Cruisin'

 On Monday we drove to Port Canaveral for our first Disney Cruise on the Disney Dream! We arrived, checked in with no line, and got right on board!

We met up with Mema and Papa and had some lunch and then the kids and Mema and I went to check out the kids areas of the ship on Deck 5. They were AMAZING, and the play/creative spaces went on, and on...

Sasha checking out one of the art rooms:

So many games:

 We had the best day! Just explored the ship, went to the sail away party, and tried to get oriented on such a huge vessel. Of course the safety drill is always a highlight...

 Disney does this thing called rotational dining, where you get to eat in a different restaurant each night but your service team follows you. Our first night was in the Enchanted Garden. It was great!

 Day 2 we were in the Bahamas but we all elected to just stay on board and enjoy the ship. We swam, relaxed, rode the aquaduck, and the kids had a blast in the expansive playground that is deck 5. That evening I wore my Snow White tribute outfit and guess who was in the Lobby greeting people?

 Then it was on to meet Captain Mickey. He spotted my tights immediately:

 He was hysterical!

 Night 2 we were in the Royal Palace and I think that's when we all began to fall in love with our main server, Yekta. He remembered all our preferences, already had the kids names on their drinks and gave them them so much special attention every night:

 He was also an incredible Magician, and wowed us with his tricks! He should be performing in the theater, not waiting tables!

 That night Ted and I got picked for a "know your family" type game show. It was really funny and I was so proud of the answers Teddy gave. What a kid..

The next morning we had to get up early for the INAUGURAL Castaway Cay Challenge! If you ran any of the Marathon weekend races and the 5K at Castaway Cay, you got another bonus medal. Of course, we were in...This was a really fun race and the kids have run a bunch of 5K's but until now have been age restricted out of any of the longer races. So they've only gotten medallions which are vinyl. This was their very first real METAL Disney medal. They were quite proud.

 We had a stunning day on Castaway Cay. Characters, water slides, a snorkeling lagoon, wonderful beach....

....and of course free ice cream whenever you wanted it!

 All too soon it was time to pull away from that wonderful place.

 But there were no tears because it was time for PIRATE NIGHT! Argh Mateys!

Pirate Party on deck:

 On our last day we just ran around the ship trying to do it all. We played, swam slid, and saw "Into the Woods" in the theater. During the cruise we also took part in something called a "Fish Extender" swap. It's kind of like a secret santa. You get in a group with a bunch of other cruisers and you leave age-appropriate gifts in little pockets hanging from the fish or seahorse thing outside everyone's door. Our FE group was SO fun and it seemed like each and every time we went back to our room we had presents! By the end our door looked like this:

We also had a fun room host who "wow'ed" us with his towel creatures:

 But soon the sun set on our last day on the ship and we went to our final dinner with Yekta and Andy.

 The kids were almost in tears saying good-bye to these guys... I really think we had the best team on the boat!

 Artist's Palate was an amazing restaurant. Crush the turtle swam around the edge of the room interacting with the guests!

On Friday we got off the boat early and drove back to WDW. We didn't fly back to SA until Sunday so we had 2 more days to just chillax. We didn't visit the parks, but decided to just enjoy other things. We stayed at Bay Lake Tower and got a MK view room. Had to use the opportunity to take a photo of my final medal haul:

 Then we headed to Beaches and Cream for some ginormous ice cream sundaes!

We attempted to burn all that off with a round of mini-golf. Sorcerer Sasha:

We ate dinner at the Wave and then went back to the room. But the fun wasn't over. We got to watch Wishes from our balcony with music piped in and everything! We turned off all the lights and watched in our PJ's from the coziness of our beds. So cool...

 The next day we packed up and sorted things out, went to Downtown Disney and looked around and swam in the pool. We ate dinner at T-Rex. We scored with an Ice Cave table!

Finally on Sunday, Jeff flew to Houston and the kids and I headed to ATL for the long flight back to Africa. But the magic wasn't quite over. We ran into the young actress who plays Little Red Riding Hood in "Into the Woods", the movie we had JUST watched 3 nights before on the ship! We were all quite star struck and felt very lucky. It was an awesome capper on a wonderful trip.

Disney 2015: 10K, Half and FULL!

On Friday I got up at 0'Dark:30 once again and lined up for the 10K. It was cold again and this time I didn't have my family to penguin huddle with! The 10k route ended in Epcot and around the Boardwalk resorts but to get in the extra miles they first had to send us way down the road for an out and back. Fortunately Ana and Elsa were out on a bridge to liven things up. They were even making it snow!

Finally I hit Epcot:

And had a great run around World Showcase:

In 2013 I didn't take into account the amount of walking we were doing in the parks and the toll it would take on my legs. The rest of the crew wanted to go back to Universal on Friday but I opted out and spent the day taking a nap and resting my legs instead. Universal is a TON of walking with 2 big parks to cover and there was no way I was going to do that to myself the day before the half and the full so I sent my Wizard tribe off without me!

I had a very mellow day at Beach club and then in the evening I took the bus to the Magic Kingdom:

And the boat to Ft. Wilderness:

To visit my horse friends!

Well actually I did enjoy visiting all the horses but I was there to meet the crew for the Hoop Dee Doo Review!

The show was once again hysterical:

And we all had a blast!

Play that washboard!

The next morning we were up in the wee hours again for the half marathon:

MK arch!

We ran a RIDICULOUSLY slow half, which was part of my plan for the Dopey challenge. I wanted to run a faster full this year. So by the time we got to the MK the sun was up!

Almost finished!

And look who we met at the finish line with NO LINE for a photo!!

Only one more race to go!

Aunt Karen, Brit and the kids were already at Animal Kingdom so we showered and headed off to meet them. After a nice lunch at Yak and Yeti we hit some cool attractions:

Although the adults opted out of this fiasco.... I've been soaked through way too many times and the day was chilly!

 We had a great Italian dinner at the new Trattoria over at Boardwalk and turned in early.
 On Sunday I was once again standing in the Epcot parking lot in the early morning hours. I was nervous but hopeful. If you can get through the half with no weird twinges or blow-outs you're just happy with that. Last time I ran a 4/1 run/walk interval and this time I ran a 2/:30 interval. Same exact amount of running and walking but a shorter interval. It let me hold a 10 min mile pace pretty much for the whole race. I even got to the MK while it was still dark!

We also had a day of perfect weather! Not too cold at the start and just as the sun came up and wanted to beacon into your eyes as you came down Osceola, the clouds came in and cooled everything off. Don't get me wrong, it was epic for sure, but I felt strong the whole way and nothing gave out! At mile 24ish I passed Beach Club and Jeff and the kids were there waiting for me. I was so excited to be that close to the end and still feeling strong!

Almost to Epcot!

 Finished in 4:19!!! Such a big improvement on 4:45 in 2013. I was so pleased and nothing beats crossing a finish line and getting not one, but THREE gorgeous medals!

After hobbling back to the room and freshening up we headed to the MK for lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern and then did a bunch of things we had never done before! We rode the mine train, saw the new Festival of Fantasy Parade which was AMAZING...

 And then met these 2...

 So happy:

 After that we did a Monorail Resort Progressive Dinner. Apps at the Poly:

 Mains at the Grand Floridian: (We sent the kids to counter-service while we ate at Mizners...)

 And then we were going to do dessert at the Contemporary but decided to get it at the MK since we were right there and wanted to grab a spot for the parade. Teddy's not complaining...

Wishes was a perfect way to end the race weekend... what a great time!

DIsney 2015, Expo and 5k...

On Wednesday we woke up and strolled over to the Yacht club for breakfast. It was our Expo day but also our Studios day and for once we didn't need to be there for rope-drop as we had our FP+ all made for the afternoon! Perks of the new system for sure... the Christmas tree was still up at Yacht club and it was covered in HUGE toy boats. Gorgeous!

The race Expo is Huge. HUGE! It's now held in 3 different buildings, some of them on multiple floors. It's a far cry from the first Disney Expo I experienced in 2011. I have to say I never really enjoy the Expo. It's too crowded, I can't take the time to see the things I want to, and I always lose people and it's just stressful. This year I had to check in for the Dopey, Jeff and kids had to check in for the 5K, Jeff had to check in for the Half, and we ALL had to check in for the Castaway Cay challenge. Somewhere between 5k check in and the Half I lost Jeff and the kids for a while and with no phone service on our international cell phones I had a time trying to find them again. Finally we got all the packet pick up sorted and race bags collected but never really got to check out the booths. Someday I will go alone, spend the day, and look at everything!

After that we headed to the Studios...We met Auntie Karen and Brit and started using those FastPasses!

Our Studios day just happened to be the day that they started taking down the iconic Sorcerer's Hat. The construction fences were up but they hadn't started taking down the hat itself yet so we were able to grab one final picture:

And then we just ran around the park hitting all our favorite things and some new experiences we had never done like the Frozen sing along celebration which was hysterical and really fun!

If there's no time for a margarita flight at the Brown Derby Lounge then you MAKE TIME, am I right?

We saw Fantasmic and then headed back to Beach Club and Bed, as we had an early morning ahead of us.
We woke up on Thursday morning and it was FREEZING out. SO darn cold. We should have ditched the costumes and just bundled up but we didn't quite realize the extent of the freezingness out there AND we are Disney geeks so we got Ana and Elsa'ed up and set out for the race start. We got there at 5:20 for a 6:15am race start and it was so cold and so windy no one knew what to do. Thousands of runners were huddled in this massive Penquin huddle trying not to be the penquin on the outside of the group. We stole a garbage bag and then I "borrowed" this massive blue table cloth from a VIP area and we wrapped it around the 4 of us with the kids in the middle. After that the 2 of them were OK and at least stopped shaking. I wanted to run with that tablecloth but Jeff made me put it back. Finally the race started and we were able to MOVE. I swear my feet were still frozen when we hit World Showcase!

Running through Epcot... check out Sasha still wearing the garbage bag!

Had to get a pic... The funniest thing about the freezing morning was that everyone yelled at Sasha and I because of the temperatures! "Elsa, what have you done?!? Stop the eternal winter!"  "Ana, can't you talk to your sister and have her warm things up??" It was pretty funny. So our costumes were well-themed in more ways than one!

We crossed the finish line, got our medals, and RAN to the warm bus!

After some hot showers and hot coffee we strolled over to the IG at Epcot. This was park entry 5 minutes before 9. There were 8 people in front of us!

We met up with Auntie Karen and Brit and rode a bunch of stuff in Future World..

Teddy and his Test Track car!

We had a blast, toured around World Showcase, then went back to the resort for a nap before heading back in to Epcot. Kids and I stopped at our favorite place to pick up Illuminations dessert!

We had an awesome dinner in Mexico and then had fun playing in different pavilions.

Love World Showcase at night!

Finally it was time to stake out our spot in Canada. I had to run straight to my bed after fireworks as I had another early morning ahead of me...