I won't say I'm in love...but I am!! A Feb '14 GSC PTR! (NEW 2/9)

[emmysmommy]

Hi Emily! Your family cruise sounds like it was a great experience with family. What no family drama at your family reunions? How nice to be on a new ship. When I first saw a photo of the cabin I thought wow those are big - but a handicap accessible room is a great option for space it sounds like!

What fun in Chicago!! Sounds like some great non-Dis travel. Cupcakes for dinner - oh yeah, that's great vacation dining!!

Your upcoming plans look great. I'm a huge Chefs de France, 'Ohana, and Kona (breakfast) fan so I give them a thumbs up!

 

[Eight]

Woah, the ocean has the most amazing blue color in the pictures at the beach! Looks awesome and sounds like a very fun trip. Was the cruise ship one of those huge ones?

Even though I'm not running, I'm so excited to see the course map for the 10K. I bet it'll be great.

I like Earl of Sandwich, but I also like the Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney. I don't know if I like one better than the other though, it depends on what sort of food I'm craving.

Good luck getting your ADRs!

 

[LB1122]

Your travels looked like fun. I am biased of course, living in the Chicago suburbs, but I bet that you enjoyed it the most. Your cruise with the family must have been a blast as well. Great space on the ship. I have never cruised so it is on my bucket list (I think also on my Disney bucket list as I would like to do a Did cruise with my whole family..sister, mom dad etc.)

Looks like you have a good plan. 2 races in 2 days...wow that is awesome. What fun to run around Disney.

Good luck on those ADR's

 

[emilyindisney]

Hi Emily! Your family cruise sounds like it was a great experience with family. What no family drama at your family reunions? How nice to be on a new ship. When I first saw a photo of the cabin I thought wow those are big - but a handicap accessible room is a great option for space it sounds like!

What fun in Chicago!! Sounds like some great non-Dis travel. Cupcakes for dinner - oh yeah, that's great vacation dining!!

Your upcoming plans look great. I'm a huge Chefs de France, 'Ohana, and Kona (breakfast) fan so I give them a thumbs up!

It was your latest TR that really sold me on Kona! How could we not have some Tonga Toast after seeing your delicious pictures!?

DSis just informed me she's already been to Chefs de France so I guess we'll be looking somewhere else. I swear, I'll get there one day for the French Onion Soup and the Lobster Bisque!

 

[emilyindisney]

Woah, the ocean has the most amazing blue color in the pictures at the beach! Looks awesome and sounds like a very fun trip. Was the cruise ship one of those huge ones?

Even though I'm not running, I'm so excited to see the course map for the 10K. I bet it'll be great.

I like Earl of Sandwich, but I also like the Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney. I don't know if I like one better than the other though, it depends on what sort of food I'm craving.

Good luck getting your ADRs!

Yes, it was one of NCL's 4,000+ passenger ships. It was massive! I think if I cruised again I'd opt for something a little smaller though. Maybe a Disney ship?

The only thing that would perfect the course in my book is if it was the end of the marathon course (DHS, Epcot resorts, Epcot.) This is definitely the next best thing, though!

Thanks for your thoughts! I'll put both of those on the DTD short list!

 

[emilyindisney]

Your travels looked like fun. I am biased of course, living in the Chicago suburbs, but I bet that you enjoyed it the most. Your cruise with the family must have been a blast as well. Great space on the ship. I have never cruised so it is on my bucket list (I think also on my Disney bucket list as I would like to do a Did cruise with my whole family..sister, mom dad etc.)

Looks like you have a good plan. 2 races in 2 days...wow that is awesome. What fun to run around Disney.

Good luck on those ADR's

Chicago is your neck of the woods?! What a coincidence! Very nice area!

Thanks! I've got my fingers crossed all will work out!

 

[emilyindisney]

Our 180 day mark has come and gone and I'm pleased to say we've got ADRs!

Per my usual routine, I set my alarm to 5:55 AM so I can wake up and drag my laptop into bed and be ready to go for 6. Last trip, I did this for 6 days in a row because I hadn't linked my room reservation to get my +10!

Now, I know I could probably wake up at a reasonable hour and get everything I wanted. I mean, its not like we're trying to snag a BoG dinner, or a CRT breakfast. None the less, there's just something exciting about refreshing that page while its still dark outside as I wait for my choices to go through. I had no issues getting any reservations I wanted, and was able to get pretty close to the times I wanted to. As a reminder, here's what we're doing:

Arrival day: Ohana Dinner (with a late night stop at Captain Cook's for Dole Whip, of course!)

Day Two: Post 10k breakfast at Cape May Cafe

Day Three: GSC celebration dinner at Via Napoli

Departure day: Kona Cafe for some Tonga Toast!

Have you eaten at any of these places? Menu recommendations are more than welcome and very appreciated!

On a somewhat related note, I was pleased with the new site. This is my first time booking reservations through it and I thought it was clear to use and worked well. Granted, I'm using Chrome and its practically useless when I try to browse using IE at work.

We've been watching flights since our dates came out in July but so far everything is much higher than I've anticipated. I'm hoping JetBlue will come down in the next couple months. If not, I think we might fly JetBlue down and Southwest back. That will save us a little money, and I'll get to keep rolling my JetBlue frequent flier miles.

Even though this update is a little short, our next one should be better because it'll feature DSis' first half marathon! In two weeks we're headed to the Surftown Half Marathon in Rhode Island! MJ is coming along so she'll be able to get in some pre-Disney chEar practice, hahaha!

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[annmarieda]

For getting ADRs done!

Ohana... you don't get a menu choice. They bring food around and you get what they serve. You can opt out of certain meats... but the family style just gets placed. My suggestion is to use the peanut sauce on the salad. Super yummy! I am not a huge fan of the meats...but my dh loves the steak. Know you can order it the way you like...so they will bring out really rare...if that is what you want. I did not realize that the first time I went and ended up with a lot of char steak.

Via Napoli is the only other one I have done. The pizza there is AMAZING!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

I've tried O'hana and Kona. Enjoyed both a lot! I actually liked Kona a little more than O'hana. Tonga Toast is my fav but Kona also has some good lunch items during the day. Make sure to leave room for dessert at your O'hana dinner. The bread pudding they bring out is really good!

 

[emilyindisney]

For getting ADRs done!

Ohana... you don't get a menu choice. They bring food around and you get what they serve. You can opt out of certain meats... but the family style just gets placed. My suggestion is to use the peanut sauce on the salad. Super yummy! I am not a huge fan of the meats...but my dh loves the steak. Know you can order it the way you like...so they will bring out really rare...if that is what you want. I did not realize that the first time I went and ended up with a lot of char steak.

Via Napoli is the only other one I have done. The pizza there is AMAZING!

Thanks for the Ohana advice! I'm not a huge fan of rare so its good to know we can ask for something different if we want.

That's what we've heard about Via Napoli! I'm definitely excited for some post-race pizza!

I've tried O'hana and Kona. Enjoyed both a lot! I actually liked Kona a little more than O'hana. Tonga Toast is my fav but Kona also has some good lunch items during the day. Make sure to leave room for dessert at your O'hana dinner. The bread pudding they bring out is really good!

Thanks for the tip! Disney always has so much good food its hard to save room for dessert, isn't it? Of course, I always manage even if it means rolling myself away from the table!

 

[emilyindisney]

September 14th and 15th , Cait and I were in Rhode Island for the Surftown Half Marathon. We drove down Saturday night with MJ, stayed over and raced Sunday morning.

With a brief dinner stop at Moe's (where oddly enough, we didn't get the “Welcome to Moe's!” when we walked in), we checked in to our hotel. We were staying in an apartment-esque room with a bedroom, living room, bathroom and kitchen (similar to a DVC villa!)

I do hope our DVC villa has a slightly larger bathroom than the place we stayed for this race...anyone been in the studios at BWV who can weigh in on size for 4 people?

I agree- the bathroom was pretty much a closet. It worked out for a quick overnight and shower, though.

The accommodations were good for a night, though we all agreed we wouldn't want to stay longer. The room needed a good cleaning, and definitely needed a little work. However, after talking with the owner's at check-out (who were very, very nice) we learned that their other hotel property in the area was battered by Hurricane Sandy so that was there they were spending a ton of their time and money for repair. We figured that was a good excuse for a little dust and a few broken odds and ends in our room.

Cait couldn't leave for the night without trying out the outdoor accommodations as well!

After checking in and getting settled, we headed down to the shore line to visit the beach and check out the Fall Fest that was running all weekend. On our walk, we ran into one of those cheesy tourist stores called the Purple Ape. We perused for a few minutes, and I stopped for a picture in their giant chair outside!

As you might guess from the coat, it was a little chilly but not too bad. I guess I can't complain because I always say I like fall weather better than summer anways!

In addition to our tourist shop stops, we had to make a quick walmart run-I forgot a sweatshirt to wear the morning of the race, and it was FREEZING prior to the start...so that walmart sweatshirt was $6 very well spent!

Soon we headed back to the room to get to bed early for the race the next morning!

The alarm went off at quarter to six Sunday morning. After dining on pre-race bagels we were off to pick up our packets and get ready to go.

Waiting in the corral to start!

The gun fired and we were off! The course was gorgeous! It ran through down by the beach, up into the neighborhoods that sit on the cliffs, and back around.

We were shooting to finish under 2:15 so we could resubmit in hopes of corral A for the Princess. We ended up crossing the finish line at 2:10! I blew my old PR away by 7 minutes!

We had a great race...from the first mile we settled into our race pace, and soon caught up with and passed the 2:15 pacer-a good sign, for sure! The temperature was perfect and with the exception of one small hill around mile 10, the course was super flat and inviting...definitely a great course for setting a PR, or in our case, qualifying for a good corral!

After the race we walked down the beach in the ocean back to the car. Can't beat that!

I now believe that every race should come with a beach at the finish line...standing in the cold salt water and the waves did wonders for my tired leg muscles!

We showered, checked out, and went back to the Fall Fest to grab a much need post-race reward of fried dough for lunch.

Overall, it was a really fun weekend. The three of us had a great time together, got lost plenty, and saw lots of turkey crossing signs (thus the gobble, gobble!) This trip has me really excited for Disney when we all get a chance to travel together again.

I originally signed up for this race so that I would have a half marathon under my belt by the time I ran the Princess half. It was a mental thing for me, to know I could survive so I could relax and enjoy Disney a little more. I learned on Sunday that not only could I survive, I would have fun doing it! This makes me even more excited for the Glass Slipper Challenge....if running a normal race was that fun, I can't even imagine how awesome running through Disney will feel!

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[LB1122]

Looks like a fun race. I loved running as a kid, but have been told it is not really good for my knee problems, but I just walked a 5K and have been going on walks/mini runs now to see and keep building stamina. Hoping the doctor gives me some advice to see if I could do more...not a marathon, but a 5 K running would be a great goal for now...

Lived the surf board mile signs

 

[emilyindisney]

Looks like a fun race. I loved running as a kid, but have been told it is not really good for my knee problems, but I just walked a 5K and have been going on walks/mini runs now to see and keep building stamina. Hoping the doctor gives me some advice to see if I could do more...not a marathon, but a 5 K running would be a great goal for now... Lived the surf board mile signs

Running is rough on the joints, that's for sure! I feel like I'm often working through some type of injury. I just can't give it up!

5ks are a ton of fun, and there are so many great themed ones out there. That's be a great goal! Many 5ks have walking divisions that might be a good start!

 

[emilyindisney]

As I think I've mentioned already, we've been watching flights for some time now. Unfortunately, JetBlue was just not budging on their prices so I had accepted we were going to be paying almost double what I budgeted for the flights originally.

Luckily, Dsis wasn't having any of that.

She started punching numbers and found that it would be almost a $100 a cheaper to fly down on JetBlue on Thursday night and flying back on Southwest on Monday night. That means that for $100 less, we get 12 more Disney hours!

The catch is that we ended up purchasing an indirect flight on Southwest so we'll be stopping over and switching planes in Baltimore. This means a longer travel time, so we won't get back to CT until almost 11:00 that night. This stinks, especially when we're going back to work/school the next day, but I couldn't bring myself to spend more money just to get back sooner. After all, who wants to pay more to leave Disney sooner!?

Now that we're all booked and were able to use some travel credits we banked with JetBlue, the total of the flights is $231 which is under what I budgeted! Woohoo, savings!

Seeing as we booked on points at BWV and can't add to our reservation, we're booked for our first split stay! Keeping with the theme of firsts, this will also be our first stay at an All-Star! Thursday night we'll be checking into AASp to kick off a running themed trip right!

I was super excited to make this reservation, and even more excited when Disney released their room discounts for 2014 last night and I was able to call back and get 20% off! Woohoo, more savings!

With all the new room discounts out, I'm having a hard time controlling my wandering eyes when I consider how nice it would be to upgrade somewhere a little fancier. However, as DSis has reminded me, we won't be at the first resort for very long so it probably is better to keep the savings we've got and enjoy a different resort on a future trip. We'll see if I can hold out, though!

Even though we're still 134 days out, I'm getting excited that everything is really starting to come together. Aside from still needing to snag our park tickets for AAA we're pretty much ready to go. Now to figure out how to make the next five months disappear...

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[Eight]

Congratulations on a new PR! Sounds like it a fun race too.

Totally get what you mean about looking at other resorts even when you've already booked one. But I have to agree with Caitlin, if it's only one night, you probably won't be spending that much time in the room, so it may not be worth it.
That being said, I've been in the same position, tried to tell myself the same thing, and failed.

And as it turns out, I'll be doing the PHM this year. I'm doing the Disney College Program, and when I realized I would down there that weekend, I signed up with the charity I ran for last time. I think I'm a little addicted to runDisney.

 

[emmysmommy]

Congratulations on your Surftown 1/2 time! Ahhh wouldn't that be nice if you could cool your tootsies in the surf after every race? At least you know that you have a 1/2 under your belt and don't have to worry about that. I'm hoping that in the next couple weeks I can start running again since I'm almost ready to ditch my ankle brace.

I completely agree that saving $ and staying longer at Disney is a great combo. The temptation to spend your savings is so compelling sometimes.... knowing those discounts are out makes me want to book another trip but I'm resisting the temptation. At least for today I have.

 

[LB1122]

Love the ASSp start t the trip...great motivation for running. How fun.

And looks like even with the late arrival you got some great flight deals.

 

[emilyindisney]

Congratulations on a new PR! Sounds like it a fun race too.

Totally get what you mean about looking at other resorts even when you've already booked one. But I have to agree with Caitlin, if it's only one night, you probably won't be spending that much time in the room, so it may not be worth it.
That being said, I've been in the same position, tried to tell myself the same thing, and failed.

And as it turns out, I'll be doing the PHM this year. I'm doing the Disney College Program, and when I realized I would down there that weekend, I signed up with the charity I ran for last time. I think I'm a little addicted to runDisney.

That's so exciting!!!! Glad you'll be back! DCP?!?! I'm so jealous!! When does your program start? Is this new news?! Congrats!

Who isn't addicted to runDisney?! I haven't even done my first runDisney race and I've already started planning all my future trips around runDisney events.

Congratulations on your Surftown 1/2 time! Ahhh wouldn't that be nice if you could cool your tootsies in the surf after every race? At least you know that you have a 1/2 under your belt and don't have to worry about that. I'm hoping that in the next couple weeks I can start running again since I'm almost ready to ditch my ankle brace.

I completely agree that saving $ and staying longer at Disney is a great combo. The temptation to spend your savings is so compelling sometimes.... knowing those discounts are out makes me want to book another trip but I'm resisting the temptation. At least for today I have.

Woohoo! Hoping you're injury free and back on the road soon!

I'm still resisting so far, and the urge to upgrade is dying down so I suppose this is good! I'm telling myself I'll save the money for an upgrade on a future trip, haha!

Love the ASSp start t the trip...great motivation for running. How fun.

And looks like even with the late arrival you got some great flight deals.

We did a late arrival when we went in January and actually kind of enjoyed it. It was nice to just worry about checking in and getting into your room. No rush to get to the park or anything like that. Plus, we could start first thing with touring in the morning!

 

[JessM]

Hi! I'm just joining in! I'm running the GSC too! And staying at BWV, in a studio, on rented points! SO funny.

I also just did the same thing you did when the discounts came out I booked POP for Thursday night because flights were cheaper and I couldn't change my BWV stay.

I'm super excited for the extra time in Disney and for extra time at the expo Friday, I can't wait!!

 

[disneyhorselover]

Hi! I'm just joining in! I'm running the GSC too! And staying at BWV, in a studio, on rented points! SO funny. I also just did the same thing you did when the discounts came out I booked POP for Thursday night because flights were cheaper and I couldn't change my BWV stay. I'm super excited for the extra time in Disney and for extra time at the expo Friday, I can't wait!!

Clearly great minds think alike'

Welcome!!!