Disney World Travel Day (November 2019)

Happy frosty Tuesday from the winter tundra of the south! Although it's been a hot second since we returned from our Wine & Dine Disney trip (with Disney Dream cruise), I figured it was high time to share a recap of our trip with all of you!

This trip was a combination of several of our friends and in total, there were 7 of us. We've always talked about doing a friends trip together, and I couldn't believe it was actually happening. We were the only one from our group with a kid, but it didn't matter to anyone and I loved it! 

For starters, I'm going to share our itinerary and link each post as it becomes available.

Disney Travel Day: Wine and Dine Expo & Animal Kingdom
Disney Day 2: Wine and Dine 10K & Kids Races & Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Disney Day 3: Wine and Dine Half Marathon & Magic Kingdom
Disney Day 4: Boarding the Disney Dream
Disney Day 5: Castaway Cay
Disney Day 6: Nassau
Disney Day 7: At Sea Day
Disney Day 8: Disney Springs and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Our trip began with a late start. First of all, Halloween happened to fall the night before we were flying out to Disney. Since we couldn't let Brayden miss one of the best nights of the year for a kid,  we decided to hang back around a bit longer in our home town to let him do a little trick or treating. We had a blast (so did he) and I do not regret it one bit!

We did end up getting on the road about 7 p.m. and because our flight was an early morning one, we decided to spend the night at a hotel near the airport (which was about 2 hours from our home). 

After about four hours of sleep (literally), we were at the airport, through security, and on the plane in no time. We purchased TSA precheck about a year ago and haven't regretted that decision yet. It's so easy and smooth, especially with a little one! On this trip in particular, we were told at first that the precheck line at the airport wasn't yet open (I didn't know they had a time cap?) and we would have to go through the regular security line. There were several of us with precheck, kind of milling around for a minute, and somehow (miraculously), they decided to open the precheck line a few minutes early! YAY!

The flight was smooth and we landed in Orlando without any issues. You could definitely tell it was a race weekend, though - Magical Express was crowded! Thankfully we were at the beginning of the line for Pop Century, but check out that line behind us!

Front(ish) row!

After arriving at Pop, we decided to check our bags since our room was not quite ready yet. While waiting in the bag check line, I literally received a text that our room was ready, so off we went! We were in the 50's building with perfect access to the Skyliner! So much fun!!

We dropped off our bags, then said goodbye to our friends who weren't running any of the races that weekend and headed over to the Expo. (See link for expo recap.)

After browsing the expo for a while, we decided we were hungry and made our way to Animal Kingdom to meet up with our other friends.

Lunch included a stop at Flame Tree BBQ for a little brisket mac & cheese. It was so filling and delicious!

Brayden was WORN out from all of the traveling, so he napped in the stroller while we ate. After lunch, we rode Expedition Everest (dumb, I know) then walked over to see the Festival of the Lion King!

This is one of our favorite shows at AK.

Before long, a local friend of ours joined our party and we all rode Kilimanjaro Safaris together.  (Brayden is here but he's not in the picture.)

For dinner, we hopped a bus to Disney Springs and I made a bee line to the Christmas store to check out their specialty Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend ornaments. I've seen this display for many races, so if you're running a race and want a special memento to remember it by, these make for a great souvenir! They often have the year, distance, or even the race name hand painted on them!

Dinner that evening was at Earl of Sandwich and it was oh so delicious! 

We called it an early evening because four of our six adults had the 10K to run the following morning! 

...and that's a wrap on our travel day/day one at the most magical place on earth! Stay tuned for more! :)

Pop Century & The Skyliner

Hello and welcome to the start of my November Walt Disney World and Disney Dream trip recaps! Although I've already shared my thoughts on the Wine & Dine Half Marathon races and the Christmas Party, these recaps will be from the trip itself.

For starters, we had a large group of people traveling with us and we decided to stay at Pop Century. I'd never stayed at a refurbished room there and most of our party had never stayed at Pop at all, so it was a no brainer.

High Points of Pop:

• The refurbished rooms are fabulous, for real - they seriously make it feel like you aren't staying at a value resort.
• The Skyliner is SO cool (more on that in a bit)
• This resort has the greatest theming! 
• The food court has plenty of offerings
• They were very much into the runDisney thing - see backdrop above! How cute, right?!

Low Points of Pop:

• SO. Many. People. (it's a huge resort, though...what can you expect?)
• Lines, lines everywhere! We stood in lines for check in (because something wasn't working right on one of our group's apps), we stood in a ridiculous line to check our bags....did I mention so many people? All of this was on the first day and once we made it through those hiccups, we were good to go.
• That's it! We seriously enjoyed Pop!

We were placed in the 50's building which granted us perfect access to the Skyliner!

These rooms are beautiful and feel so clean!

I loved the bed/table combo (also known as a murphy bed) as well as the plank, no carpet flooring.

Even Pluto wasn't forgotten about!

The bathrooms received a makeover, too.

I loved the extra storage. It was so convenient!

One downside to the refurbished rooms for me would be the lack of a bathtub, because my toddler still likes to take baths. He didn't mind the shower, though.

I still giggle about these...

A welcome letter and Mickey card were waiting for us on our bed when we arrived.

From our doorway, you could see the pool. The 50's section was really cute and if we stayed at Pop again, I would totally request it next time.

The walk to the skyliner was a super short one, just around the back of the 50's building. SO convenient!

It makes a beautiful visual, too.

Seriously, when are they going to add on to the skyliner and place it at other resorts? :)

What started out as a quick ride to Epcot turned into Brayden's new fascination and definitely his favorite "Disney ride". He seriously talks about the skyliner all the time. Point of View videos, anyone? Y'all feel me on this?

On the morning of our cruise, Brayden mentioned the skyliner at least 10 times, so we decided to hop a quick ride from Pop over to the "main hub" at Caribbean Beach. I knew there was a Joffrey's there with a specialty coffee, so I figured it was a win win for all of us! We had plenty of time to kill, so why not?

He. Was. So. Excited!

That face, though...priceless!!

The specialty drink offering is the Toffee Flight. It's sea salt caramel toffee with dark chocolate and toffee crumbles and it's VERY good!

Jason ordered iced...

...and I ordered mine hot.

Both were very good, but I felt as if the flavor was stronger in the hot beverage.

Also, they sold giant blue donuts there and this child got his eye on it...

Giant blue donut for the win! When in Disney, right?

I randomly caught this cast member making sidewalk art!

I don't even have that much talent with a pencil much less water!

Overall, I loved our stay at Pop Century and would seriously do it all again if given the chance. As I mentioned before, the food court had good offerings, the shop was a decent size, the refurbished rooms look amazing, and the skyliner was so very convenient!

What are your thoughts on Pop? Have you stayed in a refurbished room?

runDisney Kids Races 2019

During the Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend, Brayden participated in his second 100m dash as part of the Kids Races.

Although we had a lot of fun, this experience was quite different from our last 100m dash (from January of 2018). I have a very cautious kid who likes to see things before he's convinced that it's ok. Although I felt as if I prepared him well for this race experience by watching the video recap from 2018, he got a little confused as to what was going on mid-dash...but more on that later.

The runDisney Kids Races are held at the Track & Field Complex at ESPN's Wide World of Sports.  The races follow a schedule and you'll see the various race times noted in your event guide. Also, the races almost always begin with the 100m dash and go from there.

We picked up his bib the day before when we visited the Expo for our Wine & Dine races. He was super sleepy when we visited the Expo and not in the mood for pictures!

We arrived at the Track & Field complex a few minutes early and headed straight for the "corral" area. I loved that they had cups of water available for the kids to drink while waiting!

A perk to arriving early and hanging out near the corral area is the crowd. You definitely get an early jump on getting in line and being one of the first ones to finish the race.

This is the crowd that was in front of us (maybe 2 waves of runners)...

...and this is the crowd that was lined up behind us...

Also, please note that there are activities going on this entire time for kids to play so you don't HAVE to stand in this line. One thing that Carissa (the announcer) kept encouraging parents to do was go play with their kids, then return once the line died down a bit. I believe there's at least an hour time frame for the 100m dash and it does go fairly quickly.

Now, here is where I made my mistake. Because we had friends waiting on us at one of the parks, we knew we were a little strapped for time and wanted to get in and out fairly quickly. We were stationed in line where we were not able to watch any of the runners/kids from waves ahead of us and that's what I should have done differently. Oh well, I know better now for next time!

We lined up on the yellow line and before we knew it, it was time to run!

Brayden did GREAT running at the start, but midway down the track, he got a little scared and maybe a little confused as to what was going on and he wanted to hold my hand the remainder of the way. (Not a problem with me, I'm just sharing our race experience.) Once I pointed Mickey out to him though, he let go of my hand and ran right over to him for a high five!

Priceless and definitely the highlight of the race!

Next time, I'm going to let him actually watch other kids running down the track before we line up for his race. Don't get me wrong, he did not have a bad experience at all, he wasn't screaming or crying, etc...I just think a little preparation ahead of time will help him better understand what's going on and prevent any scared feelings or confusion on his part.

So, if you have a cautious kid like mine, that's my tip - let them actually see what's going on before they get on the track to run for themselves.

After the finish line, kids are handed their medals as well as a banana and other goodies!

Brayden LOVED wearing his medal the rest of the day!

After the race, we didn't hang out long and said goodbye to another 100m dash!

For Princess, I'm going to take my own advice with the line up on the day of the race and see if it makes a difference in our running experience! I'll keep y'all posted...

Have your kids ever participated in a runDisney Kids Race event? If so, which one? What were your thoughts? 

2019 Wine & Dine Half Marathon Recap

Last month, I participated in the 10th Anniversary of the Wine & Dine Half Marathon. I had so much fun running throughout the parks and loved running a different race route from the typical Princess and Marathon Weekend!

At first I wasn't going to dress up for this race at all, but then I remembered I had a costume already made from a friend's birthday party (years ago), so I went with it!

What team? Wildcats!

We stayed at Pop Century during this race weekend and when I arrived at the bus stop, there were buses galore!

In no time, we were at the starting area. Since I was a bit early (the corrals weren't open yet), I stood around and listened to the guys on stage. Y'all, they were cracking me up about the hummus vs cheese in the post-race boxes from the 10K the day before!

Yay! That's me!!

I was happy I arrived early because I was able to jump right in the front of the corral once it opened. Another favorite of this race weekend? Not having to walk a mile to the corrals before starting the race! WIN!

The theme for this race was colonial Mickey and I LOVED it!

Before I knew it, it was time to run. We were off!

I knew my IT Band was going to be an issue here, so I made up a game plan of doing run/walk intervals throughout the course. Another idea was to run the straight parts of the course and walk the curves/inclines. Oh yes, and stop for characters, of course!

The first character I spotted was Louis and although I already have a photo with him, his line was super short so I stopped!

 
Lotso was out on the course too which was a first for me! Yay!

 

The Mickey golf cart was out there as a filler without characters or a photographer, so a lovely race volunteer took our photos! She was so sweet and told us she doubled as a photographer (for real) on the side!

Around mile 3, the IT Band was really starting to bother me. I stopped at every single medical tent to pile on the BioFreeze. The fully stocked medical tents are something I honestly appreciate about runDisney and haven't seen at other race events. You need BioFreeze mid-race? It's at every medical tent in a huge pump bottle.

Life. Saver. Seriously.

Before long, we were at our first park - Animal Kingdom!

If you're wondering what a typical character line looks like, there you go! I didn't wait in line for Russell as I already have a photo with him, but you can see the crowd there. Thankfully, although these lines look really long, they actually don't take much time at all to get through!

Into Animal Kingdom we go!

As the sun rose, it became easier to see people's outfits and for real, people were cracking me up with their "Wildcat" cheers! I LOVED it! One girl even asked to take a picture with me as she said High School Musical was one of her favorite movies! So fun!! (I'm just glad people recognized the outfit!)

I. Was. So. Excited. To. See. Kevin!!!

This race course took us through Pandora. Although I've visited Pandora, I've never actually run through Pandora, so this was a very cool experience!

The sunrise over Animal Kingdom was absolutely beautiful! Seeing the sunrise was a big change for me with the Wine & Dine Half as I haven't run this race since it switched over from being a night time event.

Running through Animal Kingdom made me smile because it reminded me of the last time I ran the full marathon during Dopey a couple of years ago!

Another new-to-me stop were Chip and Dale in Dinorama! Of course I had to stop here, too!

After looping through Animal Kingdom, it was time to say goodbye! We ran out behind Animal Kingdom which led to a pretty nifty view of the backside of Expedition Everest.

Almost half way!

Running to Hollywood Studios was pretty much all highways without anything spectacular going on. I do have to say that I love Disney's overall immersive theming, though. Growing up, I was a huge fan of the Yankee Doodle Mickey album and I'm not even joking - they kept playing songs from that album throughout the course! It seriously made me so happy! If you haven't heard that album, you should look it up. It's so cute for kids and full of patriotic songs with Mickey and friends!

As we approached Hollywood Studios and mile 10, my IT Band really began to act crazy. It started shooting these sharp pains down my leg and into my foot. Remember my plan of walking the curves and running the straights? Yeah, well I guess I never really noticed before, but there weren't many "straight" parts of this course. The roads either banked right or left or went up or down. I finally found a walk/run pattern of some sort that worked for me and just went with it!

I loved how there was specialty signage near mile 10 for the 10th Anniversary of this race weekend! Fun times!

Our time running through Hollywood Studios was seriously SO short. Jason and our friends were planning on visiting the park that day and just so happened to be in the vicinity. They found a spot right after security and camped out while waiting on me to run by. I figured they would be waiting a while but no - we literally ran down Sunset Boulevard for 30 seconds and turned out near Once Upon a Time...

...which meant my friends and family were literally only waiting for maybe 5 minutes for me to run by! Perfect timing!

After leaving Hollywood Studios, we ran along the Boardwalk towards Epcot.

Team Daisy was there to cheer us on!

We looped through the back of Epcot and around World Showcase...

...where we hit mile 12!

I almost missed Lady Liberty with her 10th Anniversary sash - I'm so glad I spotted her before it was too late!

There were a few characters out and about in World Showcase, so I stopped for some pictures.

Honest John and Gideon from Pinocchio...

...and Dopey from Snow White, of course!

The Big Bad Wolf was also out and about for pictures and this one holds a funny story. 

As a child, I was super scared of the Big Bad Wolf. Like so scared I wouldn't go anywhere alone. Yes, I realize it's ridiculous, but I was a kid. It has also become kind of a running joke with my family as of late. So, as an adult, the first time I saw Big Bad at a Not So Scary Halloween Party several years back, I had to do a double take and kind of giggled at the stupidity of my childhood fear. (But I never stood in a line for a picture.) I knew when I saw him here (for the first time ever at a race), I just had to get that picture. 

I sent it to my husband, brother, mom, and dad with the tag line "No longer scared..." :)

Oddly enough, this was the final character stop on this race course!

Just like that, the finish line was near!

Mile 13! Despite the ridiculous IT Band pain, I made it!

Another runDisney Half Marathon and Challenge done!

I didn't hang around long after this one because I knew my people were all at Hollywood Studios and I wanted to join them as soon as possible.

However, I did take time to eat a little breakfast before then! The Mickey waffles were worth every bite!

I run for Disney food, seriously!

Did you run in this Wine & Dine Half? If so, what were your thoughts on the race? Did you enjoy it? Like the course?