WDW Marathon weekend – 2004 - Complete!!!
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**Colexis Mom** · 01-30-2004, 08:31 AM

Sounds like a great day at MK Terri

Glad Ward was able to help you out with those passes!! Looking forward to more

KimandMark · 01-30-2004, 02:54 PM

I can't wait to read about the race!! Don't make me wait anymore!

**DrDolphin** · 01-30-2004, 03:00 PM

Sorry Kim - It's been a madhouse around here and I have had NO time to write more of my report - and to make matters even "Worse" (ha - like this a bad thing???) - I leave for Disney Sunday for 5 days with my niece-- so I will owe 2 Trip reports!!!

I will try to post another chapter tonight before I go to bed and tomorrow night after I finish packing my suitcase and car for Sunday's trip.

**DrDolphin** · 01-30-2004, 08:11 PM

Part 2 – MGM
We left magic Kingdom and headed over to MGM for our Fantasmic dinner package and showing of Fantasmic. We arrived and opted to head straight to Tower of Terror, although I do think Kris was major freaked about it. We walked up and saw that stand-by was only 13-minutes and got right in line. After we entered the hotel lobby, I saw the hidden mickey on the desk, as well as the words on the message board!!! And in the library, we found the hidden mickey in the movie. After the movie – we quickly headed to our elevator, were seated and buckled in. I love this ride!! We saw the ghosts and had 5 or 6 drops, not entirely sure of the count. I asked Cheryl and Kris if they;d seen the ghosts, Kris said she’d had her eyes closed the entire time!!! HA HA!!! After leaving ToT, we walked over to RnR – now Kris does not like upside down rides… and she asked if this one was (after looking at the car at the entrance). We told her there was one upside down – right after the start, and then its over. We both left out the corkscrew!!! So, Kris agreed to take one ride. We got through the pre-show, into the “alley” and into our car. I sat next to Kris – we were in the last two seats of the car. She did great through the loop – and right as we got to the corkscrew – I screamed “I forgot to tell you about the corkscrew!!!” I love this ride!! You could put me on it and leave me on it for days!! After RNR (Kris forgave me for the corkscrew – although I am not sure she will be riding it again in the near future), we wanted to head to WWTBAM, we had wanted to take Kris here, but they are taping the regular show with Meredith Vieira, so we moved on. Amazingly enough, during this day (remember, the first day we were at Disney) Kris begins to hem and haw about a possible return to WDW for the marathon next year – if her fiancé gets a good financial aid package from the University of Illinois – so Pixie Dust prayers for Peter to get a good package so Kris can come with us!!

We had a 4:20pm PS at Hollywood and Vine for dinner with the dinner package – Cheryl declared this to be the “Best Buffet ever” I agree! The only problem with it was that both the soft serve ice cream machines were not working and there were no rice crispy treats on the dessert bar (although I had eaten my fair share of boiled shrimp). After dinner, we headed to Oscars, with our special card to allow us in to the preferred section. The wind was really blowing, and I was somewhat worried they would cancel the show due to winds. In fact, the wind was blowing so hard that the reserved section was closed due to potential to get really wet, and we were moved into the regular seating section – in fact we were in the middle section. As always, Fantastmic was an excellent show!! The only bad thing was that the wind was blowing so hard that the “screens” were hard to see sometimes due to strength of wind and gusts. All I can think was that Aerial and the other princesses must have been really cold in their outfits and since there was spray getting on them. It was SO cold!! Before the show started, I went and got Kris and I hot chocolate and a hot pretzel. The chocolate came in “refillable” Brother Bear mugs.

After Fantasmic, and a return to the room, Cheryl and I set about getting ready for the race in the morning. We laid out all our clothes, filled water bottles, tied chips on shoes and discussed whether or not, given the current weather conditions we really wanted to run this race. After long discussions and looking at the mornings’ weather forecast (30 degrees, with a 20 knot wind from the north), we made the decision not to run the race. We were not sure we could deal with the 5 miles between EPCOT and MK into the head wind. So we decided not to run, turned off the light and went to bed.

luvnwdwgal · 01-30-2004, 08:50 PM

Great update! Pretty sneaky forgetting to tell Kris about that corkscrew!

**chezp** · 01-31-2004, 02:28 AM

That was wicked of you, not telling Kris about the corkscrew! It's a shame the weather meant you wouldn't be running the next morning, but I guess it means more time for Disney touring instead!

poohsgirl · 01-31-2004, 01:44 PM

[ QUOTE ]
She did great through the loop – and right as we got to the corkscrew – I screamed “I forgot to tell you about the corkscrew!!!”

[/ QUOTE ]
<font color="purple"> We have another little

in our midst! Were both you and Don in cahoots on how to trick your friends onto rides?!

Too bad the weather wasn't warm enough to run the race!

</font>

KimandMark · 02-02-2004, 12:12 PM

Are you kidding me!!! Please tell me that you changed your mind!! NOOOOOOOOO!

tikibird · 02-02-2004, 02:23 PM

Yep, you rank right up there with Don and the ride "surprises!"

Sorry the weather got yucky - looking forward to your next update!

**Colexis Mom** · 02-03-2004, 09:00 AM

Great update Terri

Looking forward to more

wdwlovers · 02-06-2004, 10:31 PM

Great report Terri! Can't wait for more!

**DrDolphin** · 02-11-2004, 12:38 AM

Sunday

Well – it was a good thing we didn’t do the race –Cheryl’s clothes ended up soaked in powerade due to a water bottle leak (she filled the bottle the night before and laid it on her running clothes) and she would have been cold and wet – not to mention yellow and sticky.

We opted to get up and head to MGM this morning – one to see the runners complete the last few miles of the race and cheer for the back of the packers – and to try to play Who wants to be a millionaire. Since they were still taping the tv show, there was no regular game – so we had to come up with alternatives – and we decided on the Great movie Ride. We had the wild west scene – Cheryl and I looked for hidden mickeys – we found the one in the gangster set – but could not find them (or the R2D2 and C3PO) in the Indy set – have to look next time. We tried to convince Kris to go on RNR again – it wasn’t happening – so we headed out to EPCOT. Cheryl’s ticket decided not to let her in – so she runs over to Guest relations to get a new one issued (strange since it just worked at MGM not an hour ago)…

First thing at EPCOT was Space Ship Earth!! Love this ride – very relaxing, in the dark with Jeremy Irons voice in my head…. Oh – wake up? OK. We hustled over to Test Track for fast passes, then it was off to Ellen’s Energy Adventure. I so want a video of this to show my environmental science class!! It would be great for the oil/gas/alternatives lecture – although Bill and I do disagree on a couple of points. After Ellen – we ate the ever-famous Mickey Bars – which proceeded to melt all over Cheryl and get chocolate everywhere – she ate it too slow!! We went to get fast passes for living with the land (remember this – we have a problem later) and came back to Test Track – where the CM wanted us to wait another 30-minutes after our fast pass time. She did not give a real good explaination as to why… but then we discovered that since Cheryl’s new pass had not been activated – she did not have a real fast pass… so Kris and I gave our passes away to a couple people waiting in line and decided to head to the countries instead. We started with Mexico - rode Rio del Tiempo and then looked for coffee for the coffee nuts (Kris and Cheryl) – I can’t remember if it was lattes or capacino they wanted – but we were out of luck. Then off to a nice little boat trip through the mists of Norway (and finding a hidden Mickey or two here). Stopped in Italy to toss coins in the fountain – Cheryl recently returned from Italy and told us to toss coins in the fountain so we could all return to Rome (wait a minute – this fountain is in Florida – if we toss a coin, does it mean we come back to WDW??) Needless to say a few coins were tossed in. During our international tour – we had to keep calling in to check the score of the Eagles game for the rabid Eagles fan (Kris). It was either that or spend the entire afternoon at the ESPN zone in front of a tv - this was the better choice. Did some “shopping” in Morocco, Germany (showed them mom’s nativity scene) and France. Even found the Beast in France and had some photos taken of all of us with the beast.

During the international shopping tour – Cheryl’s boyfriend called on my cell phone – and broke up with her!!! She was really upset – and needless to say he ruined the rest of our evening. Cheryl cried for awhile, and sobbed and cried some more – so we just walked kind of aimlessly. We had a 7:00pm PS for Le Cellier – so I suggested we walk over and see if we could be seated early – well the answer to that was a 20-minute wait from our PS time – we arrived at Le Cellier at 6:40 – we were told we would be seated at around 7:20pm. We found a bench and sat and talked and comforted Cheryl while waiting for our table. Some folks were really snotty to the CM at the door complaining about the wait and why bother with a “reservation” any way. The CM informed them that without the PS – they’d be waiting 80 minutes!! We were seated at 7:25pm – and since she was in a really bad mood – Cheryl had no appetite. Kris had the grilled chicken, I started with the cheese soup, which was very good and I am not a major cheddar cheese fan, and I got a steak (don’t ask which one – too long ago to remember) – but I do remember that I could not finish it (maybe it was the 12 or 14 oz New York Strip). Cheryl picked at a salad all during dinner – and needless to say the mood left a lot to be desired. We decided not to stay for Illuminations – a decision I was not happy with – but Cheryl wanted to call home, she was still upset by x-BF and did not want to see Illuminations – something to add to the “next year” list (for Kris’s next trip)…. Oops – am I getting ahead of myself??

We drove back to WL and began the sad process of packing to go home the next day. During the cleaning and repacking – Kris realized she did not have her pass…. Now where could it be? IN THE FAST PASS MACHINE AT LIVING WITH THE LAND!!!! Oh NO!! What will we do? Had we remembered the golden rule of passes (write down the number on the back)?? NO!!! Oh well – we will deal with it in the morning – nothing can be done this time of night.

**Colexis Mom** · 02-11-2004, 07:50 AM

Sorry you didn't get to run in the marathon

And how crude of Cheryl's BF to call your cell and break up with her. Sounds like she is going to be much better off! Too bad it ruined the night though. Hope you get that pass back! Looking forward to more

KimandMark · 02-11-2004, 03:47 PM

What kind of ass calls someone else's cell phone on the day the person is supposed to be running a half-marathon and is on vacation to break up with them. Did it just suddenly strike him, could he not wait 24 hours until she got back home to do it in person? Tell her she's better off!