It's time for the Pixie Dust Challenge Weekend and time to go get my Pink Coast 2 Coast medal. This time I am headed to California for my first race at Disneyland and I'm taking the family along to celebrate Mother's Day with me.
We had a flight out of Houston Hobby at 9 am so it was an easy trip to the airport Friday morning. We got parked and checked in without any issues. We made it through security and found our gate with plenty of time to relax for a few minutes before boarding.
I like flying west. Our flight leaves at 9:05 am and we arrived at Orange County at 10:30 am. This gave us the opportunity to get checked in and got to Disneyland on Friday. Our flight was uneventful which is always the way I like a flight. We landed in Orange County on time, found our bags and got our rental car. It was a short easy drive to Disneyland from the Orange County airport. Unfortunately our room wasn't available yet, but we were able to go ahead and park our car and get some lunch. After lunch James and the girls went to go get our groceries and I walked to the Disneyland Hotel to visit the Expo and get my race packet.
I like flying west. Our flight leaves at 9:05 am and we arrived at Orange County at 10:30 am. This gave us the opportunity to get checked in and got to Disneyland on Friday. Our flight was uneventful which is always the way I like a flight. We landed in Orange County on time, found our bags and got our rental car. It was a short easy drive to Disneyland from the Orange County airport. Unfortunately our room wasn't available yet, but we were able to go ahead and park our car and get some lunch. After lunch James and the girls went to go get our groceries and I walked to the Disneyland Hotel to visit the Expo and get my race packet.
Walking by the 10k start line on the way to the Expo
The Expo was an Expo. By Friday it wasn't crazy busy. I didn't care about the limited edition merchandise and I had a friend who picked up a magnet and pin for me the day before so I was not worried about merchandise running out. It actually looked like I could have picked up the pin and magnet on my own. I know others had merchandise issues, but I was able to get an I Did it Pixie Dust shirt and there was still plenty of stock of those. I didn't really look at the official merchandise to see what was or was not in stock come Friday. Bib and shirt pickup was smooth and easy. I got my pink coast 2 coast bracelet, my race bib and my 3 tech shirts. I tried on the Tinkerbell New Balance Shoes but decided they didn't fit quite right. I picked up some socks, the ART (Anaheim Resort Transit) bus tickets and headed back to the resort. While on the bus, I finally got the call that our room was ready so we were able to get checked in and our luggage unloaded.
My pin and magnet
It didn't take us long to drop our stuff off in the room, repack a backpack for the park and head down to get the bus to Disneyland.
We were starting our Friday off with a trip to the original Disneyland park.
We started off in Adventure Land to grab our first set of Fastpasses to Indiana Jones. Ticket and Fastpass confession. I missed the convenience of Magic Bands. I hated having to carry the tickets in a lanyard around my neck and although I complained about the 3 fast pass limits, I will admit except for the disconnected fast passes, we never grabbed or needed more than 3 sets during a day. I also hated having to backtrack as that just meant more miles on my legs. I'm sure I'm in the minority however.
As we were getting our Fastpass, the girls spotted the Tarzan's Treehouse and wanted to go explore.
Yes the Treehouse. Who would have thought that the Treehouse would be a huge draw for my 5 year old. She loved it.
After the Treehouse we walked over to Critter Country and rode Winnie the Pooh. We had just enough time at this point to take the train around the park leaving from New Orleans Square. This was a nice introduction to the park and was a nice way to sit and relax for a bit. We got back to New Orleans Squarer and it was time to check into the River Belle Terrace for our Fantasmic! Dinner package reservation.
(I'll be so happy when we can get back to natural smiles again)
As we were waiting for our table, we chatted with some of my Mickey Miler Friends who were also waiting for their dinner table. The Fantasmic! dinner package was a little pricey, but at least the food was good and with race mornings and limited showings of Fantasmic! it was the only way we could have seen Fantasmic! easily. There was enough food there however that we could have easily split 2 adult entrees between the 4 of us.
After dinner it was time to go use our Indiana Jones FastPass. Alice was too short to ride as it was one of 2 rides with a 48" height requirement. She was perfectly happy to lead me through Tarzan's Treehouse another 4 times (yes I said 4 times - with all those stairs the night before my first race).
Megan and James finished riding Indy and Megan didn't want to ride again (it was a little scary for her) so I took the Fastpass to ride on my own. I love that ride. I had a bit of a weird experience. I was assigned the first row and was the first person put into that row. This would have put me into the "drivers seat" so to speak. As I was waiting for my car to appear, this guy started pushing me so that when the gate opened it plowed past me so he could get that seat. I really didn't care one way or another but it was very odd. He also spent the whole ride acting like he was part of the ride or trying to be like Indy. Just a weird experience.
When I finished riding Indy, I found James and the girls. They found some new hats (James wasn't going to continue the Treehouse loop, so took them shopping) they liked so we picked those up and then walked over to Fantasyland as we had a little time before Fantasmic! started. We decided to ride the Storybook Canal boats. We all enjoyed it, including the new updates since the last time we rode it 6 years ago. (think Frozen and Tangled etc). I impressed the boat driver with my knowledge of useless Disney Trivia.
After the Storybook Canal, it was time to pick up some popcorn, stop at the restroom and head over to our viewing location for Fantasmic! We went to sit down for Fantasmic! and I realized that Alice's Alaska Cruise Hoodie was missing from the stroller. :( We loved Fantasmic! (or as Alice calls it Mickey's Dream). I was so worried looking at the weather forecast that we would get rained out, but it turned out to be perfect weather for the evening. When Fantasmic! ended, we packed up the stroller and started to head out. As we walked out of the Fantasmic! viewing area I saw something sitting on the wall and it turned out to be Alice's Jacket. I felt like we got a huge dose of Pixie Dust right then. The Fireworks were cancelled for the night due to the wind and it was definitely time to get back to the room. We decided to walk back to the room and Alice slept the whole way (I was very jealous). I can't believe the girls were still in good moods and high energy through Fantasmic!, since it was really 11 pm Houston time by the time the show started.
The girls went to bed and I found/laid out all the running gear I needed for the 10k the next morning. It was a long day and we were all very tired. Tomorrow would be a very early morning and a busy day.
Total steps 25,431 or 10.7 miles.
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