Trip Report **Completed** The Wine and Dine Half Marathon and we are never changing hotels again!

Hello everyone! I have been (sadly) back for over a week now so I suppose its time to start my TR. I have been in a moderate Disney depression since I have been back, so hopefully this cheers me up. Its probably the freezing cold weather here in Buffalo, but I am longing for Disney and sunny weather (I know its only like 55 there right now, but its 25 here ). I suppose this is the true sign of a Disney addict! Anyway, on with the TR!

Who?:
From left to right:
My Dad (Jeff), Me (Megan), Mickey , My sister Betta (her name is Elizabeth, we call her Betta), my nephew Max, my Mom (Mary) my sister Jill and Betta's friend Deanna

Deanna came with my sister to help with Max She has been to Disney before, but not for several years. This is Max's first trip! The rest of us have been to Disney (several times...)

When?
My Mom and I: November 3 - 12
My Dad and Jill: Nov 5 -12
Betta, Deanna and Max Nov 7 - 12

Where?
We moved hotels 3 times, I will introduce them as we go

Why?
Jill and I really wanted to run the Wine and Dine Half Marathon so we planned a trip around it! Plus, Betta wanted to bring Max to Disney the first time!

The Title?
Well, its pretty obvious! We ran the Wine and Dine Half Marathon Also, we were not keen on moving hotels during the trip. It is incredibly disruptive and takes up a decent amount of free time. I will comment more as we go.

T-5 days
As my Mom and I were driving to help my sister and Max pack for the trip we were getting a little bit Disney crazy and really did not want to stay at All Star Sports. We have nothing against people who like the values (or can only afford them), but we really don't enjoy them. When I was a kid we only stayed at values and we loved them, but we definitely have gotten spoiled lately. Knowing we booked All Stars to save us money I did not think a hotel move would be possible. However, the huge AP discount was still a thing so we started looking into other hotels. While at my sister's house I kept trying to change the hotel, but it was not working. Eventually I gave up and finally called Disney. I had the sweetest CM ever on the phone and we chatted for quite a bit about all sorts of things. In the end I decided on moving to the Wilderness Lodge because we love it so much! The CM also added a bit of magic and upgraded us to Concierge level for free. Woohoo!!! The only downside is this would mean we would have to pick up our luggage in the airport for Magical Express. Annoying, but no big deal overall

November 3, 2016
We got up around 5 am and got ready to go to the airport. It was a gross and rainy day in Buffalo so we were happy to be heading to sunny Florida! While my Mom and I were finishing up last minute things and taking pictures my Dad started grabbing our suitcases and bringing them to the car. Only, we weren't done with them yet so he had to bring them back in. Because it was rainy he really looked the part of a grumpy airport worker

We had a quick ride to the airport and we got there by 6 am. We had the same Southwest worker check us in that we had in October. Thats when you know you travel too much? haha
We both had TSA pre-check and for once I did not set off the metal detector! We were through security by 6:08 am. You have got to love TSA pre-check
For breakfast we had some bagels and water

Petey and Drake were ready

Since we had a crazy amount of time to kill we sat down at our gate and I already started working on my notes haha

Then we took some selfies...

Finally it was time to get on the plane. We ended up in row 4! I love sitting in the front, takes less time to get off the plane!
Magic Bands ready

Purple Magic Bands for the win! The woman sitting next to me also had a purple Magic Band

Next up: Arriving in MCO!

 

[prfctlyximprct]

LOL at Petey in a robe! That's so cute! I didn't have a stuffed animal this trip and I missed coming back to them in different Your pictures of the water with the sunset are so pretty, I feel like I am there! If only I was! Glad that man gave you your rewards card! I would have been devastated! I had 400 dollars saved on mine to use at F&W and came no where close to using all of that! Left me more money for souvenirs! Gotta love the Disney Visa card! Currently trying to rack of rewards so I can go back!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Doc Disney]

LOL at Petey in a robe! That's so cute! I didn't have a stuffed animal this trip and I missed coming back to them in different Your pictures of the water with the sunset are so pretty, I feel like I am there! If only I was! Glad that man gave you your rewards card! I would have been devastated! I had 400 dollars saved on mine to use at F&W and came no where close to using all of that! Left me more money for souvenirs! Gotta love the Disney Visa card! Currently trying to rack of rewards so I can go back!!!!!!!!!!!

Its always fun to see where they put our animals! I know....we didn't make a the dent in our rewards card...so we used it on some dinners later on I'm now torn between using my Southwest card and my Disney card for points...haha

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued
I was too distracted about my sunset pictures to talk about the funny things that happened on our boat ride.
Oh, but first heres another sunset picture

Anyway, other people have mentioned this before, but there is a CM who captains the boats who sings Disney songs. So, he was on the resort boat and when the MK boat pulled up someone asked the CM on that one if he sang too and he said no. He then said he did have a talent though, and it was pulling out backwards like we were Everest
We did have a FP for IASW but stopped to do a few other things first
Like take pictures

We ended up skipping our FP to watch the castle lighting show

If you squint hard enough to the bottom of this picture you can see Olaf

We had a dining reservation to get to so we headed out of the MK while saying goodbye to the soldiers

We hopped on the monorail and headed to the Polynesian for our dinner
We had a bit of time before our reservation so we explored the lobby a little bit and ended up sitting in the kids section and watching some of the old sing-a-longs. As we were sitting there we spotted the leis. My Mom and took the leis a little too seriously and I ended up not doing online check in for when we switched to the Poly because we wanted to make sure we went to check-in to get our leis . As we were sitting in the lobby we noticed tons of people just asking for leis and getting them. Needless to say, just do online check in . Anyway, my Mom literally tried to steal a lei from the valet desk without asking, but instead we went to the desk to ask a question about transferring our luggage and we asked for leis and got them

Next up: dinner

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued
We checked into dinner at 'Ohana and I prepared myself for a long wait but our table was ready right away!
We were sooooo happy when we noticed our cousin was leading us to the exact table we had at breakfast last trip...aka the best table ever (according to the CMs too)....same table @prfctlyximprct had All of my pictures don't do it justice, but I will share one in a bit.
We had our bread first as they bring it to the table with you. This bread is so yummy!

Next came the salad. This salad was delightful! It was so hard not to eat too much of it!

Next came the appetizers. Noodles, veggies, pork dumplings and the wings

We loved the noodles! I tried to pork dumplings even though I don't like pork and they were good! The wings were good too!
Next up came the main food. The guy put shrimp on our plate before we could say no....because we aren't super into seafood..

I did try the shrimp and really did not care for it. Neither did my Mom.
Next came the chicken and steak. These pictures are awful sorry!
Chicken

Steak

We were definitely defeated by the amount of food. A few things were going against us. 1. we have trouble eating late at night 2. we started getting anxious abut having to run a half marathon and at least for me it ruined my appetite a bit and 3. we ate too many noodles
We did love the food and I definitely plan on doing a re-do someday at a time we aren't planning on running a race (i.e. I would be way less anxious). I also loved the atmosphere and the ukulele player who kept saying everyone who was celebrating a birthday was 21
Finally Wishes stated and all of a sudden all my worries went away. It was so neat to see Wishes and the electrical water pageant at the same time
Blurry picture...but you get the idea of the awesome seat!

There were some kids who were standing next to me that were hilarious. They were totally oblivious to the fireworks and were fascinated by the pageant...they kept thinking everything was in the shape of a Turkey leg
Anyway, since Wishes calmed me down we had room for dessert ...this was amazing! I am not super into desserts, but I do love bread pudding and this was no exception !

After our dessert we walked out with full stomaches. We decided because Wishes had recently ended the fastest way to get back to the hotel was to take the monorail to the Contemporary and take the boat from there to the WL. It started pouring rain while we were on the monorail, but thankfully it was mostly done by the time we got to the boat dock. We did have a long wait ahead of us, though, since we waited for the parade and pirate boats to be done. Oh well! The only problem with waiting is that there was a kid who kept pretending he was seeing cockroaches to scare his Mom, but it was freaking me out too!!!
Anyway, eventually the boat came and we were back at home. No turn down service for us this day though...that was odd
It didn't matter, I can turn down my own bed I just missed the candy
We got ready for back, watched some HGTV and went off to sleep!

Next up: Day 3 and first moving day!

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 Nov 5, 2016 - moving to the Poly day
This morning we got up around 7:00 am again and got our suitcases all packed so we could get our luggage transferred. We called Bell Services by 7:30 am and they came to pick up our luggage. Both the Bell Services man and the CM at the Poly said it takes about 2 hours to transfer so that was great!
We sadly said goodbye to our amazing room
Such fun little details

We weren't too keen on eating breakfast at the club level lounge today so we headed to Roaring Fork
I ordered the breakfast croissant...I am obsessed with this (pretty sure its because of the insane amount of cheese on it)....I ate it like everyday we stayed at WL last time

My Mom had the strawberry waffles

We both really enjoyed our meals! Roaring Fork redeemed itself this morning
We decided our plan for the morning would be to hop on whatever bus came first
We saw a bus at the stop as we were walking out and ran to it. It happened to be AK so AK here we come!
We inadvertently made it to AK before rope drop

This is, for some reason, the first time we were ever there at park opening and it was so neat to see the "opening show" with the birds flying all about!
When the park officially opened we headed with the masses towards Everest

We were stuck outside for a few minutes before they opened the line so we took some pictures

Next up: AK continued

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 continued
We made it on the ride in about 5 minutes!

Everest actually shut down in the middle of us being on the ride! It was kind of odd. We were stuck looking at these rocks for a little bit

When we finally got off Everest the wait was already up to 20 minutes !
We decided to head towards the Safari after this to check out the wait time....why wouldn't you use the app you may ask? Because every time I tried to use the app it shut down on me
First we found a Photopass spot!

Then, we found this pay phone. I think I was making this face because I was perplexed that pay phones are still a thing, but I am sure there is a reason (for theming maybe) it is still there

We then found another Photopass photographer along the way

Hello beautiful Tree of Life!

Next up: AK continued

 

[NutsForFlorida]

Day 3 continued
We made it on the ride in about 5 minutes!
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Everest actually shut down in the middle of us being on the ride! It was kind of odd. We were stuck looking at these rocks for a little bit
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When we finally got off Everest the wait was already up to 20 minutes !
We decided to head towards the Safari after this to check out the wait time....why wouldn't you use the app you may ask? Because overtime I tried to use the app it shut down on me
First we found a Photopass spot!
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Then, we found this pay phone. I think I was making this face because I was perplexed that pay phones are still a thing, but I am sure there is a reason (for theming maybe) it is still there
View attachment 177913
We then found another Photopass photographer along the way
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Hello beautiful Tree of Life!
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Next up: AK continued

That phone actually work?

 

[Doc Disney]

That phone actually work?

Thats a great question. Honestly I don't remember I want to say it did

 

[DonnaOnTheRocks]

Finally caught up! Loving your pictures!!! I can't wait for my mother/daughter trip!

 

[LadyBelle]

I figure if I give up food for a bit, I can get back there...

 

[Doc Disney]

Finally caught up! Loving your pictures!!! I can't wait for my mother/daughter trip!

Thanks!! You will love your trip! I know its a little ways off but I can't wait to hear about it

I figure if I give up food for a bit, I can get back there...

Who needs to eat? You can eat when you get there

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3
When we finally made it to the safari the wait was listed as 20 minutes, but we decided to get in line anyway

Overall we only waited 10 minutes! We also ended up with a 2 seater in the truck (It was for wheelchairs, but they let us sit there anyway)
I tried to not take too many pictures since I have 100000000 pictures of animals, but I took a few

Dogs

This was a great safari! We saw tons of animals and really enjoyed it
Sorry for the short update....my internet isn't functioning that well today

Next up: AK continued including a first for us!

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 continued
After our safari we had a little bit more time before we had to get back to the hotel so we decided to do something we had never done before!

Rafiki's Planet Watch! We always wanted to head over there to see it, but never made time for it.
Waiting for the train

The train ride was cool. I love how you can see the backstage areas! We would actually run by this during the half marathon as well
Hello Rafiki

It was pretty dead here!

We had no idea what would even be here...I thought there was a "petting zoo" but was surprised how big it was!
We thought the petting aspect of it was closed because nobody was in there, but we asked and they said to come on in!
My Mom, who really isn't super into animals (mostly because they scare her) took these following animal pictures haha

Then it was time to brush a goat

I'm so proud of my Mom for even getting this close to a goat

Next up: some more of the gang joins us!

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 continued
I loved this!!

Heres a more realistic picture of my Mom brushing a goat

We wanted to spend more time, but we were in a bit of a time crunch so we hurried back to the train. We actually just missed one and then another empty one came but we could not get on it
We took a (crazy hair for me) selfie while we waited for a third train

We made our way through AK after this and of course the bus was there for the Polynesian so we sprinted to that
When we got to the Polynesian we checked in at the desk to get our leis (told you we made a big deal out of nothing). It turned out our room was ready!! We did not head there yet though, since we had some people to meet!
Soon enough Jill and Dad's ME pulled up!!!
I handed them some leis (since we ha some extras ...)

Yay! The second third (another third coming later ) of our party has arrived!

Since our room was ready we headed there to drop our stuff off
Guess which building we were in @Tuvalu ? Your name sake!

Next up: room pictures and expos

 

[Tuvalu]

Guess which building we were in @Tuvalu ? Your name sake!
View attachment 178564

If you had a 3rd floor TPV room, my green eyed monster might come out.....

 

[Doc Disney]

If you had a 3rd floor TPV room, my green eyed monster might come out.....

Don't worry we didn't

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 continued
We got up to our second floor room (don't worry @Tuvalu just a plain old standard room ) and we were very pleased with the room and the view considering it was standard. We did not have a balcony, I'm assuming thats the standard part of the room? Maybe?
Our view! Loved seeing the water!

It looked like at some point the door did open, but we couldn't get it open this time.
Bed

Cool little lounge thing

Couch

TV/desk in the background (my actual desk picture was blurry)

Hall with fun closets

And finally the bathroom

The room was nice and spacious...even with 4 adults!
At this point I called to check on our luggage since it had been well over 2 hours. When I called down and asked the CM rudely told me it was ridiculous I even ask because they don't transfer luggage until after 1 pm. I told him that both the WL and the Poly CMs told me it would be 2 hours from the time I sent it over and he gruffly told me nope and they don't have my luggage . Fine, we kind of expected this, but you didn't have to be so rude about it!!
After that wonderful phone call we decided to grab something to eat at Capt. Cook's
After we ordered we sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine. The wait time was insane for our lunch, but we weren't in a huge hurry so we didn't mind too much
For lunch I ordered the pulled pork nachos since everyone talks about them so much. I'm not a huge fan of pork, but these were really great!
I really liked the pineapple salsa

Jill ordered a burger...she said it was good!

My Dad ordered Pan Asian Noodles with vegetables and chicken. He loved this!

My Mom ordered chicken nuggets, figured you didn't need to see a picture of it

Next up: the Expo !

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 continued
After our lunch we headed to the front desk to change some credit cards around. It took absolutely forever for the CM to figure out how to change Jill's card since she has a different address . We still had to transfer my Dad's card over, so I went outside to look for the Expo bus just to be sure we didn't miss it

While I was enjoying the scenery I noticed the Expo bus pulled up so I ran and grabbed my Mom and my sister. They were not done transferring the cards, but we figured we would do it later
When we got to the Expo we got off the bus and the woman working at the bus stops said something along the lines of "look its the lei family" since we all ad our leis on. I totally thought she said "look its the late family" and responded with "well not everyone can fly in early." I felt bad once Jill told me what she really said
Look its the start line!

When we got down to our packets we noticed that the alert was low! Not going to lie, part of me was hoping for a red or black so we couldn't run haha. JK..kind of! The year before was the year they had to turn it into a 10 K for the rain.

There was literally no one picking up their packets, so we picked them up and hopped in line to meet Remy since he seemed lonely
A CM took these pictures and they turned out a little blurry because she didn't wait long enough for it to focus, but they are fine

We then headed over to the other part of the Expo to get our shirts
Look at this fun little Mickey

Hello Expo!

I was expecting a drawstring backpack, but this must just be a Princess Half Marathon thing because we only got the plastic bags for bag check. I was planning on trying to exchange my shirt for a different size but they ran out of other sizes so kept the size I got. In the end, it worked out well because it fits fine
We then looked around a little bit and my Mom and I bought a Mickey 13.1 magnet and Jill got a Run Disney sweatshirt.
We had some FPs to get to so headed out of the Expo after this. I did this for the PHM too, but I always underestimate just how long going to the Expo takes, so I had to adjust our FP times
My Dad took these pictures as we were leaving

While we were walking back to the bus a woman directing traffic noticed our leis and said something about going back to Hawaii, another country. My Dad turned to me and was like "Oh, I'm sorry I thought Hawaii was in the US...."

Next up: MK!

 

[Tuvalu]

All (non-DVC) buildings do not have balconies on the 2nd floor. When the longhouses were originally built, that style was in keeping with a traditional Polynesian longhouse. Your sliding glass door still should have opened though.

Earlier in your report I LOL'ed when you were told luggage transfer would take 2 hours. No way, I thought, remembering our luggage transfer from POR to Poly ~ when we dropped off bags before 9 am and despite repeated calls to Bell Services, did not get the bags until 6:30 pm. And yeah, encountered the same rude CMs.

 

[DimpledDevil18]

I love reading these trip reports about you and your Mom. I'm so jealous that she goes to Disney so often. Can't wait to hear about the marathon. It sounds so cool to do a Disney marathon, but I can't run for the life of me!