January Family Trip and February Princess Half Pre Trip

Well, one night is nowhere near long enough at AKL. I could sit on the balcony for hours! We will be staying there again in the future for sure
After we checked out we headed to MK. Had FP at space mountain, Peter Pan and mine train. We traded a couple pins and got a really yummy milk chocolate s'mores square at the confectionary
Tomorrow is our last day in Florida we're planning on hitting up DTD for some last minute shopping.

Well this is the first time I've returned from a trip without getting the Disney blues! Only because I'm going back one month from tomorrow for Princess

We arrived home Thursday night. It was so snowy, I couldn't see the runway until we landed on it I've been bust catching up at work ever since but I've finally uploaded my pictures!

Here is a final recap of our trip:
Weather- warm and sunny for the first few days then cooled off closer to marathon weekend. Warmed up a bit after the weekend but not quite as warm as sunny as before. Still beats North Bay

Accommodations- Our rental house was nice. It was just one floor, we all had our own room and separate bathrooms and it never felt crowded with all 7 of us. The pool was nice but the hot tub didn't get as hot as it should have. Jambo was amazing! It was hard to only stay there one night. I wanted to spend way more time on the balcony (we had a savannah view).

Universal Studios- We did both parks in one day. I'm a huge HP fan so I loved those areas. The train was really cool too! There were way too may people to be able to get a good look around in the shops but the Gringotts ride was fun. The Simpsons area was also fun. They've added alot more since our last visit. We had Krusty burgers and Buzz cola for lunch!

Disney Parks- I'll state the obvious....AWESOME!

Food- We ate at several new places. Breakfast at 'Ohana was really good. It was a good way to get some character pictures with my nephew. Yak and Yeti CS was good and so were the samosas we got at a kiosk (I think it was Mr Kamals). Chef Mickey's was exactly as I've read: loud, expensive, rushed characters. But I've wanted to go there since forever and I don't regret it. I just won't go again anytime soon. I did however like the food, but not enough for the price. I'll stick to Garden Grill I can't get enough of those chocolate macaroon ice cream sandwiches from the France pavillion! Sunshine Seasons never disappoints.

5K Race- COLD! It was a chilly 0 degrees with a brutal wind chill. We were not prepared for it! Luckily I had just happened to buy some new running pants and sweat shirt the day before (I didn't pack any warm running gear!). The worst part was the waiting around for 2 hours until our corral started. Once we were off is was great! We warmed up quickly and had a blast.

Half Marathon- Still on the chilly side but not as bad as the 5K. I was cold in my Rapunzel costume but again, once we got running it was fine. Getting up at 3:00am wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. We finished the race just under 3 hours which was our goal so we were pretty excited! I've read many times that if you plan to run in costume, you should wear it during a training run to make sure it's comfortable. I did not listen. I regretted it. My dress chaiffed really bad around my waist and left my skin pretty raw. At least I know to wear a shirt underneath for next time

Overall- A great family vacation! The only low I can think of was dinner at the Mara at Jambo. The food was really good, the problem was we ordered it then waited for half an hour to get it. That's a pretty long wait at a counter service. Ah well, we enjoyed it anyway.

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well after barely being back for a week, my countdown is at 25 days! If only I could go this often all the time.
Anyway here is my Princess weekend pretrip:

Since Erik would rather go ice racing ( crazy, I know), my Dad is coming on this trip with me. The reason I'm going to is run the Glass Slipper challenge during Princess weekend ( my Dad is not running). The Glass Slipper challenge means I run a 10K one day and then a Half the next. We are staying at BLT so I can just grab the monorail to the races. My Dad is pretty excited to check out the resort and see what the deluxe is all about.

Here is a look at our plans so far

Thursday Feb 19 Fly into MCO and hop on DME to BLT. We arrive later (around 8pm) so we'll probably just grab dinner at Contempo Cafe and relax.

Friday Feb 20 I have to attend the expo to pick up my race gear then we're off to Epcot. FP+ for Spaceship Earth, Soarin and Mission Space. We might hop over to MK at some point ( it is on the way home afterall )

Saturday feb 21 10K race! I'll be getting up around 3am and heading to Epcot. After the race we are going to AK for the morning then heading to HS. We have FP+ for Toy Story, Lights motors action and TOT.

Sunday Feb 22 Half Marathon! Again I'll be getting up at 3am After the race there's a good chance a nap will be required. Then we head to MK. We have FP+ for Splash MT, Thunder MT and 7DMT. We also have an ADR for dinner at the Crystal Palace. Not sure if we'll stay for Wishes or head to the TOTWL to watch them. My dad wants to go up there at some point so maybe this night. Or Thursday even.

Monday Feb 23 Packing up my medals and heading home. Our flight is around noon so there's not much time for anything except breakfast

Yes! I can't wait
I'm not sure if I'll be up that late on Friday. Gotta rest up for that race

Only 4 Days left
I'm starting to get nervous. It's been very cold here which has been making training hard since I hate running on the treadmill. This is also going to be the first time I've run a race by myself. I'm not sure I'm going to like that
The realization that Erik is not coming with me this trip is also starting to set in. I'm pretty bummed out about it. At least it's only a 4 night trip and he will be off ice racing all weekend so it's not like he'll be sitting at home alone. I still can't believe someone would choose to ice race instead of going to Disney

Thanks guys!

Thanks
I love having two trips so close! I wish it was like this all the time

Thanks Kristen
I keep trying to remind myself that running the race alone is totally different from training alone. During training, it's just me running through the streets but at disney there will be 20,000+ other runners!

My Dad and I were grumbling about how when we arrive in Orlando it's supposed to go down to -1C that night. Then we saw here it was going to be -38C with the windchill. Suddenly -1C doesn't seem so bad

Sitting at the airport. Poor Erik is sick today which made it even harder to leave him