Day One
Four races for a total of 48.6 miles in 4 days at Disney
World, what could be more fun? This was
my thought a few years ago when the official Dopey Challenge was announced by
RunDisney. I had just run the “unofficial”
Dopey a few months before this (a 5k followed by a half and full marathon) and
had the time of my life. So when Disney
announced that they were making this an official event and adding in a 10k to
make it 4 races, I knew I had to do it.
Only problem? Money, of
course. RunDisney events are expensive
with flight, hotel, food, spending money and of course the registration
fee. My BFF, Damaris, vowed to wait to
run this challenge until I could save enough money. So, I started a savings plan and after 3
years, I had the money and was thrilled to go!
Here is a blog about our adventures that week.
Tuesday:
We decide to arrive at WDW on Tuesday. My flight left at 11:30am so I got the kids
on the bus and headed to the airport. In
typical Mary fashion, I was very early and sat around for a few hours but I always
feel better if I’m at the gate. Flight
on Southwest was on-time and my connection in Atlanta was also simple. I called Damaris when I arrived in Orlando
and she picked me up as she was driving in from Miami. We were very excited to start our fun girls
week!
We arrived at our hotel, the Disney Port Orleans Riverside Resort, a resort designed to look and feel like rural Louisiana, and
checked in. Looked like Disney left all
their Christmas trees and decorations up which was cool as I’ve never been
there during the holidays so I was really excited to see all the splendor. Our room was nice, it had been recently
renovated. I love the attention to
detail and themes that Disney puts into everything they do and this room was no
exception. But we didn’t want to waste
time in the room so we quickly changed and took the Disney bus to Magic Kingdom
where we hopped on the monorail for our first adventure, The Monorail Bar Crawl! This was a new thing for us both but the idea
is to stop at each of the hotels on the monorail and visit their bars for a
drink. Sounded like an exciting way to
kick of our week. First stop was the recently
renovated Polynesian Resort. We found the Tambu Lounge on the second floor
and quickly ordered their signature drink, the Lapu Lapu, a rum based drink
served in a pineapple! It was quite
yummy! We also ordered some AH-MAZING
BBQ pork nachos with pineapple chunks.
We seriously inhaled those in minutes.
We left our first stop with full bellies and smiles on our faces.
Next up was the Grand Floridian, the most elegant hotel on
Disney property. We walked around a bit
to check it out and then found our way to the Mizner’s Lounge, a classically
themed bar next to the live jazz band.
Damaris had a Salted Carmel Manhattan and I enjoyed a Mizner Cooler, gin
mixed with cranberry juice. It was delicious. We enjoyed the hotel but felt it was a little
“stuffy” for our taste so we drank up and moved on to the Contemporary.
We had two choices of bars here, the Outer Rim on the first
floor, and The Wave Lounge a few floors below.
The Outer Rim was busy with no seating so we found the Wave Lounge and
bellied up to the bar there. First set
of drinks was water and then a Glow-tini for Damaris (with a LED plastic ice
cube that turned her drink colors) and a Pina CoLAVA for me. Yummy!
From here we took the ferry over to the Wilderness Lodge Resort, which
is my favorite resort on property. My
family stayed there 6 years ago and I fell in love with the Great Northwest
Lodge theme. The four story fireplace in
the lobby, the stream running through the lobby, the amazing food at the
Whispering Canyon Café and the huge pool are some of the highlights that I was
excited to see again. We were meeting up
with one of Damaris’s friend’s, Shelia for dinner at the Artist Point  |
| Wilderness Lodge Lobby |
Restaurant. We found Shelia at the Territory Lounge and
were quickly seated for dinner. I had
never been to the Artist Point but had read very good reviews about it. We were eating late and it was pretty
empty. The multi-grain bread that was
served was excellent and I also very much enjoyed my Cornish Hen and a glass of Pinot.
After a wonderful meal with lots of conversation, the three of us headed
to the bus stop and returned to our hotels.
It was a perfect way to kick off our first day.
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