Oh, The Horror…of Food & Wine & Lumiere's Challenge! Nov 2017 PTR-Updated 9/22-FOP Fastpass!

[lovingeire]

It doesn't really matter to me since they'll put me wherever they put me, no matter what anyway. If Mike and I end up in different corrals we will have to sort that out too.

We won't find out until we get there, right?

We'll find out our bib numbers when waivers come out and then we'll be able to sort out corrals from there. I can't remember when that is though? Maybe a month in advance? 3 weeks? @momabaarjo might recollect better than I do.

 

[buzzrelly]

We'll find out our bib numbers when waivers come out and then we'll be able to sort out corrals from there. I can't remember when that is though? Maybe a month in advance? 3 weeks? @momabaarjo might recollect better than I do.

Thanks! You'd think this was my first race I just have no recollection of the whole timeline of race prep!

 

[momabaarjo]

Looking back at my PTR from last year corrals/bibs were about a month before. We should be seeing medals pretty soon. But then again this is runDisney we are dealing with so who knows.

 

[buzzrelly]

Looking back at my PTR from last year corrals/bibs were about a month before. We should be seeing medals pretty soon. But then again this is runDisney we are dealing with so who knows.

Thanks! I'm really curious about the course too...I'm hoping it's what people were saying and we could possibly walk to the start from the Poly...I'm guessing we won't know that for a month or two

 

[lovingeire]

Thanks! I'm really curious about the course too...I'm hoping it's what people were saying and we could possibly walk to the start from the Poly...I'm guessing we won't know that for a month or two

I'm personally hoping for this years Dark Side course to be repeated for Wine & Dine! It was so much better than last years W&D course. However, I'm also not holding my breath on that one!

 

[buzzrelly]

I'm personally hoping for this years Dark Side course to be repeated for Wine & Dine! It was so much better than last years W&D course. However, I'm also not holding my breath on that one!

That's what I'm hoping too, I think. Did it start right near the TTC?

 

[buzzrelly]

80 DAYS TO GO!!


Hello! I hope everyone is having an AMAZING summer! Crazy that it's almost over! My kids go back to school three weeks from today…Boy! That went fast, didn't it?!! In just 21 short days, I will officially be the mother of TWO high schoolers I guess you could say I'm feeling conflicted about this! On the one hand, they are great kids and I enjoy a little more freedom as a mom, but on the other hand, they are always testing my parenting skills and coming up with new ways to perplex me Also, DS is going to be a Junior and will be going off to college in a couple years…don't even GET me started When Andy goes to college in Toy Story 3 I am a puddle…I cannot even IMAGINE what I'll be like in two years!!


Anyway…back to my TRIP UPDATES!! (Because I FINALLY have some!!)

Thanks to @lovingeire for posting these….Run Disney released the medals for the Food & Wine races:

10K-



Half-



And Challenge-


Here they are all together…





I wasn't quite sure how I felt about them at first, but I actually think they are really cute. I like that Minnie is on one, but Mike will be a little upset that Remy is gone. I'm sure he'll get over it though!


Onto my next NEWS FLASH! I was at The Disney Store buying a Birthday present for my cutie great-niece (She LOVES Toy Story so I got her Woody and Buzz ), and they had these really cute shirts for sale:





I know they aren't as cute as the fancy ones online, but I never seem to get around to ordering those…one of these days. Until then, I like these and they don't look terrible on, so there's that


And now some even MORE exciting news: I FINALLY purchased our new Annual Passes this morning! This trip is getting real!! I ended up getting the Platinum Passes because through DVC they are the same price as the Gold Pass and there are no Blockout dates on these! This is key because when I go in April, I'm pretty sure that week is one of the blackout weeks. Also, these can be used at the water parks-I don't think Mike and I will be hitting these in November, but the kids and I usually go for at least a day on Spring Break


Not so sad news: If you recall, I had booked the MNSSHP dessert party, but from what everyone was saying, i.e.-it doesn't include parade viewing-I ended up cancelling it. We really don't need the extra sweets and I don't really feel like wasting time out of the MNSSHP.



Things I have left to do:

Within the next few weeks:
Buy tickets for Universal/HHN. I am so confused about these and when I go on the website I get overwhelmed and confused and give up. I may end up just having to call and talk to someone on the phone. For all the bashing people do of the planning at WDW and the WDW website, I find it MUCH more user friendly and WAAAYYYY less confusing than Universal.


Also, I would like to switch my ADR at The Plaza from 3:05 to 4 pm or later, so we can actually get in the park for the party without having to use our AP for just one hour. If I can't switch the time, I will likely just cancel it (but I'd be really sad because I really want to try that Fried-Green-Tomato sandwich!).


Finish up customizing our Magic Bands. After some serious discussion, Mike decided he would get Orange and I would get Purple. I am not really a purple-girl, but we figured those were the appropriate colors for a Halloween trip


September 1-
Make FastPass+ reservations for 10/31 (our MNSSHP date). I wish I could make them for the whole trip on this day, but since we have a split stay...

September 2-
Make FastPass+ reservations for the rest of the trip 11/1-11/6.


I also have a couple of Dis-meets in the works with @kastoney and @cyndiella, that I am so excited for! If anyone else wants to see up, send me a PM and we can see if it works!


​

 

[cyndiella]

80 DAYS TO GO!!

September 1-
Make FastPass+ reservations for 10/31 (our MNSSHP date). I wish I could make them for the whole trip on this day, but since we have a split stay...

September 2-
Make FastPass+ reservations for the rest of the trip 11/1-11/6.


I also have a couple of Dis-meets in the works with @kastoney and @cyndiella, that I am so excited for! If anyone else wants to see up, send me a PM and we can see if it works!


​

Kelly: my FP day is August 30.... isn't that your day as well???

 

[cyndiella]

Oopps. I forgot you are going to Universal first! have fun... see you in Epcot!

 

[buzzrelly]

Oopps. I forgot you are going to Universal first! have fun... see you in Epcot!

I keep forgetting this myself!!

 

[lovingeire]

Yay! Your plans are coming together! My BFF is at Universal now and was saying she wanted to sneak over to Disney! But her daughter and her friend wanted to stay at Universal so no Disney for her until November. I have my alarm set for FP day on 9/2. I have read that I should make my regular FastPasses first, then my party ones. But I don't have a split stay like you do. I think my first order of business will be trying to get Flight of Passage for our Animal Kingdom day anyways! Then I'll do my normal ones like Mine Train and Frozen if we want it. I can't wait to get to FastPass day! I feel like we're in the final countdown then!

 

[momabaarjo]

I totally forgot about the split stay...ugh I am not sure how that is going to effect me. Guess I get a couple days of adrenaline rush first thing in the morning. The only one I want to get is Flight of passage...

If you need help with universal, just give me a PM and I can help you out. I know quite a bit about universal and booking...

 

[buzzrelly]

I think my first order of business will be trying to get Flight of Passage for our Animal Kingdom day anyways! Then I'll do my normal ones like Mine Train and Frozen if we want it. I can't wait to get to FastPass day! I feel like we're in the final countdown then!

FOP is really the only one I'm worried about. Mike won't do the big rides, and yes, he even considers 7DMT a "BIG" ride!

I totally forgot about the split stay...ugh I am not sure how that is going to effect me. Guess I get a couple days of adrenaline rush first thing in the morning. The only one I want to get is Flight of passage...

You and me (AND EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD!) both!! The split stay is kind of a pain, but for me at least, my first day is MNSSHP and we can only book from 4-7. I'm not too worried about what we'll get. I'm REALLY hoping to get what we need for FOP...

If you need help with universal, just give me a PM and I can help you out. I know quite a bit about universal and booking...

Thanks I actually called the other day so I have an idea of what we need….I have to call back and order because they are actually going to cost quite a bit I think I'll wait until September…or until I hit the Mega Millions

 

[bellaally]

Joining in! Looking over your plans everything looks amazing. I did the KTTK tour and it was one of the best things ever! I got to see top disney secrets and learned so much. Especially going down to the utilidors! I am running in the 10k which will be my first official race ever. Starting training using couch to 10k. I lost a lot of weight so pushing forward.

 

[buzzrelly]

Joining in! Looking over your plans everything looks amazing. I did the KTTK tour and it was one of the best things ever! I got to see top disney secrets and learned so much.

And thanks for joining! KTTK has been on my bucket list for years but since I usually travel with the kids, I could never do it! I'm so excited for it!

I am running in the 10k which will be my first official race ever. Starting training using couch to 10k. I lost a lot of weight so pushing forward.

Awesome! Congrats on the weight loss and for signing up for your first race!! The dark Side 10K was my first (and only) race ever, as well. You'll be surprised how much easier it seems when you are there with all the activities going on. Running six miles at home is MUCH harder, in my opinion!

 

[kastoney]

Looks like your plans are all starting to fall into place. I have to order our tickets this week or else we are gonna be SOL come fast pass day. Speaking of fast pass day, thanks for doing the math for me because I had no idea when ours was

I'm loving the race medals, though Jason wasn't quite enamored with them. Especially like the passport one. Of course not that I am doing the race or anything, but i get to live vicariously through the hubby.

Hope our plans to meet work out. Once we do FP's I'll have a better idea of our plans and we can see if our dis stars align

 

[buzzrelly]

I'm loving the race medals, though Jason wasn't quite enamored with them. Especially like the passport one. Of course not that I am doing the race or anything, but i get to live vicariously through the hubby.

I just showed Mike the other day and, as expected, he was pretty underwhelmed…to say the least. He's like, "Isn't it supposed to be Ratatouille?"

Looks like your plans are all starting to fall into place. I have to order our tickets this week or else we are gonna be SOL come fast pass day. Speaking of fast pass day, thanks for doing the math for me because I had no idea when ours was

Anytime! Get your tickets…only 16 more days till September 2nd!

Hope our plans to meet work out. Once we do FP's I'll have a better idea of our plans and we can see if our dis stars align

 

[buzzrelly]

September 4, 2017


54 Days To GO!




Hey All! So, I'm not doing great with the updates, and I am starting to feel like this trip is going to be a hot mess! My fastpass day didn't go so well and I am kind of bummed. There was ONE fastpass reservation I REALLY wanted. ONE. Sigh

I'll get to that in a sec…first, what's been keeping me busy lately…

My kids are officially both high-schoolers My freshman and Junior…


Nicholas wasn't off to a great start. I don't know why this surprised me since he's usually a little, shall we say, "disorganized?" But this took the cake, even for him. I had reminded him to pack his backpack the night before school and told him to go to the basement to get new folders, notebooks, pencils, etc…(does anyone else have a stash in a rubbermaid bin, just in case…) So the big day comes, first day of school…as we are pulling into the parking lot of the school, this is how our conversation went:

Me: Nicholas, you have your chromebook, right?" (This is a requirement in our school)

Nicholas: Oops…

Me: Sigh…well, you went down and got some notebooks and folders last night, right?

Nicholas: (Lonnnggg Pause….) Allie, give me some paper and a pencil.

Now this starts a fight because Allie does't like ripping paper out of her notebook…could my two kids be MORE different??!! I finally convinced (threatened) her to give him ONE piece of paper to start his school year.

All this before I even had my coffee in the morning.

Then I come home to find THIS on the counter:




I texted that picture to Nicholas when I got home…


That night after dinner, I sat with him and went through his backpack, only to find it STUFFED with papers/worksheets from Sophomore year! I don't know what I'm going to do with this kid

Oh! And did I mention that this SAME kid will be DRIVING soon???





Yup! We are in trouble!!

Anyway, back to the trip planning…

My fastpass day ended up being September 1st…I thought I had to make fastpasses on September 1st and 2nd since I have a split stay, but when I signed in at 7am on the 1st, all my trip dates were blue. Yay

I went RIGHT to Friday, 11/3 and looked for Flights of Passage, only to get the "No Availability," message So this was my 64th day and it just wasn't gonna happen. Such a bummer! I ended up making one for Saturday (that I've already cancelled) and making one for Monday 11/6 at 9:45 am. I wasn't planning on going back to AK on 11/6 since it's our last day, but maybe we will now. Of course, this precluded me from making fast passes at the park I was actually PLANNING to be in Monday (MK)

I know, I've dragged this out. So, without further ado, here's what we got…




Let's break this down, shall we? So you can all see why this is a hot mess…

Tuesday 10/31:
We have tickets to MNSSHP this night. We do not want to activate our AP until 11/1 because as I mentioned in an earlier post, next year we leave for a cruise out of PC 11/3 and want to use our AP before the trip. Anyway, I tried to get fastpasses 3:30-4:30, 4:30-5:30 and 5:30-6:30. It just wasn't happening. The earliest I could get was 3:40 which messed us up from getting three fast passes this day since they stop at 6:30 and you can't have overlapping times. Ugh, so that was aggravating. Plus, I want to get in line for Jack and Sally right at 4 so I don't even know if we will make it to our PP fastpass. I am happy about the HM one though, and hopefully lines for rides won't be TOO crazy during the party. Although, mostly I'm excited to see the parade, the fireworks and go trick-or-treating anyway.

Also, I still have a 3:05 pm Plaza ADR that I haven't been able to change, so I'm fairly certain we will cancel that. I think maybe we will hit Disney Springs for some shopping, and D-Luxe Burger for lunch before we check-in to BLT. If we have a big burger for lunch, we will probably just eat some QS for dinner and not waste our party time. Anyone have any suggestions? What's your favorite QS place in MK?

Wednesday 11/1:
More indecisiveness:
Check out of BLT
Check into the Poly
8:15 am Kona Breakfast
Lunch- around the F & W booths
Dinner-I actually have two reservations at the moment and I can't decide yet which one to keep. I have a 4:45 pm at Via Napoli, and I have an 8:10 pm at 'Ohana. I think we might want to go back to the Poly in the afternoon and enjoy some resort/pool time, maybe go to Trader Sam's and then do "Ohana. Otherwise, we would just stay at EPCOT. Weigh in here if you have a preference since I cannot seem to make a decision to save my life

Our Fastpasses for this day are pretty self-explanatory. I don't know if Mike will go on Mission Space. I don't care if he does or not since this isn't my favorite ride, but I guess I'm a little curious to see it. I could have gotten FEA a couple times on this trip and decided to wait and go on that for the first time with my mom and the kids next April. I don't think Mike would care at all about it anyway.

Thursday 11/2:
8 am-Keys to the Kingdom tour

After the tour we have to go to the Race Expo to get our bibs, etc and then we are heading to DHS…
We have fast passes for Star Tours, TSM and TOT. I told Mike that even if he won't go on TOT, I want him to walk through the line with me and then take the chicken exit down. I think it's so cool in there and I think he'd really like it. We'll see. I think he thinks I'm trying to trick him

4:15 Mama Melrose ADR…BUT…I think we may skip it so we can try PizzeRizzo! Crazy, right?? We have the Star Wars Dessert Party that night and I don't really want a big dinner anyway. Plus, I really LOVED Pizza Planet! I'm hoping PizzeRizzo is as good


Friday 11/3:
Our AK day, or shall I say, the most disappointing day ever????

I know, I know…I'll get over it. First world problems, and all that. I get it.

Moving on…

Get up at the crack of dawn and get to AK well before opening to rope-drop FOP (with 10 million other people, I'm sure)

9:45 am-Stupid Navi River Journey FP (can you say, "bitter?")
10:30am-Tusker House Breakfast. Okay, this makes me feel better

3 pm-Expedition Everest…Mike for sure won't go on this and I don't know if I will without the kids making me.

5:55-6:55 pm-Safari…Is this late enough for it to be darkish? I've only ever done the safari in the morning and I'd like to see it at night.

I am hoping to catch the tree lighting and ROL at night, since I've never seen either.

Saturday 11/4:

10K DAY!!

Heading back to EPCOT for more Food and Wine after. I only made two fast passes for this day since there really isn't anything else I feel we'd need to ride besides Soarin' and SSE, especially if we do MS on 11/1.

I have two ADRs for this day, as well…Chef Art Smith's Homecomin' and another 'Ohana reservation. I will be cancelling one (or both) depending on how we are feeling as we get closer, and especially if we've already eaten at 'Ohana earlier in the trip.

I'm certain that we will want to get to bed early this night for...


Sunday 11/5:

Half-Marathon Day!!

I do NOT feel prepared for this AT ALL! The farthest I've run recently was about 6 miles and I did NOT feel like I could run another 7! I guess if worse comes to worst, we will walk more than run. Just hoping we don't get picked up by the balloon people, or whatever they are!

12 noon-California Grill Brunch. I am going to make it there even if I have to CRAWL! Hopefully having some awesome DISmeets up here, as well!

I also have a Tony's reservation at 4:25pm and a Via Napoli at 5:55pm. I am going to cancel one or both but I'm not sure which yet. We have all of our fastpasses at MK this day, plus the HEA dessert party this night, so the Via Napoli just doesn't even make sense…See what I mean about this being a hot mess?? I don't even know if I would keep the Tony's because we may need to just relax and nap by the pool after being up so early and running 13 miles!

We may or may not use our MK fastpasses for this day, depending on how we feel.

There is also the Food & Wine after party for all the runners this night, but it's late…10pm-1am. We could potentially make it to EPCOT after HEA, but realistically, are we going to want to do that?? I just don't know.


Monday 11/6:

Our last day

9:45 am I have that dang FOP fastpass. I guess if things get hairy on Friday (our AK day), and we haven't gotten on, we'll head over to AK to ride. Or if we got on and love it so much that we need to do it again then we'll go. I'm just going to play it by ear and see how we feel.

Don't kill me but I also have two ADRs for this day, as well. BOG at 12, and Tony's at 1:30. I would be happy with either, but I was thinking it's always so nice to sit at Tony's and watch the parade and since I think it's a 2 o'clock parade now, this should work. If we don't end up going to AK, I'll try to drum up some MK fastpasses this day. Mike won't go on 7DMT, Space Mountain, or BTMR. And Splash is closed while we are there so we should be able to get a couple fastpasses for whatever.

I'll have to head back to the Poly for DME to get me by 5:30pm since my flight leaves at 8:30pm. Truthfully, we may just head back earlier and relax by the pool anyway. Mike will head to Ocala and spend a couple days with his mom again before boarding his train back to CT.


So now you can all see why I'm calling this a hot mess! I have so many questions and plans that are up in the air!

Any and all suggestions are welcomed!

Thanks for sticking this out and reading this long winded post!!


​

 

[kastoney]

Hi there!

Sounds like you definitely have your hands full with you son. Hope day 2 went much smoother for everyone

Our FP day was this morning and we had the same FoP issue as you, but thankfully was able to get two later in our trip. It doesn't look like your park plans cross, so hopefully everything works out for a meet up at CaliGrill. We're also trying to get an ADR for homecoming on the 4th, but the only thing available is at 10:15. Gonna keep looking though.

 

[missjackiemcg]

As a very Type A student (when I was one!!) and now teacher, I couldn't help but sympathize with your daughter about tearing paper out of her new notebook for her unprepared brother LOL!! My 3rd grader sounds like he'll be much the same as your son when he eventually makes it to high school!

I'm so bummed for you about your AK FPs I am really nervous that we're going to have the same issue when our FP day gets here (57 days!)