Today I’m sharing part two of a Walt Disney World trip report that includes my participation in the runDisney Wine & Dine Half Marathon!
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Today’s post concludes the recapping of my and my husband’s recent trip to Walt Disney World. After a full first two days, we hit three parks, ran a half marathon (well, I did), and spent an evening in Disney Springs. If you missed the first part of my Disney World trip report, you can catch it here! I also reviewed my race experience last week, which you can read here!
Saturday, 11/4/17:
Saturday was my younger brother’s birthday! He turned 9 years old. I was so sad to miss his special day, but I made sure to give him a call and sing to him that afternoon.
Saturday morning we had, what I thought, was our best meal of the whole trip. We had 9:30 a.m. reservations at Boma in the Animal Kingdom lodge. We had H-E-Double Hockey Sticks trying to get there with buses, but we made it. There was some initial confusion regarding our table, but once we were seated it was smooth sailing. Our server brought us coffee, water, and the best orange/mango juice ever.
Quick PSA to Boma Visitors: It’s a buffet with stations — not one long buffet line. Plates are provided at each station. It’s not necessary to wait at the very back of the line if you’re trying to get to the pastries at the other end. It’s perfectly acceptable to bob, weave, and hop around from station to station to get what you need. I noticed an unnecessary line forming and people waiting for food they didn’t even want, so just thought I’d share that tidbit. 😉
Boma is not your typical Disney buffet — my past experiences being the Crystal Palace and Cape May Cafe. Boma features “flavors of Africa” and I’m so glad we tried it out! Between the juice, fried plantains, and lox, as well as the traditional breakfast offerings, it was my favorite meal of the trip.
After breakfast we hopped over to Animal Kingdom and spent a lot of time wandering around. We walked through Pandora, but didn’t do anything because the lines were truly like three hours long. Maybe we’ll test it out when we go back in the future. The only attraction we were able to hit in AK was Dinosaur (which is so fun!) because we had early afternoon FastPass+ for Hollywood Studios. The stand-by option for Expedition Everest was about 90 minutes, so we chose to skip it. I wish we’d been able to hit it!
After Dinosaur we bused over to Hollywood Studios and began our adventures there. We hit Star Tours, Rock’n’Rollercoaster (this was my fave as a kid), and Hollywood Tower of Terror. I’m really sad that we missed the closing of The Great Movie Ride by just a few weeks. I loved that one! Again, we walked just about every inch of the park. We had just as much fun walking around and looking at things as we did on the attractions.
Related: 2017 Disney World Trip Report: Days 1 + 2
We took an afternoon break and headed back to the resort for a couple of hours. That evening, we bused over to Epcot for dinner at Tokyo dining. There were more people in the park that night than I ever remember seeing there. We were literally pushing our way through the crowds trying to get across the park. When we finally made our way to the restaurant and ended up with a great view. My husband loved the food, but I didn’t enjoy it so much. I think that’s likely because I was starting to feel pretty nervous about the race the next day! We ducked out of the park after dinner and tried to get as much sleep as possible before that 3:15 a.m. wake-up call!
Sunday, 11/5/17:
Sunday was RACE DAY! I didn’t sleep well Saturday night, even with the time change. My alarm went off at a ridiculously early 3:15 a.m. and that was that. I recapped the details of the race last week. If you’re interested in that you can read it here!
After a quick shower, my husband and I went to the food court in our resort to grab breakfast. At this time, I was starting to feel bad, but with FastPass+ reservations and lunch reservations, I tried to play tough guy. We headed to Epcot and walked around for a little while, though I was moving pretty slow after the 13.1. We hopped on Mission Space and completed both the Earth and Mars missions because there was no wait. I tried to drink as much water as possible and thought I just needed to eat, so we went to Via Napoli for lunch. I remember asking my husband if we could stop by the first aid station after lunch for some Advil, but unfortunately we had to leave lunch early and went straight back to the resort.
We missed our FastPass+ for Test Track and Spaceship Earth so I could take a two hour nap and drink more electrolytes. In hindsight, I should’ve rested after the race instead of jumping right back into vacation mode. I definitely paid for it.
Related: A Disney Vacation Stitch Fix + Tips for Getting a Great Fix
Thankfully, I felt better in time to get ready for dinner. Our evening reservations were at Raglan Road Irish Pub in Disney Springs. I really, really, really wanted fish and chips, but based on events from earlier in the day I thought it was best if I stayed a little lighter. The heirloom tomato salad appetizer and seafood gnocchi with greens were amazing. Hubby and I shared a little bit of the bread pudding for dessert and I really wish we could’ve brought it home with us. Our waiter made sure to tell us it was voted Orlando’s Best Dessert two years in a row and we completely understood why! (I have since hunted Pinterest for a copycat recipe I can recreate at home!) We were exhausted after dinner and made our way back to the resort as quickly as possible to go to bed and get ready to go home the next day.
Monday, 11/16/17:
Monday morning, we woke up early for our final breakfast at Riverside Mill. We realized that we still had A LOT of meal and snack credits leftover, so we loaded up a bag full of snacks in the gift shop before we checked out.
Disney’s Magical Express picked us up at 8:45 and we stood in security for a good 30 minutes. We made it to our gate on time and were back home that evening with plenty of time to pick Pippa up from the pet hotel!
All in all, we had a great trip. I’m so glad I finally convinced my husband that a Disney trip was not a kiddie vacation. We learned a lot on our first solo trip — what we liked, what we didn’t, and where we would/wouldn’t spend our time the next time around.
Tell me about your last Walt Disney World trip!
I’m linking up with Crystal for Tuesday Talk.
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