“Is that Macklemore?!” - A 2019 Princess Half-Marathon Report! Update 2/3 MK

[wonderchica]

Hi all! Welcome to my first trip report, better late than never I say I figured this might be helpful for some Princess newbies this year!

I’m Sarah! Join me for my first WDW trip since childhood... and my first half-marathon!


I’ll be joined on this adventure by my friend and running buddy, Natalie. Neither of us would describe ourselves as runners but we challenged ourselves to do a local 10-mile race in November 2018. A few months later she suggested we sign up for the Princess Half (13.1 miles). I decided I’d do anything for a trip to Disney... even run

Intrigued?? Stick around for the answers to some important questions- “Are we really sleeping somewhere different every night?”, “Will we still be standing by the time we run to Epcot?”, “Who’s going to hold my stuff if my mom isn’t here??”, and the most crucial question of all... “WAS that Macklemore?” (cue Thrift Shop ).
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[wonderchica]

The Plan
Thursday February 21 2019- Sunday February 24 2019
Off-site stay: Red Lion- Kissimmee crash pad, a friend’s house, then back to the Red Lion crash pad!
Parks: Magic Kingdom and Epcot
Race: Princess Half-Marathon



Travel Day!!

After months of training... it’s time to go!! Hooray! Travel day is boring, so little to no pics here haha. We had about a 7 hour drive ahead of us. First I had to drop off my little puppy girl at her first boarding experience!

She’s a 4 year old maltipoo. She’s had lots of experiencing staying with friends and family over night, but never boarding.

Needless to say, she did not approve of Mommy leaving her at the dog motel while she went to have fun. There were a few loud, larger dogs when I left her and she seemed a little nervous. She stayed at one of those swanky pet resorts with private rooms, patios, and a camera to watch your dog’s every move. I chose a room on the first floor so she could go out to her private patio outdoors. I thought this was a great idea, but spoiler alert, it came back to bite me

We loaded up with some tunes and podcasts and took off! It was a pretty uneventful drive, luckily. We stopped at a Wendys about half way for lunch and switched drivers. No food pics but I’m sure you’re familiar with that 4 for $4 deal

Soon we were entering the craziness of Orlando freeways. So. Many. Billboards. As we drove I randomly noticed a billboard advertising a Macklemore concert at Universal (keep this detail in mind!!). “Hmm... what songs has he had since Thrift Shop? Any big ones?” Turns out he has had a few.


After 7+ hours we finally made it to our hotel! We got there on a Thursday night, so we just needed a decent place to lay our heads before moving over to Natalie’s friends’ house. After looking at some recs on Disboards, we ended up at Red Lion- Kissimmee.
It suited our needs perfectly! Cheap, clean, and safe. We checked in, stashed our stuff and then headed to the World for everyone’s favorite knock down, drag out shopping experience...



THE EXPO!!!!!​

 

[Melissakay1q]

Following along!

 

[wonderchica]

Following along!

Welcome, Melissa!!

 

[TwoLittlePrincesses]

Yay! I did the Fairy tale Challenge in 2018 and I’m excited to follow along on your trip report!

 

[wonderchica]

Yay! I did the Fairy tale Challenge in 2018 and I’m excited to follow along on your trip report!

Glad to have you! So impressed that you did the Fairy Tale- seeing everyone with their 5 and 10K medals before it was our turn was so exciting and encouraging.

 

[wonderchica]

Thursday- Princess Half-Marathon Expo!

We got to the ESPN Wide World of Sports around 7 pm. The expo opened around 12pm I think that day. The expo is where you pick up your race packet and get to do a little shopping for Princess merch. We’d been keeping an eye on the Disney blog for merch pics and I had my heart set on this little beauty

Hah... me and everyone else, it turns out!!

It was packed when we got there, but I was so thrilled to be at DISNEY after so many years away! Just passing the hordes on the sidewalk with their magic bands, Minnie ears, and Disney shirts was filling me with the joy. And the buses! The Disney buses! Ahh!
Now, as soon as we went to cross the street to get over to ESPN, the crossing guard was advising us “Hydrate, ladies! It’s gonna be a hot one! Hydrate!”. This would be a running theme- I think literally every cast member I saw told us this. Why? Well...

YEAH. 86 degrees and HUMID forecasted for our race. We were coming from 45 degree weather. Not frigid, but certainly not 86. The forecast made us a little nervous but we pressed on...


Packet pick up was nice and smooth. We got our race shirts (VERY important, as every runner knows!). The half shirts were a nice blue, and I was super glad we didn’t get the neon green like the 5k shirts. I was a little worried about the size I picked, but they had a special area set up to swap your shirt sizes. It was super easy and no drama at all. After that, we headed across the complex to the shopping area!




Disney knows what these princesses want, ‘cause there were tons of cute photo ops available. After taking a few pics, we headed inside in search of my number one pick, the only thing I wanted, the spirit jersey!!

WOMP WOMP WOMP
You may have noticed my pic of the jersey is a Google image... because they were already SOLD OUT! The very first day! We knew merch goes fast so we planned to go on day one, but we couldn’t believe they were already gone. I asked one cast member if they were going to be restocked. She looked really confused and assured me they were. Something about the way she said it made me think she really had no clue lol. So I found another cast member and she said absolutely not, they were 100% gone. Now later I saw pics on a runDisney Facebook group of women buying STACKS of jerseys in all sizes- like 80 of them. The thing about the expo is that anyone can come in and shop. You don’t have to be a race participant. So surely enough, those cute tie dye jerseys started filling the Facebook market place and eBay the very next day, all marked up at least double the price. I really think they should make you show your race packet before you can shop. IMO it just isn’t fair for resellers to get all the cool race merch when runners can’t get anything. RANT OVER

I was super disappointed in the jersey sitch, but I did manage to snag a drink glass and a cute pullover. A year later, a lot of the images on the glass have come off Apparently this was a common problem. Do better, Disney!

After picking up our stuff, we headed back to our off-site hotel. We stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings to grab a quick bite. I thought I was recovering from my disappointment over the jersey, but oh no... a woman eating a BWW was wearing MY jersey and my anger inflamed again I managed to behave and not tackle her for it lol.

We got back to the hotel and quickly went to bed because we had a hot date with a certain castle in the morning!!!​

 

[wonderchica]

Friday- Magic Kingdom!

After catching a few hours of sleep, it was off to Magic Kingdom! I was so excited the night before I could hardly sleep!

We had some decent Fastpasses and a strategy we hoped would work... so how did we do??

Driving into MK was weird- I’ve never stayed offsite! Previous trips we stayed at Fort Wilderness and CBR. But who cares! We’re here!

We got there around 815 I think? For a 9 am opening. Tons of space to move around and I was already loving the lower crowds.



We made a quick stop at the castle for some pics...


Then made our way to the Liberty Square entrance to wait for rope drop. We caught some of the welcome show through the trees before heading to our first ride of the day...


Haunted Mansion!! I love this ride so much. If you’re into podcasts, there’s a great 2-part episode on the history of HM on Stuff You Missed in History Class. We listened to it on the drive down. By the way, this must have been an EMM day because we got crushed in a crowd running down from Fantasyland on the way to HM. Oh well, live and learn...

Next we were off to Big Thunder! We’d had a FP for this but I dropped it a couple weeks before when a 7DMT magically appeared. The wait said 15 minutes (already!) but it seemed longer. If I had to redo this, I probably would have gone here first and tried to get a FP later for HM. HM is kind of a long ride.

This is always a super fun ride, but this time was a special experience...
When I was a kid my mom and brother hated roller
coasters, so they were always my special thing to do with my dad. We rode them all on our trips to the World. My dad passed away a few months before the half-marathon so I was thinking about him a lot during this trip! As we were riding around the bends and hills I swear I could hear him laughing and yelling beside me!! If you were there that day and saw someone weeping on BTMR.. it was me

After that we hit up Pirates with a minimal wait and wandered around Adventureland for a bit before going to our first FP of the day (10 am). What would it be???
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