Is it a secret or a lie? August 2019 Bday trip - 7/29 Update

[jhoannam]

Hi everyone!

No resort update here, can you believe I haven't modified our resort?! Not that I haven't tried. We have to buy a new diving board, which happens to be the same price as our YC CL stay. I called Disney about possibly switching to a moderate, but switching over to POFQ would only get us half a diving board so I decided not to make any rash decision. If we abandon our CL reservations we probably won't be able to get it back, at least not at that awesome rate. And possibly no discount at any deluxe. I've decided that I'll just work some overtime.

I'm also super happy that Disney has decided that splits stays count as one, in regards to FP reservations. I was super stressed about booking fastpasses 3 different days, specially because we'll be camping at 10,000 feet in Colorado when our 2nd & 3rd FP window would open.

Looking at our schedule I realized that we probably won't get any SDD Fastpasses and RD is still crazy at HS, so I booked EMM for Monday, which completely changes our plans. I'm having a difficult time picking park days.

This is our current plan.

IF HS After Hours is offered on Saturday again this is our schedule:

It will probably all change, before our trip since we are still 4+ months away. And I feel like every week Disney is making changes. Up next mini marathon weekend trip report.

 

[jhoannam]

Mini Marathon Weekend Trip Report

How did this trip come about? Well, I said I would NEVER run a marathon, because running and training for a marathon in just CRAZY! And I have 2 young kids, I don't have time to train for a marathon. But I had decided that IF I ever ran a marathon it would be a RunDisney marathon. After our May 2018 trip I realized I needed to go back to Disney, and how could I justify another Disney trip? Run a marathon, that's how.

Originally, it was going to be me and my coworker/running partner CB. She had run a few marathons before but she wasn't able to finish her last marathon so she wanted to do one last marathon. We decided to run the 2019 Disney Marathon, but her daughter got engaged and she decided that she couldn't afford a trip, she dropped out before registration opened up. I needed a friend, I called my friend (ha, I just realized the both have the same initials) we'll call her CB2, she lives in a different state. She's always up for my crazy ideas, she immediately said YES! Then July came around and CB's daughter decided she wasn't going to get married until Oct 2019, so CB was back.

At this point my longest run had been a 15K, but I knew that I didn't want to be stuck in the last corral. I started training for my first half - my goal was to finish in under 2:10. I trained all summer, and on September 15th I ran my first half. I didn't finish in under 2:10, it was just too hot. I think it was 85* when I crossed the finish line at 2:16 (or something around there). CB & CB2 also ran that half, they both finished after me, but CB2 had run a half earlier in the year and had a better time than me. CB wasn't able to finish under 2:45.

In July we all registered, in September when the AF Salute discount came out I made reservations for All Star Movies, I knew we wanted to stay at one of the refurbished room because they have more storage. The plan was to arrive around 11AM on Saturday and fly back Tuesday. Then I started reading the Marathon 2019 thread and everyone talked about arriving more than 1 day before. We all changed our flight for Friday and I added a day to our reservation.

The plan was to leave work at 2PM on Friday for a 4PM departure, we would be flying in through St. Louis and arriving at MCO at 9PM. I kept checking the weather on Thursday, turns out there was a big snow storm headed through the midwest, St. Louis was going to get a lot of snow. I looked at the SW app and they were allowing us to change our flights. I got the OK from my manager and changed out flight, we would be leaving at 10AM and going thru Houston, arriving at 2PM.

CB had some SW drink voucher, we got the party started with some Vodka & Cranberry juice.


CB2 had flown in from her home and arrived just after us. The 3 of us caught the ME to ASMo. I had made ALL the plans, CB hadn't been since the 90s and CB2 had never been. I had instructed both of them that we had to be at AK before the park opened. We all went to bed at 11PM and set an alarm for 6AM.

I was too excited to sleep, I was up before the alarm and ready by 6:30. I woke both of them up and we were at the bus stop by 7:20AM.
We made to AK to RD FOP.

See those cute gray shoes CB2 is wearing? yeah, that was a terrible idea! They LOVED FOP and were on our way to Everest. After EE we headed to Kilimanjaro Safari, we hopped in line and the line wasn't moving. We probably waited an hour, the posted time was 20. Turns out a giraffe was giving birth. By then it was almost 11AM and we needed to eat. We had a delicious lunch at Satu'li Canteen and head to the Expo to pick up our bibs.

Notice the new shoes CB2 is wearing? She paid way too much for those and those were a bad idea too. From there we headed back to the hotel to get off our feet and nap before heading to MK for dinner. We had reservations at JC Skipper's canteen. We were at MK by 5PM and I was able to get us FPs for JC before dinner. At Skipper's we enjoyed some refreshments

From there we headed back to ASMo, we set out our stuff. We made some peanut butter sandwiches, set the alarm for 3AM and hit the sack.

Looking through the pictures has me excited for Jan 2020!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like it was a good first day! Can't wait to hear about the race!

 

[Corrine 1973]

Joining in. Can't wait to read more. Also heading to WDW in August but at beginning of month. I would have loved to be there during mid month for my birthday but my daughter starts HS on the 7th so we need to be home by them. Love the pics from the mini PTR!!!

 

[suse66]

Joining in to your report! You have a lovely family and I love that you turned your DH into a Disney fan! Looking forward to hearing all about your plans.....you will love Yacht Club, it's one of my favourites.

 

[jhoannam]

Sounds like it was a good first day! Can't wait to hear about the race!

It was an awesome first day. We were on our feet way more than we should have, I think we got in 8 miles that first day.

Joining in. Can't wait to read more. Also heading to WDW in August but at beginning of month. I would have loved to be there during mid month for my birthday but my daughter starts HS on the 7th so we need to be home by them. Love the pics from the mini PTR!!!

Wow, the August 7th is an early start. I'm following like 4 other August pre-trip reports, but I think those are all at the end of August. I hope the crowds stay away for us.

Joining in to your report! You have a lovely family and I love that you turned your DH into a Disney fan! Looking forward to hearing all about your plans.....you will love Yacht Club, it's one of my favourites.

Thanks for joining. I can't believe he love Disney as much the girls and I love Disney. We just went to Great Wolf Lodge and we all had a great time but all we talked about was how we couldn't wait for our Disney trip. We even pulled out our Disney photo book.

 

[jhoannam]

Mini Marathon Weekend Trip Report Continued:

We were on the bus by 3:30AM, we waited a few minutes for the bus to fill up and then we were on our way to Epcot.
I don't understand why we have to be at the buses by 3:30, so much waiting around doing nothing. We had no idea what to do or expect, so we kind of walked around aimlessly for a little while and then realized that we should probably stay off our feet, we found a spot behind the bleachers and camped there until they told us to start walking the "half a mile" to the start line.
We were at the corrals when we asked someone to take our picture, since CB would be going to corral G while CB2 and I would start in corral D.

CB2 and I made one last porta-potty stop and headed to our corral where we would wait another 30 minutes. I then texted my husband a picture of my Apple Watch, the race hadn't even started and I was already at 2.15 miles!!
CB2 and I crossed the start line at 5:44AM.
This was the best feeling ever, I was so excited I just wanted to run fast but CB2 knows how to pace herself so she made sure I didn't over do it. We wanted to stop at all the character but the lines we soooo long. The first 4 miles were so boring, all I wanted to do was find a short character line or make it to Main Street.
Then I saw this and it made me even happier!

I was sooo happy to be running my first marathon at Disney World, my favorite place in the entire world.
I had read lots of reports where people said they didn't listen to music during the race, they just enjoyed the sounds and cheering of the crowds. I wanted to do the same. Running outside the Magic Kingdom and listening to all those people cheer us on was amazing.
Just when I thought things couldn't get better I saw this:

And my heart just exploded with happiness, I'm so glad CB2 was there because if it wasn't for her I would have just started running faster.
We stopped to get a quick picture, tried to do the selfie thing when a CM offered to take our picture.

I was ecstatic, but we had a race to finish so we had to keep going. We were on the backside of the Castle when we finally found a character with a short line.

Then we made our way through the castle. No line for castle pictures. The most perfect picture.

For the next 3 miles things got boring, but we finally found the character that was worth the wait. I think we waited 7 minutes.

We were on our way to Animal Kingdom, I REALLY wanted to ride EE.
From here on the character lines were really short. CB2 tripped on his foot, the sequence of pictures is hilarious.

And before we knew it we were at mile 13!!

It was only 8:30AM, the park wasn't open and we didn't wait to wait 30 minutes to ride EE. I thought about getting a beer but it being my first marathon I had no idea what that would to do me so we kept going. Lots more character picture to come.

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a great start to the marathon! All the pictures are wonderful, you both look so happy. LOVE the pic with Mickey & Minnie!!

 

[kastoney]

I'm here! I cannot believe how much you have changed your resort plans. We're going to be down there the same week as you all staying at CBR, which I think I figured you aren't at now right?

Congrats on the marathon. That is awesome!

 

[jhoannam]

Sounds like a great start to the marathon! All the pictures are wonderful, you both look so happy. LOVE the pic with Mickey & Minnie!!

The first half was so much fun!

I'm here! I cannot believe how much you have changed your resort plans. We're going to be down there the same week as you all staying at CBR, which I think I figured you aren't at now right?

Congrats on the marathon. That is awesome!

Definitely not staying at CBR anymore. CBR lost all of it's appeal when they announced that the Skyliner wouldn't open until the fall. That was the main reason I wanted to stay there. I can't believe all the testing and we still don't have an opening date.

 

[NJlauren]

I’m here! Will miss you by just a few days!

Omg loved the marathon mini report! We are trying to do a race weekend next year but I will only do a 10K, not even a half! Not yet at least!

 

[jhoannam]

I’m here! Will miss you by just a few days!

Omg loved the marathon mini report! We are trying to do a race weekend next year but I will only do a 10K, not even a half! Not yet at least!

I'm so ready for our August trip, so close to double digits!

I love running, it lets me eat more calories.

 

[jhoannam]

Mini Marathon Weekend Trip Report Continued:

When I left off we had just crossed the halfway point. The next part was a little boring and painful but we tried to make the best of it.
Outside Animal Kingdom headed to ESPN:



Finally to ESPN, it was painful.

I think this is at HS, as you can tell by our faces we were ready to be done but still had a long ways to go.

I think we finally made it Epcot. As you can tell by our faces, we were ready to be done. CB2 had been struggling for the last few miles. Her shoes were causing lots of pain, at one point we stopped at an aide station so she could put bandaids on her toes.

So close to being done, no more smiles

FINALLY

As you can tell I was soooo happy to be done, to finish my first marathon in my favorite place. I can't even express what that felt, I was a little emotional but I didn't have much time to soak it all in. As you can tell CB2 was not excited, she was really struggling. Right before mile 26 she told me to go ahead and leave her behind, but I couldn't we had stuck together for 26 miles, I wasn't about to leave her behind. We crossed the finish start and finish line together! But I needed to get off my feet, my knees were really hurting and I needed to cool down. We headed to the recovery area to get some ice, but one of the helpers noticed that CB2 wasn't looking so well. She offered to get her a wheel chair, CB2 tried to refuse but I insisted she sit and by the time the helper brought the chair CB2 realized she NEEDED to sit. Let's just say we recovered in the AC. After CB2 was feeling more like herself, she was released and headed out to get my knees wrap in ice, it was the best feeling ever.

We finished in 5:30 minutes. I didn't have any time expectations, I just wanted to finish and have a good time. And I accomplished both!

We hung out waiting for CB to finish.
My legs were a little tired.

 

[jhoannam]

Mini Marathon Weekend Trip Report Continued:

One CB finished the real party started


I took some selfies, but I was sooo tired I didn't realize my medal was backwards....oops

Let's try that again

Much better!
After we finished our beers we headed back to ASMo. I had made reservations to Boma but we didn't feel like eating at a buffet, the thought of getting up to get our own food didn't sound fun. We couldn't decide where to eat, we finally settled on Tappan Edo because everyone likes hibachi grills. After we showered and took much needed naps we forced ourselves out of bed and made the long trek to the back of WOS. We enjoyed our meal, we sat with a other runners and talked about our experience.
After dinner CB2 realized that the flip flops she had bought the day before were killing her feet, she wanted to find something else to wear so we did a little bit of shopping. I bought my girls some snack from Japan, their only request. CB2 bought some souvenirs for her kids but then realized that she didn't want to overpay for shoes again and decided to walk barefoot back to the bus stop. Next year we won't be eating at WOS, it will be a resort restaurant that doesn't require a lot of walking.

We headed back to the resort because we had another early morning, we were going to make it to MK for rope drop.

And that my friend was the most exhausting day ever. Final numbers:
70,713 step for a total of 33.2 miles.

 

[JenniferYoung44]

Following​

 

[jhoannam]

Following​

Thanks for following!

 

[jhoannam]

August Trip Update
Tomorrow is 100 days we are all so excited! Seriously, we keep talking about it. I'm so glad we didn't keep this a secret like two of our previous trips.

RESORT: I have managed to pay off our Pop Century & Yacht Club reservations, with discounted gift cards - savings of about 18%. Almost done paying off the CR reservation.

TICKETS: Today I sent our ticket order to Shades of Green, I ordered 5 day PH & MNSSHP tickets for 8/16 - the first party! woohooo!!! I will probably upgrade my ticket to an AP when we arrive. CB2 is in the military and will probably be going overseas next spring, but since it's the military we won't know for certain until MUCH later, if she can't do the Dopey I won't either and therefore won't be needed an annual pass.

PARK DAYS: I'm still unsure about our park days! I keep changing my mind. This is option 3:


Funny how we've never started a trip at Magic Kingdom.

• First trip we started at Hollywood Studios, breakfast at Hollywood & Vine. I was not impressed with the food or character interaction, never going back.
• Second trip, PPO at Garden Grill. LOVED the food & characters, we hope to go back.
• Third trip, Animal Kingdom with late breakfast at Tusker House. We really liked the food and characters.

I was trying to avoid MK at the beginning of the trip because we'll be spending the last 2 days of our trip there, but I think it's time to start our trip at Magic Kingdom with breakfast at Crystal Palace. No PPO breakfast are available. I'm thinking RD Adventure Land, have a 10AM Crystal Palace breakfast (if I can get a reservation), do our 3 FPs and head back to Pop Century for afternoon break. Or should I set a reservation finder alert for a PPO? Is there an advantage/disadvantage to Crystal Palace PPO?

 

[NJlauren]

Tomorrow is 100 days we are all so excited! Seriously, we keep talking about it. I'm so glad we didn't keep this a secret like two of our previous trips.

YAHOOOOO party time...

RESORT: I have managed to pay off our Pop Century & Yacht Club reservations, with discounted gift cards - savings of about 18%. Almost done paying off the CR reservation.

This is so exciting!!! Congrats

I was trying to avoid MK at the beginning of the trip because we'll be spending the last 2 days of our trip there, but I think it's time to start our trip at Magic Kingdom with breakfast at Crystal Palace. No PPO breakfast are available. I'm thinking RD Adventure Land, have a 10AM Crystal Palace breakfast (if I can get a reservation), do our 3 FPs and head back to Pop Century for afternoon break. Or should I set a reservation finder alert for a PPO? Is there an advantage/disadvantage to Crystal Palace PPO?

This is so hard, you will probably be able to get either a PPO or 10am with a reservation finder, but i think it depends on when the park opens if its a 9am opening i hate a 10am breakfast because you have to head there at 9:45 and then your rushing and you lose a bit of the first hour to hour and half of shortest lines. Now if its an 8am opening i think a 10am breakfast is fine. Spoiler alert i am having a similar problem when planning my trip as well!

 

[missangelalexis]

I can't imagine how exhausted you were! I'm sorry your friend had such a struggle But you both did it and that's an amazing accomplishment! Such cute pics of you all celebrating!

 

[jhoannam]

This is so hard, you will probably be able to get either a PPO or 10am with a reservation finder, but i think it depends on when the park opens if its a 9am opening i hate a 10am breakfast because you have to head there at 9:45 and then your rushing and you lose a bit of the first hour to hour and half of shortest lines. Now if its an 8am opening i think a 10am breakfast is fine. Spoiler alert i am having a similar problem when planning my trip as well!

I didn't realize we'd only have 45 minutes in the park before we would have to be at CP, I'll keep trying to find a PPO breakfast. I have 2 touring plan alerts set for Cali Grill brunch, one for 11AM and the second one for 12PM, I want the entire time covered. I received an alert last week, clicked on the link immediately but by the time I logged in to MDE it was gone.