Four Parks, One Dope: A 2015 Dopey Challenge Trip Report!

[Ariel484]

2015 Walt Disney World Family Fun Run 5K! The Medallion!

I realized earlier that I didn't post close-ups of the medallion! Here it is in all its adorable glory.

I love the ribbon!

Continued in Next Post

 

[jdd]

Subbing! I'm really enjoying reading trip reports about the marathon - heading down for the PHM next month and I need some motivation

Sorry the 5K wasn't more fun - hopefully they made up for it with the 10K!

Totally off topic, but is your sweatshirt from the College of Wooster in Ohio? My son was just accepted there for the fall term - he hasn't decided for sure where he's going, but it was his first acceptance and very exciting!!

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[Ariel484]

Subbing! I'm really enjoying reading trip reports about the marathon - heading down for the PHM next month and I need some motivation

Yay! I'm so jealous. Over the past month I've seen some Glass Slipper Challenge bibs pop up through Travel Agents and it's been SO hard not to buy one. I ran the Princess Half in 2011...my first runDisney race. You'll love it!

Sorry the 5K wasn't more fun - hopefully they made up for it with the 10K!

Oh don't get me wrong, it WAS fun...it just would have been more fun if I'd gotten that Chip & Dale picture.

Totally off topic, but is your sweatshirt from the College of Wooster in Ohio? My son was just accepted there for the fall term - he hasn't decided for sure where he's going, but it was his first acceptance and very exciting!!

Congratulations to your son!!

YES - the is a College of Wooster sweatshirt!

*RANDOM TANGENT YOU DIDN'T ASK FOR BUT I'LL GIVE YOU ANYWAY*
Wooster was a back-up for me - but I ended up getting waitlisted at my first choice college and picked Wooster because it was small and close to home (about 1 hour's drive - I HATE long car rides). Not great reasons but luckily it turned out to be the best decision I ever made! I had close friends (still good friends with my freshman year next-door neighbor) and the campus is so beautiful and walkable (recently they added a shuttle system I guess?)...just full of good people. And the best thing - my husband and I met at Wooster (both math majors - we met in math class...he's class of 2007, I'm class of 2006). We actually ended up getting married at the Wooster Inn in 2009 and our wedding photos are from the college campus:

Aaaaanyway...good luck with your son's college decisions! I found it all to be VERY overwhelming.

Looking forward to reading more!

Thanks!

 

[emilyindisney]

That is a super long name for the shortest race of the weekend, hahaha

Ahhh! I'm glad you made the bus! I always figured the 'runners must be on the bus by x' was to cover Disney's bus so people wouldn't get mad if they got on a bus at the last minute and didn't make it to the race. I didn't realize they actually cut off bus service then! Yikes!

I have so many pajama pants that lost the shrinkage battle to the dryer. That is the perfect use for them!

THOSE MILE MARKERS THOUGH It's nice to see some race specific ones again!

Casually swooning over World Showcase at night with the lanterns lit!

Booooo! That stinks that Chip and Dale's line was moving! It's so hard to pick from all the characters in their cultural get-ups. Even though you couldn't grab a picture with any characters this race but I really like your pictures with Spaceship Earth!

I love your 5k photos- looks like buying the photo package was worth it (so far.) Hope you liked the rest of your photos too! (Can't wait to see what they captured for you!)

I agree that the whole time confirmation thing was very confusing. The directions made it sound like they were doing it after each race and a lot of the volunteers really weren't sure. After the half we ran into another runner who confirmed that he spoke to the race director who said we didn't need our times verified until after the full. If it hadn't been for that info we would have been wandering around the finish area aimlessly!

The medal is totally cute! The colors are great and it looks like Disney really nailed the rubber design part!

 

[Ariel484]

Day 2: Thursday, January 8, 2015 - Post-5K, Part 1

From my point of view, Disney did a great job with buses this year. I hear it was difficult for the earlier finishers (who still had to wait for the latter corrals to start the race before the buses could pull up ), but when I got there, multiple buses were waiting at each resort stop. I was gone quickly. Super.

I had one small errand I needed to run at the Beach Club, so I stayed on the bus until I got to the Yacht Club. Normally I'm good with walking between the Epcot area resorts, but not in windy, 30-degree weather in just my running clothes!

The Christmas stuff was still up at the Boardwalk on this day, so I was surprised to see that it was down at Yacht & Beach.

Just needed to grab a resort pin from Beach Club Marketplace. I get pins for each resort I stay at (along with races and stuff) and I'd forgotten to get this one way back in 2012. Oops! Better late than never, right?

The MagicBand system was down when I got there, so they wrote down my MagicBand number to put it into the computer later. Oooookay. The system came back up just as I was about to leave, so I was able to pay. The CMs were very interested in my Pluto medallion and asked if I was doing Dopey. I got that question a lot over the week.

From the Beach Club I walked (quickly, OH SO QUICKLY in that wind) to the Boardwalk Bakery. I'd so been looking forward to getting a breakfast biscuit with bacon...but they changed them. Now they're on regular buns. No more biscuits. SADNESS.

Still good, though. I also got some hot chocolate. And a cupcake, of course.

Contents of the snackbox - Goldfish crackers!! My childhood favorite!

I took a hot, hot shower, hung my 5K clothes up to dry (ew) and laid out my outfit for the next morning's 10K.

Flat Shannon #2!

Clean and warm Shannon! (Note that I now deemed it okay to wear the 5K shirt since I had completed the 5K!)

Cupcake!

Yellow cake filled with strawberry mousse (I think) with chocolate chips...

NOM NOM NOM!!!

After eating my cupcake, I moved my 10K stuff over by the sink and made the call for layering the next morning - the wind chill would be gone, but temperatures would still be low and I was pretty sure I'd finish the 10K before sunrise. Once again, my original planned outfit had short sleeves and a skirt. I decided I could get away with not wearing leggings during the run, but that I'd re-wear the hoodie I'd worn for this morning's 5K (EW GRODY TO THE MAX!). Eh, whatever. Don't worry, I didn't stink too badly...I don't think.

Continued in Next Post

 

[FFigawi]

OH. Note to any future Challenge runners...this is something I forgot to mention in the expo post - when I picked up my bibs, I got two that I was going to need to wear for the entire weekend, and only one set of safety pins. Next time, I am definitely bringing extra safety pins!!

Check out getting a set of Race Dots. They're super strong magnets that hold your bib in place without having to poke holes in your shirts or shorts all the time. I used them for the first time during Dopey & loved them once I figured out the best way to get them on.

The Christmas stuff was still up at the Boardwalk on this day, so I was surprised to see that it was down at Yacht & Beach.

Not all of it was still up. They took the tree and decorations in the courtyard down at 2am on Thursday morning. Not exactly the racket I wanted to hear while trying to sleep before the alarm went off at 445. Sigh.

 

[Ariel484]

Day 2: Thursday, January 8, 2015 - Post-5K, Part 2

My goal for today was to not take a nap, despite the early wake-up call I'd had that morning. I wanted to sort of settle into this as my "normal" schedule for the next few days. So once I was ready, I didn't sit around for too long - I hopped onto a bus to the Magic Kingdom for a little solo morning! Jess and Courtney were at the expo (Jess had to pick up her bib and Courtney was returning a shirt, I think?) and Holly had her kiddo, but we all had plans to meet up for lunch at the Polynesian.

I arrived at the entrance gates right around 10:15. My bus let off at the same time as both a ferry AND a monorail...seeing a massive wave of humanity coming toward me as I went to enter the MK was slightly terrifying!

Boo scrim!

I got into the giant, giant Starbucks line. I'm pretty sure I got a giant caramel macchiato as my drink, along with this delicious chocolate salted caramel thing. I was out in about 20 minutes and the wait was SO TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Blue skies and sunshine! And Christmas!

Besides the coffee, I had just one must-do for this morning - a picture with Pluto!

Move It, Shake It, Whatever It's Called now was going on during this time (that's what everyone behind me is looking at). So Pluto sort of tried to dance with me and I'm just so awkward that it didn't really work. Good try, pup. He was excited to see himself on my medallion, though. It was still a little chilly out, but the sun was helping and thankfully I'd listened to Will before leaving home and packed my really heavy hoodie. That thing was gold this weekend.

Monorail time!

Poly time!

I have mixed feelings about the lobby...and I think my feelings are mixed because I don't hate it at all, and I feel like I should. Everyone tells me I should, anyway. Once they get the water going in the new fountain and I hear the sound of the water flowing as I enter the lobby I think I'll definitely like it. I definitely DO NOT like what is going on out back though.

Holly and her kiddo (with Pascal in tow) arrived next, followed by Jess and Courtney! Reunited and it feels so good!

We headed down to Captain Cook's. I got the chicken caesar salad - pretty good! - along with a big cup of water that I re-filled at least once. We were eating just after noon.

Holly got some kind of sandwich with Poly chips (forget what kind of sandwich?) and Courtney and Jess each got an order of pulled pork nachos. OM NOM NOM!!

BUT NO CUPCAKES. UNACCEPTABLE. We didn't love the selections available at the Poly, so we hopped onto the monorail to the Contemporary!!

Decisions, decisions...

There's a Frozen cupcake all the way to the left that's not in the picture - chocolate with caramel and buttercream filling, and we'd all tried it before. We went with one each of the Minnie Strawberry Shortcake cupcake (yellow cake with strawberry pie filling and white buttercream) and the Hot Chocolate Cupcake (chocolate cake with chocolate marshmallow filling, topped with chocolate buttercream and toasted marshmallows).

Each one was split into fourths...Holly and the kiddo shared.

Pascal was excited!

I think everyone agreed that we liked the strawberry one better. The chocolate one was good, just too overwhelmingly chocolate-y.

We hung out at the Contempo Cafe for at least an hour...just catching up and playing with Holly's kiddo. Fun afternoon!

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Day 2: Thursday, January 8, 2015 - Post-5K, Part 3

Eventually we split up - Holly and the little man left us for the afternoon, and Courtney, Jess and I headed to Magic Kingdom.

Just making herself comfortable...

Courtney had read a tip somewhere (Facebook?) that a cart in Tomorrowland was selling hot chocolate in refillable mugs featuring the characters running, so of course we had to get that. Courtney was killing it as far as finding cool runDisney stuff on Social Media this week!!

After a looooong (5 minutes or so) search, we had our mugs! And someone (i.e. me) may have managed to spill a bunch of hot chocolate trying to adjust the lid. Dummy. But really - $5 for a refillable mug filled with hot chocolate. Not a bad deal!

We snuck our mugs onto the TTA and enjoyed our hot chocolate while riding through Tomorrowland.

After that, we headed to the hub. There were a weird amount of seagulls around this morning. One of them photobombed me!

Mug! Not pictured: hot chocolate stains on my sleeve.

We went on Haunted Mansion and Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor before heading to Main Street for dinner at The Plaza.

This was an early one...we were seated by about 5:30.

This is a place I've wanted to try for quite awhile now, but it has always gotten bumped it in favor of something else. I'm glad I finally came here...it's a solid, affordable Table Service option for sure!

Soup and the vegetarian sandwich - YUM! We all decided that this tomato soup is the same as the soup that is served at Beaches & Cream...so basically, it's the best tomato soup ever. Not pictured: the thousands of glasses of water I was drinking with dinner.

Mozzarella, hummus, basil pesto, cucumber, roasted red pepper and lettuce (hold the tomato...ALWAYS HOLD THE TOMATO ). It's supposed to come on focaccia but I have an odd love for the multi-grain sandwich bread at Disney, so I asked to have my sandwich on that instead. It was so good!

We had a window table, so we could see the castle lighting show - we couldn't see any of the characters, but seeing the effects and the castle lighting up was still pretty cool.

We briefly split up after this...we made almost zero effort to coordinate our fastpasses, for whatever reason, so I found myself riding the Mine Train solo at about 7!

I met up with the ladies afterward and we headed to Pirates, followed by the Jingle Cruise! Our skipper (Brandon? Brent? Brad? Something like that) was HILARIOUS this evening - made the ride a thousand times better.

At about 8PM we headed to our last ride of the evening - Space Mountain. Definitely a favorite of mine! Love me some Space Cuddles.

And with that, it was time for me to head out. I said goodnight to Courtney and Jess and BOOKED IT to the Main Street bypass. Wishes! was about to end and I really wanted to beat the crowds to the bus area - which I ended up doing! Yay. During this time I called Will and caught up a bit (even though we'd been texting all day - texting just isn't the same as having an actual conversation, ya know?).

I got on the bus and was back at the resort quickly. Not sure what time I went to bed this evening...earlier than the night before but still not early enough. Especially since my wake-up time was shifting back from 4:30AM to 2:45AM!

Walt Disney World 10K recap is up next!

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

That is a super long name for the shortest race of the weekend

Haha! But really though!

Ahhh! I'm glad you made the bus! I always figured the 'runners must be on the bus by x' was to cover Disney's bus so people wouldn't get mad if they got on a bus at the last minute and didn't make it to the race. I didn't realize they actually cut off bus service then! Yikes!

Me tooooo

I thought about it more last night and I'm sure part of the reason we didn't make the bus cut in February was because we were at the Wilderness Lodge...so the bus would have been driving right on the Princess Half course (I think). So they had to cut that one for the race...and maybe I wasn't as close to missing the bus as I think I was since not as many roads close for the 5K?

At any rate, I did have a small heart attack.

I have so many pajama pants that lost the shrinkage battle to the dryer. That is the perfect use for them!

Stupid dryers!!

THOSE MILE MARKERS THOUGH It's nice to see some race specific ones again!

I know! That was the only race all weekend that had them...the other 3 re-used the same ones over and over. Ah well.

Casually swooning over World Showcase at night with the lanterns lit!

Yessss!! That was my favorite part of the old marathon course - running through Epcot before sunrise. That's one of the reasons why I was happy to be running the 5K and 10K!

Booooo! That stinks that Chip and Dale's line was moving! It's so hard to pick from all the characters in their cultural get-ups. Even though you couldn't grab a picture with any characters this race but I really like your pictures with Spaceship Earth!

Ugh, I know! Of course now that I'm sitting here I wish I would have waited for the photo...or for the Daisy one. Sadness! A picture with Spaceship Earth is a good consolation prize though.

I love your 5k photos- looks like buying the photo package was worth it (so far.) Hope you liked the rest of your photos too! (Can't wait to see what they captured for you!)

My photos for the 5K and the marathon are really good - and I have a LOT for the marathon. All of my 10K photos are pretty bad...half and half with the half marathon.

I agree that the whole time confirmation thing was very confusing. The directions made it sound like they were doing it after each race and a lot of the volunteers really weren't sure. After the half we ran into another runner who confirmed that he spoke to the race director who said we didn't need our times verified until after the full. If it hadn't been for that info we would have been wandering around the finish area aimlessly!

Yeah, honestly, I wish they would have stuck to what was in the program. And I wish all of the volunteers were clear on it! At least you got the information secondhand from the race director...

The medal is totally cute! The colors are great and it looks like Disney really nailed the rubber design part!

I totally agree - they always do a great job with the medals!

Check out getting a set of Race Dots. They're super strong magnets that hold your bib in place without having to poke holes in your shirts or shorts all the time. I used them for the first time during Dopey & loved them once I figured out the best way to get them on.

Thank you! Just checked out the website and I will definitely be ordering some. I like the idea of not putting holes in my running shirts...

Not all of it was still up. They took the tree and decorations in the courtyard down at 2am on Thursday morning. Not exactly the racket I wanted to hear while trying to sleep before the alarm went off at 445. Sigh.

Oh man, that stinks! Especially on the one race day where you could "sleep in" a bit. BLECH!

You're right, now I do remember seeing the Christmas tree out back that first day only. I was very surprised with how long the lobby decorations were up and that they were still playing Christmas music. Happy because I love Christmas, but surprised.

 

[Biggie Smalls]

Dude I totally did the same thing with my mug too! They put the kids on all wonky and when I fixed it I dumped vaguely warm coco all over me watching the marathon.

I loved the mile markers for the 5k they were super cute! Great job on the race and good for you getting out to the parks after and rocking your medal. I wore mine straight up for 4 days and to the airport. Haha

 

[Slogger]

Love the trip report, it's like reliving our trip too. The whole family is having Disney withdrawal already.

Question for you.....what are some of the social media sites that you used for some of your race and park intel? Lots of good info there that I didn't get but I was only checking Twitter and Mydisneyexperience.

 

[Ariel484]

Dude I totally did the same thing with my mug too! They put the kids on all wonky and when I fixed it I dumped vaguely warm coco all over me watching the marathon.

EXACTLY! The hole where the hot chocolate comes out was lined up with the handle, so I had to move it. Disaster ensued.

I loved the mile markers for the 5k they were super cute! Great job on the race and good for you getting out to the parks after and rocking your medal. I wore mine straight up for 4 days and to the airport. Haha

Thanks! I had a medal on every day of that trip, including when I was at the airport!

Love the trip report, it's like reliving our trip too. The whole family is having Disney withdrawal already.

Thanks!!

Oh man...me too. Disney withdrawal + post-race blues. Not a good combination!

Question for you.....what are some of the social media sites that you used for some of your race and park intel? Lots of good info there that I didn't get but I was only checking Twitter and Mydisneyexperience.

I assume you're talking about the phone case and the mug?

The phone case thing was tweeted out by runDisney and the tip on the mug was posted to our running skirts Facebook group (if I remember correctly). What other things are you talking about specifically?

 

[ZellyB]

Looks like another great day, although that seems like a lot of walking around for someone who still has 3 races to run, little Missy. Just sayin'.

And, I think I needed to have Courtney with me to have scoped out those awesome runDisney items. We went to DtD and I would have totally bought up a phone case not to mention grabbing one of those mugs at MK. Oh well, at least it saved my pocketbook some money.

Can't wait to hear about the next leg of Dopey.

 

[ZellyB]

Check out getting a set of Race Dots. They're super strong magnets that hold your bib in place without having to poke holes in your shirts or shorts all the time. I used them for the first time during Dopey & loved them once I figured out the best way to get them on.

And, side-note, I just looked at that the website for these too and think they seem like a great idea. I hate putting holes in my shirts. Thanks for the tip.

 

[RnbwSktles]

I love the ribbon!

The ribbon bothers me. It's the only one out of the 6 that has the character and race type on opposite sides. I want it to say 5k next to Pluto!

 

[broadwaybookworm]

Another fun day. The mug is adorable and I will definitely be checking out The Plaza in a future visit.

 

[ursalita]

Love your Goofy medal! That breakfast sandwich at Boardwalk Bakery looks delicious, I definitely have to get one when I'm there.

It looks like it was beautiful at MK even though it was cold. Nice review of the Plaza restaurant. 2:45?!? Ouch.

 

[Ariel484]

Looks like another great day, although that seems like a lot of walking around for someone who still has 3 races to run, little Missy. Just sayin'.

You are correct! Will was giving me a hard time about that over text message.

And, I think I needed to have Courtney with me to have scoped out those awesome runDisney items. We went to DtD and I would have totally bought up a phone case not to mention grabbing one of those mugs at MK. Oh well, at least it saved my pocketbook some money.

Yes!! She is my source on a lot of this stuff! I wish they'd made this stuff more well-known so other people could have taken advantage.

Can't wait to hear about the next leg of Dopey.

And, side-note, I just looked at that the website for these too and think they seem like a great idea. I hate putting holes in my shirts. Thanks for the tip.

I hate that too! I'm pretty sure I need to order a set of these...but what color?? :

The ribbon bothers me. It's the only one out of the 6 that has the character and race type on opposite sides. I want it to say 5k next to Pluto!

Haha, very true! The one thing that bothers me about the ribbon is that there's no park icon for the course...no Spaceship Earth. Otherwise it's pretty adorable.

Another fun day. The mug is adorable and I will definitely be checking out The Plaza in a future visit.

Yes, love the mug! We were so excited to find it!

I liked The Plaza a lot. I got out of there for less than $20, which isn't bad for a Disney Table Service place.

Love your Goofy medal! That breakfast sandwich at Boardwalk Bakery looks delicious, I definitely have to get one when I'm there.

They also have a sausage option, still on the biscuit. Next time I'm asking them to switch mine to a biscuit!

It looks like it was beautiful at MK even though it was cold. Nice review of the Plaza restaurant. 2:45?!? Ouch.

It was! And a cold day at the Magic Kingdom is better than a cold day at home!

You read that right...2:45AM!

 

[Slogger]

The phone case thing was tweeted out by runDisney and the tip on the mug was posted to our running skirts Facebook group (if I remember correctly). What other things are you talking about specifically? [/QUOTE]


Yes, those were primarily the ones I meant. For some reason I didn't get any RunDisney tweets during our stay, nor did we see the big concept art of the medals at the expo......would have made good pics like yours.

Did you wear each medal after each race?
How about all 3 medals earned on Sunday, did anyone wear all three the rest of the day?!! Saw a few Dopey medals at the airport on Monday.

 

[Ariel484]

Yes, those were primarily the ones I meant. For some reason I didn't get any RunDisney tweets during our stay, nor did we see the big concept art of the medals at the expo......would have made good pics like yours.

That stinks. I think it's there a few times in their feed but it almost certainly got buried among all the other Tweets they sent out that week.

The medal concept art was outside of ESPN WWoS...on the left-hand side as you leave to go to the parking lot/buses.

Did you wear each medal after each race?
How about all 3 medals earned on Sunday, did anyone wear all three the rest of the day?!! Saw a few Dopey medals at the airport on Monday.

I wore the 5K medal the rest of the day on Thursday...same with the 10K medal on Friday and the half medal on Saturday. After that I primarily had on the Dopey medal. I thought that got the point across! I did carry the other medals with me to get a couple of pictures though. And I did have my Dopey medal on at the airport.