Son's Birthday and Rundisney Weekend!! Jan 2024 (Completed 2/11)

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Poor husband now carrying droid...
We did not want to pay for the backpack. I have read people having the clear plastic bag for the Droid so my plan is to order that off of Amazon later. But look at my sons smile.

As we head out we see Mando and Grogu!!! Yes!!!!

We head out... I have smuggler run for another das pre order pass on monday.. so we will come back to do that. Going to Huanted mansion... while walking to the ride my son is getting triggered more and more with all the crowds. It is getting really crowded. It was so nice and not crowded while building his droid in the shop but the crowds have really arrived now. So we ask him if he wants to do one more ride and then be done. He said yep sounds good.
Ending with this ride is great... we have never done Haunted Mansion with the Nightmare Before Xmas overlay... we are very excited.

We ask to skip the stretch room... my son does not do well packed into that room... we found out there is no skipping that room like in WDW. But we did hear the cm say lighter load... so they made it less packed which actually solves the issues of that room perfectly for my son! Yeah!
Man this room smells soo good.



I loove everything about this ride. The whole family was just raving about it. So happy they kept the overlay up for us runners.
So we leave around 1:30 pm... what a great morning. We got a ton of rides and characters in and with only tiny meltdowns. No major ones. Yeah!!

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

Next we split up... the group goes to hotel to rest and I got to the Rundisney expo at Disneyland Hotel. I need to pick up my bib, my pre orders and check out any left over merch.



Good news about going in the 2nd day there is no virtual que but still need to wait in a little line. Not much is still here mostly just the basic shirts... I buy the long weekend shirt that my mom was not sure I wanted or not. Then I head upstairs to pick up my bib. While I head up I stop at a couple of booths to get some free stuff. The dvc booth had cute sweat head bands and disney wedding booth had cute luggage tags. Then getting the bid is easy no line. I have a good corral spot too! Nice!

Then I head back down stairs to get my shirts and pick up my pre orders. Easy process. No line.
Then I take a couple of pics at there photo spots. There are some lines but they move quick.



This is what I got from the expo.. this is a combination of mom buying on Thursday, me buying on Friday, pre orders and then including and free stuff. I am soo happy I pre-ordered the loungfly bag it was sold out soo quickly on Thursday.

Overall the expo area is just so crowded and cramped compared to WDW. But I love all the decor they had everywhere. It was super cute.

Next we head out to our early dinner at the Tiki Bar!

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

Next Trader Sams Tiki Bar!
We have a reservation so we check in and then get sent to our table.
We order drinks.

I get the Oh-uh...
Here is a link to see the video of the fire!!
Oh-uh


The drink is very fruity.
Then we got out food.
Everyone loved the food. My husband got the poke bowl... not as a good as Aulani but better than we get at Colorado.

I get wings and pot stickers yummy



And moms meal. Teriyaki chicken... she loved it too. Is there a bad meal here? Lol.

My sons meal. Love how disney always has basic food for kids.

While we eat other people order fun drinks and effects happen everywhere. The atmosphere is soo fun here. I love this place and it is easy to get to and from our hotel.

Next we head back to the hotel. My son is done and I need to get ready for my run tommorow!!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So we go back to our hotel, The Pixar Place Hotel and we got the room is ready text shortly before our tiki reservation.
So we go strait to the room and we get a room that is on a partially renovated area. The hallway is all car themed. So cool..my son looves it!


Sadly our room is on the non renovated side. It happens. It is not a fully open hotel. Here are the old rooms.




Has all the basics.. nothing special. The rooms do need some love and updating so glad they are in the process of doing it. Here is a view. We paid for standard the cheapest view so no surprises that we are looking at parking lot but at least u get a pool view too.
The pool looks soo nice after the renovations.
When walking to our room u get a peek a boo view of the parks. The park view looks amazing from here.

Then we go down to lobby to ask to see if we can move into renovated room just incase. No luck Sadly but we were able to get a microwave and a Keurig coffee maker so we can use our pods. So next best thing. We will be able make our breakfast in the morning!

We also stop by the dvc place in our hotel to pick up a special present we were called by our dvc cm to come by and stop and get. Nice loot. Some of we already have been will never turn down free things.
Ohh and the picture came with the room and to apologize for construction.

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

Next we head down to Great Maple the new restaurant in our hotel. And we ask if we could order some food to go so we can have it before our race tommorow. We need to wake up super early and non of the places will be open. So having food we can heat up is essential. They take us to the bar and we put in our order and order some drinks while we wait. We chat with the manager about the run. She is super sweet. I give her tips on how to get into the Hollween Disneyland run since she wanted to do the next Disneyland run. We had a really great conference with her. Loved the staff here. The drinks are yummy I get a fun mimosas and mom gets an espresso drink.




We drink and chat and our food comes up.
Yeah! We order donuts , pancakes pops and a wrap.


Yeah! We got our food. Now back to the room to get some sleep.
I have to wake at 3am tommorow!
I do my flat lay for the race. Small World Tower themed.


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[alohamom]

Oh wow, your running outfit is AMAZING!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Oh wow, your running outfit is AMAZING!

Thank u! I wanted to run something that is iconic to Disneyland and small world clock tower came to mind.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

SATURDAY

I slept well... I went to bed around 7ish and woke up at 3am. Mom and me get ready. We eat the some.of the breakfast from Great Maple we got... wow they give big portions. We save the other half for tommorows early run.
I think maple bacon donut is now my fav race fuel... just saying. Lol.
We head out of the hotel and the are other crazy people up with us. I think the whole hotel is full of rundisney peeps.
We walk through Grand Californian and the security is already up and going to get into downtown disney. Luckliy it is short and quick.
We chat with all the other runners saying we ar getting are warm up run in just walking to the start area wich is on the other side of disneyland. We follow the crowds... and now head to the disney parking lot that is usually used for staff but now is our staging area.... and ohh my the line is soo long. They only have 4ish security gates and they are being soo slow... there is no way they are going to get through like 8,000 people in time. This is ridiculous... the line is stretching longer and longer. The race is suppose to start at 5am... we laugh... they are going to half to delay it. Disney how did u not see this coming?? Apparently they made people wait till 3:30 am to even get in so they started with a long line and it has only gotten bigger. 4am the corrals open up and looks like I am going to miss that.. the lines start moving. Yeah! We notice they have stopped really checking and just have us runners hold our arms up with our mylar blankets above are head and walk through the security gate. We are beeping and setting off the alarms but they are just letting us through since someone with power realized that there is no way to get through all these people in time to start the race... so the security is pointless now. By the time we make it in pre race show is wrapping up and they are pointing people to the corrals.
We do a quick pic...
And of the pre show...

And I say good bye to my mom... my mom is furious about this whole process... we agreed she will not come in the morning with me again. It's not like WDW where they are organized and have alot of fun entertainment while u wait. It is dead here... mom heads back to our hotel.
I am heading to the corral, pee and then take some pics of the finish/starting areas.




I get my spot. So on our bibs they have your corral number I am corral C, a great letter and I got in the front of it so I am close to B! So many people are still just trying to making through security I here from other people.

Then the corral goes and we move up and it is our turn and I am next to start staging. Get a great look and Donald and Daisy!



Then it is our turn! No fire works though unlike WDW since they are strict about sound ordinances here.

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

So the first part is just running on the road around Disneyland and u turn right at Pixar Hotel. So it was great seeing my family out cheering me on. Including my son!! It's early so loove the family support.
Pics my husband took of me.


Group photo!

Then I head back to the race and my family heads back to bed. Lol. Love that we run right past my hotel. Mile 1!

First cool thing I see the evil guy from Its a Bug life Hopper. I hop in the short line and get a pic. No offical photographer... this will be become a theme of these races... a lack of photographers.


Next I take some selfie at cool places. I love running through this California Adventure... it is all soo cool and pretty.


So my big disappointment running through Avengers campus and no avengers... not even from waving up above on their little perch... Disneyland... u have a ton of WDW people who never get Avengers cause of the stupid Universal contract... why do u not have anyone here?!

Mile 2!

Carsland is soo cool at night... I took a pic of another runner and they took a pic of me.

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

Here are my only offical photopasses pics while running ignoring finsihline.. they were soo few... in WDW I normally get soo many more pics. Like this is the amount I get at my local races that are a lot cheeper... sorry to complain but for the amount we pay this is a legit issue.
At least I pose cute.. lol.

Cought me off guard on this one.. lol and I am out of focus.. lol. So apparently I caught the photographer off guard too.



I had space so tried for a jump shot. Lol.

And that is it... lol.. all the rest other than the finishline are with my own camera.
Another selfie past carsland sign.. not the best.

Man the place is pretty at night.



Then mile 3...

No character stops so far... I saw scourge mcduck... I forgot to take a quick pic of him but did not wait in his huge line cause I already have a pic with him from last years marathon.... apparently there was Donald Ducks nephies and I missed them.
Then there was basic goofy... I am not waiting in a long line for basic goofy... he was not dressed up or anything.... I am hoping if I just keep running there will be better and more characters and lines will get reasonable. That is what has happened in every other race. I see Lunch Pad and dark wing duck... I already have a pic of Darkwing duck from marathon weekend soo I keep running and again line is super long.
We cross over into Disneyland and wow am I floored!! They have the projections going it is gorgeous . No photographer those... so us runners make the best of it and take pics of each other.

Castle was gorgeous too and a CM was taking pics with our phones at the Partners statue. I wait in line for that pic.

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

Calarbella is up waving... so no character stop

But we can run through Galaxys Edge! Which is really rare in WDW and maybe some cool characters... loving how everything looks at night.


I get some cute pics but no star wars characters... another fail. Not even just basic storm troopers.
Finally a real character stop and with a character I have not met yet! Yeah. The line was reasonable soo I hop in. She is Abby from Chicken Little.

The photo pass pic is really super dark so I am happy I gave my phone to cm for another pic.
Mile 4!

We run through the castle and there was no offical photographer. So again I trade my phone with another racer and we get pics of each other. In this pic u can see my lights in my skirt.

I chatted with alot of runners and everyone was disappointed with no offical photographer at the castle. There are always photographers at the castle in WDW. Still love all the pretty areas though....in WDW u would never get all this prettiness in one race.

Had to get a pic at small world with my small world outfit. This is when a CM was really rude to me and a bunch of us runners. Like rude enough when I posted my pic on a Facebook group... another person who was next to me when the cm said it even commented on it. So the cm was really angry that when she took a pic of one runner infront of small world that a line start forming behind her. We thought that was what she was doing since there were many other cms that were doing that... so she took my pic and that was the end... she was very grumpy. I said thank u sorry and tried to be as nice as possible. To bad the light is all blue here so hard to see me.
We run through toontown and the chip and dale rescue rangers were out but this was the longest line I have ever seen, soo long... so I have to skip them even though I regret it. I still wonder if i could have done it. I think the line was so long cause there were soo few character stops. Then I found out that was the last place to get a character...

Then we run back stage and they had some parade floats out which is nice since Disneyland canceled the parades the weekend all of us runners came in.


Then mile 5.

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

More parade floats! Soo pretty.

Then they had a picture area with a cm taking pics with our phones... just saying other angry cm. It was cute the line was reasonable.

Then we go under the road... they have a cute projection on the wall.


Then they have more bug statues out so I do some selfies with them.


Mile 6! Almost done!!

The offical finishline photos!





Finished!!
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[DisneyMountainWoman]

We get the medals wrapped in plastic now. They do that to protect the medals from scratches.

Then we get our runners box.

Bananas and water.
We also get mylars blanket.
Ohh I see runnering Jack Sparrow! He is great stays in character the entire time!

Next pic with medals... again another Disneyland fail. No offical photographer to take the I did pics.. I know they were here in 2016 when I did the 10k in Disneyland then... and WDW always have it. So selfie it is...


Then now the long walk back to my room and I have to go through security again luckily line short.
Hey Disneyland I just ran here.. lol.

I get a cute pic from another runner as we switch to do eachother pic.
Walk through Grand Californian and make it to my hotel. The moment I get into my hotel the CMs say congratulations... ahh I love my CMs at Pixar Hotel. They are soo nice I meet my family and mom takes a medal pic!


Then I get our room and check out the runners box. A nice selection! Including the famous fake cheese

Now I change and get ready for park day!
Nothing slows this disney person down.

Overall review of the Disneyland 10k:
The course is amazing!! It is my fav rundisney course period. I loved running through all the places at night and soo much park time. But Disneyland needs to get some things in order. They need to figure out the security. That morning line is ridiculous. They need more characters out esp not having a character in Avengers and Star wars is a huge miss. When I did this race in 2016 there were soo many characters every where and that helped spread out the lines. They need more offical photographers. With out all the real photographers the cms then get pressured into being photographers. Also lots of tripping hazzards.. I saw a lot of falls and trips. It was crowded but did start spreading out a bit. It would be great if they did some mini waves.

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[DisneyMountainWoman]

We walk over and man is our private entrance so close. This is the real selling point of Pixar Place... our own private back door entrance to CA.

There was no line. We walked right into Pixar Pier. There was still a few mins of the early resort half an hour.

We go to toy story ride. We walk right on.






Man we all love this game. I remember rushing in Hollwood studies way back when to get to this ride.
Next we go to Incredicoaster! We are so excited this is my sons first big boy roller coaster. He just got tall enough for it. My son is little worried but also so really excited.

My poor son is hidden again..

Well my son said he did not like going upside.

So no more that ride.
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[DisneyMountainWoman]

Next we see Bo Peep so sigs and pics next!
Love the short line.


Next we just go around to all the small rides while there are no lines.
Then critter carousel next.


Then move to jumping jellies..

And the inside out ride.. my son is loving all these kids rides after being scared of the roller coaster ride.


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[DisneyMountainWoman]

More of the rides around the Pixar Pier... still loving the low to know rides.. my son is now big enough to ride the swings on his own!




Goofy sky school reminds me of the old-school dino ride that they took down in Ak..


My son thought it was super fun.
The some more flying...views are do pretty.

Then we move try to get on the little mermaids ride but it was down... well we hit all the rides here and the DAS pass is up for radiator springs racer so we head over there next.
Overall we love the rope drop strategy of hitting Pixar Pier... you just get soo much done and it is just so wonderful esp when u have a kid. These rides are just perfect for his age.
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[DisneyMountainWoman]

Carsland is soo cute!! It is one of the best themed lands in all of Disney.


We head to the Raditor ride and scan in. Thr line is long in the lightening lane. We use alot of our tricks to keep my son happy. Also I get a pass for the Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters. Then we make it!!






We all love this ride!! This is just soo cute and perfect. My son keeps talking about it and how we beat the other car.
Next we luigis ride. So das walk is weird u walk through the exit. So just fyi. Took us a bit to figure it out. When I scan in I then get the Matters junkyard ride next.


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[DisneyMountainWoman]

I love this ride. It is like my favorite part of Mickey runway railroad ride where you conga!



We then go and wait for McQueen!!! We have to meet him!

My son could not believe he could talk!
Then we saw mater had a meet and greet hidden in the back with like no line!
We jumped on that.


Then we did Maters ride. Again wall to thr exit area to get into dss line. It is the same as the alien ride in WDW but still fun. I did not get a son with ny son he choose to ride with grandma. I got a das for spider man ride next.
Then my mom is getting hungry so she heads to SanfranTokyo. My son wants to do some shopping for his birthday and he picked some car toys. Here is him holding it.

I love the model of the town in the shop.

My husband got some popcorn at the cone areas while we were shopping. No fancy flavors even though I would love it... our son wants plain. Lol.

More car toys.

Then we did another offical pic.

Next we head to SanfranTokyo to find mom and to have lunch.
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[DisneyMountainWoman]

Next Food at Sanfransokyo... wow it is getting crowded. I call mom she is still waiting for her virtual food... eep. Not a good sign. I find the cart for the baymax bread while my son sits down and plays with his new cars. My husband wanders around to see what we should order.
I take pics while waiting in line. I just love all the cute detail.


Ahh the bread

So look at that cutetness... a lot of the people in line are all runners too. We are carb people. Lol.
And when I get it mom has finnally got a table and her food and I head toward her. She has a great spot near baymax. My husband decided to get in line for that while we chill at the tables. We pick out what we want and put in a virtual order. I have bread to munch on while I wait. I mean he is just wait to cute!

The bread is okay... not the best or the worst. Still happy I got it cause look at it and it help me wait for my food. My son is just so happy with his popcorn and cars. We feed him some of protein bars too.

I realized I missed mom's food... lol she ate it really fast she was hungry.
I virtual que and get the food. It was about 20ish mins. Forgot what my husband got he loved it.

I got kids chicken teriyaki meal and pots stickers.
Pro tip... kids meals are way cheaper. Such a good value. I will order this when I want to eat a little of everything instead of one big meal. Both of us loved the food. But here was the real star of the show.... and why I order here in particular... baymax macaroon!!!

We order a couple to share and they are cute and delicious yes order this every time! All time!!
Also got a fun alcoholic drink... don't remember the name but it had fresh strawberries into so was very refreshing and I would order it again.


This was good decompression time for my son and the whole family... oh wait not whole family... poor husband in line for baymax but soon his moment will come..

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So my son even though he looves baymax was not in the mood for it... he gets this way.. but since my husband waited all that time we decide we will do the pic with out him. We had to do the baymax fist bump if course.

And then hug time!! Hugging baymax is one of the best character greats ever!!!


My husband got to eat his food now. Yeah. We chill and relax. Then we ask if my son is done for the day or would like to do Avengers campus. He said he wants to do Avengers campus so off we go, yeah!
I do love all the tiny details here.

Avengers campus next!