Trip Report Oh Dopey!! - A two week Rundisney TR & VLOGS *Complete*

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HUMANS!!!!!!

It’s time for my BRAND SPANKING NEW TRIP REPORT

Strap yourself in for a the LONG haul because we fit a whole LOT of DISNEY in and I can’t wait to share it all

First and formost let me introduce the cast

Mam and Dad

My sister Rachel

AND…… MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

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[weird]

If you bought Memory Maker, and are still in your 30 days period, you can call Guest Services. Tell them the day, and approximate time you were on Splash, and they can find the picture and put it into your account.

Great trip report, by the way.

 

[dancingtodisney]

Day 5 - Breakfast with a beast & dinner with a beauty​

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Tuesday 5th January 2016​

Part 3 - Hey there Prince Charming! ​

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We had a bit of time back at the room to get ready before heading to the Grand Floridian for dinner. We left ourselves plenty of time to get there so we could get the bus to MK and then go around the monorail loop.​

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STAR WARS MONORAIL​

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We stopped for a little photoshoot when we arrived​

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Such a pretty backdrop! A lovely stranger stopped and offered to take a family photo… THANK YOU STRANGER​

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I could not get enough of the Christmas tree, it’s so beautiful and BIG!​

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We walked down to 1900 Park Fare and checked in, we were able to go through straight away… SCORE!​

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There was a pre-dinner photo​

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We were seated and I was pretty hungry so it was straight up to the buffet!​

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Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ravioli​

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I think this buffet is one of the best for the standard of food, they had some beautiful meat and lots of different dishes to choose from.​

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Of course one of the big attractions is also the character interaction. You can have lots of fun just watching the ugly sisters as they parade around and cause absolute mayhem!​

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First to our table was Cinderella herself​

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Hahaha... this photo tells a story in itself! Cinderalla was asking my Mam if Dad was her Prince Charming and I joked that he wasn't particularly charming​

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Next was Prince Charming (last visit we had to most boring Prince Charming ever but this time he had a bit of chat for us!)​

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This photo is so funny... Rachel looks like she's standing guard!​

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Oh hi Prince Charming... do you like my hair??​

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Don't they always look SO HAPPY?!​

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AND... one of my favourite characters​

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You HAVE to pay her compliments. Last time we came we didn't and she threw us dirty looks everytime she walked past! We didn't even get a photo!​

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Mam complimenting Lady Tremaine's hair​

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Drizella was up next and she was a HOOT!​

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She took a shine to the group beside us when she found out that they had a very eligible brother. She demanded that they call him… and so they did!! She sat with them for a good 10mins, it was really funny!​

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These buffets are such hard work… Eat, drink, POSE, Eat drink, POSE​

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This is Rachel's 'stop pointing the camera at me' face​

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Anastasia was next..​

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We finished up our meal and decided that we would take a trip to Epcot as it was open for EMH.​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Day 5 - Breakfast with a beast & dinner with a beauty
Tuesday 5th January 2016
Part 4 - Let's go round again

We got the monorail to the ticket and transport centre and then on to Epcot.

Family photo​

We took a ride on Spaceship Earth and Dad jabbed the screen (because it’s so slow) and ended up selecting his hometown in the middle of the Atlantic somewhere!​

We then took a stroll into the World Showcase
I’ve no idea what this is but I felt the need to share​

Epcot at night is perfection! It really comes to life in the evening.​

We didn’t really have a particular agenda other than to take a stroll around and see what took our fancy.
I had a reservation here later in our trip.. I've never been before! EEEEEEEEEEEEK!

Chef de France is already scheduled for later in our trip as well but how amazing does it look all lit up?!​

Really not sure what Rachel is doing here​

AMERICA! ​

I took a trip to Italy last year and this building transported me back to Piazza ​

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAh karamell-kuche!!​

We walked back around and grabbed a drink from the French Pavilion and settled to watch illuminations ​

I remember thinking during the fireworks that tomorrow was officially the start of our Dopey experience as we had the expo to attend! I had kinda been ignoring the fact that we had all this running to do and just enjoying being back at Disney World but every now and then I’d think about it and freak out a little bit or get excited. I couldn’t believe it was finally here!
We took a leisurely stroll to the exit and caught a bus right away... time to catch some Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Coming up... RunDisney EXPO​

 

[dancingtodisney]

If you bought Memory Maker, and are still in your 30 days period, you can call Guest Services. Tell them the day, and approximate time you were on Splash, and they can find the picture and put it into your account.

Great trip report, by the way.

Thanks! We are well outside of that now but I actually think on this day the ride photos may have been down altogether. I did actually have to phone Guest Services and add a few on myself after the trip but I've definitely noticed that the rides photos don't always show up.

 

[dancingtodisney]

I love your sister's princess shirt that lists all their names!! Where did she get it?!

It's from Primark, it's a UK store (a very popular one that's very reasonably prices) and I actually think they've opened one in the US just recently. It's really good for Disney stuff, the majority of our tops are from there and are usually less than $10.

 

[dancingtodisney]

Yes! I think we are going to be staying at Coronado Springs! Not 100% sure yet, but most likely!

Oh very exciting! I love the look of Coronado Springs, definitely want to stay there one day!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Oh very exciting! I love the look of Coronado Springs, definitely want to stay there one day!

We've changed it already! We are now going at the end of November and staying at POR! We want to see the Christmas stuff so bad!

 

[dancingtodisney]

Day 6 – Aloha! It’s almost time to run! ​

Wednesday 6th January 2016​

Part 1 – Only a dope would buy EVERYTHING​

The morning of the Expo had arrived, I felt a weird mix of nervousness and excitement that sort of varied from one extreme to the other! We got up nice and early and drove to the Expo at Wide World of Sports for 9am. I think the official opening was 10am but I knew it had opened earlier in previous years.

We parked up and I was surprised that the carpark itself wasn’t too busy, I don’t think the buses were even running at this stage. We got into the line outside the Jostens Center for the official merch and waited for opening.

I think the queue started letting in around 9.40am and we followed the large crowd over to the official rundisney merch, pretty much EVERYONE was headed here and so it was crazy busy from the start
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I pretty much grabbed everything I saw that I liked in a Medium and in most cases grabbed a small for Rachel too when she wasn’t beside me.​

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It was busy as we arrived in but that was nothing compared to how busy it got as we were shopping! One of the key items that was literally disappearing off the shelves was the Dopey jackets​

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They were expensive (I think around $80) but I wanted to get something nice that was Dopey themed and also unisex so that we could get pictures of the three of us wearing it. We grabbed a few sizes. I think I had a medium and realised it was too big so I went for a small, Dad went for a large for length and he dropped back the extra sizes. In the short time we had taken to try these on (in a less crowded area) ALL of the smaller sizes had disappeared. Dad said someone gratefully took the mediums from him as he went to place them back on the shelf.​

I also loved these tank tops, again Dopey themed

AND we got to see our medals in person for the first time! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

So after grabbing EVERYTHING I liked I then found a quieter area so I could go through everything I’d picked up and decide on what I actually wanted to buy. Even though we had been in really early already the queue to pay was outside of the queuing ropes and it was really difficult to find any space to sort of stand and go through your stuff. I didn’t do very well at picking out the things I wanted to keep… I WANTED EVERYTHING!!! I had budgeted for a big spend this day, this was a massive event for us but I still feel like I went a little overboard! I definitely spent more than my Dad and my Sister… OOOOOPS!
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While we were queuing I realised we hadn’t gotten the ‘I did it’ t-shirts so I jumped out and grabbed us all one. We had a look around the rest of the expo, I got some compression socks and a Minnie visor.​

We then headed straight over to get out race packet in Field house and it was pretty smooth and not a long wait.

It was only here that we realised that we should have picked up our race shirts in the Jostens Centre… DOH! Luckily there wasn’t a queue to get back in. We got our tops, tried them on quickly, I changed from small to medium which was really easy to do and then we left.

I apologise for the wordy update but it was really busy and I just didn’t get to take too many photos. Although it was quite busy and a bit crazy around the official merch there was also this really fun exciting atmosphere in the air!
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We got back to the room and I took this picture of my race shirts:​

I LOVE the shirts! They are all so nice and I really like the colours!


And of my official rundisney tops I bought from the front

And the back where there was a design

I also bought a few other bits, a Dopey pin and a rundisney water bottle.

We chilled in the room for a little bit, we had afternoon fastpasses at Animal Kingdom! ​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Day 6 – Aloha! It’s almost time to run!
Wednesday 6th January 2016
Part 2 – Thanks lady!!

We drove over to ALK and must have been BUSY because we were parked AGES away from the gate! Luckily there was a tram waiting for us! I was starting to be mildly cautious about our mileage around the parks… I did have those 48.6 miles to run over the next few days after all!

Christmas Tree still going strong

Delighted with our jackets we’d purchased I decided it would be a good idea to get a picture of the three of us in the jackets with the writing on the back visible in front of all four of the park icons

‘4 days…

4 theme parks…

48.6miles…

I must be Dopey!’

SO… first up was Animal Kingdom and the tree of life… here we go

REALLY???! Thanks LADY!!

Take two

We were REALLY hungry but we had a fast pass for Dinosour so we went there first

I love how we're just smiling like 'what I ain't scared' all except Mam of course!

We were proper hungry after our adventure to a pre-historic time so it was off to Yak and Yetti counter service next!

I was so hungry I completely forgot to take pictures of our food but I've 'borrowed' some online of what I had!

And the best part... it was totally FREE haha

It was so yummy and again another great use of our counter service credit! We left and made our way towards Everest for our next fast pass... perfect way to round of a hearty meal right?!

The park was super busy!

I was trying to convince Mam to ride telling her that it wasn't much different to Big Thunder and that she'd been on it before and I almost had her convinced but then she decided against it.

Everest selfie

I forgot how intense this ride is and that backwards part is pretty hardcore so I was relieved I hadn’t dragged Mam on as she would have LOST HER and then not gone on any similar rides again all trip!

I don’t know if the photos for the ride were down or not but I don’t have this ride photo! BOO!

We started walking towards Safari for our final fastpass and stopped along the way for some more photos as we’d time to kill before our window.

I spotted this sign which was on the temporary wall hiding the construction:

I don’t know why but I found it really funny… Sheep are fun too you know!

We stopped for a photopass shot on the other side of the tree of life

I wanted a better one in front of the tree of life for our 4 parks photo and this photopass photographer was really helpful and got us do a running pose too

Our FP+ window had opened so we got in line for Safari, surprisingly the standard queue wasn’t that long anyway! It was weird because the park felt crowded but the wait times didn’t seem to reflect it.


I normally take lots of pictures but this time decided to sit back and watch. I did however get a picture of a hippo lol

AND a Lion

Like I said already we were conscious of making some sort of effort to stay off our feet today so our last stop of the day was A Bug’s Life

Who dares to disturb my slumber...

Ooops wrong movie!

This show scares the BEES out of young kids... It's kinda amusing if you know, they're not your kids...

We left the park and got the tram back to our car, we had dinner reservations to get to.​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Day 6 – Aloha! It’s almost time to run!
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Wednesday 6th January 2016
Part 3 – Ohana means family​

We drove straight from AK to the Polynesian, the car was so handy for all of our reservations at resorts we weren’t staying at particularly when we had runs coming up and didn’t want to be out too late.

Welcome home… one day it will be my home!

I booked an early dinner at 5.10PM and we arrived a bit early too so the restaurant hadn’t actually opened yet and there were quite a few people in the waiting area… hmmmmm… wonder what I could do to pass the time


TAMBO LOUNGE

Which of course leads to…


DRINKING OUT OF A PINEAPPLE

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We also got a backscratcher which was so delicious and comes with... an actual backscratcher!!
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We were called right on time for our table and before long the food was arriving.... and guess what??!! I forgot about food photos again! What is wrong with me today!

I did manage to get some photos of the aftermath of our initial hunger!

POT STICKERS!!!! TO DIE FOR!!!
Oh and wings...

and then... to top it all off... bread pudding... nom nom nom

I love the open kitchen, you get to see the chefs at work!

OMG... SO FULL.. I FEEL YOU MAN!

We were so full and so so sleepy after our feast at Ohana but we took a trip out to Target to get a few essentials for the next few days. We got 12 disposable ponchos, one for each of us for each day which I very much recommend for anyone doing a rundisney event!

Back at the room we laid out our running outfits for the next morning and got ourselves to bed. Our alarm was set for stupid o'clock the next morning!​

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[dancingtodisney]

We've changed it already! We are now going at the end of November and staying at POR! We want to see the Christmas stuff so bad!

Oh great! Christmas decorations are so amazing in Disney you'll love it!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I can't wait to read about the races! I am a runner and have always wanted to do a RunDisney event, but the timing never pans out!

 

[Simba's Mom]

I'm so glad to hear your review of staying at OKW for the Dopey. We have tentative reservations there for 2017 (we were planning on trying to switch when we can, DVC members) but now we may not. BTW, are you doing the Dopey again in 2017? I asked DH after he did it also in 2016, but he said it's like giving birth-it takes a while afterwards before you're willing to consider doing it again! He's "just" doing the half-marathon in 2017.

 

[sheriffwoody]

Loving your report! You're so brave doing the Dopey. I've done one marathon and don't think I will ever do one again. I can't imagine doing all 4! Major points to you three for completing that.

Also, you are hitting some seriously awesome restaurants! Making me hungry

 

[dancingtodisney]

Day 7 – Walt Disney World 5K​

Thursday 7th January 2016​

Part 1 – 3... 2... 1... GO!​

The time had come… it was the morning of our first race!!

We had an early wake-up time at 3.15am with the aim of being on route to Epcot before 4am, I had read somewhere that they would be road closures so we were hoping to get out ahead of that.

I had laid out my outfit the night before all ready to go

Flat Karen, Rachel and Dad

I'm READY

Here we all are

Now you can’t really see Dad in this pick but I’m hoping you can get our theme! We had actually planned a much more elaborate version but with all the hype in the lead up to this event about the new restrictions on running costumes we decided to go simple.

I popped a bagel in the toaster and slapped on some peanut butter to take in the car with me.. I was quite exciting this morning, 5k after all of our training was a relatively short distance the majority of which would be in the park. I’d never run a Disney 5k before either nor had I run around the world showcase so I was really looking forward to that.

We left about 3.50am and drove to Epcot and it was so smooth! There was no traffic, no road closures and we got parking close to the walkway to the staging area. For those that don’t know the staging area is where they hold the runners before the races, for all four of our races we would head to the Epcot parking lot first.

We got into the staging area and there was a DJ playing and pumping up the crowd, it was busy but not crazy busy. We decided to get a group photo in front of the marathon weekend banner

So in case you haven’t guessed already we are the three original MK mountains, Space, Splash and Big thunder. We couldn’t find a Big Thunder t-shirt so Dad had to improvise! Notice the flash light on his head to represent the front of the train!

Very soon after we arrived it started to fill up, we needed a bathroom break but I knew from reading previous TR’s to wait until we got to the corrals as the lines would be shorter. Sure enough they announced that the corrals were open and we walked in to find empty and *fresh* portaloos

We then made our way into the one and only… CORAL C!

Ready to go!

It wasn’t raining for the 5k but it was cold so the ponchos were great wind breakers to keep us warm. We were right up at the gates at the front of our coral, I sat on the ground and we played heads up for a while to pass the time. People around us were having a bit of a laugh at us playing as we get quite heated haha

I couldn't believe it when we stood up and saw the crowds behind us

The 5k is plutos race so he was out to show his support and get the race started... THANKS PLUTO!

The time went by really quickly and before I knew it the wheelchairs were zooming past to start the race.

Now they were doing something a bit silly when they were moving the corals out into the pathway to move forward to the start line. Basically all of the corals are marked out horizontally next to each other and you enter one end and walk to the far end and wait by the gates there. When it comes time for your coral to move they remove the gate at the front and you then pile out into the path leading to the start which runs perpendicular to all of the corals. If you are at the front of your coral you hold onto the tape which acts as a barrier right the way up to the start. Lots of people want to be at the front and hold the tape. Everytime they removed the front gates of the corals they were only removing half of them meaning that everyone was pushing to get out one side and race to the tape. People that had been the first in the coral and were unlucky enough to be waiting at the other half of the gates that were not removed ended up being way back from the front. Now this didn’t bother me much at all, I just didn’t like seeing people racing to the front and pushing others out of the way.

Anyway… we made it out into the line-up for the start of our 5k EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

You can kinda see what I’ve been rambling about here, the start line is the big blur of light ahead and on the right behind the gates is one of the later corals.

Getting closer…

The buzz right up at the start line is great! There was a real feeling of excitement!

Quick snap behind us

ALMOST TIME TO GOOOOOOOO

Check this guy out behind me... 10 Goofys!!!

3...... 2..... 1... GO!!!!

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[dancingtodisney]

Day 7 – Walt Disney World 5K

Thursday 7th January 2016
Part 2 – 5k Course

Where did I leave off??? Oh ye…

3….2….1…..GO!!


AND we are off!!


The feeling I had as we took off was so surreal, I had never spent so much time working towards something and to actually be there starting it was a bit overwhelming! Totes emosh you guys!!


I was also really wanting to enjoy this run because it was a shorter distance and well it is called the family fun run so as you can imagine there were lots of kids and it wasn’t too ‘serious’


The start of the course isn’t particularly exciting so the first mile ticked by quickly

We stopped to get a selfie in front of the first mile marker and a very nice runner offered to take it for us

We returned the favor of course!

We were really cheesing it up for the cameras whenever we could to get the most out of our Dopey Package!

We had decided in advance that we would get one character photo at least and stop for any with a short line… with it being the 5k it was unlikely that we would find any short lines!

I think we ran past Chip and Dale as we approached the side entrance into the World Showcase but their super long queue so we ran right by! One really cool thing about the rundisney events is getting to see the backstage areas, we arrived into the world showcase right by Mexico.

It was really cool running around the world showcase, our first bit of park time! We ran my Timon and I stopped to grab a quick snap but we decided that this wouldn't be our character stop

(there was a kid underneath my scribbles lol)

We were really taking it easy and stopped for a selfie

Dad needed to loo so he ran over to use one of the real ones, I think we were near Morocco at that stage

Before we knew it we hit mile marker 2

Took another selfie as Spaceship Earth came back into view

And then came across our character stop... STITCH

We ran around past Spaceship Earth and grabbed our last mile marker photo

And just like that we found ourselves running the last stretch to the finish line

Right after you cross the finish line you are presented with your medal followed by myler blankets, water and poweraid. We grabbed a myler blanket each even though we weren't that cold as we knew they would come in handy the next day.

Next we had to walk through lanes past the official backdrop for the 5K where you could get your photo taken

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[ScarletBegonias]

Loving it! I want to do a Disney race so bad!

 

[dancingtodisney]

Day 7 – Walt Disney World 5K​

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Thursday 7th January 2016
Part 3 – Post race fun!​

Right after we were handed our snack boxes! We grabbed these and walked back out to the staging area where we had started that morning.

We noticed that Dopey was out and decided that seen as we had just run our shortest run now would be the time to queue. The queue was CRAZY LONG but we didn't mind waiting, it was just before 8am and our plan was to head to Hollywood Studios for 9am so we had time to kill.

We got in the MASSIVE line and I decided to nip back to the car and get our Dopey jackets for the photo. I left Dad and Rachel queuing and walked back. I remember our Car being just across the road and only a few rows back but I could not find it ANYWHERE! I was searching for like 10mins while pointing the keys in every direction pressing the alert button to make it beep. Eventually I realised that although I had gone across a small crossing I hadn’t actually crossed the main entrance road which is where our car was… DOH! In fairness it was really dark when we arrived that morning and the road we crossed wasn’t that busy so I didn’t realise that it was the main entrance road!

I got to the car, dumped our snack boxes and grabbed our Dopey jackets and made my way back to the staging area. Dad and Rachel were still queuing of course, I got Dad to come get a photo in front of the official marathon banner again

Of course Dad was messing around as usual

A group of girls came over to get some photos and were nice enough to take one of the two of us.

I offered to take theirs in return and they were trying to get a jumping photo so it was funny trying to get it on time. TOP TIP: if you want to take a jumping photo of someone else, get down really low to the ground and have you camera angled upwards towards them, as long as they are off the ground it will look like they nailed it lol

Dad hopped back in line so that Rachel could get one too.

We were FINALLY towards the front of the queue when Dopey took a little rest

A few mins later it was our turn

Totally worth the trip back to the car

The photographer was really good, he took plenty of photos of everyone which I know created a longer line but with Dopey being a rare character and this being a massive challenge it was nice to get some good photos. It's different of course when you stop for the characters on the course as they try and do the photos as quick as possible so as not to keep people waiting.

Happy with our Dopey photos we left and walked to our car, it was nice to be able to just head straight to the car and leave and not have to bother with any of the transport for the event.

We parked up at Hollywood Studios, checked in with Mam who was about to head for a bus from OKW and made our way over towards TOT and RnR because what else would you do when you arrive at Hollywood Studios?!

MEDAL PHOTO

I tried SO HARD to keep my head up and smile but that car just shoots off so darn quick! The girl beside my Dad is hilarious!

There was already a long wait time when we got out for RnR (around 40mins) so we jumped in the single rider line and it was super short, we waited around 10mins

#photofail

Rachel did better

Dad nailed it

We had a fastpass for tower of terror so we did that next but yet again I don't have the ride photo as it was down AGAIN!

We were planning to wait on Mam to do our Toy Story Mania fastpass but she was only just getting on a bus so we went ahead

Let's go!!

I am not very good at this game, I just get a sore arm and always loose out by a couple of thousand...

Pretty sure Rachel won this time ​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Our fastpass at TSM had taken a bit longer than expected so we had to buck it over to the Beauty and Beast show, Mam had arrived meanwhile so we found her in the crowd and took our seats for the show

(side note: I took lots of videos on this trip, they are kinda all over the place like I was holding my phone vertically a lot which I now realise makes for a very bad youtube video, I'm currently editing them and I'll start sharing them soon... I say this because I took some good footage of this show but barely any photos)

I kept teasing my boyf back home about how I was going to meet Gaston and that he had massive muscles and was known for trying to steal women away so I sent him a little video of Gaston flexing his muscles with the caption 'SWOOOOOOOOOON' hehehe

When in Hollywood Studios it is a MUST to go to starring rolls so that's where we went next!

CHEWY

Mam has still not gotten her head around the snack credits... she was like 'no no I'll use mine for lunch'

Cue the look

YOU STILL GET LUNCH MAM!!!!

AND a muffin... FOR FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

I don't even know what everyone else got in the end because I spent so long explaining this... ​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Day 7 – Walt Disney World 5K

Thursday 7th January 2016
Part 4 – Tá ocras orm!

We planned to get our photo taken with Pluto what with him being the race mascot for the 5k so we had asked Mam to bring our 5K shirts to the park for us to change into. Luckily when we finished in up in Staring Rolls we could see that Pluto was out meeting in front of centre stage.

We got lots of photos and also got our medals signed! The 5k medal was a rubber medal so it was easy to sign with a sharpie..

Running poses:

We had a bit of a browse around the shops and Mam and Dad had another photoshoot

After all our posing we went back to the room to chill before our evening in Disney Springs. We had dinner booked in Raglan Road which I’d heard really good things about but had never been, I love exploring new restaurants at Disney!


We arrived early so that we had some time to browse the shops…

After some shopping we checked in a Raglan Road

We had a quick browse in the gift shop while waiting for our table

Our waiter seated us in a table that was quite out of the way, I didn't mind not being right in the centre and he told us that the dancers would come to perform intermittently right beside us also so that was cool

We got some Guinness bread with a Guinness reduction.. it was delicious!!!

It was really dark in our little corner so I apologies in advance for the dull photos!

The biggest downfall of this meal became apparent rather quickly... the service was incredibly SLOW! We waited AGES to place our orders. Our server had a large table that he was fussing over a lot and I guess we were a bit forgotten. We placed our orders though and tried to focus on the entertainment while we waited for our food.

Sneaky bathroom photo