A Marathon, Magic & a Mouse!

[RailRider]

Question from earlier and sorry to be so long to ask, At the Cinderella Royal Table breakfast do they still serve the princess (our children) their own plated breakfast fit for a princess plate and then the princess court (parents) get served family style?

Thanks for the food picture I am always happy to see Zoe in the pictures but must admit I was a little disappointing you did not share that picture of your whole lobster with a filet. Narcosees is one our all time favorites too. you can not go wrong there good location, food and atmosphere.

Really looking forward to the rest of this days report it sounds awesomely planned.

CRT is served plated not family style for the most part. Although they serve a family style fruit plate and pastry plate before they bring out everyone's main plate.

Regarding the food pictures we only took a few and they were of desserts no main courses. I would like to see the lobster and filet again also.

[RailRider]

Reading this trip report is getting me super excited for my trip next summer, with my six year old sister...who loves princesses!

Looks like you guys had a great trip. I will be sure to tell my parents, "Hey, the way these guys did it is great - let's try their way!" (we usually go way too fast)...

Because of the tips and advice of others and the planning I put in to each day, we ride more and see more by lunch time than most park guests will do all day. I have done Disney with no plan and just wondered aimlessly around the parks. I have done Disney with a plan and a layout for touring the parks. I will never go to Disney again without a plan. I highly recomend sites like TourGuideMike and Undercover Tourist. Let me know if you have any questions.

[standbyme]

Just wanted to say again that I have been enjoying your report very much!

[MarketingExpress]

Because of the tips and advice of others and the planning I put in to each day, we ride more and see more by lunch time than most park guests will do all day. I have done Disney with no plan and just wondered aimlessly around the parks. I have done Disney with a plan and a layout for touring the parks. I will never go to Disney again without a plan. I highly recomend sites like TourGuideMike and Undercover Tourist. Let me know if you have any questions.

Might I pass along a suggestion to anyone looking for a plan when it comes to vacations in Florida...

Vacation Adventure Architects http://www.vacationbuilding.com/

This is a company started by a former PKI employee who has a number of different plans for you to choose from. I recommend checking him out if you plan on vacationing in Florida and hitting up one of the many attractions.

[coaster_junky]

railrider, i was wondering, did you get to go back and see rafiki's planet watch (the place the train stops at during it's trip)? if so, did you get to watch any of the procedures being preformed by one of animal kingdom's vets?

[RailRider]

railrider, i was wondering, did you get to go back and see rafiki's planet watch (the place the train stops at during it's trip)? if so, did you get to watch any of the procedures being preformed by one of animal kingdom's vets?

No we did not. When planning our trip to Disney I wanted us to have a relaxing time while accomplishing a lot. I have found that some folks try and do everything at Disney in a set few days, I planned our trip to hit the major attractions, the things we were interested in and if we didn't see or experience a few things thats ok. We will be back and we can do it next time. This may be one of them.

[LongLiveTheSmurfRide]

Dude, big congrats to you and your wife for doing the half marathon. I just finished the Couch to 5K program a couple weeks ago and I'm getting ready for a 5K (in Oct) and then a 5Mile race (On Thanksgiving). I'd like to eventually do the Disney Half Marathon in a couple years or so. That would be a great excuse for me to do one AND hang out at Disney World for a while.

Trip report is great!

[RailRider]

^

Congrats on taking the inititave to train for a 5k and 5mile, both tough. I found that once I could handle 5 miles drawing my training out to 10, 11, 12 and the 13 was not much more dificult. Good luck and we definately want to try the Disney half as well.

[RailRider]

Friday May 6th

Bipiti Bopiti

After a very successful morning meet and greet with Tangled and Flynn Rider and a few rerides in Fantasyland we had an appointment at the Bipiti Bopiti Botique. For those of you that do not know about the Bipiti Bopiti Botique, it is Disney's version of dress up located inside Cinderella's Castle. Princesses can go in get the hair styled, makeup and nails done and can even pick out their favorites princess dress to wear. Basically its transforming your princess in to a real princess with her own Fairy Godmother in Training. There are various packages to choose from and I will leave that discussion to other forums, but feel free to ask any questions.

The BBB was my wifes idea and thought that the little one would love it seeing as she is obsessed with dress up and the Disney princesses. Honestly I must say it was a really neat experience and Zoe loved picking out her dress, hairstyle, makeup and just the entire process. From start to finish we spent a solid 2 hours at the BBB and took way too many pictures and video of it, but Zoe left feeling extremely special and her actions the rest of the day would prove how special she felt. Honestly this experience makes her feel on top of the world, other guests made sure to make nice comments towards her as well as the various cast members. This was her day and she knew it as the day went on.

Zoe Meets her Fairy Godmother in training who was amazing.

Who would have guessed she picked Rapunzels dress?

Did I mention she had the options of extensions in her hair? She chose pink of course.

Since the Tangled movie is so new and popular, not all accesories were availabe, so lets mix in 2nd favorite Princess. Did anyone guess Sleeping Beauty? Recall her Sleeping Beauty experience from Disneyland.

Makeup

Love the face shield and now comes the ungodly amount of gliter. Im still finding gliter to this day.

Getting ready to turn her around to see the finished product. During the entire process the princess in the making has not seen themselves.

Somebody is happy with the result

Finished product, somebody feels very royal and will act as such the rest of the day.

Here are some of the PhotoPass shots from the process and from the photo shoot afterward.

Love the face shield, I need one of these.

Every princess needs a photoshoot.

Off with their head! that was my first thought when I saw this pose.

Daisy and prncess Zoe as we leave the park to head to Disney Studios

Im curious, anyone else that has done this with their child. Did it change their personality for the rest of the day? Zoe was so reserve and proud the rest of the day. I believe she truly felt like royalty the rest of the day. Everyone greeting her as princess and making a special point to have conversations with her. She felt very important, not stuck up or snobish, but important. Really a neat thing to see as a parent and Zoe absolutely loved the idea of standing out in the parks like she did.

[Avatar]

Wow Princes Zoe is beautiful and her pick of Rapunzel was a great choice for her. I Love love love the Photo Pass picture of her face in the hand held mirror. That is why I buy the Photo Pass every-time we go, the photographers know some great angels to make a memory more special and plus the family photographer gets to be in some of the pictures too.

Your question about has anyone else took their daughter to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique (BBB), of course I have taken Miss Rae there to enjoy a wonderful make over memory. In fact when ever we go with friends or relatives who have a young daughter who has not been to Magic Kingdom I all but insist they go to BBB as it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to do this for their current Fantasyland state of mind. The memories last forever and the price may be a bit costly but as I have said in other reports in time the pictures and the memories created this will end up being one of the best money spent on vacation.

I hope you don't mind if I share Miss Rae's BBB reaction in hopes that some here will see how worth it is in time and money to experience such a magical moment for the whole family.

Princess Rae seeing her princess look for the first time at BBB

Right after it all soaked in and she realized it was truly her in the mirror.

So true in what you said about the little princess walking around feeling so proud and special after a BBB makeover. The Disney Cast members really go out of their way to address them as princesses and it seems when the parades go by they get extra waving attention from other princesses and cast members.

I have heard many say "I would never spend that much money to get into Magic kingdom and then spend more money to do that and the time no way!!" . Honestly the ones who have done the BBB experience that I know of have always said how glad the were in doing it and it seems to be a be one of their special memory moments while on vacation. The rides and attractions will always be their but young pirates and princesses do grow up fast.

I will share just one more picture the the Photo Pass folks took, we ended up blowing it up to poster size and framing it to hang in Miss Rae's room.

Thank You RaiLRider for sharing your special vacation memories with us it sure has brought back some of my favorite Disney memories too.

I get horrified at the thought of not have taken advantage of a awesome opportunity now and the thought of not having these photos available to see now that Miss Rae is getting much older.

I so look forward to your next update!!!!

[RailRider]

Avatar, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. I love the pictures of Miss Rae, glad you shared them with us. My wife and I were talking this weekend that the young one is growing up so quick we need to get back to Disney sooner than later, because we know it will be different at some point.

Thanks for sharing.

[RailRider]

Friday May 6th, continued...

A Fantasmic Evening...

After leaving the Magic Kingdom we made our way over to Disney Studios for a Fantasmic Evening and dinner at the Hollywood Brown Derby. Also Zoe wanted to get another ride on Toy Story Midway Mania, which she rode the day before and rode at California's Adventure the prior year. We walked around Disney Studios a little bit before our dinner and Zoe just took in feeling special in the park. Like Avatar mentioned the cast members go out of their way to talk to kids that have gone to the BBB and even other guests were making it a point to talk to her. She definately felt special.

We took advantage of the Fantasmic Dinning package since we were on the Dinning plan and ate at the Hollywood Brown Derby. Really a great meal and the Cobb Salas was fabulous. Also the previous day at the Studios we dinned at the Sci Fi Drive in, which if you haven't experienced that it is awesome. Great atmosphere, food was good, and who doesn't love classic Sci Fi movies. The dinning at the Studios really amazed me and was quite surprising. The Sci Fi drive-in is a really neat experience and I think it is a must when you are at the park. Make sure you get reservations.

Toy Story Midway Mania is a combination 4-D dark ride and incorporates some of your favoirte carnival games. I loved this ride in California and it is just as good at the Studios. The que theming is awesome because it reminds me so much of my childhood toys. Is Toy Story really for kids or more for us nostalgic adults? The lines for this ride can be huge so it is a FastPass must, but those are usually gone within the first hours of the parks opening. We planned to finish the night here after the showing of Fantasmic. Not much of a line after the show. Thank goodness.

One of her favorite games.

The que is awesome with the giant toys strewn about.

This may be one of Disney's best ques. Notice the barrle of monkey's hanging from the ceiling, the ceiling is a scrable board and yes that is a life size Lincoln Log house.

Monkey!

Cool Animatronic Mr. PotatoHead

Sorry.

We have the park pretty much to ourselves.

Thanks once again for stopping by. What an amazing day had at both parks and the BBB is a very unique experience and must for any princess.

Tomorrow is our last park and our last day at the World. We have had a magical time and sad to see it ending so soon.

Stay Tunned...

Around the World in Topiary...

[Avatar]

I figure if I do not post at this point the trip will continue on. So just ignore this post and carry on. Hope you had a great holiday weekend.

[RailRider]

Saturday May 7th

Around the World in Topiary...

Our fiinal day at the World, bitter sweet, but it has been an amazing trip to this point. So for our last day we ventured to EPCOT to travel to world and take in the Flower and Garden Festival. Also for the day we had a great character lunch reserved at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall and our last signature dinning at the Yachtsman Steakhouse. Looking forward to a great day ahead and a great way to close out our trip.

This was another morning that we were at the park for Rope Drop and we made our way to Soarin like everyone else. We were the 2nd ride cycle of the day, not bad. Great ride and Zoe really loved the experience. What was really neat for us is that we had spent a lot of time in California the year before and visited most of the sites covered in Soarin, just a different perspective. If you view my trip reports linked at the bottom you can see our California Experience. Anyone that has never been to either Disneyland, the SoCal coast, or Yosemite need to do so. This ride honestly made us want to go back even more and now we are torn if we want to go back to the Disneyland resort and Tenaya Lodge before we come back to the World. Tough decisions.

After Soarin we made our way to the Seas Pavilion to ride Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush. While Mrs RailRider and Little Miss RailRider attended Turtle Talk I go Fast Passes for Test Track. Which of these 3 attractions do you think Little Miss RailRider will enjoy the most?

Did I mention this is the Flower and Garden Festival at EPCOT? The flowers were gorgeous and the charachter topiary's were awesome. See how many I can sprinkle in during this update.

We will see these guys latter.

Hidden Mickey?

After our trip through Under the Seas with Nemo we headed over for a ride on TestTrack. Yes she still takes after Daddy and loves thrill rides. Nemo was fun, but TestTrack was her favorite of the day. Rode the whole thing with her arms up giggling the whole way. She has now grown 3 inches since this trip putting her over the 44' mark. Mrs RailRider is quickly loosing the arguement "your not tall enough" to keep her off of bigger rides...

Time to head towards the World Showcase and Norway for Lunch

Mexico

Yah Norway

Home to Voss Water and Trolls.

Quick ride on Malestrom before lunch.

Stay tunned much more to come...

[RailRider]

Fairytale Dinning at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. While many consider the best princess dinning to be Cinderellas Royal Table there are many who argue that the dinning at Akershus is much better. Figured we would try both out, because they offered different princesses and once again if you are on the dinning plan the Akershus is a no brainer.

Belle Greats us as we arrive.

So far my first impression is the setting is neat, but not as cool ast being inside Cinderella's castle. Also notice that Belle here is wearing her fancy dress compared to the dress she wore at CRT.

Glad to see Aurora again.

Aeriel

Here is a new Princess, Snow White.

And here is the shocker of the group and a pretty cool addition if you ask me.

Marry Popins

So final verdict on Akershus, the inclusion of Marry Popins and Snow White make it unique, but still just ok. The food is more regionaly themed since we are in Norway, that is not a plus or minus in my book. I still think the overall atmoshpere of Cinderella's Royal Table is just better and the character interaction is more personalized. Smaller space, means less patrons and more interaction with the Princesses. Also who doesn't want to eat inside Cinderella's castle?

After lunch we headed to China.

Another Princess!

Mulan

Snow White

Lots of willing photographers today.

Germany

Rapunzels Tower

Italy

Time for a nap in America

Morocco

Time to head to the Yachtsman Steakhouse for an early dinner and then come back and enjoy the remaining countries. What a fun day EPCOT has been.

Stay tunned I hope to have the final few updates up over the next couple days.

[RailRider]

Wow, so a few days turned out to be 10. Life is a little busy, but I want to finish this trip report. I think people are reading and following along, but then again one never knows.

Back on course. We exited EPCOT via water taxi to the Yacht and Beachclub Resort for an early dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse. The Yachtsman Steakhouse is the signature steak house of the World and was a last minute addition to the trip I had tried unsuccesfully to make reservations at Le Cellier Steakhouse in EPCOT, but that never happend. I think this was a blessing because the meal at the Yachtsman was fantastic and how many resturants have an all glass meat locker displaying their fine cut meats while they age? Amazing food. They also had one of the neatest desserts for the little one. White chocolate puzzle pieces that could be assembled to form a Mickey portrait as well as a few other sweet treats. Oh did I mention that it came with 3 different colored sauces (chocolate, strawberry, and a citurs) and a paint brush to paint the Mickey portrait. Zoe had just as much fun painting as she did eating this one.

(Jesse I had to look extra hard for this picture, because it was a cell phone shot, but I knew you would appreciate another food shot)

After our meal we caught the water taxi and headed back to EPCOT to finish our world tour and to catch Illuminations to wrap up our trip before we headed home the next day. Once back in the park we toured France and spent quite a bit of time in the numerous shops. Also since we were going to be traveling on Mothers Day I let Zoe go in to "Plume et Palette" and pick mommy out a new perfume. She did quite well and the store cast member was nice enough to wrap the package. Mrs RailRider got to open her mothers day gift in the middle of EPCOT, whose ever opened a present in EPCOT before?

Beauty and The Beast and someone still feels like a princess.

A surprise encounter with Tiger and Pooh!

We were the only people around when these characters were out.

As we finished out the World Showcase we began facing our reality that this was our last night at Disney World and our last night of an amazing vacation that started off running. We actually decided to wrap up our evening early at EPCO forgoing Illuminations and choosing to drive back through the night rather than get up early the next morning and head home. This was a great choice on our part because the extra day at home before we had to return to work was well worth it. All in all an amazing day at EPCOT and we only saw a fraction of it and the Flower and Garden Festival was amazing.

I want to share some Photo Pass pictures at EPCOT before I wrap this trip up.

Hi, were the Griswalds!

As we left the park and shortly after this were on the road back to reality.

Thanks for taking the time to enjoy this trip and over the next few days I hope to have the wrap up complete of this trip. Once again what an amazing time and I always enjoying sharing our memories, I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have putting it together.

The Magic Lives On...

[jcgoble3]

Wow. Great report. It really looks like you and especially Zoe had a great time.

[LongLiveTheSmurfRide]

Had fun reading this and seeing the pictures. I miss Disney and hope to do the Disney World Half Marathon in 2013 as an excuse to go back.

[RailRider]

Memories Live On:

After reviewing this report and reflecting on our time spent, I have come to the conclusion that this was one of our most unique vacations ever. Starting off vacation by running our first ever 1/2 Marathon, finishing, surving, and being excited to run our next race. Eventhough the winner of the Marathon was done before we ever finished. We are thinking of running one of the Disney Halfs, but not sure if we are heading West or South for it.

The trip and time at the World was amazing. From the earth shatering news our first night at Disney, to the many wonderful experiences throughout the parks, special relaxing evenings, and just amazing family time. We experienced much during our time at the World, created many wonderful memories and some very special magical moments. Excited and anticipating our next trip, when and where we are not sure yet. Do we return to Southern California and go back to Disneyland or do we come back to the World. Tough decision and no the Magic Kingdom does not compare to Disneyland. Sorry the original is this best and our first visit I still believe was one of the most magical times at a park or even on vacation. Some day we will head West again, but back to the World. Maybe next time we take a Disney Cruise with some time at the parks, decisions decisions. But we will be back, we will stay on property, the Polynesian is in our sights and we will take advantage of the Dinning plan again.

Once again Disney helped us as a family create some very Magical moments, whether it was the Bipiti Bopiti Botique, the many character interactions, great classic rides, deliciously relaxing dinners, or just the time spent together as a family. Disney does not have to be stressfull crowded time spent in lines, those were not Walts intentions and if done right it is very Magical. Disney World is a place to celebrate and to create magic and we did that together as a family.

I hope that the time spent reliving this adventure has allowed you to experience some of our memories and magic and hopefully it gives you the desire to create your own magic and to celbrate life.

~RailRider