A Dopey Adventure

Every Disney parks fan has pet peeves.  These are the things that make you absolutely crazy when touring a Disney park.  For me, it's when people wait in line FOREVER at the quick service restaurants and then still don't know what they want when they get to the register.  When you've had enough time to basically memorize the menu, you should be able to place an order quickly.  And yet, this seems to be a challenge for many visitors. Enter mobile order, one of the greatest Disney parks inventions.  You can place your food order via the My Disney Experience app from anywhere in the park and then when you arrive to your food location, all you have to do is tap "I'm here" and they will start to prepare your food.  You'll get a notification when the food is ready and pick it up at the mobile order window. This was an amazing time saver at Satuli Canteen The caveat is this: you need to pay with a credit card in order to use the service.  You can't u...

It's hard to believe that Frozen debuted four years ago, today! Since its debut almost four years ago, Frozen has become ubiquitous at Walt Disney World Resort.   If you still can’t Let It Go , here’s where you can meet your favorite citizens of Arendelle at Walt Disney World. Magic Kingdom Note: Anna and Elsa used to meet at Princess Fairytale Hall in Fantasyland, but they no longer meet there. ·        Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire Castle Stage Show -In this recent addition to Magic Kingdom, Anna, Elsa, and Olaf join forces with tons of Disney characters to celebrate friendship.   While I’ll always have a soft spot for Dream Along with Mickey, this show is also a lot of fun.   It features characters from The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and Frozen interacting with classic Disney characters.   Plus, the signature song is super catchy! ·        Festival of Fantasy Parade -This pa...

Training for a mammoth challenge like Dopey during the holidays is a challenge.  The time commitment to Dopey training is significant and when you combine the training with the added time commitment of holiday events and you start to wonder where all the hours in your day ran off to.  It was that way for me this week.  At least, I didn't have a super long Dopey training run scheduled.  Otherwise there was not way I'd be able to get it all done. This week in review: Monday: 5 miles Tuesday: 7.1 miles Wednesday: 10 miles Thursday: 8 miles Friday: REST DAY Saturday: 9 miles Sunday: 7 miles Weekly Total: 46.1 miles In a week that's focused on gratitude I'm thankful for you, the reader and the ability to keep running all these miles.  We're under 40 days to go until the start of Dopey and I can't believe it's almost here! How was your Thanksgiving?

Another week of Dopey Challenge training is in the books and this week brought more success and consistency.  On tap this week was a true Dopey simulation run and a few easier runs on the weekend.  I'm super happy to get the first of three 20 milers on the training plan this week, as opposed to having to knock it out on Thanksgiving. Monday: 5 miles Tuesday: 7.1 miles Wednesday: 10 miles Thursday: 20 miles!!! (This first 20 miler went well.  I felt about as good as you can feel when running 20 miles). Friday: 2 miles...which went about as well as you can expect having run 20 miles the day before. Saturday: 5 miles Sunday: 7 miles with Nicole. The training will dial down slightly this upcoming week with a 5-7-10-15.  Still 15 miles on Thanksgiving gives you license to eat as much pie as you want! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Whenever I see someone rocking a 2014 Wine and Dine Half Marathon shirt, there's a bonding that happens.  It's like, "oh, you survived Splash and Dash too. Good job."  The Splash and Dash half marathon has become the stuff of legend (at least, on runDisney blogs and Facebook groups).  While it was definitely a challenging race, I found the way to make the most of it. BACKSTORY: Around December of 2013, I texted my best friend from college, Andrew and asked if he ever thought about running in one of the runDisney events.  I had finished the Wine and Dine Half the year before and I was itching to go back again.  Long story short, we decided to do Wine and Dine and make a mini-racecation out of it.  This would be Andrew's first half marathon. When we arrived at Walt Disney World, everything went without a hitch.  We met up at the Magical Express, checked into the room at Saratoga Springs, and picked up our packets at the Expo.  We even managed t...

First of all, I have no pictures in this post.  When it's 30 degrees out, my two year old iPhone decides to immediately stop working if I take it out of my pocket.  As I race with my music, I couldn't risk it! Just one week after the Wine and Dine Half Marathon, Nicole and I decided to tackle the Schenectady Stockcadeathon 15K.  Why we decided this was a good idea remains to be seen as we were both feeling the effects of the Half Marathon race a week earlier. You can find more information about the race here: http://stockadeathon.com/ The race field was huge and competitive.  Looking around at the race start, I was pretty sure there would be no age group placement for me.  When I clocked the first mile at around 6:35 and there were still about 25 women in front of me, I knew that this would be a "fun run". I put "fun run" in quotes, because it's a course that would have been tons of fun had I not run the Wine and Dine Challenge the week before....

Confession time: I have no idea what week of Dopey training this is supposed to be.  I just know that recovery from the Wine and Dine Challenge has been taking longer than I anticipated.  I think it's largely due to immediately getting on a plane and then driving four hours the same day as the race.  Regardless, I'm not bouncing back the way I'd like to. This upcoming week, it's time to get back on track, with a 18-20 miler.  Ick. I carried on with my typical training this past week.  3 miles on Monday, 6 ish on Tuesday, 10 on Wednesday and then I cut my long run on Thursday short, doing only 13 miles.  I recognize 13 miles is a long way to run and I'm not trying to belittle the distance, but when you're training for a marathon, let alone Dopey, you need to be doing more. I did race this past weekend in a local 15K and I'll post about that at a later date, but now it's full focus on Dopey. Hopefully on Monday I'll have a more positive recap!

Halloween has come and gone, so at Walt Disney World, that means it's the Christmas season!  One of the highlights of visiting Magic Kingdom in November and December is Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (MVMCP).  This is a hard ticket event that takes place at Magic Kingdom on select nights.  The party runs from 7:00PM-midnight, but like the Halloween party, you can get into the park starting at 4:00PM.  New this year, day guests who do not have party tickets will be asked to leave the parks by 6:00PM instead of 7:00PM. Cinderella Castle with Dreamlights There are multiple things to do at the party.  First of all, hot cocoa, cider and cookies are distributed at select locations throughout Magic Kingdom.  While these stations are not as plentiful as the Trick or Treat stations at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, the cookies are delicious.  Last year, there were different kinds of cookies at each location, which I hope to see continue this ...