Run Hard, Stop for Pictures, Eat Everything: A 2016 Wine & Dine Race Weekend Trip Report - COMPLETE

[cavepig]

At about the top of the last hill, there was a guy who had already finished the race (!!), wearing his medal and cheering folks on. That gave me a nice boost for the final climb.

I remember seeing that guy he was a nice boost to see with the medal & hear as he was saying something to cheer us on. My clock was 2:11 so it was probably the same guy. Amazing time & all the pictures are great! I didn't see Phineas & Ferb but don't see myself stopping for them anyway but I did stop for Horace & Clarabelle since they are so classic. Great you got the ball picture too in the half since your 10k one vanished! Great recap!

 

[momabaarjo]

Great job on hitting your goal. I love your smiles in every picture...you make it look so easy!

 

[ZellyB]

What a triumphant race report!! Amazing race and time and so impressed that you managed so many photos with that time. I love all those racing shots at the end. You look like you are on cloud 9. A well-deserved celebration photo with Lumierre.

 

[rteetz]

Congrats! You got some awesome photos those last couple miles. Even if you weren't you look very happy. Great finish photo as well.

What an awesome time! All those character stops and still well under 2 hours! Great job!

Great photos with the medals at the end too!

 

[CherieFran]

Woohoo! Congrats on hitting your time goal- that's awesome! Your finish line picture looks great. Like you said, it looks like you're totally alone!

Those short character lines are a great perk of being so speedy

Thank you!! It was definitely interesting how few people in those early corrals seemed to be stopping for pictures, but no complaints from me!

I remember seeing that guy he was a nice boost to see with the medal & hear as he was saying something to cheer us on. My clock was 2:11 so it was probably the same guy. Amazing time & all the pictures are great! I didn't see Phineas & Ferb but don't see myself stopping for them anyway but I did stop for Horace & Clarabelle since they are so classic. Great you got the ball picture too in the half since your 10k one vanished! Great recap!

Thanks! That guy must have been seriously fast to finish and then get that far back on the course to cheer. I'm telling myself that this ball picture was better than the 10K anyway since it was light out.

Great job on hitting your goal. I love your smiles in every picture...you make it look so easy!

Thank you!!

What a triumphant race report!! Amazing race and time and so impressed that you managed so many photos with that time. I love all those racing shots at the end. You look like you are on cloud 9. A well-deserved celebration photo with Lumierre.

Thank you! I know people say that the race is supposed to be the victory lap of your training cycle. Usually it doesn't feel so much that way for me (at least while it is happening), but for once it really did!

Congrats! You got some awesome photos those last couple miles. Even if you weren't you look very happy. Great finish photo as well.

What an awesome time! All those character stops and still well under 2 hours! Great job!

Great photos with the medals at the end too!

Thank you!! I was really happy that I had sprung for the Memory Maker - definitely worth it for the race photos.

 

[CherieFran]

Day 3 – Sunday, November 6 – Epcot/Food & Wine Festival

After a shower and a photo-shoot with my shiny, new bling, I turned out the lights for an hour-long nap, at which point I discovered that the flames on Lumiere glow in the dark. Such a neat touch!





When I woke up, the adrenaline from the race had worn off, and I was feeling a little bit crummy. But I was eager to get to the Food & Wine Festival, so I got ready and headed to the bus around 10:30. An Epcot bus was loading as I walked up to the bus stop – perfect timing! I was inside Epcot by 11. I’m not used to arriving at the park later than rope drop, so I thought it felt pretty crowded. I picked up my park map and passport for the festival (because I was nerdy-excited about the sticker “stamps” for the booths I was planning to try) and stopped for a few PhotoPass shots at the entrance.





When I do a particularly long or hard run, sometimes it takes a little while for my appetite to come back, so I wasn’t quite ready to eat yet. Instead, I headed over to ride Living with the Land. I wasn’t sure if it would be open during the party that night (it wasn’t), and it is one of my favorites, so I didn’t want to miss it. I didn’t have a FP+ for it, and the standby line was about 20 minutes. The longest I have ever waited for that ride – by a lot.

I liked that they had added signs where they had used ingredients in the festival booths.



They also had some cute Fall touches. Unlike Magic Kingdom, it wasn’t Christmas in Epcot yet.



By the time I got off the ride, I was finally hungry. I walked over to the Festival Center because I wanted to buy one of the gift cards that you wear around your wrist so that I didn’t have to worry about checking a bunch of little charges on my MagicBand. I put $100 on it for my festival booth purchases (what I was essentially planning to be all my eating for the day).

I looked around the official merchandise, but didn’t see anything that I really needed. I also walked through the Ghirardelli exhibit and greatly appreciated the piece of chocolate that they gave me. (Amazing how I went from not-hungry-at-all right to starving). The highlight for me in the Festival Center was the sculpture scenes made out of chocolate. The plexiglass was not so great for picture-taking, but the detail in each scene was great.



Emile is wearing the 10K medal. I love it!



Gift card on my wrist, I was ready to start hitting the festival booths! I had read up on all the booths, so I had a good idea of what I most wanted to try. I eat mostly vegetarian and am not a huge drinker, so that narrowed down things quite a bit.

My first stop was the CHEW Collective booth, where I ordered the Ricotta and Zucchini Ravioli with Rustic Tomato Sauce and the Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Mousse with a Caramel Drizzle.



There was plenty of standing table space in this area. I thought the ravioli was tasty, particularly the tomato sauce. The mousse was also very good. I might not have ordered that had I not read rave reviews of it online, but I’m glad I did. Between the two, it was a nice little mini-meal to start my Epcot day.

While I was eating, the skies got pretty dark, and I was worried it was going to start raining on me, but it held off for the time being.

Right next door to the CHEW Collective booth was the Greenhouse Guru booth, so I stopped there as well and ordered the Heirloom Tomato Salad with Goat Cheese, Aged Balsamic Vinegar, and Micro-Basil. Goat cheese is one of my favorite things, so this was pretty much guaranteed to be a win for me. I thought the balsamic was excellent as well.



Hunger satisfied for the moment, I made my way towards World Showcase.

 

[UDFlyer12]

I am living vicariously through your TR since I am doing my first RD event next week! Great pictures and congrats on finishing!

 

[ZellyB]

YUM!!! The food looks very tasty so far. We had so much fun grazing our way around the Food and Wine festival!! I love goat cheese too, so I'm really envious of that particular sampling.

 

[emilyindisney]

I totally missed the chocolate sculptures- those are awesome!!!

 

[momabaarjo]

Great food choices...and I totally missed the medal on the Remy chocolate piece!

 

[CherieFran]

I am living vicariously through your TR since I am doing my first RD event next week! Great pictures and congrats on finishing!

Yay!! Have such a great time!! I'm going to be seriously envious of everyone running next week!

YUM!!! The food looks very tasty so far. We had so much fun grazing our way around the Food and Wine festival!! I love goat cheese too, so I'm really envious of that particular sampling.

It was a solid start for sure. I had an ambitious plan for what I wanted to try and eat in one day. I definitely wish I had an extra day (or half day) to graze.

I totally missed the chocolate sculptures- those are awesome!!!

They were really cute. There were a couple more but my pictures didn't turn out great because of the glare.

Great food choices...and I totally missed the medal on the Remy chocolate piece!

I will admit that someone standing near me pointed out the medal first. I may or may not have noticed it on my own!

 

[CherieFran]

Day 3 – Sunday, November 6 – Epcot/Food & Wine Festival, Continued

My first stop in World Showcase was the Canada booth. I stopped eating pork about a year ago so unfortunately that meant no amazing cheddar cheese soup for me. Instead, I settled for the Apple Ice Wine. The Canada booth had one of the longer lines I encountered for the day, but I only waited a few minutes. The park seemed more crowded than I am used to, but it didn’t really feel like it was translating to excessively long waits at the booths, which was good.



I thought the apple ice wine was quite tasty and just the right portion size for me.

I carried my wine with me and strolled past Canada and the UK. There was a PhotoPass photographer at the bridge between the UK and France so I stopped for a few shots.



For the magic shot, he asked me to hold my medal and then raise my other arm with a fist. I couldn’t figure out what the shot would be, but it turned out pretty cute.



Just past France, I decided I was ready for another snack, so I made a stop at the Brazil booth and ordered the Pão de Queijo (Brazilian cheese bread). This was one of the dishes I was particularly excited to try because bread and cheese are basically my favorite things to eat.



Honestly, I didn’t love it. Something about the flavor of the cheese wasn’t super appealing to me. The best way I can describe it is that the cheese tasted sort of like the rind of Brie cheese and I’m one of those folks who scraps the middle of the Brie and leaves the rind behind. I ate about 2/3 of it and tossed the rest.

By this point, it was about time for my first FP+ of the day. I made my way over to Norway to ride Frozen Ever After for the first time. I ended up with a seat in the front row. I thought the animatronics were really well done, but I still miss Maelstrom and the Norway movie a little bit. Also, I got a bit wet which I don’t remember ever happening before. Maybe I’ve never been in the front row?



Judging by my expression and the fact that I’m holding the bar, apparently I was a little apprehensive about being in the front for the drop.

After the ride, I browsed the Norway shop, which is now like 80% Frozen merchandise. This shirt made me laugh, though.



I wasn’t interested in waiting to meet Elsa and Anna but I did think that the house they built for them is pretty cute.



I finished my first loop around World Showcase with a stop at the Mexico booth, where I spied one of the Remy’s they have hiding in each country.



Mexico was another country where I wasn’t excited about the food options. The only vegetarian option was flan, which I usually don’t love. So I settled for another drink, the Mezcal Pineapple Margarita on the Rocks.



I thought it had a nice flavor, sweet but not too sweet, but it was way more than I wanted to drink of any one alcoholic beverage. I ended up tossing half.

Near the Mexico booth, Pluto was heading out to meet and greet. He happened to catch sight of squirrel and started to chase after it until it scampered into the bushes. It was a really funny moment; I wish I had it on video!

I had about 15 minutes to kill until my Mission Space FP+. I didn’t want to eat anything else at the moment, because, well, Mission Space. Just then, it started to rain. I made a quick dash to Mouse Gear but by the time I made it there, the rain was done. A very quick rain shower! I browsed around for a few minutes before heading to Orange Team training at Mission Space. I was teamed up with a father and his two small kids, who looked maybe 5 or 6. The little boy was assigned to the roll of commander and was taking his job very seriously. His sister was not impressed. It made for an interesting mission to Mars.

After returning to Earth, I made my way back towards World Showcase. I stopped at the Hawaii booth to try the Sparkling Pineapple Wine.



I enjoyed this pineapple beverage much more than the last one and managed to consume the whole thing while I browsed the stores in Canada, the UK, and France.

 

[CherieFran]

Day 3 – Sunday, November 6 – Epcot/Food & Wine Festival, Continued

After a couple of beverage stops, I was ready to soak up that alcohol with some more food! My next stop was the Belgium booth. I debated which of the two sweet options to pick but ended up deciding on the Belgian Waffle with Warm Chocolate Ganache and Whipped Cream.



So delicious! I could definitely have eaten a full size version of this dish. It was a bit messy, so I had to find a table to stand at while I ate, but other than that, no complaints.

The next festival booth I passed was Morocco, which had one of the top items I was looking forward to sampling, Spicy Hummus Fries with Cucumber, Tomato, Onions and Tzatziki Sauce.



This was definitely my favorite savory vegetarian dish of the day. The hummus fries, which were pretty much the same as falafel, were nice and crispy and the spicy sauce was delicious. I was tempted to get a second portion, but there were a lot of things left on my list to try.

I stopped for a PhotoPass photographer in front of the torii gate in Japan, where Chef Remy made an appearance.





Continuing on, I made my next stop at the Germany booth for the Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce.



I thought the flavor of this was very nice, and the vanilla sauce was particularly tasty but the crust was a little tough, not as flaky as I would have liked. I really needed to stop at a table with a knife and fork to get through it.

The bridge between the Africa outpost and China was up to allow the Illuminations barges to pass through, so I had a pause for a few minutes. There seemed to be a number of folks who were kind of grouchy about the delay, which was a bit of a bummer. Once the bridge was down, I completed my second loop around World Showcase and headed towards my last FP+ of the day, Spaceship Earth.

On the way, I stopped to snap a shot of the Mickey topiary grilling up some veggies. Super cute.



After my ride through history, I headed back to World Showcase. This time, I started from the opposite direction. I popped into the Mexico pavilion to browse the shops and ride the Gran Fiesta Tour. The line was spilling out of the queue area, longer than I’d ever seen it, but it only took about 10 minutes to get on the ride.

Next, I decided I was ready for another beverage, so I made a stop at the China booth for the Strawberry Plum Wine Cooler with Takara Plum Wine.



Plum wine in Epcot is a bit of a tradition for me. On trips with my mom, we usually order a glass of plum wine (although in Japan, not China) while waiting for Illuminations to start. I liked this drink well enough, but it was another one that I got tired of quickly and ended up tossing half.

I spent a few minutes browsing the store in China. I always stop to check out the super cute dog outfits. I keep thinking about getting one for Mushu, but I never remember to take his measurement in advance to figure out what size he needs, and I’m really bad at judging by sight. Maybe next time.



The exhibit area in China had been transformed into a look inside the Shanghai resort. (I think the last time I was here it was an exhibit on the terra cotta soldiers).



I really enjoy looking at models and sketches, so I thought the exhibit was really interesting. They had a look at the different areas of the park and the hotels, including some costumes for the cast members.

They also had a display of different Disney characters for each of the Chinese zodiac signs.



I had to take a picture of their description of Mushu because it fits so well with my pup. Small in size but big in spirit, indeed!

 

[emilyindisney]

I love the Remy magic shot- so fitting for the weekend!

The Shanghai Disney exhibit sounds neat- hopefully it's still up this weekend so I can check it out (don't know how often they change it out.)

 

[angryduck71]

I love this report. And, you look cute in all the pics! I wish I liked running because other than that part of it, I would love to do this! I only run if I'm chasing a fuzzy yellow ball. I wish they'd have tennis tournaments there for amateur adults (looks like they thought about doing that and then dropped it). Anyway, really enjoying this!

 

[amazingact21]

Loved your recap of the races! Congrats on running the half in under 2 hours! That's amazing! And you even stopped for character pics. Wow.

Your Food and Wine choices sound delicious. That Belgium Waffle...what a great dessert option. Also, your selections from the Chew food booth looked really good. I love all the variety available during those special occasions.

 

[ZellyB]

More deliciousness!! Yummy. The magic shot with Remy is great too.

 

[CherieFran]

I love the Remy magic shot- so fitting for the weekend!

The Shanghai Disney exhibit sounds neat- hopefully it's still up this weekend so I can check it out (don't know how often they change it out.)

I think the last exhibit was around for a few years, so I imagine this one will be there for a while as well. Definitely worth a few minutes' stroll. Have an awesome time this weekend!

I love this report. And, you look cute in all the pics! I wish I liked running because other than that part of it, I would love to do this! I only run if I'm chasing a fuzzy yellow ball. I wish they'd have tennis tournaments there for amateur adults (looks like they thought about doing that and then dropped it). Anyway, really enjoying this!

Thank you! I'm the opposite of you. I like running because it doesn't involve a ball flying at my face! Interesting about the tennis tournament! I hadn't heard that.

Loved your recap of the races! Congrats on running the half in under 2 hours! That's amazing! And you even stopped for character pics. Wow.

Your Food and Wine choices sound delicious. That Belgium Waffle...what a great dessert option. Also, your selections from the Chew food booth looked really good. I love all the variety available during those special occasions.

Thank you! Yes, I really enjoyed all the Food & Wine samplings. I'm glad I finally got to try it. I'm going to be in Epcot for the first day of Flower & Garden this year so hopefully I can try out some of those booths as well.

More deliciousness!! Yummy. The magic shot with Remy is great too.

I love that the magic shots are a surprise (at least, I never ask what they are doing). So fun to see them pop up in the app. Have a great time this weekend!!

 

[CherieFran]

Day 3 – Sunday, November 6 – Epcot/Food & Wine Festival, Continued

After wandering around the China pavilion, I stopped at the South Korea booth for another snack, the Vegan Korean BBQ with Steamed Rice and Cucumber Kimchi featuring Gardein™ Beefless Tips.



I’m not always a fan of the texture of “beefless” beef but I did enjoy the sauce it was coated in. I appreciated that there was a veggie version of the main dish for the country. The cucumber kimchi was very tasty as well - a highlight of the dish, tangy but not overpowering. I ate all the cucumber and rice (soaking up as much sauce as possible) and about half of the “beef.”

At this point, it was getting to be evening time and starting to get dark. I was wandering through the pavilions, browsing in the shops I had skipped in my first two loops around, and doing a lot of sitting, savoring and resting. I was pretty much just killing time trying to hold out for Illuminations and the after party. I stopped into Karamel-Kuche just to smell the amazing smells.



So yummy smelling in there! I thought about buying some caramel corn, but decided I didn’t need it with everything else I was consuming.

Just past Germany was the Poland booth. My choice here was technically on the beverage menu but was really somewhere between a food and a beverage - Frozen Szarlotka Apple Pie featuring Zubrowka Bison Grass Vodka.



Now this was tasty! A boozy, semi-liquid version of apple pie. There were chunks of apple in the “drink” with a sweet, crunchy crumble on top. The straw wasn’t quite up for the challenge, so I had to go back for a spoon as well.

I continued my wandering while I “ate” my apple pie. When I got to France, I stopped at the booth for my last boozy treat of the evening - Frozen Daiquiri Ice Pop: Strawberry Puree with French Caribbean Rhum Clément.



The flavor of the ice pop was really good but it was not totally frozen. It quickly became a huge mess. I tried to eat it as quickly as possible while not dripping it all over myself.

While I was sitting in France trying not to end up covered in strawberry puree, it suddenly started to rain. I took quick cover under an overhang, but it was another brief (and I mean, brief) shower that was over almost as soon as I got out of it. I used my water bottle to rinse my hands a bit and then stopped in to watch Impressions de France. I find this movie so relaxing and love the music. I also appreciate the fact that you sit down, unlike China and Canada!

I was starting to get tired of eating, but there was one more booth I wanted to be sure and try. Of course, it was alllll the way at the front of World Showcase (3rd loop around). It was the Vegan Loaded Greek “Nachos” (Pita Chips, Meatless Sausage Crumbles, and Vegan Tzatziki) from the Greece booth.



Let’s call these dinner. I don’t have the same objections to the texture of fake ground beef as I do to the other fake beef, so I was pretty happy with these. It was a nice mix of flavors and the vegan cheese and sauce of top tasted as good as dairy. I’m not a huge fan of olives, so that was really the only thing I didn’t love about the dish.

It was now about 8 PM, so time to exchange the party ticket I had gotten in the mail for my after-party wristband. There were several places where you could pick up a wristband but the closest to me was near England and the International Gateway. I walked over there and saw that the line was huge! If I wasn’t holding a plate full of nachos, I would have left the park through International Gateway and come back in using my party ticket to get my wristband at the entrance. As it was, I was really in “killing time” mode, so I didn’t really mind the wait so much. It took about 15 minutes to reach the front. The process didn’t seem that complicated, so I’m not sure why the line moved so slowly. I think some people might not have had their tickets? The CM scanned my ticket and gave me a wristband and a little time guide showing which attractions and character meets would be open starting at 10 PM.

I walked back over to Japan where my semi-secret favorite Illuminations viewing spot was snatched just a moment before I could get to it. Instead, I settled for a spot along the lagoon to sit for 30 minutes before Illuminations.



At this point, I was getting kind of grouchy. I didn’t feel great. I was tired. I was kind of bored from spending my day alone. I was super tired of eating and really wanting to brush my teeth after all the sweet, sugary things I had consumed. I was wishing that I had taken a 2- or 3-hour nap before coming to the park instead of a 1-hour nap. To make matters worse, before the show started, all the space around me was taken up by a tour group of Brazilian teenagers. When Illuminations started, I did my best to tune out the very loud talking all around me and try to enjoy the show. I’m a big sap, so all the nighttime shows at Disney make me emotional and this one was no exception.

Once Illuminations was over, the majority of the crowds slowly made their way to the exits. The after-party wasn’t technically scheduled to begin until 10 PM so there was an odd 40-or-so minute gap after the end of the show. All the festival booths had closed during Illuminations but many runners/party participants had begun to form long lines in anticipation of their reopening. My priority for the party was to ride the two big rides I had missed during the day, so I headed back towards Future World (4th loop around World Showcase for the day – probably part of the reason I was getting so grumpy. Clearly, I could have planned that better). I tried to take my time to appreciate the atmosphere of a quieting World Showcase, since I assumed the rides wouldn’t be up for us until 10.



When I passed by Canada, I saw that the popcorn kiosk had opened. That suddenly sounded so amazingly appealing. I think I had eaten/drunk too many sweet things during the day, and I was craving some more salt to offset it.


All that “fancy” eating across the booths all day and my final food purchase of the night was plain old Disney popcorn. It hit the spot, big time. At this point, it looked like some of the booths were taking pity on the long lines of runners and beginning to open up as well even though it was only a little after 9:30 or so.

I headed over to the land to join the queue for Soarin’. This would be my first time to see the new film. It seemed like there were a lot of people in line but it moved fairly quickly (and happily was operating even though it wasn't yet 10 PM). I waited maybe 15 minutes. I liked the new ride but didn’t love it, but I will admit that I am a very nostalgic person so I'm not always great with change. The picture was so crisp that it was hard to believe that the images were real. While I felt like some of the transitions from scene to scene were overly jarring, it was pretty to look at. I did, however, really like the way they updated the music to resemble the original but fit with the new scenery. Looking forward to riding it again so I can appreciate more of the details.

After Soarin’ I headed over to Test Track. I went through the single rider line and essentially walked right on to the ride. This was my first time to ride in the dark, so that was a fun new twist. Once I got off of Test Track, I was done. I had checked off what was on my to-do list and I was ready for sleep. I was heading out of the park just after 10:30 (so much for taking advantage of the after-party time), back in my room by 11:10, and in bed with the lights out by 11:30.



Day 4 – Monday, November 7 – Departure Day

I woke up the next morning and packed up my stuff (getting the shoe box for the New Balance Little Mermaid shoes I had bought for my mom into my small suitcase was a fun adventure). I had an 8:30 Magical Express and when I boarded I was surprised to see it was mostly full. I am used to being one of this first stops and this time I was the last stop for that bus. I was at the airport at 9 – super early for my flight considering I had TSA PreCheck. Once I checked my bag and ate a breakfast sandwich at Quiznos, I set off to spend the last $10 on my wrist gift card that I had leftover from the day before. I had my heart set on a couple of chocolate-covered Mickey rice krisipies treats but the Earport shop only had ones dipped in weird fruit-flavored pastel colors, so I settled for some other chocolate treats instead.



I was flying on JetBlue, so I walked down to the farther security checkpoint and then saw that there was a second Disney store. Why do I always forget about that one? That store, of course, had the treats I was searching for. My gift card was finished but I bought one anyway.



I was glad to have one last Mickey-shaped treat when my flight got delayed for a couple of hours. Happily, I was home in time to pick up Mushu from daycare and get settled back into reality.

(Side note: I willed myself so hard to fight off that cold during the trip, but once I got home it hit me. Hard. I was super miserable for the next week and ended up with a lingering cough that lasted another 4 weeks. Hooray for Airborne and pixie dust for keeping that at bay during my trip!)

 

[CherieFran]

Final Thoughts

Overall, I had a wonderful week participating in the Inaugural Lumiere’s Challenge. A few random thoughts:

• This was my first solo trip. While I did enjoy being able to set my own plan and schedule and not having to worry about being a downer on anyone else’s vacation with my super early bed and wake-up times, it did get a bit lonely. I did a lot of texting of pictures along the way to “share” the experience.
• Transportation, both to the parks and to the race events, worked pretty flawlessly all weekend. My first Lyft experience at WDW worked perfectly as well and is something I definitely plan to use in the future.
• I really lucked out with the weather for the trip. The first day, it almost bordered on too hot, but never became really uncomfortable. There was some rain in the forecast, especially for Sunday, but I ended up with maybe 5 minutes of it in total. Temperatures were also pretty decent for the races. They were hotter than my ideal running temperature but compared to the hot WDW marathon in 2013, they were not bad at all.
• I was thrilled with my experience during both races. I definitely attribute a good chunk of that to the corral placement. I made a lot of character stops and encountered minimal and non-existent lines. It is definitely worth it to submit a time if possible to get the best corral placement that you can. I was also really happy with how well my training over the summer/early fall served me in these races. I was much stronger than I thought I would be.
• I didn’t really have any complaints about the courses. As someone who only runs an occasional RunDisney race, I’m not familiar enough with all roads/course permutations to be bored or unhappy with duplicate courses. I thought the backroad areas were really peaceful and pleasant, and it seemed like highway miles were fairly minimized. I do think they could have had us run around World Showcase in Epcot during the half, though. That would have been extra special.
• I was pretty indifferent on the after party. If I had given myself more time to rest before heading to the park, I might have stayed to explore it more, but burning the candle on both ends with the race in the morning is tough. I appreciated being able to ride the headliners that I didn’t have a FP+ for with minimal wait but none of the other elements were a big draw for me.
• I really enjoyed my first time at the Food and Wine Festival. This was a short trip and my major regret was that I didn’t have another half day or day to spend in Epcot. There were more things I would have liked to try or to eat twice!
• Given how rarely I participate in RunDisney events, I’m probably unlikely to repeat this one in the near future. However, I would highly recommend it to others that are interested. I don’t know what, if any, changes they’ll make to the weekend going forward since it was a new format this year, but it was definitely a fun time of year to run at Disney. For now, I have my eyes on Dopey 2018 (if I can make it through registration!)

Thanks for following along!