Trip Report Another Princess Half (live reporting)

Hello WDWMagic Friends!

'Tis time once again for a Brifraz trip report (number 15 if you're counting). Two years ago, we made a trek to the World for @MeffysMom to run in the Princess Half Marathon and 10k, while I and our daughter ran in the 5k. Here's that trip report if you need some background: https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/quick-and-hopefully-painless-princess-half-visit.909604/

It's time once again for us to head down for a race. This time...instead of driving, we are flying down. For us, that's a huge positive (no 30-ish hours in a car) but also a bit of a negative (no freedom of driving, we will be totally reliant on WDW transportation). As many of you have seen in the past, we are pretty over-the-top planners which also brings the fear of a possible flight delay or long wait for Magical Express. Hopefully not, though! Another big change for this year, no 5k for any of us (sadly, my knees may have ended their racing career) but both girls are running in the Half Marathon this time! Our daughter ran cross country and indoor track this year (her first in high school) so she is pretty ready for this.
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Quick pre-trip plan for you...

Thursday morning, we fly down and should arrive at Orlando International around 12pm. If all goes according to plan, we'll get to Old Key West by 2pm and catch the bus over to the Race Expo at WWOS for all things Expo. We then have dinner ADRs for Grand Floridian Cafe and some FP+ for Magic Kingdom.

Friday isn't 'too' early even though we are planning to hit get to MK before opening. We're going to do Fantasyland at opening and then some FP+ for Tomorrowland. We'll monorail over to Epcot for some quality Rose and Crown time and then a big dinner at Yachtsman. Early to bed!

Saturday is the 10k for @MeffysMom, after which we will head to Studios for a few rides and some lunch. Surely an afternoon nap will be in order followed by the evening at Epcot with the Frozen/Illuminations dessert party.

Sunday is another early morning, this time for both girls to do the Half Marathon. After the race, we are heading into Epcot for the girls (in costumes, of course) to have late breakfast with Princesses. After that and some FP+, we'll head back to the room for another nap. The evening is going to be at Disney Springs with plans to have some food at BOTH Raglan Road and The Edison.

Monday we plan to hit Animal Kingdom at opening with FP+ and then lunch at Tiffins, followed by Finding Nemo, the Musical. Have to catch Magical Express at 5pm for our flight back home.

Hope you have fun following along and we'll see you on Thursday!
 

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brifraz

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
Hello and good evening from Old Key West! Sorry I didn't get live today after the airport, but the flight down drained my phone pretty good, so I didn't have enough charge to put out a post during the day. But, here's a quick recap - and a few pictures from @MeffysMom's camera.

Our flight got into Orlando right around 12pm and we got onto a bus and on our way with Magical Express pretty quickly. It was a Cruise Line bus, so no fun video to tell us about the things we already know about WDW. We found ourselves at OKW by 1pm and, much to our delight and surprise, our room was already good to go! So, we got a quick ride from bell services down to building 47 and got changed for the nice weather. Those jeans from up in Baltimore were far too warm for the mid-80s down here. Once changed, we walked up to the Community Center and got on the bus over to Wide World of Sports. Again, much to our surprise everything went very quickly and we were there a little before 2pm!

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First stop was bib/packet pick-up which was very quick, then over to the vendor expo and t-shirt pick-up. It was a bit crowded, but still went very quickly and smoothly. Now loaded up with shirts and bibs and pins and things, we headed over to the Arena where all the Princess Half and RunDisney swag was located...and hit our first snag of the day. I guess it wasn't all THAT much of a snag. Got in the building and the CM greeting everyone told us that the wait for merchandise was 2 hours...ugh. So, we got in line (massive weave) and stood. Luckily, it was really only about 45 minutes after which, we headed into the shopping area and picked out a wine glass, Terbis water bottle, 19.3 magnet, and a Princess Half sweatshirt for the first time half marathon runner! So, we were done at WWoS right around 4pm and caught a bus to Grand Floridian.

Upon arriving at GF, I took the monorail over to Magic Kingdom to get a Tables in Wonderland card for dining discounts this weekend and also this coming summer. There was a bit of a line at Guest Services as it appears that Splash, Big Thunder, and 7 Dwarves were all down for a significant part of the day and the outside Guest Services was dealing with overflow from the City Hall building. Bit crazy, but I got the card and made it back to GF just in time for our 5:30 dinner ADR at the Grand Floridian Cafe.

Had a nice dinner - nothing entirely amazing, but very good quality and definitely welcome as we hadn't really eaten since 4am before our flight! We shared the broccoli-cheese soup and fried mozzarella. Then the girls shared the Turkey Pot pie and I had the Cafe Sandwich.
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After we had all eaten our fill, it was finally time for some Disney Theme Park goodness! Magic Kingdom was a bit crowded, but nothing insane. Upon entering we headed back toward our FP+ for Mine Train. Now that it was running again, the FP+ line was pretty long (back past Be Our Guest), but luckily it still only took about 15 minutes to get onto the ride. (please don't derail this trip report with an argument on the merits/demerits of FP+...). After our ride, it was about 7:15pm so we went to the front of the castle to find a spot to watch the fireworks. Ended up in the same spot we spend December 30th in! Definitely enjoyed the show more the second time seeing it. Still think it's a little too reliant on the projections, but it's definitely growing on me a little bit (especially liked the Hunchback sequence).
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After the fireworks, we had FP+ for Big Thunder Mountian, but it was still down (which meant we now had the free 'anything but Mine Train or Peter Pan' FP+) so we headed to Tomorrowland for a quick whirl on the Peoplemover. Since Space Mountain was also down, we hoped to maybe score a ride into the mountain with lights on, but no such luck. We then headed back to Fantasyland and the girls did the Teacups and then we all rode Under the Sea with Ariel. Other than the abrupt ending, I still like that ride as it really is a classic dark ride with solid animatronics.
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We then went through It's A Small World. None of these four had more than 5 minutes wait time and thus, we had done 4 attractions when our next FP+ window hit at 9:30pm. Even on less than headliner attractions, I'll gladly take 4 in an hour (other than the first hour after opening) any day. Our 9:30pm ride was Haunted Mansion, which now also had no real wait! Enjoyed it as usual - although I think we need to get past all three of us in the same Doom Buggy - we are just too big at this point in life to make that continue to work!

It was 9:45pm and we were all pretty tired from our 3:45am wake-up, so we decided to bail out on our special FP+ and head out. Which brings us to about 11pm in Old Key West and ready for some sleep! See you tomorrow.
 
brifraz

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
Good morning, friends! I was going to start the morning with 'Hey Howdy Hey' or some 'Buenos Dias' or other foreign good morning as we are headed to Magic Kingdom and then Epcot, but still a little tired to try to do that...what's that? I did it anyway? Cool.

It's 6:30am and we are up and getting ready to head out. Not quite as full of a day today...or maybe a more full day, depending on how you look at it. Since we did a few things last night it should make our Magic Kingdom morning a little less hectic than perhaps we were planning, but we still hope to hit a good number of things in Fantasyland, Adventureland, and Tomorrowland (with some FP+) all before lunchtime (and maybe even with a Frontierland ride in there as well). IF our energy is holding up - AKA no need for a nap - we will head over to Epcot for lunch and some relax time in World Showcase before dinner at the Yachtsman. Since we may not come back to the room, we are dressed somewhat nicely for that dinner (sun dresses and a hawai'ian shirt - nice for Disney touring) which hopefully will make for some nice pictures through the day.

See you soon - and Happy Friday to everyone who is working today!
 
brifraz

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
It's 11:20am in Magic Kingdom and we're waiting for our Space Mountain FP+, so here's a morning recap.

Once into the park (not a fan of the new EMH check area near Tomorrowland) we did Pan, Pooh, and had a Gaston's cinnamon roll in 30 minutes.
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Then we visited Storybook Circus for the first time in a while and did Barnstormer and Dumbo.
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At this point, it was 9am so we headed to Adventureland for a Jungle Cruise and Pirates. Both had only 5-10 minute waits, so we treated ourselves to a Dole Whip before Tomorrowland.

First stop was the Speedway with FP+
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Then it was Buzz with another FP+. I managed to hit a bonus target a few times in a row and for the first time (say it with me) in forever, I beat @MeffysMom! We just got out of Carousel of Progress and now it's time for Space Mountain! See you later.
 

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