There's a Great Big MARATHON Tomorrow: Goofy Challenge/Marathon Weekend '15 FINALLY COMPLETE!

[DisneyKid4Life]

HAHAHA, your faces on the underwater part on SE. Just perfect!!!

Loving all the medal shots, especially that one with the Monorail in the background!!

 

[emilyindisney]

HAHAHA, your faces on the underwater part on SE. Just perfect!!!

Loving all the medal shots, especially that one with the Monorail in the background!!

Does anyone ride SE and make serious faces? Hahahaha!

 

[emilyindisney]

Vikings and Sombreros (Norway and Mexico)

After this pic, we headed to our first stop in our journey around the world: Norway! (Yes, I know most people head for Mexico first...but we wanted Avocado margaritas, so we had to kill some time before La Cava opened at 12.) Our first stop in Norway was Kringla Bakeri for something we had been dying try:​

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Schoolbread, and a Viking Coffee-coffee with Kamora Liqueur and Bailey’s Irish Cream.

I have had the coffee before, and I enjoyed it-but I love both coffee and Irish cream, which is mostly what it tasted like. I know this might get me shunned from the Dis, but I was not all that impressed by the school bread. After all the hype, it was a little harder than I expected (I was imagining more of a donut consistency) and just a little plain for my tastes. I agree- I probably won’t be getting school bread, or the irish coffee again. Both were decent but not really my taste! Glad I tried it though! After our snack, we explored Norway a little and lamented that we couldn’t ride Maelstrom!​

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The country of Norway actually stopped sending monetary support for their pavilion in 2002 so Walt Disney World took over the area. This probably explains why Frozen, which didn't actually take place in Norway, has suddenly become so present!

In Norway a grassy roof would be kept up with grazing goats, but here at Disney it's apparently hand clipped!​

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After killing some time in Norway, we were headed back to Mexico because it was margarita time! But first, a meet and greet with our favorite duck:

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We reminded him once again that he had the number #1 race of the weekend...that must be why Donald loves to visit with us so much!

This is definitely my favorite costume of his, he is just so cute in that hat!

We then headed in the pyramid for the best part of the day...the avocado margarita! We hopped in line at La Cava first thing. (Ok-Emily hopped in line. I got so used to carrying nothing but my magic band that I forgot to bring my license...and even though I am now well over 21, I get carded everywhere I go, and didn’t want to take the chance/deal with the hassle in Epcot. Thankfully, Emily was much more prepared than I was and did not forget hers!) The funny thing is that not only am I younger (just turned 22) but I also probably only get carded half as much as Cait does!

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While we enjoyed our drink, we browsed the shops and watched the glass blower for a while. These would be a totally reasonable and practical take home, right?!​

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I always love looking at the little stalls in this pavilion, and today was no exception. We got selected for a disney merchandise survey! It may have been because we were trying on some hats…

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(Big hat...little hat!)​

After that, it was time for a ride on the Gran Fiesta Tour.

Poor Donald! I feel like this ride is so underrated. I love it-it’s so cute and upbeat!
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[lauraleh]

Love your TR! Congrats on your races!

 

[rteetz]

Norway is becoming frozenified. I love Donald especially in Mexico. The gran fiesta tour is always a nice ride. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Ah School Bread. It is definitely one of the most debated entities in Disney. I'm one that does like it, but I've been perhaps fortunate to have it be really fresh and soft. Trust me, there is likely as many people who dislike it as like it. And at least you've tried it.

Now here is one thing I have yet to have in Disney in any form. A margarita. This needs to change.

OMG that little Mexico hat!!!!

 

[disneyhorselover]

Love your TR! Congrats on your races!

Thank you!

Norway is becoming frozenified. I love Donald especially in Mexico. The gran fiesta tour is always a nice ride. Can't wait to hear more.

Yeah I don't know how I feel about Norway becoming Frozen-fied....I can appreciate tie ins to disney movies but it seems like it is taking over, especially once the new ride opens.

Ah School Bread. It is definitely one of the most debated entities in Disney. I'm one that does like it, but I've been perhaps fortunate to have it be really fresh and soft. Trust me, there is likely as many people who dislike it as like it. And at least you've tried it.

Now here is one thing I have yet to have in Disney in any form. A margarita. This needs to change.

OMG that little Mexico hat!!!!

Oh good it makes me feel better to know other people don't like school bread...I thought I was the only one! I wouldn't even say that I disliked it (ok I have never actually met a baked good that I disliked...) but I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to buy one again...maybe if it was the only food left in WS, but with so many other options, I guess I feel like, why bother?

You've never had a La Cava margarita? YOU'VE NEVER HAD A LA CAVA MARGARITA?! YOU HAVEN'T LIVED!!!!

 

[courtneybelle]

Chef Mickey's is so fun! I love the chef outfits.

YEAH DISNEYLAND! WDW has my heart forever but Disneyland is so much fun.

Anna and Elsa look precious, and Emily's hoodie matches Elsa's dress!

Eeee those tiaras are beautiful!

 

[monarchs21]

I want to run in one of the 5K's soooo bad! That's awesome about the marathon…congrats! It seems like it'd be awesome running in Disney! BTW as I'm sure you're aware but that avocado margarita is pretty fantastic for those of you who haven't had the pleasure yet lol

 

[emilyindisney]

Happy New Year, all! My New Year's Resolution (among other things) is to finish posting this trip report! Funny thing is we've had it all written for months and months and things just got super busy. I graduated college and have started working as a full-fledged RN. Caitlin moved to a different state and started her own horse training business with her friend from college. Life has been busy! So, for anyone still interested (and so I can feel like I finished what I started) here is the rest of our trip!

Good luck you current Marathon weekend runners! Enjoy the rest of your runs and trip! You got this!

 

[emilyindisney]

More Foo for you, and you, and you!

After the ride, we were on to our next country:


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We jumped into a short line at the Joy of Tea, and came away with one of the tastiest drinks of the day:


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A Mango Gingerita! ...which is some sort of slushy drink with vodka and rum. It is kind of hard to describe the flavor of this but it was so tasty! I agree- this one one of my favorite drinks of the day too! Kind of a funky flavor but really good!

We wandered around China a bit:


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Emily loves the foo. Guilty!

We browsed through some shops:


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These are some of my favorite world showcase shops….The pavilion itself seems so peaceful and the merchandise is all so pretty!


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We then wandered through the little museum where we learned about the Terra Cotta army:


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This was another thing I’ve never taken the time to do, and it was fun to see. Then, another thing off the bucket list-Reflections of China! While I didn’t love having to stand during the whole film, I thought the 360 vision was really cool, especially during scenes where the camera was on a moving boat and you felt like you were really there! The film definitely gave me a new appreciation for all the different scenery and culture in China and I would definitely recommend it if you’ve never seen it! I agree- the standing was a drag but some of the scenes they showed were breath taking. Definitely a cool experience!

After the movie, we headed to Germany, skipping the African Outpost on the way. (We had decided ahead of time that it wouldn’t count for our drinking around the world mission.) In Germany we obviously had to go with beer for our beverage, and I had seen this grapefruit beer on the menu that I was dying to try-I love fruity beers. We were pretty hungry by this point, and what goes better with beer than pretzels?!


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This is what you get when I’ve run a marathon the day before and now been drinking and park going for several hours. Its not my finest look….


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And here is an action shot that pretty much sums up our trip...me trying to eat the food before Emily can take a picture of it! This is why a solid 50% of the food pictures in our TR are half eaten.

We sat on a bench for a while to eat our pretzel-it definitely felt good to sit down by that point. The beer was as delicious as I had hoped-this was definitely one of my favorite drinks of the day. (I know I just said that about China-thats why I say “one of!”

Post snack, we set off to explore the pavilion. First things first-my first trip to Karamel Kuche. There are no pictures of this, because I may have gotten drool on the camera. Seriously. Everything looked amazing, and we each ended up with a dark chocolate salted caramel that we brought home. I went to Karamel Kuche in February and got the chocolate salted caramel which is to die for- plus, it saves well for a post-trip snack once you’re home! First thing we looked for after getting our drink and snack was find one of Germany's hidden Mickey's:


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See him up there in the crown? After pinning him down we browsed the shop and checked out the glass Christmas ornaments.


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Do you hang a Christmas pickle on your tree? Hahaha! While wrapping up our time in Germany we stopped for an obligatory hat picture:


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[emilyindisney]

American Adventure Fully Appreciated

Next up was Italy, where we stopped at the first kiosk we saw for some wine.


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This was either the Prosecco or the Moscato- either way, it was very tasty!


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For some reason, we didn’t take a ton of pictures here, or any inside pictures at all. We did stop for another photopass shoot though!​

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These are some of my favorite pictures of the day!​

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Next stop: American Adventure. In my past attempts to drink around the world, I’ve skipped this, but not on this trip...there was a drink I had been dying to try!


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Frozen Red Stag Lemonade! Standard disney frozen lemonade with Jim Beam bourbon-this was super tasty and refreshing. We forgot to take a picture of it, but we also got some popcorn here to help balance out all the booze, and it really hit the spot after all that drinking and walking. We took our snacks to Liberty Inn to sit down for a little while. We had fun checking out the original colony flags on the wall. We wandered around the pavilion a little bit too:


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Then it was time for some entertainment:


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The voices of liberty were amazing and I’m glad I finally got to hear/see them perform! We then enjoyed a nice long SEATED viewing of the American Adventure. I thought this show was ok...I enjoyed the somewhat similar feeling Hall of Presidents movie much much more. We crossed this one off the bucket list, but probably wouldn’t bother to see it again.
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When we got out of the show, it was POURING! We hung around in the pavilion shop for a few minutes, but the rain showed no signs up letting up so we decided to hope for the best and soldier on.​

 

[ursalita]

Hi! It's nice to see that you're finishing up your report! I love the pics of you guys drinking around the world. I'll have to look for that gingerita drink next time.

We then enjoyed a nice long SEATED viewing of the American Adventure. I thought this show was ok...I enjoyed the somewhat similar feeling Hall of Presidents movie much much more. We crossed this one off the bucket list, but probably wouldn’t bother to see it again.

ITA. I felt exactly the same way about the show when we saw it. I'd loved Hall of Presidents so much I assumed I would enjoy American Adventure. It was not that good.

 

[emilyindisney]

Hi! It's nice to see that you're finishing up your report! I love the pics of you guys drinking around the world. I'll have to look for that gingerita drink next time.

ITA. I felt exactly the same way about the show when we saw it. I'd loved Hall of Presidents so much I assumed I would enjoy American Adventure. It was not that good.

Definitely recommend the gingerita- very tasty

All the large moving set pieces were neat at AA but didn't give me the warm, fuzzy, patriotic feeling like Hall of Presidents. Likely stamping that one as a won't return

 

[emilyindisney]

Rain, Rain Go Away!


IMG_1413 by Emily, on Flickr

Luckily, next up was Japan, which has the large indoor shop to hang out in. We poked around the shop for a while and watched some people do pick-a-pearl. The girl that did the pearl ceremonies was super enthusiastic and really made it fun to watch. The outdoor sake bar was closed and we didn’t want to venture up to Katsura Grill in the rain, so we were stuck picking a drink from the small sake bar in the shop. Neither of us really like sake (we had been planning to try one of the mixed cocktails there) so we picked Plum wine...we both liked wine and figured this would be ok….


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Not ok! It was terrible. I think we each took 2 sips, just to say we drank in that country, and then threw it away...oh well, we tried!

I bought my first ever poncho in the Disney gift shop for $8, and it was worth every penny.


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We splashed over to Morocco, and popped into Tangierine Cafe for a drink and a snack.


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The drink was a white sangria. It was not bad...certainly better than the plum wine, but nothing memorable and I was glad we only got the one glass to share. The pastry was light (which was what we were going for) and good but nothing memorable.

We walked around the country a bit…


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...before hopping in line to meet some royalty! Checking out some lamp building plans waiting in line...


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They complimented us on our medals, but told us to watch out of Abu-apparently he loves to steal shiny gold things! Jasmine also taught us about Agrabah’s “golden rule”: those that have the gold, make the rules! On a strange note, the photopass pictures from this greet were pretty terrible! Usually I’m really happy with all our PP but I deleted most of these before the download. A lot of the pictures were unfocused or unattractive candid shots. One caught a hilarious (but not very attractive) face on Caitlin. I’m so tempted to share but I know she’ll kill me so I’ll just look at it now and have a little giggle for myself!​

 

[emilyindisney]

The Final Stretch of Marathon #2

After a fun meet, we moved on once again.

By the time we got out of Morocco, the rain had let up a little and was more of a mist, which was definitely an improvement as we trekked to France. Aside from having to watch for puddles, the weather was much more manageable! It was a little disappointing because I think we were really having a good time and the rain slowed down our full-steam-ahead plans. Still, we soldiered on!


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We were definitely running out of energy and stomach space for drinks at this point, but we reminded ourselves that this was just another marathon, and even though we were hitting a wall, we had to keep moving and drinking!

We stopped in the wine shop to buy a wine flight.


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I have no recollection of what kind of wines they were. I think we enjoyed one, thought one was ok, and disliked one. I think I passed most of these off to Caitlin to drink if I recall right. We hung out in a dry-ish area of the pavilion to drink them. We may have gone in some shops, but I think France has some of the more boring shops in world showcase-maybe its just that none of the merch really appeals to me. It has a lot of high end, nice merchandise...I think we just like the silly stuff better! We went in Les Halles, but since we had just had a snack in Morocco, we opted not to get anything.

We then headed into the theater area to see Impressions de France, and were pleasantly surprised to see a Princess there! ​

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Belle was sweet (as always) and it was very exciting to randomly find her hanging out there with no line.

Impressions de France was very enjoyable, maybe because we got to sit down for 20 minutes! The film and soundtrack were beautiful and left me wanting to book a ticket to France ASAP! ​

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After the movie, it was time to trek over the bridge to Great Britain! Here, we stopped at the Rose and Crown Pub and got a pint of Strongbow cider-after all the wine this was a welcome change!


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Cider in hand, we headed back to listen to the British Invasion. Unfortunately, just a few minutes into the set, they announced that they were having technical difficulties and had to cancel that particular show. Very disappointing, especially since we didn’t have time to see their later set. We wandered through the gift shop instead, where Emily went a little crazy over the british candy.


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One of my best friends is Scottish and I love when she sends me this stuff! It was a sweet surprise (pun intended) to be able to buy it myself!

The british shops are some of my favorite, since I (like most people), love most english pop culture things. We found another lovely character all by herself back in one of these shops as well:


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So, our lesson learned on this trip-world showcase in the rain is great place to meet characters with no crowds! ​

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Last, but certainly not least-Canada!

We were pretty sick of drinking by now (I know-lamest 20 somethings ever...haha) so we decided to head back to the movie first. Thankfully, we found a bench in the cave-like waiting area and relaxed for a few minutes. We were too tired to wander the pavilion at this point, and this area is definitely prettier in the daylight when you can see all the gardens. World Showcase is pretty all wet and reflective from the rain too! But not necessarily worth wandering around to admire while getting wet. This was our first time seeing this movie as well, and even though we were quite tired of standing at that point, we enjoyed it. I thought it was really funny and had some beautiful scenery. Martin Short is a hilarious host- definitely would recommend you guys see this film even if you’re not interested in hitting up every country’s attraction. After the movie, we headed to the Canadian beer stand to get our last drink of the day!


100_7703 by Emily, on Flickr

I am not positive, but I think this is the St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat beer. I liked it a lot, which is really saying something at this point when I was exhausted and full and wanted nothing to do with another drink, haha! It was okay. I was so sick of drinking that I had a few gulps, passed it off to Caitlin, and I think we tossed it half full haha! We originally had a FP+ for Illuminations viewing, but we opted to skip it and head home since we were DONE. However, we did it! We completed drinking around the world!! This felt like nearly as big of an accomplishment (and nearly as difficult) as our Goofy Challenge! (I have attempted this feat 2x previously and never made it all the way around, so this was extra exciting). Now that I’ve done it once, I don’t think I ever need to try again-I’ll just explore world showcase and drink my favorite drinks (rather than all of them) and be much happier! I could certainly skip the Plum Wine in the future, that’s for sure!

We stopped for one final picture in front of a beautifully lit Spaceship Earth to commemorate our day!


EPCOT_BACKSIDE2_7155638945 by Emily, on Flickr​

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We went back to ASM and collapsed into bed knowing we had to get up and pack in the morning ​

 

[emilyindisney]

A net full of jello?​

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After all those early wake ups, I was naturally up at the crack of dawn today, so I headed down to the food court and had my last Disney breakfast.​

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I went back to the room and packed while Emily went down and had breakfast.​

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We checked our bags with bell services and hopped on a bus to our last park, DHS, where we had a few more bucket list attractions to see.​

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First though, we grabbed a pic of the hat, which was “going topless” for the day, hahahah!​

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We swung by TSMM hoping for one more ride, but since it was about 20 minutes after park opening, the line was already 50 minutes-too long for us!​

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First stop was One Man’s Dream. The CMs at the entrance joked that it was a good thing we got there right at rope drop-this attraction can get pretty crowded, folks! ​

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This was really cool to see. If you’ve never been inside, it is kind of like a museum, and I learned a lot about the Walt Disney company and the parks, both in Orlando and around the world. We then had a private showing of the movie about Walt’s life. While I won’t stop here on every trip, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has never been! Edit- now that we’re finally finishing up our TR, One Man’s Dream is closed to make way for new attractions in Hollywood Studios. I think this is really devastating. I know it certainly wasn’t racking up wait times like TSMM but the film about Walt’s life was so inspiring. Let’s not lose sight of one thing, that is was all started with a mouse (and a man with a dream!)​

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After the film, we swung by Animation Academy for one more try at a drawing-this time we drew Dopey! I think our drawings came out really good this time! Edit- Another sad loss for DHS in the past year has been Animation Academy. This was always so fun to do and it was great to take home your drawing! Very sad to see this go ​

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While we were in the animation building, we watched Baymax greet a few guests-as much as I love him, we didn’t have time to wait in his line that day. It was fun to see him though-he moves just like in the movie and is just so cute!​

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We then headed off to an attraction we missed on our first DHS day-Muppetvision 3D. There are so many hilarious jokes and puns in the waiting area! Like, a net full of jello...Annette Funicello? Get it?!​

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This one is a classic!​

 

[emilyindisney]

Taking the Last Few Hours In

After Muppet Vision we stopped for some color coordinated photopass pics outside:


STUDIO_MUPPET_7155982771 by Emily, on Flickr


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The sun was finally out, so naturally, everyone’s favorite snowman popped in to join us:


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Next we headed off in search of some lunch. ABC Commissary was another eatery on our bucket list, so we grabbed some food there.


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Emily had the fish platter and I had a simple kids meal. I always feel a tiny bit awkward ordering a kids meal at QS restaurants, but nobody has ever questioned it for me and I have done it many times. This food was pretty average, but it was nice to have plenty of seating and to watch clips of ABC shows while we ate. The food was fine- nothing special but edible haha!

After lunch I needed one more ride on my favorite, so we swung by Star Tours again:


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Unfortunately, neither of us got to be the rebel spy...oh well. On our way back across the park, we stopped for a few more photopass pics:


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We had some time to kill before our FP, so we paused to watch some of the street entertainment. This is the first time I’ve actually stopped at one of these-they were pretty funny and drew a pretty decent crowd.


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We window shopped and pin traded our way down Sunset Boulevard, where we had a FP+ for Rock n Roller coaster.


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Since we got through very quickly with our FP, we decided to wait for the front row, which ended up only being one extra train wait-totally worth it! Caught this little detail in line while waiting:


100_7723 by Emily, on Flickr

After our wild limo ride, we had a little more time to kill and decided we needed another snack-after all, we weren’t sure when we would have the opportunity to eat Disney food again. so might as well squeeze it all in today, right!


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We sat on a bench and ate our snack and people watched. This trip was the most time I’ve EVER spent sitting down at WDW, and I’m happy to say I enjoyed every second of it.

It was time for our last ride of the trip, and appropriately, it was one of our favorites: ToT. We had just gotten in line with our last FP when we heard the announcement that due to technical difficulties, they were only running one elevator and waits would be longer than normal-uhoh! Luckly, we still got through the line in about 15-20 minutes, and were rewarded by some great, extra creepy CMS-they totally added to the ride experience. Our ride picture fell victim to the old ‘second-row-got-hands-in-my-face’ problem. I think I deleted it before downloading to help save space. Oh well!

After that, it was back to ASMo, where we sat by the pool while awaiting the Tragical Express and lamented that this was the nicest weather of the whole trip. From there, the story is pretty standard-we rode the tragical express back to MCO, stopped for some dinner back home, and had an uneventful flight home.​

 

[emilyindisney]

Wrap-Up Thoughts

First off, I'm so relieved that I finally finished this trip report! Feels good to finish what I started and not have a partially complete report linked in my signature Overall, this was a fantastic trip that I still love to think back fondly on (especially now that Marathon Weekend 2016 just passed and we didn't have the good fortune of being there.) Here are my final thoughts:

The Good:

I feel like we tried so many new things on this trip. As we said at the beginning, we have a Disney bucket list that includes trying everything (all the attractions, eateries, etc.) so we definitely made a lot of work on that. In the process we discovered a lot of things that we really enjoyed (eg the movies in World Showcase) though we probably won't repeat all the new things we did.

All Star Movies was fantastic! I just posted the other day recommending this resort over all the other values to someone. Very clean, quiet and a good, compact size.

The marathon was the experience of a lifetime and I'm so glad we got to share it together. I'm looking forward to our return to Marathon Weekend (hopefully 2018!)


The Bad:

The only bad thing I can really note was the weather. When we were sitting at home in single digit temps the 60 degree days on the forecast looked like heaven. When we arrived, we found it was a little cooler than we expected/had planned for. However, this is obviously out of our control so no use getting too bummed about that. Disney in the cold is still better than being anywhere else!

The Future:

What would the (long time coming) end of a trip report be if there wasn't a future Disney trip already in the works?! (It would be awful sad, that's for sure!) Thanks to a great JetBlue sale I'll be back with one of my best friends from college in April. Caitlin and I will be back for the Wine and Dine half marathon in November. I've also already purchased an alumni ticket to my sorority's August 2017 convention which conveniently is in WDW!
After that? Who knows! I'm sure we'll never be gone too long ​

 

[girliea]

Great TR Emily and Caitlin! Congrats on your new career...both of you! From one nurse to another, welcome to the ranks Emily! Good luck with your new horse training business Caitlin! I am looking forward to reading about yall's new adventures! Thanks so much for sharing with us. It is more inspiring than I can say.