No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try. - ToT 10 Miler & F&W - Updated 12/21

[franandaj]

That's an interesting idea for a wrap up to compare plans with actual. You two canceled quite a few plans for ADRs. We can never get going early in the morning. I can't believe you got up so early after running such a late marathon. Looking forward to reading more about your adventures!

Trader Sam's is a hoot! Make sure you sit inside and get an Uh-oa or a Krakatoa punch.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

That's an interesting idea for a wrap up to compare plans with actual. You two canceled quite a few plans for ADRs. We can never get going early in the morning. I can't believe you got up so early after running such a late marathon. Looking forward to reading more about your adventures!

Trader Sam's is a hoot! Make sure you sit inside and get an Uh-oa or a Krakatoa punch.

I did the wrap ups to show that while we may plan a lot - we really are quite fluid with the plans based on whats going on. Our moods change but its great the amount of selections we had for when we kept changing out minds.

During the week, I wake up at 5AM & on the weekends, I only really sleep in until 7:00/7:30AM no matter what time I go to bed. There would have been no way I would have driven though that morning as my legs were pretty much telling me they hated me. I did sleep a little bit in the car but not much. We end to bed rather early on Sunday as we were very drained. I'm super happy that our next race is in Disneyland at like 5:30AM PST - its like our ideal running time on the weekends (8:30AM EST) so I'm excited it won't be unusual behaviors for us. I'm just not made for staying up past 11PM.

I'm glad Trader Sam's is a hoot! I can't wait to try a couple drinks after the race that Sunday! At least I finally bought our airfare. I need to start posting my training plans in that TR but I've been really bad about training this month as my motivation is dead.

 

[annmarieda]

Still not caught up, I wanted to come and apologize for being so MIA. I also want to thank you for keeping me pretty calm as my bus took forever to get to the race. I am sorry I was not able to meet up with you once I got there!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Still not caught up, I wanted to come and apologize for being so MIA. I also want to thank you for keeping me pretty calm as my bus took forever to get to the race. I am sorry I was not able to meet up with you once I got there!

You've been really busy with a ton of travel. You only have 2.5 weeks until Avengers which is exciting!

Glad I was able to keep you calm with your driver that was super dumb when driving. DTD driving is horrible nowadays & you would think a MEARs driver would know that.

 

[tdashgirl]

All caught up My DD10 and I were spectators for the 10 miler, so we got to experience the nice part of the Villains after-party (not crowded, super short character lines) since we were there for about 2 hours before the 1st runners crossed the finish line since DHS let us in early. My DH finished around the same time as yours! At that point, everything was crowded (rides, characters, drinks, etc.) so we left shortly afterwards. The fact that this was the tail-end of our 1st trip to WDW contributed somewhat to that "we are DONE, we just wanna go back to the hotel" feeling though.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

All caught up My DD10 and I were spectators for the 10 miler, so we got to experience the nice part of the Villains after-party (not crowded, super short character lines) since we were there for about 2 hours before the 1st runners crossed the finish line since DHS let us in early. My DH finished around the same time as yours! At that point, everything was crowded (rides, characters, drinks, etc.) so we left shortly afterwards. The fact that this was the tail-end of our 1st trip to WDW contributed somewhat to that "we are DONE, we just wanna go back to the hotel" feeling though.

Thats awesome you got to enjoy all the short lines & characters before the crowds grew. Congrats on your husband for finishing so strong!

I get the "we are DONE" feeling as we totally feel that sometimes as well. We both were too sore to have enjoyed anything even if the lines weren't horrible.

Hope your first trip to WDW went really well!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Getting There

I got to work around 5:30AM as I was taking a half day and wanted to get on the road as early as possible. Today at work was the halloween costume day, where all of 10 people out of the 200 employees actually dressed up. My group was half of them! We were Jem & the Holograms. The girl in the purple hair will be running the Glass Slipper Challenge with me come February!

We ended up in 3rd place behind a person with a very elaborate troll costume & a very realistic Bob Ross.

After that fun, I ended up leaving shortly after 10:30AM & got on my way to Disney. 3 hours later, I’m passing under these beauties:

and headed to the Villas @ Grand Floridian. I looked like a hot mess checking in as while I didn’t have my wig on anymore, I was still rocking the running pants under the sparkle skirt with extremely heavy eye make-up plus with my hair pinned to my head from being under the wig. I had to be their most interesting check in of the day

Checking in was slow as they were having some computer problems but luckily my room was ready; however, I got the standard view studio with the worst possible view according to the people on the Grand Floridian Thread on the DVC boards:

At least, I’m not one to hang out on my balcony at Disney so it doesn’t matter.

I attempted to get off as much of the make-up as possible, took my running pants off & just had the sparkle skirt + tank top on as I headed to monorail & thus Magic Kingdom. I had great luck as the monorail was just loading when I got there & I was at the park in less than 5 minutes. I missed my first FP+ though as I was getting through the gates right at 2:30PM.

I was a little hungry & I had seen on the disneyfoodblog that a new flavor of frozen yogurt was available in Fantasyland. The cake batter was really sweet so I had less than half.

Cake Batter Frozen Yogurt

I went to the area in front of the castle to check in for the FP+ of the new Festival of Fantasy Parade. I was happy there was still a curb spot available directly in front of the Liberty Square Bridge so I settled in until it was time for the parade to start.
​

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Festival of Fantasy

Guests for the evening’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party were starting to come in. These people must have been hot!

And shortly after it was time for the parade:

After the parade, I decided against going on any other rides and headed back to the hotel to unpack, relax and attempt to take off more of my makeup prior to the Signature Dinner @ The Wave.​

 

[DisneyDreamerMN]

Great photos! What kind of camera were you using?
Although I want to move to Florida, I am not a huge fan of the heat. I could not wear those costumes.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Great photos! What kind of camera were you using?
Although I want to move to Florida, I am not a huge fan of the heat. I could not wear those costumes.

For the parade, I was using my Canon T2i w/ the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. I either use that lens or my 50mm f/1.8 lens or my iPhone 5S throughout the report. You can probably tell which are the iPhone photos though

The heat isn't that bad usually as you do get used to it & when its really bad outside, there is AC inside which makes things work out well. I would never wear that much of a costume in a theme park though! They did look awesome at least.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Pre-Gaming

I barely ate most of the day. I was also slightly stressed from dealing with some work related things & I still had about 1.5 hours until my F&W Event would start. With all that in mind, I went to Mizner’s in the GF Lobby for a snack & a drink.

Manhatten

Slow Roasted Pork Belly

When you order an appetizer at Mizner’s, it still comes with bread & butter from Citrico’s. I slowly enjoyed my drink & the food to fill the needed gap in time. The server was attentive & the people hosting the Citrico’s Wine Dinner that evening ended up sitting next to me to have a Scotch. This led to some nice conversation until it was time for everyone to go their separate ways.
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[momabaarjo]

Still lurking around...love the parade pictures!

 

[ZellyB]

The parade pictures are great!

 

[tdashgirl]

My DH is one of those people who can run a 10-miler fairly fast with very little training. Yup, I hate him

We did have a great trip. One of these days I will start a trip report. I really want to do one because I took a fair amount of photos and want to re-live all of it. I have to say I'm not sure when we'll be back though. For us, the distance of Florida and the size of WDW makes it into a major trip, and although I am a disney freak, there's other things I like to do with my vacation time. It might be an every few years thing. At least until I get more vacation time at work. I'll be getting my Disney fix at the end of November, in Disneyland. Reading your trip report, Disneyland for me is kind of like how you do WDW -- just get your stuff together, hop in the car, a few hours later you're there. I can easily make Disney trips without burning my vacation bid. I miss a lot about WDW though

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Still lurking around...love the parade pictures!

Glad you are still lurking as I haven't seen you in a while! I've been needing to post more of where training is going for Star Wars & GSC but I've been so unmotivated lately.

The parade pictures are great!

Thank you! That FP+ was awesome as it was such a great location to see the parade without having to wait for an hour or so beforehand!

My DH is one of those people who can run a 10-miler fairly fast with very little training. Yup, I hate him

We did have a great trip. One of these days I will start a trip report. I really want to do one because I took a fair amount of photos and want to re-live all of it. I have to say I'm not sure when we'll be back though. For us, the distance of Florida and the size of WDW makes it into a major trip, and although I am a disney freak, there's other things I like to do with my vacation time. It might be an every few years thing. At least until I get more vacation time at work. I'll be getting my Disney fix at the end of November, in Disneyland. Reading your trip report, Disneyland for me is kind of like how you do WDW -- just get your stuff together, hop in the car, a few hours later you're there. I can easily make Disney trips without burning my vacation bid. I miss a lot about WDW though

I totally get that. I hate my DH too for his much better athletic ability. He told me today he wants to do a marathon for his next challenge. I told him I'll watch from the sideline. Just like while he is going to do the Wine & Dine in 2015 - I told him, I'm going to do the 5K in the morning and just drink while he's running.

You should totally do a trip report! I get wanting to do other things with your vacation time - we do the same but I just don't tend to post about it here that much (although I did post some San Diego pictures in between my 2 May Trips)

We feel the same about Disneyland - the trip in January is so costly. To go over to that coast from where we live that it isn't manageable for a yearly visit if I want to do some other things with my vacation time I have. My husband has like 3 more weeks vacation than I do as well which doesn't help & our busy seasons are completely opposite. Like, I really shouldn't take vacation in June but he isn't really allowed off multiple days from the middle of October to January. I have Dec 23rd to January 2nd off which would be great to do trips on but he's working 60+ hours weeks then.

I get that - WDW usually doesn't take vacation time for me especially with having every other Friday off. We are going to tone down the amount of trips next year. I have my Princess Half Marathon Trip in Feb, we'll do a long F&W Trip in October & we'll have a short weekend trip for Wine & Dine in November.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Adventures in Signature Dining - The Wave

I was the first one to arrive at the dinner being about 20 minute early. I was taken to the special reception area they had next to the bar where they had set up some cocktail tables with decorations.

Reception Area Decorations

Shortly before 6:30PM, they started coming around with glasses of wine to sample. Tonight’s dinner would be hosted by Cliff Lede Family Wines and we started with the Pinot Gris which was a great light welcome to this family of wines.

Fel Pinot Gris, Anderson Valley

Of the two passed appetizers I tried, I loved the tartare more than the lobster as the tartare tasted very fresh.

Wagyu Beef Tartare w/ Fried Shallots & Lemon Tarragon Aioli

Butter-Poached Maine Lobster w/ Zellwood Corn Salad & Preserved Lemon Beurre Blanc

Just after 7PM, we were led to the private room in the back of the restaurant where they had a long table set up for all of us. I sat towards the head of the table near the host from the winery as our humors worked really well together.

Table Settings

Menu

Cute Memento from Winery

Winery Host

After a formal introduction to the wine & the chef, we were served our first course. The scallop was so tender, you could cut with the fork. I ended up with a 2nd portion of the scallop as the person next to me doesn’t like scallops - but I don’t like blue cheese so I told them they would get my portion of that. My glass magically got refilled as well after I finished the glass of chardonnay.

Porcini-Crusted M-12 Diver Scallop, Florida Corn Cream, Succotash w/ Cilantro Pesto

Our 2nd plated course were the most wonderful short ribs I’ve had at Disney.

Braised Short Rib w/ Red Curry Pumpkin Agnolotti w/ Bone Marrow Powder & 50 Year Balsamic Vinegar di Modena

Our main course was a wagyu filet cooked to a perfect medium rare. The meat was wonderful! Of the Zellwood Corn/Crab Mixture I got to taste, was nice but someone kept stealing my food which was fine as we all were having great fun at my end of the table.

Grilled Wagyu Filet w/ Zellwood Corn, Peeky Toe Crab, Fingerling Potatoes, & a Black Garlic Reduction

The cheese course was probably the weakest of all the dishes we were served this evening. The barely buzzed & the goat cheese were good selections but the flavor wasn’t as there as the other courses of this meal.

Port Terrine, Palcios Chorizo, Barely Buzzed Cheese, Bayley Hazon Blue Cheese, Bijou Goat Cheese, Seasonal Accoutrements, & House Made Bread

The guests across for me couldn’t have grapefruit due to a medication they took but that meant, they had extra cocktails which I gladly took one. I was a bit drunk at this point so I didn’t have good judgment. The dessert served the biggest portion we got all evening. The picture doesn't really show how large that individual cake was.

Infused Olive Oil Cake w/ Grapefruit Supremes; Florida Citrus Ice Cream on a Coconut Macaroon Disc & a Macadamia Tuile & Sparkling Grapefruit Cocktail

Once dinner was over, I slowly got up & walked to the monorail upstairs. I may have swung onto the escalators and been very joyful as I was getting to the monorail. Part of me wants to apologize to families that may have seen a drunk 28 year on the monorail that night but I was decently behaved beside probably talking loudly to my husband on the phone telling him about the dinner and being super giggly. I did get some dirty looks for people. Oh well!

I somehow safely got myself back to the room where I quickly fell into a great drunk sleep.
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[annmarieda]

ever so slowly I will eventually get caught up.

I am sadly still back in September for your updates. Training in the summer is rough. Trying to do so in Florida or while trying to manage cruises and other trips. I really think you should be commended!!

Castaway Cay 5k - I have read that is a hard race! Sounds like you did great despite the indulgences you had leading up to race day.

ToT bibs - Did you find that your husbands corral was changed? I know they messed up with placements and many were changed. My dh got moved up one corral. My own stayed the same.

The Oatmeal - I love his stuff. The blerch is so funny. I really wish I had gone ahead and ran the beat the blerch race. It sold out fast... I then just kinda putting it off my mind. Then someone found me a bib (they did legal transfers) I really thought it would be too close to the ToT to run a half. I probably should have done it. It looked AMAZING. They even had cake on the course and if the blerch caught you they made you sit on the couch and eat cake.

TIW card - I had to renew mine too. I didn't realize that the timing of renewals could make it so you end up with more time. I renewed mine on 10/1 (mine expired on 9/30) My new one is good til 11/30/2015. So I got 14 full months. I didn't know that would be like that. It was a happy accident. Had I renewed on 10/31, I would have had 13 months.

Ok.. that puts me a tad closer to getting caught up.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

ever so slowly I will eventually get caught up.

I am sadly still back in September for your updates. Training in the summer is rough. Trying to do so in Florida or while trying to manage cruises and other trips. I really think you should be commended!!

I totally get being behind on updates. A lot of the other reports I read I've been behind on as well but I'm getting there as travel season has ended & now I'm a retail widow so I have a lot more free time on my hands. While I kept with the training, the shortcuts I made some definitely could be felt on race day.

Castaway Cay 5k - I have read that is a hard race! Sounds like you did great despite the indulgences you had leading up to race day.

Its hard as its flat with no shade and a totally non-motivating course. I'm glad I did as well as I did considering all the food & alcohol.

ToT bibs - Did you find that your husbands corral was changed? I know they messed up with placements and many were changed. My dh got moved up one corral. My own stayed the same.

My husband's corral didn't change at all. He started in the last corral. He tried to get as close to the front as possible but it didn't really happen but once he started he was able to break off and quick get in front of the group. At least we have him a proof of time for Star Wars now though. My corral also stayed the same.

The Oatmeal - I love his stuff. The blerch is so funny. I really wish I had gone ahead and ran the beat the blerch race. It sold out fast... I then just kinda putting it off my mind. Then someone found me a bib (they did legal transfers) I really thought it would be too close to the ToT to run a half. I probably should have done it. It looked AMAZING. They even had cake on the course and if the blerch caught you they made you sit on the couch and eat cake.

I love the blerch! What I had seen about the blerch race seemed like it was awesome. Although, the thought of cake while running doesn't sound too good on the stomach neither due the purple drink.

TIW card - I had to renew mine too. I didn't realize that the timing of renewals could make it so you end up with more time. I renewed mine on 10/1 (mine expired on 9/30) My new one is good til 11/30/2015. So I got 14 full months. I didn't know that would be like that. It was a happy accident. Had I renewed on 10/31, I would have had 13 months.

Yeah - I'm just happy its over 12 months so whether its 13 or 14 months, I'll take it! At least my current one will get me through all our trips thru next year. 14 months is great especially if you decide to do the Wine & Dine. We should be doing it for Shaun to do his Coast to Coast but I think after Princess Glass Slipper - I'm going to go back to just doing 5Ks and maybe 10Ks.

Ok.. that puts me a tad closer to getting caught up.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Lessons in Hangover Cures

I woke up for some reason at 5AM. This is about 15 minutes earlier than what I usually wake up during the workweek! I figured I would try to run this morning and see if that could make the hangover go away.

Does this look like a happy face?

I didn’t finish the full 8 miles as I hit one of the runner’s curses and the bad thing about going to the gym so early at the Grand Floridian is that the Spa isn’t open & thus there is no access to certain facilities, so I headed back to the room. That rainfall shower is amazing there!

I decided I need to try to eat some breakfast instead. The walk from the Villas to Gasparilla Grill was nice:

All The Little Ducks In A Row

At Gasparilla Grill, I decided to try to eat something bland and see if that would be ok. I got grits with cheese but the grits were well bland & they don’t have real butter to even attempt to make them edible enough for me so it was a bust.

Grits w/ Cheese & a water

At the store, I picked up a pack of Tums & well that worked! I made my way upstairs & hopped on the monorail to the TTC. There was a slight delay as when we got to the Contemporary, they stopped us for 10 minutes to get another train on the line. I switched to the EPCOT line at the TTC & had a section of the monorail to myself.

Monorail

It was still only 8:30AM & my mother was still on her way in from St. Augustine so I got a Caramel Latte & took a sit on a bench and watched the birds until she arrived.

Caramel Latte

Bird!

At 8:45AM, she called saying she was on her way over. We went to activate her ticket & had the most eager attendant who wanted to upsell her to a seasonal pass & didn’t want to take no for an answer until I told him sternly we were fine. They were letting guests in now so we go through the gates & went our way to enjoy Spaceship Earth first as there was no wait. We then enjoyed Nemo & Soarin (FP+), followed by Living With The Land:

We headed over to Imagination, but I was hungry at this point & my sour stomach needed something substantial in it. They have flavored popcorn now by Journey into Imagination - picking between either Sour Cream & Onion, Cheddar Cheese & Buffalo Blue Cheese. I went with what I know I liked from like Popcorn Factory & did the cheddar cheese. It was a bit stale & greasy but it hit the spot exactly.

Cheddar Cheese Popcorn

After enjoying the popcorn, my mother & I headed onto Imagination until it was time to have our round around the world showcase.

​

 

[franandaj]

OK, caught back up again! The wine dinner sounds really good! I wish DL still did a F&W since I'm not close enough to WDW to pop in for a weekend. I'm sure you weren't the first tipsy person on the Monorail...

That's a lot of rides to get done in a short amount of time! Glad the popcorn hit the spot.