Hi guys!

Don't forget to catch up on the last post in this series the 10 km race this will carry on from where I left off, I seem to have loads of this trip left to cover so lets jump straight in!

After the 10 Km race I was lucky enough to be able to head back to they Cheyenne with Steven to use the shower in his room to save me going all the way back to the hi park, this was so much more convenient, and re affirmed my love for the Texas rooms in the Cheyenne hotel, they truly are beautiful, it's a great hotel.


After a shower and a quick change, apart from staying in my running shorts because Sophie forgot my jeans, it was time to head back to the parks, we decided to do the studios first to see Mickey and the Magician as I  hadn't seen it since November last year, the show has had a few tweaks and updates for this season, as well as a new cast, but I'm pleased to say it hasn't effected the overall quality of the show, it really is a very special show and deserves all the praise it gets.


After Mickey and the Magician I wanted to get some photos in my ratatouille top from Pop corn clothing and with Duffy in his chefs outfit, so we headed over to Place de Remy, I think the plan was to grab something from the food and wine type stalls, but it was just really really busy, we got our photos and were making our way back through the Studios when we saw Sulley was out on the scare floor, his queue was closed but the lovely CM told us what time his second set would be, so we got some food in Studio one then headed back to join the queue for his second set.


After meeting Sulley there wasn't much else we were desperate to do in the studios so it was park hop time, I wanted to grab some pictures in front of Dumbo in my other top from Pop corn clothing, and then we stopped off to meet Chip and Dale in their gorgeous new costumes in adventure land round the side of the Pizza Outpost, as always they were super cheeky and really fun.


We popped round to fantasy land and stopped to see the princes and princesses on their way back from the waltz on castle stage and by this point I was really struggling from a combination of being tired, and pain in my calves from the 10 km. We headed back to the Expo in Disney village where I was able to get a free massage, which made a big difference!

Then it was back to the main park so catch Stars on Parade, honestly I know this parade gets a lot of mixed reviews, but I love it more and more every time I watch it, a real highlight for me. By the time parade finished I was 100% exhausted and done for the day, so we headed back to Hi park and i took a nap for a few hours while Sophie went shopping near by, I hate that I missed so much park time but honestly I just couldn't keep going at this point, with the half marathon the next morning too it was just better to play it safe this time and get some rest in.

We did pop back to the village in the evening, as I forgot to collect my bag from concierge, and we got a 5 guys to make the trip back worth while, but I'm afraid it was a rather unexciting and early evening for us.

Will be back soon with the next part of the trip, the half marathon! Until then speak soon!

Hoodsie xx

Hi guys,

Catching up from where we left off at the end of the Run Disney opening party, after a very short sleep at the Hi Park it was 5 am and my alarm was going off to tell me it was 10 Km day! I eventually got up and ready and before I knew it I was making the walk back to the parks!

Race day morning atmosphere is always super weird, at least in my experience anyway. It has a weird buzz, a mix of excitement, nerves and definitely a weird wired awake feeling, where I know I'm exhausted but I also feel a strange kind of couldn't sleep even if I tried thing.

After going through security at Newport Bay (which has made me even more excited to stay there soon!), it was a quick stop in the expo to drop off my gear bag, then straight to the corrals to try and find Steven. Despite it being super early and pretty dark out, things were starting to fill up but a combination of being small and polite helped me to navigate through the building crowd and get to Steven which instantly made me feel more relaxed. as the 10 km and half marathon start lines followed the format of the previous year and started outside Vapiano/Five guys, this meant the stages with the big screens were back, and though I didn't pay a huge amount of attention to a lot of what was going on, it certainly sets up a good pre-race atmosphere.


Before we knew it it was time to start, this would be the first course of the weekend that encompassed both parks, and being the first 10 Km race every at Paris, it was really exciting to see how many characters would be out, and to experience the route for the first time.

The course first took us through Studio 1, and into the Walt Disney studios park, where out first meet was outside art of animation again, the three little pigs! Fiddler Fifer and Practical pig, don't ask me which is which because honestly I just haven't got a clue! But what I do know is these guys are pretty rare to meet, and apart from the occasional farmers brunch in Inventions, meeting them is a real treat, I guess I don't need to tell you how happy I was to see them, it's written all over my face!


After the three little pigs it took a while to get to our next character, but once the characters started they just didn't seem to stop and kept getting better, so it was worth the wait! The course took us back out of the studios, through fantasia gardens and up main street, at this point it was just starting to get light out, and how I wish I had taken a photo of our castle against that beautifully perfect pink and blue morning sky, it really was something incredible to see.


Once we got to the top of main street we took a right turn into Frontier land, and ran through to Adventure land and this is where the character meets started again, As we rounded the corner into adventure land I could see Genie and Prince Ali, I think I was pretty much set on stopping for them, when to my delight they switched out for Jasmine and Sultan! Now if anyone remembers, last year I just missed the Sultan and Jasmine on the half marathon as I was next in the queue when they got swapped out, so I was so so happy to get my photo this year, I'll really treasure this one.


After adventure land we cut back into fantasy land round to the Carrousel de Lancelot, where Pinocchio and his guide Jiminy Cricket were meeting guests, this was really cool and though I would admit I'm not particularly a Pinocchio fan, the idea of meeting Jiminy was really cool, as an avid character hunter, anything out the ordinary was going to impress!


After Pinocchio and Jiminy it was time for one of the best parts of run Disney, running through the castle! Its such a small thing but it's the perfect touch, I just wish there was a photographer to catch the moment, after the castle we ran past castle stage, where the giant steam punk Maleficent from Stars on Parade was blocking the walkway to Fantasy land towards small world, meeting in front of it were the three fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, I have a recent obsession with all things sleeping beauty, so even though the queue was long, we decided to wait, after a few mins the CM came over to tell us the fairies would be leaving soon, but that Aurora and Philip would replace them, and although a little disappointed as the fairies are a more rare meet, it was still good enough for me to stay in the queue, Steven was very kind and agreed to stay with me, and our friend Seb joined us too.


After Aurora and Philip it was round to Discovery land where we had been told Stitch was meeting, this was someone Steven really wanted to meet so it was full steam ahead, when we got there, Angel experiment 624, was with stitch and i think its clear from the pictures I was very very excited to see her, even though I must admit I did feel a little bit bad meeting her without my good friend, and total stitch fanatic, Shouls, who was holidaying in WDW.


Next was a quick run around the Back of Space mountain, and down the path that take you to the Fantasy land gates next to Small world, here the first float from Magic on parade was parked up and the Fairy God mother and Merlin were meeting with it, now in hindsight, this is probably one of those things I am going to regret skipping, but, we'd been told Bullseye was out with woody and well, I needed to try and see that, so we carried on a loop around the back of story book boats and Casey Jr to bring us out to run around the labyrinth, I think Chesh and White rabbit may have been out, but if they were we skipped them as we'd met them before, we stopped quickly outside Dumbo to get a photo of my costume with the 25th board then into adventure land and another backstage loop behind Indiana Jones.


This brought us out to the back of Frontier land by the Chapparel theater and towards the cowboy cookout, sure as anything Woody was there, Jessie was with him but unfortunately we'd missed Bullseye, Steven had run ahead to try and get in the queue for us, so we met back up with him, as I still wanted a photo with my Toy Story favourites.


We then carried on towards Phantom Manor where Jack and sally were meeting, and I'm honestly gutted to say the queue had already closed when we got there so we couldn't meet them, this was a real shame as I personally haven't met the two of them together since 2012 and its only Jack that meets during the Halloween season, at least I'll get to see him really soon!

The course then cut back across to the Studios park with a loop of catastrophe canyon and a run round the tram tour and through the stunt show, I believe Remy and Emile were out again, but same as the 5km the queue was already too long for me to have time to meet the rats, so it was straight to the finish line and to get our second medal of the weekend!


A huge shout out to both Steven and Seb for running with me, when i started to feel in pain around Km 7 they never left me or gave up on me, and it was an absolute pleasure to cross the finish line and collect my medal with them.

So that was the race, I'll be back soon with my round up of how I spent the rest of my Saturday.

Hoodsie xx

Hi Guys,

This should be a bit of a shorter one from me as we catch up where we left off at the end of the 5 Km race!

The opening party was something I wasn't 100% sure I'd do again, as last years had some teething issues to say the least! Luckily for me, a severe case of FOMO and a slight price reduction had me handing over my money to Run Disney in no time, I know I'm a sucker right!

Now I have to say overall I did enjoy the party, however in my eyes this was the main thing that left so much potential unfulfilled, so I'm going to try and give honest feedback on how the event unfolded in my experience, having said that, if the price is right for the next run weekend, I would definitely try again!

The party was on the Friday evening the same as last year, however this year that meant there was a slight matter of running the 5 Km first, the party and the race were also both held in the same park which meant people had to clear through the left hand side (Think Toon studio, Place de Remy and Toy Story Play land) before the party could start. It also meant the Left hand side (Rock N Roller side) couldn't open fully as runners were still finishing.

After Finishing the 5 Km and getting our medals, it would have been ideal to have been able to go straight into the party, however there was the small matter of our gear bags, once you stop running you get cold pretty quickly so i wanted my hoodie as well as my other personal items which I had left in my gear bag, the bag drop and collection however, was located in the expo tent at the back of Disney village, so yep that's right, I had to leave the studios to walk to the far side of the village and back to be able to have my stuff with me for the party. This meant the party had been going for a fair while by the time we got there!

On entry into the party there was no list/ schedule of what rides were open, or what characters were out, this was a bit disappointing as we had guides for the party last year and it meant we could prioritize what was most important and head there first.

Out in front lot Belle was meeting where we had seen Cinderella and Prince Charming during the race so we decided to stop as Sophie was dressed as Belle too, the queue was quite quick and Belle was ever so sweet!


We walked through Studio one, and found the Hunchback guys were still meeting outside Art of Animation, we got Quasi and Frollo during the run, and it was Clopin and Esmerelda out at the party when we arrived so we decided to take the chance to finish the set. Just after Sophie had her photo, they brought Quasi and Frollo back out ready to swap over for a while, but as I was desperate to meet Esmerelda, i managed to jump in quick and got a photo with all 4!


The only bad thing about this meet was the misunderstanding between guests and the photo pass photographer, they weren't scanning peoples existing photo passes and were instead just giving out the temporary cardboard passes, Luckily the following day we got these transferred onto our actual photo pass, so it was more of a slight inconvenience than anything!

We then found out the Aristocat kittens were meeting over at Place de Remy still, as you may have seen in my 5 Km post I really regretted not stopping for them during the race, they boy Kittens have been on my want to meet list for forever so I had to try. So off I went sprinting towards Place de Remy, the queue wasn't huge when I got there and I finally thought this would be my chance to meet them. And then it happened. we were a few people away from the front when the Cm said the Kittens needed to go in for their break and only Marie would be returning. I don't even think "gutted" covers it, in fact heartbroken is the word I would pick, I have wanted to meet those kittens for such a long time and I really thought this would finally be my chance, but it wasn't meant to be unfortunately!

However, all was not lost, as they left Toulouse (who just happens to be my favourite of the brothers) stopped on his way past, gabbed my hand and gave me licks/kitten kisses, and luckily Sophie was on hand to take a photo. Of course I'm still really disappointed to have missed them and not being able to hug them, but I think he could see how upset I was, and it did take the edge off a little. 

As we were so close to the front of the queue we decided to hang on and meet Marie anyway, I mean one kitten is always better than 0 kittens, and she was really loved and gave me the biggest cuddle!


We then go told by a friend (again no official program of events to be found, I don't know what we would have done if it wasn't for the tip offs we had) that some of the VIPs (Mickey & Minnie etc) were meeting in their Run Disney tracksuits outside rock n roller, so we made our way straight across to the other side of the studios, but when we got there the queue was already closed, more disappointment!


Our friend Chrissy with Mickey and the gang!

At this point we decided to call it a night, we were both tired, still needed to walk back to the Hi Park and I had the 10 Km race to get up for at 5 am so it was probably the right decision.

Overall, yes I did enjoy my time at the party, and it looked a lot better than last year, however I do think it had potential for so so much more, a guide of when and where the characters were out would have been useful, also having the party straight after the race wasn't, in my opinion at least, ideal especially for people starting in the last corral as you wanted to enjoy and stop for the characters on the race but also juggle that with getting back for the party, personally i would like to see the party moved to the Thursday.

I guess one of the biggest changes I would like to have seen was with the bag drop, some option to collect your bag without having to go back to the expo, perhaps some way of marking your bag if you're a party attendant so that they're transferred to the studios, this would have saved us a lot of time, and may have been the difference in us being able to meet the kittens!

So that was my experience, did you attend? What did you think? What was your highlight and what changes would you like to see next year?

Drop me a comment and I'll be back soon with my experience of the new 10 Km!

Hoodsie xx

Hey Guys!

Thanks for sticking with me through this trip report so far, its great to be able to re live everything and share the memories so hopefully you're all enjoying it as much as I am, remember if there's anything extra you wanna see or know about, please leave me a comment and I'll do my best to sort it!

To carry on from where we left off with Day 2, we had gone back to the Hi Park hotel for a quick rest and to get changed into our race outfits for the evening. It was a short walk back to the parks and this served as the perfect warm up, if only we hadn't had such a long wait in our corrals for the race.


I had been allocated Corral B and Sophie had been given C, as it was her first ever Run Disney event, and even more impressive her first ever 5 km, and I feel like I may have sort have influenced her decision to come, there was no way I was letting her start alone, so we got there nice and early allowing me to drop down to C but be right near the front ready to start.

 I think that's a top bit of advice actually, the further back your start corral, the earlier you want to look at getting there, its worth it just to get a head start on the character queues! Don't worry there's plenty of entertainment while you wait, and porta potties if you need them!

There were a few changes to the 5 Km race for the second edition of the DLP run weekend, firstly this was now an evening race on the Friday rather than a morning race on Saturday (which is obviously to allow for the addition of a 10 Km course), secondly the 5 Km course is now solely confined to the Studio's park, which I think is a real shame, especially for people who aren't running the other races, and children who won't get to run through our beautiful, iconic castle. All races now finish in the Studios park (I really love this change) and finally, the start line for the 5 Km is now around Lake Disney!

Because of the change to the starting place there wasn't really room in the corrals for video screens showing the pre race warm up, so instead the team were sent out on to lake Disney on a floating stage complete with speakers, I actually thought this was a really fun touch and it ensured everyone queuing around the lake had a chance to get involved.

After getting all warmed up it was time for the race to start, the route first took us through Disney village, now because of the 8pm start time on a Friday night, you can imagine the village was pretty packed, and although it created an amazing feel to run through, I'm not sure how practical it was in terms of guest flow within the village for non runners, a great deal of which I imagine booked their trips without even knowing about the races that weekend! Bet that was a bit of a surprise!

After Disney village it was into the studios, the first character stop was in front lot, when we arrived it was Cinderella and Prince Charming, however looking at photos others had on the course it looks like Belle and Beast were also meeting at this point too, It's a shame we missed them, especially as Sophie was running as Belle, but we were still happy just to be there. We decided not to stop for this photo op as the queue was quite long and we hoped we'd find someone better along the way.

We ran through Studio One and took a right towards toon town, outside Art of Animation was our second photo op for the evening and this was one I wasn't missing! It was Quasimodo and Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre dame, Frollo is often out at Halloween so I have managed to meet him before, however the rest of the Hunchback gang are very rarely out, and I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever seen Quasi in my 7 years of visiting the resort!


After our photo stop we ran past crushes coaster and the cars ride, where the cast member support was really really great - Thank you so much! We ran into Place de Remy, where the Aristocat Kittens were meeting, I seem to remember the queue for them being quite long when we arrived, but honestly, my biggest regret of the weekend is probably not queuing for them at this point!

We ran under the tunnel and into Toy story Playland, which honestly, looks it's very best at night time, and from there we ran towards the tram tour. The route took us on a huge lap of the tram tour and it was really surreal to run so far out but still not really be backstage. About half way round our next photo op presented its self, Gaston, looking like he was in the middle of the forest ready to hunt the beast! As Sophie was dressed as Belle, and we were making good time, stopping for Gaston was a must, and the queue was quite short and moving quickly anyway!


Close to Gaston there was another photo op but with no characters? It was a set with large flowers that I had a suspicion might be for use later in the weekend, but I guess it was a cool background and there were plenty of people getting a snap there!

We ran around the Catastrophe Canyon part of the tram tour which took us quite far out, and it was quite surreal to see it up close, the final photo op of the course was in the stunt show, where Remy and Emile were having photos with their Stars n Cars vehicle, this was a photo op I really wanted having missed them at last years race, and still having never met Emile. The queue was quite long but it was moving so we decided to chance it. Unfortunately we were just too late and by the time we were getting to the last 3rd of the queue the CM said that the rats had to go but we could stay and have a picture with the car.

We decided a photo with just the car would be too painful so skipped it, Sophie did get this photo of me with the rats in the background and I think it's clear how disappointed I was to be missing them again, fingers crossed one year I'll get there in enough time!


Aft the tram tour we ran the final straight past Armageddon towards the much missed Cinemagique! Crossing the finish line and getting your medal in any race is always special, but I think for me, this 5km is one I'll remember for a long time, running it with Sophie was amazing, and I can't tell you how proud I am of her!

 

So that's the 5 Km, 1 race down 2 to go, come back soon as I tell you all about the opening party!

Hoodsie

Back again!

If you need to catch up with Day 1 please do, otherwise lets jump straight back into the trip with day 2, Friday September 22nd.

5K day! As the 5 Km race has been moved to the evening this year, we still had a whole day of fun in the parks before we needed to think about running! As we knew we had a long day and a late night ahead of us we didn't rush to get into the parks for EMH and instead got to the studios around opening time, we stopped inside studio one to grab a 25th donut each for breakfast (healthy right?!) and then made out way over to meet Buzz Lightyear.


As I decided to run the 5 Km as Jessie again, I stuck to a Jessie bound for the whole day and teamed it with my Buzz Vans backpack from Asos, My custom ears from MakeWearPlay and My alien Toy story vans from Schuh Duffy dressed as woody to meet Buzz and later had a costume change into his Buzz suit to meet Woody and Jessie. The extra interaction gained from this was 100% worth it for me, and they are some of my favourite meets.

While we were in the studios we also checked out Cars Quatre Roues Rallye and Ratatouille, we were even lucky enough to bump into Simon and Lisa, who have a YouTube channel, who let us use their fast passes for ratatouille. Again thank you guys so so much for this gesture!


After the studios it was time to park hop and go back over to frontier land to find Woody who was lots of fun as usual, grabbed some more Halloween photos too, the decorations are really looking amazing, and although I am a bit sad most of Halloween seems to be confined to Frontier land this year, I can't deny they have made a really, really good job of it!


After meeting Woody there was a few hours break before Jessie was due out so this gave us chance to watch the Happy Anniversary show on castle stage which is one of my favourites, we also got waffles from the old mill in fantasy land to tide us over on the food front!


Soon enough it was time to go back to find Jessie, and her meet did not disappoint at all, she loved my outfit and all the toy story accessories, especially my alien vans which she tried to steal using "the claw" my only disappointment is that there's hardly ever a photo pass photographer here which seems like such a shame, but the CMs were more than happy to take photos on my phone to capture the moment!


After we saw Jessie we popped back to the expo at the back of Disney village to sort out our photo pass for the runs as you can't use your normal pass one and they have to be linked to at least one of your bibs, then we had a late lunch/early dinner at Vapiano for some last min carb loading before the 5km.

We walked the short distance back to the Hi Park and got ready for our first race and Sophie's first ever 5Km!


And on that juicy note, I'll leave you there for today, the race and opening party deserve a post of their own so that's whats coming up next, as always you can subscribe on the right hand menu so you don't miss the next part, and you can drop your comments down below because they make me really happy!

Hoodsie xx