Rebels Race to the East : **UPDATED 12-11** A Dark Side Half Marathon Trip Report | APRIL 2016

[PrincessA]

Hello DisBoarders, my name is Ayesha. Better known as PrincessA to those who know me IRL and are familiar with my fascination with all things Walt Disney World! I went on an awesome trip April 2016 to the RunDisney’s Inaugural Star Wars: Dark Side Marathon.

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THE BACK STORY – How the trip came to be a trip!​

1). My family relocated from Atlanta, GA to Las Vegas, NV the previous year. As some families do, we transitioned in stages. Hubby left Sept 2014 to start a new job. My son and I moved August 2015 after we finished the school year and baseball season back in Georgia. The transition to Nevada was relatively easy, but I definitely missed my family and friends back home. So I was looking for ANY reason to head back to the East Coast!

2) Before making our official/complete move, I planned (in my head) a Good Bye to WDW/the East Coast trip. Because, although I was moving 4 hours away from Disneyland, I was moving really far away from WDW. (Living in Atlanta meant a 7 hour car trip/ 1.5 hour airplane ride to Orlando. I would no longer be able to make quick trips to Orlando and WDW like I was able to do in the past.) I really wanted family and friends to come along to WDW with me and have an awesome trip. I planned on having a theme, matching shirts, the whole shebang! Unfortunately, between sports, work, school and trying to hold everything together at home while hubby was across the country, a trip to WDW was simply out of the question!

2) I am not the most athletic of souls, but because of my love for Disney, I decided to add participating in at least one RunDisney event onto my Disney Bucket List. Hold on, I take that back. I have a tomboy side, its just that I have not historically proven the to the most CONSISTENT at being athletic. But give me a game of kickball, basketball, softball any day and I’m ready to play!

3) My sister is an avid runner. It started with Cross Country in college. Moved to Triathlons about 10 years ago. Triathlon’s then morphed into half and full marathon. Unlike me, she is very consistent when it comes to running. She loves running deep, deep down in her soul!

4) Then, I came across info about the RunDisney Star Wars Dark Side Marathon weekend. I think I saw it on FaceBook. I then went to RunDisney’s website to find out pertinent info and started formulating a plan. So I immediately thought, here’s the perfect opportunity to bring together a whole mélange of my different loves. WDW, Star Wars, my family, the East Coast and my desire to participate in a RunDisney weekend! Once I found out the deets, I called in the key players: my son and my sis. Asked my son if he wanted to run the 5K with me as I didn’t want to run by myself and unlike his mother, he is consistently athletic! Then I ran the dates and prices by sister and she thought it sounded like a great plan. So then I had to wait for registration day. I had researched on various RunDisney threads about registration and I began to hear about race registrations being sold out on opening day. Because of that, I set all kinds of alarms for that day! I took my son to school, then sat by the computer waiting for the registration window to open. Once it opened, it took me about 30 minutes total to register my son and I for the 5K. I then called my sister to remind her about registering and it took her abt 20 minutes and she was registered for the Half-Marathon.

Once that was taken care of, I called my niece Tori (my sister’s daughter, a sophomore in college) who I indoctrinated into the Disney way of life. {SIDE NOTE: It is my tradition to introduce my nieces & nephew to WDW at the age of 2. I have three and I have successfully completed my mission with each of them!} I asked if she thought her class schedule would allow her to come with us for the weekend. She said it would, she was excited to come and she was added to the party! Then I called my mom and rubbed it in her face that both of her grandkids would be in Orlando and she immediately jumped on the bandwagon. I tried to get my DSisInLuv to bring my niece and nephew down from Atlanta, but she wasn’t able to swing it. I REALLLYYY missed them this trip and I have rarely made a trip without one or both of them there with us!!


5) TRIP PLANNING: I have never had trouble finding accommodations at WDW for past trips. Admittedly, the last time I made reservations was waaaaaaay back in the day. Like in 2009. During my planning phase for this trip, I prioritized FIRST: travel, SECOND: park tickets (I needed them before the 60 Day Fast Pass + mark) and THIRD: lodging. I was able to use miles for my one half of my trip, then buy the fare for the last half. I then ordered tickets from Park Savers for son, hubby, niece and myself. I ordered 1-day tickets from WDW for my mom and my sis. They aren’t as in love with Disney as I am and they could only commit to one day!

I figured that I would easily find a room at a moderate resort once I had the other more pertinent details addressed. Boy was I wrong!!! Once I ready to book our rooms, about a month before the trip, almost EVERYTHING was sold out. I needed 2 rooms at the same resort, and I figured that I would be able to book them as long as it wasn’t too close to the start of the trip. I clearly underestimated race weekends and April in WDW. In the end, (AFTER EXTENSIVE SEARCHING) I was able to book 1 night at Pop Century, a suite at All-Star Music and a regular room at All-Star Movies. It worked out in the end, but I am not a fan of Value Resorts and this trip only served to prove this preference. The main reason for waiting so long to book the rooms was because I was planning our Spring Break trip to Hawaii in March at the same time that I was planning this trip to WDW in April. Once we finished with Hawaii, I was able to completely focus financially on WDW.

UP NEXT...TRIP DETAILS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE DEETS | MEET THE CAST
AND THE DEETS GO ON...| LOGISTICS
DEETS, DEETS & MORE DEETS | THE LITTLE DISNEY THINGS!
Chapter 1 - Ready, Set, and Go!
Chapter 2 - Expo Extravaganza!
Chapter 3 - Does Running Late Count As Exercise?
Chapter 4 - Magic Kingdom, Magic Moments

INTERMISSION

WHO IS PRINCESS A? Part I
WHO IS PRINCESS A? Part II
WHO IS PRINCESS A? Part III​

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[PrincessA]

THE DEETS:​

PART I | MEET THE CAST​

Myself: Ayesha aka PrincessA - Georgia Peach, now a Desert Rose. Teacher and Librarian by profession. Lover of all things Disney, Star Wars, SciFi, & BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!

DS13: Jerry, III aka Jamie, cause his initials are JME, J-ME - My one and only child. He is an almost genius (I'm biased!) baseball playing (center field, first base, pitching, and he is a lefty), football playing (wide receiver, safety, quarterback, linebacker, running back), basketball playing (shooting guard), skateboarding, gaming & most recently beat/music-making young man. As a toddler he was a VERY busy little boy, so we kept him occupied with sports. Up until our move to Vegas, he literally played baseball, football and basketball year-round. We would get at most a week long break between sport seasons. IT.WAS.OUR.LIFE. dad was coach, I was team mom. We expected it would be the same in Las Vegas, but we soon learned that it isn't a kid focused town and that youth sports aren't as INTENSE as they are in the South.

DH: Jerry aka Hubby - He unknowingly at the time, started my Disney obsession back in 1997ish? When we took our first trip as a couple and SNUCK to use his parents timeshare in Orlando. We were 19 and had been dating about for about a year. His family weren't using their timeshare that year and he asked his parents if he and his sis and cuz could use it and they made reservations at Vistana Resorts in Orlando. Little did his parents know that a fourth person was added to the list. We wound up buying $40.00, one day hopper tickets from an orange stand on International Drive. We had so much fun that day!!! He is the practical one in our family. He LOVES all things New York Yankees, New York Knicks, New England Patriots and coaching. He was primarily my son's coach for all of his sporting activities.

DSis: S. Dawn - My sissy-poo! You could never meet two more dissimilar sisters. She is not fond of Disney. She just isn't one of those people. She has no patience for trip planning, crowds and the intricacies of WDW. It was with glee that she would get my niece prepared for Disney trips in the past. She really loves numbers/math, and she works in the financial planning industry. And as I said before she loves running. Even though we are completely different, I love her completely and wouldn't have it any other way!

DNiece: Tori - I often refer to her as my first child. During the trip, she was a sophomore in college. She is currently in her third year, preparing to apply to nursing schools. She shares my love of Disney. I have been taking her to Orlando since she was two. We often joke in the family that she is more similar to me that to her mom!

DMom: Edna - Last but not least, is the Momster! She is the absolute best mommy & grand mommy in the entire world. It broke her heart when we moved to Las Vegas. Out of her three kids, I have lived the closest to her since I moved out as an adult. She is of my greatest supporter and I love her flashy little self to the moon and back! She is a lover of all things Spanish/languages as a retired Spanish teacher/interpreter. She also loves all things blingy, flashy, and lots of layers(She is always cold)! Her latest passion as a cute little retiree is line dancing. She will bust a move with little to no provocation! She has a knee issues that are manageable if she doesn't walk for too long. Hence her only spending one day in the park. And she was a trooper and kept up with the gang the whole day. She could care less about anything Disney, she is in it for her GRANDKIDS! She loves them to pieces! And loves spoiling and spending time with them!

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UP NEXT...MORE DEETS
P.S. Photo Bucket is the DEVIL!​

 

[PrincessA]

AND THE DEETS GO ON...

PART II | LOGISTICS​

TRAVEL:
PrincessA and DS - April 13-18, 2016 | LAS>MCO on Southwest Airlines
DH - April 14-17, 2016 | LAS>MCO on Southwest Airlines
DSis, DM, DN - April 14-17, 2016 | ATL>MCO on Delta Airlines


RUNDISNEY EVENTS:
PrincessA & DS - Fri, April 15, 2016 | 5K
DSis - Sun, April 17, 2016 | Half-Marathon


Itinerary:

ARRIVALS:
Wed, April 13 | PrincessA and DS Jamie arrive at MCO @ 9PM
Pop Century for 1 night
All-Star Music Family Suite for 4 nights

Thur, April 14 | DH, Jerry arrives at MCO @ 9PM
*Joins Family @ All-Star Music

Thur, April 14 | DMom, DSis, & DNiece arrive @ MCO @ 8PM
All-Star Movies for 3 nights.

ADRs:
Many of our past trips were during FREE DINING and we loved it, but we discovered that we would rather spend our time and money in the parks so we didn’t schedule a lot of ADRs. I asked my son if there were any places that he would like to eat at on the trip and he said CHEF MICKEYS, SCI-FI DINE IN THEATRE. I wanted to eat at BOG. Those would be the ADRs we attempted to reserve for our trip.

MAGIC BANDS & FAST PASS+:
This would be my first trip using Magic Bands and making Fast Pass+ reservations on MDE. I loved using them and really enhanced the experience. Consequently, this is the first time that I have had to plan out my itinerary. Typically, we tour “haphazardly commando” style. While we are in the parks, we are running from ride to ride commando style. We typically decide which park to go to on a day-by-day basis. Of course we start at Magic Kingdom, but we decide the night before where we will go the next day. With FP+, we would have to stick to a more defined schedule, depending on where our FP+ were scheduled.

ITINERARY:
WED, APRIL 13, 2016 TRAVEL DAY
Travel from Las Vegas to Orlando on a direct flight with Southwest Airlines.
Departed at ; Arrived in Orlando at Check into Pop Century for 1 night

THUR, APRIL 14, 2016
Wake up, Check out
Go to RunDisney Expo @ Wide World of Sports (Pick up race items & shop)
ADR @ Chef Mickeys | 1:15PM
Magic Kingdom Day (3 FP+)
Pick Up Jerry from Airport
Reunite with FAM from Atlanta!

FRI, APRIL 15, 2016
RunDisney 5K @ 6:00AM: Ayesha & Jamie
Disney Hollywood Studios: (3 FP+)Everyone, all 6 of us, tour together today!!!
ADR @ Sci-Fi Dine In | 2:35

SAT, APRIL 16, 2016
Animal Kingdom & Epcot: Ayesha, Jerry, Jamie & Tori
Mom & Sis to Outlets
No ADRs

SUN, APRIL 17, 2016
RunDisney Half-Marathon @ 5AM: S. Dawn
Magic Kingdom
S. Dawn, Edna & Tori depart for Atlanta @ 1:00PM
Jerry departs for Las Vegas @ 3:00PM
Ayesha & Jamie to Disney Hollywood Studios, Epcot

MON, APRIL 18, 2016
Magic Kingdom & Animal Kingdom
ADR @ Be Our Guest | 12:00PM
Ayesha & Jamie depart for Las Vegas @ 3:00PM

 

[PrincessA]

DEETS, DEETS & MORE DEETS:

PART III | THE LITTLE DISNEY THINGS!​

As most of you all reading this TR know, there comes a flurry of shopping, researching and crafting that begins once you have confirmed your travel plans!​

RAW THREADZ:
I think the first thing I started looking to purchase were some really cool training shirts from Raw Threadz. They were having a sale and I was able to get 5 cool shirts. Three for me and two that I sent to my sis for her birthday!

RUNNING COSTUME:
Then I had to pick a running costume for me and my son. After long & deliberate consideration, I decided that I would be Lando Calrissian and Jamie would be Hans Solo. We would be the coolest duo in the Universe! I have always had a crush on Billy Dee Williams and couldn't wait to represent him in the race! After conducting diligent research, I purchased a running costume shirt from Etsy for me. Originally, it was posted as a running dress. I had very little interest in running in a dress. When running/walking, I need as little extra crap on me as possible! The shop owner at IGlowRunning was awesome enough to make it a shirt with the cape & no belt. Then, I decided that I would be able to craft my son’s Hans Solo costume with a little help from the Internet. I was able to find a lot of tutorials on Hans Solo costume and his belt holster.

FACEBOOK GROUP:
I joined the primary (I think) Dark Side Half Marathon private group on FaceBook. I found a lot of information on the Facebook group. It was a DisBoard supplement!
Edited to add: I also joined a Photo Pass share group from this Facebook group. It took a second to find a group. I finally found one and we split it amongst 6 people. Im not sure how it worked for the other 5 people, but it worked out great for me and my party. A few of the photos pics that I remember taking didn't show up on the account. But it was about 5% of the total pics and it didn't bother me enough to contact Disney to search for them.

PARK ATTIRE:
Then I began collecting and planning park attire. This included quite a bit of soul searching on ETSY and PINTEREST. As the trip came closer, I started finalizing the items I would craft and the items I would buy. I noticed on ETSY that the newest thing to have at the parks are custom Minnie mouse ears. I debated with myself without end to purchase the ears vs buying them. I really wanted to have ears for myself, my niece, my sister and my mom. I felt as if I could save money by making them myself. In total I made 7 custom ears. I had also during the past year bought a cute pair of Disney Vans.

MAGIC BANDS:
Then came picking magic band colors and décor. I wound up ordering decals for five of us on the trip from about 4 different ETSY shops. Hubby wanted nothing to do with color and decorations. He was happy with plain grey. I initially thought about painting the magic bands, but it would have been too labor intensive. Decals were a happy medium between plain bands and bands with a little flavor!

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PARK ATTIRE, Part II:
As far as shirts, a couple of months before I booked the trip, I ordered a Lauren Conrad Disney shirt from EBay. I also ordered a Chewbacca tank from ETSY. I then went through my wardrobe and found other Disney shirts I had collected over the years.

MATCHING ATTIRE:
Because there was going to one day that we all toured the parks together, I wanted us to match in some form that day. First I checked Target for Disney items. Couldn’t find very much that I liked. I then found some of the cutest shirts ever at Kohl’s. They have a great collection of Disney shirts in their Junior’s and Men’s Department. And I loved the price, 2 for 20.00! Which depending on how much Kohl’s cash you have, they can almost be free. I had 40.00 in Kohl’s cash, so they were pretty inexpensive!!! )))) Made 4 of these ears for the ladies. Also, bought four of these shirts for the ladies and two coordinating shirts for the guys.

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[PrincessA]

Chapter 1 - Ready, Set, and Go!​

My family had a pretty busy spring. We went to Hawaii for our Nevada Spring Break mid-March. It was a great trip! We then had a great visit a two weeks later when MIL, FIL, SIL, Niece and Nephew came to visit for their Spring Break. So, I wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked when the trip rolled around two weeks later. I was literally at my son’s baseball tournament in Utah the weekend before the trip, in the stands, sewing mouse ears for my custom head bands.

I had not gotten started on my son’s Han Solo running costume either. Luckily, I had purchased all needed supplies and I hit the $1.00 headband motherlode at a Joann’s store in Utah. Two nights before we left, involved me crafting all night long. I was able to get the ears and running costume finished and they were perfect(ish). I used leather-like brown vinyl for the Han Solo gun holster I was making and none of the metal snaps that I hot glued on would stick! I had no idea that vinyl and hot glue did not work well together. It drove me crazy. And since I waited until the last minute, I didn’t have a chance to find a solution. The good thing was that the duct tape and needle/thread that had worked well. I was frazzled at that point. So, I just packed the glue gun, duct tape and snaps and figured I would tinker with it in Orlando.

Travel Day came and I got my son off to school and headed home to do last minute packing. Went to school to pick him up around 1:30PM-ish for our 4:00 flight. I can’t recall exactly what time I picked him up, but I do know that we were rushing to pick up my hubby from his job. He works closer to the airport and it that’s our normal routine for drop-offs during the work day. Luckily, we got to the airport on time. We were flying Southwest, so there was no stress when checking our luggage. I am the WORLD’S BIGGEST OVERPACKED. Every time I check a bag is a stress filled experience for me. I checked in the day before and we got mid B group boarding order. We got decent seats. My son is happy as long as he has the window seat.

Pre Take-Off

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Pretty soon, we were up in the air and headed to Orlando! After 4 hours and change, we landed at MCO around 11:00PM. It was late, but we were so excited to be in Orlando. We have NEVER been Magical Express people. In theory, its great to have free transportation from the hotel. But not having a car is TORTURE for the hubs and me. We like to be able to get food & go to stores off property. As well as, drive to the parks to maximize touring time. So we headed to baggage claim and retrieved our bags. We then headed to over to pick up our rental car. We had a great rate with Thrifty and car pick up process went smoothly. My son and I were dragging a bit, we were tired after a long day at this point. Once we packed our bags in the rental car, and turned the car on, I discovered that the air conditioning vent sounded like a plane engine was operating under the hood. I pointed it out to an attendant and she was nice enough to switch our car to a minivan! I was ecstatic about having so much room!

MCO Baggage Claim

We Made It!!

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My son and I headed to Pop Century. We went straight to the room as we had received our text around 2:00PM that room was ready(1st Floor 50’s room 1139). We were so excited to use our Magic Bands for the first time ever! We drug our luggage into our room & looked around. Due to our excitement & hunger, we couldn’t sleep. So we decided to explore the resort and see what time the food court closed. I was kind of delirious during this time. I remember looking at the decorations and letting my son play on the video game up there.

Pop Century Front Lobby

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We then discovered that no restaurants near us were open. We were starving. Had quick convo with Siri and discovered that there was a Waffle House near and off we went! Our little hearts were singing at the thoughts of being reunited with our dear Waffle House. We are sweet cream waffle lovahs! Facetimed hubby back home so he could have visions of us eating in his head while sleeping. Once we were filled up, we headed back to Pop Century and hit the sheets.

 

[PrincessA]

Chapter 2 - Expo Extravaganza!
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The next morning we managed to wrangle ourselves out of bed. My son and I are not morning people AT ALL. In my head when I was planning, I thought that we would wake up and be at the Expo by 10AM. Looking at my first pic that day. I see we made it there, parked and were walking up to the Expo building at 11:51PM. We picked up coffee, juice, fruit and a muffin at a food stand.

As many times as we have been to WDW, this is out first time at WWOS!

He wants to play here one day. We are trying to convince his coach to take his team down next summer!

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We went inside and found the bib pickup area. Picked up our bags with the bibs, t-shirts and programs. We then went to pick up our pre-ordered merchandise. I was kinda disappointed in the bag and mug that I purchased. I have not used them at all to date. They weren’t very attractive to me. If I ever participate in a RunDisney event again. I won’t pre-purchase those items again. My son did like his 5K pin that I pre-purchased for him so that was a plus. I then promised my son that I wouldn’t take forever inside of the RunDisney Expo. I wished that is wasn’t the two of us there then. It was way too many people there too leave him alone for too long. Luckily, I was able to find some items I wanted. Checking my receipts, I purchased 2 shirts and sweatband at 12:50PM that day. And the line was not crazy long as I had read that it may be on opening day. After looking around for a bit, we then headed to the car to make it to our ADR at Chef Mickey’s.

 

[PrincessA]

Chapter 3 - Does Running Late Count As Exercise?
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So I may have mentioned that we were a little wrung out from our long travel day. Evidently, I was more wrung out than I thought. For some reason, as we are making our way to the Magic Kingdom, I was completely off time wise and logistics wise. I thought my ADR was at 2:15PM. Once I looked at MDE, I realized that it was actually at 1:15PM. I resisted the urge to freak out! And immediately got on the phone with Disney Dining while we were on the Ferry to the Magic Kingdom. The good part was that cast member told me that there were available time slots, and that they would be able to accommodate my late arrival. Thank you DISNEY GODS! The bad part was that I was still experiencing inner anxiety about being late and I ran-walked all the way from the Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary.

Gotta find the car when we are done!

Finally, we made it!

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(SIDE NOTE: I would have driven straight to the Contemporary Resort from WWOS. But, it has been so long since we have parked at the CR for an ADR and left the car there, that I couldn't remember if leaving the rental car there would have been a problem after we left Chef Mickey's to go to the Magic Kingdom. I had no desire to come back to a towed car after a long day in the parks. So we just parked at the TTC and took a ferry over to MK.)

By the time we arrived, I super sweaty and little wrung out. But, that feeling didn’t last long once I got there! The hostesses were awesome. They checked us in and we took our official Chef Mickey pics while waited for our table. This would be our first PhotoPass pic of the trip and it was cool to see it appear on MDE a few minutes later! A few minutes later we were seated. This was a very bittersweet moment for me. I knew that this would be my last character meal with my son. I was excited that he even asked me to make the reservation.

His last Napkin Wave! :-(

i love Snap Chat filters. The time stamp is a great way to track your day! Bye-bye Chef Mickey's!! On our way to MK!!

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[PrincessA]

Chapter 4 - Magic Kingdom, Magic Moments

The path back to the MK from CR seemed so easier when we weren't rushing to an ADR. Made it through bag drop and it was our first time using our MagicBands to get into a park. Luckily, for my son and I, things went perfectly and before we knew it, we were strolling down Main Street USA. We stopped for a few Photopass pics.

We then headed straight to 7DMT for our first FastPass+ of the day. This was our first time on the ride and it was our MK must do! We loved it!

Because I am a ride glutton, I was obsessed with FP+ and maximizing our ride chances. I had been studying the concept of using extra Magicbands to book more FP+. There was a very detailed post here on the DisBoards detailing the procedure. After doing it this once, I realized that it was not necessary for this trip. (Although it was crowded during this trip, we were able to ride all of the rides we wanted.) So once we finished 7DMT, my son and I headed to the FP+ kiosks located in Tomorrowland. We were able to use our extra Magic bands to book new FP+ for the rest of the evening.

From there we headed to COP, a Disney classic, that my son didn't remember. It also gave me a chance to rest up a bit, as i feel as if I had been running around since the trip started!

From there, we headed over to Buzz Lightyear.

Then took a quick trip on Space Mountain

Stopped for a shared cup of LeFou's Brew. (We loved it!)

Headed to Big Thunder Mountain and then Splash Mountain. No pics from BTM. On Splash, we decided that we would begin attempt to pose for our ride photos if we could find the cameras. This was one of the most fun parts of each of the rides. We tried a variety poses through out the trip! He we are sleeping the day away! LOL!

I'm assuming we were on POC. This is the Snapchat geofilter for it. But I can't tell from the background!

So Im sure that you can tell that we are ride lovers! We are able to get a lot done in short amount of time at MK. We found that we loved MDE. Having all of the park information at your fingertips was intoxicating. At this point in our trip, there were a few things happening:
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1. We were TIRED. We had been going since the morning and hadn't even checked into our room at ASMusic. But we were still riding our "We are at Disney high"!

2. The rest of our party was en route! Hubby was in the air on the way from LV. And Mom, Sis and Niece were in the air from ATL!

3. After checking MDE, we realized that Epcot was still open, AND Test Track had a low wait time.​

Once we realized #3 on our list, we had a sudden burst of energy and decided to race over to EPCOT and ride Test Track!​

 

[PrincessA]

Chapter 5 - Epcot Extras

Headed to the monorail station and caught the next thing smoking to EPCOT. Upon arrival, we booked it back to TT.

We got in the Single Rider line and in about 10 minutes, we were off. Once we got off the ride & checked out the ride photo. We probably had about 10 minutes until FW closed. We decided to run back to TT entrance and get in the regular line. And just as we figured, the line was short. It took us about 5 minutes and this time we were able to ride next to each other. We exited the ride to see Cast Members gently waiting to usher you out of the park.

As we were walking out of the park to the TTC parking lot, I discovered one key thing: MY FEET WERE KILLING ME! OMG! All that I could thing about was the 5K that I had coming up in the wee hours of the morning. Once we got to the minivan, we were heading to All-Star Music. I had gotten a text that our room was ready that morning. We were given Room 9612; 3rd Floor; Jazz Inn Building 9. We took our bags up and checked out the room. It was nice, loved the space. My son loved that he had his own side. But it was still your basic value resort room. Nothing to write home about. :-(

Headed up to Melody Hall to find something to eat, look around and get race details. I was so nervous about being up in time to make the race. I knew that we still had to pick up hubby from the airport and go reunite with my family. Went to Melody Hall and found the stands with the race info. Then headed to the food court to find something to eat. I think we both had pizza. It was crowded, and there weren't a lot of food options. We also got our refillable mugs. We hadn't had the refillable mugs since our last Free Dining trip in 2009. This was one of my MUST-DOs of the trip. We ate and headed out to the airport.


My steps for the day.

Race Details

Once we left the airport, we headed over to All Star Movies and reunited with my Mom, Sis and Niece in the their room. While there, I gave them their shirts, custom Mickey ears and decorated their Magic Bands. I guess I was so tired that I didn't even take a pic of their Magic Band decals. I loved my Sister and Niece's. I was ambivalent about my mom's. It wasn't flashy enough to fit her personality. She liked it though. After briefly catching up, hubby, son and I headed back to our room. Even though we were at two different All Star resorts, ur rooms were really close together. It was only a five minute drive back. Once we were in our room, I began prepping for the race. I finished my son's holster and packed our stuff up for tomorrow. By the time we got to sleep, it was 2-3AM. My son and I would only get about 2-3 hours sleep at the most! ​

 

[PrincessA]

-INTERMISSION-

WHO IS PRINCESS A?
PART I

If you check out my avatar, you can see that I have been a DisBoarder since 2004. I pretty sure that I was a lurker for at least a year before joining. I am an introverted extrovert. Once I get to know you, I can talk your head off. But before then, I can be pretty quiet and shy.

MY BIG DISNEY MOMENTS!

FIRST
My first visit to WDW was the summer of 1984. We went on a bus trip organized by my mom's co-worker. It was my mom, sister, brother and myself. We stayed at a motel and visited WDW and Epcot during that trip. I was 8 during that trip. And even though we had fun, I don't have vivid memories of that trip. I mostly remember our souvenirs. (which is the point of souvenirs!) We bought candy filled containers which we used to hold hair beads & bows once we ate all of the candy.

SECOND
My next big Disney moment was when I was a tenth grader in high school. It was Christmas and my boyfriend and I were attempting to figure out what gifts we were getting each other. I had seen commercials for Beauty & the Beast and I was intrigued. That was my request that I gave my boyfriend for a Xmas gift and that's what he got me. Once we watched it, I WAS IN LOVE! With the movie and all the big Disney movie releases after that. I got my boyfriend super cute flannel button down from The Gap.

THIRD
And then the moment that sealed it all happened during the summer before my junior year in college. My husband and I had been dating for 7-8 months and we had reached the end of the summer. i had seen pictures of his family's annual vacation to their timeshare in St. Petersburg near Tampa. For some reason, his parent's weren't using their that year. He asked his parents if he could use it with his sister and their cousins in Orlando. His parents were able to switch it over to Vistana in Orlando. The big thing was that we were still relatively young and by no means did we have permission to travel out of town together. So me, hubby, his sister, & cousin and I headed down to Orlando from Atlanta. I was the mystery guest. His parents had know idea (I hoped) that I was along. My parents thought that I was spending the week at my apartment in Athens. I had just finished with summer school at UGA when we went on this trip. Once we got to Orlando, we were trying to figure out what we were going to do during that week. All around the city, we saw sign after sign for WDW tickets. We began to investigate the possibility of a buying tickets. We finally found one day hoppers at a an orange booth on I-Drive for $40.00. On one hand, we were skeptical that they would work. On the other hand, we figured that they just might work and decided to give them a try. Hubby and I headed out to WDW and had soo much fun. We stayed the entire day. I don't remember if we hopped to other parks. I just remember falling in love with the park during this time. I still have the Minnie Mouse ears that I bought that day. This was the true start to my love of Disney.

In the vein of other trip reports I have read, I am going to stroll down memory lane and share some of my memorable Disney moments. Not all of these are most memorable trips. But some of these trips represent significant points on my Disney journey.

The Sneak Away Trip to Orlando Trip
August 1997
Vistana Resort

Robert's First Trip to WDW
February 2004
Port Orleans/Riverside
I mentioned previously that it is my civic duty to take my nieces and nephew to WDW when they turn two. On this trip, I left my 7 month old son home and we hit the road with these four kiddos. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and had one of the rooms with a trundle bed. None of the kids wanted to sleep on the trundle bed because they thought it was creepy! Eventually, we made it work so that everyone was comfortable.

Tori, Niah, Kennedy & Robert

Jamie's First Trip to WDW
May 2005
Caribbean Beach Resort
First of all, I felt horrible about leaving my little one at home. But I knew it would have been hard to handle the other four kids and a baby. Once we returned, I was so ready to start planning his first trip! I decided that May 2005 would be a great time to go. We stayed at CBR. We wound up having such a good time that trip with just the three of us, that instead of heading to the DTD & then the airport on our last day. We added a park day to our ticket and spent our last hours in the park. Then we headed to the airport straight from Animal Kingdom.

Our Shirts. The white tank was mine and the green tee is Jamie's.

Character Breakfast

To be continued...​

 

[PrincessA]

WHO IS PRINCESS A?
PART II

Our First Free Dining Trip
September 2005
Pop Century
This was our first trip during free dining. Before this trip, we usually ate at quick service restaurants. We would make an exception for character meals. I think my husband's cousin Cobby first explained to us the beauty of Free Dining and being able to great meals! It was six of us this trip including us, Cobby, his wife Tanisha, and their son Colin. It was an amazing trip and we planned on booking immediately the next time Free Dining was released! We went home and talked so much about Free Dining to our family, that the next year we had a party of 20 booked for Free Dining.

Jamie And The Power Rangers
February 2007
Pop Century
On a trip back in Feb 2006, we discovered that the POWER RANGERS had a meet & greet at MGM Studios. My son was beginning to be obsessed with the Power Rangers. He could recite every cast of Rangers for every season of the show. Every halloween costume was a Power Ranger. All of his toys were Power Rangers. Out of all the DVD and VHS tapes we bought him as a child, we saved a few have his Power Ranger movies at his request. I'm not sure if you ever went to a PR meet and great, but they were an awesome spectacle to witness. The music would blast as they rolled out in their PR mobile. They would do fancy PR moves and disperse to their respective corners. When we first started going, we were only able to get autographs from one or two Power Rangers. Eventually, I mastered the craft of getting all four rangers autographs. I loved it! I think that by the time they stopped the PR M&G, my son was moving onto his sports phase. It was a lovely experience and one of the main reasons my son liked WDW at the time!

Fourth Annual Free Dining Trip
September 2008
Port Orleans - French Quarter

Fifth Annual Free Dining Trip
September 2009
Coronado Springs Resort
NOTE: This was the first year that my niece Tori was unable to go with us on our WDW trip. She had just started middle school and it wasn't feasible for her to miss school for WDW. :-(((

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[PrincessA]

WHO IS PRINCESS A?
Part III

Disneyland Hong Kong
June 2010
In 2010, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Hong Kong. I traveled with four friends to meet one of our friends that was working on a year long assignment in Hong Kong. This trip allowed me to check off one of my Disney bucket list items. This item was visiting a Disney park that was not in the United States. I have visited WDW & DL numerous times. I had also attempted to visit the Disneyland Paris once, but the attempt was thwarted by an AirFrance flight attendant. (Let me know if you want to hear that tale.) When we were planning the trip, I made sure that EVERYONE knew that HKDL was a must do for myself for the trip. Once the day came for us to visit, the group split up. Three went to the park and two went shopping. It was a great experience. I loved the train and train station that took you to the park. The detail was lovely. The park rides were a bit underwhelming. But visiting the park was an unforgettable experience!

Imitating Donald!

WDW Grad Nite Trip
April 2011
Doubletree Suites DTD
At my high school, I learned that the senior class was going on its first trip since I had worked at the school. I then discovered that the destination was WDW for Grad Nite. I almost fainted dead away at my desk. I immediately went and found the senior class sponsors and volunteered to be their WDW guide and chaperone the trip. From that point on, I was the "Sage on the Stage" for all things Disney related of the trip. During the planning phase, I presented the sponsors and student planning committee with different options for touring/dining. I also made a phone lists and park tip handouts for the kids. By the time the trip rolled around, we had 49 kids, and five chaperones signed up for the trip. We left Atlanta, in the early hours of Friday morning. Arrived in Orlando around 9/10:00 and headed to breakfast. After breakfast, we went straight to the Magic Kingdom and toured for the day. Later we went to the hotel and then to DTD for Dinner and a Movie. Our goals as chaperones, were to spend as little time at the hotel as possible. That way, the students would be near exhaustion when we were at the hotel. We figured that would be the best way to keep all possible shenanigans to a minimum! The next day we went to Animal Kingdom and late that night we attended Grad Nite. WDW from a chaperone’s perspective was amazing. They had breakfast for us in the Plaza Restaurant. They also had a chaperone's headquarter in Tony’s Town Square. It was fully stocked with snacks and beverages for the whole night. All five chaperones were dead tired by the time we boarded the bus to head back home. We stayed at MK until 4AM on Grad Nite. The students had a great experience as well. I TRULY enjoyed being able to be a part of this event. This was the last year that WDW did Grad Nite. It was also the first year since I had been at my school that the senior class had a successful school sponsored trip.

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