Day 2 – Saturday
Surprisingly, we all woke up by 7 and started getting ready to head to DHS. Our plan was to get there for EMH by 8am. And you know, we were off to a great start and totally would have made it EXCEPT that we sort of forgot that we were only at the Swan for one night. So we had to not only get ready for park touring, but also had to pack up our suitcases (and beer and food and cooler of cold beer) and leave it ALL with Bell Services before we could head out for the day. OMG, the number of bags we left with them! HORRIFYING. I swear, I have never tipped so much in my life as I did on this trip. I was tipping all the time!
Ok, eventually the 5 of us made it out the door. Liz texted us that she and Em were already there. Totally hard core. Up and out and to the park by 8am. And Paula and Donna were planning on meeting us there as well.
So as we were walking through the lobby of the Swan, we see a bunch of women in running clothes walking toward us. It’s the 5k’ers! (There was a 5k the morning before the Half.) And we all cheered for them saying, “Yay! 5k!” And really, they were so not appreciative of our support! And that’s when Nancy pipes up and was like, “Oh my God. Why didn’t we just do the 5k?!?! We are SO stupid! We wouldn’t have had to kill ourselves, and we would be totally done by now and we could just drink for the next 3 days!” I am totally agreeing with her and mentally head-slapping myself. Then Amy (who is pretty quiet, by the way, but when she does speak up it is ALWAYS worthwhile…then again, maybe she isn’t quiet and just found it impossible to get a word in when around me and Nancy and Liz. Which is totally likely. Ok, done with tangent). Anyway, Amy says “Did you see the bling? Totally sub-standard. It is like made out of rubber or something. I won’t run for sub-standard bling.” And it was just the way she said it that had us rolling! And seriously, it was “the” quote of the trip.
Holding our sides from laughing so hard, we hopped on the boat and were off to DHS. Nancy had never been on TSM before, so we immediately headed straight back, met Liz and Paula, and got FPs. With time to kill before TSM time, we split up a bit. Since Liz had her kiddo, we couldn’t all do RnR and ToT. So Liz, Em, and Kat went off to see the Muppets while the rest of us went over to hit some thrill rides.
ToT was up first as it was a walk-on.
I backed out to do some shopping (and because that ride makes me scream like a little girl! Truly, though, if there is one ride that can affect my stomach it is that one. And with the race the next morning, I bagged it). So I got some shopping in while they rode. The plan was to then go right to RnR since it had a 10 minute wait posted. PER FECT. Except. Once the crew was done with ToT, RnR was down. Suckfest. So we decided to head across the park to Star Tours. As soon as we got half-way there, though, we saw that they had just re-posted the wait time for RnR. WT F?! Is it down or not? Nancy was like, “screw this. I want to do RnR!" So she went up to the CM who confirmed that it WAS open. About face.
This is where Nancy announces, “By the way, I sing the entire time on this ride. Loudly and off key.” WOO HOO! We all do the exact. same. thing. Again, perfect. We rode RnR TWICE. OMG, love, love, love that ride. We were supposed to be single riders, but the second time, we all rode together anyway. It was awesome! (This is Nancy and Amy in the back row, and Donna and Paula up front. Didn't get the pic of my car, which was me, Kat, EE and some random single rider.)
This time we really did cross the park to Star Tours. Posted wait time was 20 minutes, but it looked longer. I happened to check my wait times App (awesome iPhone app, by the way) and it said that the standby line for TSM was also only 20 minutes! OMG, if the choice is between Star Tours and TSM, TSM wins hands down. So we booked it over there since we were scheduled to meet Kat and Liz in half an hour.
I announced that I wanted to ride with Nancy since it was her first time. And here’s the thing. I was just being NICE. I actually wanted to experience her first time on the ride with her. So we go through the queue, Nancy is awed by everything, we are having fun, etc.
Time to get on the ride and I am sort of talking Nancy through it, letting her know that there is a practice round first, etc. Again, being NICE. The ride starts and we are off! Laughing like hell! And Nancy is SO tense. Serious as sh*t I tell ya. By the time we are done, we are both holding our shoulders from working so hard. And it was a victory for me, which I totally didn’t throw in her face. Why? Because I am NICE!
The second we were done, we found Liz and Kat and our TSM FPs were up, so we immediately went to ride it again. And this time Nancy looks at me and says, “Oh yeah, we’re going together again. And this time you are totally going down, little girl!” Seriously, she completely threw down with me! It was HI LAR IOUS! So off we go, and yes, she does indeed beat the crap out of me! But again, we are laughing SO HARD and holding our shoulders from being so tense and firing so much. Paula made a quick stop to get her awesome must-have t-shirt (“Don’t MAKE me get my ANGRY eyes!”) and we were on our way.
Our ADR for Brown Derby wasn’t for like another 45 minutes, but we were hungry so we decided to see if we could get seated. No problem. In we went and had a lovely meal. LOVE the Brown Derby. Most had the famous Cobb salad. I had the side salad (which is super yummy with candied walnuts) and the seared scallop appetizer (yes! Just salad and app!) which was out of this world good. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the utter FIASCO that it was trying to get our checks. OMG. Our poor server. First, he brought just one check. And we said we needed separate checks. So he comes back with I don’t know how many checks. A bunch. And then we tell him that we have Tables in Wonderland (20% off), so he has to re-do the checks YET AGAIN so we can get the discount. He was hating us. But we tipped him huge.
It was hard, but we left DHS after lunch. We seriously considered staying and doing one last thing, like the Great Movie Ride, since we were right there. But we were disciplined. We knew we had to get to the Expo and we wanted down time to rest before the big day. Headed out the gates and had awesome boat karma—it was right there and as soon as we got on, it took off. Time to get to the Expo and check in for the race and then check in over at BWV!
~To Be Continued. Because the Expo has to be its own segment. Thanks to Nancy! Ha!~