Prev: RADP Pavilion - Update
Next: Princess Tiana + POFQ???
From: Paul Lalli on 25 Oct 2009 08:24
Despite my running 8.1 miles last night and not getting to bed until
2:30am, my body still refuses to sleep past 7:30am. So I'm awake, and I
figured I may as well give you a review of the ToT 13k.

This was my 2nd ever race at Walt Disney World (2nd ever race, ever, in
fact). The first was the 5k during Marathon Weekend earlier this year.
I registered for the half marathon in January 2010, along with my
friend and siblings. I secretly registered for the ToT 13k as a
stepping stone to provide more immediate motivation to continue
training. "Secretly" in that I didn't tell any of my family & friends
that I registered or was even coming to WDW this weekend.

After taking a half-day off from work Friday, I flew down to Orlando and
arrived at about 8:40pm. MCO is *dead* this time of night. I've never
flew down here on anything except the first flight of the day. When I
got over to Magical Express, there was no one there. Kinda eerie,
actually. I had to go to the counter because for whatever reason they
never sent me my packet. I got that straightened out, and then went to
stand in the massive queue lines, all by my lonesome. Literally the
only guest there.

Within a couple minutes, one of the CMs said "we have a bus for you",
and I got on the DME bus, that had about 15 guests already waiting on
it. Another 5-10 minutes later, and we took off. Caribbean Beach was
the first stop, and is where I'm staying this trip.

I checked in at the Custom House, which was similarly dead. A CM was
available as soon as I walked into the line. I got all checked in, but
they were having technical difficulties and couldn't print out anyone's
room key cards. After standing there for a good 20-25 minutes, while
the CM kept walking to the back to see if anyone fixed the problem yet,
she finally came out and gave me what she called a temporary card for my
room. She said they needed that back the next day, at which point
they'd give me my real card. This was was purple and had the letters
ECBG on it. I quickly realized this must be a card keyed to my specific
room - #5327, as the letters correspond to those numbers.

I left the custom house, and decided to walk the 15-20 minutes to my
room in Aruba, since that would be the last stop if I got on the
internal resort shuttle. Finally found my room (the numbering in these
buildings makes no sense, btw). Inserted the temporary key card... and
nothing. Red light. No unlocking. Tried several more times, nothing.
I've been here for less than an hour, and they've already managed to
screw up twice. Grrr.

I looked through the packet of info they gave me for a phone number for
the front desk. Nothing. They all say "push 'front desk' on your
in-room phone". I try calling 1-407-WDISNEY. "Our offices are
currently closed." Grrrrr. I get on the internet on my iPhone and
finally find the number off one of the fan sites. Call them up.
Explain the problem. They claim they'll send a "runner" over to me with
my card. 25 minutes later, the "runner" finally appears - an extremely
heavy set woman who looks as though she tiptoed over from the Custom
House. I get no apology for the inconvenience or anything else. In
fact, she's a bit rude, as though this situation was *my* fault. "Do
you have the temporary card? Good, here's yours." and she starts to
walk away. No no, let's see if this one works first, shall we?
Fortunately it does, and at 10:30pm, nearly two hours after arriving in
Orlando, I finally get in to my room.

I started getting settled and realized that 1) I had no dinner yet
today, and 2) I forgot to buy and pack travel-sized toothpaste. I
walked over the bridges to Old Port Royal, and took care of each. The
only counter left in the food court was the one that serves burgers and
chicken sandwiches. Everything else is closed. Got myself a burger,
and went over to the toppings stand to find that they'd already removed
everything. Grrrr. Ate, bought my toothpaste, and now thoroughly
displeased after this long day, walked back to the room and went to sleep.

Saturday morning. Woke up, showered, went to Old Port Royal for
breakfast. Steak, Egg, & Cheese quesadilla was actually pretty darned
good. I need to go to packet pickup, but it doesn't start until 10am,
and the special buses from the host resorts (of which CB is one, which
is why I was staying here) don't start until 9:30am. So I got on a
regular bus to Hollywood Studios, figuring I'd get there before opening,
and could do a couple attractions before going over to the WWoS for
packet pickup. To my surprise when we arrived, it was apparently an EMH
morning day at DHS. I never actually looked at the park hours this
weekend, since they were so secondary to the point of my trip.

Got into DHS around 8:20 or so, and headed straight for Toy Story. Wait
already 45 minutes, fast passes at 10:45am. I got an FP, and went down
to Sunset Blvd. Single Rider at Rock N Roller Coaster was very fast.
In fact, they depleted the standby queue in the load area and just
filled the rest of the car with Single Riders. Then over to ToT, which
was effectively a walk-on, if you don't count the time needed for the
library pre-show.

Now, about 9:20am or so, I left Hollywood Studios and found the area for
the charter buses, as Charter #11 is the stop for Wide World of Sports
at DHS. There were several people there in Tai Kwan Do outfits.
Apparently packet pickup wasn't the only thing happening at WWoS today.
Got there about 9:40am, and was about 3rd or 4th in the queue. We
were entertained by a friendly CM named Mike telling jokes and whatnot
until we were let in to the pickup area. Completed waiver in hand, I
found my number, picked up my race packet, pin, and tshirt, and was out
of there less than 5 minutes after they opened the gate.

Back to the Hollywood Studios I went. Not quite time for my TS FP yet,
so I walked into One Man's Dream briefly, and did some pin trading (I'd
bought 30 new traders from eBay a couple weeks before I left, and had
brought 10 of them with me on this trip). Now onto Toy Story, after
using my iPhone to call up WDWToday's show notes on tips and strategies,
and doing my best to remember them. I got one of my high scores:
202,500. Now that I know some of those secrets, we'll have to see if I
can improve upon that next time.

From there over to the Backlot Express, for Lou Mongello's "meet of the
month". I spoke with him and met Bryan Ripper from All About the Mouse,
as well as the guy (can't remember his name) who does Reedy Creek Radio.
A lot of fun meeting up with people you listen to every week...

I told Lou I was going over to the MK to hear the new TTA soundtrack.
He reacted with pain and said he didn't like it, and told me to call his
show's voicemail to tell him what I thought. I took the Contemporary
bus from DHS, since it arrived before the TTC bus, and walked to the
Magic Kingdom. To my shock, there was a wait for the TTA. About 5
minutes long. The line extended down past the elevator for Astro
Orbiter. When I finally got on, I understood why Lou didn't like it:
it's a commercial. Something you'd hear on Disney Resort television.
It has no theming, is nothing at all like the old narration. It's
simply a commercial advertising the other Tomorrowland attractions.
This makes absolutely zero sense to me. We're already *in the park*,
why do you need to advertise the other attractions?? Ugh. I hope
someone comes to there senses and fixes that, quickly.

I went to Columbia Harbor House for lunch. That "new seating policy"
we've heard about was most definitely *not* in effect here, as I saw
plenty of people holding tables for their family. I had a salad, and
left as quickly as possible. One quick ride on the Haunted Mansion, and
it was time to go back to the resort to rest up for the night.

Before napping, I made a reservation at Shutters for 5:20pm. Oddly, the
online reservation system I used while on-hold with Disney Dining
claimed no availability, but the CM on the phone had no problem getting
me a reservation. At 5pm, I woke myself up and walked back over to Old
Port Royal. Dinner at Shutters was decent. I liked the options and the
server was very attentive. I had the roast chicken breast, with a baked
potato and plantains. Back to the room to change and get ready for the
race.

About 7:45pm, I left my room for the bus stop, decked out in my ToT 13k
shirt with the bib attached, running shorts, and my iPhone strapped to
my arm, with my clear plastic bag containing a towel, the 13k pin, and
my camera. There were two buses lined up ready to go to DHS when I
arrived at Old Port Royal. We got to DHS, and walked a lonnnnng
distance to the Television parking lot, where the race would begin. I
met up with Lou Mongello and his followers again, and spent most of the
time there waiting. I checked my bag and had a random volunteer take my
picture.

The 5k was scheduled to start at 10:15pm, and the 13k at 10:30pm, from
the same start line. Around 9:45pm, I wandered over to the chute, and
positioned myself between the signs for "13:01 - 15:00" and "walkers".
10:15, the 5k starts. About 5 minutes later, we see the first 5k-ers
heading back in our direction. I have no idea what their course looked
like, so I don't know how far they'd actually run in those 5 minutes.
Anyway, about 10:35, the fireworks go off, and the 13k starts. It was a
little more than 3 minutes before I finally crossed the start line.

Most of the course was very unremarkable. Just roads. I was using my
iPhone with the Nike+ system to track my distance and time, and was
regretting the decision not to bring earphones with me. For some
reason, I was expecting the course to be more exciting and didn't think
I'd need to listen to music. We ran (and anytime I say "ran", I mean
"jogged for 30-45 seconds, and walked for a minute or so") from the DHS
parking lot over to the Wide World of Sports. In the WWoS, we circled a
couple of the athletic fields, went about 3/4 of the way around the
track, and exited out a different way from we came in. Next was back to
DHS pretty much the same way we came, which, again, means very
unremarkable. In fairness, they did have DJs and volunteers every so
often cheering us on. And the water stops were very appreciated too.

Mile marker 6 was backstage at Hollywood Studios. 3/4ths completed.
Almost there. We appeared on stage at DHS at the little alleyway to the
right of Sid Kuwangas. I'm averaging 15 minutes per mile, which means
most folks have been done for quite a while, and are just milling about
Hollywood Blvd. That was slightly disheartening, but no matter. We ran
up Hollywood, took a left at the Hat, down Commissary Lane, past
Muppets, through the Streets of America, into and around Lights Motors
Action, and finally backstage near the Backlot Tour. Almost a full mile
of twisting winding backstage areas (and I thought onstage was confusing
at DHS...), before finally coming back onstage back down Hollywood Blvd,
and taking a left past Oscars's garage, up the back pathway towards
Fantasmic. Mile Marker 8, just 0.19 miles to go. The finish line was
behind the rear of Rock N Roller Coaster, and I managed to sprint the
last 200 feet or so. HOORAY I'M DONE!!!

At the finish, we got our medals, and then had the official ASI
photographers take our pictures, and got gatorade and/or water, and a
goody bag containing a muffin and banana. All *very* appreciated.
About a 5 minute line to pick up our bags from baggage check. I took
out my towel and dried off my head and face, and then asked some random
person to take my picture with the camera.

It's just after 12:30am, and the after-party goes until 2am. I did a
celebratory ride on Tower of Terror. (just before entering the library,
some poor girl apparently was much worse for wear, and vomited just
before the library entrance). They didn't even bother with the preshow,
just opened the back library door as soon as we were all in. After
Tower, I walked over towards Toy Story, but saw a 50 minute wait, and
thought better of it. My legs now *very* not happy, I left the studios
and gingerly walked to the buses.

On the bus ride back to the hotel, I finally got a hold of my Disney
buddy, Charlene, and told her what I'd just did. I had kept this entire
trip a complete secret from all my family and friends, because if I got
swept, I didn't want anyone asking me "so how did it go?". Charlene was
in shock that I was in WDW to begin with, and even more so that I'd run
the race.

Finally back to the hotel, I took a nice long shower, transferred the
pics from my iPhone and camera to the computer, updated my Facebook
status, and went to bed.

Now, it's 8:21am Sunday morning, and I haven't gotten out of bed yet.
I'm obviously not making it to any park for rope drop. I think the plan
is: shower, check bags at Custom House, quick breakfast at Old Port
Royal, head to Epcot, try out The Sum of All Thrills, munch my way
around the F&WF, and head back to the hotel for my Magical Express
pickup at 3pm.

Whirlwind of a weekend. I'm very happy that I was able to complete the
race, that I didn't get swept, and that I successfully kept the secret
from my family and friends for so long. Next trip is in January, for
the half-marathon and following it up with a Disney cruise!

Thanks for reading,
Paul Lalli
From: JackM on 25 Oct 2009 09:07
Paul Lalli wrote:
> Despite my running 8.1 miles last night and not getting to bed until
> 2:30am, my body still refuses to sleep past 7:30am. So I'm awake, and I
> figured I may as well give you a review of the ToT 13k.
>
> This was my 2nd ever race at Walt Disney World (2nd ever race, ever, in
> fact). The first was the 5k during Marathon Weekend earlier this year.
> I registered for the half marathon in January 2010, along with my
> friend and siblings. I secretly registered for the ToT 13k as a
> stepping stone to provide more immediate motivation to continue
> training. "Secretly" in that I didn't tell any of my family & friends
> that I registered or was even coming to WDW this weekend.
>
> After taking a half-day off from work Friday, I flew down to Orlando and
> arrived at about 8:40pm. MCO is *dead* this time of night. I've never
> flew down here on anything except the first flight of the day. When I
> got over to Magical Express, there was no one there. Kinda eerie,
> actually. I had to go to the counter because for whatever reason they
> never sent me my packet. I got that straightened out, and then went to
> stand in the massive queue lines, all by my lonesome. Literally the
> only guest there.
>
> Within a couple minutes, one of the CMs said "we have a bus for you",
> and I got on the DME bus, that had about 15 guests already waiting on
> it. Another 5-10 minutes later, and we took off. Caribbean Beach was
> the first stop, and is where I'm staying this trip.
>
> I checked in at the Custom House, which was similarly dead. A CM was
> available as soon as I walked into the line. I got all checked in, but
> they were having technical difficulties and couldn't print out anyone's
> room key cards. After standing there for a good 20-25 minutes, while
> the CM kept walking to the back to see if anyone fixed the problem yet,
> she finally came out and gave me what she called a temporary card for my
> room. She said they needed that back the next day, at which point
> they'd give me my real card. This was was purple and had the letters
> ECBG on it. I quickly realized this must be a card keyed to my specific
> room - #5327, as the letters correspond to those numbers.
>
> I left the custom house, and decided to walk the 15-20 minutes to my
> room in Aruba, since that would be the last stop if I got on the
> internal resort shuttle. Finally found my room (the numbering in these
> buildings makes no sense, btw). Inserted the temporary key card... and
> nothing. Red light. No unlocking. Tried several more times, nothing.
> I've been here for less than an hour, and they've already managed to
> screw up twice. Grrr.
>
> I looked through the packet of info they gave me for a phone number for
> the front desk. Nothing. They all say "push 'front desk' on your
> in-room phone". I try calling 1-407-WDISNEY. "Our offices are
> currently closed." Grrrrr. I get on the internet on my iPhone and
> finally find the number off one of the fan sites. Call them up. Explain
> the problem. They claim they'll send a "runner" over to me with my
> card. 25 minutes later, the "runner" finally appears - an extremely
> heavy set woman who looks as though she tiptoed over from the Custom
> House. I get no apology for the inconvenience or anything else. In
> fact, she's a bit rude, as though this situation was *my* fault. "Do
> you have the temporary card? Good, here's yours." and she starts to
> walk away. No no, let's see if this one works first, shall we?
> Fortunately it does, and at 10:30pm, nearly two hours after arriving in
> Orlando, I finally get in to my room.
>
> I started getting settled and realized that 1) I had no dinner yet
> today, and 2) I forgot to buy and pack travel-sized toothpaste. I
> walked over the bridges to Old Port Royal, and took care of each. The
> only counter left in the food court was the one that serves burgers and
> chicken sandwiches. Everything else is closed. Got myself a burger,
> and went over to the toppings stand to find that they'd already removed
> everything. Grrrr. Ate, bought my toothpaste, and now thoroughly
> displeased after this long day, walked back to the room and went to sleep.
>
> Saturday morning. Woke up, showered, went to Old Port Royal for
> breakfast. Steak, Egg, & Cheese quesadilla was actually pretty darned
> good. I need to go to packet pickup, but it doesn't start until 10am,
> and the special buses from the host resorts (of which CB is one, which
> is why I was staying here) don't start until 9:30am. So I got on a
> regular bus to Hollywood Studios, figuring I'd get there before opening,
> and could do a couple attractions before going over to the WWoS for
> packet pickup. To my surprise when we arrived, it was apparently an EMH
> morning day at DHS. I never actually looked at the park hours this
> weekend, since they were so secondary to the point of my trip.
>
> Got into DHS around 8:20 or so, and headed straight for Toy Story. Wait
> already 45 minutes, fast passes at 10:45am. I got an FP, and went down
> to Sunset Blvd. Single Rider at Rock N Roller Coaster was very fast. In
> fact, they depleted the standby queue in the load area and just filled
> the rest of the car with Single Riders. Then over to ToT, which was
> effectively a walk-on, if you don't count the time needed for the
> library pre-show.
>
> Now, about 9:20am or so, I left Hollywood Studios and found the area for
> the charter buses, as Charter #11 is the stop for Wide World of Sports
> at DHS. There were several people there in Tai Kwan Do outfits.
> Apparently packet pickup wasn't the only thing happening at WWoS today.
> Got there about 9:40am, and was about 3rd or 4th in the queue. We were
> entertained by a friendly CM named Mike telling jokes and whatnot until
> we were let in to the pickup area. Completed waiver in hand, I found my
> number, picked up my race packet, pin, and tshirt, and was out of there
> less than 5 minutes after they opened the gate.
>
> Back to the Hollywood Studios I went. Not quite time for my TS FP yet,
> so I walked into One Man's Dream briefly, and did some pin trading (I'd
> bought 30 new traders from eBay a couple weeks before I left, and had
> brought 10 of them with me on this trip). Now onto Toy Story, after
> using my iPhone to call up WDWToday's show notes on tips and strategies,
> and doing my best to remember them. I got one of my high scores:
> 202,500. Now that I know some of those secrets, we'll have to see if I
> can improve upon that next time.
>
> From there over to the Backlot Express, for Lou Mongello's "meet of the
> month". I spoke with him and met Bryan Ripper from All About the Mouse,
> as well as the guy (can't remember his name) who does Reedy Creek Radio.
> A lot of fun meeting up with people you listen to every week...
>
> I told Lou I was going over to the MK to hear the new TTA soundtrack. He
> reacted with pain and said he didn't like it, and told me to call his
> show's voicemail to tell him what I thought. I took the Contemporary
> bus from DHS, since it arrived before the TTC bus, and walked to the
> Magic Kingdom. To my shock, there was a wait for the TTA. About 5
> minutes long. The line extended down past the elevator for Astro
> Orbiter. When I finally got on, I understood why Lou didn't like it:
> it's a commercial. Something you'd hear on Disney Resort television. It
> has no theming, is nothing at all like the old narration. It's simply a
> commercial advertising the other Tomorrowland attractions. This makes
> absolutely zero sense to me. We're already *in the park*, why do you
> need to advertise the other attractions?? Ugh. I hope someone comes to
> there senses and fixes that, quickly.
>
> I went to Columbia Harbor House for lunch. That "new seating policy"
> we've heard about was most definitely *not* in effect here, as I saw
> plenty of people holding tables for their family. I had a salad, and
> left as quickly as possible. One quick ride on the Haunted Mansion, and
> it was time to go back to the resort to rest up for the night.
>
> Before napping, I made a reservation at Shutters for 5:20pm. Oddly, the
> online reservation system I used while on-hold with Disney Dining
> claimed no availability, but the CM on the phone had no problem getting
> me a reservation. At 5pm, I woke myself up and walked back over to Old
> Port Royal. Dinner at Shutters was decent. I liked the options and the
> server was very attentive. I had the roast chicken breast, with a baked
> potato and plantains. Back to the room to change and get ready for the
> race.
>
> About 7:45pm, I left my room for the bus stop, decked out in my ToT 13k
> shirt with the bib attached, running shorts, and my iPhone strapped to
> my arm, with my clear plastic bag containing a towel, the 13k pin, and
> my camera. There were two buses lined up ready to go to DHS when I
> arrived at Old Port Royal. We got to DHS, and walked a lonnnnng
> distance to the Television parking lot, where the race would begin. I
> met up with Lou Mongello and his followers again, and spent most of the
> time there waiting. I checked my bag and had a random volunteer take my
> picture.
>
> The 5k was scheduled to start at 10:15pm, and the 13k at 10:30pm, from
> the same start line. Around 9:45pm, I wandered over to the chute, and
> positioned myself between the signs for "13:01 - 15:00" and "walkers".
> 10:15, the 5k starts. About 5 minutes later, we see the first 5k-ers
> heading back in our direction. I have no idea what their course looked
> like, so I don't know how far they'd actually run in those 5 minutes.
> Anyway, about 10:35, the fireworks go off, and the 13k starts. It was a
> little more than 3 minutes before I finally crossed the start line.
>
> Most of the course was very unremarkable. Just roads. I was using my
> iPhone with the Nike+ system to track my distance and time, and was
> regretting the decision not to bring earphones with me. For some
> reason, I was expecting the course to be more exciting and didn't think
> I'd need to listen to music. We ran (and anytime I say "ran", I mean
> "jogged for 30-45 seconds, and walked for a minute or so") from the DHS
> parking lot over to the Wide World of Sports. In the WWoS, we circled a
> couple of the athletic fields, went about 3/4 of the way around the
> track, and exited out a different way from we came in. Next was back to
> DHS pretty much the same way we came, which, again, means very
> unremarkable. In fairness, they did have DJs and volunteers every so
> often cheering us on. And the water stops were very appreciated too.
>
> Mile marker 6 was backstage at Hollywood Studios. 3/4ths completed.
> Almost there. We appeared on stage at DHS at the little alleyway to the
> right of Sid Kuwangas. I'm averaging 15 minutes per mile, which means
> most folks have been done for quite a while, and are just milling about
> Hollywood Blvd. That was slightly disheartening, but no matter. We ran
> up Hollywood, took a left at the Hat, down Commissary Lane, past
> Muppets, through the Streets of America, into and around Lights Motors
> Action, and finally backstage near the Backlot Tour. Almost a full mile
> of twisting winding backstage areas (and I thought onstage was confusing
> at DHS...), before finally coming back onstage back down Hollywood Blvd,
> and taking a left past Oscars's garage, up the back pathway towards
> Fantasmic. Mile Marker 8, just 0.19 miles to go. The finish line was
> behind the rear of Rock N Roller Coaster, and I managed to sprint the
> last 200 feet or so. HOORAY I'M DONE!!!
>
> At the finish, we got our medals, and then had the official ASI
> photographers take our pictures, and got gatorade and/or water, and a
> goody bag containing a muffin and banana. All *very* appreciated. About
> a 5 minute line to pick up our bags from baggage check. I took out my
> towel and dried off my head and face, and then asked some random person
> to take my picture with the camera.
>
> It's just after 12:30am, and the after-party goes until 2am. I did a
> celebratory ride on Tower of Terror. (just before entering the library,
> some poor girl apparently was much worse for wear, and vomited just
> before the library entrance). They didn't even bother with the preshow,
> just opened the back library door as soon as we were all in. After
> Tower, I walked over towards Toy Story, but saw a 50 minute wait, and
> thought better of it. My legs now *very* not happy, I left the studios
> and gingerly walked to the buses.
>
> On the bus ride back to the hotel, I finally got a hold of my Disney
> buddy, Charlene, and told her what I'd just did. I had kept this entire
> trip a complete secret from all my family and friends, because if I got
> swept, I didn't want anyone asking me "so how did it go?". Charlene was
> in shock that I was in WDW to begin with, and even more so that I'd run
> the race.
>
> Finally back to the hotel, I took a nice long shower, transferred the
> pics from my iPhone and camera to the computer, updated my Facebook
> status, and went to bed.
>
> Now, it's 8:21am Sunday morning, and I haven't gotten out of bed yet.
> I'm obviously not making it to any park for rope drop. I think the plan
> is: shower, check bags at Custom House, quick breakfast at Old Port
> Royal, head to Epcot, try out The Sum of All Thrills, munch my way
> around the F&WF, and head back to the hotel for my Magical Express
> pickup at 3pm.
>
> Whirlwind of a weekend. I'm very happy that I was able to complete the
> race, that I didn't get swept, and that I successfully kept the secret
> from my family and friends for so long. Next trip is in January, for
> the half-marathon and following it up with a Disney cruise!
>
> Thanks for reading,
> Paul Lalli

Hi Paul,

Very interesting trip report. I'm amazed you could keep your plans
secret. I know that would be a big problem for me. LOL! Congrats on
finishing the race and good luck in January.

Jack

--
My email address on the header is a non-monitored spam catching account.
I can be reached via http://www.wvnh.net/contact.htm


The dates for the next RADP Meet are December 4-7, 2009 for RADP-XIV
(http://meets.radp.org).
From: Lisa Cubbon on 25 Oct 2009 10:39
Paul Lalli wrote:
> Despite my running 8.1 miles last night and not getting to bed until
> 2:30am, my body still refuses to sleep past 7:30am. So I'm awake, and I
> figured I may as well give you a review of the ToT 13k.
>
> This was my 2nd ever race at Walt Disney World (2nd ever race, ever, in
> fact). The first was the 5k during Marathon Weekend earlier this year.
> I registered for the half marathon in January 2010, along with my
> friend and siblings. I secretly registered for the ToT 13k as a
> stepping stone to provide more immediate motivation to continue
> training. "Secretly" in that I didn't tell any of my family & friends
> that I registered or was even coming to WDW this weekend.
>
> After taking a half-day off from work Friday, I flew down to Orlando and
> arrived at about 8:40pm. MCO is *dead* this time of night. I've never
> flew down here on anything except the first flight of the day. When I
> got over to Magical Express, there was no one there. Kinda eerie,
> actually. I had to go to the counter because for whatever reason they
> never sent me my packet. I got that straightened out, and then went to
> stand in the massive queue lines, all by my lonesome. Literally the
> only guest there.
>
> Within a couple minutes, one of the CMs said "we have a bus for you",
> and I got on the DME bus, that had about 15 guests already waiting on
> it. Another 5-10 minutes later, and we took off. Caribbean Beach was
> the first stop, and is where I'm staying this trip.
>
> I checked in at the Custom House, which was similarly dead. A CM was
> available as soon as I walked into the line. I got all checked in, but
> they were having technical difficulties and couldn't print out anyone's
> room key cards. After standing there for a good 20-25 minutes, while
> the CM kept walking to the back to see if anyone fixed the problem yet,
> she finally came out and gave me what she called a temporary card for my
> room. She said they needed that back the next day, at which point
> they'd give me my real card. This was was purple and had the letters
> ECBG on it. I quickly realized this must be a card keyed to my specific
> room - #5327, as the letters correspond to those numbers.
>
> I left the custom house, and decided to walk the 15-20 minutes to my
> room in Aruba, since that would be the last stop if I got on the
> internal resort shuttle. Finally found my room (the numbering in these
> buildings makes no sense, btw). Inserted the temporary key card... and
> nothing. Red light. No unlocking. Tried several more times, nothing.
> I've been here for less than an hour, and they've already managed to
> screw up twice. Grrr.
>
> I looked through the packet of info they gave me for a phone number for
> the front desk. Nothing. They all say "push 'front desk' on your
> in-room phone". I try calling 1-407-WDISNEY. "Our offices are
> currently closed." Grrrrr. I get on the internet on my iPhone and
> finally find the number off one of the fan sites. Call them up. Explain
> the problem. They claim they'll send a "runner" over to me with my
> card. 25 minutes later, the "runner" finally appears - an extremely
> heavy set woman who looks as though she tiptoed over from the Custom
> House. I get no apology for the inconvenience or anything else. In
> fact, she's a bit rude, as though this situation was *my* fault. "Do
> you have the temporary card? Good, here's yours." and she starts to
> walk away. No no, let's see if this one works first, shall we?
> Fortunately it does, and at 10:30pm, nearly two hours after arriving in
> Orlando, I finally get in to my room.
>
> I started getting settled and realized that 1) I had no dinner yet
> today, and 2) I forgot to buy and pack travel-sized toothpaste. I
> walked over the bridges to Old Port Royal, and took care of each. The
> only counter left in the food court was the one that serves burgers and
> chicken sandwiches. Everything else is closed. Got myself a burger,
> and went over to the toppings stand to find that they'd already removed
> everything. Grrrr. Ate, bought my toothpaste, and now thoroughly
> displeased after this long day, walked back to the room and went to sleep.
>
> Saturday morning. Woke up, showered, went to Old Port Royal for
> breakfast. Steak, Egg, & Cheese quesadilla was actually pretty darned
> good. I need to go to packet pickup, but it doesn't start until 10am,
> and the special buses from the host resorts (of which CB is one, which
> is why I was staying here) don't start until 9:30am. So I got on a
> regular bus to Hollywood Studios, figuring I'd get there before opening,
> and could do a couple attractions before going over to the WWoS for
> packet pickup. To my surprise when we arrived, it was apparently an EMH
> morning day at DHS. I never actually looked at the park hours this
> weekend, since they were so secondary to the point of my trip.
>
> Got into DHS around 8:20 or so, and headed straight for Toy Story. Wait
> already 45 minutes, fast passes at 10:45am. I got an FP, and went down
> to Sunset Blvd. Single Rider at Rock N Roller Coaster was very fast. In
> fact, they depleted the standby queue in the load area and just filled
> the rest of the car with Single Riders. Then over to ToT, which was
> effectively a walk-on, if you don't count the time needed for the
> library pre-show.
>
> Now, about 9:20am or so, I left Hollywood Studios and found the area for
> the charter buses, as Charter #11 is the stop for Wide World of Sports
> at DHS. There were several people there in Tai Kwan Do outfits.
> Apparently packet pickup wasn't the only thing happening at WWoS today.
> Got there about 9:40am, and was about 3rd or 4th in the queue. We were
> entertained by a friendly CM named Mike telling jokes and whatnot until
> we were let in to the pickup area. Completed waiver in hand, I found my
> number, picked up my race packet, pin, and tshirt, and was out of there
> less than 5 minutes after they opened the gate.
>
> Back to the Hollywood Studios I went. Not quite time for my TS FP yet,
> so I walked into One Man's Dream briefly, and did some pin trading (I'd
> bought 30 new traders from eBay a couple weeks before I left, and had
> brought 10 of them with me on this trip). Now onto Toy Story, after
> using my iPhone to call up WDWToday's show notes on tips and strategies,
> and doing my best to remember them. I got one of my high scores:
> 202,500. Now that I know some of those secrets, we'll have to see if I
> can improve upon that next time.
>
> From there over to the Backlot Express, for Lou Mongello's "meet of the
> month". I spoke with him and met Bryan Ripper from All About the Mouse,
> as well as the guy (can't remember his name) who does Reedy Creek Radio.
> A lot of fun meeting up with people you listen to every week...
>
> I told Lou I was going over to the MK to hear the new TTA soundtrack. He
> reacted with pain and said he didn't like it, and told me to call his
> show's voicemail to tell him what I thought. I took the Contemporary
> bus from DHS, since it arrived before the TTC bus, and walked to the
> Magic Kingdom. To my shock, there was a wait for the TTA. About 5
> minutes long. The line extended down past the elevator for Astro
> Orbiter. When I finally got on, I understood why Lou didn't like it:
> it's a commercial. Something you'd hear on Disney Resort television. It
> has no theming, is nothing at all like the old narration. It's simply a
> commercial advertising the other Tomorrowland attractions. This makes
> absolutely zero sense to me. We're already *in the park*, why do you
> need to advertise the other attractions?? Ugh. I hope someone comes to
> there senses and fixes that, quickly.
>
> I went to Columbia Harbor House for lunch. That "new seating policy"
> we've heard about was most definitely *not* in effect here, as I saw
> plenty of people holding tables for their family. I had a salad, and
> left as quickly as possible. One quick ride on the Haunted Mansion, and
> it was time to go back to the resort to rest up for the night.
>
> Before napping, I made a reservation at Shutters for 5:20pm. Oddly, the
> online reservation system I used while on-hold with Disney Dining
> claimed no availability, but the CM on the phone had no problem getting
> me a reservation. At 5pm, I woke myself up and walked back over to Old
> Port Royal. Dinner at Shutters was decent. I liked the options and the
> server was very attentive. I had the roast chicken breast, with a baked
> potato and plantains. Back to the room to change and get ready for the
> race.
>
> About 7:45pm, I left my room for the bus stop, decked out in my ToT 13k
> shirt with the bib attached, running shorts, and my iPhone strapped to
> my arm, with my clear plastic bag containing a towel, the 13k pin, and
> my camera. There were two buses lined up ready to go to DHS when I
> arrived at Old Port Royal. We got to DHS, and walked a lonnnnng
> distance to the Television parking lot, where the race would begin. I
> met up with Lou Mongello and his followers again, and spent most of the
> time there waiting. I checked my bag and had a random volunteer take my
> picture.
>
> The 5k was scheduled to start at 10:15pm, and the 13k at 10:30pm, from
> the same start line. Around 9:45pm, I wandered over to the chute, and
> positioned myself between the signs for "13:01 - 15:00" and "walkers".
> 10:15, the 5k starts. About 5 minutes later, we see the first 5k-ers
> heading back in our direction. I have no idea what their course looked
> like, so I don't know how far they'd actually run in those 5 minutes.
> Anyway, about 10:35, the fireworks go off, and the 13k starts. It was a
> little more than 3 minutes before I finally crossed the start line.
>
> Most of the course was very unremarkable. Just roads. I was using my
> iPhone with the Nike+ system to track my distance and time, and was
> regretting the decision not to bring earphones with me. For some
> reason, I was expecting the course to be more exciting and didn't think
> I'd need to listen to music. We ran (and anytime I say "ran", I mean
> "jogged for 30-45 seconds, and walked for a minute or so") from the DHS
> parking lot over to the Wide World of Sports. In the WWoS, we circled a
> couple of the athletic fields, went about 3/4 of the way around the
> track, and exited out a different way from we came in. Next was back to
> DHS pretty much the same way we came, which, again, means very
> unremarkable. In fairness, they did have DJs and volunteers every so
> often cheering us on. And the water stops were very appreciated too.
>
> Mile marker 6 was backstage at Hollywood Studios. 3/4ths completed.
> Almost there. We appeared on stage at DHS at the little alleyway to the
> right of Sid Kuwangas. I'm averaging 15 minutes per mile, which means
> most folks have been done for quite a while, and are just milling about
> Hollywood Blvd. That was slightly disheartening, but no matter. We ran
> up Hollywood, took a left at the Hat, down Commissary Lane, past
> Muppets, through the Streets of America, into and around Lights Motors
> Action, and finally backstage near the Backlot Tour. Almost a full mile
> of twisting winding backstage areas (and I thought onstage was confusing
> at DHS...), before finally coming back onstage back down Hollywood Blvd,
> and taking a left past Oscars's garage, up the back pathway towards
> Fantasmic. Mile Marker 8, just 0.19 miles to go. The finish line was
> behind the rear of Rock N Roller Coaster, and I managed to sprint the
> last 200 feet or so. HOORAY I'M DONE!!!
>
> At the finish, we got our medals, and then had the official ASI
> photographers take our pictures, and got gatorade and/or water, and a
> goody bag containing a muffin and banana. All *very* appreciated. About
> a 5 minute line to pick up our bags from baggage check. I took out my
> towel and dried off my head and face, and then asked some random person
> to take my picture with the camera.
>
> It's just after 12:30am, and the after-party goes until 2am. I did a
> celebratory ride on Tower of Terror. (just before entering the library,
> some poor girl apparently was much worse for wear, and vomited just
> before the library entrance). They didn't even bother with the preshow,
> just opened the back library door as soon as we were all in. After
> Tower, I walked over towards Toy Story, but saw a 50 minute wait, and
> thought better of it. My legs now *very* not happy, I left the studios
> and gingerly walked to the buses.
>
> On the bus ride back to the hotel, I finally got a hold of my Disney
> buddy, Charlene, and told her what I'd just did. I had kept this entire
> trip a complete secret from all my family and friends, because if I got
> swept, I didn't want anyone asking me "so how did it go?". Charlene was
> in shock that I was in WDW to begin with, and even more so that I'd run
> the race.
>
> Finally back to the hotel, I took a nice long shower, transferred the
> pics from my iPhone and camera to the computer, updated my Facebook
> status, and went to bed.
>
> Now, it's 8:21am Sunday morning, and I haven't gotten out of bed yet.
> I'm obviously not making it to any park for rope drop. I think the plan
> is: shower, check bags at Custom House, quick breakfast at Old Port
> Royal, head to Epcot, try out The Sum of All Thrills, munch my way
> around the F&WF, and head back to the hotel for my Magical Express
> pickup at 3pm.
>
> Whirlwind of a weekend. I'm very happy that I was able to complete the
> race, that I didn't get swept, and that I successfully kept the secret
> from my family and friends for so long. Next trip is in January, for
> the half-marathon and following it up with a Disney cruise!
>
> Thanks for reading,
> Paul Lalli
Fantastic! What a great surprised and accomplishment. I hope you
can sleep on the plane. Lisa
From: Patty Winter on 25 Oct 2009 12:24

In article <hc1g23$sfm$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>,
Paul Lalli <mritty(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>I checked in at the Custom House, which was similarly dead. A CM was
>available as soon as I walked into the line. I got all checked in, but
>they were having technical difficulties and couldn't print out anyone's
>room key cards.

[rest of info about very annoying key mixup deleted]

Paul, if you haven't done so already, I suggest that you write to
WDW about this. It wasn't their fault that the machine was down,
but they shouldn't have kept you waiting nearly half an hour while
they tried to fix it when they knew that they could issue you a
temporary card instead right away. And the delayed response and
curt behavior of the person who brought the replacement key were
also not appropriate.

Congrats on completing the ToT 13K!


Patty

From: Paul Lalli on 26 Oct 2009 09:00
On Oct 25, 8:24 am, Paul Lalli <mri...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Now, it's 8:21am Sunday morning, and I haven't gotten out of bed yet.
> I'm obviously not making it to any park for rope drop.  I think the plan
> is:  shower, check bags at Custom House, quick breakfast at Old Port
> Royal, head to Epcot, try out The Sum of All Thrills, munch my way
> around the F&WF, and head back to the hotel for my Magical Express
> pickup at 3pm.

Just to complete the TR...

I did indeed go to Epcot yesterday morning. Got an FP for Soarin',
then ate some breakfast at the Sunshine Seasons. They had this panino
sandwhich with eggs, bacon, and roast pork that was ungodly
delicious. Then I went over to Innoventions East for the Sum of All
Thrills. There was about a 10-15 minute wait. My only complaint
about the attraction is that the actual ride experience is VERY
short. The design phase is very similar to CyberSpace Mountain, with
the ability to choose one of three or four track styles for each
segment. The difference comes in with the "tools" - a ruler and a
dial that you put on the touch screen, to modify the height, width,
and speed of your segment. You have to balance those three out with
the available energy. If you choose too high a height with too little
speed, for example, the ride can't make it up the hill. If you choose
too wide a bank with too high a speed, the ride will fall off the
track. After you've done each segment, you push the Test button to
make sure your design works.

After designing my jet-coaster, I went up to the simulator. Just like
CyberSpace Mountain, you take everything out of your pockets and put
it in a locked cabinet, keeping the key around your wrist. Then into
the simulator. From the moment it starts, you feel the motion and the
movements. MUCH better than CyberSpace Mountain. Plus it has wind
effect to help simulate the forward momentum. The simulation is much
more life-like and realistic than CSM. Again, it was over far too
quickly, but that's really the only complaint I could have about it.
I don't know if I'd call it a "must do" at Epcot, but I think I'd put
it at the B or C-ticket level.

(Side Note - I believe DisneyQuest is truly on its death bed. First
they have SoAT being a much better version of DQ's star attraction.
And when I arrived on Magical Express, and the video was talking about
the Water Park Fun & More ticket option, they mentioned the two water
parks, the golf course, and the Wide World of Sports. They did NOT
mention DisneyQuest at all. I know some people won't be sorry to see
it go, but I really wish they would have spent the time/money/effort
to fix what was wrong, rather than abandon it.)

After Sum of All Thrills, I went over to the Single Rider line at Test
Track. They weren't even sectioning people off in groups into the
briefing room. Front and rear doors were just open constantly.
Oddly, when we came to the "barrier test", the barrier was already
open before we got into view of it. Next I went back across Future
World to use my Soarin FP (requesting B1, of course), and then finally
into World Showcase for lunching around the world.

I sampled the Fisherman's Pie at Ireland, the Cheddar Cheese soup in
Canada, the Braised Short Ribs in France (with a Grand Marnaige slush
to wash it down), and the Sukyaki Beef roll in Japan. Everything was
delicious. Only disappointment is that the Beef roll changed from the
last time I was at F&WF. It was served cold, directly out of the
refrigerator. When I got it last time, it was served hot off the
grill. That was better.

I stopped in the American Adventure briefly, but found that the Voices
of Liberty weren't playing. Cast Member Lonnie told me that they have
the whole week off - to do rehearsals for the Candlelight
Processional. One week before Halloween... of *course* Christmas
rehearsals are taking place now. :)

By the time I got back around to Future World, my legs were seriously
yelling at me. I did a ride on Spaceship Earth as it enabled me to
sit down for a few minutes, and then caught a bus back to Carribbean
Beach. Still had an hour before my Magical Express time, so I got off
at Port Royal, and sat down with a Powerade and read for a bit, then
caught the internal shuttle to Custom House. Magical Express was
right on time. Printed out my Southwest BP at the self-serve kiosks,
uploaded my ToT 13k pictures to FB (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/
album.php?aid=2071900&id=17502474&ref=mf), and got on the plane. Nice
exit row seat for the ~2:30 flight back to Albany, arrived 15 minutes
early. Went home, collapsed. :-)

All in all it was a really good trip. Lightening fast, but I'm really
glad I did it. Finishing the ToT 13k was a good morale-booster, but
also a reminder that I need to keep training and working out for the
half-marathon in January.

Paul Lalli
 |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2 3 4
Prev: RADP Pavilion - Update
Next: Princess Tiana + POFQ???