Friday, January 17, 2014

January 2014 Trip Recap- 1/10/14

Friday Eliot and I got up and ready to go over to Epcot.  We had decided the day before that we wanted to try to get our pictures with Anna and Elsa before it got too late in the day.  The character spot opened up at 11:00, so we tried to get to Epcot early.  I wore my Elsa shirt and my custom Elsa ear hat that I designed.  I was so excited to wear it!



Mom and Dad drove us over to Epcot and we dashed over towards Norway. Unfortunately, Disney blocks the World Showcase off at China and everyone else had the exact same idea we did.  By the time we got over to Anna and Elsa, the line was already backed up to a 1:00 pm greeting time.  We hadn't made any plans for the day because we didn't know how long it would take to get our pictures taken.  We stood in line for about 5 minutes before I decided that it was too long of a wait.



Eliot and I discussed coming back Sunday morning first thing.  Epcot opened at 9:00 am and we could get in line then.  And wait... 2 hours.  The gears slowly clicked that we'd be waiting 2 hours either way.  I didn't really want to push it off until the last day of our trip when we'd surely have other things we wanted to do.  So we walked over and got back in line! A lot of people ended up leaving so we were still in the 1:00 pm time frame!  

Surprisingly, it wasn't bad standing in line.  Sure, we got sun burns.  Yes, it stunk to stand most of the time, but it was less strenuous on our feet then walking and I didn't want to over do it the day before the race anyways.  Eliot ended up talking to a bunch of runners doing the Dopey challenge ahead of us in line.  I had quite a few people ask me where they could buy my Elsa ear hat.  I was beyond thrilled to tell them that I made it myself!



While in line, I met a very nice 8 year old girl named Faith and her grandmother Nancy. They were from Ontario and we talked the whole time.  Faith was so cute.  She showed me the autographs that she got from all of the princesses during her trip.  We talked about our favorite parts from Frozen.  I ended up telling her about our Disney wedding and I showed both of them a few photos of us with Mickey and Minnie at our wedding.  The two hours that I thought would drag ended up passing by pretty quick!  Faith was so excited when we got close enough to see Anna through the windows!  (Ok, I won't lie; I was too!)


Around 1:00, we were right outside the doors. By the time we got there, Elsa had gotten out of her "meetings" and had joined Anna.  (The whole morning it was only Anna greeting guests so we lucked out!)  The girls were both really nice and interacted with all of the guests.  I got a picture with both of them and then we took one with Eliot.  They also loved my hat!  (I'll tell you more about the experience with the girls in another post.)



We headed back toward the front of Epcot and Eliot saw Donald with a super small line in Mexico.  We went over to take a few pictures with him.  On the way by the Duffy photo location, Duffy was just taking his milk and cookie break.  I got a quick photo of him and we went to the Duffy store to look around.  I ended up finding a Valentine's Day Duffy bear and promptly had to buy him.  He's so cute!!!



We stopped by the Electric Umbrella to get something quick for lunch.  Afterwards, Eliot and I decided to go over to the Magic Kingdom.  We didn't want to walk too much.  We ended up riding around on the Epcot to TTC monorail a few times to give our feet a break. (My family ended up going to Typhoon Lagoon so we couldn't go back to the hotel to rest.) We also got a better look at the finish line for the half marathon from the Monorail!



We finally got off the Monorail and went over to the Magic Kingdom.  Two of the cast members at the ticket machines got into a joking argument about my hat.  One of them thought it was Elsa and the other didn't agree.  I turned around and nodded that it was Elsa.  I couldn't help but laugh.  The next thing I know, I got stopped again right when we walked under the train station.  Three cast members pulled me aside to ask if I bought my hat or if I'd made it.  We got talking and the lady at the hat cart nearby came over to talk to us as well.  They all absolutely loved it which made me feel pretty good!



We made our way down Main Street and caught the end of one of the castle shows!  I took the "Dreams Come True" part to heart since I was starting to get a little bit nervous about the half marathon.  I told myself not to stress out about it and to have fun.  24 hours from then it would be all over with so I might as well try to enjoy the experience!



After the show, we headed over to go on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover.  I love the PeopleMover.  It's so relaxed and a good way to sit back and enjoy looking around.  It was another great chance to relax our feet!  We ended up having an entire train to ourselves.  From there, we saw part of the "Move It Shake It Celebrate It" parade in the distance.



At this point, Eliot was hungry again so we went over to Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe.  He loves how you can get french fries there and put melted cheese over them.  We usually do this at Casey's Corner on Main Street but it was being refurbished.  Eliot needed to get his cheese fries somehow!  I wasn't too hungry so I opted for a small chocolate cake.  I love the Mickey sprinkles, especially since there are pink and lime ones!



My family called to tell us that they'd left Typhoon Lagoon.  I told them that we were basically hanging out at the Magic Kingdom.  We wanted to get to bed early that night. (We had to get up at 3:00 am for the race!)  We decided to have them come pick us up.



We slowly made our way down through the stores on Main Street.  I had a few people stop me to ask where I got my hat.  I had one cast member tell me that I should sell them on Etsy.  I told her that was the plan!  It was a great confidence boost to have so many people ask where I got it!  Not that I didn't know my hat was fabulous!  It's just good to hear it from others!



We watched a beautiful sunset over the Seven Seas Lagoon on the Monorail back to the Transportation and Ticket Center.  
Dad and Jeremy picked us up and we went to get our last minute race supplies at the Walmart near our hotel.  We grabbed about 3 packages of protein and granola bars to split between the 4 of us.  Then we found some Powerade packets that you pour in your water.  We grabbed some frozen pasta dinners to heat up in the hotel microwaves.  (We had to make sure we had some carbs!)  Finally, we had what we thought we needed and headed back to the hotel.

The rest of the evening was pretty low key.  We visited with my family for a little bit. Eventually, Eliot and I went back to our room to pack our race bags and make sure that we had our race clothes laid out.  I double and triple checked everything... at least twice.  



Finally, we got into bed and tried to fall asleep.  Eliot passed out pretty quickly, but I lay in bed wide awake for a bit.  The last thing I remember doing was writing a silly Facebook status before I finally fell into a restless sleep!  Bring on race day!!!  °o°

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