Trip Report Princess Half Marathon 2014 - #4 Post Race, Wilderness Lodge, Magic Kingdom

After the race we got on the bus and in no time we were back at Pop Century.  We had asked for a late check out time because we were not sure what time we would be done with the race.  We had plenty of time to shower and change.  We then packed up and said good by to Pop and got a cab to Wilderness Lodge.  The options to get from one resort to another with luggage are not that great.  The buses all go to parks, so you would have to switch buses at a park if you wanted to avoid paying for a cab.  The cab was about $15 and quick.  Checking in to Wilderness lodged was more of a challenge then it should have been.   The lady at the desk was concerned that we were wearing the wrong Magic Bands.  I was wearing the one that I got from Port Orleans Riverside and Doug was wearing one from the last trip from Art of Animation.  With our Hotel hopping we had learned that the bands are only tied to your online account.  If you have 1 or 5 it doesn't matter they will all do the same thing.  Doug tried to explain it to the lady but she was not buying it.  So, we dug through our bags to find the Wilderness Lodge ones and surprisingly they gave the same problem.  Finally a manager came over and fixed something and they finally worked.  The manager told us that only the ones for Wilderness lodge would open our door and get us into the park.  Doug said "Ok" and put them back in the bag.   We liked wearing our bands that were already broken in from the longer trips.  We also like to switch based on colors to go with outfits.  Doug did come back to the desk the next time past to let them know our old bands did indeed open our door.  (he couldn't let it go)

The rooms at Wilderness Lodge are very nice.  They are the smallest of the Deluxe resorts.  They only sleep 4 in stead of the 5 at most others.    There are neat wood carvings on the head boards and bead posts.  

Lots of little "rustic" touches throughout the room.

Animal friends join you in the shower.

Our balcony.

Our view straight across.

the view to the right.   We could see old faithful from our balcony.  

The grounds are very elaborate The pool is feed from a stream that starts in the hotel lobby.  

Once in the room we headed over to Roaring Fork for lunch.  We were starving by this point.  

I got a flat bread pizza and Doug got a Burger.   This was a very nice quick service location.  Several options but not so many that your head spins.  Some of the Disney Food courts at resorts have, may I say, too many options and it is hard to find the simple burger and fries.  Because of that many people get the burger with shrimp on top simply because that is a #2 and the burger is listed under "additional items"  Sorry rant over.   We enjoyed our meal and knew we would be back for a snack at some point.   

Now we were off to the Magic Kingdom.   There are two ways to get there from the Lodge.  One is by bus the other is by boat.  When given the choice the boat is lots more fun.

All the moisture from the morning had burned off and it looked like a beautiful day.   It was hot for February.  Upper 80's We were melting just a little.  

It seemed odd leaving a hotel room wearing a metal, but trust me everyone that has one will wear it.  And lots of people was say congratulations and ask how you did.  It was fun to walk a round with a metal on like a 6 year old soccer player or Olympic medalist.  I'm sure it falls somewhere between those two.  

We headed into Tomorrowland we wanted to get off our feet and watch a few shows.  We really enjoy Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor.   I was "lucky" enough to be part of the show.  It was quite hilarious and Doug still randomly brings it up.  I had to think of a number and then the monster guessed it.  He usually gets it right but some how he miss heard me so he got it wrong and it made for a one of a kind moment.  

Next up in the get off your feet tour was Carousel of Progress.

It had been a while since we had done this one and it is good for a true Disney fan to do it every now and then.

Next was our FastPass+ for Buzz.  Doug maxed out his score.  No one needs to see my score.  

And yes he wore the button the rest of the trip.  This button is like being a member of a secret club.  If you are waiting in a line you are guarantied to be asked how you got it.  Also any one with this button will gladly talk your ear off to tell you.  When one Galactic Hero passes another they seem to have a secret wave, like motorcycles on the highway.  He is kinda a nerd.   

At this point the miles were adding up.  The adrenaline was starting to wain and the feet were getting heavy.  We headed over to the Liberty Bell.  

This picture truly shows how I felt at this point of the day.  I should have drank more water, but I didn't.  So after a short nap it was actually time to head over to the Poly for dinner at 'Ohana's 

We stopped to get our picture with the Number Cruncher, Roy.  

We hopped on the monorail to head to the Poly.

We got off at the TTC.   There is a short walk way over to the Poly from the TTC.

It was a nice stroll through the grounds.  One really nice thing about the Polynesian is the fact that you have transportation options, but most people don't realize how short of a walk it is to the TTC to get the large fairy or monorail to Epcot.  

We were planning on meeting a large group of people from "lines" but it seemed like the people we knew the best didn't recover from the race in time to make it.  So, we left to find diner elsewhere.  Doug was a little disappointed but also didn't really want to eat with all total strangers.  

Back at the Magic Kingdom we went to Sleepy Hollow.  Doug got Nutella Waffle and I got the Strawberries Waffle.   This is a great place to fill up.  Doug also made a friend while in line.  A girl the same age as Samantha just started talking to him, and he is use to talking to kids at work so he talked right back.  They mom apologized for her bothering us but we really didn't care.   We got seated with our food then here came Doug's new friend to sit with us.   They were on a mother/daughter trip.  By the end of the meal they mom said it was nice to talk to an adult.  So, in a way we did sit with complete strangers but it was lots of fun.  Sleepy Hollow has never disappointed.  

Over at pirates this picture shows where Goofy meet as a pirate.  He stopped meeting there in 2012 but the props have not moved or changed.  

He now meets in the back of New Fantasyland.  We Meet Pirate goofy on his last day and the new goofy on his first day in October of 2012.

We decided it would be really nice to get on a Disney Cruise right after the race, so we went with It's a Small World.  It is not quite the Dream or Fantasy.

Then hung out with a few spirited friends.

After more wondering around and attractions we ended up at Gaston's Tavern.  We shared a Cinnamon roll.  It is not the same as what once was at the main st. bakery.  It was still good.  Doug wanted the frozen drink, but they but a fluffy stuff on top and that had mango in it so it was a no go for him.

We watched Wishes from New Fantasyland then slowly headed back to our resort.  We took the boat back because there was not much of a line by the time we got out of the park.  We lingered a bit after closing to enjoy the atmosphere and let the masses get out.  If we were in a hurry we would have taken the bus.  While the boat is cool the bus is more practical.

Back at the room and ready to sleep after just a few steps today!

Trip Report Princess Half Marathon 2014 - #2 Packet Pick Up, Hollywood Studios, Pop Century

our view from just out side our door at Pop Century

We woke up bright and early to head to pick up our race packets at the ESPN Wide Wold of Sports.

We were all alone in the beautiful elevator lobby of the 90's wing of Pop Century.  

A walk to the bus was like a walk through our childhood.

Possibly the best decorated stairwells on earth.  

At 8:25 am the bus lines are packed for the parks.  If you are in the line for the bus at 8:25 you will most likely not be in the parks by 9:00 that is the sad truth.  you really need to be in line for a bus around 8am if you want a good position at rope drop.  The saddest thing about this picture is people in line for Animal Kingdom which had morning extra magic hours.  The park has already been open for about a half hour by this time.  Morning extra magic hours are great but you have to be there before it opens otherwise you are just heading into an already crowed park.  

We arrived at the packet pick up just as it was opening.  That's right we rope dropped packet pick up.  We already had our race waivers printed and sign(we did it at home) so we could go straight to our window for a bib number.  It is extremely organized and fast.  The lines do grow and can get long in the middle of the day.  (just like the parks)

Around just about every corner there was some sort of back drop people were taking pictures in front of.

With our pack it in toe we headed over to the expo.

This was the scene as we were heading in.  Still early even with the time it took to get the packets.

And a shot the other direction. If there was something you wanted that has to do with running this is the place you could find it.

We grabbed an I Did It button from the RunDisney booth.  It seems weird that they have a booth mixed in with all the other vendors.  Most people we saw around the parks the next few days asked where we got the button.  I bet the "convention" arm of WDW even charged runDisney for the booth space, even though they are promoting future races.  

They had a big wall with every ones name on it.  I'm snapping a pic of our names.

Here is Doug's.  I put his picture on here because I am nice.   There were 5 McKnight's in the race.  

After a stop in the Official merch area and a stop to buy my next pair of running shoes we headed out.  I was able to buy shoes way cheaper then normal.  There really are some great deals to be found at the expo.  From this picture you can see the level of crazy has doubled in the Expo and it was only 10am!

It is defiantly a hike from the front of the ESPN WWoS back to the bus stop.  If you didn't want to hike and wait for a bus, a cab or Uber would not be a bad way to go.  

After dropping our stuff off at Pop we hopped the bus to Hollywood Studios.  Looked like it was going to rain and our first goal was to hit Star tours with a FastPass+ while Doug still had his motion sickness patch on from the flight.  He left if on just to ride Star Tours, He is such a nerd.  

After a flight though a galaxy far, far, away we had lunch at Backlot Express.  We got some boring sandwiches which were actually very tasty and good.  We were trying to limit the amount of fat we had the day before the race.  I'm sure the fries were a good decision.  One of the great things about Backlot express is you can refill your drinks so we could hydrate with the best Coke products Disney has to offer.  

After lunch we headed over to the Animation Academy.  We got there just as it was starting to sprinkle.  

We got to draw with our favorite artist!

Any Guesses who Doug drew?   At the end of the class the artist had a trivia question for his drawing.  Doug give the room a few guesses before he raised his hand to answer.  He really wanted to let a kid win it but failed.  The question was from Monster U about a characters mother or something that no one with a life should know.  

His might be a little better then ours.

It was still raining out side so we met Minnie.

When it is raining out they sometimes move the Disney Jr. meet and greets around.  

It was all dried up and we had a Toy Story Midway Mania FastPass+ ready to use.

It was still only 1:26 and it feels like we have been up and at it for ever today.

Doug was thoroughly disappointed in this score.  He blamed riding with me.  He claimed I stole his targets.  He will continue to ride alone when we come with the kids.  On the other hand It was one of my better scores!

After some shooting we did the single rider line for Rocken' Roller Coaster.  It took about 20 min for us both, the posted wait was 60min.  

We looked at some snacks at Sweet Spells.

Lots of neat apple options!

This case gets the kids and Doug more excited.  We didn't get any thing because we we're having an early dinner.  With the race so early in the morning we wanted to eat and get to bed early, not or normal Disney plans!

We got a bus to Art of Animation to Eat at the Landscape of Flavors.  They have a build your own pasta.  It was the perfect pre race meal.  It is a nice big serving of pasta just the way you want it.  Lots of options of what type of noodle, sauce, meat, and veggies you want.

The John Lasseter signed art in the lobby.

It was misting just a little as we made our way from Art of Animation over to Pop Century.  It is only about a 10 minuet walk from the food court to our room.

The two resorts are connected by a bridge in the middle.  

I believe this is the 60's section.

Petals is the bar at the main pool.

Even with the rain  though out the day it was plenty warm to swim.

This is the entrance from the pool side into the main building of Pop.

The store and food court are very nice at Pop.  The only reason we ate across the bridge was for the BYO pasta.  

The lobby of Pop Century.  

flat Michelle and flat Doug

Back at our room and off our feet by 6pm.  We got our bibs on and every thing laid out and ready for a ridiculously early wake up call.