Trip Report Who Knee'ds another Brifraz Trip Report?

And here we go. Brifraz and @MeffysMom are headed back to the World. Once again a VERY different trip. Yes, we've done Race Weekends. Yes, we've done short Springtime trips. But... this will be my first time doing a 5K and 10K back-to-back (yes, @MeffysMom is doing 5K, 10K, and 10-miler) and the actual exciting part - we will be visiting our daughter who is now a few weeks into her time with the Disney College Program.

I know it has been a while since my last Trip Report and some folks out there are likely new to the world of Brifraz, so let me do the quick rundown of us and then a little preview of the trip. Who is our crew? Well, I've already mentioned myself and my wife - we both have been high school teachers for the last 30 years and been doing Disney pretty regularly for just a few years less than that. Although, I've actually been going since 1976, I introduced it to my wife in the late 1990s. We will be flying down tomorrow, but more on that in the plans in a paragraph or two. Already down there is our daughter who has been going to Disney since she was 2. And, right now she is doing the College Program. Parked at Epcot in the past couple weeks? Yeah... that might've been our daughter helping you find a spot or driving you in on the tram, or reminding you to stay behind the yellow line for safety.

Here's us grown-ups:

Obviously that's from our last racing adventure together. Just the 10K for me that time. I've got some knee issues, so historically it's just been one race per weekend for me. But this weekend, I'll be trying to do a double and we shall see how things go

And, here's our College Program daughter:

When she isn't spending 4 months at Disney parking cars at Epcot, she's in school up in New Hampshire (bit of an opposite in terms of weather) double majoring in mechanical engineering and music composition. Yup.

So, what's the plan?

Thursday - flying down late afternoon (leaving directly from school after guiding the youths to enlightenment) and heading straight to the Expo where we will meet up with our daughter. Then to Old Key West to get some dinner and get rested for the busy mornings coming up.

Friday - early morning 5k (all three of us are running) followed by a visit to Animal Kingdom with a late breakfast at Tusker House. Afternoon and evening are open with no set plans as our daughter will be working and much depends on how we are all feeling!

Saturday - early morning 10k (again, with all three of us running) and then Hollywood Studios. No real plans there, just going and seeing what strikes our fancy. Our daughter is again working in the evening so we might hit up Disney Springs for some dinner.

Sunday - early morning 10 miler for @MeffysMom, while our daughter sleeps in after two super early mornings followed by late nights working. Then we are planning to meet up for some time in Epcot. Once again, our daughter will be heading to park cars at Epcot and we will be having dinner someplace... maybe checking out the Roundup Rodeo at Studios followed by drinks at Oga's or Baseline.

Monday - maybe sleep in a little bit, but still up somewhat early to go to Grand Floridian for breakfast at 1900 Park Fare and then some Magic Kingdom time. Our daughter is off this day, so we will get to spend the whole afternoon together and then she will take us to the airport.

Since my last real trip was with over 100 high school kids, I'm really looking forward to this. We did have a very short trip down over Easter weekend to move our daughter into Flamingo Crossing, but didn't really do the parks very much (one evening at Epcot and a couple other quick stop-ins to Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. However, that trip was full of the stresses of moving her, dealing with her cat (who is, yes, living with her down there) and figuring out all things DCP. This one is actually like a vacation!!

Anyway, I hope to be able to do my usual blend of live and 'nearly' live trip reporting as things go this weekend. Thanks for traveling with us!

 

[LeighM]

Following along

 

[pkkurz]

I’m in. Can’t wait to hear all about it.

 

[riverside]

Yay!! I love your TR’s!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Hope you have a great time!

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Have a great time visiting your daughter and doing the marathons. Just read that it’s going to be really hot this weekend there so be careful when running.

 

[rshell68]

Looking forward to following along! I'm guessing after your band trip a 5 and 10K will be a piece of cake!

 

[cgersic]

I'm so in for this!!! The photo of you two at the beginning of the report is just priceless and I can't wait to hear all about your daughter's experience and the races too!!!

 

[littleroo]

Can't wait to read all about it!! It is making me tired reading about! Break a leg!!

 

[Seagull59]

I’m in!

 

[Tiki Traveler]

We always need another trip report!

And now TWO trip reporters have daughters in Disney’s college program simultaneously! There needs to be a meetup!

Good luck on your races!

 

[mpaulam]

Have a great time! Good luck with all the running!

 

[Swissmiss]

Yikes - just looked at my weather app and it is 1 am for you and 72 degrees; that’s getting to uncomfortably warm for running so I hope it goes down some more before you have to run! (I’m at the other end of the uncomfortable running spectrum - it 7 am for me and only 31 degrees. That being said, during my run last Sunday it was in the low 70s).

 

[brifraz]

Good morning one and all! I'm sure everyone else had that 2:30am wake up call this morning?? Well, we are all up and at 'em and getting ready to run. This morning we are running as some denizens of Pixie Hollow. Not really in costumes, per se. But representing the fairies to the best of our ability. Pictures will be coming your way later, but right now there's lots of hair and make-up getting done - which I guess is why I've got a few minutes to post.

We left our school at about 11:30am yesterday (after some fine education of the youngsters in northern Maryland) and had zero issues with getting to the airport, getting parked, and getting through security to our gate. And, despite what follows, had no real issues with the flight. Now, I know that every flight to Orlando is likely to have a larger percentage of little kids than any other flights on Earth, but I'm fairly certain that of the 180-ish passengers on our flight there were at least 250 kids under the age of 5. Little known fact, screaming is contagious just like yawning or influenza. Thank goodness for headphones and having downloaded some pretty high volume level music to drown it out for those three hours on the plane!

Got an Lyft ride straight to Wide World of Sports so that we could pick up our bibs before it closed at 7pm. Arrived there at 6:30pm and met our daughter, got bibs, and were all set for this adventure. We tried to stop at the RunDisney merchandise area, but it was right at 7pm when we got in and they literally turn the lights off in the huge arena where that is to get everyone to leave, so... no shopping was happening for us. We then drove over to our daughter's apartment at Flamingo Crossing to help set up a new cat house for her kitty (animals are supposed to be crated while the DCP folks are working and the mesh and fabric play pen we had for the cat didn't even last a few days so we got something larger and more secure which has three levels so the cat can see out the window (which she enjoys). By the time we got that all set up, it was about 8:30pm and we headed to Old Key West to score the very last table at Olivia's.

Sadly, no dinner pictures. We were SO hungry by that time that the second food arrived, we had dispatched it tout suite. But, suffice to say, our crew really enjoyed the salmon special, shrimp scampi, and Olivia's burger that we had. Plus, of course, a Turtle Krawl (IYKYK) and a Sunset Ale (the standard OKW drink order for the two adults in our crew).

And, after dinner, it was right to our room and to sleep as quickly as possible. I'm hoping to do some live updates, but I know that often the Wifi and Cell signals while you are getting ready to run with thousands of others is not so great. Regardless, I'll keep you updated as best I can on our adventures!

 

[Swissmiss]

Little known fact, screaming is contagious just like yawning or influenza

I did know this fact. Sometimes I am on the bus after work and there are a few daycares on my route home. If one starts to cry, they all join in. Sometimes it is cute though - one might start “singing“ (and usually off key) and the others will join in off key harmony.

animals are supposed to be crated while the DCP folks are working

Was really surprised to learn recently, in a article about a “puppy yoga” class just over the border in France that it cannot be held in Switzerland because the puppies are crated during the yoga (apparently puppy yoga means a yoga class with puppy hugs afterwards) and crating is considered abuse unless you have crated the dog for purposes of travel.

 

[brifraz]

Just a quick photo fix for you from before this morning’s race. Tink, Iridessa, and Terrence ready to rock.

 

[BigDis]

Thanks for sharing your TR with us. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[brifraz]

How about a few during and immediately post race pictures for you? Plus some commentary.

Left the room at 3:30am and were in corral C right about 4am. Of note for anyone planning to go a WDW race, the walk from parking to starting area could be up to 1.5 miles, so make sure to plan on that! Our walk was about 1.2. There had to be at least a couple thousand Tinkerbells here this morning but our daughter was one of just two Iridessas that we saw and I was just one of three Terrences.

Race was crowded but smooth with no issues. Huge lines at all the characters by the time we got to them do we decided not to do any stops.

We took a pretty slow pace but had fun.

Post race we drank our fill of water and Powerade and we’re about to head out when we saw a character meet we could not pass up.

If you’ve been with us long enough you know that we are huge fans of Duffy Bear. And he is very rarely seen anywhere (well, other than in our house with Shellie Mae and Gelatoni and Baby Duffy).

See you later with our afternoon and evening with two parks, two restaurants, some shopping, a big nap, and pool time as well.

 

[brifraz]

So what did we do right after the race?

Okay, maybe not technically right after. The vitally important eating of the fake cheese had to happen first.

But after that it was right to Animal Kingdom. Got there just a few minutes after the 7:30 early entry opening.

Headed right to Everest and got the front two rows. The girls then ride a second time in a nearly empty train.

Then it was over to Tucker House for some required refueling.

After breakfast we checked out some animals…

…then headed out for nap time back at our hotel room and our daughter back at her apartment.

 

[brifraz]

Actually, before the nap, we decided to get our muscles into a more relaxed state and headed to the Turtle Pond quiet pool (right next to our room). It was very crowded so no pool chairs were available so we put our stuff at a picnic table and just sat in the water for about 15-20 minutes to get things to relax a bit. Then it was time for that nap. And it was a truly delightful nap, indeed. I slept for about an hour (which is exceptional for me) and @MeffysMom was out for an hour and a half.

Now in a much better state both physically and mentally, we decided to get back out and about and doing things. The plan was to catch the boat to Disney Springs and just meander around a bit while getting some kind of lunch foods along the way. Yes, believe it or not, we are still at just about 2pm. Everything that has happened so far, with the exception of the nap, was before noon! Guess that's what happens with a 2:30am wake-up call.

Perhaps one of my favorite views on property.

So, we boated over to DS and wanted to start out with some food. Wanting to try something new, we stopped at the first place after getting off the boat. And it was a great choice!! Based on their Chicken Tikka Naan flatbread, we can't recommend Eet (by Maneet Chauhan) highly enough. It was delicious. Big enough to share (maybe not totally fill two people but a good size) and seeing as it was their Happy Hour, we got it with a beer for $25 total. Definitely one of the better deals you can find at Disney!

We decided to take things at a very slow meander and stopped in just about every store as we wandered. Spent a little bit extra time in the best places (Lego store, especially) and just generally enjoyed looking at all the things and buying none of the things for a couple hours. Getting on toward 4pm, we found ourselves by Jock Lindsey's, whose new menu (okay, it's a few years old, but it's been since 2020 that we last stopped in) we had looked at earlier and found intriguing. So, we stopped in for a couple mixed drinks and some more food. Again, nothing too big - but enough to keep us in a good state of mind for a bit!

That date, prosciutto, manchego flatbread was really delicious and went great with our Scottish Professor and Mayor's Reserve mixed drinks. As we were sitting and enjoying, we got a text from our daughter that she was going to be working the trams that night. That was a trigger for our next stop for the day. Back to Epcot!!

Caught a bus back to OKW and then another bus to Epcot. As we arrived, we spotted this highly effective CM leaving her tram for her evening break!

So, we didn't quite get to enjoy the full family on a tram experience, but did get to see her briefly in action. Since she was headed backstage for an hour, we headed into the park to just catch a single attraction. And, with sore legs and feet, that attraction was Spaceship Earth. The wait was only about 10 minutes (although 20+ on the app), but we did have a couple brief stoppages during the ride. One of which was next to this charming lady who didn't have a lot to say, but seemed very focused on the data in front of her.

By the time we exited our time machine, our daughter was back on tram duty. Not a great picture, but that is her in there!

We were getting pretty darn tired by this time (about 6pm) and knew we would need a meal of substance before sleep, so we headed back to Old Key West with the idea of grabbing some food and then heading back to the room to eat and relax and then get to bed early. And, those missions were all quite well accomplished. Got some simple, but effective food from Goods to Go (chicken tenders and a large pretzel), caught a bus back to our room, ate, and then slept.

Before we say a totally final farewell to Friday, I wanted to share the sunset at OKW with you all.

Today has also been pretty hectic and I'm at 14 hours awake after just 4 hours sleep, but that's for another post... likely not until tomorrow.