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!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Following! Looks like a great trip so far! You always have the cutest outfits!

 

[MotherofaPrincessLover]

I was really hoping to do a runDisney event in 2019, but unless they change the time of month they usually are, I won't be able to. Dumb job...

 

[Doc Disney]

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.

Ah that makes sense! The door was definitely broken then, we all tried to open it several times. I was glad I mentally prepared myself for it to take forever for our luggage to come otherwise I would have been mad. I was mad, however, about how rude the CMs were. That was disappointing

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!

Aw thank you! Thanks for reading! Run Disney races are fun...even the 5K ones

 

[Doc Disney]

Following! Looks like a great trip so far! You always have the cutest outfits!

Thank you! That means a lot to me since I spend like 3 weeks picking out outfits

I was really hoping to do a runDisney event in 2019, but unless they change the time of month they usually are, I won't be able to. Dumb job...

Ugh that stinks! They seem to keep adding dates so maybe one will finally come along you can do !

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 continued
After the Expo Jill and I ran to our room and dropped off our things. Along the way I managed to break the door . The Magic Band part of the door fell off . Don't worry it went back on!
After this we hopped on the monorail and headed to the MK!
Our first FP was for Buzz and we were running out of time so we rushed over there and thankfully our Mickey turned green!

Was I sleeping or concentrating??

My Mom was sleeping too

My Dad won in the end!
After this we headed to the Peoplemover!

We all just love the Peoplemover! We then headed towards our next FP (but first hit up the Tangled Restrooms)

We then had our FP for Peter Pan

The FP line was crazy long, but the wait overall was short. Jill and I were entertained by the cutest baby in front of us! This was Jill's first time (at least that she remembers) on Peter Pan and she really liked it!
Our last FP was in Adventureland!

It was for...

My Dad and Jill had never been on this so when I adjusted our FPs earlier in the day I picked this one!

Next up: finishing up the MK!

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 continued

My Dad and Jill enjoyed the ride My Mom and I enjoyed it in the daytime since we always rode it in the dark!
We wanted to head back to the hotel after this so we hopped on the monorail. At this point Jill and I went on a search for the runners box that they usually sell before races in the quick service restaurants (it has bagels, banana, etc). I finally asked someone and they had no clue what I was talking about We ended up finding bagels in one of the shops so got a bag of those and those would have to suffice (we would find out the next day why they didn't have the boxes!).
When we got back to the room my Mom was on the phone and said she had been on hold with Bell Services for like 10 minutes. She finally hung up and I tried calling a few times but we were on hold too long. At this point it was 5:30 and I just really wanted our luggage. My Dad suggested we just go down and get it and so we did. Our luggage was there, thankfully, so we grabbed it all and brought it back to the room. Again, we encountered rude CMs at the desk . Oh well!
We figured we should eat something at this point so we decided on Contempo Cafe since we knew they had pasta!
Jill and I both had Chicken Alfredo

This was good, but I wasn't super hungry so I did not eat much of it and Jill loved it and ate some of mine!
My Mom wasn't hungry so she didn't eat. I should have taken a page from her book because eating would come to haunt me later
My Dad had the Blackened Chicken Flatbread

He enjoyed it!
Contempo Cafe was super crowded. My Dad stalked a table and put his hat down while he grabbed something to drink. One of the CMs cleaning up picked it up and tried to give it to another man . Thankfully the other guy and my Dad saw it at the same time and told him he kept it there to hold the table!
After eating we headed to BVG and grabbed some treats
Jill got the snowman, I got the gingerbread and my Mom got the lemon Mickey cookie

We headed back to the Poly after this so we could get to bed early since we had a long day ahead of us!

We were all off to bed by 8:30 pm

Next up: worst night ever and running a half marathon

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 4 - Race Day!
Well, our alarms went off at 2:30 am (thankfully it was daylight savings time so it was kind of like 3:30 am) and 2:30 am was too soon. Unfortunately for whatever reason I got sick through the night and slept probably only about an hour. I wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to run but luckily (unluckily?) by the time 2:30 came around I was feeling better. I think it was a combo of nerves, my reflux being really bad and eating heavy pasta that just did not agree with me
I was even feeling better enough in the morning to take pictures and videos You may recognize our skirts as our Halloween costumes from Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

Don't worry I did not run with my hair down...I was waiting for Jill to braid it on the bus
Meanwhile through all this my Dad was in bed snoring away oblivious to the world
When I was peeking outside I noticed it was raining so we all decided we would wear a poncho and sacrifice it as the race began. if it rained later in the trip we would just have to shell out more money on ponchos
As we walked toward the bus past Capt. Cook's we realized it was open. Hence the lack of runners boxes . Considering we forced some dry bagels down, Capt. Cook's would have been better . Oh well! Luckily the bus was waiting for us when we got there. Some woman noticed our ponchos and had a mild panic attack that we were running with them and that she was underprepared ! We assured her she would be fine and it definitely was not supposed to rain much longer!
On the bus! I was still trying to eat my bagel

We soon landed at ESPN

We decided to wait in line to meet Mickey and Minnie. They shut down the lines at 5:00 am. Around 4:45 am the lights went off and the lines halted. It was getting closer and closer to 5:00 am, but they really started moving the line along. Luckily we got to meet Mickey at like 4:58!
We were nervous because in my phone pictures Jill had her eyes closed, but luckily the Photopass picture turned out well

I headed to the bathroom once more before the race started and soon enough we were lined up in our corrals. The corrals were super close to the main area which was much different from the hike we remembered from the Princess Half Marathon!
We were in Corral K which is a little bit further back than we wanted, but oh well! The corral was huge, though!
We started around 6:08 am

Next up: racing

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 4 continued
We started off in the dark, but almost immediately it was evident that it was going to be hot! We ditched our sleeves after a half mile!
The sun came up quickly and we chugged along through the heat and the sun
We were doing pretty well time wise, but my Mom and I both stopped to go to the bathroom right before AK and unfortunately we lost about 15 minutes and ended up with a 25 min mile. It would have been fine if we were in a higher corral, but the balloon ladies were a real threat (they are who sweep the course) so we had to sprint through AK and kind of missed it. In hindsight we could have stopped in AK because they had all their bathrooms open with short waits!
For some reason I can't find my Mom's AK pictures from the race. I was going to ask for them, but she said she didn't care . I do like that these are Photopass pictures now so we didn't have to buy them!

We ended up running like a 9.5 minute mile through AK so made up good time!
Sadly, the rest of the race was just roads (including running by a sewage plant) with very little character interactions (not that we would have stopped anyway!) but with enough music and small things to get us through. We did get to run backstage of AK which was neat and ran by the train tracks for Rafiki's Planet Watch (this will come into play later). My Mom was a bit behind us because she runs better when she's not with us so Jill and I kept finding people to follow (if they were doing the run/walk model) and passed time doing that. Somewhere around mile 8/9 we all started running together. I was giving my Dad updates as well so he would know when he needed to come see us!
My stomach was bothering me (normal for me when I run) so our last few miles were really slow, but we were definitely way ahead of the balloon ladies, at this point, so we took our time. Our favorite part is the soldiers from Toy Story yelling at everyone on the last big hill The one guy was screaming at everyone who was walking (we were running because we expected it so we were safe!). Someone said "thanks GI Joe" and he said "I'm not GI Joe, thats my father!!!!" We all laughed really hard!
For some reason I thought we would run through World Showcase, but the ending was actually the same as the PHM so it was just a little bit of Epcot.

Jill loves Club Cool!

Next up: Finish!

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 4 continued
There were some good character interaction in Epcot, including Phineas and Ferb (who I love) and I was tempted to stop, but also just wanted to be done so we kept going! We ran by my favorite part, the choir, at mile 13 and we were almost there!

So as you can see in the background it took us a long time to run (obviously that is not our actual time, thats the time from the start of corral A). We actually finished faster than the Princess Half Marathon, though, which was shocking since we felt like we were moving so slow!

That guy in the red shirt really wanted to be in our pictures

My Dad was at the finish line which was nice! Its nice to have a friendly face at the end! We walked through the medical tent to grab some cooling cloths, grabbed our food pack and went to find my Dad.
LOL my eyes are closed

Our bus came soon enough and we hobbled on. The medals are amazing ! They make a Run Disney race so worth it!

The snack box they give you is a life saver. The only way I can get my stomach to feel better is to eat something quickly so I munched on some nachos and cheese to keep my stomach happy!
Apparently I needed to sit for a minute...haha

Back in the room we showered, got dressed and headed back down to Capt. Cook's for some real food!

My Dad was pretending his pop top was a medal

Next up: life after a race

 

[DisneyJeff]

Ok, seriously, how do you guys look so good after running a 1/2 marathon??? You didn't actually run it, right? You must have taken an Uber to the finish line or something!!!

 

[JamieLee18]

Congrats on the race! Cute waist pouches, where did you find those?

 

[ScarletBegonias]

PROPS to you for running after being sick during the night!

I always feel ill at the beginning of my races. I think it's nerves, but after a few miles I'm usually feeling okay.

Awesome job!

 

[sheriffwoody]

Great job on the race! 2:30am...my goodness.

 

[AuburnBelle919]

So happy to be reading another trip report-it's so much fun to hear about your trips with your mom. After reading about your adventures it made me talk my mom into taking a trip with me to WDW this February before I run in the princess 10K with two of my best friends. I am so excited because it is her first trip since the mid '90s! I can't wait to show her how much it has changed! Can't wait to read more about your trip!

 

[Doc Disney]

Ok, seriously, how do you guys look so good after running a 1/2 marathon??? You didn't actually run it, right? You must have taken an Uber to the finish line or something!!!

haha! If only we took an uber that would have been more pleasant When you don't run that fast its easy to look decent after you run

Congrats on the race! Cute waist pouches, where did you find those?

Thank you! They are from amazon: Ufashion 3c running belt I think is what they are! They are great because they fit the iPhone 6 and some other things in there!

 

[Doc Disney]

PROPS to you for running after being sick during the night!

I always feel ill at the beginning of my races. I think it's nerves, but after a few miles I'm usually feeling okay.

Awesome job!

Oh thanks! That was odd. I usually get sick at the end of my races, but usually never before For some reason I really

Great job on the race! 2:30am...my goodness.

Too early This time is what prevents me from doing more Run Disney races! My sisters are trying to convince me to do the 5k, 10k, 1/2 marathon and full marathon in 2018. But thats 4 days of getting up that early haha

So happy to be reading another trip report-it's so much fun to hear about your trips with your mom. After reading about your adventures it made me talk my mom into taking a trip with me to WDW this February before I run in the princess 10K with two of my best friends. I am so excited because it is her first trip since the mid '90s! I can't wait to show her how much it has changed! Can't wait to read more about your trip!

Oh thats so awesome!!!!! I'm so excited for you! I bet she will have a great time, there is so much more to see now! Will this be your first RunDisney race?!

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 4 continued:
Capt. Cook's was pretty slow again, but we didn't mind relaxing so we took some more pictures and relaxed in the sunshine

Closer look at the medal !

For lunch Jill and I had pepperoni flatbreads, my Mom had chicken nuggets, and my dad had the Pan Asian noodles again. I didn't take any pictures because none of it was new for you to see!
After we ate we went and relaxed at the pool a little bit
We were too cold to actually get in the pool Our plan was to go to the hot tub and soak our legs, but it was closed

My pictures start really going down after this, I was too tired haha
For some reason we decided to take the boat to the MK, probably because it involved more sitting
Waiting for the boat!

Soon enough the boat came and we took a relaxing ride to the MK!

Next up: MK continued

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 4 continued

Our first ride was the train! We found this cool tree in the train station

All aboard!

We actually stayed on the train for 1.75 loops
We did it this way because we had to make it to Tomorrowland, but had a bit of time to kill. In the end, staying on the train this long was a slight mistake as we all got very stiff
Here's a light we found in one of the train stations!

Our first FP was for Space Mountain so we hobbled over to Tomorrowland
Love these palm trees!

Next up: MK Fps

 

[AuburnBelle919]

Oh thanks! That was odd. I usually get sick at the end of my races, but usually never before For some reason I really



Too early This time is what prevents me from doing more Run Disney races! My sisters are trying to convince me to do the 5k, 10k, 1/2 marathon and full marathon in 2018. But thats 4 days of getting up that early haha



Oh thats so awesome!!!!! I'm so excited for you! I bet she will have a great time, there is so much more to see now! Will this be your first RunDisney race?!

This will not only be my first RunDisney race but my first race ever. I've never been a runner but reading all the trip reports about RunDisney events make it look like so much fun so I figured why not try it, especially in one of my favorite places with some of my best friends.

My ultimate goal is to maybe run the Wine and Dine 1/2 but I want to see how the 10K goes first.

 

[prfctlyximprct]

I ran a Tough Mudder in October and thought I'd never walk again. I have so much respect for those who do these and continue on with their vacations!!!