Dopey Challenge January 2018 Day 1

This trip was strictly to run and complete the Dopey Challenge during Marathon Weekend. That is completing a 5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon in 4 days! All races start at 5:30am. We knew there wouldn’t be a lot of park time on this trip due to 4 days of 2:15-2:45am wake up calls. But on this trip, I finally got to meet my big brother @nascfan and his wife Kathy!!!!

Tuesday January 2nd:
2:15am wake up. Got last minute things packed. Hour drive to the airport and arrived there at 4:45am. We grabbed burritos before our 6:15am flight to San Antonio, we were on time and the flight was only half full so we all spread out. We grabbed caffeine at Starbucks in San Antonio while waiting for our connection to Orlando. That flight was on time but FULLY booked. We landed at MCO at 1:30pm. We waited about 20 minutes for the Magical Express to Riverside and were the 2nd family in line. We got a text alert that our room was ready and we were in the Alligator Bayou section room 3838, our first time in that section. We requested a top floor to ensure that we didn’t have anyone above us to keep us up at night. The downside are no elevators in this section. We were dropped off at Riverside at 3pm and were starving. So we grabbed a late lunch before heading to our room. I had the Beef Melt and Ryan had the Surf and Turf burger. Both were really good! We also got our refillable mug for the trip. We had noticed people wearing lots of layer and jackets. The winds had really picked up and the temps dropped fast. The feels like temp was 47* with winds at 17mph! We made our way to our room and unpacked our carry on suitcase. We usually don’t carry on a suitcase, but since we had 4 races to run we didn’t want to worry about what to wear should our suitcases be delayed or lost. We started unpacking the suitcase when there was a knock at the door, it was the rest of our luggage! I am the traveler that prefers to fully unpack right away before enjoying my trip. Ryan could live out of suitcases. So we got a bulk of it unpacked and then got to the North Bus stop at 4:52pm. The next Magic Kingdom bus would arrive at 4:54pm. I really love the new tv’s and estimated times. They have improved them quite a bit. It was getting really windy.

There was no wait at security at MK so we got through super fast. We went straight to Space Mountain at 5:20pm to use our FP that ended at 5:30pm. The standby time was 165 minutes!! We were on within 10 minutes. My AP Slider for my magic band was damaged on prior trips, but they had been out of stock. We stopped by the AP office in Liberty Square and were able to get a replacement. Off to Thunder for our FP at 6pm. Standby was 95 and we just waited 10 minutes. Then to the Tiki Room. The to Jungle Cruise to use our FP at 6:50pm. We went to Tomorrowland and took a spin on the People Mover. Then to Carousel of Progress for some heat and shelter from the wind and cold temps. We were bundled in jackets, gloves and ear warmers! We were hungry for dinner so we made our way to Columbia Harbour House and split the Trio Platter, yummy as always. They were completely slammed and it was hard to find a table. They couldn’t keep up with keeping them clean or the trash cans emptied. The CM’s were working hard to get it done, but there were too many people leaving their tables an absolute mess and disaster area. We were tired from a long day. Plus, we were getting cold. So we left just before the fireworks were about to start. Had the conditions been better, we would have stayed, but we were getting miserable. We actually got a picture in front of the train station with a peek of the fireworks above us! We made it out to the bus stop and were able to see the higher fireworks. Our bus arrived just before 9:15am and there was hardly anyone aboard. We got to our room and finished unpacking. Lights out at 11pm.
Miles logged 7.6