Expedition Everest 2015 Report

Texas84

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
A quick report while I'm waiting for the crew to wake up before we go to Epcot to eat and drink our way around Flower & Garden:

Before I start whining and complaining I need to first say that we had an absolute blast. It was the first Disney race for my sister and brother-in-law and they had a great time.

I drove down Friday and the offsite timeshare didn't have my reservation. They double checked and said, oh, you're not supposed to be here until tomorrow. Instead of Friday-Monday they had Saturday-Tuesday. They had no interest in trying work something out so I had to scramble for some Friday night hotel rooms. Even called guest services and they basically said, yeah, tough luck.

Brother-in-law is a Southwest pilot so they fly for free but it's standby and they couldn't get out Friday night. Brandi's flight was on-time Friday night and I picked up my sister and bro-in-law Saturday morning.

Went to Shades of Green to pick up military tickets. There was some NBC golf event going on and there was no parking. So circled around until they were done.

Off to AK for packet pick-up. Um, what happened to the expo? There was a concession truck with Disney merchandise, a New Balance tent, and a Fit2Run tent. That was it. Packet pick-up was in a big tent with shirt pick-up and exchange right on the other side. No wait at all. Very smooth, great volunteers as usual. The women's sizes seemed to run small so the ladies exchanged shirts.

We were all starving so it was off to Epcot to eat. We go to validate the military tickets and they told bro-in-law he's used up his allotment for the year but check with guest services. He had actually bought tickets earlier for his son in the Army and Guest Services gave him an exception. Typical Disney making things right. I told him to write Disney a nice note. There was a girl at the window next to him in tears and we're not sure what was going on there. Had a great meal at Sunshine Seasons, watched the Tomorrowland preview (wow, we all want to go see it now) and headed back to the timeshare to check in.
 

Texas84

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Part deux (getting ready for Paris?):

Get to the timeshare. Oh, you were here yesterday? Yes I was smart-*** (self-censored). Sorry, your room isn't ready. We'll page you when it is. Everyone hit the lobby chairs and passed out. Got the page about 30 minutes later and hated to have to wake everyone up. Finally got into the room without incident and everyone went to sleep except me. I wasn't tired.

Everyone started to stir about 7:00 and we made Fastpasses for Sunday Soarin'. Out the door at 8:00 PM and we were onsite by 8:45.

So my goofy sister for some reason put an estimated 15 minute pace when she registered even though she runs a 12 minute pace. Brandi and I were D but we wanted to be with them so we dropped back with them in the very last corral, J!

There were a couple of cool photo ops with a yeti and it was snowing fake snow. Really long lines. At first I thought it was Frozen but I think it was a yeti. Looked like a bear to me. The MCs lied about the Kentucky Derby and the Mayweather fight then started to get really silly. Floyd Mayweather has just win the Kentucky Derby, stuff like that.

But you had to pay attention to them because they were dropping clues. For example they went on and on about the 7 years of this race and my brother-in-law finally said, hey, I think they're giving us hints. And that did come up later in the race.
 

Texas84

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I wasn't paying attention but I heard "one million dollars" and they did a moment of silence for Nepal. Wonder if that was money raised for Nepal. Nice gesture. We were all hoping Disney would do something during the race.

So Corral J goes off at about 10:55. We're trying to get around the walking masses of humanity. I saw Chip & Dale, a gorilla (from Tarzan?), and a long line but couldn't see who it was. Scraped my knee on the astroturf crawling under the ropes, but otherwise the obstacles were not a problem. It was haybales, crawl, then tires. Finished the 5K in 38 minutes mostly due to congestion. And the ladies had to take a few breaks because they had minor sinus issues. We unfortunately saw someone getting CPR and put on a stretcher. Put a damper on the event. Couldn't find anything in the news. Hope they are OK.

The crew is ready to go eat so I'll write about the scavenger hunt and party later. Sad to see this going away. It's an experience.
 

surfsupdon

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the report thus far. I always enjoyed this event as well, having competed in the 1st and 6th events, actually even placing last year.

I am eager to hear about the scavenger hunt and the afterparty. Disney races with afterparties are always the BEST!! But now we are only down to just one (Wine&Dine) having said goodbye to ToT13K, Exp Everest, and ToT10Miler. Hopw we can get another afterparty event in the future!
 

imagination30

Well-Known Member
yeah @Texas84 , when i was registering for the wdw half at the country music expo . last weekend .. i heard a lady ask the run disney lady about where was the everest medal , and she said since this is the last year they didnt want to tease anybody.. , and i kinda smiled bc i had know about this for a while now!... lol
 

Mad Stitch

Well-Known Member
Off to AK for packet pick-up. Um, what happened to the expo? There was a concession truck with Disney merchandise, a New Balance tent, and a Fit2Run tent. That was it.

I don't think EEC ever had an expo. When I did it in 2011 it was just the bib pick up in the concourse of the baseball field and a single rack of event t-shirts.
 

surfsupdon

Well-Known Member
I don't think EEC ever had an expo. When I did it in 2011 it was just the bib pick up in the concourse of the baseball field and a single rack of event t-shirts.

EEC is always the smallest, but last year had an 'expo' at WWoS, with runDisney sneakers, merchandise, and at least a dozen tents set up on the mezzanine of the ball field (sparkle skirts, running bands, chiropractor, etc). This year sounds much less than previous years, perhaps.
 

Texas84

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I went to a previous expo and, while sparse, there was definitely more. Maybe some vendors packed up early.

So, off to the scavenger hunt. After passing the 5K finish you get your first clue then move on to the first checkpoint. Looked like there were four different stations at each checkpoint so I'm guessing there were four sets of clues. Our two teams got the same set so we cheated. :cautious:

Volunteers were all but giving us this one because it confused everyone. I still can't figure it out. Our volunteer said it was a misprint.

EEclue1b.jpg

34
 

Texas84

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ran off to get clue #2 all the way back near Africa. We're basically doing another 5K at this point. This was easy, but you had to be listening to the MCs when they mentioned over and over again how many years this race has been run. I'm sure the volunteers would have hinted at that number if you asked. We didn't have to.
EEclue2br.jpg

This year 8 so the first spin is L7. Answer is carabiner.
I figured out the spin but had no idea what that word was. Brandi knew it.
 

Texas84

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Clue 5: You had to use all the answers. Sorry, couldn't clean this one up.
EEclue5b.jpg

The leftover letters tell you what to do. We found the hidden Yeti on card #2 and ran across the finish line.
EEclue2.jpg
 

Texas84

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Now that we have our awesome compass medals, we get a group picture then head to the party. We had to go way out of our way to get there to avoid the course. Seemed almost like another 5K. There was a DJ and a few beer carts. We were starving and headed to Restaurantosaurus. What a madhouse. Food was pouring out from the kitchen and the serving CMs didn't know where to take the food. One young lady finally took charge and went up and down the line and checked receipts and started telling the other CMs where to take the food. I'm going to write her a nice note. She was dressed like a server, not a manager. But regardless, thanks so much to all the CMs who worked for us that night. They were very pleasant and patient with us hungry runners. It was crowded but there was no problem getting a table.

We all hit a wall after eating and relaxing and headed home, a bit sad that this wasn't coming back. Everyone we spoke to felt the same. Hope something equal or better is coming soon.
 

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Volunteers were all but giving us this one because it confused everyone. I still can't figure it out. Our volunteer said it was a misprint.

Isn't the correct answer to this never? An analog watch uses hands and not digits, so it never shows any numbers in a row, nevermind 3 of the same.

12:11, 12:22, 1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, 5:55, 10:00, 10:11, 11:01, 11:10, 11:11, 11:12, 11:13, 11:14, 11:15, 11:16, 11:17, 11:18, 11:19, 11:21, 11:31, 11:41, 11:51 = 24 in AM and then again in PM for 48
 

Texas84

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Isn't the correct answer to this never? An analog watch uses hands and not digits, so it never shows any numbers in a row, nevermind 3 of the same.

12:11, 12:22, 1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, 5:55, 10:00, 10:11, 11:01, 11:10, 11:11, 11:12, 11:13, 11:14, 11:15, 11:16, 11:17, 11:18, 11:19, 11:21, 11:31, 11:41, 11:51 = 24 in AM and then again in PM for 48

That was one of the misprints. The volunteer said it should have been digital. So basically we played the 'higher-lower' guessing game.
 

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
That was one of the misprints. The volunteer said it should have been digital. So basically we played the 'higher-lower' guessing game.

And I think I figured out where they got the number you provided, vs the one I provided. If you only do them literally in a row, so
11:12 counts, but 11:21 doesn't and you end up with 12:22, 1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, 5:55, 11:10, 11:11, 11:12, 11:13, 11:14, 11:15, 11:16, 11:17, 11:18, 11:19, which is 17, so AM & PM gets you 34
but the clue never gets that specific, but requests them to be in "the" row, not in "a" row. Not sure if that's a misprint or someone was sloppy with their grammar.
 

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