January 2020 – The Full Dopey – Day 2

It was Thursday…barely. At 2:30am my alarm went off. Oh that clock! “Time to get up,” you say, “Time to start another day!”

In training we had formed a routine of having a reasonable breakfast before running, no matter the distance. On the advice of @eeyorepoohfan I determined that the Dopey Challenge was no time for breaking routines when it comes to running. Now since we had a studio, we were a bit limited in what we could do for breakfast at 2:30am. I would traditionally fix toast, eggs, and sausage or bacon before a run at home, with a nice press pot of Joffrey’s coffee On this trip we had bananas, frozen Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches, grits (if we wanted them – and we never did), and I brought my travel French press with some pre-ground Joffrey’s coffee from home. YES. I have a travel French press. I am dedicated to good coffee!

I started the coffee pot in the room (just to heat up water) and we got dressed for our 5K while it heated up. I poured the water into the French Press and microwaved our breakfast sandwiches. I ate a banana while I waited for the coffee to steep (about 5 minutes). With the coffee and breakfast all ready, we ate and had about 20 minutes left in the room. Christy continued to get ready while I did a quick Bible study for the last 20 minutes. I spell all this out, because this was our routine for all 4 mornings of the Dopey Challenge.

At 3:30am we left our room to catch the bus to the 5K race area. Our room was just a few doors down from the elevator closest to the lobby. So when we left our room, we were out at the bus in about 5 minutes. We consistently managed to do this every morning and catch the first bus departing for the race of the day at Kidani Village.

The bus was quiet and loaded with fellow runners (and a few spectators) still waking up. Having had breakfast and 2 cups of coffee (The press makes 3 and Christy is content with 1 since she’s more of a tea drinker), I was already wide awake…well, mostly. We had only seen maps of the race staging area prior to getting there, so it was interesting to see that once the bus dropped us off, we had quite a bit of walking to do before we got to the security check point and then inside the staging area. It was amazing to see (1) The crazy array of costumes some runners wore and (2) that after walking so far to get there, people still felt the need to do warm-up walk/runs in the more open areas We had a bag with us to check just this day only because with the 5K starting at 5:30am and Hollywood Studios opening at 7:00am, we had plans to go directly there afterward to see Galaxy’s Edge.

It was a chilly 52 degrees. There was so much going on at the staging area, it was hard to take it in. The people, the DJ music, the character greetings, the fact that there was a Joffrey’s truck with a HUGE line in front of it and not another supply truck behind it (apparently having enough coffee for hundreds of people in that truck was part of the Disney magic ), and then there were more portable toilets in one area than I’ve ever seen in my life! Well, when you gotta go, you gotta go!

From texting back and forth, we were able to meet @starbee again on the other side of the Joffrey’s truck. Shortly before we needed to go to our corrals, @eeyorepoohfan and her husband (and apprentice in her awesomeness – He’s well on his way! I mean, the hats he picks out alone are like 10 points at least) met up with us and BAM! 2nd Official D-COT meet!!! They were there to cheer everyone on in the 5K. We took some pictures of the momentous occasion – one of which is my profile picture. @starbee, Christy and I were all in the same corral for every race. For the 5K, we were in Corral B out of A through C. We got to our corral and waited…Even when the race began, they were letting about 1,000 runners go at a time with fanfare and fireworks each time! Disney doesn’t do anything small! Even though it had begun, we slowly inched to the start line with our corral over the course of the next 40 minutes.

When we finally crossed the start line, Christy and I began a light trotting pace which we carried through most of the race and lost @starbee instantly. She later passed us, but we didn’t notice There were just so many people both running and walking. The course took us into Epcot and ultimately around the World Showcase which was all lit-up and pretty as it is at night, but with just the runners and volunteers going through it. It was a run that was both fun and beautiful! Being used to running 10K routinely. This 5K went by so fast for us! At the finish line, we received our medals , waved to our cheering section, collected the handouts of mylar blankets, a bottle of water, bottle of powerade, a banana, and a box of recovery snacks. We then picked up our checked bag and looked for the best possible way to get to Hollywood Studios.

ALL the Bus lines were LONG! We originally intended to get the bus to Boardwalk and then boat or walk to DHS from there, but that was the longest line. We saw that the line for Caribbean Beach/Riviera was shorter and remembered they had Skyliner service there now, so we got on that bus! We got off at Caribbean Beach and boarded the Skyliner for the first time. We had a car all to ourselves and were amazed by how quiet and fast it was! We got inside DHS at about 7:30am and joined a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance. Groups 1-111 were guaranteed, but we were in 120 – a back-up group, but we had hope! We went straight to Galaxy’s edge and walked all the way through it to the line for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. The line was extended all the way to Toy Story Land and had a 120-minute posted wait. We didn’t mind because it gave us time to soak in the fantastic theming of Galaxy’s Edge and the line was moving pretty quickly too! Along the way a guest asked a cast member where they were from because the name tag had their name in English, but their hometown in the Star Wars script. She said she was from Bantaan. The guest asked where that was and she said, “You know, the town on Batuu?” We loved how they were blurring the lines between reality and fantasy in Galaxy’s Edge!

In 90 minutes we were in the pre-show! They grouped people into 6-person crews and Christy and I were right and left pilots respectively I had heard they were the toughest duty stations, and that was no joke! When it was our time to crew the Falcon, we had to work together as I could only move the ship left and right and Christy could only go up and down! It was so immersive and they did a great job making it look like there was only one ride vehicle and we were the only ones to be on it. We somehow managed to complete our mission and keep the Falcon in one piece with minimal damage! Chewy would be proud!

After the ride, we explored the Land at length. We sampled both the blue and green milk and liked blue the best! We saw Kylo Ren and Stormtroopers walking around looking for members of the Resistance. They found one holding a Resistance flag! Kylo ripped it in half! We went through the market place and all around the land and noticed the line for Millennium Falcon never got above 120 minutes that day. Our boarding group for Rise of the Resistance being a long way off, we went to Toy Story Land for a ride on Slinky Dog Dash (90 minutes posted, 60 actual), then used our FastPass for Toy Story Mania. On our way out, a lady saw our running shirts which said “I run so I can eat more Mickey Bars” and “I run so I can eat more Dole Whips”. She said, “I so approve of your motivation!” She asked if she could take a picture of them, and we, of course, obliged!

So it was around noon that we left DHS and got the bus back to Kidani. We got cleaned up. Christy took a nap, while I snacked on popcorn and watched the animals on the Savanna from our balcony. We were concerned they might call our boarding group before our ADR at Dinner time, so we watched because we were tempted to bail on the ADR and take the $20 hit for cancelling last minute and go see Rise of the Resistance anyway. At 4:00pm, it still wasn’t our time, so we boarded the bus to Magic Kingdom for our ADR at Skipper Canteen. Our reservation was at 5:00pm and it took EVERY minute to get there in time. Note: when at AKL, it could take more than the recommended hour to get to MK by bus!

At Skipper Canteen, our Skipper was certainly full of puns, but not “above and beyond” like some can be. Still she served our table very well. I ordered a Schweitzer Slush to drink and it was pretty good, but I don’t know if I’ll repeat it. The slushes in Pandora are better. We ordered the S.E.A. Shu Mai as an appetizer and it was a great starter as always! For entrees, Christy ordered the Perkins Thai Noodles with Chicken and I ordered the “Tastes Like Chicken” Because it is! The Tastes Like Chicken was perfect and delicious, and quite poultry-like! The Noodles were good too, but they were quite spicy! I had some and they successfully cleared my sinuses! We were worried about the spice causing digestive issues on the 10k run the next day, but SPOILER ALERT, no issues experienced! Shortly after our entrees arrived, our boarding group was called! But since we had 2 hours to get there, we didn’t panic. We finished our meal without rushing, paid, and left the park.

We went to wait for the bus to DHS from MK and there was already a long line waiting. It had been quite a while since the last bus had been there and we wondered if we would even be able to get on the next one when it came. Then right next to us, a Riviera bus pulled up with only 3 people waiting to board it… I said excitedly to Christy, “we can take that bus and then Skyliner over!” So we did and some of those in line with us heard us and followed us on! The Bus Driver said, “So are you from Riviera, or Hollywood Studios?” We said, “That depends on your point of view! We are DVC members.” Well, we went to the Riviera and boarded the Skyliner. It went to Caribbean Beach first, and went really high up over the resort. We got to see the full expanse of Caribbean Beach before coming down and it was really cool! Everyone had to get off at Caribbean Beach to board the correct line: to Epcot or DHS. We got to DHS quickly and to Rise of the Resistance with 15 minutes to spare! …But the attraction was broke down for the evening But they gave every group who had been called (Groups 132 and below) a FastPass to come back the next day at ANY time to see it! So with that, we got the bus to Kidani. Our bus driver was so kind as to wait for us to get to the bus after everyone else had boarded and we were still a ways away. When we got close to stopping, since it was dark, she warned everyone about the bus lights going on before she turned them on I posted a Cast Compliment on Twitter for her! Once to our room, we got everything in order for the next morning and went to bed! It was 7:30pm.