I also had a great weekend, but not a ton of time to check the disboards! Here are some thoughts from the weekend:
Expo: Why I keep going to the opening is beyond me because it totally stresses me out with the chaos. Plus, I spent a lot of time standing around with a lot of rude, fighting people waiting for my stemless wine glass. I was disappointed that they didn't have the Tervis tumblers. I use my Princess one daily and would have loved another one to rotate. They had me put my name and number on a list, but I don't know what will come of that. Someone said they would be on the shop parks ap. Only time will tell.
10k: Loved this course and race, although the course was familiar. The Boardwalk seemed slippier than normal to me. (But maybe I'm just paranoid.) I had some shin pain in the first mile which was odd, but it went away in a mile or two so I was grateful for that. The weather was great and we really had enjoyed the race. Only stopped for Pinnochio and Geppeto though so we weren't highly motivated by the photo ops. After the race we took it easy, napped and then just headed to Epcot for our dinner with friends at Via Napoli.
1/2: Met Lumiere before the race so that was a check. We were right about to go up with the power blew up front by the stage and photo ops. But he came back out and we got our photo, although the lighting wasn't as great as we'd hoped. Nothing a little editing couldn't fix though. I thought the weather was pretty perfect. We had mylar blankets we discarded in the corral. Felt a little warm heading in to DAK, but we thought it might have been our shirts. Overall felt good and was warm at the end, but with the sun up and not a lot of shade, that wasn't surprising. I took the cool rag and it was refreshing, but not 100% necessary. I iced my knees after both races as a precautionary tool, but felt great afterwards. Part of that may be due to the fact that the night before we made a decision to adjust our intervals so our pace was more relaxed. We stopped for the Tree of Life and Timon, but passed on characters after that until Darkwing Duck. Once we got in that longer line, we pretty much stopped for every character after that as that stop made pace go out the window! I felt like there was a lot of running without characters though. I would have liked to see more between DAK & EP. The volunteers were awesome and on point though! So many out there to cheer us on.
After Party: We showered, ate and napped then headed to Epcot for medal photos. We then headed to Yachtsman for a celebratory dinner with friends. Had no issues getting in through IG afterwards and getting our wristbands, but at the time there was a long line in the UK for the wristbands. Had FP for Test Track at running buddy's insistence so rode that then hustled back to see Illuminations. Then we got in line for Remy and Emile since we missed Remy before the 10K and afterwards. I noticed while we were in line the line for France was HUGE! I was going to grab a slush to drink while we waited, but got one afterwards with almost no wait. We weren't super hungry since we ate at Yachtsman unfortunately, but that dinner was worth it! I was disappointed in the characters offered at the after party. They were either regular characters or repeats from the races. I wish they had offered some more unique characters at the after party. (Someone had mentioned Cheshire Cat greeting and he wasn't at the after party or Christmas party.) After meeting Remy & Emile we got my slush and wandered WS, catching up with friends we ran in to. The lines were super long to be honest until we got to New Zealand where I grabbed a glass of wine. We headed to Soarin' and rode that. Then grabbed Starbucks and headed home. Probably got on the bus around midnight. We were exhausted.
OVERALL: Had a lot of fun and plan to do the challenge again next year. I would hope they'll get some feedback and offer more character meet n greets between DAK and EP and more unique/rare characters at the after party.
Remy photos before race were cutoff 5 min early and we only two people away from them after 45min wait. After the race they cut them off early again (about 20 min early) but then restarted line after many complaints. Got the photos but just a pain for an inaugural race main character photo.
I actually complained to someone in a runDisney shirt about this after the 10K. We were in line for Remy & Emile for about an hour before the race and Remy didn't come back after the last break. I know he had to be on stage, but it still stunk to wait all that time and be told he would be out after the race, only to find they had cut the line when we finished.
Considering all of the changes they made to this weekend, I hope they send out a survey.
I am really hoping for a survey too, but haven't seen anything yet.
The only merchandise I wanted was a stemless wine glass and they were well stocked when I got there, so score! Only I used it last night and it feels... all wrong. Huh?! It'll make a great water glass by my bathroom sink, though. I'll stick with stems on my wine glasses.
I actually have used mine three times and really like it, but it is different from a stemmed glass. It works for me though so I'm happy I have it!
Amber alert on my phone scared me.
The Amber Alert scared the you know what out of me too!
I think until my next race I'll wear my medal to the grocery store to feel better!
