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

Thanks, Ken!

Hooray!! I've started a trend! That was Benn's hand by the way. He's such a dork...LOL! Stay tuned...Evil Queen pics coming soon.

Thanks, Colonel! This sounds like our assessment of Blizzard Beach/Typhoon Lagoon.

DAY 10: DHS/ DTD

Race day!! Planning the day in a reasonable fashion was a little bit tricky because most of the planning advice as far as timing, sleep, meals, etc. that's out there pertains to a morning race. So we decided that it was reasonable to go to a park for a few hours in the morning, have a sensible lunch, take a good long nap, have a sensible dinner, and then a few light snacks closer to race time. I knew for sure that AK and EPCOT were out today. AK always wears me out because of the crowded feeling and lack of respite from the sun and heck, EPCOT stands for Every Person Comes Out Tired, so that was out of the question. We had gone to MK the day before and that would be our destination for our wrap-up morning, so DHS won by default. Also, we had neglected the studios a bit on this trip after spending practically the entire weekend there in August. We woke up to blissfully cooler weather (I think our high was in the mid 70's today) and...wait for it...A RAIN-FREE DAY . It was as if the race gods had smiled upon us.

Off to DHS we trekked for our last full day at Disney . Once again, we arrived shortly before rope drop and happened upon extra magic hours. To say that I did not plan obsessively for this trip is an understatement. I think we had that happen 3 different times and it was just because I hadn't noted MEMH in my plan. Apparently by trip #5 in 12 months, I had become very relaxed with the schedule. Since we got in a head of the masses, we did enjoy a reasonably short wait for Toy Story--about 20 minutes I think. Then we used our FP to ride again right away. It was a great start to the day because I got my highest score ever AND I was the highest score in the car! I was still a kitty though. Some day I'll be a deer! We had intended to go to Frozen Funland and play int he snow again, but it was closed! I guess the peripheral stuff was only until he end of September. I misunderstood and thought that they had extended the whole Frozen Summer Fun through the end of the year, but apparently they only extended Wandering Oaken's and the Sing-a-long. Everything else ended in September, so I'm sure glad that we had an opportunity to get to see everything before it closed. When I realized that it was gone, it finally clicked as to why the stage had been missing form in front of the hat.

I wanted to go to animation academy again and after Benn did it once, he doesn't want to go anymore, so he went over to hang out at the Star Wars store while I drew an Eeyore. Not my favorite, but for never watching a frame of Winnie the Pooh, I thought he turned out ok. We had a FP for Little Mermaid this morning. I love that show and I'm not gonna lie--it's mostly for the bubbles. The last few times we tried to see it, we were to the point where we were going to wait through the remainder of one show and all of another if we joined the line, so we just skipped it. I'm glad we made it a priority to go this time. I like it so much better than the Beauty and the Beast show. Our FP on Star Tours was a waste because the line was so super short. They've really improved the loading and unloading efficiency on they ride. Unless it's Star Wars Weekend, we hardly ever have to wait more than 5 minutes here any more. It was 11:30 by the time that we got off the ride and our friend Jordan who graduates from Full Sail in Orlando this month was meeting us at SSR to walk over to Earl of Sandwich for lunch, so we had to book it back to the room.

I'm not sure why we rushed because Jordan is usually late and today was no exception. He did finally find us around 12:15. We walked over to get a sandwich and it was 12:30 on the Saturday of a race weekend where 12,000 runners were making an effort to lay low during the day. The line was out the door, but in typical EoS fashion, it moved very quickly. We still had our Characters in Flight vouchers, so made our way to the West End. I can't wait for this renovation to be done. The walkways are just chaos right now. We saw the balloon flying when we arrived for lunch and of course by the time we walked all the way over there, it was too windy to fly. Since this was our last chance to ride, I asked the gentleman working the window what could be done about our vouchers since we had tried and failed to use them several times since April. He was very accommodating and he said that they could cash out the value and give me three free tickets, which was a slightly better deal than what the coupon promised me. I asked him if I could swap one voucher for a pin and instead of swapping, he gave me the pin for free and still gave me all three vouchers for a future use. I thought that was really great of him. Instead of walking back through marketplace to get home, we tried to take the water taxi, but it was taking forever and the line was really long, so there was no guarantee that we would even get on the next boat, so we decided to walk back to SSR from the West End through the golf course route. Wow that was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be---so much for resting my feet today! We said goodbye to Jordan and it was nap time.

Our friend Jordan

When we woke up, I felt completely refreshed and ready to go. We had about an hour and a half until dinner, so I laid out the clothes I would need for the remainder of the trip and started packing. I needed to be basically packed before we left because it was dinner, race, party, sleep, checkout without much room built in for anything else. I changed into race gear and enjoyed some relaxing time on the balcony. We had an ADR at Turf Club, so we gathered the things we would need for the evening and walked up to the main building. I had the Salmon and Benn had the pasta. Both we really excellent, but I think we both agreed that the Salmon was the better to the two. A lot of times I shy away from ordering salmon out because it's one of the few things that I really like best the way I make it at home. The salmon at Turf Club blew mine away. We would definitely go back again.

Luckily, the bus pick-up for the event was across the street from the Springs stop, so it was really easy for us to get there after dinner. There were dedicated Mears buses from each of the host resorts that were very clearly marked. Parking was not permitted at Hollywood Studios, so the car didn't help us in this case as we would have had to drive to EPSN Wide World of Sports and take a shuttle to the DHS parking lot. We had seen the beginning of the set-up earlier in the day. It was a pretty impressive scene. Because the parking lot is so large, it looked like the setup was minimal, but when you consider that the venue was about to be flooded with 12,000 race participants, I would say that the preparations were pretty extensive. You guys know that I love Disney logistics. I'm just amazed by the processes that are used around this amazing place to manage crowds. There were 100 port-a-potties. Yes, I counted them while I was waiting in line. The corral system was amazing, too. I had pictured being 10 corrals back because I had no qualifying time to submit and I thought that the corrals would be released about every 5 minutes. I figured it would be close to 11:00 until I actually started running, but the starts were much closer together and I was running by 10:18.

In the corrals:

I thought it was really great that they shot off new fireworks as each corral was released. Not being familiar with the route made the miles seem longer--kind of like when you're driving to a new place for the first time and you keep thinking that you have to be there soon--but seeing the villains, the mile markers, and the beverage stations helped to break up the route, especially for the first 5 miles when we were running Osceola Parkway. Once we hit the ESPN Wide World of Sports, there were tons and tons of volunteers lining the route and their enthusiasm was amazing! It was crazy to think that these total strangers came out to support us. The last mile seemed to last forever as we kept turning corner after corner through Hollywood Studios, but it was totally worth all of the work when I finally crossed that finish line. I had estimated my finish at 2:15:00 and my actual finish time was 2:07:12. I was very fortunate (as were we all) that it was in the 60's and rain-free with low humidity, easily the nicest evening that we had seen in Florida in 10 days. In addition to a handsome medal, Disney provided us with a water, a gatorade, a cool towel, and a box of snacks at the finish line. We started with 12,000 participants and ended with 9391, out of which I was pleased to place 4220. In my age division, I was 432 out of 1102. It was an amazing experience. I would readily do it again and if you've been thinking about it, I encourage you to give it a try. The advertised minimum pace is 16 minutes/mile, but based on the results, there were definitely people who ran a slower pace than that who were allowed to finish the race, so it definitely seems that the organizers make every effort to help as many participants as possible get across the finish line.

We ran all the way to Animal Kingdom!

Giant spider on the overpass:

At ESPN:

Almost there! Only like a mile and a half to go!

Running through the Lights, Motors, Action set

Most people probably know that the reason that I ran this race was to raise money for my friend Jessica, who is battling a chronic form of cancer, to go to Disney with her family. The best part of this finish was validating the contributions that we had received. Yesterday I meet Jessica for lunch and I was able to present her with a check for $5000 to completely cover the cost of her family's vacation. They will be traveling December 12-18. Her family of 5 will be staying at the Cabins at Fort Wilderness, which is their favorite place to stay. If you'd like to read more about the race, I wrote a post for the Running at Disney site:

Running at Disney post

The after party was fun, but certainly not MNSSHP party or Villains Unleashed level. My feet were hurting pretty bad and every time we stopped my legs started to stiffen up, so I couldn't really relax and enjoy the party properly, but we did meet the Evil Queen (pics below, just for you, Magic Mirror!) and Cruella de Vil. Cruella was a hoot! She made a show of trying to steal Benn. We had a great time with her. We also did two rounds of Toy Story. We only intended to do one, but my laser gun wasn't working properly, so the nice CM let us hang out on the unloading platform and ride again in a few minutes. Benn got a picture with Boba Fett while he was waiting for me, but otherwise just kind of milled around. The party ran until 3:30am, but since the next day was checkout day, we only stayed until about 2:30 because I still really wanted to go to MK in the morning.

We were really impressed with her, Annie! We've been hitting the villain opportunities hard this summer and fall and I can say definitively that she is the best one that we have met.

Thanks, Mandy! I can't say that I recall seeing the FoLK cast. I was pretty focused on what I was doing, but I did look around as much as possible and I feel like they would have stuck out in their costumes, so maybe they didn't do it this year?

Right after the race, my immediate thought was "holy crap I don't think I ever want to run that far again", but now that my brain is talking instead of my lungs and my legs, yes, I do think I may do another race in the future and I would readily do it at Disney again. It seems that this was the last year for ToT 10-miler, so I'll have to find a new one. I guess the anticipated construction in the backlot area will make the race un-runable (if that's a word) because it's not on the schedule for next year. That's probably why it took so long for the dates to be released this year. There was probably talk about starting new construction immediately after the backlot tour closed.

I would really like to do the Star Wars Race or the Avengers Race because I think I could get Benn inspired to start running again if we were training for a super awesome race theme that he loved.

DAY 11: MK

It finally arrived...our final planned day on our Annual Pass. (I say "planned" because that sucker doesn't expire until November 30 and you better believe that if I can come up with some reason to be at WDW in the next month and a half, I'll be adding some more mileage on that AP!) Over the course of 12 months, we managed to log 35 park days in 5 trips and no matter how lucky we were to have been able to make the pieces fall into place and how many great memories we were bringing home, I was still so sad to see it end! I remember getting a Christmas card from a college friend who is also a huge Disney fan. On it she had pictures of three or four Disney trips that year. We had recently taken our first onsite trip and I remember thinking to myself, "That would be amazing! How the heck did she accomplish that?" Well, it turns out that with a little creative planning and a lot of research, you can do a Disney marathon year for a lot less money than would initially seem possible. We don't have too many pictures from today, because this is how I was feeling about leaving:

So anyway, here we were on the morning of October 5. Running on about 4 hours of sleep after quite literally running all night. I attempted to pull myself out of bed, but my legs were being wholly uncooperative. Well they'd better get in gear because this was my last day and pain & stiffness be damned, I was GOING to Magic Kingdom. Of course first we had to swing by airport check-in and take care of the boarding passes and the checked bags. I was moving, but slowly. Still it looked like we could probably make our first FP, which was BTMR, ending at 10:20. Benn loves the ferry, so we sailed across Seven Seas Lagoon, going the right direction for the last time for now. A particularly hilarious incident occurred as we were disembarking.

A delightful young girl was holding the gate so nobly for all of these strangers, when her mother realized that the girl was no longer with the family. The boat wasn't terribly full and we were at about the midpoint of the passengers getting off. There were probably only about 50 people on the boat behind us. The mother, about 20 feet ahead of the girl whipped around with a look on her face that looked like she was ready to bite someone. In a thick Scottish accent, she shrieked at the girl, "Anna, let it go!" I nearly exploded trying to hold in my laughter not just because the girls name was Anna and it's now a very famous song, but because the mother clearly HAD NO IDEA how hysterically funny this entire scene was from the outside and she continued huffing and stomping all the way to bag check. We even saw them again just after we walked into the park and the mother STILL looked mad. Someone needed some serious pixie dust this morning.

We did in fact make it to BTMR and since we had skipped breakfast, decided on a very early lunch at Pecos Bill's. We had a taco salad (good, but not any more spectacular than usual) and a bacon burger (quite tasty!) We were hoping that Momento Mori was going to be on soft open this morning, but no such luck. It seems that we just missed the real opening by a few days. Oh, darn, we'll have to go back! We had just enough time to catch the end of our 7DMT FP and the beginning of our PPF FP before making the sad trek down Main Street. We caught part of the fall trolley show, so that was a pleasant first and a nice way to say goodbye.

We hopped the resort monorail because we had so much fun talking with Benn's friends at Top of the World on Friday night that we hadn't cashed in our arcade points. We had just enough points for a stuffed M&M and a bouncy ball. Then it was back to TTC to retrieve our little rental "bus" and trek back to MCO. We had a bit of trouble with the GPS "helping" us to get back on Rt. 528 from the gas station that we chose, but I think we have it figured out for next time and we still got to the airport with enough time to spare to get an ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. We had a lovely flight home except that the woman in aisle seat one row in front of us apparently had the flu and was delirious. She was singing to herself and hacking all over the place--just freaking fabulous. Luckily, we both avoided her flu, but Benn did pick up a cold somewhere on the way home.

When we picked up our car in the parking garage, my fears that the $22/day applied to us were in fact correct and our parking total was $242. I'm glad I was sitting down because I would have passed out. We also made the wrong choice in following the signs leaving Reagan National and ended up adding about 20 minutes to our trip with the route that we took. So JetBlue was awesome, but I'm not anxious to fly out of Reagan again anytime soon.

In total, we had a really great trip. We always go through our highs and lows on the way home, so here's our breakdown for this trip:

Best Resort: Wilderness Lodge
Weakest Resort: Saratoga Springs
Best Park: MK
Favorite new ride: 7DMT for me (still counting it even though we technically did ride in August), Primeval Whirl for Benn
Weakest Park: AK
Best ADR: Ohana
Favorite Entree: Salmon BLT (me), Tuna Melt (Benn) - both from Whispering Canyon
Weakest ADR: The Wave
Least favorite Entree: Salad at Liberty Tree Tavern (me), Pork at The Wave (Benn)
Best Surprise: Loving the water parks so much
Best Cast Member: Marty the singing boat captain
Best special event: MNSSHP
Favorite Water Park: Typhoon Lagoon
Best Water Park Attraction: Toboggan Sleds at Blizzard Beach
Favorite Food from F&W: Scallop from Scotland (me), Beef Empenada from Patagonia for Benn
Least Favorite Food from F&W: Seafood Fisherman's Pie from Ireland
Favorite Dessert: Pumpkin Macaroon Ice Cream Sandwich at the French Ice Cream store
Favorite alcoholic beverage: Chocolate Martini at Top of the World (me), Sam Adams Oktoberfest (Benn)
Biggest Disappointment: I got a Happy Birthday button on October 1, and wrote in "Magic Kingdom" instead of my name. At least HALF of the Cast Members didn't get it. Wow. For Benn, the Headless Horseman's ride was much less grand than he had pictured it in his head.

Here are a few of our other pin acquisitions that I don't believe are pictured elsewhere:

So...that does it for this trip. Thanks for reading along! The fun starts again with Disneyland and cruise planning very soon. That trip will be coming up at the end of March.

Thanks, everyone!

CCP, the shoe are (L to R, top to bottom) Mulan, Mary Poppins, Sleeping Beauty fairies, Tinker Bell, Anna, Jessica Rabbit, and Elsa. This is the third shoe set that's been released, so they are definitely getting into the newer and lesser known characters now. The first set was princesses: Ariel, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, and Tiana. The second set was villains: Queen of Hearts, Maleficent, Cruella, Evil Queen, Captain Hook, Hades, Ursula. Most distressing is that in three sets, Belle has thus far been completely ignored . It's kind of funny really. I hate shoes on general principle, but these are some of my favorite pin sets.

We started out intending to use the AP for two trips about 10-11 months apart. Then Benn asked if we could do a Star Wars Weekend and I said only if I can go for my birthday. Then the Villains Unleashed event came along and we decided that since we never so anything rash and impulsive that maybe it was time to start. My AP doesn't expire until 11/30. Who knows...Thanksgiving weekend maybe?? J/K. Sadly the trips on this pass have most certainly come to an end, but hey, it was fun while it lasted!