Wine & Dine Half Marathon 2018

CCostner

Earning My Ears
Joined
Apr 26, 2016
Our trip was 11/1-11/5, my friend and I planned the trip around the Wine & Dine half marathon and to celebrate both becoming new Moms last year. So naturally we left our babies at home with Dad’s so we could have a long weekend at Disney. Right???

We stayed at all-star movies, the renovated room was nice. Not our first choice, but fit into our budget. I was a little shocked at prices, my last trip was Sept 2016 at a moderate resort and if I remember correctly it wasn’t far off from the price of this trip. We had a total nightmare with luggage services the day we arrived. The luggage was delivered to resort at 12:30 pm, but was not delivered to our room until after midnight. Between 10pm and midnight we were told 4 times that it was being brought right up. It was one of the worst experiences with a resort that I’ve had in several stays on Disney property.

Thursday - Expo bib pickup was a breeze. Epcot for Food & Wine, fantastic experience, crowds did pickup by mid afternoon but we skipped out for a break. The burgers at Earth Eats were our favorite. Went to Magic Kingdom that evening and watched HEA, which was good but I think I’m still partial to Wishes.

Friday - Rope dropped Flight of Passage. Arrived at 8:35 am, was just a continuous walk until the holding area before the videos. Outside by 9:30, so not too bad in my opinion. This was my first time riding, thought it was the best. After the morning at Animal Kingdom we had lunch at Satuli Canteen which was good, but nothing to rave about unless you need vegetables. We found it hard to get in enough veggies during the trip. We went to Hollywood studios for a bit and then walked to Epcot for drinks and a snack. Met some family at Il Mulino for dinner that evening, the food was fantastic. One of the best pasta dishes I’ve had while on a Disney vacation.

Saturday - Rope dropped Slinky. Arrived at 8:15, into park by 8:30, waited 30 minutes to ride. After a few other rides we went to Magic Kingdom. Back to the resort by early evening and bedtime for race on Sunday. Had dinner at the resort - not great.

Sunday - The race was great, minus the light rain and humidity. I was shocked at how hot I felt even with the temperatures being cooler. I’ve completed several half marathons but this was the first for my friend. We met our goal of under 2 hours. Spent the late morning at Magic Kingdom and found fastpasses for flight of passage so we hopped over to animal kingdom. After another resort break we headed to Epcot for dinner and the after party. The rain moved in around 9 pm and took us out. It was already hard enough to get around post race. We went to the Uber/Lyft pickup hoping to save time since the bus would likely be slammed. It was a mess, they need a dedicated curb for pickup. I felt bad for the people parked in that area that were blocked in by drivers waiting.

Our touring strategy was to just do whatever was possible without having a long wait. We weren’t disappointed to miss out on a ride this trip. Rope drop helped, fastpasses and refreshing while in line helped, but the resort gave us multiple experience fast passes for the rest of the trip to make up for the luggage situation. Of course it helped tremendously to have extra fastpasses, but I honestly wish I had the sleep back that we lost while waiting hours for our luggage to be delivered.

I found the crowds low the majority of the trip. Never waited in a long line for food the entire trip. Used mobile just once. The longest standby wait we did apart from rope dropping flight of passage was a 40 minute wait for Space Mountain.

The app was HORRIBLE!!!!!!! The entire trip it was just awful. I know it’s been discussed on the boards at length, but my gosh! How is it just so bad?

Everything runDisney was great, I would definitely do it again.

I’m more of a lurker here on the boards and generally take a break when I have no trips planned. Just wanted to say thanks to all those that do contribute to the boards and help with trip planning. @rteetz I spotted you in our corral and should have said hi but it was close to the race starting so couldn’t make my way over. Many thanks to you for all you do for the boards too!

P.S. I tried uploading a picture but it’s too big. Obviously I’m a newbie.
 

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