2010 WDW Princess Half-Marathon Marathon of Posts Vol 2

And so we arrived in Orlando, earlier than expected but still late in the evening - after 9:00. I had checked my luggage and because we were expecting to arrive close to 10:00 pm, I planned to pick it up myself instead of letting Disney's Magical Express program pick it up. After 10, they do not pick up luggage and had we arrived on time, I worried it would take hours to deliver to our room. While I picked up my luggage, swanie called home. We eventually went down to the Magical Express queue and boarded a bus to WDW. Our bus had passengers for six resorts: Coronado Springs, All Star Sports, Music and Movies, Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House and Kidani Village. The goodish news for us was that we would only be the third stop. Of the resorts listed, the Coronado Springs is a mid-level resort, the three All-Star properties are Value (read: least expensive) resorts and the last two stops were the Deluxe resorts. Go Figure.

At check-in, swanie and I believe that the clerk did not quite know what to do with such a cute and perky mommy so late in the evening. I assessed that she did not appreciate my entirely appropriate but healthy dose of enthusiasm. Seriously, what did she expect? I expect people who are on vacation at Walt Disney World to be HAPPY to be there. If a person is not happy to be at Walt Disney World, there really is not point in spending the money to go there if you ask me. Don't bother if you can't enjoy it.

I was there to have a GOOD time.

Fortunately, the young lady working in the Food Court did appreciate cute and perky as I picked up a new refillable mug for the duration of my trip. (I think that refillable Walt Disney World cups will be great to have in the new tent trailer, frankly. If anyone has any extra cluttering their homes, feel free to send them my way.)

Now, we had more than one reason for choosing All Star Music for our first night in Orlando but besides the AP discount, the biggest reason was actually that our friends and roommates for the rest of the trip were flying in on Thursday and staying there as well. They had the rental car so we knew we wanted to be as close to them as possible. (They even stopped at the store on Thursday and bought water and coffee creamer and such to share!) J and I had each called the resort earlier in the week to ask that our rooms be as near each other as possible. J had been sending swanie texts for quite some time wondering when would we finally arrive. The girl is notorious for keeping late hours so we knew she'd still be awake when we arrived. On the other hand, we also knew that C would be out for the count long before our plane landed. Our rooms were in the same building, Broadway (the one closer to All Star Movies, whatever building number that is.)

Where my family's room in October was constantly too cold, as swanie and I walked into our room, we felt like we were walking into a sauna! We left the door open to get some air! Shortly, J arrived. We caught up a bit and then J left and we went to bed.

Sometime around 3 am swanie and I both woke up to some really strange noise. At first I thought it was a group of kids from a marching band playing with their drums outside. I found out in the morning that swanie thought it was the air conditioning or some other machine in our room. Unfortunately, it kept swanie up more than me. In the morning we packed up our stuff to meet J and C at their rental car in the parking lot. As we left our room we saw a big metal box with some sort of electronic thingamagig inside. Immediately we determined that the box was the source of the noise the night before. Let this serve as your warning if you get assigned to a parking lot side room in the Broadway building at All Star Music!

And so we set out bright and early for our day. With J and C both hugged and the car packed, (yes, I DID check a suitcase. I live in a houseful of scouts. I like to Be Prepared! J eventually got it all figured out and fit in the trunk...) C took us over to Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village for check-in.

The Cast Member at Kidani Village appreciated our enthusiasm. (Admittedly, I was calmed down a bit by this point.) Swanie had requested the Dining Plan for our reservation but it had not shown up on our reservation. The CM quickly fixed that, calculated the per-person price of the Dining Plan, and allowed us each to give him our own credit cards to pay for the plan. Then he attached Mr. Swanie's credit card number to all of our Keys to the Kingdom! Oooooh the power! Alas, being the responsible women we are, we only charged one meal tip to Bob's card over the course of the weekend. So much for power.

Although it was still early in the day, our room was ready! With our bags safely in the room and dining plan on our Key cards, we headed over to the counter service restaurant at the Jambo House of Animal Kingdom Lodge: Mara.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we ate meat. Because we checked in already, we were able to count breakfast as one of our counter service meals. We all ordered the full breakfast plate. The bummer thing about breakfast is that instead of dessert we were told to select two beverages. I already had my cup. I wanted Zebra Domes, not some stupid beverage!! Oh well. Breakfast was good. A bird may have come and tasted some of C's eggs... But it was a lovely day outside so we preferred to sit outdoors.

After breakfast we went over to the Wide World of Sports to sign-in for the Princess Half Marathon! The Wide World of Sports hosts the Atlanta Braves for spring training and they had a game that day so it was already busy when we arrived near 10 am. The doors opened at 10 and the line was pretty long already, but it moved quickly. At the door, the Fairy Godmother and two footmen greeted their guests but we went through the door to the side and skipped the photo op. We ran into several members of "swanie's" message board and it was nice to meet everyone.

That said, the theme of the weekend from this morning on was really a more reserved than normal PerkyMommy. One of my life lessons has been learning how to tone myself down a bit. Everybody from the message board has always been so kind and amazingly helpful and supportive that I worried about opening my mouth, inserting my foot and annoying the poop out of them. Call it one of my issues. Sure, I got in a few one-liners here and there. I may have dropped a well place eyeroll or facial expression that elicited a giggle or two. But I treaded carefully while I gauged my audience.

I had a few missions at the Expo. Of course I picked up my bib, gift/drop bag and event shirt. I really wanted to check out the official merchandise as they ran out of my size and a few items I wanted at the Disneyland Half before I arrived. I also had a mission to visit a specific vendor or two...

I went for the bib and bag first because word got out that the shirt sizing was messed up on the official merchandise. At the time that we registered, we had to enter our shirt sizes. The directions warned us: The shirts size small so order one size up from what you would normally wear, and so I adjusted my order accordingly. It turned out that the shirt manufacturer (Champion) did, indeed, cut the shirts one size small. Disney decided to "fix" that by sizing the shirts back up again. Therefore if a Princess requested a Large shirt, she was handed a shirt labelled "XL" and told that the shirts had been mislabeled. Except that, remember, at registration we had been directed to order a size UP. SO. In theory, if I requested a size LARGE what I really wanted was a size MEDIUM and they were now passing out size LARGE shirts labeled EXTRA-LARGE. Are you following this? Good, because it gets more complicated...

APPARENTLY, not ALL of the shirts were mis-labeled. Some of the shirts seemed to be properly labeled. At one point, someone held up two shirts, both labeled "LARGE" but one of the shirts was clearly larger than the other shirt!!

Disney would only give participants the shirt size they requested. If we wanted to trade for a different size, we could, but the traded shirt would be white (or later, pink) not the powder blue shirt. In short, it was a mess. I took the shirt I signed up for at registration. The shirt is a tad roomier than I normally choose in running/walking under a 16-minute pace apparel but is not too loose so I kept it.

From here I proceeded to the official merchandise booth. I absolutely adore the logo for the official merchandise. I would love to see this logo on a shirt or a cap or even a pin, don't you think?

I did not get this shirt but I thought it was really cute.

I love this shirt.

This shirt could have been a touch more subtle but...

I really liked the map of the Half-Marathon course on the back.

I was happy to find t-shirts in a 'normal' cut. They had so much adorable merchandise that I really had a hard time containing myself. I only took pictures of a bit of it. I should get an award for my restraint in shopping. The check-out line moved quickly and I found my group again. We schmoozed some more and then headed to my next mission of the day: One More Mile.

I could go on and on about the adorableness of the One More Mile attire. I had another chilling challenge ahead of me in narrowing down my options. Each shirt comes in a variety of colors and sleeve lengths making it extra-hard to choose which one to purchase. Among the various slogans I considered:

"If found on the ground, please drag across the finish line"

"I know, I know, I'm almost there."

"You don't have to go fast, you just have to go"

"Find Your Happy Pace"

and

"This IS my race pace"

And there are so many others, too...

"If it weren't for me, you'd have no one to pass"

"Does this shirt make my butt look fast" (I'm not really fast enough for that one, I think)

"This seemed like a good idea 3 months ago"

"Race Day Strategy: Start off slow then back off"

"I know I run like a girl. Try to keep up" (Again, I'm too slow for that one...)

"Some girls chase boys. I pass 'em" (yeah, I'm too slow. BUT there WERE men at Princess and I DID pass some of them!)

In other news, it just gets worse... I just saw shirts on the website that I have not seen before...

On the front: "You think I run funny?"

On the back: "You should see me walk tomorrow"

NO KIDDING! Boy Howdy, ain't THAT the truth!

Another one says: "It's all about the medal"

Everyone who has seen me pull my medals out of my purse to show them off knows where I stand on this issue...

In the end I purchased a short-sleeved wick-lite version of this shirt:

Awwwwww. But it's TRUE!

So here's the funny story about shirt shopping. I wanted to try the shirt on before purchasing it, to make sure I was selecting the proper size. I really did not want to waste time looking for a place to try it on at the booth so I put down my backpack and bags and asked some of my group to hold a thing or two for me. Then I started to take off my t-shirt right there in the booth, because I'm a total exhibitionist, right?

NO! OF COURSE NOT. Well I mean, the exhibitionist part. I really did take my tshirt off because I really didn't care if anyone saw me in my tank top/camisole that I was wearing underneath. But the tank was a nude/beige color so a few of my friends there thought I was gonna give the room a show... HA HA. So much for more reserved than normal PerkyMommy. At least they had a good laugh about it. And the shirt fit!

With all of our purchases in hand, we left the Expo to go visit our park for the day: Epcot!

While we visited Epcot during the Food and Wine Festival last year, this time our visit coincided with the International Flower and Garden Festival. While I'm sure my late grandmother would have been divinely enthralled with the Flower and Garden Festival, my thumb is a very very dull almost brown green. That said, the opening display in Epcot featured a camping scene with Donald and Daisy roasting marshmallows over a campfire. Awwwww:

It was even easier to photograph in the evening:

We headed first to "Soarin'" to pick up fast passes. ("Soarin'" because when in Florida, the "Over California" part is silent.) I should be less snarky because I readily admit, Soarin' Over California is one of my all time favorite rides at any Disney theme park. I just have a hard time "wasting" time in Florida on a ride that is identical to its Anaheim counterpart (and geographically more appropriate in Anaheim.)

Next we went to Le Cellier to check about our "dinner" (actually very very late lunch) reservations. Tonight was the most logical night, Liturgical calendars aside, for our Le Cellier dinner and this is swanie's most favorite restaurant. We wanted to see about adding two more people to our reservation. Le Cellier is always one of the hottest tickets in the Walt Disney World resort, partly, in my opinion, because it is one of the nicer restaurants and yet it still only "costs" one table-service credit on the Disney Dining Plan. Swanie walked into the restaurant lobby and turned on her own cute and perky (we have been known in some circles as twinsies so it should be no surprise that she can also be cute and perky.) While there, I have to add, I spotted Courtney, "our" Canadian from our visit in October!! She actually remembered us and we shared a laugh or two. Meanwhile, swanie charmed her own Canadian, Randy. Randy checked to see if we could add two people and when he came back he said that we could and everyone rejoiced. No, really. Swanie asked Randy if she could hug him and he said yes. Then he said "That was nice. Can I have another one?" So she did. Randy decided to push his luck and added "And when you come back for your reservation, can I get another one?" Of course swanie said "sure!"

I don't actually know these women. I just could not believe how many Vera Bradley purses and bags I constantly saw everywhere I turned. When I saw three women together, all wearing VB backpacks, I could not help but take a picture. At the time I took this picture, I was carrying the exact same backpack, in Purple Punch.

We continued towards the United Kingdom Pavillion for a stop at the Rose and Crown pub. Some of our group ordered beer and ale (I've never been much of a beer drinker, it makes me too full.) And then it was almost time to back to Le Cellier for our linner.

True to her word, swanie hugged Randy... AGAIN. Randy eventually seated our group near the same table we had in October. There we were: Six Moms and Aunts without our kids. Oh.My. We were quite the crowd. Our poor, poor Canadian for the day, Jill, had no idea what she was getting herself into. :sigh: Poor Jill. But golly, she was a DARN good sport. She seemed to smile and laugh so we're just going to assume that she was enjoying our healthy enthusiasm. Or at least whatever kind of enthusiasm it was...

There are two especially fabulous things about Le Cellier: Their cheese soup and their steak. On some levels, I might have preferred dinner there because the dinner menu has prime rib and the prime rib is available as a prix fixe menu which includes the soup. (On the dining plan, unless you make a selection from the prix fixe menu, if you want a cup of soup, you will have to pay a little extra. Not that this is price prohibitive, just less convenient.) I did have a little bit of guilt feelings about eating at a STEAKHOUSE on a Friday of Lent and my body was feeling a tad off, so I passed on the amazing filet and selected the steak salad from the prix fixe menu, with the cheese soup to start and maple creme brulee for dessert. The salad had a bit too much dressing on it but otherwise it was a tasty meal.

We may have laughed a bit during lunch.

And we may have asked Jill if she was right or left handed.

Jill laughed.

On our way out of the restaurant, we saw Randy again and sure enough, swanie hugged him AGAIN. J took a picture to email to Bob. I took one with my camera, too:

Because we were already in Canada, and some of the group had yet to see the Martin Short movie there, we stopped to watch it. And laugh. The Celine Dion joke still amused me.

Next we walked over to Mexico for margaritas. I hoped to find the delicious amazing blue margarita we tried in October but it was not on the menu. I asked about a blue blended margarita and the server said they could make it for me. Meantime, J and "BK" ordered the margarita flight which included, among others, an avocado, a jalapeño and a cucumber margarita. I could not imagine the thought of those three so I passed on the flight. I tasted the avocado margarita and it was surprisingly sweet. They reported that the jalapeño margarita was not as spicy as one would expect. But. Everyone who tasted them agreed they just were not cold enough. My blue margarita was good but it was too much for me to finish. My body was feeling a bit off and I was getting pretty tired. I knew I wanted to do some shopping I missed out on in October. When we left the tequila bar, I headed out separate from the group to tour the World Showcase alone.

C and I with our margaritas. C is a kick in the pants. She's from Ohio, which of course I guessed immediately when she opened her mouth to speak, with that thick Ohio accent of hers.

Because I was so full, I skipped the bakeries in Norway and France. I walked through the German stores but did not see much of anything of interest. I walked into the Italian shop... and walked out. Oh my heavens that store stank of perfume. Blech! It was just too much. I missed the Chinese store but I went through the Japanese stores. Being a cat person, I found a few fun kitty cats in the back of the Japanese store. I hoped to find something for my mom and my sister there. I found a bowl for my sister. It had a cat painted on the inside and another on the outside of the bowl. I thought "Oh, this would be perfect for her kitty cat to use as a water bowl or she could use it as a cereal bowl for herself." -- Postscript -- I gave her the bowl as soon as I got home (I pulled it out of my suitcase before I even left the airport so I would have it in hand as soon as I got home even.) Yeah, she looked at it and said "Oh. I already have a bowl exactly like this. My cat uses it as a water bowl." Huh. Can we call it great minds think alike?

I had to take this picture when I walked through the American pavillion. That's Jose Feliciano singing in the amphitheater. He was singing a Doors song at the time. For some reason, I found this all very amusing.

On my way out of Japan, I checked my watch. It was somewhere near 7 pm and I figured that meant those in California were still at work. If someone's still at work it is not inappropriate to call her and ask her a work related question, right? I do not have my travel agent's work number in my cell phone but, fortunately, she had her cell phone at work and turned on when I called. I had a very important work related question for her. I knew that several of my friends enjoyed a cookie called "Banana Bears" and I needed to know where to buy them. Jennifer@AAA was able to direct me to the UK pavillion.

On my way to the UK, I caught up with "my group" in Morroco. We walked together to the UK where I purchased some Banana Bears. We sat for a bit near the Rose and Crown. I was getting pretty tired and they still wanted to go on Soarin' (Over California). Illuminations was about to start. I admit that I am one of those apparently rare people who find Illuminations underwhelming and I'm not quite sure what the big deal is. (I found another one. It happens that she's someone I respect a lot. I felt a lot better.) I figured this would be a good time to get going before the buses became too busy.

On my way out of Epcot, I passed Club Cool and wanted to look for some more lip balm for my boys. I picked up some Orange Fanta lip balm in October and they loved it. I thought maybe this time I could get some Barq's Root Beer lip balm. The problem is that I was there at 8:00 and Club Cool closes at 7 pm. I felt like a terrible mother.

I briefly considered jumping on the Spaceship Earth attraction but I was really tired, so I did not. I pulled out my phone to call home and check on my family. While speaking with my mother I left Epcot and turned to the right to look for the buses. Well the Diamond Parking area (which I remembered fondly from October) was to the right but no buses. Huh. Of course, this is Epcot, not Disneyland in Anaheim. Once I figured out I was in the wrong place, I had a bit of walk back to the monorail area to look for the proper bus area. While walking, I finished my conversation with my family and started to say good-bye to my mom who wanted to know "WHERE ARE YOU?"

I'm in the Epcot parking lot.

WHY ARE YOU ALONE???

Mom, I'm totally safe. This is nothing like Anaheim. This is the ONLY thing here. I'm not alone. This area is well-lit and filled with lots of people.

I'M STAYING ON THE PHONE WITH YOU UNTIL YOU FIGURE OUT WHERE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE.

Mom, I see where I'm supposed to be. I'm on my way there now.

WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG!?!?!??

Mom, you have NO IDEA how big this place is. I'm on my way there. I just have to GET there.

When I arrived at my bus stop, my mom let me hang up my phone. I left a text for swanie to call me from the parking lot when they arrived so that I could help cart up my bags from the Expo, from the car. They did not. They were very sweet and concerned about my hip. I had been experiencing a lot of pain in my hip for a week or so. At the Expo I consulted with one of the sponsored runners in our group. She endorsed icing it. With my roommates back, J offered me a ziplock bag to ice my hip and so I iced it.

With our pajamas on, and C already in bed, swanie pulled down the bedspread and found popcorn on the bed! Uhm, we had not eaten any popcorn, much less in our room or near the bed... We inspected and thought we saw some hairs on the sheets. Swanie had already called to request more pillows. She called back to ask for housekeeping to come up and change the bed sheets. Because we were staying under DVC points, we would have no housekeeping services during our stay. (DVC provides housekeeping every third day, which would be the day we planned to leave.) After quite some time, a cast member arrived (after 11 pm) to change the sheets. Just the sheets. He remade the bed and swanie requested fresh pillowcases, too. After he left I asked "Do you want me to point out that he put the same blanket back on the bed that he took off the bed in the first place?"

Swanie and I decided we just would not touch the blanket.

In the end, we theorized that the popcorn had been trapped under the bedspread as most hotels do not change the bedspreads between guests. I'm not quite sure that made me feel any better. I sure do appreciate hotels that have switched from bedspreads to comforters with duvet covers!

And with our fresh pillowcases, we finally went to bed at the end of our first night.