Tower of Terror 10 Miler 2014

[Waiting2goback]

Have you ever had disney tap water? Some places it's got its own very distinct flavor....we use the Brita bottles at home, but not sure they always work of you don't like your water having a taste

When I was there last August I got water at my sit down meal and when I brought my refillable mug I would fill it with water at the soda fountains at the quick service in each hotel I went to. Didn't notice any funny tasting water at all. Some of the water up here in MA tastes pretty bad, maybe that's why.

 

[moose615]

Congrats on the good news from the doctor and the stopping smoking! Good luck with the 10 k

Thank you! Def looking forward to training and being able to breathe at the same time.

 

[Waiting2goback]

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there. Well figured I'd share my good running/health news. I ran a 5k and injured myself about a month ago, had to skip a 10k I planned on turning in for time. Went to the Doc last week, he said I have "million mile of tread left on the tired" and that I inflamed a tendon, feeling a lot better hoping to start running again sometime this week and do another 10k before July.

The other good news, I've been a smoker for about 17 year and with running, one of them had to go so I chose to keep running and stop smoking, I am on day 3 of no nicotine and close to feeling great, some people have said it takes a week to get out of your system. I am looking forward to breathing and running better for a healthier life.

EXCELLENT news on quitting smoking. Such a great decision. Hopefully you can keep it up. My parents were smokers, I know how hard it to quit. They tried many times. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

Take it slow when you start running again. Try to keep it iced after your done to keep the inflamation down.

I have a question. This one is not running related. I was looking at park hours today so I can make some dining reservations for myself. It said MK closes at 7pm on 10/2 and 10/3 and I think it closes at 10pm on 10/4, which does us no good as we will be running the race that night.

The other parks close pretty early as well. I have never been in August, could this be the right hours? Seems really early.

 

[moose615]

EXCELLENT news on quitting smoking. Such a great decision. Hopefully you can keep it up. My parents were smokers, I know how hard it to quit. They tried many times. I will keep my fingers crossed for you. Take it slow when you start running again. Try to keep it iced after your done to keep the inflamation down. I have a question. This one is not running related. I was looking at park hours today so I can make some dining reservations for myself. It said MK closes at 7pm on 10/2 and 10/3 and I think it closes at 10pm on 10/4, which does us no good as we will be running the race that night. The other parks close pretty early as well. I have never been in August, could this be the right hours? Seems really early.

Thank you for your thoughts and well wishes, this 7pm close times are because of Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party on those dates, we will be attending 10/3 because our trip is short so that's our only park day.

 

[Waiting2goback]

Thank you for your thoughts and well wishes, this 7pm close times are because of Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party on those dates, we will be attending 10/3 because our trip is short so that's our only park day.

So they kick people out at 7pm unless they bought a ticket to the party? What time do they do the parade and fireworks? Do I have to buy a ticket to the party to see the parade and fireworks? How much are the tickets and where can I buy one?

Why do the other parks close so early too then? Oh boy, now I may have to rethink all my plans.

 

[moose615]

So they kick people out at 7pm unless they bought a ticket to the party? What time do they do the parade and fireworks? Do I have to buy a ticket to the party to see the parade and fireworks? How much are the tickets and where can I buy one? Why do the other parks close so early too then? Oh boy, now I may have to rethink all my plans.

CMs start looking for people without party wristbands at 7pm, the parade and fireworks are the Halloween versions and are only for those with party tickets. Look up Mickeys not so scary Halloween party and you will find the official page for tickets, prices vary depending on the day you go but it's like $70 for adults and $60 for kids and historically they allow you to enter MK around 4pm with a party ticket. Not sure about the other parks closing hours, 7pm does seem early for HS because usually they stay open later so people who don't go to the party have a park to go to.

 

[moose615]

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/magic-kingdom/mickeys-not-so-scary-halloween-party/

Here's a link with more info

 

[Waiting2goback]

CMs start looking for people without party wristbands at 7pm, the parade and fireworks are the Halloween versions and are only for those with party tickets. Look up Mickeys not so scary Halloween party and you will find the official page for tickets, prices vary depending on the day you go but it's like $70 for adults and $60 for kids and historically they allow you to enter MK around 4pm with a party ticket. Not sure about the other parks closing hours, 7pm does seem early for HS because usually they stay open later so people who don't go to the party have a park to go to.

I went and checked it out. Thanks for the info. Now my mind is going a mile a minute trying to figure out what I should do now. I probably won't get to my hotel until 4 pm ish on 10/2. With the parks closing so early it doesn't make sense to waste a ticket. Still need to spend a few hours at the Expo and packet pick up, when to do that. I HAVE to see Main St on every trip but I also like to see Fantasmic on every trip. I know some people don't like it but I love it.

These Disney guys have it all figured out, don't they. They charge you a fortune for a park ticket then they kick you out early to have this "party" and charge another $62 for the party. Brilliant!

Sorry, I'm just venting now.

 

[moose615]

I went and checked it out. Thanks for the info. Now my mind is going a mile a minute trying to figure out what I should do now. I probably won't get to my hotel until 4 pm ish on 10/2. With the parks closing so early it doesn't make sense to waste a ticket. Still need to spend a few hours at the Expo and packet pick up, when to do that. I HAVE to see Main St on every trip but I also like to see Fantasmic on every trip. I know some people don't like it but I love it. These Disney guys have it all figured out, don't they. They charge you a fortune for a park ticket then they kick you out early to have this "party" and charge another $62 for the party. Brilliant! Sorry, I'm just venting now.

Your welcome, I def know how frustrating planning a WDW trip can be, 2 yrs ago I bought guides, subscribed to websites, all to make the perfect 1st trip for my DD, but of course I couldn't predict a 4 yr old loving the pool at AoA more then any theme park. But all in all we ended up having a blast.

This is a super short WDW trip for us, because DD is still in school, I am only taking her out a day early, so we fly in the night of the 2nd, on the 3rd, expo and MNSSHP and the 4th is prob like a swim/ DTD day with the race and after party, then fly home. So it made sense to just do MNSSHP only for us.

I see HS says close at 7:30 but Fantasmic isn't till 8PM so that's a way of getting alittle extra park time.

It'll all can be frustrating, but try to have fun with it too.

 

[Waiting2goback]

I actually enjoy planning the trip. Even when I am not going on a trip I will occassionally "plan" one because I like to see how much things are at different times of the year so when I finally do go back I have more information to help me in my actual planning. Some might say that is a waste of time but it gives me my Disney fix and gives me information for my next trip.

That's why its weird that the Halloween party caught me off guard. I am familiar with it. I just didn't know it started that early or that the parks would close that early because of it so when I saw the parks were closed so early I didn't put 2 and 2 together and was caught off guard.

What's frustrating is that you spend all this money on park tickets and you don't get the same hours all year. So, someone going in early October, for example, gets less for their money than someone going in August.

And, I am not someone who goes to bed early so what am I supposed to do after the parks close? Downtown Disney did nothing for me when I went in August. I will probably end up down there one night and Saturday we are running the race so I guess its not that bad. I could just hang around the pool the other night. There are worse things, right?

 

[LadyDi13]

It has been a long time since I posted on these boards but my husband and I are registered for the Tower of Terror, so I have been stalking this thread. I figured I would chime in because I saw there are a couple other folks from NoVa on here and the subject of local 10Ks came up. We are registered for the Herndon Festival 10K on June 1st. We just did a 5 mile training run yesterday and survived. We mapped the course and since we are relatively familiar with the area figure it is pretty flat. Hopefully the weather cooperates and we have comfortable temps for the 8am start.
I am returning to running since having my right knee reconstructed after an ACL tear last year. I am not looking for an amazing time to submit to Disney, just one to keep me out of the last corral. I am sure with almost 5 more months of training I can make improvements to my pacing.
Happy Monday!

 

[moose615]

I actually enjoy planning the trip. Even when I am not going on a trip I will occassionally "plan" one because I like to see how much things are at different times of the year so when I finally do go back I have more information to help me in my actual planning. Some might say that is a waste of time but it gives me my Disney fix and gives me information for my next trip. That's why its weird that the Halloween party caught me off guard. I am familiar with it. I just didn't know it started that early or that the parks would close that early because of it so when I saw the parks were closed so early I didn't put 2 and 2 together and was caught off guard. What's frustrating is that you spend all this money on park tickets and you don't get the same hours all year. So, someone going in early October, for example, gets less for their money than someone going in August. And, I am not someone who goes to bed early so what am I supposed to do after the parks close? Downtown Disney did nothing for me when I went in August. I will probably end up down there one night and Saturday we are running the race so I guess its not that bad. I could just hang around the pool the other night. There are worse things, right?

That's how we are planning it, MNSSHP will be the only park experience other then the villains party after the race. So what little time we do have will be expo, shopping, swimming and dining.

I agree, with the cut hours and the extra ticket cost, it is frustrating, 2 weeks before the ToT trip, I will be at Universal Studios on another trip and recently found out the Halloween Horror Nights are on the last day, I've already bought park tickets so one park closes early and they give the option of buying another ticket to the Halloween. Event or go to the other park. So I'll have to decide in Aug. what we are gonna do.

 

[AThrillingChase]

Hi everyone, took a small hiatus after my WDW trip a month and a half ago so I am just catching up on this board

But the dining plan is FREE. There is no cost besides the requirment to buy 2 days worth of park tickets. I booked my room, 4 nights at All Stars Music, 2 days of park tickets which I had planned on purchasing any way, and that wasy the total. Got the dining plan for free. I could have used the room discount for one day but only one day fell in the window.

Now I know that you can book park tickets through Run Disney and get a three day pass with hopper for 30% off. But if you're not planning on doing that, why would you not get the FREE dining?? Am I missing something?

No, you're right, you either have to chose the room discount or the free dining, can't do both. But the room discounts end on 10-3. The difference with the free dining is as long as your check in date is 10-3 or earlier, you receive the free dining. So we check in on the 3rd. I would have only received a room discount on that one night eventhough I will be there four nights, only the 3rd fall into that window. But with the free dining, since we are checking in on the 3rd, we get it for all four days. So that's why it was cheaper for us.

As far as not being able to buy the tickets separately, in order to get the free dining, you have to book the room with at least 2 days of park tickets. So, if you needed more than two day, yeah, you could get the 2 days through them and the free dining and then buy other tickets at a discount, but we only needed the two.

So for us, it was a matter of booking 4 nights and receiving a discount for just one night with two days of tickets. Or book 4 nights, two days of tickets and free dining for 4 days.


Before this I was totally like you. I thought it was a scam and a waste of my time. But since it went hand in hand with our trip and basically I missed out saving $22 with the room discount to saving probably close to $200 with the free dining.

I booked my hotel quite some time ago, but are all the rundisney hotel discounts used/full already? As others have said free dining isn't "free" it just replaces a room discount. Depending on what hotel you pick it could be about the same savings (a rundisney room discount at the beach club = more $ saved than the cost of the dining plan because they work on % discounts vs. a % off at all stars). But if there are any rooms left with rundisney + discount tickets, that's likely a better deal than dining. But, I also find dining to be too restricting since I will eat most meals at the food and wine festival! (so excited for this) And the dining plan only allows for one of these selections as a snack (plus still owing a tip and no alcohol covered).

So they kick people out at 7pm unless they bought a ticket to the party? What time do they do the parade and fireworks? Do I have to buy a ticket to the party to see the parade and fireworks? How much are the tickets and where can I buy one?

Why do the other parks close so early too then? Oh boy, now I may have to rethink all my plans.

I saw some discussion about if they will kick you out of the parties at 7pm. I just went to MVMCP this past year and can confirm yes. By 7:30 CM's were stationed at all the walkways to different lands and on main street and turning people around to the exit if they tried to pass. I was even stopped between haunted mansion and the Rapunzel bathrooms because I had just slipped a jacket on and it covered my band.

 

[RunDisney Crazy]

Just a couple of comments. Love the idea of the Brita Water filter bottles. Going to definitely have to get one. That's one advantage of the dining plan. I'll use my reusable cup to get a cold drink and stock up on my one free bottled water or powerade at each meal, so I'll have them for the race and pre-race to hydrate.
We used Garden Grocer in January, mostly for snacks, bottle water and powerade and loved it. It was no fuss, delivered to room and prices were pretty good. The only down side was the $40 minimum (I think it was 40) order.

We running into the same problem. We don't plan on going to the Halloween party but was planning on going to MK on that Sunday, 10-5. I've hit a lot of the discussions and it appears that it may not be 7 but not too long afterwards you'll be escorted out of the park. Some people swear by the party and others can leave it. I would like to see it but can't see spending 134 for two people. I think we'll take the money, have some adult drinks somewhere close to the park that has outdoor seating a good view of the fireworks.

Does anyone know of a good outdoor area with drinks to watch the fireworks???

 

[Chaitali]

Does anyone know of a good outdoor area with drinks to watch the fireworks???

I went to Disney Worl in October with my brother a couple years ago and we had a great time watching the fireworks from the beach at the Polynesian Resort, adult drinks in hand. We also got to watch the electric water pageant go by. I don't know if this has changed due to the construction at the Poly? If so, I've heard that you can also watch the fireworks from an observation deck at the Contemporary Resort but I haven't tried that one.

For what it's worth, my brother and I went to the MK on a party day. We were there at rope drop and did everything we wanted to do by 5:30pm. We didn't get kicked out because we were ready to leave before 7. The low crowds during the day really helped. We left around 5:30 and were able to get ready and rest before our dinner at California Grill. You can see the fireworks from a deck at the restaurant so that's an option as well if you wanted to eat there anyway.

 

[RunDisney Crazy]

Great info. Thanks a bunch!!!

 

[annmarieda]

I just wanted to share. I had my first 5k on a relatively flat course today and managed to finish in less than 40 minutes! My previous time was over 42 minutes. I'm hoping this bodes well for my first 10k a month from now.

Congrats!!

can I vent just for a minute? I completed a 10K yesterday (my first ever!) and haven't been training yet, so I knew my time would be really really bad, but I wanted proof of time to submit to RunDisney to try for a different corral placement. (I am just looking for an advantage in not getting swept )

Anyway, I wasn't sure if I was even gonna go, it was an hour and a half drive, and since I haven't been training I wasn't sure if I could even beat the sweep time....

But I did! At a 14:30 pace... So here is the venting part...I was like 10 minutes slower than the finisher before me, and apparently they didn't scan my chip (or the chip of the person who came in after me) Not sure exactly how that works, but the official results are posted online and I am not on them

The clock was still running when I crossed, and a race official did take the bottom of my bib, so I'm totally bummed. It's discouraging. I know I'm slow, but I don't see why they can't post a correct final result, at least online! I say that because I've done a few races where when they post the initial results on the fence or whatever, so age group people can see where they placed, and they've never posted the final results there either. So I don't get to take pictures of my name like everyone else does, boo.

But this time it really smarts because I REALLY wanted that proof to submit to Disney. I've contacted the only contact person I can find for the race, hopefully they can correct it. It just kind of put a damper on the day.

Anyway, thanks ya'll for listening

Boo... I am sorry. I hope that you are able to get the race officials to sort it out.

I did my first 10k yesterday too. I had a 14:30 pace and for me that is pretty good. I just wanted something to send to Disney so I could hopefully move out of the very back. Now it's time to really focus on training.

congrats!!

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there. Well figured I'd share my good running/health news. I ran a 5k and injured myself about a month ago, had to skip a 10k I planned on turning in for time. Went to the Doc last week, he said I have "million mile of tread left on the tired" and that I inflamed a tendon, feeling a lot better hoping to start running again sometime this week and do another 10k before July.

The other good news, I've been a smoker for about 17 year and with running, one of them had to go so I chose to keep running and stop smoking, I am on day 3 of no nicotine and close to feeling great, some people have said it takes a week to get out of your system. I am looking forward to breathing and running better for a healthier life.

That is so impressive! Good for you in taking that step!

 

[PrincessV]

I just wanted to share. I had my first 5k on a relatively flat course today and managed to finish in less than 40 minutes! My previous time was over 42 minutes. I'm hoping this bodes well for my first 10k a month from now.

That's great - congrats on your new PR!

But this time it really smarts because I REALLY wanted that proof to submit to Disney. I've contacted the only contact person I can find for the race, hopefully they can correct it.

That's all sorts of messed up - I'd be fuming! Fingers crossed you're able to get it fixed!

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there. Well figured I'd share my good running/health news. I ran a 5k and injured myself about a month ago, had to skip a 10k I planned on turning in for time. Went to the Doc last week, he said I have "million mile of tread left on the tired" and that I inflamed a tendon, feeling a lot better hoping to start running again sometime this week and do another 10k before July.

The other good news, I've been a smoker for about 17 year and with running, one of them had to go so I chose to keep running and stop smoking, I am on day 3 of no nicotine and close to feeling great, some people have said it takes a week to get out of your system. I am looking forward to breathing and running better for a healthier life.

Lots of good news - yay!

So they kick people out at 7pm unless they bought a ticket to the party?

Yes, they absolutely do. I go to MNSSHP each year and can vouch that they set up check points - you can't get through the check points without showing your party wristband. Guests without wristbands are turned back to the exit.

 

[moose615]

That is so impressive! Good for you in taking that step!

Thank you for the support!

 

[VAfamily1998]

It has been a long time since I posted on these boards but my husband and I are registered for the Tower of Terror, so I have been stalking this thread. I figured I would chime in because I saw there are a couple other folks from NoVa on here and the subject of local 10Ks came up. We are registered for the Herndon Festival 10K on June 1st. We just did a 5 mile training run yesterday and survived. We mapped the course and since we are relatively familiar with the area figure it is pretty flat. Hopefully the weather cooperates and we have comfortable temps for the 8am start.

Awesome, thanks for the assurance that it is pretty flat! That is one we are considering doing--June 1 is my birthday too--so I could have double reason to go out and celebrate after the race