Second Star to the Right and Straight on ‘til the 2017 Pixie Dust Challenge*COMPLETE

[ZellyB]

Hi and welcome to my trip report about our first trip to Disneyland in over 12 years and our first ever runDisney race in California - The Tinkerbell Pixie Dust Challenge!

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First, let me introduce the cast – it’s a small one. Just me, Gisele, and my husband, Chris ( @Chris-Mo ). That’s us right there during the Disney Marathon in Florida this past January. (Hint - Joy and Sadness are basically our spirit animals - guess who belongs to who)

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Our love for Disney and racing came later in life - We took our kids to WDW for the first time way back in ’07 and then again a few years later. Back in 2012, I took up long distance running using the Jeff Galloway Run-Walk-Run method and I’ve been at it ever since. During that first training year a running friend clued me into runDisney and after running our first marathon in 2013, we’ve been hooked. We've got three kiddos and 2 dogs and a cat (and another puppy on the way) - so life is full and hectic, but as a little Mother's Day gift to me, I actually left all of it behind (including my kiddos) for this special weekend away with my sweetie.

We’ve done several race weekends in Florida including 4 marathon weekends and a less than ideal Wine and Dine weekend (storms cut the race short), but never attempted a race in California. But, this year that all changed with the lure of the 10th anniversary of the Coast to Coast medal, we signed up for the Tinkerbell Pixie Dust Challenge. That includes a 10K race on Saturday (MEDAL), a Half-Marathon on Sunday (MEDAL) completion of the Challenge (MEDAL) and the Coast to Coast (MEDAL) for completing at least a half-marathon on both coasts in the same calendar year. Booyah!!! #allthemedals

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But, before we get there, we’ve got some ground to cover…

We spend our non-Disney lives in Missouri. For the sake of a cheaper flight (and non-stop), we opted to fly out from Kansas City which is about a 3 hour drive from our hometown. We both took off half a day on Wednesday and after wrapping up our packing, we were ready to load up for the trip.

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Yep, that’s one checked bag and my backpack/purse. If that puppy doesn’t make it to Anaheim, we’re in trouble. I’m usually cautious and take a carry-on in case the checked bag doesn’t make it, but the freedom of not worrying about carry on was too tempting. I also discovered the joy of packing cubes.

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Now as long as we don’t exceed 50lbs we are all set.

After a farewell to our kiddos and pets, we headed out for Kansas City. I took the opportunity of having Chris as a captive audience to share all my best-laid plans. I'm a bit crazy about it, so I was armed with my travel portfolio of documents organized by date as well as my official Disneyland guidebook. Chris was enchanted. I'm fairly sure it's my obsessive planning nature that really sealed the deal for him back when we were dating...or not.

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Within a few hours we were driving by downtown Kansas City

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– and approaching our Comfort Inn hotel near the airport. This was a serviceable hotel and the price was reasonable, so worked for us!

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A quick meal at the local Outback Steakhouse and we were tucked in bed and ready for our early wake up call.


Next up: California here we come!!

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[MommaoffherRocker]

I'm in! I can't wait to read all about it

 

[rteetz]

I'm here and can't wait to hear all about! Your TRs are always great!

 

[baxter24]

Following along!

 

[pixarmom]

Love this! Excited to read the rest! And especially appreciate the little plastic folder you use for your plans - that's exactly what I use! I have a million of them. And index cards. Love index cards. Our older boys grew tired of the details so I started creating a less detailed itinerary for them. But my little plastic folders remain.

 

[run.minnie.miles]

Yay! SO excited to read along! Love the organization- girl after my own heart!

 

[CherieFran]

Woohoo - RunDisney trip reports are the best trip reports! Can't wait to read about your weekend.

 

[Sailormoon2]

Chris was enchanted

Yes, I'm sure all our husband's think we're "enchanting" when we obsess over Disney!

 

[SarahDisney]

I'm here (my first time reading one of your TRs, I think) and excited to hear all about the trip & races.

Also ... I love that you have a portfolio with everything organized by date. That's awesome!! (I tried to do that with a binder one trip and I'm pretty sure my sister wanted to disown me)

 

[girliea]

I'm here! Loved all the FB pics and can't wait to read more!

 

[JulieODC]

Joining in!! Can't wait to hear all the details of your trip!

I so appreciate your planning style. I didn't do my usual level of planning for our Tink trip and while we had a great kid-free time (woohoo!) - I wish I'd done a tiny bit more planning!

 

[FredtheDuck]

Following along!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Yay!! Can't wait to follow along!

 

[roxymama]

Present!

 

[cavepig]

I'm running out of Dark Side recaps to read so it will be fun reading about your Tink experience!

 

[Anisum]

I'm here for this. I love how neat your packing looks with your cubes!

 

[ZellyB]

Off to LaLa Land​

We had an early flight out of Kansas City on Thursday, so the alarm went off around 4:00 AM. Ugh. This would become a theme for this little “vacation” of ours.

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Luckily we are normal early risers most of the time anyway, so it wasn’t too difficult to get ourselves up and around. I’d deliberately picked this early flight because with the time change, we would get to California in time for a nearly full day at the parks. YAY!!

The drive over to the airport was quick and easy and we were checking in with our bag (48 lbs, thank you very much!) and settled into the gate to await boarding. Selfie gate pic.

We’d both packed some sweatshirts knowing the forecast for Anaheim was sunny but with some cooler evenings, unfortunately we didn’t check on which sweatshirts each were bringing, so we had some unintentional sweatshirt twinning going on.

We got loaded and headed out pretty much on time and had a nice, easy flight into California. We arrived a bit early and headed down to baggage claim. One thing I really like about the Delta app is that I get a notice from them when our bag gets loaded onto the flight and also when it arrives. No sooner did I get the alert then the bag appeared on the belt. PHEW!!

Around that same moment, I got a notice from ExecuCar that our driver was waiting in the holding lot and to give him a call for the pick-up. I had splurged on getting a private car rather than a shuttle since our flight and hotel was paid for with credit card points. I was really pleased with the service and would recommend it if you ever want to splurge for a private car. The car itself was nothing fancy, but the drivers were nice and communication was good. Traffic was very manageable since we could use the commuter lanes and we were pulling into the hotel in about 45 minutes from the time we left the airport. Residence Inn at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Ahhhh! Palm trees!!!!

This was a really nice hotel. Quite new and very modern looking. We checked in at the front desk and I expected to just have to leave our bags, but as it turned out, they had a room available if we were okay with the first floor. Worked for us!! It was a nice king bed room with a small kitchen and seating area. It was a really nice room and with a very modern vibe and big bathroom. No complaints!!

They were still even serving breakfast, so we had a nice hot buffet breakfast before finally leaving the hotel and making our first walk to the park. It finally felt like vacation!!!

Since I'm talking about the hotel, I will say for any body considering this hotel, it was a pretty good walk to get to the parks. At first it was fine, but by the time we'd walked it several times, we were wishing we were a bit closer to the parks. I'd say it took us around 20 minutes or so to get to the parks and that was with us moving at a pretty good pace. Additionally, they are doing an expansion to the convention center and so there's a fair amount of construction noise going on right now too (and our window faced the construction). Again, we were up really early every day, so no problem for us, but it would be something to consider as well at least until the construction is done.

They did also have a beautiful pool and hot tub area up on the 6th floor that we looked at one evening. It was a little cool for us to use it, but it was really nice and had a beautiful view!

Next up: Exploring the uniqueness of Disneyland

 

[ZellyB]

I'm in! I can't wait to read all about it

Yay! Thanks for joining.

I'm here and can't wait to hear all about! Your TRs are always great!

Thanks! Glad you are here.

Following along!

Welcome!

Love this! Excited to read the rest! And especially appreciate the little plastic folder you use for your plans - that's exactly what I use! I have a million of them. And index cards. Love index cards. Our older boys grew tired of the details so I started creating a less detailed itinerary for them. But my little plastic folders remain.

Really, those little plastic folders just make me happy. Index cards are the best!! Glad you joined in.

Yay! SO excited to read along! Love the organization- girl after my own heart!

Chris gives me a hard time about it, but he actually does appreciate all my planning.

Woohoo - RunDisney trip reports are the best trip reports! Can't wait to read about your weekend.

They really are, aren't they? Happy you are here.

Yes, I'm sure all our husband's think we're "enchanting" when we obsess over Disney!

Well, my name is Gisele, so how could he be anything but enchanted?

I'm here (my first time reading one of your TRs, I think) and excited to hear all about the trip & races.

Also ... I love that you have a portfolio with everything organized by date. That's awesome!! (I tried to do that with a binder one trip and I'm pretty sure my sister wanted to disown me)

So happy to have you along. I've beaten my husband (and kids) into submission when it comes to my planning requirements. LOL

I'm here! Loved all the FB pics and can't wait to read more!

Good to see you here!

Joining in!! Can't wait to hear all the details of your trip!

I so appreciate your planning style. I didn't do my usual level of planning for our Tink trip and while we had a great kid-free time (woohoo!) - I wish I'd done a tiny bit more planning!

Believe it or not, I actually didn't get quite as obsessive this time planning either - although I couldn't help myself about some of it.

Following along!

Happy you are along for the ride.

Yay!! Can't wait to follow along!

Welcome to the thread.

Present!

Hey there, half-marathoner!!

I'm running out of Dark Side recaps to read so it will be fun reading about your Tink experience!

I'm behind on my Dark Side recap reading myself, so need to get caught up on all of them. Glad to see you here.

I'm here for this. I love how neat your packing looks with your cubes!

Yay! Those packing cubes are the bomb!

 

[rteetz]

Looks like a nice and easy travel day! That app/bag notification sounds cool. I always fly southwest so not used to those types of things.

The room looks really nice!

 

[pucknasty]

Kudos to your for running these races! Following along!