*COMPLETE* Never Underestimate the Power of the Dark Side - a runDisney Spring Break TR

*DisneyDreamer

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 16, 2007
Hi all!

My name is Claire and this is my first time posting a trip report for one of my Disney trips! I am a 30-year old lover of all things Disney, and have visited Disney World almost annually/every other year since I was 3 years old. The love for Disney has only grown with age, and I look forward to continuing to experience the magic, both the familiar and the new.

Trip Background:
When:
April 18-23, 2017
Where: Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa
The cast: Me, my older sister Sarah, her fiance, my younger sister, and our Mom and Dad (younger sister and Mom and Dad were staying in a Studio room at the Boardwalk, and arrived a couple days after me)
Why: The reason for this trip was primarily to take a vacation over Spring Break (I work in a school so my trips to Disney typically need to occur during school vacations). It has become an annual tradition to visit over Spring Break for several years now, since it's not quite as busy as Christmas season, the weather is usually nice, and the time of year means visiting during the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival. This trip was planned back in spring/summer 2016, as soon as our window for booking Disney Vacation Club rooms opened. It was originally going to be a regular vacation visit, but around this same time we discovered that the RunDisney Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend would be occurring at the end of our trip. My sisters signed up for the races right away in August 2016 when registration opened (my older sister and her fiance for the 10K and my younger sister for the Dark Side Challenge) but I held off a bit longer due to some other factors, including being registered for the Wine and Dine Two-Course Challenge in November 2016. On January 1, 2017, though, I finally bit the bullet and registered for the Challenge, not wanting to miss out on another opportunity to run Disney!

So, I hope you'll join along with me as I relive the magic of my latest Disney adventure! :smickey:
 




Here's update #1! I apologize for so much rambling text and only a couple pictures, but I promise it will get better later!

Day 1: Tuesday, April 18, 2017


After months of anticipation and a busy weekend which included Easter and my 30th birthday, departure day for my Spring Break runcation was finally here! My flight to Orlando was scheduled to leave Milwaukee at 10:30 am, so not knowing how rush hour traffic would affect the ride to the airport, I was out the door and on my way by about 7:30. My Dad gave me a ride so I did not have to park at the airport for almost a week. We fortunately had no issues with traffic (just one wrong turn at one of the new highway entrance ramps that required a quick turn-around) so we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. My Dad dropped me off at ticketing and I went in to drop off my luggage while he parked the car. I got my bag tagged and checked in, and then I headed up to security. However, before heading in, my Dad met me up there and bade me a quick farewell and a “see you real soon.” He, my Mom, and my younger sister would be coming down to Florida themselves a couple days later and meeting me, my other sister, and her fiancé (the two them would be running the 10K on Saturday). My younger sister was also running the Dark Side Challenge, but since her schedule is more flexible than mine – the joys of a school schedule – they were staying a few days after the race weekend was over.

The Milwaukee airport generally isn’t too busy, even with it being Spring Break season, so it took only a few minutes to make it through security. I grabbed a coffee on my way to the gate and settled in to wait until it was time to board. I had fun chatting for a few minutes with a family who was on their way down to Orlando to spend a couple days at Universal Studios before embarking on a Disney Cruise. I was jealous of that – oh how I would have loved a cruise after a weekend of running 19.3 miles!

Fast forward a few hours, and we were landing in Orlando by about 2:30 pm (we had an approximately 25-30 minute flight delay due to our incoming flight from Dallas being delayed) but we still made it generally on time. I didn’t want to waste any time, so even though I was starving by this point, I chose to forego stopping at the food court for a late lunch and instead headed straight to the Magical Express. I was pretty much waved right on to a bus, and only had to wait a few minutes before we were on our way to Disney property!



Road construction at the entrance gates


After stops at both Port Orleans resorts and Old Key West, I was the only one left on the bus and we were on our way to Saratoga Springs. My private bus dropped me off and I headed into the Carriage House for a quick stop at the check-in desk (I didn’t need to since my sister and her fiancé had already been in the room for a couple days after arriving on Saturday), but since they had had trouble with one of their MagicBands opening the room door upon arrival, I wanted to make sure mine would work before trekking over there. The Cast Member at the desk checked my band for me and ensured me it would have no issues opening the door. So I gathered up my things and made the walk to the room in Congress Park. When I got there, my MagicBand did work and I found that my sister and her fiancé were both in there taking a short afternoon break. I didn't stay long - I dropped off my things, changed into shorts, and then the three of us headed out together for my first park visit of the trip!

Coming Up: Activating my annual pass and the first park visit!
 
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I am here to follow along!

I always find the Milwaukee airport to be pretty easy going too. Excited to hear all about it. I really enjoyed SSR for Marathon weekend.
 
:wave:

Joining in. Excited to read all about your trip!

Joining In!


can't wait!

Yay! Excited to read along!

Joining in! :flower1:

I am here to follow along!

I always find the Milwaukee airport to be pretty easy going too. Excited to hear all about it. I really enjoyed SSR for Marathon weekend.
Thanks for following along everyone! I'm excited to share!

@rteetz yes, the Milwaukee airport is very easy to travel through. And SSR is our DVC home, so we've stayed there before, but not for a while (we have been trying out other DVC resorts recently) and never for a race. But it was great to be back!
 
Joining in! Looks like a good start to the trip so far - it's always nice when the flight and Magical Express trip go relatively smoothly!
 
Joining in with all the cool kids! :) My favorite part about the MKE airport is the Recombobulation Area. It makes me laugh, every time! Looking forward to your trip report.
 
Day 1: Tuesday, April 18, 2017 (Part 2)

My first park visit of the trip was the Magic Kingdom, and the main goal for the evening was to see Wishes! I always plan to see Wishes during my Disney World trips, but as soon as it was announced that the show would be ending in May, it became priority #1. What better time to fit it in than on arrival night! My nights for fireworks shows were limited due to not wanting to stay out late prior to the races, so by planning Wishes for the first night, it gave me an opportunity to reschedule should weather or some other issue get in the way.

Anyway, once I was changed and had dropped off my things in our room at Saratoga Springs, we headed out to the Congress Park bus stop. It turns out that we had impeccable timing – a bus was at the stop as we stepped outside, and we made it over in time to board. We were soon on our way and before long arrived at the Magic Kingdom. My first stop was the Guest Services window to activate my annual pass. I chose to purchase an annual pass for this trip for multiple reasons, the main one being that our late Spring Break this school year makes it so next year’s is less than a year later, meaning I can get 2 trips out of this pass. It also allowed me to have park access for the few hours this evening, as well as the afternoon of half marathon day before my flight, without having to use a full day of a regular ticket. Finally, the ability to download Photopass photos as part of having an annual pass meant no additional charge for race photos and any other Photopass pictures we had taken during our stay. I think it was worth the price!

My sister and her fiancé (hereafter I’ll refer to them as S & E) waited for me as I got the activation taken care of, and there were no issues. Less than 10 minutes later we were through the turnstiles and the fun could officially begin!





By this time it was close to 5:00, so we stopped in Town Square to watch the Flag Retreat ceremony since it was just about to begin. This is a neat little thing that they do every afternoon. They had 2 kids recite the Pledge of Allegiance, the Main Street Philharmonic played the National Anthem, they sang God Bless America, and then they honored 2 Military guests and played the Military anthems. It’s a very patriotic ceremony.

After watching the Flag Retreat, I went off solo for a bit as I had a Fastpass for Haunted Mansion and S & E had one to meet the Princesses in Fairytale Hall. I always love the Haunted Mansion as it’s one of the classics and I have a distinct memory of riding it with my Dad during one of our early trips to WDW. A fun little thing happened during the “Hitchhiking Ghosts” part at the end – one of the ghosts was in my car was holding a sign that said “Wisconsin, here we come.” Cute, and I figure it’s one of the MagicBand touches they’ve added to some of the attractions.

Once off the Haunted Mansion, I joined back up with S & E, and since I was starving by this point, we headed over to Cosmic Ray’s for dinner. But first, a stop at a special photo opportunity they had set up in Fantasyland!

S on the left, me on the right.


After dinner (which tasted delicious having been so hungry!), we had a bit of time to kill before our Fastpass window opened for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. So it was off for a photoshoot around New Fantasyland!


With our photoshoot complete, we were now within our time window to get into the Mine Train. So Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, it’s off to ride we go!



Coming Up: Tomorrowland, and it's almost time for Wishes!
 
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Joining in with all the cool kids! :) My favorite part about the MKE airport is the Recombobulation Area. It makes me laugh, every time! Looking forward to your trip report.
Yes, the Recombobulation Area at the airport is hilarious! Especially so because before they ever had that sign, my Dad would always make comments about feeling so discombobulated at security.
 
I haven't gone to MK at all my last two trips.

Looks like a great evening at Magic Kingdom! I'm glad you enjoyed the Flag Retreat. It is such a nice treat to get to watch that!
 

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