Hello! Here’s a long recap of of my WDW trip and the Princess half marathon.
The Expo was insane. Considering there were so many people in there as they were closing up. Kind of stinks that they closed it at 3pm!
My sister and I stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort. Our room was comfortable, close to the bus stop, and easy access to the ice (very important). lol. We were at the Barbados location. At the bus stops they have a monitor telling you when the bus will be by next for the individual parks, which was helpful! The bus ride to MK from here felt like forever, but not too bad to the other parks. The downside is we did have to wait for quite a long time when returning back to the room from the parks.
After checking into our room, we headed to Disney Springs. We made our way to the disney store there and then ate dinner at Portobello. Dinner was amazing and the view was beautiful!
Grabbed a few goodies for the girls and then headed back to our room for an early bed time since we had to be up at 3:30 for the run.
Up early and out the door to catch a bus to the starting line. We had no issues catching a bus, but the ride took forever to get us to drop off. Once there it was a out a 20 minute walk to the corrals. My sister joined me in the last corral, P. We started approximately 1 hour after the first corral. It was extremely congested being in this last corral. I found myself running in the grass and weaving in and out of people a lot. In total I made 5 character stops and 1 potty break. I finished in 3:17:08.
We did it! Next it was a bus ride back to the room for mimosas and a shower then off to Magic Kingdom! We rode Peter Pan (used a fast pass) then grabbed corn dog nugget meals at Casey’s Corner (I opted for apple slices and ice water). *Key tip: take advantage of places with fountain drinks. They will have cups of ice water at no charge. We got them all over the park then would fill up my insulated water bottle* We did a lot this day including Mine train, Haunted Mansion (wait was 50 minutes!), and Big Thunder Mountain. We had dinner reservations at Narcoossee’s, which we took a boat ride from Magic Kingdom to get to! How fun! Dinner was amazing and it included Steak and Sangria! We were able to step out onto their waterfront verandah to view the MK fireworks. They even pipe in the music! After fireworks we took a boat ride back to MK, however we ended up being stuck due to the Electrical Water Pageant, so we got front row seats for that too! We finally made it back to the room and were exhausted!
Next day we hit up Epcot first for Soarin, Spaceship Earth and the Frozen ride. We got pictures with Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy and enjoyed an amazing orange slush with Grand Marnier. We had lunch in Mexico and then headed over to Magic Kingdom! This time in Magic Kingdom we were able to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear, Junge Cruise, get pictures with Cinderella and Elena of Avalor, and catch the fireworks again! Dinner was at Pecos Bill cafe. I had nachos, which were ok, nothing special.
Our final day at the park had us at the Animal Kingdom rope drop. We hit up Expedition Everest, which left my sister feeling sick (you go backwards for a bit). We walked around after that and then hit up the Kilimanjaro Safari. I definitely recommend this! So fun to see the animals. Our last stop before heading to Hollywood Studios was a character breakfast at Tusker House! This restaurant is a blend of traditional American and African cuisine. I honestly wasn’t impressed with the breakfast options, but the lunch options looked and smelled amazing! We got to take our pictures with Donald, Goofy, Mickey, and Daisy. Super fun experience, but I would go with lunch next time rather than breakfast. Next we caught a bus to Hollywood studios! We checked out a few shops then made our way towards Toy Story Mania. Super fun ride and we had a fast pass for this. Since my sister was still feeing a bit sick we grabbed a snack and then headed back to the hotel to grab the car and head home.
This was a whirlwind trip and I hope I get the chance to bring the family back and spend more time in each park. Here are a few tips I learned.
- Take advantage of fast passes and learn how each park does them. It’s kind of confusing and some parks have tiered rides and some require you to use all 3 fast passes before adding more.
- Use the app! We were able to load fast passes, get directions, check wait times, find characters and browse menus all from our phones!
- Take full advantage of the free ice water. It was warm and since we had also run the half marathon it was so important for us to stay hydrated. This is an easy and free way to do that!
No comments:
Post a Comment