Runnymoon then Honeymoon! Marathon Weekend and Beyond!

[mankle30]

It all started just over a year ago, while running on a grey day in southern virginia. My girlfriend and I were visiting her parents over the Christmas holiday (from Toronto, Canada) and I was taking advantage of the milder and less snowy weather for some running. I was also approaching my 39th birthday and remembered how much I enjoyed running when I was actually in shape. Of course, at this point, I wasn’t, with my butt and gut spreading and I was huffing and puffing.

Having visiting WDW for the first time in 2014 with my girlfriend and her parents, I knew how much she loved it and I had enjoyed it too. I knew about the RunDisney events from the days, several years before, in which I had done significant long distance running, with two 10Ks, a half marathon and a marathon under my belt. Now, eight years older, and just one year away from the big 4-0, I challenged myself. As a 40th birthday present to myself, I would run the Walt Disney World marathon, with the 2017 Marathon Weekend coinciding with the birthday itself. I would bring my girlfriend down with me so we’d have a little vacation, since it’s only a day’s drive from her parents’ place, we’d spend the Christmas holiday in Virginia and then drive down to Florida.

Well, a few things changed over that year. My girlfriend and I got married and decided to make the Disney trip our honeymoon, extending it from just a couple of days to a whole week, taking in all four parks, staying on a Disney resort and visiting Universal Orlando. It became our Runnymoon and our Disneymoon!

Here's a question before I continue, as a noob here. 1: Is it cool to talk about the time at Universal Orlando in this thread? Will I be banished by the forum Gods for even mentioning that other place?

I might not have as many photos as folks may like to see. I don't take a ton of photos anyway, preferring to experience things rather than just photograph them. But I did remember to get my phone out from time to time.

Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words, but I've been told I'm pretty verbose.

 

[angryduck71]

Of course you can mention Universal! You can also link your report and talk about it over on the Universal trip report area as well! I'm excited to read it.

 

[mankle30]

Part 1: The Arrival

Since this was my return to the marathon, I was "just" running the 26.2 miles on Sunday, January 8 rather than a Dopey or Goofy challenge. My 40th birthday, Thursday, January 5, was spent with my in-laws having a nice dinner at P.F. Chang's in Newport News, Virginia, and making some last minute purchases for the drive south. I had picked up a lot of gels from a local running store since I had read up that Disney wasn't giving them out until much later in the race. I also picked up some paraphernalia to help me deal with the blisters that I was getting from my newish pair of running shoes. After a couple of weeks of experimenting with bandages, I thought I had found the solution with Engo patches and was ready to go. Another important purchase was a $3 sweatshirt from a thrift store that I was inspired to make after reading about the expected weather in Orlando on Sunday morning. As anyone who has read about this year’s marathon knows, the cold was brutal, particularly since I'd be starting in the last corral, and wanted to make sure that I had something warm to wear for the long, long wait to start. I had a $5 cap for a garment that I'd be able to discard along the way and scored a sweet deal.

With a bright red University of Alabama sweatshirt, plenty of gels and my wife in tow, we departed southern Virginia on Friday morning, making a quick stop at the border of North Carolina and South Carolina where there's a quirky little "theme park" called "South of the Border."



We stopped for a moment to visit "Pedro" (the park's principal character) but then continued on, arriving at Howard Johnson's in the evening, around 10:30pm, thanks to some traffic on I95 in Jacksonville. We got settled in and went to bed early, since I wanted to be up early to get a short run in on Saturday. We learned about the cancellation of the half marathon but I still resigned myself to a brief, 3K run, getting it in between rain clouds.

 

[mankle30]

Part 2: Saturday, January 7, 2017

Our Saturday itinerary was pretty busy. Check out of the Howard Johnson's and check in to Caribbean Beach Resort. Hit the Expo at ESPN Wide World of Sports to pick up race package. Grab lunch and hit Walmart for groceries we'd need for breakfasts and snacks. Then head to Disney Springs for an early, carb-loaded dinner followed by Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba. Then we would head back to the resort where I’d try to get around 6 hours of sleep.



Once we checked in and were enjoying our surroundings, we discovered we were staying in Martinique at the Caribbean Beach Resort (CBR, see the view above). We were enjoying the decor a lot, as well as the beach. With my run out of the way (at Howard Johnson’s), we decided to get going to ESPN Wide World of Sports (WWOS) to pick up the race package. If you were at the WWOS on Saturday, you know what we were getting in to. What I thought would be a 45-minute round trip turned out to be a nightmare of almost 2 hours. 45 minutes to drive just a few kilometres down the road (less than 10 minutes without the craziness of the day), then finding the right place and fighting off the crowd to pick up the essentials, then getting back out again (at least another half an hour of driving and we were parked fairly close to the exit). With all of the people who were supposed to participate in the cancelled half marathon picking up their medals and choosing which refund option they wanted, plus the marathoners picking up their race packages, WWOS just couldn't handle the traffic well.

I'm not big on crowds in the first place but it's especially bad when I need to get something done and I'm on a timeline. My wife was probably picking up on my frustration at the amount of time that the race package pick up was taking. It's not a good colour on me. I'm normally pretty even tempered but when the clock's a-tickin' and there are still a million things to do, the craziness wore on me. Fortunately, I didn't lose it on any of the volunteers. We picked up our stuff, got out, tried to be zen while waiting to reach Osceola Parkway and bee-lined it to Walmart.

We had lunch at Subway to get some food in us and picked up some bananas, bread and peanut butter, ziploc bags (probably the best purchase we made), some milk and yoghurt for our breakfasts at Walmart. We had gotten the Disney Dining Plan, primarily since we wanted to take advantage of some of the better restaurants that we had read about (we're not wealthy people but decided to splurge a bit on our honeymoon) but it only covered two meals per day so we anticipated a DIY breakfast in the resort before heading to the parks. But more on this later.

When we got back to the CBR, we changed and got ready to head to Disney Springs (DS). We caught the bus from Martinique and enjoyed the calypso and other island-inspired music as we drove out to DS. It had started to get cold and windy and we posted a picture remarking that we had brought the Canadian weather down to Florida. We ate at the food trucks with me enjoying the beef tacos and a serving of chips and salsa (more carbs) and she had the Mac and Cheese with seafood. Despite the fact that I didn't have a ton of room (after the trip to Subway), I made sure to eat enough to fuel myself for the marathon tomorrow. It wasn't the best pre-race carb load but with limited time, we did the best we could.

It was off to Cirque Du Soleil and it was a fantastic show! The clowns were one of the best parts, and this show really was one of the first to show me what clowning can really do and Cirque du Soleil may be one of the few places left to celebrate the art of clowning. Everyone in the audience was in stitches, even in the pre-show routines. One of the things that strikes me about Disney is how everyone, from young children to adults are entertained. As I'll write more later, even the shows and programs that are designed to appeal to kids have something to redeem them to adults attending without children. Other highlights were the trapeze artists, the silks artists and the trampoline artists. Everything was terrific and, as a musician myself, it's great to see that there was a live band.

Then, we caught the bus back to the resort and went to sleep, resigned to a super early wake up call and, for me, a nice, leisurely 26.2 mile run through the parks.

 

[mankle30]

Part 3: Sunday, January 8: The Marathon

The day had arrived. Albeit far too early. I awoke around 3:00 am with a plan to leave for the shuttle bus around 3:45am. My wife arose too but stayed in bed while I made my peanut butter sandwiches, dressed and packed my gear. I really appreciated the shuttle bus and magic band as perks of staying in the World. Not having to pack keys (or carry them during the race) or store them in my checked back took a load off my mind.

The cold was bitter but, as a Canadian, I had the confidence of having trained in cold, windy weather in November and December. At least there wasn’t any snow.

I was still a bit nervous about the race. This training cycle had been far too eventful for my tastes. First of all, I got a bad chest cold in mid-November (cue flashback effects), costing me about a week and a half of the heaviest training I would be able to do. I was playing catch up for the last month of my training before the taper which is never a positive thing. Second, the week after my wedding (around December 8 or 9), Toronto got hammered by heavy snows. I took my training indoors to the treadmill but that’s never a proper substitute for running in the actual world. Thirdly, the new pair of shoes that I had bought for the marathon, which had felt phenomenal in the store, were giving me horrible blisters. I worked for weeks trying to manage the issue, not having the funds to buy a new pair this late in the game and, with the Engo patches, I had felt that I had finally found a way to prevent them, but I still wasn’t 100% sure.

Still, I was also a bit worried about the start. I was in Corral P, the last one, because of Disney’s policy of seeding based on previously catalogued times. For the marathon, I needed to submit a time for a race of 10 miles or longer over the past two years which was something I didn’t have. I did run a half marathon in mid-October (as part of my tune up for the marathon) but it was about two weeks after runDisney’s deadline to get times in. Because of the issues in my training, I decided that if I was slowed down for the first few miles coming out of the corral, it would be a good thing, keeping closer to my goal pace rather than let the adrenaline take over.

I decided on a combination of clothing that I felt would be able to get me through the race and the cold wait to start. I wore my Canada running cap (red mesh baseball-style cap that my sister had bought me years before), long sleeve technical shirt, wind-breaking running jacket with zippers under the arms to vent heat when it got warmer, disposable Crimson Tide sweatshirt, underwear, UnderArmor tights and shorts above them with padded socks. I’m not a fast runner, shooting for a 5:15 marathon, and so I was not “dressed for speed.” My goals for the race were mainly finishing and not getting injured for future running. I was trying to hit a pace of about 12 minutes per mile which would translate into that 5:15 marathon and I was going to walk for 1 minute at the beginning of every mile. To help me keep pace, in addition to my phone app that was tracking distance (in km), I wore a stopwatch that I reset every mile. I wasn’t really looking at it much but I was using to gauge distance and to help check in on how I was feeling each mile.

It was cold in the corral. In fact, my feet were going numb a bit after standing there for close to an hour and a half, but, around 6:35am, it was time for Corral P to get under way (finally). There was congestion but I was intending to go out slow and start to pick up speed as I got going. My first few miles were slow but I was starting to find a groove, despite a blister that I could feel developing on my left foot. My 5 mile split was pretty respectable at 1:02:28, putting me almost 30 seconds per mile slower than my intended pace. I was feeling very good but was weaving through walkers which slowed me down.

I had two disappointments though. My wife had gotten up a bit later and made her way to the Magic Kingdom. I was right on when I told her the time to expect me to pass by the Cinderella Castle -- right around 7:30am (although it might have been a few minutes later thanks to a slightly later than anticipated start). I was looking for her as I passed through the park but didn’t see her at all. It turned out that she was behind the people in the first row and was jumping to try to see over the people in front of her. She also didn’t know what I was wearing and may not have recognized me if she did see me. The second disappointment was having to use the restroom. I found my opportunity running through Magic Kingdom, using a real restroom in Fantasyland rather than having to wait for a Portalet along the route.

By the 10-mile split, I was feeling good, bringing my pace down to about 12:20 per mile. I had no issues in my legs or breathing and the effort felt very comfortable. The blister had stopped bothering me but two others on my right foot were taking hold. One, near my ankle, was in the same place as the one I had been dealing with for a couple of weeks and I knew I could run through it. Another, on the ball of my foot was really starting to bother me.

My 13.1 mile split was a little faster again, coming down to a 12:16 per mile pace and I remember feeling excellent at this point. Some people were off to the side, stretching or managing their injuries but I felt strong despite the annoying blisters. At the 20-mile mark, I was still running with a good pace although I had been feeling some pain in my right foot. I was fearing that it was a stress fracture (although the pain has subsided after five days of park attendance and two days of driving leading me to believe that it’s nothing more than inflammation, but I’ll have to test it when I start running again) but realized that if I stopped for medical attention, I’d never get going again. My pace at the 20-mile split was even faster than it had been so far, coming in around 12:12/mile. That was the best I’d feel, however as I hit the wall around mile 21 as we running through WWOS (that place proved to be my undoing). According to my running app, my fastest kilometre (being Canadian, I tend to track in kilometres) was the 13th (around mile 8), at 6:58 with the 24th (around mile 15) at 6:59 and the 29th (around mile 18) at 7:02. Things slowed down significantly after that with only one kilometre (39th) coming in under 8:00 minutes after about the 20 mile point.

It was a tough slog the rest of the way, walking up to two minutes at a time but and lowering my pace to barely above a crawl. Around the 25-mile mark, my quads started cramping up but I got them loose by walking and bending them. Again, having run a marathon many years ago, I knew that if I stopped, I wouldn’t get going again. I laboured on, finally finishing in 5:28:42. I have to admit that the end was rough and I’m definitely going to be using a different training strategy for my next marathon but, in the end, I was pleased at how I did. My pace was steady and solid. Outside of the blisters, I felt comfortable for most of the race and I expected a collapse, considering that I hadn’t been able to really finish my training properly.


(not my best angle, but that there is a marathon medal)

I ate a banana changed shoes and shirt and caught a bus back to the resort. Met up with my wife who was very grumpy after her fruitless trip to see me run in the cold (she’s not a cold-weather lover by any means and was quite angry at Florida for the weather that day). I took a warm bath and then a shower, limping and waddling around. The plan was now to get to Epcot.

 

[mankle30]

Part 4: Sunday, January 8: Epcot

With the “Runnymoon” over, it was time for the “Honeymoon” to start. Usually, I’m the one walking fast and waiting for my wife to catch up but this time she was in the lead with me begging her to slow down. My legs were certainly not happy with me after running 26.2 miles. I sat down at the bus stop and we had a fairly long wait for the bus to Epcot. Several shuttles from the marathon came by, discharging runners with medals (and one with a huge ice pack on his knee). I was wearing my medal, as well as the “Happily Ever After” button. We finally boarded the bus and realized that we wouldn’t make our Fastpass+ for Mission: Space so the first thing we did (after the confusing return to the ticket counter to present our passports to verify that we were, indeed, Canadians, to validate the discounts on our tickets), was saunter through the gates and take a selfie in front of the Golf Ball (that's the official name for it, right?). Then it was off to Ellen’s Energy Adventure which we didn’t do two years prior. The in-laws had really enjoyed it so we decided to see what the hubbub was about. We enjoyed it. My wife really loves dinosaurs and it was a cute way to learn all about energy (although it could use a good updating) and I could sit down for a while. Then, we had a Fastpass for the new Soarin’ Around the World. This was the highlight of Epcot for us! We had been on Soarin’ two years before but my main complaint was the scratchy film. The new projection is phenomenal. We were in the front row, left side and the feeling of flying over these world landmarks was truly amazing! If you haven’t experienced the new version of Soarin’ yet, it’s a must see!

We then went to see a couple of other things we didn’t have a chance to see the last time we were there. We went to see Turtle Talk with Crush which was absolutely adorable, and The Finding Nemo ride right next to it. Both were enjoyable and killed some time until our dinner reservation at Restaurant Marrakesh. This was something my wife really wanted to do since she had read about the Bellydancer. See, my wife is a professional dancer and bellydance is among her skills and so she was excited to see the program there. The food was delicious. Her lamb was fall-off-the-bone tender and my beef shish kebab was extremely tasty. We had some wine too but that really knocked us out.

Since we both had been up so early, when we walked out of the Morocco pavilion, we were both utterly exhausted. We made plans to return to Epcot on Wednesday (we had gotten the park-hopper addition to our tickets) since we were coming back to eat at Biergarten then.

We collapsed at the resort and decided to sleep in a little bit the next day for our Magic Kingdom day.

 

[mankle30]

Part 5: Monday, January 9 - Magic Kingdom

We had some great timing with the bus getting to the Magic Kingdom. We also decided to have breakfast at the food court at Old Port Royale, mainly because we hadn’t used a quick service meal the day before. The food was fine but not the most fresh thing you’ll get at Disney and we ended up getting to MK at around 9:15. We wore our "Happily Ever After" Buttons and the attendant who scanned our MagicBands at the gate told us a secret to happiness at the Magic Kingdom. He told us to hold hands and skip through the gates to make it even more magical. When I mentioned that I had run the marathon the day before, he understood that I wouldn't be skipping anywhere for the forseeable future.

We were too late for rope drop but with plenty of time before our 9:40am Fastpass for the Mine Train. But the Mine Train wasn’t working.



So, after killing some time on Main Street, really taking things in and taking a few pictures, we headed to Liberty Square where we caught the Muppets presenting American History. This show was about the Declaration of Independence and we loved it!



I’ll confess, I’m a huge Muppets fan. The Muppet Movie was the first movie my parents took me to in a theatre and I’ve loved the rascals ever since. The American History show was perfectly done with all of the Muppets in character. Sam the Eagle (who had cheered us on during the marathon) was excellent as the keeper of the history and the only quibble I have is that Fozzie’s jokes were probably a little too funny (I think historically, he’s been on the other side of the funny-cheesy scale). Otherwise, it was an outstanding addition to Liberty Square.



From there, we headed to Tomorrowland for Space Mountain. We had ridden it before but it was quite thrilling, even more so than I remembered it and, as our first “thrill ride. We also went to see the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, which was something we bypassed the first time. It was a hoot, similar to Turtle Talk with Crush but definitely for a more adult audience. In our show, “that guy” was great and really into it, meaning that it was always good for a laugh when he was shown on the screens.

We took a little break and moseyed back through Fantasyland on the way to our Splash Mountain FP+, checkin on the status of the Mine Train. It was still down, and since it was the first time that I had a situation where a fastpassed ride was not working, I clarified the protocol. While we could have used it on something else, we both definitely wanted to ride the Mine Train.

Splash Mountain is such a peculiar ride. Based on a movie that no one wants you to see (Song of the South), it’s more than just a “flume” ride. The animals (Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Bear) and so thoroughly trying to hurt each other, it’s almost like a Warner Brothers cartoon. I’m old enough to have seen the movie on one of its rereleases, probably in the early 80s, and of course, I remember the infectious song, “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah.” There are some similarities to “It’s a Small World” in that the song that plays throughout the ride is not (any longer) linked to any Disney animation product that the company will try to sell you. IASW is so ubiquitous that it’s become a de facto theme song for the parks but “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah,” while one of the most ear-wormy songs you’ll ever hear, has become a stand-alone song in the Disney canon. The racially sensitive nature of Song of the South means that Splash Mountain is now the only remaining remnant of that film that Disney chooses to acknowledge. It’s also amazing that the ride hasn’t been re-themed to something else over the years.

After Splash Mountain, we debated riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (which we had rode two years earlier) but ended up seeing Mickey’s Philharmagic, one of my wife’s absolute favourites (mostly because I didn’t think my feet/legs could handle 45 minutes or more in line). Philharmagic was just as good the second time around and I’ll happily share my enthusiasm for this attraction.

Lunch was in order and we tried out Pecos Bill’s for Tex-Mex. I think we both ordered the Southwest Chicken Salad and were happy with the portions and flavours. We both had Mickey-ear-shaped rice crispie treats that we had picked up at Old Port Royale that morning for dessert.

After a little rest, we went back to the Mine Train. I really don’t remember much about it, to be honest. It’s faded in my memory thanks to being overwritten by the many roller coaster/thrill rides we were to ride in the coming days. We went to Adventureland, one of my wife’s favourite “lands,” for Jungle Cruise (which I had Fastpassed after we finished the Mine Train). We rode it as the “Jingle Cruise” on our first trip and had the chance to see it “au naturale.”

Following the Jungle Cruise, we went to Pirates of the Caribbean and had one of our longest waits of the day. After a marathon, standing in life for 45 minutes is rough. Following Pirates, we went to the Enchanted Tiki Room for a (seated) show. The Tiki Room is another attraction that has some strange orientalist leanings, portraying the Polynesian cultures a little stereotypically (we have yet to see “Moana” so we don’t know how the Disney Folks are dealing with that today). At this point, we were running out of time before our 6:30pm dinner reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern. We decided to head to the Haunted Mansion (and another 45-minute wait). Fortunately, we got to check out the redone queue areas and the effects were spectacular as always.

We were seated at LTT about 10 minutes after our time which was unfortunate. While the food was good, we did have to rush a little bit in order to catch Wishes. The one regret I had about our planning for the trip was that when planning our ADRs for dinners, I didn’t take into account a couple of the big end of night shows. We didn’t get a chance to see Once Upon a Time, but we did ask our server at LTT to make sure that we got out in time to see Wishes which, as it had two years prior, blown us away.

We leisurely walked back out, taking some pictures of the beautifully lit up park.



One comment I have about this trip to Magic Kingdom over our previous one (on December 23, 2014), was that, while we were definitely taking things at a slower pace this time, having seen most of the park’s attractions, we still didn’t have enough time to see what we wanted to, particularly since the park closed at 8pm. Combined with the shorter opening hours, the table-service dinner really cut into our ability to get the most of our day at Magic Kingdom.

After the long day, we retired to the resort to prepare for our next day and next park: Our first time at Animal Kingdom.

 

[MummyButterfly]

Ugh about the blisters, but a huge congrats on finishing! I can't imagine being able to do that!

I am enjoying your tale, and I totally feel your wife and the unhappiness about the weather! Disney needs to be warm!

Looking forward to your updates.

 

[mankle30]

Ugh about the blisters, but a huge congrats on finishing! I can't imagine being able to do that!

I am enjoying your tale, and I totally feel your wife and the unhappiness about the weather! Disney needs to be warm!

Looking forward to your updates.

Thanks for reading! Need to finish writing up the next day and it'll be up this morning, I hope.

 

[mankle30]

Part 6: Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - Animal Kingdom



Our third day of park visits started off with a bang. We were excited, having written off Animal Kingdom as “just a zoo” on our previous visit. It turned out to be one of our best days at Disney World. Coming up to the park, we could see the floating mountains of Pandora floating over the signs and trees. We had recently watched Avatar after reading about the new additions to Animal Kingdom and, while we were a little sad that the “Avatarland” wasn’t open yet, it gave us a good reason to return, likely in a couple of years.



Getting to the park for rope drop, we were amazed at a few things. One was the quiet feel to the opening of Animal Kingdom. There was no music to welcome us, just the sounds of the environment and birds in the forests surrounding the path that led us to the Tree of Life. The tree itself was beautiful and we marveled at the carvings in the trunk and all around it. Finally, as 9:00am approached, a beautiful flock of birds flew low over the crowd, to land on a perch just in front of the Tree of Life.



We were welcomed to the park and the birds flew away on cue. With all of the animatronics we had seen at Epcot and Magic Kingdom, the fact that they had real trained exotic birds do a fly-over to open the day at Animal Kingdom really blew us away!



Our first stop at AK was to Dinosaur! We had fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safari and Expedition Everest so the one attraction that we really wanted to see would be a “get there early” type of ride. My wife loves dinosaurs and so we headed for the ride. We loved the details of the queue and the ride itself was quite fun. We also loved how the Dino-Land area was very “carny” and tongue-in-cheek. The adorable dinosaurs were nowhere more present than on Primeval Whirl, a typical “carny” type ride that spins you as you enjoy some mild roller coaster action. My wife couldn’t stop laughing at the spinning and the dinosaurs with signs like the ones that said “The End is Near” along with the cartoony scientists.

We went to Africa after our time in DinoLand. This was where our amazement at the theming of AK began. The buildings don’t look like an idealized African Village. To us, both of whom are well traveled, Harambe looked like it could be a real place.



We were greeted by the Tam Tam Dancers who got my wife involved in their dance and then, when the called the men, I had to get up and join them. Following their performance, they singled us out (along with a couple that had just gotten engaged and a couple of birthday celebrations) and the crowd and band blessed us. We were also told to have 10 kids. We humoured them (no way we’re having 10) and went on our way to Kilimanjaro Safaris (KS).



Again, we were amazed by real animals (see next post for pictures - I hit the limit on this post)!

We followed the safari with a snack (Elephant Ear pastry) before making our way into the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail for more animal encounters.

We went to Asia and my wife, who was born in India and had visited Nepal, was blown away by the theming of the section. Reading the Hindi text on the buildings, she was taken back to her trip to Nepal and she remembered the signs advertising expeditions to Everest in Kathmandu. We were enjoying the scenery and went to Expedition Everest to try it out! This was a fantastic ride experience! We had a fastpass so we didn’t have to wait long and the forwards and backwards movement was outstanding on this ride. We then did the Maharajah Jungle Trek, enjoying the animals as well as the Indian-themed backgrounds.

We went for lunch back near the Tree of Life at Flame Tree Barbeque. It was amazing how much food they packed into their meals for fairly reasonable prices (although, since we were using the dining plan, we went for much more extravagant meals than we would have otherwise). I had the ribs and chicken and my wife a salad while there were a number of birds circling our table, looking for scraps. This where our experience wasn’t encouraging. People were feeding the birds and while they never got particularly aggressive, they were fairly relentless, making us uncomfortable. Of course, there were signs telling guests not to feed the birds but who reads signs?

After lunch, we went to see It’s Tough to Be a Bug and found it to be quite cute! Then it was off to the Festival of the Lion King. While some of the acrobats reminded us of Cirque du Soleil, the fact that the show wasn’t just a rehashing of the movie plot made it really come alive. Plus, the animatronics and actors/singers/dancers were outstanding. After that, we went to ride Expedition Everest again. This time my wife kept her eyes open and actually saw the Yeti (although the expected him to be white). We also noticed a ton of hair scrunchies littering the sides of the ride at the point where the tracks are broken and it goes backwards. What’s up with that? Is that a thing for people to discard their scrunchies there?

We finished our day at Animal Kingdom with the Finding Nemo Musical. While it was taking us through the story of the movie, the puppets and technical innovations of the way the characters were brought to life were amazing and the original music was pleasant enough.

The thing that really impressed us in Animal Kingdom was how the park could really make you feel like you were somewhere else, as the picture below can attest. There's nothing there to suggest you're in Florida or anywhere other than a river in the foothills of the Himalayas.



We had decided to check out Fantasmic and the Star Wars fireworks show at Hollywood Studios (HS) because we would miss them the next day, since we had reservations at Biergarten at Epcot. Unfortunately, the bus timings weren’t working out and while we waiting for a direct bus from AK to HS, we didn’t see one. Fortunately, we saw a Caribbean Beach Resort bus across the way and hurried to catch it. From the resort, we got into the car to go to Hollywood Studios. We actually planned to do this, since our dinner reservation was at Boma (at Animal Kingdom Lodge) and we had made it later (9:00) to allow our park hop and end of the night festivities.

While things took too long for us to make it for Fantasmic, we did get a chance to see HS lit up at night (it’s quite nice). The Star Wars projections and fireworks were a bit underwhelming. There really wasn’t a connecting idea in the clips (something to honour Carrie Fisher would have been nice) and it just seemed a bit random.

We left the park, which was not incredibly crowded and had an easy time finding the car in the parking lot. We drove to Animal Kingdom Lodge and were amazed by the lobby there. We found Boma and enjoyed a terrific meal. We were particularly blown away by the soups. While there was a nice butternut squash soup, I’ll confess that we had the same type of soup at our wedding and it was much better. Aside from that, their lentil soup was outstanding and I was smitten by their seafood soup. I wish I remembered the name, but it was unbelievably good. Unfortunately, we were pretty stuffed from all the food we’ve been eating (thanks to the DDP) but still wanted to sample as much of Boma’s stellar lineup as we could. The Zebra domes were good but I think they’re a little overrated and our waiter brought out a pair of cupcakes (that we couldn’t even finish) to honour or recent marriage (still wearing our “Happily Ever After” buttons).

Finally, after a long day and delicious meal, we went back to the CBR to prepare for checkout in the morning and the day at Hollywood Studios and Epcot.

 

[mankle30]

Animals!

 

[mankle30]

Part 7: Wednesday, January 11 - Hollywood Studios and Epcot

The morning of the 11th was a little sad for us. We were going to be checking out of the Caribbean Beach Resort. Our trip wasn't over but, for budget reasons, we were staying the final three nights of our honeymoon at another hotel, heading to the Baymont Inn and Suites, nominally in Celebration (but in reality in Kissimmee). Checkout was bittersweet as we tried to find all of our stuff -- I'm normally a light packer but I had a whole other bag with my running gear to be prepared for any weather/eventuality. Luckily we had done the online checkin/checkout so we didn't have to go to the Customs House. We loaded the car with our bags and headed towards Hollywood studios. The parking (since we had scoped out the route and the parking lot the night before) was a breeze and we hopped aboard the tram for the gates.

We made it for rope drop and our goal today was to get to Rock n' Roller Coaster first before we settled into our day. We had FP+s for Toy Story, Tower of Terror and Star Tours. In many ways, we needn't have really bothered because lines were not a problem but it's nice to know that you won't have to stand for too long.



The line for RnR Coaster was about 20 minutes when we arrived but it was quickly updated to about 45 minutes. Still, we got on the ride in about 25-30 minutes and we really enjoyed the theming of it. As a musician myself, I've spent plenty of time in recording studios and it was kinda neat to walk into a studio environment. It was also cool, at one point in the queue, to hear music as it if was coming from behind a closed studio door. The ride itself was pretty great. Since we were wrapping up our Disney park tour, we were sort of ramping up the thrill rides towards the Universal standard and, in retrospect, RnR Coaster is pretty competitive, but short. My wife was a little apprehensive about the loops and inversions but because the ride is indoors and dark (with some things to look at), it caused her fewer problems than Space Mountain did.

We had some time to kill before our Tower of Terror FP+ and took a walk towards the main square. My wife was hungry so we went into Starring Rolls and found the Butterfinger Cupcake to our liking. Holy moly. That thing was big, sugary and very satisfying! Fortunately, there were two of us eating it because I don't think it was meant for a single human.



We also caught part of the March of the First Order which was interesting although it's certainly not the best parade there is at WDW.



Then, it was the Tower of Terror! Our CM was very creepy in putting us in the elevator/ride vehicle telling us that "you should have taken the stairs" as the doors closed (I don't know if this is part of the script but it was sufficiently creepy and hilarious at the same time). This ride really was thrilling! It was really cool to be able to see out of the tower to the whole park and the multiple drops were unpredictable. My wife really loved it -- she seems to do better with the drop rides than I do while I do better with the coasters and inversions. Either way, it was definitely a highlight.

After ToT, I think we went to see the Great Movie Ride. The CMs were a little "off" - meaning that the female one had a very inconsistent accent and really didn't seem all that into it. I probably wouldn't ride it again and, after reading that it's going to be removed, I'm not really all that bummed.

We went to the Toy Story Movie Mania ride and we had a blast shooting our little guns at the targets. While I had a respectable score, we certainly were destroyed by other players nearby.

We went to see the Muppets 3-D and enjoyed the show although there are definitely stronger entries in Disney's array of 3-D theatre-based attractions. Then, we saw the Indiana Jones stunt show and I was amazed when my wife confessed that she hadn't seen any of the movies. Gasp. Well, since getting home, we've been rectifying that and have gotten through the first two (with the third being my favourite). We got there right as the show was starting and were seated in the front row all the way to the right side. We could see the stunt guys getting ready to come on stage and it was a cool show, particularly how they could set up with three different sets in such a short period of time. I thought there could have been more "how did they do that" explanation but I guess they want to keep people engaged with explosions and stuff instead of showing the air bags where the stunt folks jumped and things like that.

We headed to Star Tours after Indy and I enjoyed the ride. To me it felt a little like a lot of some of the other rides although it was still fun. It was quite possible that fatigue was hitting me at this point. Still, we enjoyed the ride and then went for lunch. My wife got a gigantic burger (with brisket on it too) and we were well fed after our little break. We walked around, seeing some of the other attractions like One Man's Dream (although we didn't see the film) and the Little Mermaid show. I enjoyed the Festival of the Lion King and the Finding Nemo musical at AK more than Little Mermaid. Mainly, this show was just a rehashing of the movie without any real innovation (other than getting sprinkled). At some point during the day, I had realized that I lost my "Happily Ever After" button. My instinct was that it came off on the Rock n' Roller Coaster.

Since it was the end of the day for us at Hollywood Studios, we stopped into guest services on the way out, getting a replacement "Happily Ever After" button. We even got a sharpie this time to write "Just Married" on it and we both took the opportunity to embellish our button. We left the park, headed to the car and drove over to Epcot.

Parking at Epcot was a breeze and we got into the tram towards the gate. Getting inside the park again was nice for me, after having been so exhausted the last time. We had been looking at the wait times for Frozen Ever After and decided that an hour was too much time to give up. In addition, we had a 7pm ADR at Biergarten and I wanted to see the show at the American Adventure. At this point, my feet were killing me and an hour standing in line for FEA was not my idea of a good time.

We stopped at Club Cool, which we had totally missed the first time we were there in December 2014. It's amazing what a little reading does and we went in and tried all of the sodas. Interestingly, I didn't think Beverly was horrible (although I had been warned). To me, it had a grapefruit-y bitterness rather than a really unpleasant bitterness. That said, I wouldn't be importing any Beverly from Italy any time soon.

We walked around the World Showcase, enjoying the ambiance. We wanted to use up some of our snack rations from the dining plan and stopped by the bakery in France. Unfortunately, neither of us were particularly hungry (especially with a dinner reservation a little over an hour away) and kept walking through, passing by Morocco, and looking through the Japan museum display.



We always enjoy these little exhibitions and feel that the fact that we can learn something in addition to being entertained is always more value for our dollar. We got to America and checked out the little exhibition there before going into the show. My wife had a hard time staying awake but I found the presentation to be very interesting (in addition to being a fantastic opportunity to getting of my feet). From America, it wasn't far to Germany to get our dinner!



I was looking forward to this since we made our reservations a few months before. I lived in Germany for a year (in addition to several other trips there) and had the occasion to venturing to a popular beer hall in Berlin that was modeled, like Biergarten, after the Bavarian beer halls. I think I freaked out our waiter by speaking to him and ordering our drinks in German but he continued to talk to me auf Deutsch the rest of our visit. I had a 1/2 liter beer (although others at our table were drinking more, but I was driving) and I had a chance to enjoy a dark wheat beer that I loved while in Germany. Unfortunately, I still wasn't all that hungry, so I grazed more than gorged at the buffet. I love sauerkraut and sausages, so I was in heaven but all of the food that I sampled was great and their strudel was excellent. We also enjoyed the band who sang the "Ein Prosit" song to get everyone drinking (which I knew from my beer hall days in Germany).

After dinner, we moseyed slowly (due to the excess of food) around the World Showcase, stopping in China to see their film but not before some acrobats performed. They were pretty impressive and featured a vase balancing fellow, a couple who did daredevil spins and lifts on roller skates and a fellow who did some acrobatics balancing on ever growing piles of chairs. The film was fun and we also got a chance to see the Disneyland Shanghai presentation in the China pavilion.



By that time, it was time for Illuminations! It was, of course, spectacular although maybe not quite as magical as it had been on Christmas Day two years prior. Still, it was a great way to end our night.

To end our Disney stay, we decided to head back to Old Port Royale and cash in the rest of our snacks for use over the next couple of days at Universal Orlando. We filled our Rapid Fill Mugs and picked up a whole whack of snacks. It was pretty amazing that, despite not spending money on food, we actually only used seven of our 16 snacks (2 per day per person for four days) over the course of our stay. We grabbed a couple of the Mickey marshmallow treats, a couple of apples, a couple of egg containers (protein!) a couple of bags of chips and something else I can't remember. We grabbed a to-go bag and took our haul to the car and from there to our new hotel.

Honestly, the new hotel had a very nice lobby and rooms but otherwise it wasn't much took at. Still, with a fridge and free breakfast, we felt we were getting our money's worth. Our Disneymoon had ended but we still had two days at Universal Orlando before we would head back north.

 

[mankle30]

Part 8: Thursday, January 12, 2017

Welcome to Universal Studios Florida! Yup, my new bride and I continued our honeymoon went to the other side (of Orlando) to experience more theme park madness! To catch you up (if you’re just joining us), a plan to celebrate my 40th birthday by coming to Walt Disney World and running the marathon turned into our honeymoon (starting with the “runnymoon”) with four days at Disney parks and two at Universal Orlando.

Of course, after spending about half an hour in traffic and parking at the Universal parking lot, we made our way to the front gate. But first there was airport style security and metal detectors (done differently than Disney), leading us into Citywalk. We like Citywalk immediately. There was so much to see and do. It actually reminded me of the entrance to a pedestrian mall in downtown Munich and I really liked the layout where the Citywalk was the central passageway to both Universal parks.



Once we were through the gates, we had decided to head to Universal Studios Florida (USF) first and, of course, our first stop, once through the gates, was head to Diagon Alley. We passed through the “New York” and “San Francisco” sections of the park before finding “London.” It was actually neat to see the entrance to King’s Cross Station before the entrance to the Diagon Alley section of the park. We walked through the legendary brick wall (although there was nothing so magical as there is in the movie) and were amazed as the pathway opened up to Diagon Alley. After having been in some exquisitely themed areas, particularly in Animal Kingdom, Diagon Alley took the cake. Whether it was the witch and wizard restroom signs, the dragon above Gringotts, or just the quirkiness of the Wizarding World, everything was perfect (e.g., you can see in the picture that Gringotts isn’t exactly built on straight lines and that there is no real uniformity to the construction).



It was also hilarious to see grown folks in their robes with their wands, making “magic” happen by stepping on a metal plate and waving their wands. Store windows had magical creatures that came to life when the wands were waved, there was a prop that worked in Knockturn Alley (it’s hard to describe) and there was also an umbrella that water poured from. For many millennials, this Harry Potter experience is probably the equivalent of Disney for those who are either too young for the stories about the Boy Who Lived or those who grew up before the stories became popular (I wasn’t exposed to Harry and his friends until I was in my mid-20s).



We headed to Gringott’s for the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringott’s ride. This was our first experience with the Universal form of attractions and it was very thrilling. After enjoying the queue of the bank, goblins and all, we saw a video of Percy Weasley with a Goblin vowing to give us a tour of Gringott’s. Eventually, we’re on a roller coaster with 3-D glasses on, watching and riding as we get stuck, meeting with Bellatrix Lestrange, Voldemort and even Harry, Ron and Hermione. The ride was thrilling as we were hooked up to a dragon to find our way out.

In sum, it was pretty great. Something that we hadn’t seen at Disney and while the best of Disney’s ride (Expedition Everest, Tower of Terror) can match the thrills, we hadn’t seen anything marry the thrills with the story and visuals.

We decided to head to the other Harry Potter area immediately before crowds got overwhelming. We went aboard the Hogwarts Express (HE) from King’s Cross Station and I actually missed the “walking through the wall to get to platform 9 3/4” illusion. You have to look over at a mirror which makes it look as if people ahead of you are walking through the wall but you don’t actually see it yourself, looking straight ahead.

The HE was ok. I have to say that I wasn’t completely enthralled. It was decent the first time but lost its charm pretty quickly after that. That said, if you’re deep in either park and you have the park-hopper option, it’s a much quicker way to get from park to park without having to go all the way back out to the entrance, through Citywalk and into the entrance to the other park.

We emerged in Hogsmeade and the first thing my wife did was get a butterbeer. For $7.50, it had better be good (in addition to being a unique experience) and . . . it was delicious! We had the cold version (as opposed to the hot or frozen versions) and it was frothy delicious goodness (but oh, so sweet).

We returned to USF, mainly because we had decided that we wanted to experience that park first and the first attraction we saw after returning there was the Revenge of the Mummy. This has a cool queue area, with Egyptian style sculptures. While there are no 3-D glasses or screens in this ride, you get some interesting effects with a pretty intense roller coaster-type experience in short doses along with some great animatronic thrills (including a room that fills with fire. Universal seems to like getting people wet and playing with fire). We also rode the Transformers Ride. I’d liken it a little to Star Tours but way more immersive. The ride vehicle moves through a cityscape that matches and blends extremely well with the 3-D screens and transformers that you interact with. While we watched the first Transformers movie since returning (and neither of us were particularly thrilled by it), you really feel like you’re a part of this massive battle between the Autobots and Decepticons. It’s like Star Tours on steroids.

My wife and I then went to find the Minions ride. This was one of our longest waits of the day as the crowds started filling the place. We were a little frightened by the Rip Ride n’ Roller Coaster with its (completely) vertical assent but we wanted to ride, only to find the lines were all extremely long. The Minions, however, was short enough that we could manage the 45 minutes or so standing. It was a very cute experience and fun, as another 3-D motion simulator. While not as exhilarating as Transformers, it was still a lot of fun . . . and Minions!!

Then, seeing that the wait for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was reasonable (it was about 25 minutes or so at that point), we went back to the Hogwarts Express (where we rode with a lady who wasn’t into "Henry Potter”) and wound our way through Hogsmeade to the Castle.

The queue winds its way through Hogwarts Castle and there is some magic in the queue. Paintings suddenly come alive and we see Ron, Harry and Hermione appearing from under the cloak of invisibility in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Additionally, one finds oneself face to face with the sorting hat! The ride itself is one of the most technologically advanced ride we’ve seen and while it doesn’t have you moving at 60mph like some roller coasters, it does make you feel like you’re soaring over Hogwarts, flying with Harry and dragons and escaping narrowly from dementors. The screens make this an immersive experience and the robotic arms that hold the seats (from which you hang) have an unparalleled range of motion. Apparently, since the ride opened, Universal has dialed down the motion to keep people from getting too sick but it’s an amazing use of animatronics, immersive screens (much like Soarin’ uses in Epcot) and motion control ride vehicles. If you’ve been to Orlando and love thrill rides, you MUST visit this attraction (in the Islands of Adventure (IOA) theme park).

While we were there, the wait times were very short for the Dragon Challenge: Dual rollercoasters that have been rethemed to be a part of the Harry Potter-verse. We rode the Chinese Fireball and, to be honest, my stomach wasn’t all that happy at this point. We went to the Three Broomsticks for another butterbeer and I discovered that it doesn’t pair well with peanut butter sandwiches. I was getting very fatigued and since most of the rides that we hadn’t been on yet had long lines, we decided to hit the Spider-Man ride and call it a day early (around 4 or 5 pm) and come back tomorrow. We both found walking through Islands of Adventure to be distracting. We were bombarded with loud music at every angle and while the Jurassic Park area was nicely themed, the other areas were way over the top with bright colors and gaudy “set decoration.” The Spider-Man ride itself was a 3-D motion simulator and, to our tastes, was too similar to the Transformers ride to be really satisfying. We were definitely starting to experience adrenaline burnout and everything was blurring together. We decided to head back to the hotel, stay in (we watched the first half of Pirates of the Caribbean on Netflix) and have an early night.

The biggest ride we wanted to ride was the new one: Reign of Kong: Skull Island. That was going to be our first stop on Day 2 at Universal.

 

[ennjay]

Henry Potter! LOL -- that's REALLY not into HP!!

 

[Dis5150]

We are going to Universal for the first time on our family vacation in November and I am loving all your descriptions!

 

[mankle30]

Part 9: Friday, January 13, 2017

This was our final day of theme-parking on our honeymoon and our priority today was the Kong: Skull Island ride which had too long lines for us the day before. My wife is a big fan of monster movies like Jurassic Park, Pacific Rim and King Kong was high up on her list. We didn’t quite get going early enough to make it for rope drop, but the crowds weren’t too bad when we arrived. We made a beeline straight for Skull Island and loved the details in the theming of the ride and the whole area around it (apologies as I didn't take very many decent pictures this day).

The queue area has some phenomenal detail work and some genuine scares which I won't give away for anyone who doesn't like spoilers!

I’ve read a lot about this ride since we were there and it’s actually really well done with the ride buggies being completely automated with five different drivers who each have their own dialogue and driving style. Much like the Transformers ride, Skull Island is a very immersive experience wherein you feel like you’re just trying to hold on and escape with your life after the monsters battle each other around you. And then there’s a really impressive animatronic at the end!

We also decided to ride Jurassic Park while we were in Islands of Adventures. My wife really wanted to visit this attraction and while I found the animatronic dinosaurs to be a little “Jungle Cruise-ish,” she enjoyed them. We were prepared for getting wet and we had locked literally everything we could up in a locker. While we were bereft of our stuff that could get soaked on a ride, we also rode the Dudley Do-Right ride. While I remember Dudley Do-Right and the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, my wife didn’t really remember and she was pretty miserable after we got completely soaked (fortunately it was warm out). Note to self: skip it next time unless we're wearing bathing suits.

We rode the other Dragon Challenge coaster and, I think, the Men In Black ride that was also similar to Toy Story ride in Hollywood Studios, although in the Men In Black ride, you’re shooting at aliens who are much more a part of the environment. The weather was turning and we strolled through Springfield (but the Simpsons Ride was not working) and some of the outdoor thrill rides were getting closed down. We were, by now, back in Universal Studios Florida and decided to partake in some of the shows.



We REALLY enjoyed the Hollywood Make Up show. One of our favourite lines was one of the presenters needling a kid in the front row, saying “I don’t have to be nice, this isn’t Disney.” It was a truly entertaining show and got some audience participation. One woman helped demonstrate how makeup effects were used to simulate cutting through a hand or arm. With the knife seemingly plunged into her forearm and fake blood squirting everywhere, her very young son started to freak out and actually didn’t stop crying for the whole show (which, for some reason, made it more entertaining for us). We also saw a 3-D Terminator 2 show that combined live action and screens. To be honest, the live-action “Arnold Schwartzenegger” actor looked a little too beefy to be Arnold but it was still a fun time.

The USF parade, though, was very disappointing. After the “parade,” which consisted of about 8-10 floats of characters who were only marginally recognizable (aside from Gru and the minions), we dodged the rain by getting a milk shake at a 50s themed diner while then heading back to some indoor rides to ride again. The lines were pretty short for Revenge of the Mummy and Transformers and I think we appreciated the rides more the second time. Then, we braved the rain to get a look at their closing light show which was a nice try at capturing similar magic to Disney, but not quite the same.

When we left the park, we went to their dueling Piano Bar in Citywalk. The food was good and the pianists were great! Our favourite moment was when one singer said “Let’s see what happens with this one,” and started playing a song. Instantly, almost all of the women in the bar were singing along and when he got to the chorus, we realized that he was singing “Let it Go.” It was pretty hilarious and awesome.

Finally, we went back to the hotel for our last night in Florida. It was an early bed time because we had a long drive back north, stopping in Southern Virginia for a night and then another long day of driving to get back to Toronto.

A whirlwind trip but a great Runnymoon and Disneymoon! Thanks for reading!

 

[TCB in FLA]

Great TR! Congrats on the marathon!

 

[mankle30]

Great TR! Congrats on the marathon!

Thank you!