Trip Report You Are Braver Than You Believe, Stronger Than You Seem, And Smarter Than ... Nope. Piglet Goes Dopey

Hi everyone, welcome to my trip report. I’ve been reading lots of other reports and have really enjoyed them so thought I’d join in the fun. We’ve been back home for a week now, photos are sorted and it’s about time I got round to doing this.

I did write a pre-trip report (A Dopey Dream) but I’m a bit technically challenged and don’t know how to link it, so I’ll go over a few details.

Who:

Me, Sharon aka Piglet. About to celebrate a scary big birthday (50) next month. This was one of the reasons for the trip. Husband, Darren, older than me . Alice, turned 13 while we were there, and Lexi, 10. We live in Milton Keynes, UK and are DVC members. One day I will find a photo of all of us together that isn’t completely hideous.

Where and When:

Saratoga Springs Resort January 1st to January 13th
Cruising on the Disney Dream January 13th to January

Extras bits:

While we were there I just happened to run a couple of little races. 5k, 10k, half marathon, first ever full marathon. Just the sort of thing that normal people do while they’re on holiday.

 

[Swissmiss]

I‘ve never heard of Roo sport. I just had a look on their website. It looks interesting.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

I‘ve never heard of Roo sport. I just had a look on their website. It looks interesting.

I love it for short runs for just carrying a phone and key, much better than a belt. And I used it on Castaway Cay because I needed to carry my passport to get back on the ship. Wish I’d bought an extra one because it doesn’t look like I can buy one over here.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Wednesday 8th January: Expo day (cont)

As agreed, we split up when we got to the Beach Club. Lexi was a bit hungry, but we didn’t want to get much because we had the early dinner reservation, so we shared a Mickey pretzel and cheese. We used our Soarin FP, then as the waits were pretty short, rode Living with the Land and Spaceship Earth. It was lovely to just spend a couple of hours just the two of us, I don’t get to spend a lot of individual time with my daughters.

On our way out of the park, I had a message from Darren saying that him and Alice were in World Showcase and would meet us on the way out. It turned out that they hadn’t gone to Hollywood Studios but had spent the afternoon hanging round at the Boardwalk. They had stopped at Beaches and Cream earlier, and Darren had tried a Guinness float. He’d really enjoyed it but said it would have been better with chocolate ice cream.

We checked in for dinner at the Trattoria. I didn’t want anything too heavy because I was planning on having a very early night, so I ordered the whole fish which was snapper. It was very good, tasted better than it looked.

We decided to skip dessert at the Trattoria in favour of a stop for ice cream at Ample Hills. Too much dairy before running doesn’t agree with me so I had the mango sorbet. It was starting to get a bit chilly outside now that the sun had gone down so we took our treats into the lobby of the Boardwalk and ate by the fire.

We took a cab back to Saratoga and I finished getting my race things ready for the morning. I was in bed by 8.30 and was very nervous about oversleeping so I set a lot of alarms.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 9th January: 5k day

First a bit of a warning. Runners are gross. We talk about blisters and lost toenails and chafing and how not to pee ourselves. And . So I apologise in advance if there’s TMI at any point.

I had a horrible night’s sleep. I was so worried about oversleeping and missing out on the Dopey medal just because I missed the 5k. I must have woken up about 4 or 5 times and I was awake before my first alarm went off. I had my morning coke, don’t judge me, I need a bit of caffeine in the morning and I’m not much of a coffee drinker. I was out of the door, snacks in hand, just before 3.15.

The buses were due to start at 3.30 and because I didn’t know how busy it would be, I wanted to get to the bus stop a bit early. I was pleasantly surprised that there was already a bus waiting and I was one of the first people on. The bus filled up quite quickly and by 3.25 we were leaving. There was already another bus loading behind us as we drove off. I had a bit of a chat with the woman sitting next to me who was an experienced Disney racer.

The journey was over pretty quickly and we pulled into the Epcot parking lot. It was quite strange, it looked so different with all the race set up, made it a bit hard to get my bearings. I followed the herd of people towards the security check and was through quite quickly into the main staging area.

It was about 4 o’clock by now so I still had time to kill before the corrals opened at 4.30. I thought about getting some character photos, I think they had Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Dopey. But the wait times were already close to an hour for each character and I wanted to get to my corral early so I wouldn’t be right at the back.

I had a wander round and ate my snacks. I put my bag in the bag check. I didn’t want to run in my hoodie so I left it in my bag, but it was a bit chilly that early in the morning so I had a Mylar blanket to wrap myself in.

I took a very exciting photo of the portaloos . I was just amazed by how many there were, this was only a fraction of them. And no queues, probably because everyone was waiting for the characters.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 9th January: 5k day

At just after 4.30 I headed over to the start corrals which for the 5k and 10k are right next to the main staging area. There were race volunteers at the entrance checking that only runners were going through. A last minute toilet break and I headed to my corral, C. There were more volunteers here checking that runners were entering the correct corral. I ended up about halfway back in the corral, not ideal but I’d manage. There was some entertainment on a stage at the front with some big screens as well. I took a very blurry photo inside the corral, it doesn’t look that crowded but it filled up very quickly behind me.

And then I set in to wait and wait. It was very strange, but I felt really lonely in the huge crowd. All my races up to this had been local to me and I’d always known someone there even if it was just to say hello to. There were lots of groups in matching costumes, and although I didn’t mind not wearing a costume I kind of felt a bit left out of the group fun. There were plenty of other solo runners, but everyone just looked in their own little world plus I’m a bit of an introvert and not very good at starting conversations with strangers.

Anyway race start of 5.30 arrived. Carissa was the runDisney announcer for this race and I know she got a character up to help the start but I can’t remember who and I forgot to write it in my notes. I’ll pretend it was Mickey. So Mickey got the crowd to count down and the first wave from corral A started. There were fireworks and it was quite exciting. The start of my very first runDisney race.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 9th January: 5k day

After the start of the first wave of runners a new wave was started every few minutes. I did take a video of the second wave but that was the only start that didn’t have fireworks so it’s just a video of lots of people’s heads. I inched slowly towards the start. I had my Garmin ready to start and finally, 40 minutes after the first wave, I was starting my race.

Unfortunately the start didn’t go so well. I wanted to actually run a bit even if it was slower than my usual pace but it was very difficult to run because there were so many people walking. From everything I’d read about runDisney races I knew to expect a lot of walkers but I was anticipating brisk walkers. And the race etiquette for walkers is supposed to be stay over to the right and keep to two abreast. This wasn’t the case here. Obviously there were people following these guidelines but a lot were not. They were out for a family stroll, walking 4 or 5 abreast and all over the place. I did my best to get around people but I was forced to walk far more than I wanted to. Sorry for whinging a bit but I was really frustrated at this.

So I ran/walked from the start around the edge of the Epcot parking lot. Because my wave was starting 40 minutes after the actual start, there were already quite a few finishers with their medals cheering us on. The route took us through a backstage area entering World Showcase between Norway and China. There was a character stop in the backstage bit, I think for Chip and Dale, but the queue was crazy and as it was now almost 2 hours since I’d first got in the corral I really needed a toilet break.

I did stop for a quick (blurry) photo when I first entered World Showcase, but I’m having problems uploading photos at the moment so I’ll put it in the next post.

 

[Swissmiss]

The trick is to try and inch your way up as close as possible to the beginning of a wave, that way you have relatively few people in front of you as you start out. At least that has been my experience.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

The trick is to try and inch your way up as close as possible to the beginning of a wave, that way you have relatively few people in front of you as you start out. At least that has been my experience.

I’ll know that for next time. Luckily it was better in the other races.

 

[Swissmiss]

I’ll know that for next time. Luckily it was better in the other races.

For information, this is less of an issue with the DLP races; not only are there fewer participants, there are fewer walkers as well.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

For information, this is less of an issue with the DLP races; not only are there fewer participants, there are fewer walkers as well.

I’m hoping to do a girls trip with my 21 yr old in the next few years, so hopefully I’ll get there.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 9th January: 5k day (cont)

The blurry World Showcase photo. Pretty much all the photos I took myself during the races are blurry

Running around World Showcase in the dark was pretty cool, if slightly eerie. It seemed very quiet.

I stopped at the first restroom in Germany, along with about half of the other female runners. Ended up having to wait about 10 minutes and afterwards I was kicking myself for not just running a little bit further and using the huge restrooms in the American Pavilion.

I continued around World Showcase, thinking about stopping for some character photos but the queues for them were absolutely crazy. I had 3 more races for photo opportunities so I just decided to get on and finish the race.

I took a few more photos on the way round, there were a couple of big screens in the backstage areas showing cartoons.

There were photopass photographers around World Showcase and I’ve managed to find a couple of photos that I don’t absolutely hate. Running photos can be very hit and miss. My favourite is the one with Spaceship Earth in the background.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 9th January: 5k day (cont)

The route headed out through International Gateway then made a u-turn on the bridge and headed back in through the backstage area by the World Showplace events pavilion and back onto World Showcase between the UK and Canada. Then around to Mexico, through another backstage area past the building work for Guardians of the Galaxy ride and out to the finish in the Parking Lot. You can see the route below, I thought the part around World Showcase looks a bit like Yoda’s head.

And me crossing the finish line. I must remember to attempt a smile when I know there’s a camera, everyone else looks much happier than me.

The medal were being handed out along with some Disney themed Mylar blankets because it was still a bit chilly. For some reason I never picked one up which I really regret because it was the only race where they had them.

I picked up my snack box and “free” banana and queued up to have a photo taken with my medal. While waiting I got chatting to some fellow brits who were also going to be on the same cruise as me in a few days time.

Close ups of the medal (and snack box). The runDisney medals really are gorgeous.

I also downloaded a cute finisher certificate from the website.

I was feeling a bit underwhelmed by the 5k race. I’d been so excited and built it up so much and it didn’t really live up to expectations. One of my favourite things about racing is the spectator support. I love getting cheered on and getting high fives from kids. But the only spectator support on the 5k is a few people at the start and finish, nothing on the way round. I was really hoping it would be different for the other races.

I grabbed my bag from the bag check and got on a bus to the Contemporary where I was meeting the rest of the family for breakfast.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 9th January: 5k day (cont)

It was still only about 8 am by the time I arrived at the Contemporary and our breakfast at Chef Mickey’s wasn’t booked until 9.30. I had a change of clothes with me, and knowing that the restrooms near the dock had a shower, I used those to freshen up. Then I sat out by the dock in the sunshine for a while, it was very quiet there that early.

As the time for the reservation got closer, I headed inside to wait for the family only to get a message that they were running late and were still waiting for a bus at Saratoga. So I went to the restaurant check in to see if they would hold our reservation for a while. The CM there was lovely and said it wouldn’t be a problem however late they were.

Darren and the girls finally arrived and by the time we’d checked in and been shown to our table it was 10.15. We had time to quickly get our first plates of food before the characters started arriving. I’ve found in the past that the character interaction here can be a bit rushed but today it wasn’t at all. We had plenty of time for multiple photos and the characters took time to play with the girls even though they’re older. I don’t know if it helped that we weren’t getting autographs this time so that gave them a bit more time to interact.

Some of the photos

Goofy is always fun

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 5th January: 5k day (cont)

And then the main reason for visiting Chef Mickey’s, to show Pluto my medal. My only regret here is not having a video rather than photos because Pluto was absolutely wonderful, he made such a fuss over my medal.

We really enjoyed Chef Mickey’s, although it is getting expensive now we have to pay adult prices for everyone. It came to about $200 after the TiW discount, but we thought it was worth it this time because we had such good character interaction.

One more photo with my medal on the way out.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 9th January: 5k day (cont)

After breakfast the girls wanted to play for a while

We discussed our plans for the rest of the day. We had some FPs at MK and then we were supposed to be having a late lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern at 2.15. But we hadn’t planned on being so late having breakfast, it was 11.30 by now, and there was no way we were going to be hungry enough for another meal by then. So we decided to cancel it, no ooey gooey cake for me . Just recently I’d read in another trip report about moving the reservation to another day and then cancelling it so you don’t get charged the fee, I can’t remember which report but thank you for that tip. We looked for an early dinner reservation instead, there wasn’t anything early enough in MK but we managed to find one 5 pm at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian.

We walked from the Contemporary over to MK where we split up with Darren. He was going to go back to the Expo to get a present for a running friend of ours. She helps us out with Alice’s runs a lot as neither of us can keep up with her. She’d commented about liking the Olaf hoodie that we’d bought for Alice so we thought we’d surprise her and get her a matching one.

I took the girls into MK and we hurried over to Fantasyland because our first FP for Seven Dwarfs was getting close to the end of its window. The next few hours are a bit of a blur, I think at this point I was so tired from the bad night’s sleep and the early morning. I wrote in my notes that we went on the rides that we had FP for, Seven Dwarfs, Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder, but I don’t actually remember. I know we went on the Liberty Square Riverboat because it was docked when we walking past. We hadn’t been on this for years.

After our last FP we wandered out through the Emporium where we had a good look round, then headed off to the Polynesian.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thursday 9th January: 5k day (cont)

We still had a couple of hour until our dinner reservation, but the girls wanted to hang out on the beach at the Poly so we headed over there. At this point I must have been in a sleepy daze, I don’t know if we got the boat or monorail. Luckily my girls are older, I don’t think I could have been trusted to supervise small children at that point. I remember thinking it would be nice to have a little snooze on the loungers on the beach .

But when we got there this is what we saw .

That’s not a snoozing chair, it was really quite uncomfortable. When did they replace the loungers? So I just sat and enjoyed the sunshine while the girls played.

Darren arrived about an hour before our reservation and suggested going inside for a beer. I was definitely ready for a comfier chair. The girls wanted to stay outside on the fake lawn where the CMs had some games set up, so we sat upstairs and kept checking on them through the window.

We had a chat about how the day had gone. I really didn’t think it had worked well going straight to breakfast from the race and then to the parks. It would have been much better to go back to the resort, have a nap and then go out for a while. So we decided to cancel our other breakfast reservations and rearrange our days a bit. I was a bit worried about disappointing the girls so we decided to tell the girls about the cruise to make up for it. They were so excited. I did film it but whenever I try to upload it I’m getting told the file is too big, I’m not very technical. So just a screenshot of how excited they were.

 

[Swissmiss]

I was going to comment how impressed I was that you went from the race directly to breakfast, particularly with how early one has to get up for a runDisney race at WDW, so I’m glad for you that you rearranged your other days to give you more recovery time.

 

[RememberWhen]

View attachment 465943

Soooo cute! I’m glad they were excited!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

I was going to comment how impressed I was that you went from the race directly to breakfast, particularly with how early one has to get up for a runDisney race at WDW, so I’m glad for you that you rearranged your other days to give you more recovery time.

I was exhausted and that was after the least tiring of the races, I realised it was only going to get worse. It was definitely the right call.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Soooo cute! I’m glad they were excited!

They were super excited, they do love cruises.