OMG. This purse is perfect. Seriously. (I actually just went to the Harvey's website to see if it's still available ... sold out
And out of my price range (I'm too cheap to actually spend money on purses), but mostly ... sold out).
I decided I wanted to have lunch at Cove Bar today (my #1 favorite counter service spot) and since the line is always huge, it seemed like a good idea to “rope drop Cove Bar”! I took a quick spin on the Little Mermaid ride before lining up at Cove Bar at about 10:40. I was not the only one who had this idea (I was the 10-15th person in line).
Okay, I know that Cove Bar is a big deal, but ... rope dropping a meal may be both the scariest and greatest thing I've ever heard of. Where else but Disney (and that place that made the original cronut) would you line up to get food before the place even opens??
This put a HUGE damper on my day. I had been so excited to run the 10K - the course looked awesome and I was excited for character stops - but now I was just angry. I felt like I’d been ripped off!
Ugh ... stupid runDisney. I can't believe that they thought people wouldn't have a problem with this. With all the money that we pay for these races, it's definitely a bit of a vacation dampener when a big part of the experience disappears with no warning.
I drowned my sorrows in a Never Land Tea from the Secret menu (peach schnapps, pineapple juice, Sprite, vodka, gin and rum). It was good!
At least you had one good Neverland experience that day! Almost makes up for the 5K ... maybe.
As you can see...I got photobombed. The guy that did was so proud of himself and yelled, “photobomb!” Yes, that is a photobomb. Kudos to you, sir.
Okay then. Does this guy not understand that photobombs are funnier when you don't scream "photobomb"? It's funny when the person looks at the picture and realizes they were photobombed. It's not funny when someone screams.
How about them Cavs, though?! 
You Clevelanders are very proud of your basketball...
(Don't mind me, I'm still upset about hockey and mostly ignoring other sports)
I headed back to the room to grab my I Did It shirt for the half...planning on taking it to the expo to return it (somehow it made me feel a bit better that runDisney would be getting a little less money from me since I was displeased with them). Once I did that, I returned to the runDisney booth (the same employee that I’d talked to the previous day was there and didn’t seem as happy to see me this time). I told the other employee first and foremost that I understood that she and this other guy don't make the decisions, but that I wanted to register a complaint. Basically I just said that I was unhappy that there were no characters on the course. I was sort of expecting her to just say, “we understand and we’ll take it up to management” and have that be that - really, that’s all I WANTED her to say, because I just wanted to feel like someone heard my dissatisfaction, but I was surprised when she gave me pushback on it, saying that there WERE in fact characters on the course. She did confirm that it was to “alleviate course congestion - safety is our #1 priority!” and that it would be the same way at the 10K. (BTW, here’s a way to alleviate course congestion: DON’T START THE 5K IN DISNEYLAND PARK!!)
I understand that you were probably not the first person to complain about it, and they were probably getting sick of it, but ... dude, there's no reason to start criticizing people for complaining. You registered a complaint. The proper response is something like "I'm sorry that you're disappointed, we felt that this was the best way to do it, but we understand that you're dissatisfied and we'll take note of your complaint, I hope you can enjoy the rest of your weekend." The whole point of testing something is to see if it works - there's no reason to fight someone just for saying that it didn't work for them. Ugh.
I took a quick spin through World of Disney...ended up buying this perfect keychain later!
I officially need to be on the lookout for this keychain next time I go to Disneyland. I collect keychains and I only have like 12 from Disneyland (I have like 30 from WDW), so clearly I need more, and this is perfect.
We ran past pretty Small World before heading out of the park…
I love this picture!!! They do a really good job of making IASW look pretty at Disneyland.
It WAS! A character line! A real photo stop!! I actually yelled “YES!!” before hopping in line!
YAY!!!
Seriously, when I turned on my computer on Saturday night and started seeing character pictures, I was so excited for you guys!!
This picture is 1000% better than the 5K Hook picture ... because it's not a selfie. (Not that I have a problem with selfies, I just feel like they should be a choice, not the only option)
Feet off the ground! Must be pixie dust. 
You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!
“I don’t know what to do with my arms!”
If you ever write an autobiography, I feel like that should be the title...
I’m really not a fan of “Cars,” but at this point, after the malarkey runDisney had pulled yesterday, I was stopping for allll of the character pics!
Totally understandable game plan (the second part ... I don't understand not liking Cars).
(That was basically my approach back in my last rD race eons ago when there were no characters out in the first half due to rain ... once the characters started showing up, I stopped for everyone ... including Phineas and Ferb)
This race was 10000 times better than the 5K - more room to run, more PhotoPass Photographers, more characters, more entertainment. It never, ever felt crowded (what a difference proper corralling can make!). THIS is what I expect from a runDisney race (and I feel really bad for anyone who didn’t do any other races besides the 5K that weekend, because they didn’t get a proper Disney race experience). It was a blast!
Yay! I'm so glad this was a better experience than the 5K!!
Side note: You always get really good character pictures. I'm kinda jealous, because half of mine tend to include me looking complete awkward and/or having my eyes closed. But yours are always awesome!
Probably my favorite of the weekend
Those two songs will haunt my dreams!! 
Sigh. My condolences for the hockey situation, I'm still upset about the World Series.
