Category: Disney

Magical Mickey Mondays: Carthay Circle Dining: World of Color Package

6/8/2015

I am in Walt Disney World with the family until June 14th. Want to follow me along in the fun? I will be on Social Media :) Facebook , Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest

It is Monday so we are linking up with another Magical Mickey with John at run.geek.rundisney and Katie from Adventures by Katie.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I ate at Carthay Circle twice to use their World of Color dining package. The first time I was so hungry I didn't take any pics of the food but the second time I did!

Carthay circle offers lunch and dinner packages where it's a 3 course meal and you get a world of color ticket for a show. The Lunch is 39/person and Dinner is 61/person.

The menu at Carthay is seasonal so it's always changing but they usually offer 2 appetizers, 6 or so entrees and 2 desserts for your choosing.

Since I'm gluten free, they also gave me an allergy menu and I was able to cross reference what I could have. They are one of the most accommodating restaurants as they are willing to modify almost anything which is great.

I ordered the Carthay Circle salad with goat cheese, radishes and tomatoes, steak with mango and black bean salsa, and the biggest creme brûlée I've ever seen. I also had the best gluten free bread (it's Udi's with butter, garlic and herbs already added). I also had a drink because their bar is great too.

Old pic but the salad and amazing bread are on there!

Gluten free steak with black bean and mango salsa

Gluten free creme brûlée tart meaning it is just creme brûlée in a bowl. The server put a candle in my dessert just because haha

The service is top notch and we all enjoyed the meal. I highly recommend it to anyone seeing world of color. That way you don't stress about getting a fastpass and the viewing area is dead center and not crowded.

Anyone else ever done the dining package before? Any eaten at Carthay?

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Magical Mickey Mondays and Friday Five: Disneyland 60th Anniversary Offerings

5/31/2015

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I got to experience a few other things this weekend so I decided to update this post and link up with another Magical Mickey with John at run.geek.rundisney and Katie from Adventures by Katie

see below!

Hi all! Linkup Friday!! Thanks to our amazing hostesses: the DC Trifecta Bloggers (Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Mar from Mar on the Run, and Cynthia from You Signed Up For What?!).

This weeks topic is Free Friday so I'm going to write about the greatness of new things at Disneyland. It is less than 100 days away until the next rundisney race: the 10th anniversary of the Disneyland half marathon weekend! That race weekend will also by my 5th runiversary. As people are preparing, here are some of the great things they can expect.

I went to Disneyland for the 24 hour party on Friday as well as going back on Sunday and Monday! Let me just preface this as saying, I'm not surprised that the parks hit capacity and turned into a complete mess on Friday. I am surprised that there was a complete breakdown of communication. The fact that people paid for parking and then we're stuck and couldn't get into either park is not cool. I think parking, ticket sales and a system for disseminating information was the key to Friday and Disney blew it. As people were leaving, they should have been told they would not be let back in and just consistent information about if dining reservations would be allowed back in.

I also think it was silly to offer all of the 60th anniversary offerings on the same day as the 24 hour party. I think they should have opened it earlier in early May to allow for some practice with crowd control. Just my two cents but I had a great time but would have had an even better time if I had been able to actually get into Disneyland!

Now onto the offerings!

Stayed until 130AM

1. Merchandise
It's all so cute!!! Here and here are some Disney Parks Blog posts about some of it. I ended up getting: an ornament, new shirt, a sweatshirt, a new pair of shoes, new blanket and two mugs. Overall, the merchandise is adorable and I will most likely be buying more soon.

my massive mug I am obsessed with: 32 oz! I try to drink at least 2 of them at work every day

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TRIUMPH THURSdays: 2015 Tinkerbell Half Recap

5/21/2015

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Ready to fly!

Triumph Thursdays hosted by Smitha from Running With SD Mom, Linzie from Sharp Endurance & Carlee from Carlee McDot. I will be finishing up my Tinkerbell Pixie Dust Challenge recap!

It's here! The tinkerbell half! I was up at 3:55 and out of the door by 4:30. I got dressed much faster today so had more time to chill in the pre-race area. I met up with my friend from grad school and we did a real bathroom break in the Paradise Pier hotel before splitting off to our corrals.

Corral A was abuzz with excitement but also pretty crowded. I really wish they would adopt the smaller corrals of Princess were each corral has around 500 people instead of 2000. Sub 2:15 is a huge span considering the race was won in 1:15!

Before I knew it, we did the national anthem and off we went. We had the same start as the 10k with the overpasses so I took my time going slow and walking all of the uphills and running the downhills. We were backstage before I knew it and entered DCA by tower of terror. There was a decent line for buzz light year and the girls from the parade. I skipped it as it was pretty long (the first one usually is) and continued on. As we headed back to Carsland, we got to see the first women coming through and it was exciting:they are fast!!
Carsland had mater and McQueen and I skipped them as I got them the day before. We continued to backstage and ended up on the Pier and took my first pic! Silvermist was across the way but I couldn't safely get over to her.

We continued towards Burna Vista St and I got a pic with Storytellers again.

We entered the plaza and the crowd was electrifying and finally made it to Disneyland! I took a picture with the entrance and continued to Main Street.

I stopped for a pic with chip, Dale and goofy from Soundsational and chatted with a few first time Disneylanders! How exciting.

I took a picture with the castle coming down Main St and FINALLY got a jumping pic with the castle that I love.

We ran through the castle into Fantasyland and the Lost Boys took a pic with me! How exciting!

Heading out of fantasyland, I saw Tink by Matterhorn!! I decided to do a quick potty break at the Alice bathrooms before hoping in line. I waited less than 5 min and was so pumped to finally get a pic with her during her race!

Heading into Tomorrowland, storm troopers were out so I had to stop and take a fun pic.

By small world, Iridessa and Rosetta were out so I had to stop.

We headed backstage and there were floats back there to take pics with and also horses. I took a fun pic with the train engine!

We entered in toontown and I took a pic with Donald and Pluto. Sadly that was the last photo stop :(

I took a selfie with the Columbia ship and totally didn't notice Jack Sparrow chillin by PotC but no picture opportunities! I took one final bathroom break by Hungry Bear.

We headed backstage then ran the entire length of Downtown Disney which had incredible energy. At the end were the Red Hat Society that was SO massive! It was easily 3x bigger than before and so touching.

The start of the red hat society

By then, we were by DtD and hit a water stop. I stopped at the medical tent to bio freeze my butt and calves and off I went.

The rest of the course is really boring. Very flat and through neighborhoods and QUIET. Very few people are out so keep that in mind because it can be jarring to newbies.

We head out into Anaheim towards the City Hall, and the Ducks practice arena. After that is the Clif Zone and then back towards Disneyland. The mile 12 marker is pretty much the same as the beginning of the race.

Overall I felt strong. I ran by feel and my pace was definitely picking up as I continued on. I never felt tired and always had enough time to fuel (basically every 2 miles or so). The course wasn't crowded but one huge tip I can give is use the whole area! Often times there were 4 lines open and people were crowding in the right 2 so pay attention!

There were a few bands and cheerleaders out but not near as many as were out at the DL half. I really think they should step up the entertainment but now it can be hard because so much of it is through neighborhood streets.

After entering property again, we finished with the same ending as the 10k. Before I knew it, it was mile 13 and I was about to finish. I pushed hard and got a new Disney PR by almost 8 minutes! My 16th race of the year, and 40th race ever! I felt great after and made my way through to get all of my medals. I waited for my friend to finish and we took some pics before heading back to the hotel to shower and pack.

I went to get pics in the park and had Jolly Holiday combo which was a fantastic way to celebrate another rundisney weekends in the books. I also went to see the Tomorrowland preview and I'm so excited for that movie!

Overall, this race was just what I remembered! It was fantastic and I had such a good time. I can't wait to do it again next year for the 5th anniversary. I will most likely do all 3 races as a way to celebrate. Tink is back on top for my favorite DL race weekends (sorry Star Wars, love you but...)

Oh and the best news ever? I graduate in 2 years, and my graduation will be thurs/fri and pixie dust will be sat/sun! YAYAYAYA! I'm already anticipating the best weekend ever 2 years in advance.

Did you run the Tink half? What did you think of it?

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Tinkerbell 2015: How to make an Iridessa costume

5/20/2015

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Me with Iridessa

Here is Iridessa's complete Disney Wiki if you are interested.

Iridessa is one of Tinkerbell's friend that is the fairy of light. Her talent is she can manipulate light to add to lightning bugs or even create rainbow. Her dress is made of sunflower petals and she has a sunflower seed on her topMaking an Irisdessa costume is a very easy endeavor.

You need the following materials:

Yellow shirt-mine is from Target
Yellow bottoms,such as a tutu-i made mine
Brown belt-made mine from ribbon from Michael's
Cut out sunflower-fabric square from Michael's
Rainbow accessories such as a headband-mine is Sweatyband
yellow compression socks-mine are from ProCompression
Wings-I got mine at the Dollar Store
Hairdo-she has an updo. I did my hair in a bun

I was able to take many parts of my costume from former costumes such as the yellow shirt I had for my Tweedledee costume in from 2013, my yellow tutu was from my snow white costume for Princess half 2014, and everything else I bought.

Overall this is a very easy costume to put together and I am very happy with the results.

What was the last costume you used for a race? Did you reuse parts of your costume?

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2015 Tinkerbell Half 10k Recap

5/14/2015

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First time in Corral A for a Disneyland race!

I have decided to join a new linkup: Triumph Thursdays hosted by Smitha from Running With SD Mom, Linzie from Sharp Endurance & Carlee from Carlee McDot. This week I will talk about The Tinkerbell 10k and how it was the best Disney 10k I have ever run (even though the DL 10k of 2013 was amazing as it was the first one!)!

The morning started early at 4am. I was slow moving and eventually got ready and out of the hotel by 445 and at the pre run area by 5. My costume for the day was Iridessa, the fairy of Light. I used the portas (first one in the porta!) and then checked my bag and headed to the corral. I chatted up a few people and before I knew it, it was time to take off.

I decided to run by feel and get over on the sidewalk to do my walk intervals and the plan worked well. I walked the first 3 "hills" aka overpasses and finished the first mile around 10:45 and before I knew it, we were in the backlot! I took some water and headed into the park.

We hit Disneyland first so I stopped for a pic with the outside. Then I stopped for a pic driving the Fire Truck and with chip and Dale.

Made it to DL!

the Fire Truck!!!

Chip n Dale but double exposure from the Marathonfoto flashes

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2015 Tinkerbell Half Marathon Expo Recap

5/13/2015

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The expo for tinkerbell was Thursday-Sunday. I couldn't justify taking another day off work especially with it being during Finals at work. Luckily I had all of my papers turned in before the weekend or it would have been even more stressful!

This is the first time for a Disneyland race I took off for the entire day before the race and I really like it! It was so much less stressful and I had the whole day to relax and it ensured I was in bed at a good hour.

I headed down early to avoid traffic which was great with the weather. I hung out and caught up with some sorority sisters (and I ran into Merenda as well!) before going to the expo at 9:30 (it opened 30 min early). Of course the official merchandise was pretty much done, but luckily I got to finally meet Pam from WeRunDisney while there. One thing I don't like is they put out regular park merchandise so that the shelves don't look bare but over 50% of the stuff was gone. I also got to meet Pam which was lovely! All I bought was a magnet.

I do think it's sad to get the merchandise you want, you have to go on the first day. It's not fair to everyone that can't come on the first day because eBayers are greedy and want to make a profit and buy 5 of everything. It makes the runners just upset and something needs to be done about it. Maybe limit purchases to 1 item per person? Show your bin for race specific merchandise? Do a pre-order--this is what I would like to see. You could preorder what you want but not pay for it until you get there and all the overflow can be sold in an open arrangement for anyone.

Afterwards, I went to get KT tape and buy the packs they had the day before but they never had them out even after checking back multiple times. Oh well-I will definitely need to buy more tape at Dumbo and wine and dine.

After I went to Procompression and bought 4 pairs of compression socks, stopped by GoodSense and won a free bottle and finally went to New Balance. I was supposed to start at 10 but I got the text at 9:30 but since the expo wasn't busy, I wanted to hit some booths early. I waited about 10 min and finally got my shoes! They came with free poms and I took an Instagram pic with them for free wings!

Next I went downstairs and got my bib and then got my shirts. They are so cute this year!

After I went to Fit2Run to get extra fuel and a new roller to keep at work, I stopped by Flipbelt and got a black one. I love my lime green one but its getting dirty and it's super bright.

My final stop this round was Sparkle Athletic to pick up my shoe poms I ordered online. They were 2 dollars cheaper in person but it was worth the peace of mind to know they would be there and not sold out. At dumbo, I need to buy some hats-green, yellow and maybe pink as well.

I went to drop everything off at my car and then headed to grab food with my friends. They were staying concierge level at the DL hotel and it was incredible. We had a light lunch of veggies and dip, fruit, chips and salsa and espresso and lemonade. The view was gorgeous and we had such a relaxing afternoon. We then went back to the expo, I ran into Lacey briefly there as well! We stopped by the Stick booth and I ended up buying a stick (to use mostly while traveling) and a device to help with my sciatica/piriformis.

After that I helped out with gift bags for the tinkerbell Facebook group before heading to the park to ride Little Mermaid and grab a super early dinner of Stirfry and a macaron for dessert.

I checked in at the hotel and unpacked and prepped everything by 7. I stretched and rolled and was in bed relaxing by 7:45. I had trouble sleeping but got 7 hours of sleep! My wake up was 4:00am.

Overall, I spent more money at this expo than ever before-they shut my credit card down because they thought it was fraud. (TIP-alert your credit card company because the companies at the expo charge where they are from. So new balance showed up as Anaheim, but fit2run showed up as Florida and The Stick showed up as Atlanta).

Everything I bought, I needed and had just been waiting to get it at the expo as it was cheaper-for example, the Procompression socks are 25 each at the expo but retail for 50 dollars each.

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchases and had a great Expo experience minus the fiasco with the official merchandise.

Anyone else attend the Expo? Your thoughts? Do you usually like Race Expos?

New Tink shoes

pic with my bib

Expo haul! Shoes, 2 rollers, fuel, flipbelt, ProCompression socks, shoe poms, Goodsense, free coppertone and my shirts

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Healthy Living Recap 5/11/2015

5/11/2015

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Time for some weekly accountability! I will recapping how I have done on the 4 Well Rules over the last week: Eat Well, Sleep Well, Exercise Well and Be Well. I have decided to link up with Tara of Running n Reading as I love linkups. Make sure to check out the other bloggers there too!

EAT WELL
I was pretty gluten free all well and carbloaded well. Eating definitely got complicated on Monday afternoon as one of my fillings cracked while eating popcorn and I had half of my tooth gone. After an emergency appointment with the dentist, they fill it with temporary stuff and I will go back in two weeks for a root canal and crown fitting. Oh what fun :/

SLEEP WELL
My sleep was great up until Thursday night because I needed to get up at 4 to call for dining reservations for wine and dine in November and then 6 for the virtual shoe queue. However the early morning wake up was great because I got 7 hours of sleep both nights before the races! I need to get back to 7+ hours of sleep before races, it really makes such a big difference.
I am hoping to sleep at least 7 hours this week. It's graduation on Friday and I have to be on campus at 5! Eek.

EXERCISE WELL
Monday: rest day
Tuesday: biggest loser weights
Wednesday: 2 miles
Thursday: 2.2 miles
Friday: rest day but walked around expo and park
Saturday: Tinkerbell 10k-new Disney PR of 1:21:53
Sunday: Tinkerbell half-new Disney PR of 2:35:57

Monday: rest day + light core work
Tuesday: 2 easy miles (:30/:30) with core work
Wednesday: Yoga +light core work
Thursday: 3 miles (1:00/:30) + core work
Friday: rest day because of Graduation
Saturday: rest day because of school but small weight workout in the evening of time
Sunday: 3 miles

BE WELL
This was a great week!
Monday: turned in my last paper! Goodbye first year of my Doctoral program
Caught up on tv shows and relaxed for the first time in a long time. I have so much more free time when I'm not doing at least an hour of schoolwork every night. I'm only reading commuting to work to start to try to get ahead on the semester.
Friday-Sunday: Pixie Dust Challenge was beyond my expectations. I did very well and feel pretty great today.

Work will be crazy this week as its Graduation on Friday! I can't believe it's been 4 years since I got my Masters and only 2 years until my Doctoral graduation! One of my good friends is graduating so it'll be fun to celebrate on Friday night. Also-I have my Dissertation Conference all day Saturday meaning I'll listen to presentations and then pick my chair. This process is getting so exciting!

How was your week? How was Mothers Day?

Tink 10k

Tink Half

all the medals that got me to the Pink Coast to Coast

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Magical Mickey Mondays: Quick Overview of the Tink Half Weekend

5/11/2015

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It is Monday so we are linking up with another Magical Mickey with John at run.geek.rundisney and Katie from Adventures by Katie. I am going to do a quick overview of the Tink Half Marathon weekend because it is once again my favorite DL rundisney race weekend.

I arrived on Friday in the rain and hit up the Expo and spent a lot of money on well meaning purchases including my new Tink shoes (full review coming as soon as I run in them this week!)

Expo haul

I went to bed early on Friday and was up bright and early at 5am for the tink 10k. I dressed as Iridessa the fairy of light. I got a new Disney PR by almost 3 minutes (1:21:57) which included a bathroom break and FIFTEEN PHOTO STOPS!! woo-hoo!

I met Iridessa!

Saw the Hatbox Ghost in Haunted Mansion and hung out in the parks for a bit before going to a Facebook meetup and having a solo dinner at Carthay Circle. Up early on Sunday for the half dressed as Tink.

I got another Disney PR by almost 8 minutes (2:35:53) which included TWELVE photo stops and 2 bathroom breaks.

Full recaps for all of the events: Expo, 10k, and half are coming this week along with a review of a few new items I got at the Expo.

I had an amazing weekend and can't wait for next year and the 5th anniversary race! yay for being a Legacy!

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Magical Mickey Mondays: Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks at Disneyland

3/29/2015

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It is Monday so we are linking up with another Magical Mickey with John at run.geek.rundisney and Katie from Adventures by Katie.

Over the weekend, I was able to get to Disneyland to see the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks. These are the fireworks right now until the 60th anniversary starts. I have already written about the fireworks that will be part of the 60th anniversary celebration and am so excited for that!

For some background, Fantasy in the Sky was started in 1958 by Walt himself as a way to keep people in the park late at night (fun fact: cast members used to shoot off the fireworks themselves!!) The show originally played until 1999. Since then, there have been a few other Disneyland fireworks shows but they have been on a broad scale with fireworks shooting off around the park and other interactive elements.

Now I had heard these fireworks would be very short (5 min) and also not a big event and a bit boring. I had actually been referring them to as "bad fireworks" since it seemed silly to head down for a 5 min firework show. However, I was surprised. They were very short (which i don't think most people were thinking since usually they are 15 min or so) and very basic (everything right behind the castle, no tinkerbell flying, no shooting off anyone else) but the actual fireworks were awesome.

They had my favorites (the ones that pop a few times and my new favorite of ones that explode and change colors). We walked right up at 9:22 and waited just 3 minutes for the show to start. They had a small intro and then had music from Cinderella, Mary Poppins, It's a Small World and Zip-a-dee-doo-dah. The pictures I got weren't the greatest as the castle wasn't lit up at all so it was almost impossible to get a pic of fireworks and the castle.

I would rather them have a short show like this then nothing at all! But i can't wait until the new firework show.

For more information on the history of Disney fireworks shows, check out the wikipedia page for Fantasy in the Sky

Finale

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I am in for the Inaugural Infinity Gauntlet Challenge!

3/24/2015

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I am in for the Infinity Gauntlet Challenge! After an initial snafu on the part of rundisney/active (links were there but couldn't register than just the Challenge had an issue with birthdate as you needed to be between 0-14 and not over 14). But within 5 minutes it was all fixed and all good to go! The Challenge sold out in pre-sale in about 15 minutes, 10k in 40 minutes and as of 2 PM pacific time, the kids races, 5k are sold out with the half at 55%.

Finally registering for the Infinity Gauntlet challenge means I am officially running every rundisney challenge they offer in one year! Goofy and Dopey, Rebel Challenge at Star Wars, Glass Slipper Challenge at Princess, Pixie Challenge at Tinkerbell, Dumbo Challenge at Disneyland half, and now Avengers Infinity Gauntlet Challenge! I am beyond excited for a few more inaugural medals-Captain America 10k and Infinity Gauntlet.

Anyone else in for the new Avengers challenge?