Marathon Weekend: I Think the 26.2 stands for Pounds of Food per Day

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Marathon Weekend for Non-Marathoners

Participants:

Me(24): A. I love chocolate, baseball, and Disney World.
T, boyfriend(26): A swell guy. Actually, outside of my family, he is the nicest guy I've ever met. Not generic, bland adjective "nice." Helpful, concerned for others, thoughtful, and just genuinely nice.
K, sister(26): K/Sissy. K's a a funny girl, and smart. "And when we're on the street, depending on the street, I bet she is definitely in the top 3 good-looking girls on the street."
Mom & Dad(50something): In his book "The Last Lecture," Randy Pausche described his childhood as hitting the "parent jackpot." I can strongly identify with this sentiment - my parents are fantastic. They are responsible, hilarious, fun to be around, and have raised 2 spectacular children. We always have great times together, especially at Walt Disney World.

This is our family's first "official" trip report, but we have been going to Disney World just about every year since I was 1 1/2. We've stayed at every Disney resort except the Contemporary and Grand Floridian. We've seen just about every attraction there is to see. Needless to say - we know our stuff. As I imagine most people who write trip reports do. Yep, we're bonafide Disney nerds.

T has been to Disney World twice - once with his family when they were kids, and once with me last January. Yes sir, we had only been dating a year and a half, and already I was dragging him to Orlando. Get used it, buddy.

The plan for this year is a little different - T and I will be staying 3 nights at the Pop Century, but adding some class to our stay with an upgrade to our normally free counter service dining plan. Not totally economical, but it will be nice to be able to sit down and eat something other than Cosmic Ray's mini corn dogs with my parents & sister. My parents will be staying 6 nights at Port Orleans Riverside on the free dining plan. And my sister will be mooching off of my parents.

It will be WDW marathon weekend, so we will be having our own marathon, which involves a lot less running and a lot more eating. As with any vacation on the Disney Dining Plan, the trip morphs into a "food vacation," centered around buffets, Mickey waffles, and using up your remaining snack credits as your parents are checking out of the hotel and re-packing the car.

We have 4 ADRs during the time T & I will be there:
Sunday 1/8: Dinner @ Cape May Cafe
Monday 1/9: Dinner @ Coral Reef
Tuesday 1/10: Dinner @ O'Hana
Wednesday 1/11: Breakfast @ 1900 Park Fair

Albeit a short trip, it will be one full of adventure. I'll write about where we went, what we ate, what we didn't get to eat since it was stolen by seagulls, my thoughts on the Pop Century, Duffy the Disney Bear, and anything interesting in between.

As it turned out, T and I decided to fly down a night before my parents & sis and chill out. We could hit the Boardwalk and drink microbrew beer samplers, or hit Raglan Road and drink Irish beers samplers, or just drink Bud Light Lime in our room. Not-so-unfortunately, there weren't any more rooms available under the discount for any of the value resorts. There were rooms at a discount for Port Orleans Riverside, however. I was left with quite the choice - pay undiscounted inflated Marathon Weekend prices for the Disney Roach Motel OR pay a discounted price to spend a night in one of my favorite resorts as a kid.


It looks like I'll be drinking my Bud Light Lime in Moderate style for one night.

 

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Like a 7 year old, there are 2 days out of the year that I can can naturally wake up very early on my own: Christmas and Disney Morning. This year is no different. I am excited.

My roommate and I head to Perkins for breakfast. There is no better way to start a free* Disney Dining Plan food marathon than eggs benedict, hash browns, and a banana nut muffin. The rest of the morning and afternoon are uneventful. I finish packing, locate my vacation package info, and pick up Big T. Sooner than the time it takes to fully appreciate the anticipation, we are headed to the airport.

We get to the airport and head to the terminal. I am glad to be heading south, but it is uncharacteristcally warm up here this time of year. Maybe I would feel better if I was escaping a great blizzard, and at least getting my money's worth out of the Sunshine State. T and I race each other down the moving sidewalks, luggage in tow. I win, as usual, and it's smooth sailing through security and onto the plane. The plane ride is short and uneventful and not nearly as important as the rest of this chapter so I'll leave out most of the details.


Finally! We land in Orlando and it's off to the Magical Express! We wait in line to board for 90 seconds and then head to the bus. First stop: Port Orleans Riverside! Another uneventful ride...I think. I don't remember listening to Disney music, or watching the marketing video, or anything really.

I must have blacked out from all the excitment.

The next thing I remember is pulling into Riverside. It was around 8 in the evening.

I exit the bus, crawling over old women and pushing small children out of the way in my haste. Here I am: enjoying the warm breeze, absorbing my surroundings...and by walking so slow, forcing T to do the same. It's been a few years since I have stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. I remember as a kid aching to sleep on the trundle bed at Dixie Landings and having my favorite breakfast - Cottontail Toasties - at Boatwrights Dining Hall while coloring pictures of Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear. What a time! No grad school, no work, no student loans. Just me, my sister, my parents, and those big sugar-coated balls of french toast.

In fact, another of my best Disney memories came when we were staying in the Alligator Bayou. I was young, and throughout the course of the day, had lost a tooth. Not by violence, I was just at that tooth-losing age. Normally when you're a kid, losing a tooth is pretty cool, but on this particular occassion, I was worried that the tooth fairy wouldn't find me because I was in Disney World, instead of my regular bed. Much to my surprise the next morning, the tooth fairy had arrived and left behind official Disney autograph books and pens for me and my sister! Not only had the tooth fairy found me, but came to her senses and got me something I really needed.

Back to the 24 year old me, check-in was swift. There was no one else in line. We find our room in the heart of the alligator bayou. We check out our overnight digs and I think T is impressed. The goal of the evening and the daytime tomorrow is to convince T that Port Orleans was well worth the money, and considerably greater than the Pop Century.

My favorite part of Port Orleans Riverside had always been the trundle bed. I thought it was nifty sleeping on a pull out mattress from under the bed, instead of a "normal" bed like everyone else. I had been hearing for quite some time that the trundle beds were gone, and was a little disheartened. No longer could children as strange as myself know the joy of sleeping on a mattress on the floor. But out of habit, I look under the bed and see...a trundle bed! Oh Boy! What a night! This is perfect! Now T can sleep on the trundle bed and have all the fun 8 year old me experienced, while I sleep on both of the queen size beds! Eventually I give in, and T doesn't have to sleep on the floor.

We settle in a little, but by now it is 9PM and we are both hungry. We wander over to the River Mill food court for some grub, reveling in every step. I have the chili cheese dog, T has the cajun chicken sandwich, and of course we each get a Bud Light Lime. $33!!! Holy cow! People pay this everyday of vacation? I can't wait until our free* dining plan starts tomorrow when we check out and move to the Pop Century.

We pick a cozy place to sit, next to the giant water wheel, and devour our overpriced dinner. T and I sit around for a while talking about our last trip, our plans for this trip, and anything in between. This is about as good as it
can get - sitting by the big wheel, sipping BLL with T on our first night - and the rest of the family hadn't even arrived yet. I'm sure I was fully enjoying the moment, but looking back I wish I had taken deeper breaths and soaked
it all in just a little longer, so that the image would stay fresh in my mind as long as possible.

After dinner, we decide to head to the Boardwalk/Yacht & Beach Club area and walk around, maybe have a few drinks, and definitely an ice cream sundae. Not in any rush, we grab a bus to Downtown Disney for a transfer to the Beach Club. This is where we are introduced to Duffy: the newest member of the Disney character family. And there he was, on his bus ad, in all his glory. His picture was straight out of a high profile fashion shoot - complete with a flirtatious over-the-shoulder smile. Pretty hilarious for a stuffed bear, if you ask me. I explain to T that Duffy was Mickey Mouse's teddy bear, though I admit that was all I knew at the time. Little did I know that I was to be force fed a whole lotta Duffy education on this trip, but that's later on.

We arrive at the Beach Club, so by order of the law our first stop is Beaches n' Cream. I had a hankerin' for some ice cream. We get there just in time, and order up a Fudge Mud Slide to split. I'm usually a No Way Jose girl myself
- the combination of melted penut butter and hot fudge really satisfies my sweet tooth. But today I was ok with mixing it up, especially because I know how much T likes Oreos and brownie sundaes. The Fudge Mudslide didn't disappoint - it was oozing with warm hot fudge, gooey brownie, and smooth vanilla ice cream. T and I are stuffed, but since we are having a contest to see who would eat the last bite, we eat through the pain. This was not a contest I was destined to win, so I concede, and he is announced victor.

After ice cream, we waddle around the Yacht Club and over to the Boardwalk for a drink at the ESPN cafe. The walk is much needed and the weather is perfect. This is T's favorite area in Disney World. I think the man has good taste, except for his love of the Pop Century. We arrive at ESPN - a Circus Boy for T and a Jack & ginger ale for me.

Then the exhaustion snuck up on us. It was late, and we had a long day. We finish up and take a cab back to Riverside.

An exceptional day, and the adventure had just begun.

Better rest up - tomorrow we are sitting by the pool and the rest of the family arrives!