Naomeri
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2019
Disneyland Half Weekend—Part 2
January 12, 2024
I got another terrible night’s sleep, but got up and got ready for the 5K. My Daisy Duck costume was perfect for running, but extremely terrible for standing around in a line in the Esplanade for most of an hour. I left my hotel at 3:15, made it through security with no trouble, since they had a “no bag” line and I had chosen not to bring a bag with me, since it was just a 5K, and I certainly wasn’t switching to my sanuks afterward like I do at WDW races. I really feel like there had to be a better way to handle the 5K than just keeping us all in lines forever, especially since those lines got so long that people couldn’t even get through security. Temporary queue barriers could’ve at least gotten more people into the space?
Anyway, they finally let us in and I made my way up Main Street and ended up really close to the front of B. I hoped I would feel warmer in a more densely-packed crowd, but I really didn’t.
Once the race finally started, I shocked by how quiet it was! One thing it never is in the WDW parks is “quiet” Since this race was supposed to be basically entirely park (or backstage-of-park) time, I almost didn’t wear my Shokz, since I can never hear my own music over the park music and usually pause it in the parks at WDW, but I’m glad I did end up wearing them, because it was a little boring when it was quiet. I skipped the Goofy/Max photo stop in ToonTown because I didn’t like the length of the line, and it was so close to the start of the race, I wasn’t warm yet.
I basically ran the whole race, except when I took walk breaks to post the photo stops on The Dis in case anyone behind me wanted a heads-up. I grabbed a selfie with Moana’s float, but it’s sort of silly to have the character floats without the characters (not that I would’ve wanted Moana standing around for pics in 40 degree weather
) I also grabbed selfies with the Ferris wheel and Pluto.
I did one character stop for Cruella because it seemed like a good point to take a break, and the line was quite short. I actually got 2 shots from this stop, but this is the one I like better
I got a few nice action shots, and I will say that for me, starting at the front of B, the course was mostly uncrowded, which was nice. But I definitely noticed that there were less PhotoPass tents than I expected along the course compared to WDW races. It seems like they’re around every other corner in the parks at WDW.
I finished the race, almost unexpectedly. I didn’t realize the finish was right there just past Pluto, and the whole finisher chute was super short and abrupt. I barely stopped my watch before someone was handing me a medal, and someone else was handing me Mylar, and I was following the crowd out.
The Disneyland 5K was my fastest Disney 5K by moving time (38:59) and second fastest by overall time (44:17)
I texted my grandma when I got to Harbor to see if she was awake, and since she was, I stopped in her room to hang out and recap the race for her. Then I went to my room to warm up and get ready for our park day.
I decided that since we were starting in Disneyland Park, I wanted to try the funnel cake fries at Galactic Grill for breakfast. They were good, but the bacon was pretty cold. We booked Runaway Railway for our first LL, and got back to ToonTown early enough to ride Roger Rabbit beforehand. My grandma really liked the ride, but hated the dark and winding queue—she had to hold my hand because her eyes didn’t adjust very fast after the bright sunlight.
After Runaway Railway, which was adorable and fun as always (though the DL queue is definitely superior to the HS queue), I wanted us to meet Mickey Mouse, so we waited about 20 minutes and met Mickey
After ToonTown, I stopped at the gift kiosk near Small World and bought the Star shoulder buddy. While we stopped on a bench so I could get it all organized and ready to wear, we practically collided with Geppetto! Character encounters are so random at DL! Geppetto was impressed with my grandma having the same hair color as him
I made us a LL for Indy, and we got over there with enough time to hop onto Jungle Cruise beforehand. Our skipper wasn’t amazing, he kind of mumbled
Then we did Indy, which was fun, although my grandma wondered if we’d get lost in the queue 
I think after this, we went to the Tangled story time thing, which was fun, except for the drunk girls behind me (yes, it was definitely still morning, and I heard them say they were drunk) who had clearly seen the show too many times and felt the need to say all the lines along with the cast.
I was hungry again after this, so we got lunch at Hungry Bear, which was decent. Then we went to Pirates, because the wait wasn’t too bad, according to the app. The line seemed super long, but I think the posted time was accurate. I earned some major dirty looks from the women in the group ahead of us, who were dawdling and holding up the line in order to take pictures of/with their Mickey bar. I don’t mind people taking pictures to document their trip, until their pictures start disrupting my trip, in which case I will get irritated. I usually keep it to myself, but there was a good 20 feet of empty space in the queue while one woman took pics of another with her dang ice cream bar (which she’d already gotten pics with facing the opposite direction when we’d been standing still) So I said loudly “less documenting, more walking please”
Next time the queue turned so they ended up passing me in the opposite direction, I heard a “have a blessed day” from one of them, and I know exactly what that’s code for. Anyway, we got on the ride, and it was a nice long sitting break.
On our way out of Adventureland, my grandma wanted to do the Enchanted Tiki Room. It was kind of hard to find, since the entrance is kind of combined/behind the Dole Whip place, but we managed to find it and waited around for the next show. After that, it was time to go to the Dis meetup.
It was great to hang out for a while with everyone, and to introduce my grandma to some of the people I talk about on occasion. After the meetup, we went back to Disneyland Park planning to have a snack and to just ride the train around the park. We sat in the hub and had some popcorn, but we missed the train because my Star plush fell off my shoulder and rolled away, and people went ahead of us and filled up the train. I was so sleep deprived that I just couldn’t handle waiting any longer, so we went back to the hotel so I could try to get some sleep. I got everything ready for the 10K, and went to bed. I didn’t get great sleep because the heater in my room was like a freight train every time it turned on, and my sleep was very disrupted.
January 12, 2024
I got another terrible night’s sleep, but got up and got ready for the 5K. My Daisy Duck costume was perfect for running, but extremely terrible for standing around in a line in the Esplanade for most of an hour. I left my hotel at 3:15, made it through security with no trouble, since they had a “no bag” line and I had chosen not to bring a bag with me, since it was just a 5K, and I certainly wasn’t switching to my sanuks afterward like I do at WDW races. I really feel like there had to be a better way to handle the 5K than just keeping us all in lines forever, especially since those lines got so long that people couldn’t even get through security. Temporary queue barriers could’ve at least gotten more people into the space?
Anyway, they finally let us in and I made my way up Main Street and ended up really close to the front of B. I hoped I would feel warmer in a more densely-packed crowd, but I really didn’t.
Once the race finally started, I shocked by how quiet it was! One thing it never is in the WDW parks is “quiet” Since this race was supposed to be basically entirely park (or backstage-of-park) time, I almost didn’t wear my Shokz, since I can never hear my own music over the park music and usually pause it in the parks at WDW, but I’m glad I did end up wearing them, because it was a little boring when it was quiet. I skipped the Goofy/Max photo stop in ToonTown because I didn’t like the length of the line, and it was so close to the start of the race, I wasn’t warm yet.
I basically ran the whole race, except when I took walk breaks to post the photo stops on The Dis in case anyone behind me wanted a heads-up. I grabbed a selfie with Moana’s float, but it’s sort of silly to have the character floats without the characters (not that I would’ve wanted Moana standing around for pics in 40 degree weather
) I also grabbed selfies with the Ferris wheel and Pluto.I did one character stop for Cruella because it seemed like a good point to take a break, and the line was quite short. I actually got 2 shots from this stop, but this is the one I like better
I got a few nice action shots, and I will say that for me, starting at the front of B, the course was mostly uncrowded, which was nice. But I definitely noticed that there were less PhotoPass tents than I expected along the course compared to WDW races. It seems like they’re around every other corner in the parks at WDW.
I finished the race, almost unexpectedly. I didn’t realize the finish was right there just past Pluto, and the whole finisher chute was super short and abrupt. I barely stopped my watch before someone was handing me a medal, and someone else was handing me Mylar, and I was following the crowd out.
The Disneyland 5K was my fastest Disney 5K by moving time (38:59) and second fastest by overall time (44:17)
I texted my grandma when I got to Harbor to see if she was awake, and since she was, I stopped in her room to hang out and recap the race for her. Then I went to my room to warm up and get ready for our park day.
I decided that since we were starting in Disneyland Park, I wanted to try the funnel cake fries at Galactic Grill for breakfast. They were good, but the bacon was pretty cold. We booked Runaway Railway for our first LL, and got back to ToonTown early enough to ride Roger Rabbit beforehand. My grandma really liked the ride, but hated the dark and winding queue—she had to hold my hand because her eyes didn’t adjust very fast after the bright sunlight.
After Runaway Railway, which was adorable and fun as always (though the DL queue is definitely superior to the HS queue), I wanted us to meet Mickey Mouse, so we waited about 20 minutes and met Mickey
After ToonTown, I stopped at the gift kiosk near Small World and bought the Star shoulder buddy. While we stopped on a bench so I could get it all organized and ready to wear, we practically collided with Geppetto! Character encounters are so random at DL! Geppetto was impressed with my grandma having the same hair color as him
I made us a LL for Indy, and we got over there with enough time to hop onto Jungle Cruise beforehand. Our skipper wasn’t amazing, he kind of mumbled
Then we did Indy, which was fun, although my grandma wondered if we’d get lost in the queue I think after this, we went to the Tangled story time thing, which was fun, except for the drunk girls behind me (yes, it was definitely still morning, and I heard them say they were drunk) who had clearly seen the show too many times and felt the need to say all the lines along with the cast.I was hungry again after this, so we got lunch at Hungry Bear, which was decent. Then we went to Pirates, because the wait wasn’t too bad, according to the app. The line seemed super long, but I think the posted time was accurate. I earned some major dirty looks from the women in the group ahead of us, who were dawdling and holding up the line in order to take pictures of/with their Mickey bar. I don’t mind people taking pictures to document their trip, until their pictures start disrupting my trip, in which case I will get irritated. I usually keep it to myself, but there was a good 20 feet of empty space in the queue while one woman took pics of another with her dang ice cream bar (which she’d already gotten pics with facing the opposite direction when we’d been standing still) So I said loudly “less documenting, more walking please”
Next time the queue turned so they ended up passing me in the opposite direction, I heard a “have a blessed day” from one of them, and I know exactly what that’s code for. Anyway, we got on the ride, and it was a nice long sitting break.On our way out of Adventureland, my grandma wanted to do the Enchanted Tiki Room. It was kind of hard to find, since the entrance is kind of combined/behind the Dole Whip place, but we managed to find it and waited around for the next show. After that, it was time to go to the Dis meetup.
It was great to hang out for a while with everyone, and to introduce my grandma to some of the people I talk about on occasion. After the meetup, we went back to Disneyland Park planning to have a snack and to just ride the train around the park. We sat in the hub and had some popcorn, but we missed the train because my Star plush fell off my shoulder and rolled away, and people went ahead of us and filled up the train. I was so sleep deprived that I just couldn’t handle waiting any longer, so we went back to the hotel so I could try to get some sleep. I got everything ready for the 10K, and went to bed. I didn’t get great sleep because the heater in my room was like a freight train every time it turned on, and my sleep was very disrupted.
It was a disaster, having multiple bag check tables, but then expecting the runners to sort it out themselves as to who got to go through the one scanner. I finally made it through, and then realized that I still had to walk all the way around to the one entrance into the starting area. I’m sure this made some kind of sense to the organizers, but I thought it was ridiculous.
We made it to where we needed to be, I got us some snacks, and we waited for our final flight home. I liked the balance between the flights home compared to the flights out. MSP to STL was a short flight, and then STL to LGB was super long, whereas LGB to DEN and DEN to MSP were pretty even. We made it home, and my grandpa and uncle were waiting at baggage claim for us. We got our bags, and went home. Getting home wasn’t real great for me, I don’t like riding in the back seat of the car, so I was feeling pretty sick, and then the whole house smelled like the garlic monkey bread they’d had with pizza for dinner. I took some food and all my stuff and went to hide in my room for the rest of the night.
Because I’m slightly obsessive about weighing myself (but not in a disordered way, I promise) I weigh myself in the mornings and before bed, so I know a lot about how different activities and eating patterns affect my weight on a day-to-day basis. One of the things I’ve learned is that if I have a big meal at lunch, enough to keep me from being hungry in the evening, even if it’s something like fast food, I lose more weight than if I eat the same amount of calories split between lunch and dinner. So, on non-running days, I’m going to have a big lunch and skip dinner, or at most, have a light snack if I feel hungry. On running days, since I’m least likely to skip runs if I do them around lunch time, I’ll eat lunch and dinner.
I had a dentist appointment Thursday, so I moved that run to Friday, but on Friday I had a breakdown due to work stress, and didn’t get to eat in time to do a run over lunch and felt pretty awful the whole day. But the breakdown did lead to a readjustment of my workload and job description so I shouldn’t have any problems going forward. Then the weekend just got away from me for various reasons. So I’m kind of pretending that this week is actually the start of my new training plan and not worrying too much about last week. I’ve completed my one scheduled run this week, so…so far so good?
) I’ve excited for the themes, and for the Halloween night party at MK (they could start making announcements for this any time (yes, I lack patience)) I’ll be using my 10K costume for my Halloween costume, unless I come up with something standalone I’d rather do for Halloween.
. Does the honeycomb collapse on impact like the On pillows?
