Trip Report *Completed* Roommate Reunion & Hobbling Through the Princess 1/2 Marathon

Hey friends! I've been back for almost a week, and I'm ready to re-live my trip and hopefully remember enough for this to be good. This first post will be mostly text, sorry!

Who: College roommates (and our honorary roommate)
Where: Pop Century with an extra night at Boardwalk with my cousin
When: Feb 22-25
Why: Spending time with friends and Princess weekend

A little background:
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This is me, E, M (also my cousin), L and S. And yep, that's a stuffed penguin. His name is Harold, and he was our dorm room mascot :hilarious: I don't know, y'all. We're weird people. Anyway, all of us but L were roommates and she just kind of became an honorary roommate over time. We all moved off campus in the middle of our sophomore year when a tornado hit our campus and destroyed the dorms. Once they were rebuilt, S moved back and the rest of us stayed in the house, which happens to be the house I still live in.

I'm still in the same town, L is about 2 hours one direction in Nashville, then E and S are about an hour the other direction in Memphis. The four of us see each other a few times a year. Then there's M. She's the free spirit, the nomad (She grew up moving around, he dad is air force). She moved up to Washington in 2017 and before she left was the last time the five of us were together. She's my cousin, so I still see her at holidays, but it's harder to get us all in one place!

I wanted to do Princess in 2019, but then I got pregnant, so it got pushed to 2020. As soon as registration was opening, I messaged everyone and said I was signing up! L and E committed and we all registered. M and S never really responded, so we moved forward with our plans with just the three of us.

At some point later down the road, both M & S decided they wanted to come. I was FLOORED that S was coming, but sure enough, she was in. Once she bought her Disney tickets around Christmas, I figured there was little chance she'd back out. M's plan was to stay offsite with her husband because they were traveling the country and camping with their dogs. We had AKL booked for the 4 on-siters and I booked our fast passes when the time came, just hoping I could add Miranda to most of them.

Fast forward a few weeks and M said her husband's job at Google was changing and he might need to work from the office again instead of remotely. Soooo she still wanted to come, but she wanted to stay in the room with us now. AKL only sleeps 4 and there was like NOTHING available anymore. I called Disney because I was getting frustrated searching online. The cast member who helped me was so helpful and somehow didn't get confused. She booked us two rooms at Pop and all but guaranteed we'd be able to get adjoining rooms. Hooray!

So I got M added to as many fast passes as I could. I hadn't been able to get FoP or Slinky, but as I checked over the weeks before the trip, I was able to get us both! Not ideal times, but better than nothing.

Ok I think I'm done with the background and ready to dive in!! Sorry so much text...it's probably all unnecessary :hilarious:
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ok just a little more text...

The day before we flew out, S texts us that she is trying to get a temporary license because she couldn't find hers. Mind you, this is 3:30pm on Friday. We fly out at 6am Saturday. 🤯 Somehow she left that place with a temp license and all was well. I can't imagine. I would FLIP. My license is in my phone case at all times, so I don't guess that'll happen unless it just randomly falls out.

Aaaanyway. I went to the Memphis area Friday evening to stay at E's house. We left for the airport at 3:48am and got there before 4:30am. There was a surprisingly long line at security. Memphis is usually dead! I was worried cause I wasn't sure if S was even on her way yet. She and Miranda are the more scattered ones of the five of us, I guess.



I have pre-check so I went through and got Starbucks at a new location, then read on a bench.



Got my customary overpriced water.

S messaged us that she was in line at security about an hour before. We figured that was plenty of time, so we breathed a little easier! She ended up getting to the gate a few minutes before boarding.




Me and S both forgot to check in the day before, but somehow we still all got to sit together. They had to de-ice, which I've never seen before in Tennessee. We took off a little late because of it.




I got so excited that I could see MK and Epcot as we flew in!! I'd never seen them before, but the Contemporary caught my eye.

We landed and headed out. S went to grab her bag (since she got to the airport separately, she didn't use my Magical Express luggage tag) while E and I looked through the new store





Saw a lot of clothes I liked this trip!

L and M both flew in the day before, so they were already en route to Pop Century. Once S got her bag, we headed down to ME. The line wasn't terrible and probably within 20 minutes we were on our way!

We were the last stop, but the time really goes by faster when you're catching up. PRAISEEEEE we got the room ready text on the ME. The other room was not yet ready, but at least we had a place to drop our bags.

We found L and M in the lobby and headed off to the 80s section (I wasn't pleased, but oh well).



Got to look at Roger's booty from our building. We were in 7 and on the 4th floor. Thank goodness for elevators! I never did get my bearings at this resort, so I got us lost a couple of times :hilarious:

I didn't take room pictures since we filled it up with our junk pretty quickly and we were in a hurry to get to the Expo.



L gave us these cute cups. They say something about being friends until we're senile, then we'll be new best friends. Ha! I ended up with the light purple one.

So next L, E and I needed to go to the Expo to pick up our race packets. L had actually decided not to run because she was worried about injury and none of us had trained. So she was the smart one. E and I did do one long run a couple of weeks before the race, and we were fine, so we were pretty confident we could finish. We just planned to walk a lot and enjoy the scenery.

So what were S and M going to do? Well...M realized she'd left her wallet at the hotel from the night before, so they called an Uber to go get it. This is VERY typical of M. I teased her relentlessly about it, and I would eat my words later in the trip 😜 She had also ubered to the wrong hotel the night before. Anyway, they also picked up a case of water for us while they were out, so that was nice.

We all headed to the front of the resort together



I stopped in the cafeteria to get some fruit and the tie-dye cheesecake I'd heard so much about. Unfortunately every dang line had some clueless person in it and slow cast members, so I eventually left the stuff there and headed out. I was SO annoyed. And hangry. E shared her rice krispie with me and I felt slightly better.

Up Next: Expo time!
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We found the expo bus and hopped on. It seemed like a pretty quick trip over.



It was pretty crowded, but we managed to find the spot to get our bibs.



After our bibs, we headed to get our shirts, then to walk through the merchandise room. It looked crowded from above, but it wasn't terrible.




I'd been texting @Doc Disney a little and figured out they were there as well. She clued me into the official RunDisney merch area, so we headed there. I actually saw them ahead of me as I was walking in so I jogged ahead to say hi.

I found two pins a wanted, but the line was really long and I was still hungry, so I just put them back.

We headed back to the bus and there was one waiting for us. I do think the value resorts have better bus service than the deluxes, so that was nice to experience for once!

S and M were back at the resort already so I told them to meet us by the main building.






They found us and we headed off to the Skyliner!





E gets motion sick, but she was ok on these. S was more nervous than the rest of us!




Being extra :hilarious:

Up next: Park time FINALLY
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Following along. Sorry we missed you! We thought about trying to meet up that Saturday but I figured you guys were busy with expo stuff, and we were pretty much done with being in the parks, and had to catch the tragical back to the airport. Looking forward to the rest!
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We hopped off the Skyliner and I headed over to the guest services window with M. Her tickets were not showing up in My Disney Experience and her magic band didn't work on their room (which they got into while we were at the expo btw), so I figured we could hope over there and make sure we were good to go rather than potentially getting stuck with an ipad CM. All was good, so we went on through the turnstiles.

Our first stop was the ladies room :hilarious: 5 women together, two of whom were hydrating extra, there were a lot of bathroom breaks.



I wanted to try some festival booths, so M and I detoured to The Deconstructed Dish. The other three girls continued on.

We both got the same thing:
  • Deconstructed Reuben: Sliced Corned Beef, Rye-crusted Sauerkraut and Jarlsberg Cake with Broken Thousand Island Dressing – $6.75


M gave this a 10, but she gave everything a 10 :hilarious: She's easy to please. I gave it a 7. It wasn't as flavorful as I thought it would be, but it was still very good.

We got to watch one of the 3D chalk artists for a minute. It was so cool!






You can kind of tell M's hair is blown across her face in this picture. It was windy! My hair was a tangled mess.



Up next was the Pop Eats booth





  • Sous Vide Chicken Roulade with Apples and Sage served with Warm Brie Fondue, Blueberry and Beet Gel and garnished with Beet Chip Crumbles (GF) – $6.75
  • Almond Frangipane Cake layered with Raspberry Jam and Belgian Chocolate (KA) – $4.50
  • Pop’t Art: Modern-design Sugar Cookie with Strawberry Filling (KA) – $4.50
We thought the "pop't art" was a hilarious name. Clearly we were getting delirious.

The chicken was good! It was well cooked. I think I gave it an 8. And as usual the cake was amazing. I ended up sharing with M because it is just soooo rich. I think even between the two of us, we couldn't finish it.

The other girls had decided on Mexico for food, and they were waiting in line still, so we continued on. We popped in the pyramid and I would have liked to ride Three Caballeros, but the line was kind of long.






When we were in the Africa area, the girls said they were done eating and headed out way, so we just hung out. It was pretty slammed in Epcot, as evidenced by this photo I sent to my husband back home



I knew it would be busy, so I wasn't surprised. Thankfully I'm fine with the crowds when I expect them.

S and L decided they'd like some kind of sweet treat, so they headed into France, while the rest of us kept walking. I really wanted to do the paint-by-number mural, so that was where I was headed.



The sunshine was AMAZING. I needed it so badly after soooo much rain back home.



We stopped for this dinner party scene. I think we did a pretty good job!

On the way out, I decided I wanted a sweet treat from Decadent Delights
  • White Chocolate and Purple Sweet Potato Mousse, Caramel, Coconut and Maple Meringue – $6.50
  • Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Pretzel Crunch (KA) – $6.50


This was the mousse and I LOVED it. It was one of the things I wanted to try, and it lived up to my expectations. E got the other thing and it was not what she expected. She wasn't a big fan, but M and I liked it!



Up next: A little more epcot and AK
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We headed out of the park and stopped at the mural for me to FINALLY get to do the paint-by-number. At this point in the day it was all filled in, so they were having people do touchups. I chose the light purple (duh)







It was everything I dreamed! I loved it.



We met up with S and L here and we all headed out together.



Goodbye for now!



L wanted pictures with "the big ball" and I wouldn't agree to it unless she called it Spaceship Earth at least once :hilarious:





I saw a CM with some pins and traded with him. He asked us a trivia question he'd just gotten from another CM. It was "What is Snow White's prince's name?" I knew I'd heard it before, but I couldn't remember for the life of me! Ugh.


It's dumb because they gave him that name later, it's not actually in the movie. The CM thought it was dumb too :hilarious:

We rounded the corner to head out and saw Goofy all alone!



We got to a very full AK bus stop. My feet were hurting, so we sat on a bench by the bus stop. I figured we wouldn't make it on the bus anyway. A bus ended up coming pretty quick, and we hopped in line just to see. The driving ended up squeezing us on but it was TIGHT. I couldn't even take a picture. I was practically sitting in someone's lap and had my face in M's armpit. It was the most crowded bus I've ever been on. Of course there was room in the back, but people weren't filling all the space. Whatever, we entertained each other.

Up Next: AK fun
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Original Poster


M and I didn't have bags, so I made her be my instagram photographer for a minute




Our first FP of the trip was for Kilimanjaro Safari. When we got back there, it was down!! What?! I don't remember ever seeing the Safari down. I'm guessing an animal was in the road or something, but they had the whole thing shut down.

We waited about 10 minutes and they opened the line back up.





We got the back row. I took on the roll of "make sure everyone else has the best experience possible" since I go all the time. I made E and L sit on the outside so they'd have better views. Then I remembered that E is going to be back in like 2 weeks with her family 😜





It was a BEAUTIFUL safari. The light was amazing. Also the back row was super duper bouncy.







It was such a perfect safari. We didn't see any elephants, so that was the only sad thing. But most of the other animals were active! The lions were sleeping, but we could see them well.

We had a little gap before our next FP, so we decided we'd go ahead and do dinner. It hadn't been that long since lunch, but this was as good a time as any. I wanted Satuli Canteen, and the girls trusted me.



Took some photos on the walk over





I got the beef and chicken with the noodles and the green onion vinaigrette. It was very good! I figured this was a good nutritious dinner before the race the next day.



Pandora was looking beautiful!

Next we cut back across the park to Asia.




More photos on the way of course.



Up next: More AK
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We assured E and S that this would be a fun coaster and not too scary at all. Well, our definitions of "not too scary" are different apparently :hilarious: I rode with E and she did not stop saying "oh my gosh" the entire time. I was DYING laughing. It was hilarious. And L is the talker in our group, so she made a new friend with our single rider. This was probably the most fun I've ever had on Everest.



By this point I was soooo ready to leave. I had like 3 hours of sleep the night before, my feet hurt in those dang Rothy's and I knew I had an early morning. But we had one more thing we had to do, and I didn't want to miss it.

We headed back across the park to Pandora. Guess what we stopped for? 😬📷









We had to wait just a few minutes for our fast pass time for Flight of Passage. We hopped in line when it was time and headed in. We all enjoyed it expect S and E. They both had to close their eyes. I didn't even think about it being hard on them :arghh: M and I both noticed that it seemed blurry. I don't know if that happens when the projector needs to be refocused or what. I've never noticed it being blurry before this. Maybe I'm just getting old!

With that we headed toward the exit.



We stood in kind of a long line for a photo here and it's not that great. It is cute with the frame around it though.






I don't know why they were doing this :hilarious: I guess tree pose in front of the tree?

On the way out, M kind of wanted to hang out in the park a while longer. I was totally fine with that, I just had to convince S that I was. She seemed worried about splitting up, but I don't know why. Anyway, L, E and I headed out and the other two stayed. I ended up calling us a Lyft to avoid the busses. The driver was SO weird. I was glad when that ride was over. He kept mumbling and couldn't tell if he was talking to me or on the phone. He got us back to Pop though, so whatever. We headed to bed and L stayed up so she could switch rooms when the other girls got back since she wasn't getting up at 3am with us.

I vaguely remember her getting up when the other girls got back. I didn't sleep super well, but I did get maybe 4 hours that night.

Up next: Race day!
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Can I possibly be first???? Yeah me!
You win!! 😜
I'm in!!! :)
Thanks! Welcome!
Ha that's literally so weird that we did not have to de-ice and you guys did! Love the skyliner photos!
For real?! The only reason I knew what was going on is because of your trip reports, and others from up north. My friends were like "what the heck are they doing?!"
Following along. Sorry we missed you! We thought about trying to meet up that Saturday but I figured you guys were busy with expo stuff, and we were pretty much done with being in the parks, and had to catch the tragical back to the airport. Looking forward to the rest!
When I saw how crazy Epcot was, I figured it was hopeless! I think @blreinsel was there too, but I didn't see her either.
Following along!
Yay! Welcome!
Yay! I enjoyed seeing the pics of you and @Doc Disney on Instagram! I can't wait to hear about your trip!
We had a good time meeting up several times!
Looks like a fun trip! Looking forward to seeing more.
It was! Thanks for following along!
I'm in! Love reading about runDisney events. So much fun!
Me too! Hopefully I can do it justice.
Count me in!!!
Woo! Thanks for following along.
I’m here Tu!
hahaha I see what you did there!
 

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