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

[Herding_Cats]

Running (haha, see what I did there?) trip report for MW 2026. I’ll add pics once we get back home and I have the Big Computer

Sunday: up at 4am to leave at 5am for a 4hr drive to Detroit. Travel was uneventful, as was picking up the rental car, and the drive to RR. We got a room-ready text while we were still at MCO, so we opted to drop our luggage we needed for the first few nights in the room, change into more temperature-appropriate clothes, and headed to MK for the rest of the day. DD sang along with the entirety of HEA, and I only cried a little.

Monday we got up early and rope-dropped AK. Rode FoP (DD cried most of the time because it was too real feeling and she didn’t like the drops) but LOVED EE. Go figure. We had lunch at Nomad Lounge and exited the park at around 2pm to have some pool time. When we got back we were happily surprised to see that the Character bus was there and she got to meet Goofy, Pluto, and Donald. We went to Epcot for dinner (Regal Eagle) and intended to stay for fireworks and EEH but ended up riding FEA and then leaving because DD was really tired and we had forgotten her protective ear muffs.

Tuesday was BBB day for DD. We roped-dropped MK again, rode teacups, dumbo, SDMT, and the carousel before she was transformed into Aurora. After that we were on a mission to meet characters and managed all 4 princesses in Fairytale Hall, Jasmine & Aladdin, and Pocahontas. We rode POTC, sat through 1 showing of Tiki Room, and then met Mickey before exiting the park at around 4pm. Whew! Our room at SSR was ready ridiculously early AND my room request was honored, so we dropped our luggage off in our room, picked up our grocery order, and had dinner in the room. I mistakenly thought Fantasmic was at 9pm so we hustled over to HS to watch it and we sat. And sat. And sat. 9pm came and went and it was then that I realized we left too early. DD fell asleep while we waited and wasn’t happy to be woken up until Elsa started singing let it go.

Wednesday: we get to sleep in today? Yes! All the way until 8pm. What’s that, we didn’t get up bed until after 11? Oh noooooo. The expo was really frustrating. Somehow less organized than in the past. We actually had BG34, and that really made things frustrating when we waited and waited to be called. We didn’t get out of WWOS until 1:30pm, and DD was sooo over it. We hit the pool, for awhile, a few shops in DS, and had dinner at Raglan Road. I booked through OpenTable and we ended up in the furthest table by the door that exits towards Morimoto. Which meant DD couldn’t see any of the dancers. Is there a trick to getting a better table location? We didn’t get to bed until a little after 8, which wasn’t ideal.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Thursday 5k day!

Alarms were set for 2am but we ended up snoozing until about 215. I had made sure to set everything out the night before so all we had to do was get dressed and shove some food in our mouths. We were out the door and headed toward Epcot by 3, and had to do a quick GPS change as it was not sending us the correct way (probably backstage as happened to jsharp.) It was a quick hello at the light pole and then we waited in line for Stitch, DD’s favorite character.

On a health note, this is the best my back has felt in 2 weeks. I did jog a few intervals and nothing felt worse or weird which was a great sign.

DD ran the entire first mile, and DH had to chase after her. They waited for me at the Stargirl line and the we stuck together for the remainder of the race. She got pretty bogged down during mile 2, and we stopped for a picture with Jumba (was Pleakly, but they switched out while we were in line.) After her break for the character line she was raring to go and ran a good portion for mile 3, and the final section from the choir to the finish line. I juggled snack boxes while DH got our back from gearcheck and she got a pic with Pluto and her medal. We went back to the room to rinse, change, and eat more breakfast, and then headed back to Epcot. We did early entry for GoTG and DD didn’t go well because it was so dark and she was tired. When we got to the end she look up at me with her sad little face and said “Did we get it? Did we get the cosmic reactor?” So there’s definitely enough storyline for even a 6 year old to follow. After that we debated our plan for the rest of the day. We ended up crossing over to rise Soarin and to grab a hummus pack from Sunshine seasons. After that we made our way (the wrong way) around WS to meet princesses. We *just* missed Aurora, but did get Pooh, Tigger, Capt Hook, Mickey (again because he had different clothes), and Mulan.

I had modified our Sanaa reservation from 12:05 back to 1:30 to accommodate all the characters and we bussed from Epcot to AKV and then back to Epcot where we switched busses to SSR where all took a 90min nap. Then it was off to the pool for a bit. We had intended to watch fireworks somewhere tonight, but we are opting for a quiet night in with a somewhat normal bedtime routine so that hopefully we can avoid any meltdowns tomorrow.

I have 0 fomo about the 10k tomorrow. I will likely start having anxiety about Saturday/Sunday tonight when I try to fall asleep.

 

[nancipants]

So glad your back is feeling better! And I was glad to say hi before the race.