Official Tinker Bell Half Marathon Check-In ** May 5-8, 2016 ** 5th Anniversary

[MommaoffherRocker]

Some of the items sell out really quickly. Of course there never seems to be enough to go around for everyone and those that do get to the expo later in the weekend. It just depends on if you are really into the official merchandise and the D & B purses. There are a few of us who line us super early some earlier than others and wait in line for the official merchandise. They have all of us lined up in a large room, generally people are very friendly and the time flies by. Some of the items should be available for pre-purchase from the runD site so you might want to check that out. Getting to the expo Thurs afternoon you would have a better selection than on Friday. Hope this helps

Thanks! I'm going to see what I can do to get there as early as possible, this might be my only opportunity to do this and I don't want to miss out.

 

[Belle Ella]

On my flight home from WDW and with Wine and Dine [1/2] Half

Hi all, so excited to be signed up for the TinkerBell marathon this year!! Will be my first half marathon- have only done a 10k so far. Making the most of the trip over from New Zealand and doing all 3 races, my daughter will join me for the 5k & 10k. Hope to meet some of you there!!!!

Welcome! How exciting to be going perfect for the weekend. One year I'll have to finally try doing that. I adore multiple medal race weekends, but who doesn't, right? How long will you be staying out here, coming all that way?

I did get you added to the runner list, but one question: did you sign up for them all individually, or are you doing the 5K + PDC?

How fast does merchandise sell out at the expo? If I get to it Thursday afternoon or Friday morning will things be sold out? I've been looking at flights and wondering when I should try to get there. The In-laws are watching the kids so I can't get there before Thursday.

I second pretty much all that Vicki said. It really just depends on what your priority are. If you really want a good selection of the race themed merchandise available from the official race merchandise (official race shirts (especially for challenges), wine glasses, etc. are usually the fastest to go) it is definitely beneficial to get there early. And when I say early, I mean 6 am. It's actually been pretty fun the past couple of years. They started moving the merch queue into one of the ballrooms on the second floor above the Expo which gives them a lot more space. They've also even added a movie for Star Wars weekend last year (I hope they do again this year). None of the other races have had that luxury, it really depends upon the sponsors, but I keep hoping they'll make it a regular thing. There's a pretty regular group of runners who get there the moment they open the queue and we're really chatty. The time flies by and you get to make many new friends if you can handle waiting that long: queue usually opens at 6am, expo at 10am but they start walking you down and letting you in about 30 minutes prior. The ballroom will slowly fill up and starts getting busier about 8am.

On my best expo days I've been in and out of the shop, then to packet pick up, to the Dooney & Bourke line and one walk through the Expo floor all before 11am.

Thanks! I'm going to see what I can do to get there as early as possible, this might be my only opportunity to do this and I don't want to miss out.

If you're up to getting up that early, we're really a fun crowd to be with (I might be biased). I'll certainly be there at 6am!

 

[kim3339]

Okay, you guys talked me into it; I'll be down there on Wed. I found a room at the Alamo Hotel for $50 after my Orbucks discount, I'll have to price them out for the rest of the weekend, I might pop over there if it's cheaper and there's no parking charge so we'll see. I won't get any park time whether I drive or fly, but at least I'll be there early for the expo.

On my flight home from WDW and with Wine and Dine [1/2] Half

Aside from the evacuation and shortened race, how'd it go? Did you have fun? Question for you... I've heard about the outlet store that is close to the parks, can anyone go at any time or do you need a CM to be able to get in?

 

[Belle Ella]

Aside from the evacuation and shortened race, how'd it go? Did you have fun? Question for you... I've heard about the outlet store that is close to the parks, can anyone go at any time or do you need a CM to be able to get in?

All things considered the evacuation and shortened race were not that bad. I'm mostly just bummed that I didn't get the full experience of a half at WDW. The course was so ridiculously overcrowded since we didn't have the extra miles to thin out the runners. It was worse than any bottleneck I've ever come across inside the Parks during a race here and went on for pretty much the entire course. But they didn't cut out the Osbourne lights so I was a happy camper at the end of the very, very long day. Sitting around for almost an hour waiting for updates just zapped any energy I had. But they let us race when it could have been cancelled! I'll always have a little uneasiness about this half medal and my first coast to coast but ... it gives me an excuse to be sure to go back. I just don't know that I'll pick Wine & Dine again. I've already been planning on the Marathon weekend in 2017 and I think I'll still probably shoot for that, but the Food & Wine Festival is just calling my name to go back. So we'll see. Everything considered, it was an amazing but short time.

The Parks though! We ended up doing a lot more than I thought we'd get to originally, and I'm so glad we did. But again, it just makes me want to go back more. Plus I got to see a CM that I used to work with who left us for a temporary position at Animal Kingdom that she got to stay on afterward with and is now closely working with the animals backstage and she was able to share a whole lot with us - plus we got a tour of the vet hospital. It was absolutely incredible. I think I have a favorite park at WDW ...

As for outlet stores, the only thing you would need a CM to be able to go to would be Company D, which is a store for CM's, but we can bring guests to. I don't know much about the one in Florida, but it is different from the Outlet I believe. Speaking of, I would not be opposed to trying to do a small group shopping trip to Company D during a race weekend for some of our Dis runners if anyone might be interested.

 

[VickiHD]

As for outlet stores, the only thing you would need a CM to be able to go to would be Company D, which is a store for CM's, but we can bring guests to. I don't know much about the one in Florida, but it is different from the Outlet I believe. Speaking of, I would not be opposed to trying to do a small group shopping trip to Company D during a race weekend for some of our Dis runners if anyone might be interested.

Please count me in if you do that.

 

[Belle Ella]

Please count me in if you do that.

Definitely will do. I plan on taking some vacation time for the Half this year (found out while in Florida that I am officially a fully time CM ) so I'll have some extra time.

 

[Kender]

Definitely will do. I plan on taking some vacation time for the Half this year (found out while in Florida that I am officially a fully time CM ) so I'll have some extra time.

Congratulations on the full time status! Definitely makes the weekend easier if you aren't having to worry about working too close to race days.

 

[Belle Ella]

Congratulations on the full time status! Definitely makes the weekend easier if you aren't having to worry about working too close to race days.

Thank you I've been waiting it out for over years so it's a huge relief. And I am definitely that person who keeps relating this back to how it will help me during race weekends.

 

[VickiHD]

Definitely will do. I plan on taking some vacation time for the Half this year (found out while in Florida that I am officially a fully time CM ) so I'll have some extra time.

Congratulations to you !!!!!!!

 

[dec2009mama]

As for outlet stores, the only thing you would need a CM to be able to go to would be Company D, which is a store for CM's, but we can bring guests to. I don't know much about the one in Florida, but it is different from the Outlet I believe. Speaking of, I would not be opposed to trying to do a small group shopping trip to Company D during a race weekend for some of our Dis runners if anyone might be interested.

Jessica - if u do a CoD trip during Tink I'd be all over it!! It was one of the highlights of the Diva trip for me - such a unique experience!!!!

 

[kirstie101]

Congratulations on the full time status! Definitely makes the weekend easier if you aren't having to worry about working too close to race days.

Congrats! That is great news! And thanks for the info about Wine and Dine. I'm glad you still had fun. Yours is the first detailed experience I've actually read and I was wondering what it was like. "Someday" I want to get my C2C but I think after last years Splash n Dash and this years experience I'll probably avoid Wine and Dine and stick to either Star Wars or Tink.

 

[Kiwigirls]

On my flight home from WDW and with Wine and Dine [1/2] Half



Welcome! How exciting to be going perfect for the weekend. One year I'll have to finally try doing that. I adore multiple medal race weekends, but who doesn't, right? How long will you be staying out here, coming all that way?

I did get you added to the runner list, but one question: did you sign up for them all individually, or are you doing the 5K + PDC?

Thanks for the welcome and adding us to the list! We are going to be at Disneyland for 12 days! Coming over the weekend before to catch Dapper Days - another Disney event I've been wanting to attend!!!
I signed up for the 5k & PDC, looking forward to all the medals

 

[kim3339]

Definitely will do. I plan on taking some vacation time for the Half this year (found out while in Florida that I am officially a fully time CM ) so I'll have some extra time.

Congrats on the full time status!!! Glad you had fun at W&D and how awesome to be able to go on a tour of the vet hospital.

Not Tink related, but I'm feeling a little strange not being in DL for the races this weekend. This is only the 3rd DL weekend that I've missed since they started; the 1st was the 1st DL one so I wasn't all crazy rD yet and last year's DL when my sister had her baby so I had something to keep me occupied and not thinking about it. So this is really this 1st weekend where I can follow everything and see fb posts and it's really weird. The upside is that I remember how busy it was last year and throw in the SW stuff starting Mon I can only imagine what the parks look like. But at least I'm going down to the parks again next month to hold me over until SW and then I'll have to figure out some trips in b/w then and Tink.

 

[VickiHD]

Not Tink related, but I'm feeling a little strange not being in DL for the races this weekend. This is only the 3rd DL weekend that I've missed since they started; the 1st was the 1st DL one so I wasn't all crazy rD yet and last year's DL when my sister had her baby so I had something to keep me occupied and not thinking about it. So this is really this 1st weekend where I can follow everything and see fb posts and it's really weird. The upside is that I remember how busy it was last year and throw in the SW stuff starting Mon I can only imagine what the parks look like. But at least I'm going down to the parks again next month to hold me over until SW and then I'll have to figure out some trips in b/w then and Tink.

I know what you mean...last year DH ran and we cheered him on. We're missing this race weekend so we can go over Candlelight weekend which we missed last year due to the race. One thing about last year was "celebrating Christmas" in the park BEFORE Thanksgiving...I didn't really like it. So I'm really looking forward to Candlelight and trying to get our hands on one of the handmade candy canes.

 

[kim3339]

I know what you mean...last year DH ran and we cheered him on. We're missing this race weekend so we can go over Candlelight weekend which we missed last year due to the race. One thing about last year was "celebrating Christmas" in the park BEFORE Thanksgiving...I didn't really like it. So I'm really looking forward to Candlelight and trying to get our hands on one of the handmade candy canes.

I forgot about the candy canes. I might have to try and get one this year since they're doing it both days I'm there and the fri I get there, hopefully it won't be too big of a problem. I missed the Xmas WOC last year too so I'm on a mission to catch both that one and the regular 60th one since I haven't seen that one either.

 

[VickiHD]

I forgot about the candy canes. I might have to try and get one this year since they're doing it both days I'm there and the fri I get there, hopefully it won't be too big of a problem. I missed the Xmas WOC last year too so I'm on a mission to catch both that one and the regular 60th one since I haven't seen that one either.

Just get in line early for the candy canes and RUN to the Candy Palace or DCA store.

 

[kim3339]

Just posted this in the WISH thread as well, but I just cancelled my reservations for that weekend at BW Stovall's and Eden Roc. Eden Roc was a single king, don't remember if Stovall's was a king or 2 doubles.

 

[kirstie101]

Just posted this in the WISH thread as well, but I just cancelled my reservations for that weekend at BW Stovall's and Eden Roc. Eden Roc was a single king, don't remember if Stovall's was a king or 2 doubles.

Where are you gonna stay? I currently have ressies at 4 different hotels lol

 

[kim3339]

I booked at Alamo next door to Stovall's. I had $30 in Orbucks on Orbitz and they had 5% off 3+ nights so even adding Wed night, it came to $295 for 4 nights instead of $386 for 3. Orbitz also has 15% off codes all the time; they're not out for May yet but hoping they will soon and can save some more money. It's not as nice as Stovall's but it has a bed and fridge and I'm not in the room that much so it works for me.

 

[kirstie101]

I booked at Alamo next door to Stovall's. I had $30 in Orbucks on Orbitz and they had 5% off 3+ nights so even adding Wed night, it came to $295 for 4 nights instead of $386 for 3. Orbitz also has 15% off codes all the time; they're not out for May yet but hoping they will soon and can save some more money. It's not as nice as Stovall's but it has a bed and fridge and I'm not in the room that much so it works for me.

Great price! I've never booked on orbitz. I'll have to sign up for their emails and pay more attention!