but we were both feeling very 'meh' about things. We decided to go ride LWTL because much like the People Mover, we feel like it's an underrated attraction. A lot of other people apparently had the same idea because the line was 30min long! Then we picked around the aquarium for a little bit and tried to figure out what sounded good for lunch. I don't even remember where we ate. We did get a gingerbread cookie sandwich from Germany as my birthday treat, and it did not disappoint.

And then it was time for HH! We got there a bit early to be in position to grab a few tables, and it was so nice to see so many familiar faces. DH gets drawn into more conversations every year, and I'm so thankful that this group is so kind and welcoming and that there are people who go out of their way to make sure everyone feels included. We left a little early and I was falling asleep on the skyliner as we rode around to avoid extra steps. We grabbed dinner from the QS, and I was falling asleep at 6pm. I was finally out for the night at about 6:45, and slept so incredibly well for a race weekend. It was SHOCKING. This is 100% not my normal, and I was assuming I would be waking up 4 or more times that night.
 
Let me start by saying the the 5k is my least favorite distance of all of the Disney races. It's crowded, people are all over on both sides of the course trying to mug for photopass, and the lines for characters can be pretty ridiculously long.
Agree 100%.
A lot of other people apparently had the same idea because the line was 30min long!
That ride is finally getting the street creds it deserves ✌️
 
Saturday! HM day:
Hello rain! I do not like you!
IMG_5633.jpeg
What I did like? The obscene amount of sleep I got the night before! I got almost 8 hours somehow, and my usual bundle of nerves was very subdued. I came prepared for the wet weather, but had hoped that it would be a bit less than it was. Initially I had on my leggings (because I didn't want to be cold yet again) and then shorts over them/under my sparkle skirt. But as soon as I walked out of the resort room I knew I would be too hot with the leggings, so I changed out of them in the car, since DH drove me over and dropped me off. I felt horrible for the 2 girls sitting in front of me in the corral who were in skorts, t-shirts, and absolutely no warm or waterproof layers. And they sat on the ground! They were soaked and shivering by the time the race started. I had planned on tracking The Expert with the runner tracking to see how far ahead of me she started, and try to gauge how fast I would need to run. And then of course the tracking chip didn't work! The race had felt like a complete slog for me for the first half, and it's no exaggeration that when I saw the sweep busses parked at like mile 2 I thought for a second....you could just go get on one of those and no one would have to know. and then you wouldn't have to run 13mi today. And then shortly after that DisneyatHeart passed me and I tagged along behind them for a couple of miles so I didn't have to think about my intervals or self-motivate when it was time to transition back into a run. They are #goals. The Expert and I texted back and forth a few times, and I knew she wasn't too far ahead, and then in MK she texted me that she was waiting by IASW so we could get a pic (bonus points for the couple behind us just before or after the castle that knew what our costumes were!)
IMG_5647.jpeg
Coming out of MK we debated keeping our intervals to "get it over with" and possibly have time to nap before our respective lunch reservations, or slowing down and saving our legs for Sunday. The latter won out, as it usually does for us, and we did a bit more walking than running for the last 4-5 miles.
IMG_5653.jpeg
Post-race I hopped on the resort bus (another plug for OKW/SSR is that it's the closest bus in the post-race area) and then hobbled back to my room. We had lunch at Paddlefish (I really prefer their dinner offerings, for future reference) and dinner at Raglan Road. It was tricky to try to decide what to eat at a new restaurant for dinner the night before a marathon. Nothing new for race day but also will my digestive system be OK with this tomorrow balanced by this sounds soooooo yummy! Will definitely eat at RR again, but I think it would be more fun than just the 2 of us (I had picked RR with BIL/SIL in mind back when I was making reservations.) A slightly later bedtime this night...not 6pm like Friday night had been, but still respectably early, given that I had about 15 things I needed to do to have my costume prepped for the morning. Since my skirt pulled double-duty with the 5k, I had to put all of the decals on, decide which pockets would hold what for all of the fuel, and other marathon accessories. Finding where I had stashed my fleece headband, gloves, hand warmers, charging my shokz, packing my gearcheck bag, laying out the stuff I'd need for breakfast, and so on.

Sunday! It's not a sprint, it's marathon:
Anyone else get slightly annoyed when people use that phrase. Like duuuude. You have no idea what a marathon is actually like. It's way more torturous than you know. I woke up at 1:45 because DH's alarm was going off. Wait. What? My alarm was supposed to go off at 1:30! Why didn't my alarm go off? Oh! Because when I edited one of my other morning alarms to 1:30, it switched it from am to pm. Doh! Good thing that DH planned to drive me over, or I would have missed the race! After just a little bit of panic, I double checked the weather and decided that it was going to be a leggings day and not a shorts day and I started getting all of my stuff on and shuffled into its appropriate pockets/bags. DH made me coffee, breakfast, and a sandwich to eat in the corral while I fussed with my clothes and then my eye-black (because if you're going to run in a Hutchinson jersey, you gotta do the face!)
IMG_5657.jpeg
This man. He might get exasperated with my roller-coaster of emotions on a Dopey weekend and heavily lobby for running "just" 1 or 2 of the races in the future, but he's there to do all of the things to help me be successful. I didn't hang out very long at the lightpole in the morning because on marathon day I like to get toward the front of my corral. This was especially true this year because my training looked like wait, what is running? and I had no idea how this race was going to go. I put handwarmers in my gloves, and this was totally the right call because it helped me feel a lot warmer; my hands get really cold easily and then all of me feels cold. A lady gave me 3 friendship bracelets while we were waiting (M, Goofy, and Dopey) and I was able to share some information about EE with a trio of ladies who were trying to figure out where it was mileage wise, and when the BL would be passing. As it turned out, I could have gotten in my corral almost 40min later and been pretty close to where I started. Someone mentioned elsewhere that they used the "color" subdivisions, and the "2nd" D corral didn't start filling until about 20min before wheels started. So if you're in D, and are OK with being in the back of your corral, you can wait a looooooong time. And then we were off! I felt GREAT today, and since 20/30 intervals had served me well for the HM, I started with those. My goal was to catch up with The Expert before MK, and I figured that shouldn't be too much of a problem if I could be sub-15. (I was very successful with this.) Heading up one of the highway ramps near mile 4 I stopped at a med tent to get some tylenol as a preventative, and when I stepped to the side I saw camaker wrapped up in a blanket. I was sad he was not able to finish his Dopey, but he appeared to be taking it as well as could be expected. I caught up with The Expert near mile 6 and we settled in for our usual chatter-fest that was massively augmented by the amounts of comments and shout-outs we got from other runners. This was the best distraction over the course of the entire race. See what I did there? The course? HAHA! We got a fantastic castle pic together, and crossed paths with DisneyatHeart at the castle hub.
image000001.jpeg
The Expert nearly got sent to Disney-jail for grabbing 2 mini Cokes from her husband at the BLT crosswalk, but those were such a lift at the right time! The caffeine, the sugar, not a gel. Just super. We usually like to pick checkpoints to decide what to do with our intervals, and the exit of MK was the first one. We both still felt good, and decided that post-AK would be our 2nd check-in point.

Near the first banana stop Naomeri passed us. We ran a few intervals together, but she was grooving with her own plan so we waved and carried on. The whole Star Wars section makes me wish I was a faster runner because I'm confident that it's absolutely amazing in the dark with the smoke machines and the light effects. We stopped for a few character pics in here (the lines had really been significantly more manageable than I had expected.) Had I been in better running-shape I would have been tempted to stop for quite a few more than I did. We were starting to feel our feet in AK, but had decided that if the wait for EE was short enough OR if single rider was open that we would stop. Unfortunately for us, they were turning runners away "the posted time is 30min and you don't have time to ride before the balloon ladies get here!" was being yelled to runners. That math is wrong. We had more than 45min on the BLs at that point, and looking at the line, it definitely didn't look like 30min. But since they clearly didn't want us riding, we carried on. We stopped at the bathrooms in AK to shed some layers (I was still wearing my gloves, headband, long sleeve, and arm sleeves in addition to my jersey!) since it finally felt warm enough to ditch the long-sleeve.) No more bananas, please as we exited AK. Once we got back to the access road, we could see the very end of the pack coming through and looked really hard for superchime, trying to make sure she wasn't behind the BLs or in any of the vans and we didn't see her. We stopped for more Tylenol at the med tent on the corner of Western Way and braced ourselves for the crappiest part of the course, historically. Western Way is long, straight, boring, and offers little in the way of shade (less of an issue this year than other years.) We were still feeling pretty good, so we decided to keep our intervals until mile 20 and then evaluate again. Between 20 and 21 Naomeri caught up with us and all of my mental questioning as to why I had decided to sign up for Dopey, and why was I doing another marathon, and why do I keep "doing this" to myself were answered. She was struggling.....completely new territory in mileage compared to training (something all of us Not-So-Fast'ers deal with in our first marathon), and The Expert and I worked together to reel her back in emotionally. We did the runners math and knew we could do 20 minute miles and finish the race ahead of the BLs, so we did a lot more walking and I shared my stash of tylenol with her and another runner who was passing us. We had several stretches where we recognized our aches and pains, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow" with every step. And then played games like "It's ok to say NO, but do we want to run down this hill?" The Expert started tracking Nancipants more closely at this point because we knew she was only about half a mile behind us at one point, but tracking showed that she had started to fall off near AK. We knew that if we slowed down a little more that she would catch us before the finish line, but ultimately paused for about 3 minutes at Boardwalk to allow her to catch up with us completely. We passed a few dis'ers (garneska and jmasgat) and apparently just missed a few others (Kerry and archigeek) because we had fallen off our "predicted finish time" by about 20 minutes. We also warned Naomeri and Nancipants about "finish line collapse" where your body/brain recognizes "oh, you've crossed the finish line and all of these things I've been saying hurts for the last 2 hours and you've ignored are going to be turned up to 11 now." Not that it was a guaranteed thing, but that it might happen and that no, you are not dying and don't freak out if it happens. For me this is always immediately post snack box area. I gradually stiffen up from where they give out the medals until I'm almost to bag-check and then it hits me and I can barely walk. The Expert and I got a shout of from Pelkey near the finish line, which was fun, and then the 4 of us grouped back up post-medals for a selfie. Side note, I feel like a giant with those 3.....all 5ft 6in of me.
IMG_5683.jpeg

Finishing a marathon with friends is seriously the best. I have nothing to compare it with since I've always run at least the 2nd half of a marathon with someone else, but I cannot imagine having to talk myself down after 5 or 6 hours of running and cap the inevitable imposter syndrome/freakout.

DH met me in the finisher area with a cider and a PBJ, helped me spread out my mylar to lay down, picked things up off the ground for me, helped me stretch my hamstrings and calves out when they considered tightening up more than I wanted.
See this? This is what love looks like.
IMG_5686.jpeg
I had intended to go and do the finisher pics with the rundiney backdrop/photopass people with the paddles and stuff, but I'm glad I skipped because I overheard someone say it took them AN HOUR AND 40 MINUTES?!

We rode the bus back to the resort and he offered to walk down and get the car so I didn't have to walk to the other end of the resort, but I figured it would be good recovery if I forced myself to walk back. It was probably a good call. DH walked over to DS to Eet and grabbed come fresh naan for us, and we ate ALL of the leftovers in the fridge....the dips from Sanaa's bread service, the shrimp curry, half of the shepherd's pie from RR, and a few other things. Gimme all the food! We moved our dinner reservation from 6 to 7:30 because we knew we wouldn't be hungry at 6, and that also allowed us to participate in a zoom training session for refereeing while we packed our suitcases and did laundry. Packing? What? Are we moving resorts *again*???
 
Last edited:
Monday! DATW and MK AH:
In discussions on Sunday night around our "goals" for our last park day, we decided we wanted to try to get on Remy, ride GotG 2x (already had a $LL), do Epcot medal pics, and hopefully nap before heading to MK for the after-hours event. We were successful in most of this. We were moving to BW for our last resort night (I think we only have 2 more DVC resorts for WDW and we'll have stayed at all of the ones we are eligible to stay at!) so we packed the car and drove over to park at BW and walk in through International Gateway, aka right next to Remy! We somehow ended up with 3 people in the front and 1 in the back because they wouldn't seat 2 people from the single rider line together?! Way to go Disney. That was comfortable. I had gotten BG6, and while we were in the "waiting" room we spotted Kerry and his daughter! We rode this back-to-back, and I walked down the stairs backwards post-ride both times. I got a lot of looks. Then we saw a photopass photographer that had a setup with SE in the background, so we went and got in line for that. She did a great job and did multiple poses and took over 30 pics. We urged people in line to go ahead of us while I arranged my medals and then re-arranged them for a different pose. I'm very happy with them, and I suppose it's nice to have something different than my usual castle pics. Or something. Maybe I'm still convincing myself on that one.

And then it was time for MARGARITAS (all 2 of them.) DATW crew was really fun and I feel like DH truly "gets" why this community is so great. Thank you to everyone who included him in conversations. I don't think he feels like he's just tagging along with me at this point; he's more introverted but once he came back with a souvenir beer stein in Germany with marty3d laughing about who had influenced who, I knew he was having a good time.

I had somehow not done the online check-in for our room, and didn't figure that out until it was after 4pm and we still didn't have a room number. Within minutes of me updating that, we had a room assignment. We had a boardwalk-view studio, and ended up on the first floor but the walk was sooooooo long from the lobby. While I can understand why people love this resort, it's not for us. Also, the connecting door between our room and the 1br next door wasn't locked and the toddler in the room next to us tried to walk into our room!

After-hours was just OK. The weather didn't help, and I was reminded why I was sooooo happy when HEA came back and replaced "Enchantment" (which is just IP projections with seemingly unconnected fireworks.) We mobile ordered Casey's while we waited for them to let us in, and then found a small spot to stand to the left of the umbrella tables that had a pretty good view of the castle/fireworks for HEA (and all of the crying; have I trained myself to cry during HEA at this point?) Ate dinner using the trashcan as a table (now it's a real Disney trip!) and didn't have to try to see over tall people/kids on shoulders or get continually bumped. We rode Pirates, HM, Tron, 7Dwarves, IASW, Pooh, the carousel, Buzz, and the People Mover. My feet were sooooooo sore and tired. *I* was so tired, and we really struggled to find the snack carts or a handout with information about WHERE any of them were/a schedule of the fireworks, etc. I was disappointed that Tiana was closed because I'm 99% sure it was listed as one of the attractions when we bought the tickets. We ended up leaving a little after midnight, and juuuuuust missed the first bus. There was a new bus driver who was taking over when the next bus got there and he came over to let me know the bus was just pulling around the corner after I sat down to wait (my feet were not standing in one place for 15min at this point) so I had time to get up before the bus parked.

Tuesday. No "!" about this:
We hauled all of our stuff back out to the car (we had some re-packing to do so we wouldn't be over weight on the checked bags) and then headed back to DS one more time. We ate ramen for lunch (again) at Morimoto Street Food, walked through World of Disney, looked at the in-stock sketches at the art store, and decided to peek at the outlet on Vineland before heading to the airport. I found a super cute mug, a pin, and a kids' christmas spirit jersey for DD all for less than $30. Win! After that it was 2 uneventful flights home, where DS2 picked us up from the airport. And now I get to contemplate next year, future plans, and figure out what my motivation is going forward.
 
Looking ahead:

-I'm starting a lifting program on Monday. If anyone wants to join me, it's Caroline Girvan's Iron Series on Youtube. It's about 30min/day for 30 days and she doesn't do a lot of talking/pumping you up so you can listen to whatever music you want. It uses dumbbells and no other special equipment that I know of. I think it would be a good intro for me to get back into something beefier like 80Day Obsession or Hammer/Chisel or Liift4/More.

-I'm going to see if I can lose about 20 pounds before my August race. I'm hoping lifting is a big key to that, but I'm going to get back into tracking my protein and calories (and nothing else...I don't care about carbs/fat/sugar at this point) as a starting point.

-I need to figure out a training plan for my 50k trail run. I run on August 24th, so I have lots of time, but I also need to figure out when I should start training, or get my base mileage established before training starts. If anyone feels compelled to take a Northern Michigan vacation in August, it's a pretty great time of year! A lot of the tourists are gone because southern states start school before Labor Day (we start after up here) but the weather is still nice, there are a lot of outdoors-y things to do (tubing or kayaking down the rivers, dune climb, etc) and a ridiculous number of wineries and microbreweries. It would be nice if I could figure out a way to springboard 50k training into something else in like November, but that would get tricky with a few other schedule items I already know about.

-Future RunDisney (aka 2026) is looking like possibly Princess? I asked DS2 if he was interested in running, and steered him specifically toward the HM and that weekend works much better since MW is the week before midterm exams. There's a chance we would bring everyone down for that and DD could do the 5k with us, DS3 could do the 10k, and DS2 could do the HM, I could do the challenge, and DH could decide if he wants to do anything! That would make for a very different kind of race weekend, and a 2br would probably be the best choice for that given all of the different possible wake-ups. There's a chance I could convince DH for "just" the half or full for MW '26, but I'm doubtful. I really think I could easily lobby for Princess '26 with the whole family and then MW in '27 for Goofy (maybe get DH to do a marathon that year?!)
 
Thank you to everyone who included him in conversations. I don't think he feels like he's just tagging along with me at this point; he's more introverted but once he came back with a souvenir beer stein in Germany with marty3d laughing about who had influenced who, I knew he was having a good time.
That was SO funny. My husband would have done the same thing. 🤣
 
Congrats on another Dopey!

Let me tell you how much your pep talk Marathon morning convinced me to go to my corral instead of getting back on a bus. 🤣 And it's so sweet that all of you were looking for me and worried about me at the end of the race!

DATW was my husband's intro to this group and, like yours, he's introverted. This group is so welcoming, though, I think he's starting to see the light.

I might be in for Caroline Girvan. The last time I tried her stuff it kicked my butt, but I need to be doing something besides running now and accountability/consistency is where I always fail with lifting.
 
Congrats on another Dopey!

Let me tell you how much your pep talk Marathon morning convinced me to go to my corral instead of getting back on a bus. 🤣 And it's so sweet that all of you were looking for me and worried about me at the end of the race!
I was just happy to be the one giving a pep talk and not needing one this year! 😂
DATW was my husband's intro to this group and, like yours, he's introverted. This group is so welcoming, though, I think he's starting to see the light.
I giggle on the inside when he asks me things like “ok now who did I talk to about legos last year?” Oh that was Kenn!
I might be in for Caroline Girvan. The last time I tried her stuff it kicked my butt, but I need to be doing something besides running now and accountability/consistency is where I always fail with lifting.
I haven’t done one of her programs yet, but this one seems very accessible and I can just go really light on the weights while my body remembers how to lift things. I “hate cardio” (but not running?) so the programs that combine it usually end with me quitting early.
 



















Free Vacation Planning!

Dreams Unlimited Travel is here to help you plan your ideal Disney vacation, with no additional cost to you. Our Authorized Disney Vacation Planners offer expert advice, answer all your questions, and constantly seek out the best discounts, ensuring you get the most value for your trip. Let us handle the details so you can focus on making magical memories.
CLICK HERE







New Posts




DIS Tiktok DIS Facebook DIS Twitter DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest

Back
Top