Princess 5K Trip Report - Complete

Yes!!! I grew up with Alabama Football (college) and Roll Tide is what you say to Bama fans when you see them. None of it really goes together, an elephant for a mascot, we are called the Crimson Tide but there is a reason for all of it and it works!

Mine do too here and there, but this one got a full work over adding mom into the mix. Someday, I will get my solo trip!!

The trip has begun. We've stopped in Longwood at 4 Rivers Smokehouse for lunch. We're about 45 minutes from the park!! Heading to the expo to pick up my packet from here and then check in to Pop!!!!

Just got in the room. Bottom floor, 70's sectiin close to food court! About to head to Expo then who knows!!

I'm a cheesehead too!!!!! Back to the Bart Starr days!!! Thanks, I'm in the parking lot now dancing and trying not to think about my anxiety

Hi all! I survived the race! It was amazing!!! Sitting in Via Napoli now!

Wow, I didn't do too good with the "live" thing lol. I'm laying here now thinking about not wanting to go home.

First of all, Thanks everyone! The race was fantastic!!!!

While there were mostly highs on this trip, there was a couple of lows

I made lots of notes so hopefully I won't miss anything. Heading home soon and will update tonight or Tuesday!

Well, I am home. I would think this would get easier and heading down I wouldn't be as excited but NOPE. I go thru all of the emotions every time!

So here we go with the full trip report. As you recall, it was supposed to be just me on my first very much anticipated solo trip. Until.... Mom asked to go. I can't tell my mom no so it's now a trip for the both of us. Mom has been a couple of times but only with Blondie, this is her first "adult trip". Needless to say, she now wants to go back alone.

Wednesday - I worked a full day and arrived home to mom sitting on my couch as I yelled "are you ready??" I would have left right then if we had a room booked somewhere between here and Jacksonville. So, we chatted a bit, I showered, finished packing and then it was to bed early.

Thursday - We were out the door and on the road by 6:06am We stopped at a gas station for coffee and a snack. The snack was horrible. We both ended up with the same pack of crackers and they were hard as rocks. So we stopped again at Hardee's and got biscuits. They were much better and we were headed for 95 South!

We got into the Orlando vicinity around lunch time and we were too hungry to carry on. We can not pass up 4 Rivers Smokehouse so we pulled into the Longwood location. EVERYTHING was awesome as usual. Back in the truck and headed to Disney after getting full!!! We were going to go straight to the Expo but POP is right across from ESPN so we checked in first. Since we were room only, we didn't have to pay in full until we checked in. I got a text saying a charge was placed on my card and then one saying the room was ready so our first order of business was to get this fixed as mom was going to pay her half at check in. There was no problems and it was quickly credited to my card and placed on hers. We hooked her CC to her Magicband and headed for the room. We settled in and were off again.

The Expo was not as crazy as I expected but it was busy. There was no one waiting in my section to pick up my bib. I was then directed to the Jolsten's Center to collect my shirt. Very sneaky Disney, very sneaky... I don't see why you can't get them both in the same place... Oh wait, yes I do, you can spend more money in the actual EXPO!!! This is also the first of a couple of not so magical things happened this day. I wanted the Ariel shoes. I mean REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted them. I told mom if they were under $200 I was getting them. Well a lady trying them on gave me the best news, they were only $120... At the same time, you have to register to even purchase them. Which I knew nothing about. I was in tears talking to the girl at the counter. I have the EXACT shoe, I knew what size I needed and I didn't even need to try them on and they still would not let me purchase them. I handed her my credit card and said "you don't want my money?" No luck. (I was giving all the girls I saw with them on all weekend the evil eye) At least I know for next year. I could have registered for the virtual queue for the next couple of days but you don't know what your time would be and we had ADRs and FPs booked.

***I just looked to see if by chance there were any online for purchase, apparently you could go Saturday without an appointment, the info I was given was there were no walk ups. I am really irritated now***

Anywho, a very sad princess was off to Disney Springs. We stopped in the Ganachery for chocolates. We only go the Crispy Chocolate Pearls in Caramel and Dark Chocolate which were really good. We strolled along and hit the Starbucks where I waited TEN minutes for a cup of water (the parks have them ready and just hand them to you) I picked up 2 Pandora charms in World of Disney and was told by a CM at the Pin booth that they don't have the Chase Visa pins. UMMM, yes you do. This happened several more times, to be explained later.

Anywho, moving on, I was tired hungry and a little upset at this point. We ended up heading back to Pop and grabbing a slice of pizza and a caesar salad, grabbed a Marathon Power Pack (banana, blueberries, bagel, peanut butter, power bar for $9.99) shopping at the gift shop where I picked up a Rey pin for Blondie, and then hitting the sack... I had an early morning ahead of me!

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Friday - Race Day!!!

I was in bed by 9 on Thursday night. But, I was up about every 30-45 minutes feeling sick and checking my phone thinking I was going to over sleep and miss the bus. I am not a fan of large crowds. This trip was about me doing this race alone and knowing I could do it. All my other 5ks have been with my nanny (a friend who is amazing at keeping me calm in large crowd situations) I was worried all night. I finally woke up around 2:45 and could not go back to sleep. I had to be on a bus by 4:45 so I stayed up and waited.

I was dressed and out the door around 4:25. We were in a "preferred room" so we were pretty close to the bus stop. I was on a bus and on the way by 4:35. I was nearly in tears on the packed bus (a woman's "ya know" was right in my face the entire time) I nearly considered taking the bus back to the resort as everyone was getting off. Instead I sucked it up and decided I was doing this. Boy am I glad I did! It was by far the BEST thing I have ever done at Disney. I am already plotting and planning when I can go do another one!!!!

The music and atmosphere before the race begins is electrifying! Everyone was super friendly and I never felt like I wasn't good enough or fast enough to be there. There were woman (and men) of all shapes, sizes and experience there. Many people who were just walking or like me doing intervals of running and walking. It was exhilarating! I loved every single second of it once I stepped off of that bus! Being alone was a little tough at times. Like waiting on our corral to be released. I talked to a few people but I spent a lot of time telling myself I could do it! There were people finishing the race before the last corral (mine) was off.

Going behind the scenes of Epcot was well worth it alone. I got pics going in the back gate, running under test track, the back of Mexico. The sunrise was spectacular also! I finished a little faster than I anticipated and was quickly in line for a bus back to the resort in no time. It was time to shower and head out!!!

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Thanks ladies! I've done a couple of other 5ks but this took the cake! From beginning to end! Even walking thru the parks and around the resort with either my medal or my shirt, getting all of the congratulations from CMs was wonderful!!

The rest of day 2 - mom had of course stayed in the room while I did my thing. I got back to the resort and she was ready to go. I quickly showered and off we headed to our first park. Animal Kingdom. The park opened about 40 minutes before we got there so there was already quite a line for the safari so we just roamed around the trails. Animals were out and active everywhere. We came out just in time to catch FOTLK! Mom had never seen it before. We were seated in the warthog section which was new for me and it just felt wrong. I've never sat on that side. but you know what? It was still great!!!

By the end, I was starting to get really hungry! We stopped at the stand that sells edamame. I told the CM "give me all your edamame I'm starving!" She just laughed and said "that's a lot of edamame!" For some reason the Magicband scanner wasn't working so I got the edamame and my water for free! The CM said she wasn't sure what was wrong and didn't want me hungry!

From here we headed to Everest... Here is another not so magical event. I was going to hop in the single rider line and take a couple spins. Well, there was a 20 minute wait. TWENTY!!!!! The standby line was 30 minutes but families and friends in groups of 3+ were getting in line and just riding alone. Why not wait in line and ride together. I only rode once. I usually go about 5 or 6 times when it is just me. Not today. When I got off the first time the SR line was longer than when I got on.

I also checked AK Outfitter for my Visa pin, no luck here either. - I'm getting upset at this point...

We did everything we wanted to do here so off to find lunch. I suggested Flame Tree but mom shot that down so I said how about RainForest Cafe as we walked past, she said sure. We grabbed a hightop by the bar with no wait at all. We had 2 fabulous servers (I wish I had their names) and a pretty good snack. We ordered the awesome appetizer adventure which had eggrolls, guacamole, crab dip, chips, chicken fingers and cheese sticks. It also came with what we thought was honey mustard. NOPE, it was coconut curry and I could have gotten a glass and drank it with a straw. It reminded me of Samoa Girl Scout cookies. It was good on everything!

From here we headed over to Epcot! First stop was at the Pin shop. Of course, I was told we don't have the Visa pin.... I walked over to mom who was standing on the other side and told her what the CM said. As I was telling her, I saw the other CM open a drawer and pull out a pin. She walked up to me and said "this one?" YES!!!!!!!! I told her that she needed to tell all the CM's at the locations that provide the pins what they are. Pin in hand we started strolling around. Nothing major planned but dinner at Via Napoli at 8:30... I got a text as we were coming up on the International Gateway from Kris, we both happened to be heading for slushes in France so we got to meet up! She was with her sister in law Michelle. They were both wonderful to talk to and yay for another meet up!!!

I was wearing down from being up for so long and the race, we headed to Via Napoli around 5:45 to see if anything opened up early. Well, they got us right in. The pizza was amazing and the wine was divine! We headed back to Pop for some rest.

I was also quite excited that many of the Flower and Garden topiarys were up!

**I forgot, we watched the end of Hollywood Studios fireworks from our building Thursday night and the entire show this night. The view is perfect over Art of Animation!**

**oh and the wi-fi was awful in our room**

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Day 3 Saturday - I woke up finally feeling the effects of a 5k and 2 parks. I was a little sore but that was not going to stop me. I had a breakfast ADR pre-park opening for Be Our Guest!

We were up and out of the room fairly early. I didn't want to depend on Disney transport so we drove to MK. Luckily for us we did this, the Monorail to MK was down at TTC so we had to take the resort side with a couple extra stops at Poly and GF. I was "randomly" selected to go thru the metal detector, I laughed and asked if it was my ears. The guy said of course, that is why you must leave them in to go thru! Success!!!! I passed. On to a line to get in and another line to wait for the park to open to us. At 7:40 they let us in. We made a beeline to BOG, I wanted to eat and ride Mine Train! We stopped for a couple of pics of the castle and the Partners statue with no one around. We were 3rd in line for breakfast. The CMs came out to welcome us all and we were in! We had pre-ordered so I paid and we were the first guests to sit down! Well, 25 minutes later EVERYONE around us had food. 3 different CMs came by looked at our tickets and said "your food will be right out" The 4th came over and before she could say it, I did.... Food arrived with no urgency, apologies or explanations. It was ok. Nothing to write home about and I doubt I would do it again.

I did get on Mine Train twice (once front row) with no wait! When they let us thru, people were running and yelling to hurry, and I got tripped. THERE IS NO LINE AND THE PARK IS NOT OPEN. I wonder what goes thru peoples minds???

After we hopped on Peter Pan (which already had a 20 minute wait at 9:05), the carousel and Belle's storytime. Mom and I split up for a bit after that. I rode the People Mover and rode over to Tom Sawyer's Island. I relaxed and did some people watching and used my FP for Mine Train.

I lucked up and scored free freshly popped pop corn as I was in line and a guy walked right in front of me and ordered a drink. The CM was very nice and offered to help me instead. I looked at the guy and said "no go ahead, obviously he doesn't know better, I can wait." He looked like one of those types who is a real bleep bleep bleep. When I ordered she informed me there was no popcorn at the time but she could hear it popping. I was fine with waiting. Fresh popcorn is the best. She only charged me for my coke and she held the container under the popcorn as it was coming out! DELISH and worth the hassle of the bleep bleep bleeper.

I headed back to meet mom. We roamed around a bit and ended up going over to Space Mountain to customize myself a phone case. While there I sat in one of the massage chairs. It was the best two bucks I spent the whole trip! LOL

We decided to part ways again. Her to roam and me to the resort to nap. I was really feeling tired at this point and my legs were a little sore... I arrived at Pop and headed to Petals Bar for a couple cocktails to knock me out and I took quite the good nap!

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