Living the Life... at the Contemporary: A September 2008 Trip Report (with photos)!

over · Oct 27, 2008

i always end up buying ride pictures. i just cant help it!

yours came out great!

HollyBelle · Oct 28, 2008

TakeMeThere81 said:
Oh I can't wait to hear about Expedition Everest Challenge! I've heard about it, but not heard any reports from people who participated! Loving your pics and trip report!

Thanks! The challenge was a blast... hopefully, I'll be getting to that sooner, rather than later! This TR is taking me way longer than I thought it would.

over said:
i always end up buying ride pictures. i just cant help it!

yours came out great!

They're definitely fun. And thanks... mine received a bit of help from photoshop (sharpening, saturation and contrast)!

HollyBelle · Oct 28, 2008

Day 3 continued...

When we got off the monorail I ran up to the room to get the confirmation information we forgot to grab that morning while Brett went to bring the car around. He picked me up at the hotel entrance and we were off to Disney’s Wide World of Sports. On the way we discussed the challenge which we had signed up for back in May. It was a 5K run (3.2 miles) through the Animal Kingdom, followed by an obstacle course and scavenger hunt for teams of two. This was the inaugural year for the race so there wasn’t much we could research about it ahead of time. However, Disney did a good job keeping us informed leading up to the event. We received monthly online newsletters and in the last month we even received a couple of sample clues to get us ready for the scavenger hunt. I was most excited about this part of the challenge, but more on that when we get to it!

Disney’s Wide World of Sports:

Packet pickup was a little underwhelming. I don’t really know what I was expecting, but there wasn’t much to it. We informed a volunteer of our team name and were provided with our bibs, one champion chip (to track our race time), wristbands for the event, an info sheet, a limited edition pin, and tech shirts. The shirts were great, they had the challenge logo on the front with some sponsor names on the back. My only complaint is that the size small is actually rather wide and big and I don’t think they even carried an extra small.

*We noticed the team name above ours..."Abominable slow man (and woman)" How clever is that? Love it!*

One of our race bibs:

Expedition Everest Base Camp setup:

While Brett was buying himself a t-shirt with the challenge logo on the front and a great image of Mickey climbing Everest on the back, I ogled the finisher medals for the Disney Endurance Series. We long for the marathon finisher medal…and aim to get it in January 2009!!!

Medals:

We left WWS after about 20 minutes to head back to the hotel and then off to Epcot! When we got to the resort we went ahead and changed clothes because we figured we probably wouldn’t return until the end of the day and we wanted to make sure we were dressed somewhat appropriately for dinner.

Epcot up next!

HollyBelle · Oct 28, 2008

I was excited to get to Epcot for the official opening day of the Food and Wine Festival. As soon as we made it through the turnstiles we went straight for the festival guides. We each grabbed one and started scanning to find Chef Hung. When his name didn’t appear with anything scheduled over the weekend we flipped to the back and checked the list of chefs participating in the festival…. again, no Hung. We were disappointed to not find him anywhere on the schedule; we were so sure he'd be doing a presentation and had gotten our hopes up.

*On a side note, Tre Wilcox of the same season is scheduled to be at the festival doing presentations and signing the Top Chef Cookbook on October 31 for any of you Top Chef fans headed in that direction.

Festival Guide:

I must say, while I love the Mary Blair feel of the artwork used on the guide this year for Cities in Wonderland, I think the entrance setup for last year’s Tastefully Inspired was better. I can't imagine how many times the poor souls at the gate have to hear the Alice music loop! Don't get me wrong, I love Alice in Wonderland, but imagine listening to "Painting the Roses Red" and "The Unbirthday Song" over and over and over again!

So off we were in a little "world of our own" to the Festival Center to check out the wine seminars.

Now, I absolutely LOVE the wine seminars, and during the past two festivals we have been able to squeeze in quite a few in one weekend. Not only does one get complimentary wine tastings, but the presenting winery really goes through a lot of interesting information about the winery and the wine itself. I always learn a lot about the different varietals, while enjoying FREE wine!

This weekend was made up almost entirely of white wine and champagne seminars….now there’s nothing wrong with that, per se, it’s just not our cup of tea. We’re big red wine fans. So we attended one of the Authors without Borders seminars and then headed on to World Showcase.

In Mexico we got ourselves a glass of wine and chorizo quesadillas, which are always good. We then headed into the pavilion to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour, such a fun little ride.

As we took off around World Showcase we noticed that the doors to Nine Dragons were open. This is one of my very favorite WS restaurants and it appeared to be back in business, so we just had to stop in for lunch. The refurb looks great and it was obvious the staff is proud of their restaurant. Brett had the Kung Pao chicken and I had the Nine Dragons fried rice, which has always been good but was improved upon during the update. They added some great pieces of jumbo shrimp to the mix.

Fried Rice (I forgot to take a picture of Brett's meal):

The new Nine Dragons mural is beautiful, it didn't turn out very well in the photo with the sun glaring in, but I think this still gives you an idea:

When we left Nine Dragons I took a quick picture of the parasols that are sold just outside:

Disneyfalcon · Oct 28, 2008

Ah man! I wonder what Hung was doing there with a suitcase then? That fried rice looks yummy!

HollyBelle · Oct 29, 2008

After finishing lunch we headed around World Showcase at a leisurely stroll. While waiting for the drawbridge at the African outpost, something donned on Brett… BOCUSE D’OR! Hung must be in the competition. We checked the festival guide and sure enough the competition was underway over at the World Showplace (formerly Millenium Village, I believe?). Uh-oh, we’ve only got 30 minutes until they wrap up. We picked up our pace to head in that direction; we jokingly refer to it as our Disney Walk! Our normal pace is rather fast compared to others, but we practically fly through that place when we turn on the walk!

We happened upon a few chipmunks in our haste, and took a quick detour to the International Gateway to get in some time with them. No one seemed to realize they were there… hidden in plain sight. We of course used our super character senses to ferret them out :lookaroun . We spotted them from France and when we got over there, they were still alone! I love Chip and Dale; they’re always so much fun. But then again, I’ll admit I like the attention the chipmunks pay me and it’s always fun to play along when they try to steal me from Brett. It’s definitely true that they like the ladies, almost as much as they like to cause trouble for Donald!

Back to the mission… on we went to the World Showplace, where lo and behold the Bocuse D’Or was taking place and Chef Hung’s name was in the program. Now, if you don’t know what the Bocuse D’Or is, the best way for me to describe it would be to call it the Chef Olympics. It takes place in France every year, and each country sends its best chef to represent. The American finalists were competing at Epcot to see who would represent our country at the event in January 2009… very prestigious.

You can find out more about the event here: http://www.bocusedorusa.org/

Program:

The competition was split into two days with four teams of two competing on each day. The winner would be announced at the Bocuse D’Or gala taking place on Saturday night. Luckily for us, Hung was set to cook on Saturday, so we hadn’t missed him. We’d be back to check it out tomorrow.

Once we left the Festival Showplace we decided to quench our thirst with a beer from the Rose & Crown pub.

Brett enjoying a Boddington’s outside the pub:

Funny story: when Brett ordered the drink the bartender said “You know why I’m not going to card you, son? Because only a man orders a Boddington’s. No wimpy little git would ever come in here asking for a man’s beer!” It was hilarious! And just so darn… English!

Myself enjoying a Harp Lager (no Boddington’s for me, thanks):

HollyBelle · Oct 29, 2008

From England, we hopped the pond to America. Since we weren’t participating in any of the wine seminars this go around, we decided the Sam Adams beer seminar was a must. I will say I’m no Sam Adams Boston Lager fan. It just has a heavy, slightly bitter taste to me but the tasting included some other Sam Adams varieties so I was up for it. After about 20 minutes in line, they let us in to be seated. A little note about the seating: be prepared to get to know your neighbor… they packed us in to those little rows (on bar stools) and we were practically on top of the tables (both the one in front of us and behind us).

The Sam Adams rep provided everyone with a fun little bottle opener, and I must say it’s come in handy a few times here at home so it was a great giveaway. He gave an overview of the company and talked a little about the breweries and hops they use. Jars of different hops were on display at each table for participants to view, touch, smell, etc. Wow, is that stuff pungent! We went through each of the beers in the same fashion that one might do a wine tasting. We tasted the Sam Adams Boston Lager (still not a fan), the Sam Adams Light (not bad, definitely better than the original), the Sam Adams Octoberfest (loved it), and a Sam Adams special brew concocted for F&W 08 (very good). I’d say you consume around 12 oz. of beer if you finish each of the tasting portions, or at least it certainly seems that way. My thoughts? If you like beer, be sure to check out the Sam Adams "History of Beer in America" presentation… I wholly recommend it, that is if you don’t mind getting friendly with those around you!!

As we headed out of America, we spotted a Hidden Mickey- the real deal! No really, it seems that if the characters aren’t on the main thoroughfare they aren’t noticed. So there he was, the big cheese, just hanging out all by his lonesome. We stopped to visit with him briefly and then headed off to Future World.

We entertained ourselves in Innoventions for a bit, and caught the Storm Struck show/ride. It was fun to try, but nothing to write home about. After Innoventions we journeyed through the Seas with Nemo and Friends… my favorite part of this ride has to be Peach at the end; I love her pleas for help and desire to provide you with useless knowledge. The wait for Soarin was longer than we liked, so we grabbed a coke in the Land and took off for the Boardwalk.

I love the Boardwalk and can’t wait to stay over there in that area. Two years ago we stayed at the Swan, which was nice, and definitely convenient… but it lacked that Disney magic. Ever since then, though, the Yacht and Beach Club and Boardwalk have been very high on my list.

After wandering around the Boardwalk, we checked in early for our dining reservations at the Flying Fish Café… a favorite of ours! They just so happened to seat us at the exact same table we had last time... crazy how that happens. I love the ambience of this restaurant; it fits in so well on the Boardwalk. You'd think it would be too much, with the cloudy twinkly ceiling, carousel fish, boardwalk mural and scaly pillars... but it's not. The design is very tasteful, in my opinion:

Floor tiles in the entryway (I know, I know… I take some odd pictures. But this is going to be the background for my Flying Fish scrapbook page! I think it will work nicely):

Each trip we plan at least one meal that includes a bottle of wine… this time though, we decided to forego the bottle and each just have a glass… we’d been drinking all day, no need to get sloppy! Brett ordered the diver scallops with risotto and I had the potato wrapped snapper with leeks… both delicious, but Brett’s entrée wins! I think I’m obsessed with risotto, it’s the best creation ever, and it always goes so perfectly with scallops.

Scallops:

Snapper:

Us, after a very fulfilling meal:

Flying Fish signage, taken after dinner:

HollyBelle · Oct 30, 2008

I love the Food and Wine Festival, but evenings (especially on the weekend) in WS are just a mess this time of year. It’s crazy busy and many festival goers are simply out of control, possibly due to the consumption of all that alcohol! For this very reason, we try to avoid the countries once the sun goes down. So after dinner we entered through the International Gateway and fought our way to Future World.

After a quick stop in MouseGear to browse, we walked right on SSE. We had already ridden it a few times since the refurb (last December before it was complete, and again in May). I must say, the first time we rode it in December I thought the new interactive screens were very cool…but I also thought the descent was still in a transitional phase. When we rode again in May… like a lot of others, I found the descent lacking something. Now, I’ve just gotten used to it. It is what it is. What I do like is the Project Tomorrow aftershow! Love, love, love powering cities! If you haven’t checked out the “Power City” game… do so! We have a blast in there, and now make it a point to build a city at least once each trip. Yes, we know we are dorks!

The mural behind the Power City board:

We watched Illuminations from the edge of Future World. This is my absolute favorite fireworks show. I find it to be so inspiring. The music gets me every time… it’s so moving and awe-inducing, and I love it when the countries all light up. I think the new globe looks very crisp in all its glory; however, I'll admit that if I hadn’t known it was receiving a digital update, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed :shrug: . We were pretty far back in the crowd though, so maybe that’s why.

At the finale, we took off to the Character Spot, which was opening back up for EMH. We beat the crowd and ended up having a very short wait. I like the Character Spot, though not as much as the Characters on Holiday bus, but I guess that’s okay. It always seemed like there were more randoms with the bus and we’re all about that.

And surprise… Pluto was waiting for us around the corner! He was really leaning on us and I was having trouble standing up. Ehh… a sign there might have been too much wine consumed? Maybe. We couldn’t stop laughing, which I think made him lean on us even more.

After this we decide to get back to the resort… we were going to have an early morning tomorrow. I love walking over these light patterns when leaving the park; they're such a fun surprise, and one of those things that just screams EPCOT to me:

The monorail is so convenient, but I will say, when you exit at the TTC and have to ride the resort loop all the way around… it can take awhile. And on this night, the monorail was having some issues and had to shut down and reboot multiple times on our journey, resulting in a 45 minute ride. Yikes!

HollyBelle · Oct 30, 2008

Day 4, Saturday September 27, 2008: Studios/Epcot/Expedition Everest Challenge

After waking and getting ready, we took off for our favorite breakfast spot in the World… Boatwright’s at Port Orleans Riverside. We were seated immediately after checking in for our 7:30am ADR. No menus necessary for us here. We always order the French toast- three large deep fried cinnamon and sugar baguettes and a side of sausage…YUM. I usually order a side of eggs and we split the meal. With coffee… it comes to a $12-13 meal. I’m sure it would be hard to beat that at a counter service restaurant, and our DDE card practically covers the tip. Take 20% off and give 20%... you break even. I know, I’m such a math genius!

A note on the DDE/Tables in Wonderland card for those of you who use it... we’ve probably had it for the past 3 years and with this year's automatic addition of the 18% gratuity we’ve just been paying the bill, telling servers to keep the change and off we go. Well, at Boatwright’s the server didn’t automatically add the 18% to the bill and we almost missed it, which would have resulted in her not receiving much of a tip. This then put me in freak out mode because I had a fear that we might have stiffed our wonderful server the night before at the Flying Fish and I was fully prepared to go in search of him. Thankfully, I save receipts and we were able to go back and look at all our dining ones and all was well… the 18% had been added to each of them. From this point forward though, we’re going to be reading those receipts very closely. Especially considering it happened at breakfast again the following morning.

Chip, Dale and the nephews picking on Donald at Fulton’s General Store:

So we were off to the Studios where it was an EMH morning, which didn’t thrill us because of the crowds, but it was the only day that was going to work on this short trip. Just as you might suspect…we went straight for Pixar Place, more specifically TSMM. Brett grabbed us fastpasses with a return time of 11:30am and then we hopped in the standby line, a projected 55 minute wait at 8:30am. Love the queue, as others have already commented on, and Mr. Potato Head was certainly a treat. Our wait was more like 30 minutes, probably because fastpasses for the day hadn’t kicked in yet. I loved the ride and it far exceeded my expectations, which were high. Of course Brett received a higher score than I did-no surprise there; however, what’s more important is that I killed him on accuracy. Hey, it’s got to count for something! I love that they track this as well as the score. Nice touch, Disney!

I love the larger than life scrabble board, it's one of my favorite parts of Pixar Place. It comes in a close second to the monkey strapped to a rocket, which I didn't happen to get a picture of:

The obligatory picture of Mr. Potato Head:

Brett's favorite sign in the queue:

A far from lovely self portrait with our 3D glasses:

From TSMM, we went out to the hat and found Stitch. I realize Stitch creates very dichotomous reactions in people: he’s both loved and hated with passion. So check me off now for the love column! First off, I adore “Lilo and Stitch” the movie and find it to be a very smartly written story. Also, I think his character was given much depth and his animators did a wonderful job in portraying his emotions. I get excited anytime I see him.

Here we are ganging up on Brett:

Next stop: Sunset Boulevard, of course! TOT was pretty much walk-on. This ride is one of my favorites and I think it’s because you never know which ride sequence you’re going to get… keeps a little bit of mystery involved.

We opted for the single rider line on Rock n Rollercoaster so we could maximize our time. I’ve made a few scrapbook pages since we returned from the trip and below is one of them. I figured I would just post it instead of posting all the pictures separately. The background was actually a graffiti wall from the queue in the Rock n Rollercoaster parking garage. I’m always amazed with the detail and importance Disney places on all aspects of guest areas. They really do create total immersion.

Disneyfalcon · Oct 30, 2008

Great page Holly!! That's a perfect background!!

Too funny about wanting to go find your server and tip him!:lol:

over · Oct 30, 2008

love the scrap booking. makes me want to make one from when me and my gf went. could be a good xmas gift.....hmmmmm

HollyBelle · Oct 31, 2008

Disneyfalcon said:
Great page Holly!! That's a perfect background!!

Too funny about wanting to go find your server and tip him!:lol:

Thanks! And yes, I was a server in a previous life...thinking we had stiffed the guy mortified me!

over said:
love the scrap booking. makes me want to make one from when me and my gf went. could be a good xmas gift.....hmmmmm

Or a GREAT xmas gift! I say go for it... she'll love it. And for the record, shutterfly prints great digital books.

HollyBelle · Oct 31, 2008

After leaving Sunset Boulevard we found ourselves heading in the direction of the Animation Courtyard. Unfortunately though, the timing didn’t work out for us to participate in the Animation Academy this trip. We made a loop around the Streets of America, Star Tours and Muppet Vision 3D areas, stopping at Luigi’s Garage (formerly Al’s Toy Barn area) to meet Lightning McQueen and Mater.

Star Tours:

MuppetVision 3D from Star Tours:

Cars:

From there we headed back to Pixar Place to catch the toys in Andy’s room. I think this meet and greet area is cleverly done and I like that the background for the picture is Andy’s bed. Plus, this was our first time actually getting Woody and Buzz together. Score!

Toys:

Now for my issues with the queue-having the cutouts for people in line to take pictures behind is a wonderful idea… but I think it might be one that’s better left in theory. First off, you can’t get far enough back from the cutouts to actually appreciate your photo. And more importantly, it seems that this option caused some people in line to become pushy, which in turn caused others to become irritable. For example, we had a family behind us that kept encouraging their child to move to the next photo op before there was space to actually take a picture. Then mom would give us dirty looks trying to get us to move out of her shot… when there was really nowhere for us to go. After a few cutouts we became frustrated with her inability to say please and thank you, so we just stood our ground and listened to her complain loudly about how we were in the way. I don’t think it was just this family either, it was happening all around us. It makes some sense though. It’s common practice that when there is a line people will move forward and fill in the available space, if they don’t someone behind them gets perturbed. To fully appreciate the photo ops, everyone has to keep ample space around them, which in my opinion is simply impossible. During this trip, I experienced more aggravated and disconcerted people in that 25 minute line than anywhere else on property.

Once we exited Andy’s Room it was TSMM fastpass return time! It’s such a great ride and one that I could enjoy over and over and over again. I can’t decide which game is my favorite though, they’re all so good!

At this time, we left the park in search of lunch. Beaches and Cream is one of my favorites and has been on the must-do list for every trip since we first tried it. I love the atmosphere and the staff there is so wonderful. We usually get seats at the counter, and this time was no different. Normally, I’m not a big ice cream fan but I love the root beer floats from here.

Beaches and Cream:

After we finished our burgers and fries it was off to EPCOT. We found seats in the stadium for the Bocuse d’Or just before Hung was set to present his seafood course. The competition is comprised of two dishes (one fish, one beef) and a platter for each must be presented, as well. There are two teams of judges, one team judges the fish course, the other the beef course. And then they all judge the presentation of both platters. It was amazing to see how important time management was for all of the chefs. If the platters didn’t come out at the exact right time, they were penalized. Al Roker and John Besh were hosting the event and they had a great banter going on… they were very entertaining.

I'm aware that not everyone is intrigued by things of this nature, but here are some pictures for those of you who might be. The quality is lacking a bit, but this gives you the idea.

Chef Hung and his commis, Girair, preparing a dish:

As you can see in the following picture, each of the four chefs were set up in what appears to be a makeshift kitchen, with a window from which to serve the food. On the righthand side you can see the judges awaiting the dish (one was even taking pictures of the dishes with a digital camera). I was amazed with all the chefs (on the left side of this picture) who were looking on in awe:

One of the platters being shown to the judges:

Al Roker and John Besh talking with Hung once he was finished:

The winner was announced at the gala on Saturday night. We read later, that Chef Hung did not win; however, he was awarded the best tasting fish course.

The Bocuse d’Or was a lot of fun to watch and I'm sure it's something I’ll never experience again. I think it says a lot about the standards Disney has set that they would host the American finalists at Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that Paul Bocuse's son is executive chef at Epcot's Chef de France!

danesporty · Oct 31, 2008

Awesome report and great pics! I cant wait till Christmas till I can get back!

HollyBelle · Oct 31, 2008

Thanks, danesporty. I'm just excited to have readers. Yay! I can't wait til Christmas either :xmas:!

HollyBelle · Oct 31, 2008

We left World Showplace and made our way to Test Track. We hopped in the single rider line to avoid the 45 minute wait. They ended up putting us in the same car, placing one of us in the front seat and one of us in the back. This has happened to us quite a bit on this ride. I like Test Track; it’s one of those rides that have grown on me over time.

From here we headed over to the Fountain of Nations… I love the Rocketeer track. We bought a couple of pins at the pin station and spent some time in Club Cool. We went back to the entrance to take some pictures of the Food and Wine set up. This is the one park where we always utilize the photopass photographers in front of the icon. For some reason, we never seem to stop at the other parks.

We rarely utilize the friendship boats at Epcot, but decided this would be a good time because crowds in WS were a bit heavy and we wanted to keep our legs as fresh as possible for the race. We exited the boat and went to Italy for our extremely early dinner ADRs. I wasn’t all that hungry since we’re not used to eating this early so I chose a prosciutto and mozzarella panini and Brett had the lasagna. Now, rarely if ever do I have a complaint about a Disney meal… but my meal was not good. I might be wrong, but I thought the term panini meant that the sandwich was grilled. This one wasn’t; it was two pieces of dry white bread (kind of like a sub roll) with a few layers of prosciutto and two big hunks of mozzarella. That’s it. It was very plain and lacked flavor… I guess I’m just not a plain sandwich kind of gal. That being said, Brett’s lasagna was very good and the service was fine. I think it might have just been what I ordered.

After our late afternoon/early evening dinner we headed back to the resort to get a little relaxation time in before the challenge. It’s a good thing too, because we needed to leave much earlier than we had expected to get over to the Animal Kingdom.

The views from our room entrance... oh how I love the Contemporary:

Up next... The Expedition Everest Challenge!

Disneyfalcon · Oct 31, 2008

I totally thought a panini meant it was grilled too!!:shrug:

HollyBelle · Oct 31, 2008

Disneyfalcon said:
I totally thought a panini meant it was grilled too!!:shrug:

I know, right. Maybe that's just not the case in Italy!

HollyBelle · Oct 31, 2008

Warning: I got more than a little carried away with this part… it’s rather long and detailed. Oops!

The 2008 Inaugural Expedition Everest Challenge!

We were both super excited for this thing… I’ve been reading a lot about the different Disney races and I couldn’t wait to experience one. Now, for the record, we’re both “new” to running races and this past May we began training for our very first marathon-Disney, of course. I don’t blame anyone for thinking we’re crazy when I tell you our main motivation for this thing is all the rare and random characters waiting for us along the course!!! I know, I know, who in their right mind would sign up for a marathon for that reason alone? I’m both super psyched and scared to death about marathon day and it was nice to get a feel for the Disney racing atmosphere beforehand. Although I realize there’s a huge difference between the races, not the least of which is something like 3,000 people vs. 20,000 and 3.2 miles vs. 26.2 miles, but it was still nice to experience a like environment.

We arrived at the AK parking lot around 5:30pm, and the gun was set to go off at 7pm. We could see the obstacle course, which was a couple of army hurdles, a cargo net, balance beams and a mesh net you had to crawl under. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of it. After getting our bibs pinned on we went to see which wave we would be in. We were assigned # 8, which isn’t so great but at least it wasn’t the last wave; there were still three more behind us. Wave one was made up of individuals, waves 2 - 5: same ______ teams and waves 6-11: coed. The main issue I had with the setup was that each wave took off a full 5 minutes apart… now that’s a long time. To put it in perspective for you: many individuals from the first, second and possibly third wave were crossing the finish line before we crossed the start. So 35 minutes after the gun went off… we were off!

A pre-race photo that a very kind lady took for us:

As you can see from the following photo our wave was quite a ways back from that starting line:

Finally, we were at the front of the corral (the left corner shows the time clock…already 30 minutes in):

And a pre-race photo minutes before take-off…eeek:

We were at the very front of our corral, which was great because it allowed us to take off strong when we were finally free to go. The first mile of this race took place outside the park entrance. We followed the exit road around the parking lot and I was shocked to find that this covered a full mile! Now, I’m no athlete, and I’m certainly a little slower on the run (maintaining about a 10 minute per mile pace) than most others, so I was very surprised to be passing people. Don’t be fooled… there were still plenty of people passing us! It was just an exciting feeling of accomplishment for me to pass other teams. Awful, aren’t I?!?

Best part of mile one for me: just outside the entrance to the park one of the cast members cheering us on told us to keep it up because we were making history tonight! How touching!

Mile two began just inside the park turnstiles. It was definitely dark by the time we came up over the hill from the Oasis to Discovery Island and saw the Tree of Life in all its glory. It was exhilarating to be running through the park. We headed around the park by way of Africa and on the way over to Asia we veered to the left for an out and back. The out and back took us past some animal holding areas; if I recall, we saw some elephants back there somewhere. There were two water stops on the course, one at the beginning of the out and back and one right across from it on the return side. I attempted water at the first stop… and ended up wearing way more than I drank because I wasn’t willing to stop running, so I decided to forego it at the second stop and just keep on moving! Oh and somewhere on the return side of the out and back… we hit mile marker two!

My favorite part of the race portion of this event was probably mile three. We were back on course towards Expedition Everest and the park just looked beautiful, if a bit dark. One problem we faced here was the scavenger hunters. See, because the first waves completed the run portion before we started, they had already moved on to the scavenger hunt. This resulted in us having to maneuver around some of them as they stopped to solve their clues. Not their fault by any means, but still a bit aggravating! I can’t imagine how bad it was for those in wave 11.

So we circled the path in front of Everest and headed down the slight hill to Dinoland, USA… in under the dino's belly to Dinorama and back out the other side with Chester and Hester standing guard. A slight shift to the left and out of the park we went. Brett noticed some large posters in this area that he thought were very cool. I missed them, somehow. It was a cast member entrance to the park and the posters included reminders and slogans for CMs to remain in character.

We came up to the mile three marker as the road we were on opened back up to the parking lot… only .2 to go! Below is a picture Brett took of the marker. He took photos of them all, as well as some other fun things, but this one turned out the best. There must be something about running and trying to take a photo that just doesn’t go well together-I can’t imagine what!!

Coming into the home stretch, which felt like much more than .2 miles, was a blast. There were still many volunteers and spectators there to cheer everyone on. And across the finish we go... straight into the obstacle course. No time for slowing down now. So up and over the Army hurdles it is (they were maybe about 5 feet tall-I’m really bad with measurements so I’m not too sure). Now I must admit, my butt needed some help from Brett to get over those things! Thanks, babe. From there it was up one side of the cargo net and down the other, and then on to the balance beam, my forte! It was exciting to be good at one of these obstacles. The last thing standing in our way of the scavenger hunt was the mesh net we had to crawl under. It was maybe a foot and a half off the ground at most, so time to get low. About a quarter of the way in I realized Brett was already on the other side waiting for me… he flew under that thing like he was competing for individual immunity on Survivor!

From here we grabbed some water and an Everest Challenge passport for our scavenger hunt. Volunteers were handing them out and we found out later that there were something like eight versions so everyone wouldn’t be crowded around the same clue areas. Good call, organizers!

Back into the parks we went running. The clues followed the loop around the park: Discovery Island, Africa, Asia, and Expedition Everest. Each one consisted of a location, photo and clue. The first two were clever and we figured them out fairly quickly. The third one didn’t make much sense. It was a bit of a stretch, and I still don’t quite understand it even though we got it right. We used common sense and deductive reason to solve the last one, which was troublesome at first. Once we realized it was asking for a three word answer… it could only be “It Is I.”

Scavenger passport and the clues within (I really like the design and style of this thing):

I’d really love to see some of the clues/questions on the other versions because I really had a lot of fun with this portion of the challenge.

Once we wrote in our last answer, we ran on to Dinoland and the finish line. As soon as we crossed it we had to stop so a volunteer could remove the champion chip from Brett’s shoe. Following this was a stop for room temperature powerade. They were also handing out bananas and bagels; we passed on both. Next up… our medals… Woo Woo! What a fun thing to do as a volunteer: adorn racers with their medal. I love this thing. Check it out, it’s a compass:

After receiving our medals we had our scavenger answers checked for accuracy. Four for Four!

We bypassed the line for official race photos; it was probably 50 racers deep and just not worth it to us. Plus I think they were being taken by ASI photographers and I don’t know if they’ll willingly take a shot with your camera like the photopass ones do. Instead we had someone take ours while waiting in line for Expedition Everest. I love this ride at night! It’s fabulous in the dark.

By this time we were closing in on 9:30pm and the “exclusive after party” that was taking place until midnight felt anything but exclusive. The place was jam packed and we just didn’t feel like fighting the crowds on the only three rides that were open: Kali, Everest and Dinosaur. So we made a joint decision to get out of there and spend the rest of the night at MK extra magic hours.

Overall, I loved this race and thought it was very well planned especially considering this was its inaugural year. Next year I think we might try to plan our fall trip around the Tower of Terror 13K. Recent photos I’ve found tell me there are villains awaiting racers on the course… that’s what I’m talking about! I was a bit disappointed that there were no characters at the challenge, but that’s okay. We had a lot of fun and I’m really glad we signed up for it.

Unfortunately, when race results came out the next week… there was no sign of us. We’re guessing something was wrong with our chip or they somehow missed us when posting. Not that big of a deal, but I’m going to be so upset if something like this happens when we run the marathon. I mean, what can you do to prevent such a thing? Also, the race didn’t track a split time at the finish of the 5K portion, but I think it should. We weren’t aware of this as we were running so we didn’t even check to see what our 5K time was. I’d still like to know.

We caught the end of Wishes as we entered the Magic Kingdom and tried to make our way down Main Street. We hopped on the TTA, boy was it a good choice after the race. Only problem was it slowed me down enough to feel how tired I actually was. We managed to see Philharmagic, which I adore. I love Donald Duck and the “new” classics are some of the best Disney movies out there. The marriage of these two was ingenious. Just thinking about it makes me smile.

From this point forward, I’m not certain of all that we did. I do recall taking on Snow White’s Scary Adventure followed by a tour through It’s a Small World. It was at the point when all the boats backed up in the final room that we realized it was time to call it a night, we were spent. So back to the resort we went!

TakeMeThere81 · Nov 1, 2008

Great Everest Challenge report! I loved all the details and how you scanned a bunch of stuff to show us! That is a bummer that your time didn't show up...I wonder if there is someone you can call. I agree about the 5K split time, that would be a good improvement.