Surviving a Kidani Christmas

Even though it has taken 4 months to start writing about this trip, it was so fabulous that it has be documented!

Anyone who knows me is well aware of my love for Disney World, evident in the number of times I've managed to visit in the last few years.  One thing I never thought I'd do was spend Christmas at Disney. Well, last year, my family did just that. That's right- my parents, my brother, and I braved the Christmas week crowds to celebrate the season at Disney.

And you know what? It was wonderful. In many ways, it was the best trip we've ever taken. I could never put into words just how wonderful our trip was, but I do want to document a few thoughts and highlights about our trip, which took place December 21-27, 2014.

1. For this trip, we rented points from The DVC Rental Store. This was my second experience working with Lauren, and it was great from start to finish! Originally we booked at Coronado Springs with free dining, but found that for about the same price, we could rent points at Kidani Village and just pay out of pocket for the dining plan. We booked a Savannah View Studio at Kidani, and it was amazing! There's nothing like waking up to this view every morning! We did take an air bed with us, and we never really felt crowded in the room, even with 4 people staying in a studio. Of course, we didn't spend a ton of time inside, and having the balcony and really helped!
2. We went in with realistic expectations about crowds. During Christmas week, Disney is crowded. In fact, it is one of the most (if not THE most) crowded weeks of the year. We've been lucky enough to experience Disney during very low crowd periods and knew that this trip would be drastically different. We planned accordingly, making our dining reservations at the 180 day mark and Fastpass + reservations at the 60 day mark. We went in not really expecting to ride much other than what we had Fastpasses for and planned on spending a lot of time exploring resorts and taking advantage of things we wouldn't normally do instead of fighting crowds in line for rides. This worked perfectly! We got to ride all the head liners thanks to our Fastpasses without waits.  
3. We enjoyed a few amazing meals! We did the Deluxe Dining Plan, which was way too much food. But, it was great to have two meals a day scheduled so that we knew we had a break from crowds. As always, we tried to do an early lunch or late breakfast along with a signature dinner each day. This worked out well, and there was no way we could have eaten three meals every day! Not only was the food amazing, but it was great to end each day with a relaxing dinner where we could all just talk and rehash the day. 
   
4. We took advantage of what our resort had to offer. Kidani's table service restaurant, Sanaa, offers free cultural tours each afternoon! Animal Kingdom Lodge does the same for their restaurants, Boma and Jiko. My family were the only ones in attendance the afternoon we toured Sanaa, and there weren't many others for the Boma and Jiko tours. It was really interesting to learn more about these restaurants, meet the cultural ambassadors, and get to taste a few appetizers! We also spent time just relaxing at the animal viewing areas and walking around the resort. Usually we're only in the resort long enough to change clothes or sleep, so it was really nice to relax a bit, especially at a resort as beautiful as Kidani!
5. We were flexible. Remember how I said that all our dining reservations and Fastpasses were made well in advance? They were, but we also were open to change. For example, we ended up canceling a pre-park opening breakfast at Crystal Palace. After a long first day in the parks, we realized we weren't going to want to get up and ready early enough to make our breakfast, so we cancelled it. We did it before midnight so that we wouldn't be charged, and were even able to find a later breakfast in our resort so that we could sleep a little later and not have to travel to eat. My brother and I also spent a last minute late night in Magic Kingdom after dinner on Christmas night and it was one of the best decisions we made! We ended up there because it was the first bus that came after dinner, and even on Christmas night we managed to ride 8 rides in two hours! It was amazing how empty the park was after Wishes, even on Christmas! We rode Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Big Thunder, Space Mountain, and the People Mover all between 10pm and midnight. In fact, the longest line we stood in during the whole trip was for Winnie the Pooh! We laughed at ourselves, but it was the only ride in the park that I had never ridden, so we waited 15 or so minutes to ride. During those two hours we also managed a stop at Starbucks, shopping, and Photopass stops. It was pretty magical! 

Spending Christmas at Disney with my family was a once in a lifetime experience that I'll always be thankful for!

Tower of Terror 10 Miler–Before the race

Way back in April, probably thanks to enjoying a couple of cool spring runs and wishing I had a Disney trip planned for the fall, I decided to register for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 1o Miler, which is a runDisney race held in October. If the name didn’t give it away, I registered for the 10 Mile run.

So after registering, I started training and running and did pretty well for a while! (If you don’t Instagram it, it didn’t happen, right?) I had a love-hate relationship with running all summer long. And if I’m being totally honest, it was mainly hate…because people who enjoy runs in the hot and humid Southern summers are crazy people!  So I followed the official runDisney training plan off and on, but I did get some runs in…and finally, it was time to head to Florida for race weekend!

BUT wait…a couple weeks before race weekend, my brother ended up having to back out of the trip. Thanks to him being a responsible adult and getting a brand new job, he was no longer going to be able to take time off, so I had a couple of days to find someone else to go with me. Enter my dad. He was able to get off work and happy (I think) to take Matt’s place. Since my mom went with me on my July trip, I felt pretty lucky to get a father-daughter trip in the same year! (I should mention that I’m also incredibly lucky that Dad kept all 4 dogs (my 2 and their 2) in July while Mom and I were in Disney, and Mom kept all 4 while Dad and I were gone. I guess this means that it’s my turn to stay home and dog-sit?) Thank you, Mom and Dad! You are the best!

Now, Disney is my happy place. I’m kind of obsessed with it, and usually my trips are planned and scheduled months in advance and I obsess over every single detail…but because of other stresses, and life, this one wasn’t exactly like that. If I’m being completely honest, I was also stressing about the race…because I’ve never run a race longer than a 5k, and this was 10 FREAKIN’ MILES. Not only that…but on average, we walk 7-10 miles daily while in Disney, and would be in the parks starting Thursday. And even though I wanted to do well running…I was not giving up precious Disney time to sit in a hotel room! So to say I was nervous and scared about the race was probably a bit of an understatement. Even so, Dad and I had a great time in the parks on Thursday and Friday. We had Fastpass + reservations for the rides we wanted in Epcot on Thursday and Magic Kingdom on Friday. In just a few hours in each park , we got to do pretty much everything we wanted! We also really enjoyed meals at Yachtsman Steakhouse and Cape May on those nights.

I knew that I wanted to get to the Expo before Saturday, so we headed over on Friday afternoon to pick up my bib and race packet. Since we stayed at one of the host resorts, Disney’s Beach Club, there was shuttle bus service to the Expo, which was at ESPN Wide World of Sports. We waited for a bus for maybe 10 minutes and then it was a quick drive to the expo parking lot, followed by a long walk! I’d never visited WWoS, so it was pretty neat to see! I think that this Expo, which was small by Disney standards, but huge compared to the local 5ks I’ve run was super organized! I loved picking up my packet and t-shirt in one place, and all the volunteers were super friendly and helpful. The only regret I have from this was not buying a finisher’s t-shirt. They were long sleeved, which would be perfect for fall/winter runs here in North Carolina! Honestly, I was still freaking out about maybe not finishing, and I didn’t want a finisher shirt (or medal) if that didn’t happen!

Since this was a night race, we had all day Saturday to freak hang out and rest. We spent the morning at Hollywood Studios making sure to ride Tower of Terror, Rockin’ Roller Coaster, and Toy Story Mania (thank you Fastpass +) since I wasn’t sure I’d want to stick around at the after party to ride.  I also made sure to step up my hydration game on Saturday…it was around 89 outside, sunny, and humid! We headed back to the resort around 1 or so to grab lunch and rest up! After inhaling a turkey sandwich from the Marketplace and texting back and forth with my friend who was running to figure out a meeting place, I tried to take a nap! And I kind of did…so around 5, I woke up with butterflies to start getting ready to run!

Since this is already so long…I think I’ll wrap it up here and post separately about you know, actually running! Stay tuned!

Do you get super nervous before races? Have you ever run a Disney race?

Our Disney Trip Through Instagram

Last week we returned from a vacation my favorite place- Walt Disney World! Even better, we again went during my favorite time at Disney, Epcot's Food and Wine Festival. Hopefully I'll do a full recap later, but here are a couple of snapshots of our trip, via Instagram.

After landing in Orlando and catching a ride to our resort, Disney's Coronado Springs, on the Magical Express, we headed over to Epcot to sample a few Food and Wine booths. My favorite from the day was the Pork Slider from the Hawaii booth. And when the Cast Member serving saw my birthday button, he even added a hidden Mickey!

Hawaii's Kahlua Pork Slider with Pineapple Chutney 

The next day, we had a behind the scenes tour booked in the Magic Kingdom, but we managed to hop on this before the tour started. Any guesses? It's Buzz Lightyear's Spaceranger Spin in Tomorrowland.

You can't see the numbers...but I won (at least this time).

Another favorite from the trip was convincing my non-roller coaster or "big rides" riding Mom to go on this. It was awesome.

Tower of Terror...even more terrorizing at night!

Two of my favorite times from our trip actually happened on our last night. To begin the evening, we had dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse, located in Disney's Yacht Club Resort. Even though we had great meals at other Signature restaurants each night, I've got to say, I think this was the best meal on property, and the maybe the best dinner I've ever had. The service was excellent, and each course was better than the last, ending with this beautiful dessert. That would be a Lemon Pudding Cake served with a Blueberry Shake, Fruit Leather (homemade fruit roll-up), and Candied Lemon. Paired with press pot coffee, it was amazing! I'll get around to writing a full review of this dinner as soon as I stop being too lazy to download pictures from my real camera!

The last Instagram shot I'll leave you with is this one....

If you've visited Hollywood Studios in the last year or so, you'll recognize this as the revamped Star Tours ride. We rode it twice with no wait at all thanks to Extra Magic Hours, and the last time Mom and I got to be on the 1st row!

Now, is it too soon to start planning another vacation?

Disney Planning Tip Highlights

If you've spent much time at all with me in the past year, then you know that a new obsession has entered my life. Ever since I can remember, my family has loved to roll their eyes lovingly joke about my list-making, plan everything obsession. Well, while sitting at my parents house over Christmas in 2010, we were discussing vacation plans and somehow decided we'd do an adults trip to Disney in the fall of 2011. We decided on this for a couple of reasons:

1. My mom has mentioned going to Disney off and on for the past several years. Her last trip was when my brother and I were still in strollers. She wanted to experience the Disney magic without kids in tow.
2. Dad and I thought Disney sounded great. But Orlando in the heat of the summer? When crowds are at their highest? Umm no. Not happening. Enter fall timetable.
3. After doing a little bit of online research, I discovered that every fall, Disney holds the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. It starts at the end of September and goes through the second week of November. My birthday is November 4. SOLD.

So, we booked a trip for November 3-8 to attend the Food and Wine Festival. We booked it on December 31, 2010, which gave me about 11 months to plan (or obsess, depending on your definition of plan). I say me, because other than deciding on dates, my parents told me to plan and they'd do whatever I booked. I never knew there was so much information about there about planning Disney trips! Like I've already mentioned, I developed a slight Disney-planning obsession, but once we boarded the plane, it was totally worth it. We had the most relaxing, fun, and perfect vacation we've ever had (and this coming from someone whose idea of perfection is laying on the beach doing nothing for a week). Since returning, we've booked another trip for this fall, and I've had several questions about planning. I thought I'd give an overview here for anyone who is interested. Click through to read more!