Surviving Disney & the 1/2 Marathon (Jan 09) - Our 1st Trip Report!

[amreli]

So, we left off with our race check-in and now it was time to get on with our day!

Our plan for the afternoon was to hit DisneyQuest at DH’s request and World of Disney for some shopping finally! The whole week we had been browsing and stopping ourselves from buying because of the Disney Visa discount at World of Disney. Anyway…

We left the wide world of sports and drove over to Downtown Disney. None of us had been here before either. When we were here in 2001, we had plans to check out DisneyQuest, but we were so busy that we never made it. I read on the boards that DisneyQuest is a 10 year old boys paradise, but my DH is still like a 10 year boy when it comes to video games! He was really looking forward to this place, especially the old "classic" games.

When we got there, we headed straight to DisneyQuest. We went in, scanned our cards, and rode the elevator up a few floors. Mia and I are not big video game people, but DH loves them. I don't play video games. When I was younger, I'd play Splunker or Adventure Island on the original Nintendo but that was it. There were a few things we wanted to try though, specifically the create your own roller coaster game. Yeah, this sounded interesting. When we got there, we were surprised to find the place practically empty. We basically had our run of the place.

We did this a few different times and honestly, it was pretty tame. It looked pretty neat, but just didn’t live up to the potential. No, there was no "trill factor" to it...even the scariest roller coaster that we could create was not scary at all! And we definitely tried to make it scary, picking all of the highest "thrill" things that they had.

After the coaster riding, Mia and I attempted to join the drawing class, but it was already in progress and the teacher let us know that – quite loudly I might add. The instructor was very rude. We apologized and left and I just messed around with some design a scene thing in the middle of the room. After playing around with that, the three of us headed into the create-a-song booth. We have video of this, but I definitely will not be uploading it. Our song was called “My Dog Gets More Dates Than I Do”. Our song was really bad and our singing was even worse. It was not good!

We explored some more after this and ended up doing some river raft ride, which was pretty neat. I think we all liked this one pretty well. After that, we did the Pirates of the Caribbean thing, which was really cool. DH drove the boat, while Mia and I sunk all the ships. Fun times.

Next we headed to Aladdin’s carpet ride. Um, this is where it all went downhill. Those virtual reality things make you dizzy and sick. Pretty quickly after it started, I see Mia walking out. In this ride, you're on this seat and put a helmet on where you "see" the game. I guess this was too much for my system because I started getting really dizzy and queasy so I just took the helmet off and left the game. Not long after, I got off my stool and joined her. I just got too dizzy. I know it gave her a horrible headache and when DH finally finished, we decided to go off in search of a drink for her. While we went to the café and sat down so she could have a break, DH went off on his own to play games.

After a short break, Mia and I headed to the drawing class (we were early this time!) and learned how to draw Minnie.

My Minnie.

Mia’s Minnie.

The one thing I hated about DisneyQuest is that you have to buy everything you do. Want a printout of your drawing? It’ll cost you. Want a recording of your song? I’ll cost you. Want a video of your roller coaster ride? It’ll cost you. And so on. They really milk you here. Well, not us since we didn’t buy anything.

The drawing class was fun, though not as fun as Animation Academy.

When we finished, we went off in search of DH, which proved to be quite the feat. He had found the "classic" games section and did not want to leave. However, the human pinball game was enticing, so he agreed to leave the room if I’d do it with him. He won.

At this point, it was starting to get late and Mia and I wanted to hit World of Disney (Finally!!! We get to SHOP!!!) before heading to MK for our ADR at Crystal Palace. DH, however, did not want to leave, but he ended up doing so reluctantly. I said we’d try to make it back there the next day or Saturday, but alas, we never did make it back.

So, we left DisneyQuest and began the walk around DTD, just soaking everything in and taking pics.

Coming Up:
Day 6: Shopping & Piloting

 

[amreli]

So, we finally drag DH out of DisneyQuest and began our trek to World of Disney, taking pics along the way.

The Lego doggies.

DH and Mia with the Lego dragon.

We finally made it to World of Disney and went to town.

I will say first that it’s a big store, but I had built it up in my head and was expecting it to be so much bigger. We wondered around for awhile, but all ended up buying stuff. I ended up getting 3 super cute mickey’s head snowflake ornaments (after accidentally breaking one near the register ).

This what the ornaments look like. I got the red, blue, and a gold one as well. I don't have a pic of them, so I stole this one off ebay for illustration purposes. They're so cute!

In addition to the ornaments, I got the Wishes soundtrack, green bags (best purchase ever since I use them all the time for shopping now), some gifts for other people, and DH got a tshirt. I think that’s it.

Mia, from what I can remember, got some gifts, plus a really cute frame for herself, and some green bags. I don’t think she got anything else, but I can’t remember. I got a Mickey Christmas Ornament. I decided that it'll be a new "tradition" for me...get an ornament everytime I come to Disney. Oh yeah! I remember that now!

We checked out and sent our stuff back to the resort. That was really handy...shop and then get things sent back to the hotel so we didn't have to carry all the bags around. At this point, it was getting close to our ADR time, so we called Donald and Pooh to see where they were. They were already at MK and were riding some rides. We asked them to pick us up some FP for Space Mountain, since we had not ridden it yet this trip and would not have time to grab a FP before we had to check in for our ADR. They weren’t thrilled at our request because they wanted to go to Fantasyland to see Philarmagic again and SM was out of the way. We ended up telling them not to worry about it, but were pleasantly surprised when we met up at Crystal Palace and they handed us our FP!

Ok, so while I was on the phone, DH kept directing me over to see something. I couldn’t figure out what he was doing until I looked up where some kids were pointing and laughing. He was trying to make us get wet from some Stitch thing that was spitting out water. He’s too kind!

We got a few more pics (see, I’m still on the phone!)

Actually, I think we took that pic and then he was trying to get me wet with the stitch thing. Not that it matters or anything.

At this point, we really needed to get going. We hadn’t been able to see all the stores, so we planned to leave the car, take the bus to the Contemporary, hop the monorail to the MK, and then come back to DTD the same way later.

So, we finally got on the bus and got to Contemporary. When we got on the monorail, we asked if we could sit up front and it was open! So, we got to be ‘pilots’ on our way to MK. I can’t remember the driver’s name that day, but he was super nice and even let me sit in his seat.

Mia’s just chilling out before we left the station.

DH and I.

I’m in control!

When we got off, he gave us our Pilot’s License and we headed in MK and over to Crystal Palace.

Coming Up:
Day 6: A Rumbly in our Tumbly

 

[amreli]

So when we left off, we had just finished piloting the monorail to the MK and got everyone there safely. We didn’t have much time to do anything before our ADR, so we walked down main street and headed straight to Crystal Palace.

We checked in at Crystal Palace (yay, Pooh time! ), but there was a short wait.

We stood around outside with the crowds just taking pictures and chatting. Donald and Pooh were not getting along particularly well this evening and were both kind of grumpy. I was not happy because Pooh and Donald had made a big deal about them getting us FP for SM. They made it seem like it was A LOT of hassle and a bother...I did not appreciate their attitude!

Don’t they all look cheery?

Pretty Castle.

Pretty grounds.

Soon our names were called and we headed in.

Me in Crystal Palace.

We sat down and were seated on the edge near the buffet. Once again Donald complained about our table. He didn't like the fact that it was small and we were at the edge of the dining area and were in the middle. We finally convinced him that the table was going to be okay. At this point, things went downhill for Donald and Pooh. I’m not sure what exactly happened, but somehow they got into a fight and Pooh almost left and went back to the hotel. They calmed down though and we had a pleasant enough dinner I guess. The food was much better than I remembered from our last visit, though we did lunch here last time. We got some pics with a few characters (except for Tiger, who skipped over us!) and chuckled at the kids doing their “parade” around the restaurant.

I didn't think the character interaction was all that good here. I thought 1900 Park Fare was better. It seemed that the characters would walk by you with no interaction...maybe because we didn't have any "kids" with us? And they seemed to take a lot of "breaks"! I agree with this. When DH and I were here last, we had great character interaction. This time the characters pretty much walked by us unless we jumped up and practically assaulted them for a pic. I guess it's because we had no small children with us. Don't they realize that adults love them too??? At least we got some pics though. Needless to say, this dinner was kind of a bust with the grumpiness and bad character interaction. Oh well.

DH and I with Piglet.

Mia with Eyeore.

DH and I with Pooh.

After dinner, we had planned on watching Spectro and then Wishes, but decided to skip Spectro since we'd be back to MK on Sat night. Pooh had left immediately after dinner and Donald went off after her, so since we had a bit of time before Wishes the three of us headed to Pirates. We figured we’d have enough time for at least that and Space.

First, we had to get a quick photopass pic.

Anyway, we headed over to Pirates and there was no line, so we had fun goofing around as we walked to the loading area.

Mia, in jail in Pirates.

When we got on, we had an entire boat to ourselves. Fun! Here’s our self-portrait on the ride.

After the ride, DH decided that he just had to have a Pirates t-shirt. We spent forever, or so it seemed, picking one out. Finally, I told him that we were running out of time, so he made a decision and we left. Here he is in front of the pirates sign with the new t-shirt on top of his other one.

Then we headed to Tomorrowland. We still had our FP, but didn’t have much time before Wishes, which was a must see. DH hadn’t seen it yet and I couldn’t wait for him to see it with me. So, we ran over to Tomorrowland.

We made it to Space and wouldn’t you know there was a long line for FP. We were pretty nervous we were going to miss Wishes at this point, but the line started to move quickly and we were soon flying through space. It's been years since I've been on Space, but I thought it used to be a lot darker than it is to the point where you really feel like you're in space and can't see the tracks. It was pretty light in there though. Unfortunately, this ride is definitely ready for an update and for now, Everest has replaced Space as my fave. Oh, I did find a quarter in my seat when I got in though!

I don't remember much of this ride. I had to go to the bathroom very urgently but because I knew we were on a time crunch, we didn't stop for a bathroom break. When I sat in the ride seat and the bars came down and it rested on my stomach, it was not good. All I could think throughout this ride was "please let it be over". And I was really looking forward to this ride too because I didn't remember all that much of it from my previous trip years ago.

When we got off, we booked it over to the bridge to Tomorrowland (still with no bathroom break) and grabbed a spot for Wishes. DH decided at that point that he needed to use the restroom with just 5 min before it was supposed to start. I was worried he’d miss the beginning, but he made it back and we watched. I didn't go with him because I didn't want to miss Wishes and since it was so crowded, I needed to be there to help hold our position! I didn't realize you needed to go so badly!

Wishes,
Dream a dream.
Wishes,
Set it free.
Wishes,
Trust your heart.
Just believe. Oh, believe.

If you remember back to our first night, Mia and I saw Wishes for the first time and absolutely loved it. It was just magical and I couldn’t wait to watch with DH. I loved it even more the second time and when it was over, I looked to DH and asked what he though. His response? It was ok. WHAT?!?!?! I don’t know if it’s just him or men in general, but they just don’t get it. I'm sitting there teary eyed, making wishes, dreaming dreams, and he's like 'Oh, it's fireworks.'. Sigh.

After Wishes, we battled the crowds and crazy strollers and headed out of the park.

We made a quick stop on our way out to get a pic with Roy and Minnie though.

And before we left the gates, we finally took a bathroom break! Thank God!

Coming Up:
Day 6: Shopping, Shopping, and more Shopping!

 

[Disney4nonah]

Love your TR, love it even more becasue we'll be going in January 2010 and I needed some clue on the weather, looks like i have nothing to worry about!
I hope the Space Mountain update works and it's a glorious ride, WISH WISH..
need more, need more, please dont' leave me hanging. LOL

 

[amreli]

Love your TR, love it even more becasue we'll be going in January 2010 and I needed some clue on the weather, looks like i have nothing to worry about@
I hope the Space Mountain update works and it's a glorious ride, WISH WISH..
need more, need more, please dont' leave me hanging. LOL

Hi! Thanks for reading!

I've read that Jan can be hit or miss. This Jan we definitely hit because it the weather was awesome. Seriously. Shorts and t-shirt weather every day. Water park weather. We only had one semi-cool day and that was in the 70's! Back in 2004 I was there in Jan as well though and we had some really, really cold weather where I wished I had a heavier coat, but then the next day it was beautiful! I'm sure you'll have a wonderful trip!!

I see you have a TR from last month. I'll have to go check it out.

 

[amreli]

So, where were we.

Ah yes, we had finished Wishes, stopped for a pic with Walt and were headed out. The crowds were insane and we were linked holding onto each other's bags so that we could stay together on the way out. DH (and apparently Mia ) had to go to the bathroom. We finally got out of the gates and headed to the restroom for a quick bathroom break. It was really cute listening to the kids outside telling their parents stories of their Disney adventures that day. There was this one pitiful little girl just so upset that she had lost the new bracelet her parents had bought her that day. It was sad, but so cute.

The monorail ramps were jam-packed, so we opted to walk the 5 minutes over to the Contemporary where we would hop on a bus back to DTD. I think Mia and I hummed the Wishes music the entire walk over.

When we got there, a bus pulled up and started loading, but there were so many people that filled up quickly. We had to wait another 20-30 minutes for another one to get there, which was so frustrating. It had been such a long day already and I was not feeling quite so patient.

DH at the bus stop at the Contemporary heading to DTD.

Finally the bus showed up though and we were on our way!

When we got to DTD, we saw the cute Happy Holidays display still up, so we got some pics.

Our first stop was the Christmas store , where I got DH this sorcerer Mickey ornament he had wanted, but I had previously vetoed as my tree is all snowflake variations. I had them wrap it up right away and gave it to him later as a surprise. He’s not a Disney guy, but he did really like the ornament and he does like Goofy stuff.

When we left, we walked around the Rainforest Café and saw the parrots, then headed into our main destination: Goofy’s Candy Co.

We had been looking forward to this place for months!

I don’t remember exactly what we got topping wise, but we each got 2 things and had fun picking it all out. I did the 3 pretzel sticks and the marshmallows. DH did the oreo and I can't remember what else. I did a rice crispy snack along with the marshmallows.

One of DH’s concoctions. I can’t remember what this is. I'm guessing the oreo.

Mia’s marshmallows.

YUM! We took these back with us and ate on them for the next couple of days. YUM! They were sooo good and it was very fun too! We used our snack credits for these...but if you were paying OOP, I didn't think the prices were unreasonable.

While they were making our treats, we picked out some gifts for my mom as a thank you for watching the dogs and played in front of the goofy mirrors.

DH and I posing in the funny mirrors in Goofy’s Candy Co. I think that was me and DB...notice the khaki colored purse? Yeah, you're right! I think you guys were actually goofing off in front of them before I even ended up over there.

When we finally left, we just walked from store to store.

DH and I outside of the Pooh Store.

DH loved the ESPN store (if that’s what it’s called) as well and ended up getting some Steelers stuff there. He’s a huge fan and loved browsing in that place. I, on the other hand, was ready to move on within minutes. I was ready to go to...it had been a long day and my feet were really tired.

We made a stop in the new T-Rex restaurant per DH’s request.

At this point we had gone in pretty much every store and were really tired, so we headed back to car and back to the hotel. It was another long day and we were ready for bed.

Coming Up:
Day 7: Aloha!

 

[amreli]

After a late night the night before, we decided to skip our breakfast ADR’s at Kona Café this morning and sleep in a little extra bit. I had really wanted to try the Tonga toast though, so we were up and out of the room headed to the Poly to eat Tonga toast from Captain Cook’s. We took the bus to MK, then the monorail to the Polynesian.

This was my first time visiting the Polynesian (other than the drive by’s that the monorail’s do, haha). It was so beautiful! It was very lush and very green! But it seemed like it be easy to get turned around and lost in with how the hotel and the individual buildings were laid out.

Here’s Mia posing.

Mia and I have already decided to spend the 2 nights before the race next time here. It’ll be so worth it to be on the monorail route after our bus experience after the race this last time (you’ll see what I mean in an upcoming chapter). Plus, since we’ll only be on property for those two nights (planning on a Disney cruise immediately after the race), we figured we’d splurge.

So anyway, we wondered around the Polynesian and then found Captain Cook’s. It was weird ordering on the touch screens, then getting in line to pay and took us a few minutes to figure out. Once we finished paying (using up those counter credits!), Mia and DH went to find a table for us while I waited for our order.

One thing that I think is really stupid with using counter credits for breakfast is that they give you 2 drinks. I guess it’s because you don’t have a dessert like you do at lunch or dinner, but it makes no sense to me. We ended up with 2 chocolate milks, 1 orange juice, and 3 waters. Mia and I each already had a bottle of water in our bags from the hotel room, so by the time we left to head to Epcot, I was carrying like 4 bottles in my bag and I think Mia had 2 or 3. It was insane. I think I would have preferred to get a dessert like a rice crispy treat or granola bar or something and be able to take that in my bag for a snack for later instead of all the extra drinks. Anyway.. I’ll continue on.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, though it was probably only 5-10 minutes, our order was finally ready. DH (or Mia, I can’t remember which), had come back in to help me bring things out. They had found a table outside by the pool and it was just so pretty out there. The weather was beautiful and we had a great view of the castle. I can’t wait to stay there and be able to see the castle while we swim!! It was lovely out by the pool!

We all dug into our Tonga Toast and while it was good, it was a major sugar overload. I swear I could literally feel the sugar just pumping through my veins. And it was huge too. I think it would have been a better idea to have split one order looking back. I’m glad I tried it though. I'm not much into toast/pancake/waffle things for breakfast...so I wasn't completely sure I wanted the Tonga Toast. But after reading so much about them on the Dis, I decided that I needed to try them. They were good! But I think I'll try something else the next time.

There were cute ducks wondering around our table hoping for some crumbs.

After we finished eating, we dumped our trash and walked around looking for the way out (after a quick bathroom detour that is). We went up to the monorail, not sure how we should go about getting to Epcot. After talking with a CM there though, he advised us to walk to the TTC and take the monorail from there to Epcot. So, that’s what we did.

I think I expected to be a super short walk and while it was pretty close, it still seemed kind of far. We got on the monorail and headed to Epcot. During this walk, I was completely lost on what we were doing. I kept asking Amreli why we're walking and where we're walking to. For some reason, I thought we were walking to Epcot and I kept thinking to myself that that would be too far of a walk...and so I kept asking Amreli where we were going. I think she was in a sugar coma from the Tonga Toast!

Coming Up:
Day 7: We're Soarin' - Part 1

 

[amreli]

So, we finally made it to Epcot via the monorail from the Poly. We had missed rope drop at 9 and were on a mission to ride Soarin’ for the first time. I think it was around 10 or so when we finally got there and we booked it through the bag check, planning on a fast walk to Soarin’. All those water bottles and chocolate milks in my bag were dragging me though, so Mia, our wonderful FP runner, ran up ahead and got us FP’s. I ran ahead to get the fastpasses because I saw a HUGE touring group in yellow, heading that way...so I decided to get there before them to get the FP's before they ran out. (I forgot about that! We saw those huge tour groups everywhere on our trip!) When we caught up to her (after DH started peeking into Innoventions), we saw that the standby time was only 20 minutes or so, so we decided to go ahead and ride it then as well.

Heading through the line getting ready to board our flight.

This first time around we were in the last row of the middle set of seats and were to the right side of the row. While we LOVED the ride, the feet dangling in our view were a little distracting and somewhat took away from the ride. The other complaint I have about this ride is that the movie has so many dead spots in the video. It seems like they should have a high definition version that’s so much clearer which would make it truly amazing. It would also be cool to have water splash you when you’re over the ocean. And.. well, I could come up more, but we loved it even the way it was. I enjoyed the ride...but they could make this sooo much better!

After we finished soarin' over California, we saw that there was only a 5 minute wait at Living with the Land. Or is this ride always just a 5 minute wait? We took a little boat ride through the land and it was quite relaxing.

Love those pumpkins that are earning their ears.

After we disembarked, we headed out into the bright sunshine and decided to take a trip to the Seas with Nemo and his friends.

This line took forever to walk through. I’ve read some summer time TR’s where the line for this ride was out the door and seriously, I don’t know how they had the patience to wait that long. Our line was short time wise, but wow it seemed like a long queue if it had all been open.
We loaded up into our clamshells. Mia got in one and DH and I in another.

DH has always liked the seas part of Epcot because he loves aquariums. He didn’t really remember it from 2001 (the last time he was there) and back then it didn’t have Nemo and friends as part of it either. So, we’re slowly moving through and Nemo appears. After awhile, DH looks at me and asks where the real fish are and is the entire ride a cartoon in the water. It was so much funnier than writing it down sounds. I liked having Nemo on the ride!

If I remember correctly, I think the ride broke down while we were in our clamshells and the ride didn't move for sometime at the end. Yeah, I forgot about that too. It stopped on us and we just sat there for awhile.

The ride finally ended and we were all less than impressed. It was relaxing at least.

We checked out the manatees. How sad for the poor guy who lost his fin to a boat motor.

Then we checked out the various aquariums and saw Dori and the jellyfish and well, fish.

We were going to go see Turtle Talk with Crush, but decided to skip it because it was kind of busy. I wish we had gone to this...it sounds like it would be so much fun. But for some reason, it felt like we were running out of time really fast.

When we finally left, we debated what else we wanted to do. We had originally put together our "touring plan" of Epcot, we had pretty much every single ride on it. At that point though, we started crossing things off fast. We skipped everything in the imagination pavilion and decided to skip on Mission Space (DH and Mia had not done this one, but I have and though it was just ok).

We wanted to do Test Track though and our FP time was up, so we headed over there to get a FP. DH and Mia sat down to rest for a few minutes while I got in line to get the FP’s. We would have ridden it at the same time as well, but the wait was over an hour. Instead, we headed over to Spaceship Earth, which had just re-opened after being closed for the first part of the morning.

Even though it had just re-opened, the line was already long outside. We were stopped by so many people in line (and throughout this trip) as it snaked around asking about our lanyards. Before the trip, we were on the lookout for lanyards that had a zippered pocket, but a clear section in front for our KTTW cards. I ended up finding some really, really cute ones on ebay and ordered one for everyone. They were only $5 each, which was a plus as well because all of the other Disney themed ones we had seen online were like $12-$15.

It was also funny in this line because DH was wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers shirt (his favorite team) this day. There was a guy that we kept passing each time we snaked in a new direction and every single time we passed him, he’s say something about the shirt. The first time he was thrilled to find another Pennsylvanian. Now, we live in SC and have never lived in PA. Funny how they assume that just because you have a Pittsburgh shirt that you’re from PA. Each other time we passed him he’d just cheer for the Steelers. It was funny and gave us a laugh each time.

Finally, we boarded and had a relaxing ride. This was our first time with the new changes at the end and we had a lot of fun with that.

Mia’s enjoying it. Do you see those sunglasses? Well, enjoy them because later in the day, I lost them! I still miss those sunglasses!!

Here’s our future…

When we got off Spaceship Earth, we headed back over to Soarin' to use our FP!

This time around, it was awesome! We ended up getting the front row, middle of the middle section. When you get those prime seats, you can't even compare the ride to the back row of seats. Loved it! If you can, wait to be in the front row...it's so well worth the extra wait!

After we finished our flight, we decided it was time to eat.

Coming Up:
Day 7: We're Soarin' - Part 2

 

[amreli]

Several days back (Day 4 to be exact), we spent the afternoon in Epcot and had lunch ADR’s in Mexico, one of DH’s favorite restaurants. We ended up skipping them though because we ended up going to Blizzard Beach that morning and ate lunch there. So, to placate DH, we ate lunch this day at Mexico’s counter service.

While I got in line and ordered, either DH or Mia saved us a table. Lunch was just ok. I had nachos and I can’t remember what DH and Mia had. I know we all ordered churros for dessert because it was pretty much the only dessert they had. Now, in the Midwest (where DH and Mia are originally from) there’s one of our favorite fast food places – Taco John’s. Taco John’s has great churros! These churros at Mexico though were not so good. They were hard and well, yuck. I think we each took like 3 bites and ended up throwing them. I had the nachos too...but they didn't have any salsa! How can they be out of salsa in a mexican restaurant? All they had was hot sauce...not quite the same.

At this point, we were all started to feel really run down. It was so hot sitting out there in the sun eating though and we all kind of wanted to just go take a nap, especially since Mia and I had the race the next day. In fact, I think Mia announced at this point even announced that she would be leaving after we went to Norway to get the famed school bread to go, which was on our ‘must do’ list.

We had planned to do the whole world showcase this afternoon, but at this point we decided to skip it.

We decided to quickly run into Mexico so Mia could see it. When DH and I came for our honeymoon, Mexico was our dinner the first night we were there. Though the tables are kind of packed in, it’s such an intimate atmosphere. Anyway, we rode the ride in here since we were in here anyway.

Next, we headed to Norway and first took a ride on Maelstrom. As many times as I’ve been to Epcot, I have never ridden this before.

It was enjoyable enough until we got off. Right as we got off they shut the doors to the theater and we had to just sit in the holding area forever until they re-opened the doors. We weren’t in the mood for the film, so we walked straight through into the gift shop, with a quick pause for a pic of this guy. I didn't even see or notice the troll! I was just excited to be finally outside!

Then headed to the bakery. Ahhhh, time to spend snack credits.

After reading about how wonderful the schoolbread was over and over on the boards, we just had to get it. DH and I got one of those along with a sweet pretzel and Mia just got the schoolbread. We had brought our trusty collapsible containers, so we packed them up into our bags to take back for later. Ok. Throughout the Dis, all I kept reading about was the school bread and how good it was. All along, I was going to get the school bread, but then there was an older gentleman in front of us in line, raving about how good the sweet almond pretzels were...so, what did I do? I went with the pretzel. I think I should have went with the school bread! Did you really?!?! Wow. I don't even remember that. I know we talked about getting the schoolbread so many times before we went that I'm shocked you didn't get it even now.

Instead of going around the showcase, we decided to go use our Test Track FP’s at this point. I made DH pause for a quick pic before we left though.

OMG, this line took forever! We got through the FP line pretty quickly, then we were put into the holding area outside of the room with the video, we got stuck. We stood there while the other two areas went through two or three groups of people. We were so tired and getting slightly annoyed with this. Finally, the door opened though and we went in! YAY!

Mia’s never ridden TT, so we were really excited for her to ride. After loading up, we were on our way. He we are… (love that this ride has photopass!) It was a very fun ride! The line was very, very long. It seemed that they kept letting the single rider lines go in faster than with people with FP's! I know for sure that for every one group of FP people let in into the holding area, two groups of single riders were let in.

We had all been feeling like such crap, so we had decided we were going to leave after Test Track. Well, we started to head that way and DH convinced us to ride Spaceship Earth again. So, we got in line and rode.

We shouldn’t have pressed our luck though. When we got off, poor Mia realized her sunglasses were missing. These weren’t just any sunglasses either. They were her super nice, really expensive Coach sunglasses. I felt so bad for her. We went back inside and checked with the ride lost & found. No luck. We went to the guest services lost & found, but no luck there either. They told us to check back in awhile or that she could call and check in later. If only we had just left instead of riding another ride… Yeah, I really hoped someone would turn them in, but as the days passed, I realized that those sunglasses were long gone. I'm sure someone got a nice "souvenir".

At that point, we were all feeling a bit better save the sunglasses situation. So, we headed to Innoventions to do the Disney Visa character greet where you get a free 5x7 photo. There was only one person ahead of us in line for this, so it went really fast.

I was actually a little disappointed with this. It was only two characters (Minnie & Goofy) and they only took like two pics and only one was clear!! Mia’s turned out a lot better and she ended up with some cute ones. It looks like I have a sweat stain on my shirt, but it turned out to be Goofy's ear shadow...but other than that, I liked the picture. Hey, it was free!

Mia meeting Goofy when we walked in.

Mia with Minnie and Goofy.

DH and I with Minnie and Goofy.

After our pics, we had to wait an hour before we could pick them up, so we started walking around Innoventions, which DH enjoys anyway. We came across the segways and I’ve always wanted to try them, so DH came along with me. Mia was pretty tired still, so she sat and watched and videoed the whole thing.

First we had to sit through what was supposed to be a quick into/rules talk and sign that we wouldn’t sue them if we got hurt. Then, we were led out! DH ended up going first and I couldn’t stop laughing. He was so wobbly at first and just looked really funny.

When it was my turn, I quickly sucked the laughs in because I was even more wobbly almost falling off right away. It was a lot of fun though and I’m really glad we did it. It took them a long time to do this but I'm glad they enjoyed it. I just sat on the ground in front of the segway path and just people watched. That's always fun!

Once we finished our ride, we walked around a bit more. I told Mia I was signing her up here.

DH spotted some laugh factory thing that he thought was comedy show. Well,l it turned out to be basically an advertisement for Velcro. Mia and I had not wanted to go into it, and when they called for volunteers, we gladly volunteered DH since he made us come. We weren’t sure what the volunteers were for, but DH went up without complaints.

We soon got enough laughs for the year. They dressed DH and his competition (a dad from the audience) in aprons and they competed to see who could diaper, feed, and Velcro the most babies to their aprons. It was so flipping funny and Mia and I laughed non-stop, which you can hear throughout the videos. DH ended up losing, but that’s ok. The other guy was an experienced dad.

After the show, it was time to pick up our photos, so we headed to the camera shop (?) near spaceship earth and stood in line. This is where they displayed the pics, let us edit them a bit, then printed them. DH and I really didn’t have any choices since our pics were such crap, but Mia ended up with a really cute one!

After we had our pics in hand, we stopped by the Lost & Found one more time and the Spaceship Earth unloading area, but had no luck. They said they’d contact her if the glasses were found, but of course no one ever turned them in.

At this point it was around 3pm or so we had dinner ADR’s at 5, so we left. So much for that restful afternoon we had thought about taking.

We never did get to the world showcase other than those few little bits here and there and we skipped a lot in future world too. Oh well, there’s always next trip. Definitely. We'll have to do Epcot more in depth next time.

Coming Up:
Day 7: Into the Wilderness

 

[amreli]

So, after our all too brief break back at the hotel, we freshened up, met up with Donald and Pooh, then loaded up in the car and headed to Wilderness Lodge. We had an ADR at Whispering Canyon Café and I have to say that this is one that we had all be looking forward to for quite sometime, if only for the bottomless milkshakes. Yeah, I was really looking for the BOTTOMLESS milkshakes!

We had a lot of debate on whether we should eat here on the night before the race as the skillet, which we all wanted, seemed kind of ‘heavy’, and Mia, who is lactose intolerant (self-diagnosed), wanted to fully take advantage of the bottomless milkshakes. After much debate, it was the only night that would really work with our planned schedule, so we penciled it in.

When we arrived, I was instantly impressed. Wilderness Lodge ranks right up there with the Polynesian for me. If I could pick the next two resorts we stayed at, it would be these too. Unfortunately, DH likes AKL and our bank account likes All Stars. Of all the Deluxe resorts, I like Wilderness Lodge the best. It's so "woodsy" looking but in reality it's not, you know?

It was absolutely beautiful though. You can’t walk in without your jaw dropping. I’d post a picture, but for some reason, the lobby ones all came out really, really dark. It may have been because it was night time...but I thought the lobby was dark, same as AKL.

Our destination…

So, we checked in, but it was going to be a few minutes, so we walked around the lobby and looked around and took some pics.

DH by the Disney totem pole.

The pretty little stream that flows outside and bridge.

Soon it was time to be seated. Now, Mia and I had read all about Whispering Canyon and the hijinks (ie. being “really” thirty and getting a large glass and all of the ketchup antics). We did not tell anyone else about these though as we planned to somehow have it happen to them. As soon as we were seated though another table asked for ketchup and a little girl from another table started carrying over boxes of ketchup. DH and Donald were quite confused and so we spilled the beans. I had really wanted to get Donald, who drinks a lot, stuck with one of the large glasses. Instead, the next time our waitress came, he told her that I was really thirsty. That was the end of any of that silliness.

So, we all ordered the skillet and bottomless milkshakes, since that’s what we came for. I think I got a strawberry one and DH got a caramel one. Beyond that, I can’t remember what anyone else got. They were delicious though! I got a vanilla one, I think, and it was good! Nice and thick!

First we got our cornbread – yummy! – and salad. Instead of a large skillet with salad for everyone to share, we each got a pretty large portion of salad on our own skillets. A lot of salad! Soon, we had the rest and we dug in. I think around this point everyone got up and did the hokey pokey. Well, everyone except Donald and Pooh who looked at us like we were crazy. Then the little kids did a “pony” ride through the restaurant.

It would have been a lot of fun normally, but after a really busy week and an exhausting day, we were just beat. Plus, it was getting late anyway and Mia and I had to get up really, really early for the race.

We finished up, then did a quick walk around the resort outside while Donald went to get the car.

The back of the resort.

Mia, posing for me in front of something. I’m sure it was pretty. It was a waterfall.

The stream that leads into the pool. I LOVE this!

A neat cave looking thing – I can’t remember where this went.

The neat geyser.

The springs.

I think I love this resort so much because it reminds me of a family trip we took to Yellowstone many moons ago. It really is a beautiful place and I swear we’ll stay here one of these days.

At this point, we figured we better head back. Mia and I still had to get our race bags packed, our emergency info filled out and everything ready for the next morning. So, we met Donald out front and headed back.

When we got back, it was pretty late, maybe 10pm or so. That normally wouldn’t be late, but considering we had to be up in like 5 short hours, it was late.

Mia and I immediately got our stuff packed up in our camelba
k bags: Gatorade in the bottles (water for Mia), jelly belly sports beans, snickers energy bars, phone, camera, etc.

We filled out our emergency info on the back of our race numbers, got our running clothes out, and filled our drop off bags with our after race needs: crocs, etc. I decided to wear my running clothes to bed. That way I had one less thing to do in the morning. I am not a morning person and 3AM came way too early!

Here’s Mia’s bags all ready to go!

Mia and I both set the alarms on our cells, then, it was time for bed. Only I couldn’t sleep. Figures that we have to get up in mere hours to run 13.1 miles and I can’t sleep. DH was on his computer doing who knows what and when I looked over at Mia, she was fast asleep. So, I pulled out Twilight and read until I eventually fell asleep.

Coming Up:
Day 8: Surviving the Half! - Part 1

 

[amreli]

The alarms came waaaaaaaaaay to quick at 3am and I really just wanted to roll over and stay in bed. I heard Mia get up though, so I drug myself out of bed. We quickly got dressed, got our Garmin’s on and set, and headed out to catch the bus at 3:30.

On the way, we stopped in the food court, where I picked up a “runner’s box” or whatever they called it. It had a bagel with cream cheese, a banana, and granola bar in it. I think that’s it. Oh, except later when I went to eat the bagel I realized that mine was missing the cream cheese, so I had a plain bagel. I knew I had to eat something or I’d feel miserable. Mia didn’t get anything because she normally didn’t eat before running. Nope, I don't like to eat anything before running. I know that that may be against training rules, but I know my body better

So, I figured at some point I’d mention a bit about our training and I guess this is as good of a place as any. We started as walkers doing the couch to 5k program, which worked wonders. Because before that, we didn't do any type of running, or jogging, or walking...unless it was from the parking lot to a store and back again. After that, we looked up various programs for a 10k, 15k, and half and kind of mushed them all together into one long training program for us that basically went from July-December. Looking back, we shouldn't have stretched it out so long. Even though we needed to slowly go longer, we really got burnt out towards then end and started skipping lots of sessions. I tried to be faithful and follow the training regimen, but I got so bored with running. Especially getting up early in the morning before work to run...I'd have to get up around 4AM or so to get the training in.

I think by the time the race came around, the furthest I had gone in training was 9 miles. I figured that was ok, because it was not much further to the end and I was under the 15min/mile pace we were aiming for. Oh, the 9 miles was not straight running though. It was 5 miles running, 1 mile walking, 1 mile running, 2 miles walking. Mia went further in training - I think up to 11 miles. Anyway, looking back I needed to go way further. I mean 9 miles is only 2/3rds or so of the race!

After grabbing my breakfast, we headed out to the lobby and discovered a bus was already there waiting. We got on and headed to Epcot for the start!

When we got to Epcot, we got off the bus and headed into the holding area. It was dark and it was so cold out. Here’s where we waited for 30 minutes or so. It was in this area where we went to some booths and was able to get safety pins to pin our number to our shirts. Ours didn't come with safety pins, which I had been concerned about...but they had plenty extra at the information booths

They had a band playing. I think it was supposed to pump us up and get us excited. I thought the band did a great job. They were playing a lot of 80's music and were really enthusiastic for so early in the morning! I wonder if they just stayed up all night?

We dressed warm in clothes that we could throw away when needed. Actually most people did this and it was actually recommended as the race volunteers collect them all and give them to charities after the race. I wish I had a pic of all the clothes thrown to the side of the road before the start and during the first part of the race. It was insane.

Me in my throw away sweats – tired and cold.

Mia in her throw away warmer clothes. She looks a little more chipper than me.

After wondering around a bit, we decided to find a place to just sit down for a bit. It was so cold though and I just really was wishing for my nice warm bed.

I think at this point we heard the loud speaker directing us through the tents where we dropped off our bags. I love that they do this. We were given these clear plastic race bags where we could put the stuff we wanted or needed before and/or after the race, but didn’t want to carry with us. We put our croc flip flops and stuff like that in ours.

Anyway, we went into the tent for our numbers, dropped off our bags (they check you in at that time too), then headed in the next holding area.

In this next holding area there were tons and tons of porta potties. We figured we better get in line and go before the start so that we didn’t have to waste time during the race. So, we got in the super long line and waited. Basically there were several lines, but each line was kind of set up around a few different ones. Each line had "dibs" on several porta potties...but the announcer kept saying over and over that if there is not a line right in front of a potty, then start one. But I didn't have the guts to start my own line, so we stayed in the longest line, ever. Or so it seemed. Well, when it came to my turn, out comes this guy that had been in there for a looooong time. I didn’t really think anything of it, but OMG when I shut that door. Seriously I immediately left because I was about to .. well, anyway.
It was sooo funny. I'm waiting for my turn and here comes Amreli barreling out of the one she had just gone into, gagging, coughing, and making nasty faces She went back into the line with me and we let the girl behind us go ahead into that potty if she wanted to. She did. After we finished there, we headed to the holding area at the start.

Now, when you sign up for the race, you put down your expected finish time. We put 3 hours for ours, so we were in a holding area with other people that would finish around that time. Before we got to our section though, Mia stopped for one more potty break. I think I was really nervous because it felt like I kept having to go, even though I hadn't drunk anything all morning. Sorry, if this is TMI for you!

Then we got in line in our holding area and waited. When we got to our holding area, I got really nervous because we passed A LOT of people in other holding areas. I knew we didn't follow our training like we should have and I didn't feel prepared at all.

We couldn’t see the starting line very well from our holding area, but they did a whole little show and fireworks.

Here are the characters for the starting show:

After the first set of fireworks, they did another small set for each wave as they went. Finally, it was time for us to begin! Our fireworks went off and we began! Here’s the starting banner as we passed under it.

People were so packed in at this point that it was basically walking only for the first 20 feet, but we quickly started running.

Oh, for reference, when our wave passed under the start banner, it was close to 15 minutes after the first wave, so all times at the mile banners are actually 15 minutes less than the time clocks say.


Mile 1

The first mile went really well. I felt like I was going at a decent pace (I think we were going around 12min/mile or something near that). It was just the start though, so I can’t say too much. We did really good for our 1st mile.


Mile 2

Still feeling really good at this point. In training, the furthest I ever ran straight was 5 miles, so I was really hoping to go straight through to the Magic Kingdom today without a walking break.

It was exciting when we saw the Magic Kingdom sign! It was during this time that Amreli got mad at me because I was taking so many pictures and wasting battery life...so I mostly only have pictures of our mile marker times. And at this time, I'll mention that I would run faster to get to the clock, take the picture, and then rejoin Amreli on the course.

Mile 3

Right around the mile 3 sign we saw the first of the water stops. It was kind of chaos there with people crossing in front of you to get to the tables, plus it was slick from all the cups on the ground. We slowed to a walk to get some water, then walked for a half a mile or so after that.

There were lots of bands and fans in this area though as we were getting close to the MK, so we started running again. The bands and crowds make you feel like you need to run because they're all watching you. We felt self-conscious walking, so we ran when there were huge amount of spectators!


Coming Up:
Day 8 – Surviving the Half! – Part 2

 

[amreli]

Mile 4

Getting close to the MK! Sorry for the blurriness. That’s what happens when you try to snap pictures when you’re running.

At this point, we passed the Contemporary and the bus loading/un-loading for the MK areas. At some point during mile 4 we walked for little bit because I wanted to run through the entire MK and Grand Floridian areas which were coming up.


Mile 5

We entered MK through some sort of staff entrance, which was strange. There were tons of crowds in there cheering us on though! We ran down Main Street and it was so exciting to see the castle.

But before we can go through the castle, we have to detour through Tomorrowland and then through Fantasyland.

At this point, we stopped for a bathroom break. They had porta potties along the way, but Mia had done her research here on DIS and knew about a bathroom near the castle in Fantasyland that was open. I did? I was so worried about losing the time, but we were pretty fast and it only took maybe 5-10 minutes or so off our time. And it was really nice to go in an actual bathroom with running water than in the porta potties.

It was finally time to go through the castle! Here’s Mia coming through. My tank top looked red in the picture, but it was really hot pink and my pants had pink stripes down the sides too, in case you were wondering.

We were headed towards Frontierland…


Mile 6

In Frontierland, runners stopping for pics. We were worried about time or rather the lack of time, so we didn’t stop for any. Maybe in the future when I actually run the entire thing.

At this point, I pulled out my snickers energy bar. I wished I had two! I still hadn't eaten anything.

Captain Jack!

Pretty quick after this, we exited the park. At that point, we walked again until around the start of mile 7 or maybe a bit after that. Seriously, I was so tired, which was not good. I’d gone much further than this in training. Perhaps that busy week we just had wasn’t such a great idea. No, I don't think a whole week of park walking from rope drop to park closing was good for us or our feet! So anyway, we walked the next ½ mile or so. During this portion where we walked, they had signs with various entertaining facts on the side of the road, so I entertained myself reading those.


Mile 7

If I remember correctly, we were nearing the Grand Floridian at this point and there were lots of crowds, so I sucked it up and ran. I think after ½ mile or so we were just on the open road and I was just so tired. I remember telling Mia I can’t run anymore and she said ok, we’ll walk. At this point, I was okay with walking because we'd been doing pretty good with our time.


Mile 8

I pulled out my jelly belly sports beans at this point. OMG, they were so good and just what I needed!


Mile 9

This is where the bands started to just get annoying. In the beginning, they were a motivator. I didn’t walk to walk with the crowds and the music kind of pumped you up to keep going. By mile 9 though, I didn’t care at all and really just wanted them to all shut up. Yeah, I could tell Amreli was not in her happy place at this time.

During one of the food stops here they were handing out these goo energy packets. I know lots of runners use these, but I don’t really consider myself a runner and had never tried these before. I dared Mia to eat hers, which she did. I got a good laugh at her face, which pretty much looked like she really wanted to spit the good out. I had never tried Gu before, and I got a grape one for me. I put some in my mouth and it tasted like a strong dose of sugared, sweet gel. I love sugar but this did not taste good at all. I forced that one taste down and threw the rest away. I remember the racers around us laughed at my facial expression. Amreli ended up throwing hers away when she found out how much I had liked mine.

Mile 10

At this point, Mia offered me her jelly belly sports beans! YAY!!

Seriously, I was so glad that she picked those up at her local running store before we came down. They were perfect for the race. Unfortunately, Mia doesn't know how perfect since I ate hers too, but next time she will. I'll have to get more for our next race.

Taken somewhere during this mile…

I remember somewhere around this point I was just so tired and sore and Mia just seemed to be doing perfectly fine. I looked over and asked her if she was sore at all. She told me that she hurt so bad throughout her body, but it didn’t do her any good to complain about it. My feet where killing me! It felt like for every step, sharp needles were poking the bottoms of my feet! But I didn't think it'd help if we were BOTH complaining, so I kept encouraging and motivating Amreli and complained silently to myself.I just about died at that point laughing though. It was just so funny for some reason. She had seemed like she was just breezing through as I moaned and groaned. It made me feel so much better that I wasn’t the only miserable one. No, she wasn't the only miserable one.


Coming Up:
Day 8 - Surviving the Half! - Part 3

 

[amreli]

Mile 11

At this point, instead of running ahead to take the mile marker picture, I'd just take it when we got there. The word "run" was not in our vocabulary at this time.

During this mile, we went over the exit back towards Epcot. This ramp just killed. Seriously, going up and down those are so tough because your feet are slanted the whole time. I ended up walking in the grass for a bit because my feet were so sore.

When we got to the top, we were so relieved to see the crowds of people behind us. We had been so worried that we would come in last or worse, be picked up by the bus for falling behind time wise. Once we saw that there were still tons of people behind us, we decided to take our time, finishing the race.

We were relieved, but we were still so tired!

Mile 12

I was so excited at this point because we only had a mile to go. I kept telling myself that a mile was nothing and I could do it in my sleep. When we entered Epcot, I knew we were almost done. This mile seemed to just drag on and on though. At one point there were CM’s in Epcot cheering us on and telling us that we were almost there. Yeah, right. I mean, we were almost there, but it seriously seemed to take forever.

We finally made it out of Epcot and passed the gospel choir that was trying to lift our spirits.

After we passed the gospel choir, we could see the sign for mile 13.


Mile 13

At this point, we started running again. We (or maybe I should say “I” since Mia probably would have run more of the race overall than I did) figured we could make it the last .1 miles. I may have ran a little more, but at this point, I had to push myself to run that last .1mile. My feet were so done by this point! Besides, we couldn’t be seen crossing the finish line while walking.

After we passed the sign, we rounded a corner and could see the finish line!!

Mile 13.1

The finish line was in sight and I have never felt so relieved. When we crossed that finish line, I started to tear up, not in relief, but happiness – happy that it was over, but even more happy that we accomplished what we set out to do, even if it wasn’t exactly as planned. I just remember choking up and looking towards Mia and saying ‘We did it!’ I didn't choke up...but felt tired and proud that we had finished!



Here we are crossing the finish line.

Our final time was 3:21:53 and we were positions 11191 and 11192 out of 12451 finishers. We ended up with an overall pace of 15:30, which was slower than our goal and what we had done during training, but that's ok. We finished! Who cares? WE FINISHED! and didn't get swept!

The leaders of the race were: Men – 1:07:36 and Women – 1:17:32. Insane!! We were just slightly off those times.

They immediately put the “blankets” on us, then pointed us towards the medals.

Me getting my medal.

Mia getting her medal.

We asked the lady handing out the medals to take our pic.

We did it!!!!!!



Coming Up:
Day 8: The Race Aftermath

 

[amreli]

After we had our medals, we went through the food lines and got bananas, cokes, waters, and other stuff, though I can’t remember what. I remember oranges and Powerade.

We found a spot to sit down, spread out our silver blanket things and sat. Turns out the spot we picked sit down at was on the other side of the fence from the porta potties. It smelled! We were so exhausted though that we didn't bother to pick up our stuff and move.

It felt so good to sit down and take off my shoes. I put my crocs on, ate my food, and rested. I called my mom. At this point, I was feeling good and was really hyped up with energy and I remember that I was talking really fast during our phone call. I think I was still in shock that we had actually finished!

Here's Mia doing a self portrait - she looks pretty happy that it was over!

And her sore, tired feet.

After resting for a bit, I decided that perhaps I should stretch. When I stood back up to stretch a bit, it just killed. I can’t figure out if I pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve or what, but there was this one spot on my right leg that just hurt so bad.

I can not believe I'm going to post this absolutely horrid picture, but it's hilarious. I'm half laughing/half crying because my leg hurt so bad. Oh, if you look under the fence, you can see all the porta potties! Ewwww!

After resting and stretching for a bit, we decided to head to back, so we went in search for our bus line. We started at the wrong end of the parking lot, so we had to walk through the whole length to find our buses to the All-Stars.

This was by far the worst part of the morning and is the #1 reason we will be staying at the Poly for our next race. To be able to get on the monorail and be back so quickly would have been so nice. The all stars lines were so freaking long and it was so miserably hot at this point. We were sitting in a cement parking area just waiting forever for buses to come. I swear we sat there for like 30 minutes just waiting. It was a very long line. There was no shade and the asphalt was giving off a lot of heat.

I felt so miserable and nauseous and my head just hurt. I ended up sitting down on the ground with my “blanket” over my head because I felt so sick. In the next line over, a woman actually fainted and they had to call for medical help. I have no idea why she fainted, but it certainly didn’t make me feel any better.

Finally a bus arrived though and we were able to get on. They used charter buses to lug us back and forth, not the regular park buses. The seat were really comfortable and was very cool in the bus.

This was huge because there had been other buses for our resort, but the line was so long we could never fit on. It seemed like practically everyone running the race was staying at the three All Stars resorts. It seemed like the crowds for the other resorts were clearing out a lot faster than for the All-Stars.

When we got off at our resort though, I knew I had really hurt my leg somehow. It hurt so bad to walk on my right leg. We slowly made it back to our room, showered off and Mia attempted to work on my muscle in my right leg. It seemed to help a little, but pretty quickly it started to hurt pretty bad again. I have no idea what it was because it didn’t really feel like a normal sore muscle.

Anyway, we were starving – Mia hadn’t eaten anything but some goo (GU) all day and even though I ate everything I brought, plus her jelly beans too, I was still starving. So, we headed to the food court. DH joined us for lunch and all I remember was how bad it hurt to walk on my right leg throughout that food court. I figured it was good to keep moving though.

After lunch, we had planned to swim for a bit, figuring that would be perfect for sore muscles. Walking back to our room though almost brought me to tears with the shooting pains I my leg. DH was walking with me to help me back to the room and I was just miserable.

We changed into our swimsuits though and headed to the pool. This was one of our best ideas and it really seemed to help. I remember at some point there was this couple sitting on the side of the pool just really making out and stuff with tons of kids around. We weren't the only ones uncomfortable with the couple because there some other parents near them that kept looking at them annoyingly. Mia said at one point ‘go to your room’ or something like that. They started making comments back, but luckily they just ended up leaving soon after. I was telling Amreli that they needed to go back to their room, but my voice must have carried and the female asked me if I was talking to her. I replied back that I was talking to Amreli. I don't mind if a couple is affectionate with each other, but show some decorum, especially in a very family place.

At this point I was cold and decided to get out, though I probably should have stayed in longer. We sat on the lounge chairs for a bit to dry off, but were falling asleep, so we decided to go take a nap.

We had originally planned to not take a nap and instead keep moving because we read that was good for your muscles. We had planned to go to MK for the afternoon and do the last few things that we had missed on earlier in the week.

Well, we were so tired that plans quickly changed. I was not ready to get up from my nap, but since it was the last night at MK, I made myself get up. When I woke up a few hours later, my leg still hurt, but not nearly as bad. I could actually limp around the room instead of crawling!! This was good considering we had evening plans!

Overall, I am so glad that we did it. Even though I didn’t run nearly as much as I was capable of and basically fell apart much sooner than expected, it was a great experience. I was so thrilled when we finished and felt such a sense of accomplishment. Even though I was in pain, Mia and I decided then and there that we wanted to do the full marathon at some point and maybe even the Goofy.

During our next trip, we had originally planned to do the full marathon, but since we’re doing a Disney cruise, we have to do the half because the full won’t work with the dates. So, we plan to run the entire thing this time. I will definitely go further than 9 miles in training before the next one and I will definitely force myself to train more diligently towards the end rather than slacking off.

We were planning on doing the marathon and then doing the Disney cruise after...but with the timing, we decided to do the 1/2 marathon again and then do the 7-day cruise right after as a treat.

I hope anyone who reads this that is thinking of running the race, but is nervous to do it signs up immediately! Mia and I are not runners. We don’t look like runners, we don’t run like runners. But it was still such an accomplishment and I’m so happy we did it. In the months leading up to the race, we searched the DIS for TR’s of people who did the races, reading every one of them that we could find. Mostly I think we were looking for inspiration and encouragement, especially reading those reports where they weren’t expert runners or whatever. For instance, I remember reading one TR where the girl had only trained up to 6 miles before hand (definitely not recommended) and she was not really a runner, but guess what, she finished. Anyway, I hope that our experience in the race encourages anyone who might stumble across this TR that they too can finish. I mean, just look at our photos!! If we can do it, anyone can!

I'm so happy we decided to do this. This is something that I have always wanted to do and I can't believe that we actually did it. I always thought we would finish, but secretly there were times I was scared that we wouldn't. But we did, and that's all that counts. Especially for our first race

If you are not a runner, I do recommend the Couch to 5K training program. Looking at it, it seemed really tedious because you walk then run then walk then run, repeatedly. But this really helped you in developing your lungs, your stamina, and your running legs. Running really helped me on my breathing. I had self-diagnosed myself with having exercise-induced asthma since college, and this program helped a lot. I used my asthma inhaler the 1st couple of weeks and then after that, i didn't need it at all...even for the longer distances. Also, have great running shoes. It's really worth it to go to a running store and have a sales associate help you in getting your running shoes. The Disney 1/2 marathon fills up really fast, so register early!

Now that I’m 6 months removed from the pain and misery, I can’t wait to do it again! Nope. I still have no desire to run. I did say that I wasn't a runner, didn't I? I'm focusing on losing some weight this year, and then start training for the 1/2 next year.

Coming Up:
Day 8: One Last Wish

 

[dismagiclover]

Thanks for the TR! Especially the report of the race. I'm signed up for the half next year and I'm excited, but I can totally relate to your report. This will be my 3rd half marathon, but I'm not really a "runner" either. I like to think of myself as a jogger who enjoys her walking breaks Anyway, I know that exhausted feeling and I took long naps after each of those races! Maybe I'll see you this January

 

[amreli]

Thanks for the TR! Especially the report of the race. I'm signed up for the half next year and I'm excited, but I can totally relate to your report. This will be my 3rd half marathon, but I'm not really a "runner" either. I like to think of myself as a jogger who enjoys her walking breaks Anyway, I know that exhausted feeling and I took long naps after each of those races! Maybe I'll see you this January

Hi!

Thanks for reading! Is this going to be your first Disney 1/2 or were the other two at Disney? It was exhausting, but so much fun! Since we decided to do the half again, we've committed ourselves to running the whole thing next time. We'll see if it happens, but right now that's the goal.

Good luck in January!! We won't be there for the 2010 one, but we'll be there in 2011. Hopefully you'll have so much that you'll do it again then!

 

[amreli]

All week we had been putting things off at MK saying we’ll be back on Saturday. Well, now it was Saturday, the race was over, and we were going back – though much later than we had planned. We still had not done anything in Tomorrowland, other than Space Mountain, and we still hadn’t seen Spectro.

DH decided to stay back at the room this evening as there was an NFL playoff game. This was a big debate because we had ADR’s at 1900 Park Faire for the Cinderella/Prince Charming dinner. He, instead, decided to eat from the food court. Fine, whatever. I know Amreli really wanted him to go to dinner, but his game was way more important for him. What a prince my dear brother is He's just a little too addicted to football.

Donald and Pooh were supposed to meet up with us as well to go to MK and then to dinner. They had spent the afternoon at the hospital though and called to say they would miss us at MK, but would meet as at the Grand Floridian in time for ADR, which we had already pushed back.

So, Mia and I got ready – both wearing our ‘We Did It!’ shirts and our medals! Hey, we worked our butts of for those this morning so we were going to show them off!

Though we were still tired, we felt somewhat refreshed and my leg was doing much better. We grabbed our glow in the dark necklaces, bracelets, and light up princess tiara’s for Spectro and headed off to the car. We drove to the GF and parked there, then rode the monorail over to MK so that we’d have the car to get back after our dinner ADR.

We got to the GF and had plenty of time to get over to MK and find seats for Spectro. We had originally planned to have time to do more rides there and browse the shops, but after our nap, we really only had time to find Spectro seats and get snacks before the parade and then Wishes.

When we got off the monorail at MK, there was a girl walking behind us who congratulated us on the race! It was so nice of her!! Turns out she was running the full the next morning and it was her first full.

Entering the Magic Kingdom one last time.

Once we got in, we parked it near the confectionery area where the bench where Roy & Minnie sit. Mia sat for a few minutes holding our spot while I ran up to the photopass guy on Main Street to get a pic.

Our first order of business was to use up some of the last of our snack credits. Mia headed off to get us Dole Whip Floats and popcorn, which we had to try after everyone raved about here on the DIS. I held our spots and watched the CM’s playing with the kids. They had hula hoops and music going with big groups doing the electric slide and Macarena. Oh, and on her way to Aloha Isle, she stopped and got her own photopass pic! It was way harder to find popcorn than I thought it would be. I went to this one stand but they were closing, so they went me to another location, but they were completely closed. So I walked around Adventureland because I could smell popcorn and finally found a stand. Then I went to get our last dole whips for the trip.

When she got back with our snacks, we settled in as the crowds grew bigger. There was this family in front of us with two little girls who were talking all about their Magic Kingdom day to their grandparents. As it neared time for Spectro, Mia and I got out our glow necklaces and bracelets and gave some to the girls in front of us as well. They were thrilled, which was really cute.

Pretty!

Finally, we see Spectro!!

On this magic night….

Goofy.. DH’s fave!

We’ll see you soon Cindy!!

Looking back, I must have been an annoying person to have around. I must have been really excited because when I would see the next float, I would announce them out loud

When Spectro finished, we still had a bit of time until Wishes, but we had a perfect view of the castle down Main Street and didn’t want to lose our spots, so we stayed put. While Mia held our spots, I ran into the confectionary to find a gift for mom to thank her for staying with the dogs. After finding that – and more – I headed back out. While I was gone, the two little girls that we had given glow necklaces to had gone and gotten Space Mountain FP’s for us as a thank you. Unfortunately, even though MK was open late tonight, we had dinner ADR’s and wouldn’t be able to use them. It was so nice of them though.

It was around this time that Mia felt her ears somehow and realized that she had lost an earring – a diamond stud given to her by her parents years ago! We spent the next 10 minutes nervously looking around the ground everywhere when she decided to call DH back at the room just to make sure it wasn’t there. And guess what? It was sitting on the shelf in the room! She had only put in one earring! I was really worried, so as a last resort, I called my Dbro to see if maybe I had left the other earring there. I must have been really tired, still, because I'd left the other there and had only put on one earring

At least we knew it was safe!

Mia’s self portrait. She looks happy now that she knows her earring is safe.

The crowds were filling Main Street at this point.

Love all the balloons!

How cool is this pic??

Finally, it was time for our most favorite part… Wishes.

Tonight was even more special because it was our last night in the parks. As the stars shot across the sky, the fireworks burst, and the music played, I just thought about this whole trip. It was stressful and tiring and we had our share of the highs and lows, but most of all it was fun.

I just love wishes, and I was glad that we saw it multiple times during our trip! Me too. It's easily my favorite thing in all of Disney.

As soon as Wishes finished, we booked it out of the park to the monorail. We only had like 10 minutes to make it to our ADR ad GF. While on the monorail, we called Donald and Pooh to find out where they would be meeting up with us. Turns out, when Donald found out that DH was staying back to watch football, he decided he wanted to as well. Plus, he and Pooh had a stressful day at the hospital and were not really in the mood I guess. So, our ADR suddenly went from the original 6 to just the two of us. It didn’t matter though, we can have fun on our own! Of course we can!

Coming Up:
Day 8 - Dinner with a Charming Prince

 

[amreli]

So we quickly made it to the GF and checked in at 1900 Park Faire for dinner. We must have been there near the end of the scheduled dinner time because the restaurant was pretty empty and just got emptier as we ate.

When we checked in though, they told us it would be a few minutes. We decided to head back over to the grand staircase we had passed when we came down from the monorail and stage our own photo shoot where we pretended to be Cinderella since we were about to dine with her!

Here I am running down the stairs at midnight, leaving my glass slipper (er croc flip flops) behind!

And here’s Mia. She can’t stop laughing.

Finally, it was time to be seated!

We immediately filled our plates (it was really good!) and soon the characters started coming around.

Mia with Cinderella.

Me with Cinderella.

Mia with her boyfriend, Prince Charming.

Me with Mia’s boyfriend, Prince Charming.

Mia with a step-sister. The step-sisters and the stepmother were a lot of fun. They would comment about how Amreli had found her prince since she was wearing her tiara and had a wedding ring, and then they would ask where mine was. I would reply that I was still looking for him like they were! Didn't you ask one of them if you could have theirs?? I do remember Cindy telling you that you needed to go to a Royal Ball!

Me with a step-sister.

They were all fun for the most part. Cinderella and Prince Charming danced in the center of the restaurant, which was really cute. And they coaxed other children to come out and dance with them too!

The restaurant was emptying though and all the characters had come and gone, so we figured we better finish up and head back to our room. We had to pack up anyway as we planned to leave bright and early the next morning so that DH could get home before the playoff games started that afternoon. It would have been nice to go to the parks since we still had a day left on our tickets, but Mia had to work the next day and I can just see DH’s face if I told him he’d be missing the playoffs. So, off we went to pack up.

Coming Up:
Day 8.5 -The Trip Home & Final Thoughts

 

[amreli]

When we got back to the room, we packed up, put on our pj’s, and laid down. Well, except for DH, who was playing on his computer.

Mia's packing up.

DH eating something from the food court while I sort through stuff and get packed up. Nice mess on the bed!

So, once we laid down, the debate began. I can’t remember who suggested it first – Mia or DH – but soon we were debating whether we should go ahead and pack up now and drive back or wait until the morning. I was voting for the morning. I was exhausted and wasn’t sure that we’d all be awake enough to get back without having to stop somewhere. It would be better for Mia as she could get home earlier to unpack and rest before work the next day.

After much debate, we decided to pack it in and just head back. It’s only a 6 hour drive and Mia said she was wide awake. So, DH packed up his computer and wii (yes, he brought both) and Mia starting packing up the stuff that she was leaving out for the morning. I was wide awake when we debated about leaving right then. I figure that since we'll be driving in the night that there will be less traffic and plus we'll have that Sunday to rest.

After I packed up my stuff, I took a quick walk around the hotel to get some last pics. I had planned on doing it in the morning before we left, but since we decided to go ahead and head out, I went to take some in the dark.

The football section…

The front desk, where we spent several frustrating hours over the first couple of days of the trip.

When I got back to the room, we knocked and Donald and Pooh’s door next door to let them know of our plans. They, unfortunately, had to stay in the Orlando area for what ended up being another full month due to Pooh’s mom’s stroke. They were disappointed that we were leaving that night, but helped us load up the car.

We did one last drive around to the front of the hotel…

It was so sad to be leaving. We had been planning this trip for the last 8 months and now it was over. It was sad to leave and I had so much fun, but I was also ready to get back home and be with my "stuff". You know?



So long Mickey. See you real soon!

We started out in the car with Mia driving and I planned to take over when she got tired. As soon as we hit the interstate, I was out though and slept the entire way home. It was a quick trip back to reality for me, but I know Mia was exhausted.

In hind site...or even 2 hours into the drive, I realized that this was a very bad idea. Driving on that black road with the white lane lines became really hypnotic. I became really tired and it was very hard to stay awake, and I'd go into these half-trance-like states. My Dbrother was in the back seat, and he'd say "Um, are you awake?" and that would jar me back to reality and I'd reply back "Of course I am!". I soon realized that Amreli would be of no help because she would doze off and then wake up and say how tired she was and then she'd go back to sleep. Dbrother wasn't able to drive, either, since driving at night puts him to sleep. So I toughed it out, and I was sooo happy to finally reach home!


Final Thoughts.

Overall, we had a wonderful trip. It started with off with literally the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Our first night was so magical and then we had the devastating news that Pooh’s mom had a stroke.

First, I’ll report that Pooh’s mom is doing well and is fact sitting in my living room right now with DH, Pooh, and Donald.

Mia and I had this trip planned out to the hour (look back at our spreadsheet in the intro post). For the most part, we kept to the general schedule with a few modifications here and there. I think it worked out well for us to kind of have a plan in place rather than deciding what to do each day. We left it open to change things if we wanted and it did happen a few times – our Blizzard Beach day, ADR’s, etc. I imagine we’ll do the same thing again for our next Disney park trip because we had a blast planning it all out.

Planning the whole trip was so much fun! Figuring out our park days, what we would do, where we would eat...those made the time before our trip go by so much faster. I think having a plan was a really good thing because we got so much more accomplished with having a plan than without.

Favorites of the trip:
1. Wishes - absolutely magical!
2. Castle lighting - beautiful!
3. Expedition Everest - easily Disney's best coaster!
4. Le Cellier - delicious!!
5. Blizzard Beach - exhilarating!
6. Chef Mickey’s breakfast - so good and so much fun!
7. Animation Academy - fun, fun, fun!
8. Dole Whip Floats (can’t wait to be in the Poly and have these in the hotel!)
9. Goofy's Candy Co. - marshmallows, yum!
10. Corn dog nuggets with cheese sauce - yum!
11. Osbourne Spectacle of Lights
12. Spectromagic

My Favorites!
1. Castle Lighting
2. Wishes
3. Spectromagic
4. Chef Mickey's breakfast
5. Dole Whip Float
6. Corn nuggets and fries
7. Expedition Everest
8. Animation Academy

Things we can skip next time:
1. 1900 Park Faire – Both the breakfast and the dinner was good, but not something we need to do again. I agree.
2. Hollywood Brown Derby – It was really good, but another that we don’t need to do again. I didn't think it was worth 2 table credits...but I was happy for the experience!
3. Whispering Canyon – Same deal. Good experience, but not one we need again.
4. Crystal Palace...I didn't think it had the best character interaction!

Things we wanted to do, but ran out of time:
1. Beaches & Cream
2. Mickey’s toon town
3. Everything in Tomorrowland (other than Space Mountain)
4. Tiki birds (DH loves them for some odd reason)
5. Really exploring the World Showcase
6. All the World Showcase drinks we had planned, but never got to try
7. Turtle talk with Crush
8. More time to just take it all in and explore the parks
9. Swim in the pools
10. Mini golf
11. Laugh factory
12. Dumbo!

Next time, we’ll definitely plan on hitting the parks early again. We were able to get so much done when we took advantage of morning EMH and got there at rope drop. We’ll plan for more afternoon breaks, then hit the parks again in the evenings. We completely wore ourselves out because we were constantly on the go. More breaks to just enjoy the resort, pools, etc would have been nice.

We already have our next two trips planned – ½ marathon & Disney cruise in 2011 and a Christmas trip that holiday season – and we can’t wait!

It was fine to stay at All-Star Sports, and I would stay at the All-Stars again. The rooms were clean and since our room wasn't facing the courtyard or the pools, it was pretty quiet. The cafeteria had a good variety of food, even though I had only eaten there only once throughout our stay. But I know Donald really enjoyed their taco salads! The buses ran okay...but it seemed like that either the bus had just left to where we were going so at times we had to wait 15-20minutes. The lines for the buses for the All-Stars after the park closing were ridiculous, though!

It’s been so much fun going through pics and writing all of this up. I was hesitant to do a TR because I wasn’t sure if I would have the motivation to finish it, but I’m so glad that I did!

Thanks Amreli for writing this! I would never have been able to on my own, let alone have the time to write one. I wouldn't even have remembered half of the things we did, either, and when! This is a great chronicle of our trip and I am sooo glad I convinced you to write one so we have a record of our trip. Thank you!

Thanks for following along!

The End.

 

[dismagiclover]

Hi!

Thanks for reading! Is this going to be your first Disney 1/2 or were the other two at Disney? It was exhausting, but so much fun! Since we decided to do the half again, we've committed ourselves to running the whole thing next time. We'll see if it happens, but right now that's the goal.

Good luck in January!! We won't be there for the 2010 one, but we'll be there in 2011. Hopefully you'll have so much that you'll do it again then!

My first 1/2 was at Disneyland and it was so much fun. I love stopping to say hi to all the characters My second 1/2 was the Baltimore and it was full of hills My DH warned me, but I thought I was tough enough. It was hard! My tentative plan is to do the 2010 1/2 and then the full in 2011 and then the Goofy in 2012 on my 40th bday Of course we'll see. Definitely doing the half this year and am pretty confident I'm going to do the full in 2011. I just want to do a full at least once in my life. The Goofy we'll have to see how 2011 goes
Have you read the book Marathoning for Mortals? I highly recommend it. It encourages regular walking breaks. It makes it easier to keep your heart rate down and energy level up throughout the race.
Really enjoyed your TR.