fbpx

Tag: #werunsocial

Glass Slipper Challenge Day 2 – Meetups and Tea

March 12, 2017

The first race of the Glass Slipper Challenge was done and I wanted to take a shower and nap before my 10:50 Team Shenanigans breakfast at Kona. I was looking forward to a day of relaxing and did just that!  We had the Shenanigans breakfast and then the #werunsocial meetup was taking place just outside the Polynesian at 1:00 so Christina and I went to that together.

Then Mandy and Kenn and I had tea reservations at the Floridian at 4:00 so after the meetup I took the monorail over to the Floridian and sat by the pool for about an hour and enjoyed the warm sunshine. I was hoping to nap in a beach chair but there were no beach chairs and I was at the pool with the water slide.  Kenn and Mandy met me at the pool and sat for a little bit and then we went to the lobby to check in for tea.

During that time the Princess promenade was taking place! Cinderella and Prince Charming were heading down the main staircase and little princesses were following her. I was so excited to see that for the first time! Then after they got downstairs Cinderella and the Prince waltzed and encouraged the girls to waltz. It was so sweet.

The tea was wonderful. We had to choose our flavor of tea (there were so many to choose from), and then they sandwiches and dessert we wanted. I had the Fig & Rose White Tea which was so delicious. The sandwiches we received were egg salad, curry, cucumber with cream cheese, and orange beets with goat cheese. Then we had a scone with lemon spread, butter or an apricot spread. There were also two cheeses along with a cracker and some berries and grapes. My choice for dessert was a chocolate covered strawberry; but it came with two macaroons and also a swan cream puff. There was so much food I had to wrap my dessert to go. The whole experience was really enjoyable and I would definitely do it again.

The Bedfordshire Tea –
First Course
Medley of Finger Sandwiches accompanied with Berries, Cheese and Lavosh
–
Second Course
Buttery Scone and Jam Tart
–
Finale
Choice of delicate House-Made Pastries, Strawberries and Creme, or English Trifle
Accompanied by your choice of tea
$35.00

After tea we decided we wanted to walk around Disney Springs for a little bit and then call it an early night. I had to take the monorail around back to the Poly and saw the new construction going on at Wilderness Lodge. It looks like they are building water front bungalows like the Polynesian did.

As I returned to the Polynesian I caught the tail end of the torch lighting ceremony. I had always wanted to see that. I did a lot of first on this trip! I drove over to the Lime garage at Disney Springs and circled around the first floor for about 15 minutes until I finally found a spot and then met Mandy and Kenn at Arribas brothers. I got some great pictures of the beautiful crystal art there and then they went back to their hotel and I wanted to go to D-Living because Christina told me that they were doing the entire store Beauty and the Beast themed! I loved the store and bought a great book written in the viewpoint of the Beast. I can’t wait to start reading it!

As I was leaving I spotted the Sephora store. I have NEVER been in a Sephora store, can you believe that?? So I had to go see what all the talk was about. It was quite the store. I thought they only carried Sephora brand products but they have much, MUCH more. So I got consultation for a mineral foundation by Bare Minerals.  I will definitely go back there again and spend more time browsing. It was fun!

I went back to my hotel and was in bed before 9:00. It took a while for the kids to say goodnight but I think I was asleep before 10:00. I had a really fun day, did a lot of new things, and met some great people at the #werunsocial meetup.

 

Glass Slipper Challenge Day 2 – The Princess Enchanted 10K Race

March 7, 2017

Mandy and I had a different strategy for The Princess Glass Slipper Challenge 10K this year.  We were going to skip the character stops on the course outside of Epcot and save our time for when we are in Epcot. Especially in France because that is where Lumiere and Cogsworth were last year and we especially wanted to get Beauty and the Beast themed photos.

The corrals also released quicker this year. I was in corral B but she and Kenny were in C so I joined them in their corral. The last corral was F. They released the corrals every 3 minutes and did section off the corrals into halves. Luckily we were in the first half of our corral. We started running at 5:41 a.m.  I had arrived at the Epcot parking lot at 4:50 so I had plenty of time.

The characters we chose to pass up were Princess Elena, Tink and her friends, The Evil Queen with the poisoned apple (which we now wish we had taken). Inside there were the entertainers on stilts backstage. When we entered Epcot we passed Pinnochio and Gepeto in Italy, Dopey and then approaching France there were cast members with champagne bottle props along with Marie the cat. Mandy and I were disappointed that Lumiere and Cogsworth weren’t there like last year. Had we known, we would have gotten in line for the Evil Queen. We did take photos with the topiaries of Lumiere and Cogsworth along with Belle and the Beast.  I also found Faith Dority while we were waiting in line.  It was great to see her again!

We continued over the International Gateway towards the Boardwalk and there was a thick fog hanging over the Swan and Dolphin. It looked really cool.  Outside of ESPN was vacation Genie so we chose to skip that photo stop. We knew there was a Royal Minnie as we were going to be heading backstage back into Epcot so we had time to decide if we wanted to stop for her.

IMG_7840

We continued to run around the Boardwalk to the Yacht and Beach club and approached the area where Minnie was; but decided not to wait in the long line for her. I was lucky to get a photo of her waving to us. We ran through the UK, Canada and up the middle towards the fountain. We stopped there for a photo with Spaceship Earth in the background. We decided to do a jumping photo. We laugh when we look at it now; but hey it was fun and we did something different. We continued on towards the front entrance and back under Spaceship Earth towards the back area to the finish line.

IMG_8051

As we were approaching the end of the race there was a mom with her daughter in a special wheelchair and I asked her if she was being highlighted by runDisney she said yes. I introduced myself to her daughter and noticed her name was Tea (as in Tea Leoni). I saw them again close to the finish line and Tea was yelling out “Your my Rock Star” to other runners, so I told her, “no, YOU are my rock star and I can’t wait to see you with your medal!” After we finished and I got my medal I saw that runDisney was interviewing them so I waited and got a picture of Tea with her medal and asked her mom a few questions. I’d like to find out more about their story and do a separate inspirational blog post, so look for that in the near future! There was something about Tea that reminded me of Lyla. I think was her curly hair but she touched my heart. And I was so proud of her mom and her best friend for pushing that stroller all those miles and all the training she did for this race. It’s a beautiful thing.

I had breakfast reservations with Team Shenanigans at Kona, a #werunsocial meetup, and tea with Mandy and Kenn in the afternoon, so I was looking forward to my fun filled day ahead of me.  Stay tuned for a recap of that fun I had!

 

Skip to content