Running... From Coast to Coast and Back Again - Tink 1/2 TR, Princess TR

[disneygeeks]

sounds like a really exciting but busy trip...happy new years and have a great time

 

[ZehnJahren]

I'm home sick from work today and read this entire thread. This is one of my favorite trip reports on this board! I'm subbing! Hope you finish it up!

 

[20thingamabobs]

sounds like a really exciting but busy trip...happy new years and have a great time

It's been very busy so far. I almost slept through New Year's due to the early morning and time change but woke up 40 second before the ball dropped ! The rose bowl parade was really cool and I'm looking forward to Disneyland tomorrow. I just hope I readjust to East Coast time quickly so I'm ok for the race! Happy New Year to you as well!

I'm home sick from work today and read this entire thread. This is one of my favorite trip reports on this board! I'm subbing! Hope you finish it up!

Thank You! I enjoy writing them and I'm so glad that people like reading them! It's always more fun when people comment!

 

[20thingamabobs]

We headed out of Disneyland and back over to California Adventure to
hit some of those rides. We stopped for a picture in front of the
entrance:

And then I grabbed one inside CA as we made our way to Paradise Pier:

We were planning to ride Screamin’ but it had a 25 minute wait or we
could get Fast passes that were good in 30 minutes so we grabbed the
Fast Passes and then spent our 30 minutes in line for Toy Story Mania
instead. I always find this amusing. TSM in FL is always packed with a
huge line but there’s hardly ever one in CA. Worked well for us
though! By this point, DF and my dad were dragging so they decided to
head to find a drink while the rest of us headed into line. It went
pretty quickly and before I knew it, we boarded the ride:

I hate to say that at the last minute, my brother did indeed beat me…
After we got off, we met back up with my dad and DF and headed over to
use our Screamin’ Fast Passes.

I love this roller coaster! I really wish they would build something
similar at WDW. To finish up California Adventure rides, we headed for
Tower of Terror. This was my first time riding it in CA and I didn’t
realize that it was different until I was on the ride. Really caught
me off guard! But, before we got to the ride, I did get one of my
favorite pics:

As we made our way from ToT to the viewing area for World of Color we
passed ElecTRONica. It was a neat atmosphere and we each got cool
glowing martinis that were delicious. We stood around drinking them
and listening to the music for awhile and then continued our walk to
WoC. We got distracted again though and stopped at the wine bar for
another beverage. I had a glass of white wine that was also delicious.
Finally, we made it to the viewing area, we handed over our Fast
Passes and headed inside. My dad hung back and went picked up some
quick service for all of us. I think he mainly brought Pizzas for us
to share. We ate and waited and then finally, it was time! I’d been
waiting to see this forever and was so excited! Here’s the pictures I
took of the show:

I LOVED IT!!! It was so amazing! I especially loved the pirates
section and the Wall-e part! It was definitely one of my all time
favorite nighttime Disney shows!

Now, you may think this was the end of our day… but, much to my DF’s
dismay, it was not. Instead, we made the trek back over to Disneyland.
We had planned to ride Space Mountain but even the Fast Pass line was
extremely backed up so I vetoed it and we headed to my all time
must-do last ride, Splash Mountain. I don’t like that you ride single
row on this version but it’s still one of my favorites! Finally, at
this point, it was time to call it a day. It was 11:00pm. We’d
officially been up for 20 hours , ran 13.1 miles, and spent 12 hours
in the parks. May have been the longest day ever! But, it was a blast!
We made our way out of the park and towards the tram. My parents and
DF headed for the car but my brother and I headed inside the World of
Disney store. I had to pick up the skirt for my Wine & Dine Half
costume! With that in hand, we to headed for the car. We made the 45
minute drive to my brother’s apartment and basically passed out. I’d
love to say we slept in the next day but rather, we were up early and
on our way to the airport. We flew from Burbank to Las Vegas, had a
short layover, and then made the 4 ½ hour flight back to Cleveland. We
headed to bed early and the next day were back to work…

However, just a mere 3 weeks later… I got to head back to Florida! Stay Tuned!

 

[pinkxray]

I just found your pre-TR and am so glad I did! I am determined to do the Princess Half in either 2013 or 2014 but we'll see how it works out.

I was also thinking about trying to do the coast to coast and doing the Tinkerbell but my DH hates everything Disney and it will be a stretch to get him to come down to FL for the Princess. I can't imagine him agreeing to come to CA a month before too. I know that some people go alone but I can't imagine doing something big like a Half marathon and not having DH and DD there cheering me on. (I am not a runner and just started doing 5ks)

I have to go back and catch up, but am looking foward to hearing all about upcoming races.

 

[20thingamabobs]

I just found your pre-TR and am so glad I did! I am determined to do the Princess Half in either 2013 or 2014 but we'll see how it works out.

I was also thinking about trying to do the coast to coast and doing the Tinkerbell but my DH hates everything Disney and it will be a stretch to get him to come down to FL for the Princess. I can't imagine him agreeing to come to CA a month before too. I know that some people go alone but I can't imagine doing something big like a Half marathon and not having DH and DD there cheering me on. (I am not a runner and just started doing 5ks)

I have to go back and catch up, but am looking foward to hearing all about upcoming races.

You should absolutely try one of the Disney races! They're so much fun! Also, I love my Coast to Coast medal and can't wait to get my 2012 one! But I will say, doing them a month apart is a struggle. I think in retrospect, I would do either Tinkerbell or the Princess in Jan/Feb and then do the Disneyland Half or Wine & Dine in Sept/Nov. I jammed all mine into the beginning of the year because I'm getting married in June and we're taking our honeymoon in August so I knew I couldn't do the Disneyland Half this year.

As far as not being a runner, you will be. It's addicting. This past half was my first time running one by myself and I was super nervous but I just kept running and enjoyed the atmosphere and it was great. I've also done the parks solo on days and have always enjoyed that time as well. I would just say to you that if going solo is your only option because your DF won't go, I wouldn't count it out. Or try and find a friend! When my DF said he was done running with me for awhile I recruited other people!

 

[20thingamabobs]

Disney’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon

This trip was a girls weekend! I talked my two college roommates into traveling to WDW with me to run the Wine & Dine half marathon. We registered on the day it opened and quickly set the planning into motion. We only wanted to take one day off work and make it as cheap as possible so here were the plans:

Dates: Sept 30 – Oct 2 (I ended up staying a day longer than them until Oct 3)
Where: Disney’s All Star Music (it was the only All Star resort I hadn’t tried yet)
Parks: Lauren wanted to do Animal Kingdom and Ali wanted to go to Epcot, that was it
Tickets: I had my Annual Pass so they each purchased a 2 day – 1 park base ticket

The Cast:

Me, Whitney. I’m assuming I don’t really need to introduce myself at this point.

Lauren, she was one of my roommates during my Junior, her Senior year. She’s 25 and has been to Disney a couple times and loves it.

Alison, she was my roommate for all four years of college. She’s 24 and has only been to Disney once before and well, I was wondered she wouldn’t quite “get it” if you know what I mean. But, I was pleasantly surprised at home much she loved it! here we are (Ali, Me, Lauren):

Ok, the trip.

Day 1: September 30, 2012

This day started really early for two of us. I met Lauren at the Pittsburgh airport for our 6:15am flight. We had a pleasantly uneventful flight down to Florida where we spent the entire time catching up and landed at 8:45am. I led the way to the Magical Express area where we were given Princess Minnie stickers and then led directly onto our bus! Here it was waiting for us and us on it:

About the time we were landing, Alison was taking off from one of the New York City airports but I can’t remember exactly which one.

Lauren and I arrived quickly to All Star Music and we headed in to the Online Check-in area. Since Ali lives in NYC I had requested the Broadway section of the hotel and this is where our room was and it was ready! Here it is:

Lauren and I headed over and dropped off our carry-ons and then turned back around and headed over to the Expo bus stop. We made a quick stop for a snack then waited outside for the bus. Here’s a picture tour of getting to packet pick-up:

We picked up our bibs and then I waited in line to pick up Alison’s as well. Then we headed over to the other area to pick up our goody bags and t-shirts. With all that in hand we headed for the event merchandise section. We got matching I Did It! T-shirt and I picked one up for Ali too. I also got a wine glass… I mean, you can’t run the wine & dine half marathon and not take home a wine glass!

So, with our goodies in hand, we headed back to our hotel. As we were checking out, Ali had texted me to say she was on the Magical Express so I figured it was good timing. She ended up getting there about 10 minutes before us so we found her sitting by the pool. We led her to our room so she could drop off her bags.

We spent a little time unpacking and freshening up. Here’s some pictures of our room, our costumes hanging up, and of course, our pillow pets (we use them for sleeping on the plane)!

Continued Next Post...

 

[20thingamabobs]

Finally, it was around noon and we were off to our first park! Epcot! Here’s us on the bus:

When we got there they had this finish line sign up:

It wasn’t the actual finish line but it was fun. We headed into the park:

First stop was fast passes for Test Track and then it was on to the food & wine festival. I realized after that I didn’t take pictures of any of the food and I can’t remember everything that we tried but I know we did the following:

Mexico: Ali had shrimp tacos and some frozen drink
China: Lauren and I had pot stickers
Germany: I had wine
Poland: we all had pierogies
Hops & Barley: Ali and I had a lobster roll
France: We all had a cosmo slushie

Here’s some pictures along the way:

(cosmo slushies give you a red tongue)

We finished our slushies as we made our way to Test Track. We took our car for a spin and they agreed that they liked the attraction!

We were all getting pretty tired by this point but we were killing time until our dinner reservation. I thought we’d be full from the food & wine festival but the portions are small and we really didn’t eat that much. So, to waste some time and get a break from the sun, we headed to Spaceship Earth. I think I may have actually fallen asleep briefly… but I woke up to help build our future:

Finally, it was time to head to dinner. Ali studied abroad in France during our Junior year so I knew we had to visit Les Chefs de France. I know Lauren and I had the beef shorts ribs but I can’t remember what Ali ordered. However, we did have a surprise visitor during dinner:

Towards the end of our meal, we decided we were all wiped out so we decided to call it a day.

We were back in our room by about 7:30pm. We spent the night watching tv and relaxing and eventually headed to bed around 9:30pm.

 

[disneygeeks]

I loved the world of color as well. did you guys get a good spot to watch and hopefully you didn't have to wait to long

 

[disneygeeks]

haven't had him on the tray b4 but does do or say anything while your eating?

 

[spiroff.natasha]

I just got caught up on the whole thread! (and enjoyed every minute of it )

I'm planning on running the Disneyland Half this September! It will be my first half so I'm pretty nervous but Disney makes everything better right?

Congratulations on your engagement as well

 

[Shannon84]

First of all, I am so sad we never got to meet up!! It took me sooo long at the expo, it was so packed when I got there that they were only letting in a few people at a time and had to wait until people left the building before they did...it was crazy!!

I can't wait to hear about the wine and dine and the January race!! I loved marathon weekend, I loved seeing all the runners and it was great weather out too!!

Ok back to your TR...I NEED to go to Disneyland, so badly!! I can't believe the TSM isn't packed like the one at WDW that is too funny!! I have watched the World of Color online and it looks AMAZING!! I can't believe you guys did all of that in one day after a race!!

I'm so glad your friends were enjoying Disney so far, can't beat a visit from Remy either!!

 

[20thingamabobs]

I loved the world of color as well. did you guys get a good spot to watch and hopefully you didn't have to wait to long

We did have a pretty good spot to watch. We used the Fast Pass option so we didn't really wait and there was only one person in front of us but I could still see everything! I LOVED it, can't say that enough!

haven't had him on the tray b4 but does do or say anything while your eating?

At Les Chefs de France they bring Remy around to visit the diners periodically during the day. He moves around and squeaks a little. The guy that pushes the try "interprets" him for you. So he says things like "happy birthday" or asked how your meal is in mouse talk. It's cute

I just got caught up on the whole thread! (and enjoyed every minute of it )

I'm planning on running the Disneyland Half this September! It will be my first half so I'm pretty nervous but Disney makes everything better right?

Congratulations on your engagement as well

Thank you! I'm so glad you've been enjoying my report so far! The Disneyland was my 2nd half and I really liked it. It was a fun course because you get to go through the parks and the Angels stadium which is neat. I have to admit though, I liked the Tinkerbell course better because it gives more park time! Either way, you'll have a blast! Disney is surely the best place to do you first half! There's tons of people there that are also doing their first and everyone is so nice and it's always so much fun!

First of all, I am so sad we never got to meet up!! It took me sooo long at the expo, it was so packed when I got there that they were only letting in a few people at a time and had to wait until people left the building before they did...it was crazy!!

I can't wait to hear about the wine and dine and the January race!! I loved marathon weekend, I loved seeing all the runners and it was great weather out too!!

Ok back to your TR...I NEED to go to Disneyland, so badly!! I can't believe the TSM isn't packed like the one at WDW that is too funny!! I have watched the World of Color online and it looks AMAZING!! I can't believe you guys did all of that in one day after a race!!

I'm so glad your friends were enjoying Disney so far, can't beat a visit from Remy either!!

Hey! I was so sad we didn't get to meet up too! The Expo wasn't too bad on Thursday but I know when I went on Friday last year and was exactly as you described... I had to wait in line to get in then like you did. But I'm glad you had fun and I tracked you so I got notified every so often and it looks like you did great! I hope you had a tone of fun and I can't wait to see pictures!

You should go to Disneyland. You should talk Tim into taking you next year for the Tinkerbell Half, it was such a fun race! And the lines are so much shorter! It blows my mind! You can get so much done in a day!

 

[20thingamabobs]

I dragged the girls out of bed bright and early the next morning so that we could head to the only other park on our agenda. I was ready first so I headed over and grabbed us some bagels for breakfast and then met the girls to catch the bus over to…

Animal Kingdom! They had this cute Mickey pumpkin out front because of the Halloween 5k that was held there that morning:

I’m glad I got this picture because by the time we left the park, they had removed it. First on the agenda was, of course, Everest! So we made our way to Asia:

There was no line so we walked right on and were ready to tackle the yeti:

Next up, we headed to Dinoland and hit up Dinosaur:

I was surprised that they both really enjoyed it. Next, we went and donned our honorary bug eyes to view It’s Tough to be a bug. I don’t like the bee sting so I always lean forward but I love when the bugs “exit” the theatre!

After exiting the tree of life, we decided to hit up the other main attraction (besides Everest) at AK and headed for a 2-week safari!

Here they are ready to go:

And here’s all the animals we spotted:

When our safari got cut short, I asked Lauren what else she wanted to see and she chose Festival of the Lion King so that’s where we went next:

When it was over, we decided to try to fight the Yeti one more time:

Monkey!

Continued Next Post...

 

[20thingamabobs]

Then, sadly, it was time to call our AK to an end but we did get a few Photopass pictures first:

We were all pretty hungry by this point so we headed for our lunch reservations at Kona Café. I don’t have any pictures from this section of the trip. But, while I was riding over to the Polynesian I was texting back and forth with Chris, my brother’s friend that’s an Imagineer. There was something I really wanted to do this day but I needed his help. So, after lunch, my friends and I took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. They only had base tickets that were used up so Chris used his Cast Member ID to give them access to Magic Kingdom. So, why did I want to go to Magic Kingdom so bad this day? Because it was THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY!!! All I wanted was a picture in front of the castle, so that’s what we did:

Now I can say I was there! Oh, and I got a special 40th Anniversary map and button. We didn’t do anything else; we just walked back out and headed back to our hotel. We spent the afternoon just resting in the room, waiting till it was time to get ready for the race!

 

[disneygeeks]

Love the pic of you 3 pointing down to stitch and it sucks in your last pic with other people in the way also taking pictures

 

[wakica]

I followed you over from another ptr i was reading. Glad i did! Your report on the EEC 5K was GREAT!! and so fun to read, especially b/c I got to see the proposal!!

Are you going to do a ptr for your next EEC in May?? I'm going - it'll be my first run along with my dd14 and we are so excited and eating up ALL the info we can on it.

 

[amazingact21]

Looks like you all had a great morning at AK. I love going to WDW with friends, it's just so much fun. And I'm very jealous that you walked on to an empty Everest! That's perfect!
Can't wait to hear about the race!

 

[20thingamabobs]

Love the pic of you 3 pointing down to stitch and it sucks in your last pic with other people in the way also taking pictures

yea, that's one of my favorite magic shots, it's always so cute! During Christmas time, they let you hold a fake package and then make it look like Stitch is jumping out which is really cute! It's also hard to get pics in front of the castle without other people in them but that day was especially hard because the park was PACKED do to it being the 40th anniversary.

I followed you over from another ptr i was reading. Glad i did! Your report on the EEC 5K was GREAT!! and so fun to read, especially b/c I got to see the proposal!!

Are you going to do a ptr for your next EEC in May?? I'm going - it'll be my first run along with my dd14 and we are so excited and eating up ALL the info we can on it.

Welcome! I've actually read most of your PTR too! I meant to post a couple times but I have trouble logging in at work sometimes and then by the time I got home I just didn't think about it... I'll have to hop over and be sure to comment! I'm so jealous of how long your trip is!

I will most likely do a PTR for EEC again but we're still ironing out some details because it will be far from a normal trip! But, I think you and your DD will love EEC, it's so much fun and one of my favorite races! Even my DF says he really enjoyed it and he's not as into Disney and the running as I am.

Looks like you all had a great morning at AK. I love going to WDW with friends, it's just so much fun. And I'm very jealous that you walked on to an empty Everest! That's perfect!
Can't wait to hear about the race!

This was my first time traveling with friends and I was nervous but it was actually a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again! I always like heading to Everest early in the morning because it's so easy to walk on! We usually ride more than once!

 

[20thingamabobs]

It’s been a crazy start to 2012! In the first 5 weeks of the year, I’ve already made 3 trips to the Disney parks! We took my Grandparents on their first trip to Disneyland while we were in California seeing the Rose Bowl parade and we flew directly from there to Orlando for the Walt Disney World Half Marathon weekend. I’m going to do a small TR on this so I’ll give more details later.

Three weeks later, we turned back around and headed back out to California where I earned not only my first TinkerBell Wings Medal but my Neverland 5k medal and my second Coast to Coast medal!

Now, I’m nearing yet another trip. Less than 2 weeks from now and just a mere 3 1/2 weeks after my Tinkerbell Half trip, I’ll be heading back to Florida to run my first Princess Half Marathon! Since I have some time, I’m going to give you a small PTR of our plans.

The Cast:

Me! No need to introduce I assume.

My Mom. Once again, probably no reason to introduce her.

My cousin, Breanne. Who is also going to be my Matron of Honor this summer! She’s 25 also, in fact, just 5 weeks older than I am. She’s been to Disney a few times but this will be are first time traveling there together since we were about 5 years old. It’s been awhile since she’s been there so it’ll be fun to see which parks/attractions she likes best. Picture in a moment.

My Aunt, Jill. She’s Breanne’s mom and we’re making a full on girls/mother-daughter weekend of it! She’s a high school teacher and is looking forward to getting out of the classroom for some fun in the sun to cheer us on. Here she is (left) with my cousin (right) at Breanne's wedding this past summer, I was her Maid of Honor!:

The Details!

Dates: Thursday, Feb 23 – Sunday, Feb 26

Location: Since we’re running the Princess Half Marathon, I had decided that the absolute perfect place that we just had to stay at was Port Orleans – Riverside in a new Princess Royal Guest Room! So, I booked that using my Annual Pass discount and was very excited!

Well, when I was in Disney back in January, my phone rang and when I answered it, it was a Disney representative. The very nice CM explained to me that, as is sometimes the case, projects such as the renovation of the Princess Rooms have unexpected details and that, unfortunately, the Princess Rooms would not be ready by the time of our vacation. I was extremely bummed until… she then proceeded to tell me that as compensation for our trouble, Disney would like to offer us a free upgrade to an Deluxe hotel (assuming it was available).

Um, could you repeat that? A FREE upgrade? Yes, Please.

She asked which hotel I would like to look into first and I didn’t know what to say. So many things went through my head. At first, I thought Grand floridian just because it's the GF but then I started to think logically about the trip. So, I explained that we were coming for the race and would need a Host Resort for transportation. She checked which resorts were Hosts and came back and said that they had availability at the Beach Club. Okay, I’ll take it! Part of me considered going back to the Polynesian because I love it and it’s on the monorail but I’ve never stayed at the Beach Club so I stuck with it! I couldn’t be more excited!

Thursday, Feb. 23:

The day will start like most others. I'll head to work at 9:00am and leave a little early around 3:30pm. I'll make the 2 hour drive to meet my Mom, Aunt, and Breanne at the airport. We have a nonstop flight that departs at 7:25pm and is scheduled to land in Orlando/Sanford at 9:45pm. Since we're not flying into Orlando International, we'll head down and pick up our luggage before picking our rental car and making the 1 hour drive to the Beach Club. I'm sure we'll all be very tired by this point and head straight to bed to get ready for our first park day!