Keep Knowing & Keep Kicking, Kiddo – A 2015 Princess 5K PTR/Mini-TR ~ Completed 5/1

[natebenma]

I just found your report. I know, it was right there in your signature all along...

I don't follow too many PTRs, so I skipped ahead to the actual trip.

Quick Post-Race Update:

I survived - and enjoyed.

Finish time was 1 hour, 10 minutes, 58 seconds.

That is awesome!!!

Me and Minnie:

Great picture!!!

:

----
So, I'm back. Still no decision on the TR yet (although I do have a title in mind ... it'll be the same as the title of the album on Facebook when I get around to posting my pictures there), but once I get all the pictures together and color-corrected (I will basically be living in Photoshop for the next few days), I'll make the decision. If I do a TR, I'll come back here and post the link ... if not, I'll come back here and post short recaps of each day.

A few highlights to look forward to:
- Someone became a runDisney addict ...
- MK empty at night is awesome
- CMs are the best. Seriously. Especially when we're trying to take pictures.
- We actually asked what the record was for most FP+ in a day. The CM we spoke to said the most she ever saw was 17, but that was done for the sake of getting as many FP+ as possible
- We started a new last day tradition (for trips when we don't leave early in the morning)

Very cool teasers!!!

I am not a runner, but reading the reports from my friends who do these runs- Disney really does it right. Of course!

That is a great question about the most FP+!!! Looking forward to hearing what you hit. We used to love the days when you could collect paper FP. We did not let a minute of our window go by before pulling the next one we were eligible for!

Traditions are good! I'm excited to hear about yours.

Mini-TR Part 1 - Day 1 – Thursday, February 19th
​

We were scheduled to leave New York at 1:17 PM, but alas, delays plagued our trip down. We actually left the gate at about 1:45 PM, and then spent about 45 minutes waiting on the runway. Not fun. And, there was no coffee on the plane. JetBlue and I are not friends anymore.

But, eventually we made it to Florida, caught a bus to our hotel, and headed out to the Expo … (sorry this pic is so big, I'm still learning to use the whole uploading pictures straight to the thread thing ... especially because it will only accept 1 out of every 4 pictures I try to upload)


NEXT POST: The Race!

UGH on the flight delays!!! Double UGH on the no coffee!!!



Thought I was going to love the new direct load photo feature, but having to resize the pictures and being limited to 10 to a post is not great. And the feature has not really been working consistently the past few days.

I'll be back to read about race day!

 

[ursalita]

Hi Sarah! Sounds like you had a great HS day. The carriage is beautiful! I don't know anything about it. Will it still be there next month? We'd love to see it.

I'm very much looking forward to the Frozen Sing Along and Muppet 3D. I'm glad to hear that you enjoy them.

We love One Man's Dream, I'm glad you got a chance to see it. It was the boys' favorite part of HS last year. I can't wait to see it again!

I'm sorry your meet and greet wasn't great. I don't know much about Disney Bounding but I can see the Frozone and Felix resemblance.

I love the photos you got of the tennis courts. Beautiful.

 

[SarahDisney]

Nice job squeezing in a fun day a DHS after the race!

Thanks! We definitely had to take it easier than we usually do, but we didn't want to lose valuable park time just because we were up super early to run a race that morning!

Aren't the DHS pictures facing the opposite direction the worst. I get why they had to do it but really not the most scenic backdrop. Although you guys look great.

I miss the hat! Maybe its because I never saw DHS without the hat, but I miss it - it was a great picture backdrop! I'm hoping that once the construction walls come down they'll do pictures facing the theater/GMR and those will be a little better.

Ugh....I adored Cinderella and every time I see someone post a picture of the carriage I kick myself for missing in February. We meant to get to it and we just didn't.

So sad that you guys didn't get to it! We really wanted to see it and made it one of our top priorities - and since we ended up having plenty of time after Toy Story, it worked out perfectly.
But the movie really was great, wasn't it? I would totally see it again if my theater didn't charge so much ...

Glad the sing-a-long was enjoyable the second time!

We really love it now - and to think, I wouldn't have seen it at all without your encouragement before the November trip!

Love the picture in the car in front of Sci-Fi.

Thanks! We were so excited to see a PhotoPass photographer there. One day I want to try to eat there ...

I just found your report. I know, it was right there in your signature all along...

I often miss links in people's signatures ... oops

I don't follow too many PTRs, so I skipped ahead to the actual trip.

The PTR part was pretty boring, anyway ... the trip is the exciting part.

That is awesome!!!

Thanks! It wasn't the time I wanted, but I'm pretty happy with it.

Great picture!!!

Thanks! I love Minnie, so I was happy to wait in a super long line for her and get a good picture!

Very cool teasers!!!

Thanks! I was trying to make the trip sound exciting ... (it actually was exciting)

I am not a runner, but reading the reports from my friends who do these runs- Disney really does it right. Of course!

Yes! I wasn't entirely sure what to expect of the runDisney experience, but I was really impressed by how well organized it was and how great it was to have all the CMs along the course!

That is a great question about the most FP+!!! Looking forward to hearing what you hit. We used to love the days when you could collect paper FP. We did not let a minute of our window go by before pulling the next one we were eligible for!

I was never a big paper FP person, but that's basically how you'd have to go for a record now ... get off a ride, run straight for a kiosk.

Traditions are good! I'm excited to hear about yours.

This was actually a nice one that we just started ... very "not us," but a great way to end our vacation.

UGH on the flight delays!!! Double UGH on the no coffee!!!

Exactly how I felt. I needed coffee after that delay. I was not happy with JetBlue.

Thought I was going to love the new direct load photo feature, but having to resize the pictures and being limited to 10 to a post is not great. And the feature has not really been working consistently the past few days.

I gave up on it ... I'm just back to uploading everything on Photobucket. It's easier.

Hi Sarah! Sounds like you had a great HS day. The carriage is beautiful! I don't know anything about it. Will it still be there next month? We'd love to see it.

I think the carriage is supposed to be there through mid-April, so it might be gone by the time you get there . It really is beautiful, and as Cinderella fans, we had to see it!

I'm very much looking forward to the Frozen Sing Along and Muppet 3D. I'm glad to hear that you enjoy them.

They're both pretty awesome. Muppet*Vision is a classic (to us at least), and the Sing Along is a great (and hysterical) addition to the park.

We love One Man's Dream, I'm glad you got a chance to see it. It was the boys' favorite part of HS last year. I can't wait to see it again!

We've never really taken the time to do it before, but I'm definitely glad we did it ... I finally got to see why people love it so much!

I'm sorry your meet and greet wasn't great. I don't know much about Disney Bounding but I can see the Frozone and Felix resemblance.

Thanks. I definitely looked more like Felix before I put on the tights and sweatshirt ... but I think I'm taking a break from DisneyBounding on my next trip. It's kinda taken over my life ... (which is the downside of DisneyBounding ... it's fun, but once you get the hang of it, it takes over)

I love the photos you got of the tennis courts. Beautiful.

Thanks! When I got back to the room, Beth was like "what took you so long?"
I WAS TAKING PICTURES, OKAY?
I'm a little bit of a picture-fanatic. The funniest part is that you can't really see the screen on my crappy camera in the sunlight, so I don't always know what I'm taking pictures of ...

 

[SarahDisney]

Mini-TR Part 4 - Day 3 – Saturday, February 21st – Shabbos Rest & Magic Kingdom Adventure​

(Side Note: In this post you can really see the difference in picture size from the different cameras)

Shabbos morning our alarm was set for 9:00 AM. Don’t get me wrong, most Friday nights I can sleep 12+ hours … but not this time. I was up before 8:15, and when Beth woke up at 8:30, she found me lying in bed reading.

We decided to get up and eat breakfast (pastries and water/coffee). We played cards and a game called Swish (similar to Set, but also very different … we got it as a gift, and it’s kinda fun) for a little bit, and then got dressed around 10ish. Then it was time for morning prayers, followed by lunch, which was a nice grilled chicken salad.

After lunch it was time for my favorite part of the week … Shabbos afternoon nap. We had the alarm set for 5 PM, which we figured would be a nice balance between getting enough rest to be fully energized for a night at the park and being able to fall asleep once we got back. I woke up at 4:30 to use the facilities … and Beth was already up. I tried to go back to sleep (I had another 30 minutes of sleep time!), but Beth seemed to want me to be awake, so I had to get up.

We decided not to take a walk (we had been up in the air about that), but instead played games until Shabbos ended just after 7. I said some quick prayers, including a special prayer that ends Shabbos (involving more fire … that one we did in the stairwell, and I got the candles lit on the second try), and then it was time to get ready to head off to the park.

Shabbos ended at 7:03, and around 7:45 we were greeted by this sight:

I think that’s pretty great timing – 10 minutes to pray, 5-10 minutes to change, and then 20-25 minutes to catch a bus and get to MK.

We had a few definite plans for the night, all of which we accomplished:
Uptown Jewelers for my Pandora bead – I got the 2015 one I wanted, no problem, and the CM was very impressed that I walked in there and knew exactly what I wanted.

This was our first FP+ of the night (and ended up being our first ride of the night), which was an awesome choice. We loved it just as much as we did in November, and I think it was a great start to the night.​

We wanted to use a FP+ for Peter Pan, because we got burned by the line in November, so we made the FP+ for Saturday night because it followed the “flow” of our other FP+ selections. This was as cute as always … definitely enjoyed
​

We’ve missed this two trips in a row, and I love it, so I really wanted to see it. We got a good spot in Frontierland and really enjoyed it. And took a lot of pictures (seriously, Beth had the iPad mini & I had the camera, and we both just kept snapping – total number of pictures is 168, and that’s after Beth deleted the ones she didn’t like from the iPad). But we enjoyed it while taking pictures, which was the important part.

​

For us, a “day” at Magic Kingdom without BTMRR pretty much doesn’t count as having been at MK … so it was a no-brainer to make this one of our FP+ selections. It really is a great attraction to ride at night and we loved it!
​

This was planned as our last ride of the night … and it was, officially. We may or may not have “unofficially” gone on Astro Orbiter afterwards just because we had time (and we were on that after official closing time). But I’m sticking with Buzz as our official last ride.​

As I said earlier, we got all of those priorities accomplished. What else did we do?

Well, we saw some characters…

She was super cute and we enjoyed chatting with her … even though she was nice Tinkerbell and not the mean Tink I love from Peter Pan.​

(This is from Princess Fairytale Hall … for those of you who didn’t recognize it)​

We had a FP+ scheduled for Monday for Cinderella & Rapunzel, but we wanted to see them Saturday night because we wanted to go through the Standby Line (we like the portraits inside) and because Beth was DisneyBounding as Flynn Rider (my DisneyBound was the enchanted rose from Beauty & the Beast). The line was probably about 30 minutes, and Rapunzel loved Beth’s satchel and little Pascal (which is actually a frog hand sanitizer holder, but whatever).​

Ariel liked the flowers on my necklace. We had a nice chat with her.​

In addition to seeing plenty of characters, we got plenty of rides done! (The following pictures are not in any particular order):

We have a tradition to always do POTC at night (no idea how that one started), so we figured Saturday night would be a good time … and it’s a good thing we did, because it was closed for a short refurb on Monday.​

No idea what’s going on with this picture …

We shared a honey pot with a family that wanted to ride again … we did not. I love me some Pooh, but one ride a night is enough for me.​

The picture above has a story. This was take 3, taken after we got off the ride.
First we tried to take the picture before we went on. Beth made a comment to the CM – apparently he had been trying to photobomb us but failed. He tried again … still no photobomb. So we went on the ride, but not before having this conversation:
Beth: You’re killing me here!
Kade (CM): It’s me that’s killing you, not the crowds
We tried again after we got off the ride … and this time Kade got it right.​

Honestly, by the time we got there, the crowds weren’t too bad. Most of the crowds were in the Main Street USA area, either heading out or trying to stake out spots for the 9 PM Main Street Electrical (we saw the 11 PM … we planned it that way). Overall I have 16 things marked off on my list (including rides, characters, and parades), which is pretty good in 5 hours (especially when you consider that we “lost” at least half an hour waiting for MSEP).

There’s something really special and magical about being in a fairly empty Magic Kingdom late at night. I’ve always loved Magic Kingdom, but I fell in love with MK again that night. There really is nothing like the park all lit up without those huge crowds you see during the day.

Seriously, how could you not love this view …

We left the park after closing and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before half marathon morning! (Not that we were running … but that’s still what it was in my mind).

NEXT POST: Epcot (OR: In Which We Meet Lots of Runners)

 

[Elevationist]

I agree that HS is probably the best park for if you only have a few hours. I know I can knock it out before lunch time, since there are exactly 6 things I care about: ToT, RnR, TSM, Star Tours, Muppets, and Great Movie Ride. (Well, and Fantasmic, but I usually come back and do that on another night.)

No RnR single rider line?! THAT IS AN OUTRAGE! RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!

I hate when a character isn't really "feeling it." Makes me feel cheated!

Still sounds like a great day, though! And you didn't say... Who won at TSM, you or beth?

I love love love your Magic Kingdom photos! They're all so wonderful! I love closing down MK! It's the best!

The CM photobomb is adorable.

 

[dreamseeker9]

Wow, you did so much that evening at the MK! I agree, it's so great at night when it isn't that crowded. And BTMRR is the best at night! Great update!

 

[stacy~**]

You got ALL that done in 5 hours? Nice work!! All the "rope-droppers" think us later arrival people are crazy but that is proof that you can get SO much done at night. And I absolutely love the MK at night. I got chills reading.

Nice job finding so many characters too!

Love the CM photo bomb story! I actually named my DL TR after a CM photo bomb. I think the story is still funny. You should check it out (there is an index so you don't need to read the whole report ). What made ours SO funny is we had no idea it happened until days later. It was the best. I love how CMs can shape days/moments in your trip that really stick with you.

 

[ursalita]

What a great night you had at MK! I don't know if we've ever ridden the rides at night since our kids are little. Maybe the magic carpets at the Halloween party last trip. This time I'm definitely going to try some more rides at night, it looks like a lot of fun and a different feeling. You have some great pictures. I especially like the one on Buzz Lightyear, you're grinning and Beth looks like she's trying to figure out how to work the gun.

 

[SarahDisney]

I agree that HS is probably the best park for if you only have a few hours. I know I can knock it out before lunch time, since there are exactly 6 things I care about: ToT, RnR, TSM, Star Tours, Muppets, and Great Movie Ride. (Well, and Fantasmic, but I usually come back and do that on another night.)

A lot of people say HS is a half-day park. If I had the time, I could easily spend multiple days there (it would give me time to see all the characters & shows and go on Toy Story and RnR multiple times). But I also know that it's the park where there's a lot we can skip if we have to, so if we only have a half day, we can make it work.

No RnR single rider line?! THAT IS AN OUTRAGE! RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!

I know!! I ran a race that morning, I should be able to go on the single-rider line! It was not cool.

I hate when a character isn't really "feeling it." Makes me feel cheated!

Yeah. They were really great while we were waiting in line, but then they needed to go on a break and when they came back they were a bit more boring ... I guess their break must have exhausted them.

Still sounds like a great day, though! And you didn't say... Who won at TSM, you or beth?

It was a great day!
Um... I plead the fifth?
Beth won. Apparently I'm pretty terrible at TSMM. And I can't even practice anymore because even though I have the game, I no longer have access to an Xbox on which to play it.

I love love love your Magic Kingdom photos! They're all so wonderful! I love closing down MK! It's the best!

Thanks! We love staying past closing at MK - the park really is so amazing at night when everyone is leaving or already gone!

The CM photobomb is adorable.

Kade was pretty awesome! I love when CMs try to make things a little more fun.

Wow, you did so much that evening at the MK! I agree, it's so great at night when it isn't that crowded. And BTMRR is the best at night! Great update!

Thanks! We were really amazed at how much we got done - it made Monday (day 2 at MK) a lot easier.
Totally agree on BTMRR - I love riding it at night!

You got ALL that done in 5 hours? Nice work!! All the "rope-droppers" think us later arrival people are crazy but that is proof that you can get SO much done at night. And I absolutely love the MK at night. I got chills reading.

Exactly! All of the planning sites say you have to do rope drop or you won't get anything done ... if I do rope drop, I'm losing time waiting for my coffee at Starbucks. We get a lot more done at night, when the kiddos are gone - and since we weren't up at some obscene hour to make it to rope drop, we still have plenty of energy!

Nice job finding so many characters too!

Thanks! We wanted to try to see as many princesses as possible, so we tried to get as many in on Saturday night as we could.

Love the CM photo bomb story! I actually named my DL TR after a CM photo bomb. I think the story is still funny. You should check it out (there is an index so you don't need to read the whole report ). What made ours SO funny is we had no idea it happened until days later. It was the best. I love how CMs can shape days/moments in your trip that really stick with you.

And now I know what I'm doing tonight ...
Not to spoil anything, but ... I can understand not knowing about a photobomb as its happening.
I totally agree - I love when CMs do something "small" that really makes a big impact on the trip.

What a great night you had at MK! I don't know if we've ever ridden the rides at night since our kids are little. Maybe the magic carpets at the Halloween party last trip. This time I'm definitely going to try some more rides at night, it looks like a lot of fun and a different feeling. You have some great pictures. I especially like the one on Buzz Lightyear, you're grinning and Beth looks like she's trying to figure out how to work the gun.

Thanks! I can see how it would be hard to get the younger kids on the rides at night ... that's part of why the park is so empty, most of the families with kids are long gone. I hope you can get some nighttime rides in this trip!
Beth had a lot of trouble with the guns on Buzz Lightyear this trip ... and I kept trying to remember when the picture was and smile normally for the camera, but ended up either looking too serious or grinning in the pictures. I'm pretty bad with ride pictures.

 

[KatMark]

I'm too far behind everywhere (I haven't even looked at my PTR), but I did skim and I loved all the MK pictures...and love the borders you added here and there. You look like you are having a blast on the Tea Cups.

 

[ksl5f123]

What great days at DHS and MK! I love all the photos too. Did you buy the memory-maker? I am really impressed with how much you did in 5 hours! That is a lot of attractions and you fit in so many character meets too.

 

[SarahDisney]

I'm too far behind everywhere (I haven't even looked at my PTR), but I did skim and I loved all the MK pictures...and love the borders you added here and there. You look like you are having a blast on the Tea Cups.

No worries about falling behind ... I hope you had a great time in Phoenix!
Thanks - we really had a great time at MK on all the rides. We get very silly late at night, which makes even rides as "basic" as the tea cups super fun.

What great days at DHS and MK! I love all the photos too. Did you buy the memory-maker? I am really impressed with how much you did in 5 hours! That is a lot of attractions and you fit in so many character meets too.

Thanks! We did not have memory maker ... we just tend to add borders online and screenshot pictures, and then sometimes print them after the fact. We're actually thinking about memory maker for our next trip because lately we've ended up printing so many pictures that it makes sense to buy memory maker so that we can print the pictures cheaper from Snapfish.
We were very lucky with the crowds at both DHS and MK - DHS was a little more crowded, but still very manageable, and MK was pretty empty by the time we got there. Low crowd levels make it a lot easier to get a lot done in less time!

 

[natebenma]

I caught up the last two parts of your report!



Sounds like you had a super time at HS, except for not being able to ride RNR.

TSM is always a fun start.

Cinderella's carriage is beautiful.

I love your Disneybounding outfits, but that is so disappointing that Frozone did not know Beth was paying tribute to him.



Nice to do some special things like the Frozen Sing-a-long, Cinderella Sneak peek, One Man's Dream.

Thank you for sharing your Shabbos observance with us.

***************************************************************

Wow!!! Very impressed with your MK night. You did so much!

Your fast pass selections were brilliant also! I made the same exact ones for my August solo trip when I just had a few hours in the MK- 7DMT, then Peter Pan, then BTMRR.

Nice pictures from the parade!

That is a great photobomb story at Small World.

What a gorgeous picture of the castle with the Sword in the Stone in the foreground.

 

[SarahDisney]

I caught up the last two parts of your report!

Yay! Thanks for taking the time to read through, Dee.

Sounds like you had a super time at HS, except for not being able to ride RNR.

It really was a great day and a nice way to enjoy our time after the race. I do wish I had been able to do RNR, but I knew that with the busy Presidents Week crowds, it might not be a possibility without FP+ (we looked, but none were available same day).

TSM is always a fun start.

Cinderella's carriage is beautiful.

It really is! I had seen pictures of it before, but it was even more beautiful in person.

I love your Disneybounding outfits, but that is so disappointing that Frozone did not know Beth was paying tribute to him.

Thanks! It was a little disappointing that Frozone didn't get it, but it happens sometimes ... not every character always remembers the DisneyBound concept.

Nice to do some special things like the Frozen Sing-a-long, Cinderella Sneak peek, One Man's Dream.

Since we had just been down a few months earlier (in November), I wanted to be able to do some new things to make it special, and we were definitely able to do that at HS!

Thank you for sharing your Shabbos observance with us.

I like to be educational when I can ... I guess it comes from being the daughter of an educator

Wow!!! Very impressed with your MK night. You did so much!

Thanks! We got really lucky with the low crowds & short lines ... definitely something you don't expect on a Saturday Night at MK.

Your fast pass selections were brilliant also! I made the same exact ones for my August solo trip when I just had a few hours in the MK- 7DMT, then Peter Pan, then BTMRR.

Thanks! They definitely seemed like good selections for a short night and worked out really well for us.

Nice pictures from the parade!

Thanks! I don't have the best of cameras (and old point and shoot that wasn't so great when I bought it 6 years ago), so I'm always happy when my pictures come out well!

That is a great photobomb story at Small World.

Yup. We loved Kade (and many of the other CMs we encountered throughout the trip). Photobombs seem to be really "in" at Disney World these days ...

What a gorgeous picture of the castle with the Sword in the Stone in the foreground.

Thanks! I think Beth took that one ... at least I don't remember taking it. I love the castle at night, and it really is framed beautifully in that picture!

 

[SarahDisney]

Mini-TR Part 5 - Day 4 – Sunday, February 22nd – Epcot & Downtown Disney​

We slept in a bit this morning, knowing that we wouldn’t need the full day at Epcot and wanting to miss most of the race traffic. After having a nice breakfast, we headed over to Epcot, and we did see some runners still going … and cheered them on as we waited for CMs to adjust the running route so that we could cross (it makes sense when you see it … they fill in an area, then route the runners around that area so that the park-goers can cross).

Around 9:45 AM, we were ready for this picture…

We started our day in Future World, using FP+ for a classic first attraction…

Somehow our future always ends up looking like The Jetsons. I don’t know why.


Next stop was Soarin’, where we waited for about 30 minutes and tried to remember whether we would visit Disneyland in the video (the answer … yes – and there are fireworks). After Nemo and some coffee, we used our second FP+ to visit some of our favorite friends:

Mickey thought that Beth and I were twins. I told him he needed to get new glasses. The CM there pointed out that he is 86 years old …

We finished our time in Future World with a quick hop on the single-rider line at Test Track. There were screens available to design a car (we didn't know if there would be), but we really just wanted to get on the ride, so we skipped that. We both had row-mates who weren’t really interested in befriending us … but I did try an experiment here, which I will mention later.

Since we were on the Test Track side, we started World Showcase with our neighbor to the south …

We went straight for our favorite boat ride at Epcot, but stopped first to take our traditional picture by the sign …

(Not the best picture out there, which is my fault because of how I edited it)

After taking the picture, Beth looked at the camera to see how it came out … and hey look, it’s another photobomb! Thanks, Carlos!

And that was when we realized that it would be the trip of the photobomb. Really, I love CMs, they’re so awesome sometimes.

After getting off the awesome boat ride, we took a picture with our amigo Donald:

Next up was lunch, followed by a half-marathon of characters, part of our quest to meet (almost) all of the princesses:

While waiting on line for princesses, we met a lot of Princess Half-Marathon & Glass Slipper runners … we had a couple of nice conversations and learned a lot about the races. Everyone seemed to have really enjoyed and was happy to talk about the races!
Also, I told one runner about my goal to do Disneyland Half 2020 … and she said I could do it sooner. Can I blame her for the fact that Beth and I are considering doing it in 2016?


We also took pictures of some of the Flower & Garden topiaries, which they had started putting up a little before we got there:

While we were in the UK area, we saw some of the locals:

While we had the time, we stopped and saw some Canadian humor at O Canada!, followed by a trek all the way across World Showcase, ending with another boat ride with our favorite Caballeros.


Finally, it was time for our Test Track FP+, which was planned as our last attraction of the day. We started off with designing our car, and like last year, we went more for silly than for functionality. When we did new Test Track for the first time in 2013 (aka when I designed the car) we won, now we don’t. Just saying.
By the way, it may not always come out when I write the TR/recap, but Beth and I can be very silly sometimes. Which is why the silly design doesn’t bother me too much.

Anyway, here’s our picture:

As you can see, we’re wearing sunglasses. I had never worn my sunglasses on a roller coaster/thrill ride before for fear of them falling off. But I tried it on our first Test Track earlier that day and it worked out fine … and now I don’t have to worry about the sun getting in my eyes on roller coasters. Seriously, I’ve been going on roller coasters for 10 years and this is the first time I was willing to keep my sunglasses on my face. The only question is … does this now mean that I can wear my (regular) glasses to the park and not have to deal with my contacts? Only time will tell … (no, this is not foreshadowing … I haven’t tried it yet).


Before exiting Epcot we stopped for a night picture …

And then it was back to the hotel to dump our stuff, grab dinner, and then head out to …

We started our night with coffee at Ghirardelli, followed by some fun browsing in and out of stores. There was a truck where they were selling race-related stuff, and Beth bought a Half-Marathon Weekend t-shirt. Did I mention that she became a runDisney addict?

Our major shopping at the night was done at my favorite store …

We picked up some souvenirs and called it a night shortly before closing. We stopped at Ghirardelli and grabbed a sundae to go (which was handed to us by someone that I had nicknamed “Unenthusiastic Guy”) … but I’m a terrible DISer and not only did I not take a picture, I don’t even remember what we got. Oops. It was something with fudge and it was yummy.

NEXT POST: Magic Kingdom, Take 2 (OR: What Should We FP+ Next?)

 

[KatMark]

What a fun and accomplished day at Epcot!!! You girls got a lot done and met a lot of great characters. I have yet to meet Mulan and she is high on my list for October. I love that the Cast Member photobombed your picture. My goal this year is to photobomb all the pictures that people are taking with selfie-sticks.

Great photopass pictures as always. And I knew you girls could be silly...who isn't at Disney.

 

[dreamseeker9]

Wow, what a full day at EPCOT! Love all the character meet and greets you fit in. I've never done one, but I'm going to do them on my next visit!

 

[ursalita]

Hi Beth! Looks like a great day at Epcot with bonus sneak peak of the Flower and Garden festival. You guys met a lot of characters at Epcot. I need to make sure to take time to meet the characters there when we go. Now that I'm thinking about it I think the only characters we've met at Epcot is Duffy and the characters at the Disney Visa meet. That's really bad. I feel like a bad DISer.

 

[stacy~**]

I was wondering when we were going to get another update.

Once again you seem to do a great job scheduling FP's and getting things done. I don't think we ever meet more than 1 or 2 princesses in the WS....the lines are just too long.

Haha another great CM photobomb! You guys really look like you were having so much fun!

Even if it was only for coffee the first time, I love that you stopped at Ghirardelli when you arrived and as you were leaving. Perfect!

 

[momabaarjo]

I am so jealous of your Saturday night at MK...while I was in bed asleep. We had plans to do the same things on Wednesday & Thursday nights...but the weather just was too cold to stay out that late! I am really thinking of starting a Pandora Run Bracelet...

I totally think that you could do a half marathon by next year! Trust me if I can do it, you being younger and a lot more fit can do it!