Trip Report: DVC Split Stay, MNSSHP, F&W, & ToT 10-miler (Complete)

AKA the most stressful Disney trip ever. Ok, not really. After all, we do have 11 days to accomplish everything. My biggest source of stress is that I'm running the ToT 10-miler on the next to last day of our stay, which means that I will have to keep a tighter reign on what I am eating than I otherwise would and we will have to pace ourselves with park touring so that my feet are still cooperating by race day. I knowingly did this to myself though. We scheduled the trip from September 25-October 5 long before I decided to do the race. Those dates allowed us to take advantage of two free vacation days for Benn because the law firm where he works will be closed for the Jewish holidays. I've been wanting to do a runDisney event and ToT was the only one the corresponded with any of our trips this year. I knew when I signed up that it was on the last full day of an 11-day trip, so I knowingly put myself in this situation, but now that tomorrow marks 2-months until race day, I'm starting to get nervous!!

Also, this will be our first split stay and we are visiting three different resorts--Wilderness Lodge Villas, Bay Lake Tower, and Saratoga Springs. I was trying to get Grand Floridian Villas at the end of the trip, but when I couldn't get it at the 7-month window, we opted to save some points and stick with Saratoga. As it turned out, that was a solid plan because we ended up using some of those points to snag a room at Boardwalk for a quick weekend in August.

SO the plans so far are as follows:

Thursday, September 25
Arrive at MCO around 12:30pm, grab the rental car and head to WLV for 3 nights
ADR: Very late lunch at Whispering Canyon
FP+ Test Track & Maelstrom (this combo worked for this day, but not for any others on our itinerary???)
Dinner: grazing at F&W
Meet up with Amy & TheColonel for IllumiNations

Friday, September 26

Hollywood Studios w/ FP+ at Toy Story, ToT (Benn only--I'll be at Animation Academy), Star Tours
Lunch: Probably at Fairfax Faire or maybe give Backlot Express another try
Dinner: Possibly pop over to EPCOT for F&W. If we do, that will definitely be early.
Fantasmic!
Pool time--hoping to be able to see Wishes from the DVC pool at WLV. Has anyone tried this before?

Saturday, September 27
Magic Kingdom w/ FP+ for BTMR, 7DMT, and PPF
Lunch @ Columbia Harbor House or Pecos Bill's
Hang out in the park and catch Festival of Fantasy or maybe take a nap before dinner
Dinner ADR @ 'Ohana
Head back to MK for evening festivities

Sunday, September 28
Check-in at BLT
MK w/ FP+ at BTMR, Meet Cinderella, and Haunted Mansion
Today's must-ride is the WDW Railroad because it goes down for maintenance on 9/29
Lunch ADR @ The Wave
afternoon nap/ get ready for MNSSHP!!!
arrive back at MK around 3pm (maybe this would be a better day to catch Festival of Fantasy)
collect our party map and bracelets around 4pm
Dinner at Pinocchio's
MNSSHP!! Priorities are Boo to You, HalloWishes, meet & greets

Monday, September 29
AK w/ FP+ for FoLK, Kali, and Primeval Whirl (Plan to ride Kilimanjaro first thing during EMH)
I had a FP for Benn for Everest, but the way he talked today, I don't think he wants to do it again, so I guess he'll get to try Primeval Whirl with me.
Lunch will probably be at Flame Tree because we love the food there, but we're also considering trying Yak & Yeti.
After lunch, we'll head over to Blizzard Beach. We've never done the water parks and I've been wanting to check them out. Hopefully I can coax Benn into a round of mini golf at Winter Summerland when we're done.
Dinner is most likely at Contempo Cafe
Evening is probably hang out at the pool or walk to MK for the sheer novelty of the fact that we can.

Tuesday, September 30
EPCOT w FP+ for Character Spot, Test Track, and Spaceship Earth (probably not going to use--hoping to switch to Maelstrom)
It's a MEMH day, so we'll probably do Soarin' on Standby.
Lunch & Dinner are F&W booths or WS quick service
Afternoon activity is WS cruising
Evening activity is pool time! Once again, hoping we can sort of see part of Wishes from the pool??

Wednesday, October 1
MK w/ FP+ for Space Mountain, Buzz, and Anna & Elsa
CoP will be re-opened today, so surely we'll take advantage of that opportunity.
Lunch is an ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern
We'll take a pool break before heading over to EPCOT to graze food & wine for dinner and then hang out at the resort and since this is our last night at BLT, go to Wishes at Top of the World

Thursday, October 2
First order of business is check-in at SSR, then onto EPCOT
FP+ for Soarin', Journey into Imagination, and the Seas (probably unused); This will be a "run directly to Test Track" day
Since we're there, lunch is F&W
Afternoon activity is DisneyQuest and we're hoping to hit Characters in Flight.
Dinner will e EoS and the evening will likely be spent at the pool

Friday, October 3
Back to MK w/ FP for Barnstormer, 7DMT, and PPF
Lunch will probably be at Casey's Corner before hitting Typhoon Lagoon. After TL, we need to stop by the Run Disney Expo to pick up my race packet.
Dinner is TBD--maybe since we're down at ESPN, we might swing offsite to Bahama Breeze
If I haven't maxed Benn out on Wishes, we might head up to Top of the World and check out HalloWishes again.

Saturday, October 4
Race day...
We'll start at DHS w/ FP+ for TSM, Star Tours, and VotLM.
After a morning at a nice relaxing place, we'll probably boat over to DTD and have lunch at EoS. After that, it's enjoying some resort time and catching a nap. We'll probably have dinner at Turf Club. I'm still checking menus and debating on the best pre-race food.
I don't know yet when and where I have to report, but the race starts at 10 flowed immediately by the Villain's Bash where Benn will be hanging out waiting for me.

Sunday, October 5
We have no plans to break any speed records getting up, but we'll probably try to squeeze in one more brief MK morning. I do have FP+ for BTMR, 7DMT, and PPF if we wake up early enough to go, but we do have to leave the park by 1:00 to make it to the airport on time. If we go to the park, lunch will be somewhere CS--maybe end on BOG if we have time.

So that's the tentative plan. It will certainly continue to evolve over the next 52 days. Hopefully we're also meeting up with Sally-Ann at some point--still working out those details!

Firsts for us on this trip are MNSSHP, doing a runDisney event, split stay, staying at BLT, staying at Wilderness, Food & Wine, Disney Water Parks, eating at Whispering Canyon, 'Ohana, Turf Club, and the Wave.

I feel like we might be a little bit heavy on MK time and a little bit light on DHS time, but we'll be spending a large part of our August weekend at DHS, so I think it's ok. The spreadsheet looks light on EPCOT, but we will most likely have 6 meals at F&W and we actually have a fair number of FW FP's, so it should be fine. I scheduled way more peripheral activities time than usual, but this is our last trip on the PAP and I want to take the time to experience the Water Parks. Benn really liked DisneyQuest when we were there in December, so I want to make sure he has time to do that again while it's "free". We'll also be spending more time than usual at the pool. We really enjoyed that on our May trip.