Sunday, April 13, 2014

WDW Marathon Weekend 2014 - Half Marathon Day, Part 2


Part 1 can be found HERE

I hoped that a friend of mine from the Lodgeboards days (PixiePat…now known as Patricia) would be working at Kona, so I could catch up with how she was doing, but she was off at that time.  I knew that I was a bit later than my usual dining time at Kona (I’m militaristic…7:35 ADR…done eating by 8:15…quick bathroom break…on the monorail by 8:25, and at through the MK turnstiles for the opening show by 8:35-8:40), so I put in my request of (what else) Tonga Toast as soon as the server showed up.  I was absolutely parched from cheering, so I had around 4 glasses of water down before the food even showed up.  I was afraid that they were going to pull a Whispering Canyon on me and drop off a gallon-pitcher with a straw.  The breakfast was there in a flash, and I was stuffed in no time flat.  Bill paid (with a tip that hopefully made the server smile for being so awesome…I was a server at one point in my life, so I tend to empty the wallet a bit more), bathroom run done, dash to the monorail, and BAM…I was back on my MK schedule.  Actually, I was there earlier than expected.  I checked in on FourSquare at 8:32.

I had some time to chill before the MK Welcome Show, so I hopped on Facebook (and promptly got a growl from my wife for checking in on FourSquare and posting it).  I went to Twitter and noticed that I had a couple of messages.  Apparently, Jay Griffith and co-host of the Be Our Guest podcast Rikki Niblett were about 200 yards away cheering at the half.  I kicked myself for not seeing this message until it was too late, but they assured me that they would look out for me during the full.

We all sang the Good Morning song, and I promptly made my way up Main Street.  I knew that my friend, Judy, was off today, so I didn’t dart into the Emporium to look for her.  Instead, I bypassed all the Photopass Dudes/Dudettes and went straight through the castle to try getting a pic with Rapunzel.
Okay…I had better stop here for a minute, though I doubt anyone will believe what I am going to say.  I have two nieces that are Disney-Princess obsessed (yes…more than me).  One of them is a bit shy around me, so I decided that I was going to try getting some of the Princesses’ autographs for them in the hopes that they might actually stay in the same room as me at the next family get-together.

Honest…that’s why I was doing this.



HONEST!!!!



I made it to the rope and found that there was nobody here.  I assumed that most had probably made a beeline for Tomorrowland to hit Space Mountain, but I thought there would at least be a few from the Crystal Palace or Cinderella’s Royal Table ahead of me.  Nope…I was 1 deep at the rope, and that was with no pushing/shoving at all.  The cue music played, and I expected to get trampled by screaming Pre-K girls and their parents as they rushed to see the Princesses.

Nope. 

2 people entered the line to see Cinderella, but nobody went to see the haircut-averse princess.

Oooookay…this is a little weird.  I’m a grown man…by myself…first in line to see Rapunzel…

I expected her to have pepper spray in one hand as I walked up.  To make matters worse, there still was nobody behind me as I entered the room.





We talked a bit about the race and my nieces (which, I am guessing, she considered classic overcompensation).

Of course, Snow White was also in there…and still nobody else!

After I left the room, I put the camera away and just laughed at what had just happened. 

I made my way toward Tomorrowland and gazed at the construction of the Seven Dwarves Mine Train as I passed by.  My personalized touring plan told me to head over to Buzz next, but I chanced it and went straight to Space Mountain in anticipation of a decent wait.  The only “problem” was that I felt like the only person in the entire park.  The wait for Space Mountain was just about AFAYCW (for those who have not read any of my previous trip reports, “AFAYCW” stands for “As Fast As You Can Walk”…basically, there is no wait).  There were maybe 15 people ahead of me, and I skipped ahead of most of them thanks to them needing a single rider.  I did a stupid sleeping pose for the on-ride pic and actually missed hearing Sheri scream her lungs out during the ride.

I went to Buzz next and, since there are no witnesses to confirm or deny it, I scored 999,999 points! (I don’t think I broke 50K…one of my worst scores ever).   I made my way back towards Fantasyland and noticed that there still were no crowds at all in the park…I walked by Alice near the Tea Cups, and there may have been 2-3 families in line to meet her.  I was about 12 minutes ahead of schedule, according to Lines, so I decided to see how long the line was for Cinderella in case I wanted to grab a couple more autographs for my nieces.

I walked in…just me…nobody else…more pepper spray was on the ready as I walked in.

Cindy and Aurora were in the room.

I had a lot of explaining to do when Sheri saw the pics uploaded from my camera.  The first 14 pics from this day were of the Princesses and me.




The next stop was Philharmagic…this has always been one of my favorite ones, mostly because I love watching people experiencing it for the first time.  This one was a little odd because of the lack of people.  I counted around 22 people in the entire theater.  When I posted my requisite “Opera Glasses” pic, several friends mentioned that I needed to prepare because the throngs were on their way to the parks after running/cheering for the half.  I used my first FP+ for Peter Pan and then hopped over to sing along with Mary Blair’s dolls.  I made sure to time my waits for Fred Hazelton and the rest of the TouringPlans.com stats whizzes.  I was still a good 15 minutes ahead of schedule, so I toured the Tangled bathrooms and slowly walked around Liberty Square, because my FP+ time for Haunted Mansion was still a good 15 minutes away.  I looked to see when Sleepy Hollow opened up, because I had heard of nothing but amazing things with their Fluffernutter waffles with fruit.  They weren’t open yet, so I decided to try getting a pack of cards from the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game for my boys. While doing this, I noticed that Tiana was out and that nobody (none…zero…nada) was in line to see her; she was just carrying on a conversation with the Photopass dude.  Another Princess autograph to get (and even more consecutive pics of Princess pics on the camera).  Since there was nobody else in line, I stuck around and talked with Tiana for a bit (she was out there early for the half and was going to be there bright and early for the full, too).  We said our goodbyes, and I got a text from Steve that said he was on his way to MK.  I hopped into the Haunted Mansion AFAYCW and positioned myself right in front of the wall that opened up to the Doom Buggies.  I’ll freely admit that I was singing most of the attraction…I gave Thurl Ravenscroft a run for his money in the graveyard scene.

After Phineas blew my head up and popped it like a balloon, I headed out and made a beeline for Sleepy Hollow for my waffle sammich.  I made the mistake of grabbing the chicken one instead of the Fluffernutter one (I was worried that it would have gout-inducing high-fructose corn syrup).  The chicken one was okay, but I’m not a fan of slaw.  I called home to make sure the boys remembered to wish their Mother a Happy Birthday (they forgot) and to have them give her a present.  After that, I cut across over to Adventureland and hopped in line for the Tiki Birds.  Steve texted and mentioned that he was at the gate, so I hopped out of the pre-show and waited for him.  About ten minutes later, he strolled up, and we got in line for the Tiki Birds. We talked about how the half marathon went and messed around/tested changing FP+ times on the mobile My Disney Experience app – we were able to sync up FP+ times for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad later on.

The birds eventually kicked us out of their lair (again), and we hopped on Pirates.  I think we set a record for most people taking flash photography in one boat.  We contemplated throwing one or two of the cameras overboard during the small drop, but we restrained ourselves.  After Pirates, we looked into possibly trying the Pirate’s Adventure attraction but decided against it and went straight to Big Thunder.  I knew about the Goat Trick on the Disneyland version, but I didn’t know if it worked on the east coast.  I told Steve about it, and, at the top of the second hill, there wasn’t exactly a goat, but I did find something to focus on as we entered the drop.  I think it worked, but I hope to test it at my next trip to Disneyland this summer.

I wanted to get off my feet for a while to rest for the race.  Steve had just arrived and wanted to tour a bit more, so I headed back and prepped for the Team Meet at the Swolphin.

(Continued)