2013 Wine and Dine Half Marathon Trip

[wewantsdaredhead]

I am almost done with my Wine and Dine TR and since a certain Brother of mine has abandoned our combined Labor Day TR, I figured I would go ahead with this one.
TR and pics coming soon!

[cy1229]

I am almost done with my Wine and Dine TR and since a certain Brother of mine has abandoned our combined Labor Day TR, I figured I would go ahead with this one.
TR and pics coming soon!

WOOHOO on TR's!!! Boohoo on abandoned TR's!!!!

[Amy]

I am almost done with my Wine and Dine TR and since a certain Brother of mine has abandoned our combined Labor Day TR, I figured I would go ahead with this one.
TR and pics coming soon!

WOOHOO on TR's!!! Boohoo on abandoned TR's!!!!

Agreed! Although I think it is more to do with the sheer volume of trips on NaCler's part Although perhaps he is just savoring the experience and doesn't want it to end
Looking forward to your W&D 1/2 report H!

[NaCler]

Actually, it's because the next part of the LD trip is the best part of the trip and I don't want it to end.

[Amy]

Actually, it's because the next part of the LD trip is the best part of the trip and I don't want it to end.

Aww, I completely understand that feeling. It will be ok, you and H will be reunited soon!

[wewantsdaredhead]

Actually, it's because the next part of the LD trip is the best part of the trip and I don't want it to end.

Aww, I completely understand that feeling. It will be ok, you and H will be reunited soon!

I understand that also...

I am having trouble with photobucket--imagine that. Half of my pictures are pulling in sideways. So aggravating.
Almost there!!

Just about 4 weeks away from brothers reuniting!!

[Amy]

Actually, it's because the next part of the LD trip is the best part of the trip and I don't want it to end.

Aww, I completely understand that feeling. It will be ok, you and H will be reunited soon!

I understand that also...

I am having trouble with photobucket--imagine that. Half of my pictures are pulling in sideways. So aggravating.
Almost there!!

Just about 4 weeks away from brothers reuniting!!

Check out Flikr. I dumped Photobucket and haven't looked back ~ so much easier with Flikr!!

[wewantsdaredhead]

Check out Flikr. I dumped Photobucket and haven't looked back ~ so much easier with Flikr!!

Wow! That was easy!!!! Thanks for the tip.
And without further ado....

[wewantsdaredhead]

I thought for this TR that I would try something different…I will just give a brief overview of the whole trip and then just post all the pics at the end, with some comments on them.
So if you arent interested in the story and just the pics, scroll down to where they start. No hard feelings!
So let’s get rolling…

This trip came about because of my desire to attend BOTH the Food and Wine Festival and the Osborne lights. I looked at the WDW calendar and there was only one weekend that they overlapped and guess what? The Wine and Dine half marathon was right in the middle of it. With us being crazy about running these days, it was like this trip was tailor made for us!

Like all of my trips to the World, this one grew from just a few days to a whole week. The boys were coming along this time so we had to play it just right to minimize absences from school. I believe we had it figured so that we had them out for 2 days (with a Veterans Day trip and an early dismissal in there to help out). We planned on driving to save $$$, but Southwest came out with some crazy deals and we decided to fly.

So here are the bullet points:
Who? Me, (Henry) 43yo-- Mrs. WWDRH (Mary) 39yo.—Son #1 (17) Son #2 (15). We have many, many trips under our collective belts. We also had a co-worker (and friend) of mine sign up for the race. We really weren’t travelling with them, but we hung out a little and they may come up in the TR a few times.
What? Wine and Dine half marathon! Plus Food and Wine festival and the Osborne lights start that weekend.
When? Arrive Weds the 6th and leave the 12th.
Where? Port Orleans Riverside! My favorite resort and our home away from home. (Our friends were also staying at POR—what can I say, I’m a bad influence!)
Why? Because we are addicted to running and WDW!

Ok so we left work a little early and go into MCO around 6:30. We had to wait a little bit for the DME, but it wasn’t bad. They changed the movie that you watch—now it sort of seems like a rotating highlight reel. It’s not bad. Check in was painless and we got our Magic Bands—even though I never wore mine. I guess as a backup, they give you the old style room key, so I just carried that.

When I planned this trip I bought the boys three day hoppers, but since we added days to the trip, we agreed that they needed at least one more day, so I was going to try and add a day. I bought these from the WWOS complex at a discounted rate to be used only on race weekend. So guess what? Not upgrade-able…booooo. More on that later.
Anyway, since we had to upgrade their tickets and Epcot was having EMH until 11 that night, Mary and I sacrificed ourselves and trudged over to Epcot to see if we could add a day. But hey while we are here, let’s have a beer or two! We arrived at the turnstiles at 9:00 exactly. By the time we got to WS the intro to Illuminations was just ending and the torches were getting blown out. The ticket windows were all closed, so the ticket issue would have to wait for another day.
We got back to the room and the kids were already in bed.

Let’s see—we went to MK the next day for the morning anyway. Space Mountain was down so we decided to go on the WEDway and the lights were on inside the mountain! I got a few shots of the track. Most were blurry, but not all of them. We also did something that I don’t recall we have ever done all in as a family—we rode Splash Mountain. We’ve all been on it—just at different times for whatever reason.

We hit Epcot in the afternoon for Fish and Chips (and beer) and we had our first taste (pun intended) of the F&W festival. It was more crowded than I thought it would be for a Thursday! I had the pierogi and kielbasa from Poland. And a beer.

Oh I almost forgot something---we saw Dennis DeYoung play twice—it was excellent! He was playing as part of the “Eat to the Beat” (Or in our case ‘Drink to the Beat’ )He has hardly lost a step in his voice. He was the lead singer from Styx—he played his big solo hit and all the classic Styx songs. I’m glad we stopped for that.

After that show we went up into the Chase Lounge. This was the private area for Disney Chase card holders that you may have read about. It was very nice---all the free Coke you could stand! My one issue was that some hooligan(s) had cut the iPhone charging cords off at the charging stations. There was about 8 other style of charger ends available but some gang of Apple-hating miscreants had gone and shut me down---no charging for me. Oh well.

I got to use the brand new bathrooms by the American Adventure—very nice!! I was so excited that I even took a picture…

We got back to the hotel early enough to see some of Yeehaa Bob’s show. If you have never seen it, please go to POR and see it—it’s really fun.

Oh one note—I took a cab over to a grocery store to load up for the week. We always eat breakfast in the room, but I also got snacks, beer and water from the store. The cabbie felt the need to convince me that he wasn’t swindling me because we had to go, “off the Disney” to get to a grocery store. I kept telling him that I understood that, but he was making sure it was clear that I was getting taken to the nearest store and not to the cleaners. He had a thick accent and hard to understand, but he helped me load the groceries and everything—nice guy. He asked me how much a beer was “in the Disney” and when I told him he said, “Oh for the love of money!” He ‘got it’—he just didn’t get that I ‘got it.’

Anyway…back to the action in progress. We grabbed a couple of beers (the ones from ‘off the Disney’) and walked over to see YeeHaa Bob and I felt guilty for bringing our own beer, so we sat wayyy in the back almost in the store! And sure enough the waiter came allllll the way over to us and asked if we needed anything to go with our beers, like “a shot” he laughed. We said no and he gave us a coaster and said to wave him down if we needed anything. Anywhere else and they would have told us to leave or order a beer—but not at WDW.

The next day (Friday) we started at DAK for EMH. We hit our highlights and rolled out to Epcot. We are just not into DAK for some reason. In fact we hadn’t been here with the kids since our Christmas trip in 2010. And Son #2 didn’t even join us—he went to MGM. We had done everything that we wanted to except the Maharajah Jungle Trek by about 8:45. We had to wait around until 9 for that to open, so we watched the monkeys swing around awhile. Some crazy fool was even on the river rapids ride at that time! Crazy, I tell ya!!!!

When we got to Epcot, we had to wait in a long line to get in and I was whistling along with the entrance loop. My wife said something smart like “is this your first time here?” and the young girl behind me misunderstood her and said, “Oh this is your first time??!!! You are going to love it here!” I went with it: “Oh yeah? What’s the best part?” Much to my surprise she told me that the countries were the best place. She talked all about how exciting it is to walk into these countries and feel like you were there. Pretty cool! Most kids her age are all about Test Track, Mission Space and Soarin` then get the heck out of here…

Once in Epcot we wandered through more of the F&W festival trying a few different items. And beers. I didn’t take many pics at Epcot on this day for some reason. We were taking it easy and getting ready for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon on Saturday night. We started hydrating on Friday.

Saturday we went to DTD and then sent the kids off to see Thor while we took a nap. The Wine and Dine is a night race which was a first for us. It didn’t start until 10pm. It was hard to not do anything all day—its so easy to just say, “hey lets visit Epcot” but we knew that meant walking. Ok, and beer. So we just stayed at POR.
So what happens is, you board the bus by 8pm to get taken over to ESPN wwos complex to sit there and wait until 10. You run around WDW and into Epcot to finish. After you finish you can attend the after party and Epcot was open until 4am—I had high hopes to make it until 4… I had to buy my sons their own tickets to the after party since they weren’t running. They got to go in at 7pm.

Well, we finished just a hair off of our goal, but we did good—I am pleased. My thoughts on the race: I didn’t like the night aspect of it—maybe because I didn’t train for such an event. It’s just too hard to juggle life around to train at midnight so I think that affected us a little bit. Running through the Osborne lights with just a few other runners around was breathtaking! Just amazing---those lights never cease to amaze. You just can’t put them into words. The course was a little boring in spots, like the DAK parking lot. When you run a morning race at WDW there are always about a million people out cheering you on, but for this race, because it’s a night race and the parks are closed, you just don’t get the turnout.

I don’t know if I will ever run W&D again—we’ll see. I need to survive Dopey first! Lol

So after the race, we changed and got our free Bud Light (you could also pick Yeungling or soda) and headed into the park to find our boys. Our friends that ran with us finished in fine style also. My co-worker sailed to a crazy fast time and his wife finished with Mary and me. It was her FIRST ever half marathon—congrats! (PS The RunDisney bug has bitten her hard! She was already planning her next one.)

We walked into the park and BAM there was a wall of people blocking the way past the fountain. What the heck? Well, this was where the crosswalk was to get into the WS and it was not very efficient and it was all backed up. We jogged (no pun intended) to the right towards Soarin` to see if we could cut across somewhere else, but a volunteer told us ‘no.’ Son #1 texted us to say that he was leaving—he had enough. This was about 1:00. We told Son #2 about the trouble getting in the back and he was headed to us.
We met up at The Land and went on Soarin` with no wait—it was awesome! We could have stayed right on and rode again but we were hungry and thirsty for the delights of the WS. As we left there was some poor gal throwing up in front of The Land—poor thing. I guess running 13.1 miles in the FL night didn’t agree with her. Or maybe she had one too many WS beers who knows… Son #2 decided he had enough and he left. We finally found a way across the race course and ventured back when Mary said, “OK my legs are shot—I’ll give you one pass around WS and then we are leaving.” I agreed—I was tired too. 4 am seemed like an eternity away.

So that’s exactly what we did---a nice leisurely stroll around the WS enjoying some beer and food and each other’s company. We made it until 3am---if you know me, you are in disbelief right now.

We slept in the next day for obvious reasons. Eventually we got up and went to MGM where I did NOT ride RnR (mostly because NaCler wasn’t there to tell me “all the cool kids are doing it”). We had an ADR with my co-worker at 3pm at Via Napoli, so we left MGM and took the boat over to Epcot.
Via Napoli was excellent—everyone loved the food. I didn’t love the tab, but what can ya do..?? We split a pizza, a chicken parm and an eggplant parm between the four of us.

MK was having EMH until 2 or something crazy, so we went back to the hotel—took a nap and then headed over there.

I finally got my Dole Whip and then we went on the newly transformed “Jingle Cruise” thanks to a reminder from my brother NaCler. It was cute—they added a few (corny) Christmas jokes and renamed all the boats to the theming. It was nice—not over the top. Oh and then we did something that my kids had never done: Country Bear Jamboree! Yup, can you believe that they never saw the Bears?
We left there and they were both like: What the heck was that? lol I told them that they can no longer say they’ve never seen it! They still shake their heads when I bring it up. Ha!

So we finally talked with a CM about the ticket situation—sure enough we could not just add a day—we had to buy a whole new ticket. So the decision was really do we get them a one day one park ticket or a hopper. I went for broke and said, “Hey kids If I give you $20 each and take you to the movies at DTD, can we skip a day at the parks?” They agreed to it without hesitation. I didn’t care what their motivation was, I was glad that I didn’t have to spend $200 on tickets for an extra day!

So the next day’s (Monday’s) plan was—kids to DTD, Mary and me to DAK for lunch at Flame Tree (another suggestion of NaCler) and then meetup with the kids at DTD. I also had to check us out and check us back in…you can’t just add a day to the package we got from WWOS—you either have to cancel it and rebook or do what we did: Check out and hope you can check back into the same room!

I got to the front desk and it was NUTS up there. So I got in line and waited and waited and waited. Finally I was in the “on deck circle” and I saw what the problem was---everyone was asking all sorts of questions about the magic bands. One family was asking so many questions that I got int line when they got up to the counter—they were still there!!! It wasn’t just them; everyone was wondering what these things do and why they have them.

A typical exchange:
What are these? Magic bands—they open your room, you can charge with them and put your park tickets on them.
Why do I have these, I didn’t order them? All of WDW will have them before long.
What if I lose them? Come see us and we will fix you right up.
Are they waterproof? Yes
Are they kid proof? Yes
What if grandma doesn’t want to wear it, can she just keep it in her purse? Yes
What if there is a nuclear blast nearby—will they still work? Yes
OK I made that one up, but you get the point. People were baffled by these things. They need to have a “Magic Band Questions Only ” line.

Anyway I finally got to check in and I was in luck—we kept the room. But…we had to get four new magic bands—can you believe that? Now I had two that I wasn’t using!

The kids went to see Gravity (they loved it) and we went to DAK for an early lunch. We both ordered a pulled pork sandwich and we decided to split a Safari Amber beer. Here comes my food…and no beer? Huh? I looked at my receipt and she had not tallied us up for a beer. I looked back at the line and it was getting long. Water for us, thank you. The food was good and the view was great! Thanks for the tip, NaCler.

Overall it was a fun trip, but the W&D being at night really messed us up. Here is a list of everything I tried in the F&W fest and my comments:
Terra: Trick’n Chick’n Curry with rice and (I didn’t know this until later) FAKE (soy) chicken. We walked by this all week and it smelled so good that I had to get it. It was good—I honestly thought I was eating chicken until I was reading the sign and it said “Vegetarian.” Hmmmm Then I put it all together.

South Korea: Kimchi Dog with spicy mustard. One of my favorites. Yummy! The mustard really made it. Yet another suggestion from NaCler.

Africa: Spinach and Paneer Cheese Pocket. I saw someone walking around with this and I had to get it. It was OK, but it wasn’t as good as it looked.

Germany: Schinken Nudel. Wow! This was the best item that I had. It was like cheese and noodles and ham and cheese with cheese. Yummy! So good we had this three (!) times.

Poland: Kielbasa and Pierogi. Excellent---the caramelized onions made this meal. They were so overcooked that they were like mush (which is how I like them). Very good—Mary saw me eating this and got one for herself.

Florida: Grass fed slider with Monterey jack and pickles. I didn’t have this, Mary did—and she raved about it. It looked yummy and I would have got one if we made one more pass—lol.

Canada: Cheddar Cheese Beer soup. Very good but very SMALL. It was a tiny little cup for $4.25.

Hawaii: Pork slider with pineapple chutney. Very good—not as good as it looked, but very good all the same. The pork was a little dry.

As far as beers go—we tried a few, but being a ‘beerknurd’ (google it ) I have already had so many of these beers that they didn’t excite me as much as the food did. I had one or two that I never had, but most were meh. The Belgian beer selection was the worst of all. It was things you can buy in a grocery store (and not even a fancy store---the low end store around here carries two of the three beers that they had---better luck next year Belgium!).

I wanted to get a Belgian waffle, but the line for Belgium was ALWAYS crazy. That and Canada---those two had the longest lines. The “Cheese” booth was calling my name, but I never did manage that. Something that did NOT call my name was the Scotland booth for the ‘vegetarian haggis.” Pass!!

All in all I am glad we went---I guess the last weekend of the festival brings out the locals (so I’ve read) because it was nuts!

I am glad the boys spared me the agony of parting with $200 and that they finally saw the Country Bears!

We’ll be back in one month for Dopey’s challenge (no kids!). So luckily we don’t have to wait long. There are still a few things that we haven’t done—can you believe that? I actually made a list for the kids of attractions they haven’t seen/done. I guess I need to do that with Mary as well.
Thanks for reading—next post is the part you really wanted—the pictures!!!!

OK so my TR wasn’t too brief, but it’s shorter than normal.

[wewantsdaredhead]

In no particular order (or however photobucket lined them up…) with my comments preceding.
On the DME! We always argue about what the 1st ride is…is it the tram at MCO? Is it the DME? Something else altogether?


The MK all done up for Christmas! Most of the parks were—excpet Epcot. I suspect they wait until after F&W??


This ugly dude stopped me for a picture—he said we look like cousins


Space Mountain with the lights on…


Mousekeeping did this, but my kids don’t believe me! They think she made the creature and I put the beer there.


Kielbasa and Pierogi—note the mushy onions:


(The ghost of) YeeHaa Bob. My iPhone takes crappy pics when I zoom in.


Since it was the last weekend of F&W, all F&W-themed Duffys were on sale. Guess who received this as a text


A nice selfie I took of Mary and me. I was trying to get a nice shot with SSE in the background. Crappy iPhone.


Me and some friends at DTD.


I use the “Find my iPhone” feature to track the kids sometimes, just to make sure…I did it this time and it pointed “inside” SSE. I texted Son #2 and he said—we are riding SSE right now….lol wow!


My awesome wife and I waiting for 10:00.


Soarin` with no line…


A well-deserved beer after the race. This is at about 1:30 or so.


I made Son #1 try this on—he looks thrilled doesn’t he?


Son #2 had his turn also:


And me… (currently my FB profile pic)


At the bathroom of RnR—I never noticed the guitar before so I snapped a shot.


I took this one in England---guess who went a few weeks later and texted me the exact same picture? Yes my brother from another mother, NaCler.


Crowded! Not Christmastime crowded, but as thick as I have seen it in sometime.


No caption required.


At Via Napoli:


Great pizza! That’s Eggplant parm on the bottom right:


…and the chicken parm:


Our home for the week:


Our untouched, unused Magic Bands (the second set):


Our view for lunch…just me and Mary


Loading up on some Beverly. Some kids had just tried the Beverly and were gagging when Mary told them that I actually like it. They didn’t believe me so I drank 2 in a row


Pork slider with pineapple chutney (hold the mayo):


When Epcot gets that full, it fills up Norway---40 min waits were the norm. We saw it at 10 one night so we hopped on.


The aforementioned new bathroom at the American Adventure:


Son #1 enjoying some of the new flavors of Club Cool. They were disappointed that some old favorites were gone (like Mezzo-mix):


The cranberry bog. That same lady was in that thing at 3am when we left---she was dancing and having a great time!


Mary enjoying fish and chips (she hates when I take pics of her eating) The lady to the left looks quite surprised about something, eh?


They were calling for “sons and daughters of liberty” to join the fight against the Crown. It was very moving (I’m a softie for patriotic stuff), but…


…this poor little dude was a little overwhelmed and he was allowed to go back to Mom 


Son #1 and I. I made Mary take this one because I have one of me in this same spot when I was 60 lbs heavier.


Dennis DeYoung and band:


Chillin`


The Chase Lounge (sans charging cords):


Me taking a picture of TT taking a picture of me:


Mary and Son #1 take on the Primeval Whirl at 8:15am:


No I’m not pregnant—that’s my camera!


Hey Hey we’re the Monkees!


Son #1 on the jungle trek:


I don’t know if you can see him OK, but this dude had so many pins that he was wearing a full-length outer coat that was covered with pins—I’m not kidding I never saw so many pins!


Kimchi Dog with Spicy Mustard.


The elusive Cheese marketplace:


Another one she’d whoop me for taking:


Daaaa Bears (well, you know what I mean ):


Mmmmm Dole Whip…


The Jingle Cruise. The office was decorated for Christmas:




I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks to NaCler for all the good suggestions.

[Amy]

Awww, such a great trip report. I read through the whole thing before I looked at the pictures Loved all the photos!
Definitely can't go wrong eating at Via Napoli or Flame Tree. That is so weird about them having to issue y'all a second set of Magic Bands
I can think of only one thing your trip report needs...more beer

[cy1229]

Something that strikes me as I read your narrative is your overflowing enthusiasm and obvious affection for your wife. It's so refreshing to read someone's obvious love and joy in the things he does with his family. I bet that kind of enthusiasm is contagious!

Love the pictures, of course, and I was exhausted just sitting here reading your narrative! When you guys park hop, you really park hop! Did you go on ToT? I didn't see it mentioned anywhere. Oh, and what are the "highlights" of DAK that you guys do? Our favorites are Everest, Lion King, Nemo musical, and safari. We also like to see TTBAB but it's not a must-do.

Thanks for sharing! Looks like a great trip.

[Sleepy90]

Great trip report Henry. Where do you start the run somewhere around AK? Please could we have a closer picture of your medal I always like to see what they look like, you know just in case we ever get to do it.
I would have passed on the vegetarian haggis as well, if your going to eat haggis it needs to be the real thing and with tatties and tumpshie.
Looking forward to the antics that ensue with the Dopey next month.

[Amy]

Great trip report Henry. Where do you start the run somewhere around AK? Please could we have a closer picture of your medal I always like to see what they look like, you know just in case we ever get to do it.
I would have passed on the vegetarian haggis as well, if your going to eat haggis it needs to be the real thing and with tatties and tumpshie.
Looking forward to the antics that ensue with the Dopey next month.

Ooo, I'd love to see the medal in more detail as well!
Am I the only one who wanted to try the veggie haggis? I don't think I would like the real stuff, but this dish looked pretty good to me in the photos I saw

[wewantsdaredhead]

Cy:You are spot on... My wife and I are crazy in love even after 19 years of marriage. I can't think of anything better than running with her at WDW. THREE of my favorite things
I am happiest when the four of us are at WDW.

I hope someday that we get to meet at the happiest place on Earth. it will be great to eventually meet both you and Amy. Thanks for reading. It really means a lot.
And let's see...yes we rode ToT. Like I said I was trying to cut out the every step but I didn't do a very good job. lol
DAK highlights are Dinosaur! TTBAB Primeval Whirl (for them not me) Kilamajaro Safari and EE
We aren't much on shows (nor parades) so Nemo doesn't do it for us nor Lion King. We aren't opposed to them...we would just rather do other things.

Amy: thanks for reading as always. There's always plenty of beer in my TRs. Lol. Take the amount listed and double it.
Yes, you are the only one who would try vegetarian haggis.

Sleepy: I will attempt to post the pic in the next post. It seemed like we entered in the employee lot and entered the park in the "regular" entrance by the Christmas tree. It just felt like we ran the entire distance around the DAK lot and it was quite boring. Check out the map on runDisney.com
I agree with you. If and that's a huge if I was to try haggis it would have to be real deal haggis. I don't even understand what "vegetarian" haggis is ????