How Many Times Can I Change My Mind? Wine & Dine 2020 PTR

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Hello and welcome to my runDisney Wine & Dine 2020 trip report! I didn't plan to do a PTR for this year but there have already been so many changes to this trip that I figured I might as well document it! Actually, this trip wasn't going to happen at all, but now it is. But first, intros...

I'm Leah, your host for this journey. I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota and work as a Realtor and as a Certified Veterinary Technician. Being in the veterinary field, my house is filled with animals and I currently have 3 dogs, 1 cat, and 2 parrots.

Me at Wine & Dine 2019

Nimitz is my 12 year old Lab/German Shorthair Pointer and she was recently diagonsed with congestive heart failure. She's also one of the smartest dogs ever

Eisley is a 7 year old pug and she was born with 3 genetic heart defects and is a huge couch pugtato

Luna is my crazy girl, she's a 3 year old Golden Retriever/English Springer Spaniel who hates the other 2 dogs but loves learning tricks!

Weasley is my 4 year old kitty boy and he loves bossing the dogs around and stealing my fleece Disney dogs blanket

No birdie pictures because they are both terrified of my phone

I'm newer to the Disney life but I'm also completely addicted. My first adult trips to WDW was in 2018 and I've been multiple times a year since then. When I'm not working (does that even happen?!) I love to run, watch tv, and crochet blankets.

Joining me on this trip...well, keep reading to find out!

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Ok, on with the actual trip!

I did the Wine and Dine runDisney weekend in 2019 as my very first runDisney experience and it was great. I had already registered to do the Star Wars Rival Run weekend in April and I had no plans to do any my runDisney trips in 2020. A friend of mine is doing the Paris run weekend in September and invited me along but I couldn't swing the cost. Then runDisney announced that W&D would be villains themed this year and it peaked my interest, plus it's also during my birthday week. I still wasn't committed to it until a little over a week ago when the virtual charity running club I'm part of announced that they were trying to become a charity for this weekend and we could request bibs. I checked in with my cousin, who is my usual traveling companion and she was game, so I requested a 5k and challenge bib for myself. The charity was supposed be be approved in a few days and everything was looking good!

In the mean time, our friend asked if she could join us on the trip and we said yes (of course!). She needed a budget so I started gathering prices for hotels and dining. Rooms were already super limited for this weekend and we knew we really wanted to stay at a Skyliner resort. She also asked if she could do the 5k with me as her first race ever and my cousin said she'd be interested in doing it too, so I said perhaps we should try and book through a travel agent to get their bibs and our room taken care of all at once. I contacted a recommended agent right away and heard nothing but an auto reply for 2 days. I follow a runDisney Facebook group and they said agents were running out of bibs already, so I contacted the TA I used last year for W&D...and crickets. So I contacted another agent, and heard nothing. At this point, the FB group had announced all TA bibs were gone so I told our group I'd try to get their bibs on general registration day instead We decided to book a suite at AoA and added the new dining plan plus for Nov 5-12, so at least we had a room! My previous TA did respond 3 days later and confirmed that all bibs were gone and also added us to his waiting list.

While I was working all of this out, our charity kept getting delayed on approval by Disney. Now I'm getting concerned that I also don't have any bibs! They recommended anyone who could get bibs another way should do so, just in case. Ugh. I was starting to wonder if W&D was worth it or maybe we should schedule Princess weekend instead, although I've never had any desire to run during Princess weekend and marathon weekend always sounds too cold (I'm not a fan of being cold).

As we are all discussing this later one evening, I'm scrolling Facebook and see a TA advertising all bibs available. I'm assuming it's a mistake and send a message and they confirm, more bibs have just been released! I immediately request 3 5k bibs, a challenge bib, and our suite/dining package. He says it's after hours but it will be booked first thing in the morning. Woo hoo! I get confirmation from him early the next day that he's secured all our bibs and our package so we are finally set!!!! Our charity did get approved a few days later but I removed my name from their list. Now I just have to cancel our original package and wait for ADR day. Stay tuned!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Joining in! Awesome that everything worked out and you were able to get everything booked!

I want to do Wine and Dine so badly especially since it's Villain themed but I just don't think it's in the cards this year

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Joining in! Awesome that everything worked out and you were able to get everything booked!

I want to do Wine and Dine so badly especially since it's Villain themed but I just don't think it's in the cards this year

Hopefully they'll continue the theme, since it seems to be extremely popular! I really enjoy the planning and organizing part, so that hasn't been bad, but the waiting to hear from people is always frustrating.