Delusions of Grandeur...a Dark Side 2017 Half Marathon Trip Report

[Sailormoon2]

but it would be awesome I bet.

IT IS!!! DH and I stayed club level at YC for our anniversary 3 years ago, it was delightful!

 

[BigEeyore]

Just getting caught up...

Congrats on the half! That is an awesome time - especially for a Disney race! I never go for a time in Disney - I try to get my money's worth out of my Disney races!

You and your brother are beasts for getting all that park time in after 3 days of early wake up calls and running - and on top of it all, getting up at 5:30 the day after to run some more?? Being there for rope drop and seeing fireworks at the end of the day - I am thoroughly impressed!

Great medal pics! I missed out on that with no park time this year so I am very envious of yours!

Sorry you didn't enjoy DS that much. We actually spent a lot of time down there this trip with no park tix, and really enjoyed it! We ate at Blaze too, and thought it was good. There are lots more vegetarian options now with the expansion. We stayed at Saratoga Springs and it is really relaxing to just take the boat over to DS, grab a drink, wander around, shop a bit, get something to eat, people watch, enjoy live music all over the place...

 

[cavepig]

Just getting caught up...

Congrats on the half! That is an awesome time - especially for a Disney race! I never go for a time in Disney - I try to get my money's worth out of my Disney races!

You and your brother are beasts for getting all that park time in after 3 days of early wake up calls and running - and on top of it all, getting up at 5:30 the day after to run some more?? Being there for rope drop and seeing fireworks at the end of the day - I am thoroughly impressed!

Great medal pics! I missed out on that with no park time this year so I am very envious of yours!

Sorry you didn't enjoy DS that much. We actually spent a lot of time down there this trip with no park tix, and really enjoyed it! We ate at Blaze too, and thought it was good. There are lots more vegetarian options now with the expansion. We stayed at Saratoga Springs and it is really relaxing to just take the boat over to DS, grab a drink, wander around, shop a bit, get something to eat, people watch, enjoy live music all over the place...

We have screws loose probably, but never stayed up late which helped. I don't race much anymore & have only done Disney races the last few years so figure might as well try for time, unless I'm hurt or sick I don't think I could hold back. Yeah, it's just me with not liking Springs & I really have no good reason but I never cared for Downtown and probably as kid didn't like when it was just the Village/Marketplace. I think maybe it's because I feel like I'm wasting ride time in the parks so probably don't take the time to take appreciate it. Thanks for reading along!

 

[cavepig]

Day 8 - Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom

Our only regular 9:00am park opening was today, but I think we still got up at like 6ish. Got some danishes in the foodcourt. It said raspberry & cheese, but it was cherry. The other mornings we had breakfast stuff from home and bought the Entemann donuts from the gift shop to eat in the room. We also had bought the mugs the first day.

We caught a bus and arrived at MK right around 8:00am. It was so nice just being able to walk down Main St. We took a photopass picture and visited the shops. I love all the Duffy and Shellie May outfits, I have a collection but held off on adding to it this trip. Regrets, yeah, but there is always a next trip.

I was just thinking I have race medals for each of these statues.

The castle never gets old!

Later on in this day we take a sit in this fake grass area. I miss the water around the hub, but the traffic does flow better through here now it seems.

We finally lined up with others for the Mine Train to be our first ride, so we had this little sliver to see the new opening show.

I got smashed on the way to Mine Train to by somebody who thought it was a race. We normally would do Mine Train as FP to avoid the mad dash in the morning but had switched our FPs to MK (versus afternoon ST as we weren't going to go back there) and couldn't get one for it.
After Mine Train and other Fantasyland rides we visited the best bathroom around.

Big Thunder and a photopass picture that they add Jessie & Woody too for some reason was next and Splash. We had FP for at least one of these I think.

I'm not sure what else we did but we did have a FP for Dumbo, which I'm glad we had, it was a zoo over there.

At some point we ate lunch at Friar's nook.

Then this is where we sat in the fake grass area & saw part of the Shake it Parade. There were little black bugs though so this didn't last long, but it was a nice sit for awhile. If it wasn't for the bugs I probably could have laid down and slept!

We had a Space FP but a couple minutes to wait so why not another medal shot after we rode TTA & Buzz I think!

The new robot ICAN was out. We had seen him a few days before when we were on TTA. He was pretty cool interacting with people.

Tomorrowland shop with Star Wars stuff, Everything really is Golden

A snack was up. We were going to split a cookie sandwich but saw the doughnut sundae and got that instead. It was so good. You can pick any icecream but with the apples on the bottom and then chocolate and peanutbutter we just went with vanilla. While we ate, marching bands went by.

Looks like we did Jungle Cruise, did they take the rhino out or am I mixed up?

Eventually we walked down Main Street for the last time this trip with the Disney band playing even.

Till next time Magic Kingdom!

Up next Epcot....

 

[cavepig]

We took a monorail to the TTC then to EPCOT, this was the hottest monorail ride ever. No air and just so hot.

We do have annual passes and found the Passholder entrance to big great, we benefited from it with less waits to get in about 80% of the time, mostly the midday/evening times.

I had grabbed a Soarin' fastpass and I know we did Test Track single rider. They just had random chairs set up in one of the Innoventions sides. They need to redo those areas so bad with something.

Dinner was at the Land. The Veggie Korma has Gardein Chickn'. Brother got Mongolian Beef.

Joy & Sadness had a long line but Baymax was pretty short and we had never met him. He told me my tired levels were high and I had to go home the next day, hahaha! At least these parts of Innoventions have stuff.

One last ride on Spaceship Earth.

Stopped in the Art store before leaving, these shadowboxes were cool.

Goodbye Epcot!

We hopped over to Animal Kingdom one last time. We could have tried to add Studios in to get all 4 parks, but we had done everything there multiple times and still wanted to get a night safari in. Dinosaur was empty, only 2 other people in our preshow & timerover.

Nobody around. I'll just run out of the park here like in the race, hahaha!

Oh here's all the people! Getting there Lotus popcorn buckets filled. Longest line around!

We debated watching Rivers of Light again, but instead just went to the safari to make sure we didn't miss out on it.

Night Safari pictures at their finest! I just bring a small point and shoot but it does pretty good as long as we don't move! I love how the hoofed animals sleep in circles for protection. Our driver ran over a curb/rock side thing on our way to unload and I fell over on the bench, that was fun, well not really!

Nobody around! Everyone was at Rivers of Light or by the Tree show!

We watched a tree show, I enjoy these, they are pretty cleaver .

On our way out of the Oasis, goodbye Animal Kingdom!

Good night Sports! That's a cheer group having a last minute night talk I guess.

Day 9 - Fly out, Magical Express was picking us up at 8:20 so we just packed in the morning. I did not get a letter on our door with our pick up time the day before so called the front desk who transferred me to ME and she was able to give me our pick up time and said just go do the front desk in the morning to get our voucher for ME. So, after checking the bags I got the voucher at the font desk. Luckily, we had done ME before and knew we needed a pickup time & voucher, but if we had never done it I maybe would have been confused without getting anything on our door.

We got some breakfast than waited for our bus. It was a rather muggy morning, so that cool front didn't last long. We won't be back till January for the Marathon Thanks for reading along!
I would highly recommend the Star Wars Dark Side Half Marathon Race Weekend. Disney + Star Wars + Running = Gold as C3-PO says!

THE END!

 

[Sailormoon2]

Super awesome trip!!! Love how empty AK was! Great photo montage at the end too-breakfast is soooo important

 

[cavepig]

Super awesome trip!!! Love how empty AK was! Great photo montage at the end too-breakfast is soooo important

Isn't it though especially when it's the last Disney meal Next time though I think I'll get a waffle too & a big platter, like make a mini buffet to be all set to fly as flying makes me so hungry!!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Fun trip report! I'd love to do one of the SW race weekends someday. I think once my 11 year old is old enough to run a disney race with me, I could see that theme being the one he'd want to do! Thanks for sharing!

 

[cavepig]

Fun trip report! I'd love to do one of the SW race weekends someday. I think once my 11 year old is old enough to run a disney race with me, I could see that theme being the one he'd want to do! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for reading. They did a great job with the Star Wars theme I think, & once Star Wars land is done hopefully the courses(s) will run through there too. I'm sure you're son will have a blast.

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

I am finally making my rounds through everyone's Dark Side reports Looks like you guys had a great trip! It was nice meeting you before the half and I think it's so funny most of your pictures from the race are in the dark, which means you were probably more than halfway finished before I even started LOL

 

[cavepig]

I am finally making my rounds through everyone's Dark Side reports Looks like you guys had a great trip! It was nice meeting you before the half and I think it's so funny most of your pictures from the race are in the dark, which means you were probably more than halfway finished before I even started LOL

That's why I love reading about everyone else's race experiences, it's fun to see things that I missed! I read about people seeing and hearing the monkeys in AK, did you get to see them, that would have been so cool? Also I had no idea we ran under a dirt conveyor belt for Star Wars land construction until I saw pictures someone had.

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

I read about people seeing and hearing the monkeys in AK, did you get to see them, that would have been so cool?

Now that you say that I do remember the monkeys by the turn for Kali River Rapids being very active when I ran by.

Also I had no idea we ran under a dirt conveyor belt for Star Wars land construction until I saw pictures someone had.

Yes, It was there for the marathon too. The only reason I remember this is because DH works in Civil Engineering and he is always pointing out that kind of stuff.

 

[Mimsy Borogove]

Finally caught up! Fun TR and I really enjoyed all your photos, but especially your medal/Phasma shot in DHS!

They totally did take the rhino out of Jungle Cruise, I was just there last Wednesday with my parents and noticed the replacement hyenas. I wonder why the change?

I've never noticed the Apple Dumpling Gang in BTM and my brother and I used to watch it obsessively when we were little. Wow!

Did Baymax actually talk to you? That would be so cool! I met him after last year's DS Half but he didn't do much.

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

 

[cavepig]

Did Baymax actually talk to you? That would be so cool! I met him after last year's DS Half but he didn't do much.

No, he didn't talk, they really should have him talk. He sort of pointed at the medal but that was pretty much all he did. Thanks for reading along, I so want to sign up for next year's Darkside but instead doing the Marathon again, so hopefully Darkside sticks around, it was so fun.