Travel – Page 3 – Run Morgan Run

January 11, 2011

Disney Marathon Weekend 2011 Day 5

This morning we slept in and then walked over to the Magic Kingdom to hit a few attractions we had never done before like Mickey’s Philharmagic, The Carousel of Progress and Peter Pan’s Flight. I had done the Peter Pan ride when I was 11 but not since then. We used one of the Fast Passes for that one as it is a heck of a long wait for a two minutes ride. We enjoyed about 2 hours in the park before heading over to Epcot for the rest of the day.

While at Epcot we had another one of the private photo ops for Disney Visa card holders and this time the session was with Minnie and Goofy by themselves. A few fun photos later and we were out the door to Soarin.

When we received our VIP passes on day 3, Matt and I discussed how we could give some of them away as a nice gesture to some deserving park guests. What prompted that thought was how many rude guests we ran into on the trip be they from other countries (mostly) or from the US and how we would like to ‘reward’ someone for just simple acts of kindness.

For the next few days we were extra aware of how guests seemed to be treating other guests or apparent family members. It turned out to be a difficult task as most people were oblivious to others around them and were just in a hurry to get where they were going. I must say that this is the first time I felt outnumber by non English speaking guests most of which seemed happy to barrel their way through the park. Perhaps it was that we were looking for good that we saw too much bad, but whatever it was we were determined to do something nice for someone.

Turns out that nice thing happened in the Soarin line. We used our fast pass to jump the 50 minute standby line for the fast pass line ( the fast pass line was being blocked by a large group whose time was not coming due for another 5 minutes). We politely asked if we could get by and a young couple from Atlanta saw us excuse ourselves and followed us in as their passes were valid but they could not get by the group.

When we got into the queue for the ride, the woman said thanks for getting by that group as they did not know if they had to wait in that long group line. We started talking and found out the had a tough time getting to Orlando because of the snow but they were so glad to finally be in Disney. This was there second time to the parks ( they had visited for their honeymoon 5 years ago) so they were looking forward to riding some of the new attractions this time. We gave her some tips on avoiding motions sickness on this ride as she was worried about that (lean forward a bit and look to the left or the right depending on that glider that you are in, and focus on another group of riders. This can reset your point of reference and calm the stomach).

We enjoyed the conversation while we had an extended wait in line (there was an issue that they had to fix before letting us board) so Matt asked how long they were staying. They replied 5 days, so Matt and I looked at each other and I said to them ‘Were going to hook you up’ and explained how the VIP passes worked and gave them each a pass with three uses on each. They looked very excited and thanked us for the passes.

The ride was great (Matts’ first time), and the young lady came through without issue. When we touched down they both thanked us again and we parted ways. It felt very good to do something nice for other nice people.

While I am still on that subject, it amazes me that so many people look like they are in a bad mood, act like they are in a bad mood or verbalize that they are in a bad mood when they are at Disney. This is supposed to be the most magical place on earth but too many people don’t check their crap at the door and seem to be miserable. Why bother coming here if you are bummed out and want to let everyone know you are bummed out. Everyone has stress in their lives by I try to leave mine at home when I am on vacation, especially when I have limited time to spend with my son. I may get the occasional crappy email or voice mail about work, but I deal with it absorb my few moments of frustration and them continue to have a great time. The kids will be gone soon so I need to enjoy these events as much as I can while I can.

We went back to the hotel the get cleaned up for our final dinner of the vacation. California Grill is one of my favorite restaurants on property followed by Artists Point in the Wilderness Lodge and then probably Citricos in the Grand Floridian. Citricos was the first place my wife and I ever tried fried alligator which they unfortunately don’t serve anymore. We chose California Grill as the last meal because in addition to the exceptional food and the view of the Magic Kingdom fire works every night, it is on top of the Contemporary hotel right next to where we would spend our last night.

Our reservation was for 7:45 so we could catch the fireworks but as is sometimes the case, the earlier reservations hang around longer than they should so they can catch the fireworks. This put every later reservation behind by about 20 minutes, including us. Instead of worrying about it, we went out on the observation deck which has a fantastic view of the Magic Kingdom and enjoyed the fireworks. The music from the parks is piped into speakers in the restaurant and on the deck so you get the full experience as if you were in the park. The only difference is the fireworks are at a different angle so many of them look like them are over Space Mountain instead of the castle.

We enjoyed our final Disney dinner together and even received a little surprise decoration on the Chocolate Crème Brule that we ordered. It is Matt’s Birthday this month so he was wearing his ‘It’s My Birthday’ pin around the parks and our waiter noticed it and added the chocolate marker in the above photo. I would recommend if you are celebrating anything when you go down to Disney, be it Anniversary, Birthday, Wedding, 1st Visit or whatever, go to Guest Services when you get to the park and they will give you a pin for the occasion. It is nice to be recognized by the cast members and sometimes other guests as well.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and up to the lounge for a final drink (few drinks). Matt and I wanted to play some cards but did not bring a deck with us and found that they did not have one to use, but did have a bunch of board games that we could use. I had never played Jenga before so we chose that and I proceeded to beat the ‘Jenga Master’ or so I was warned.

Tomorrow is the saddest day of all the day we leave Disney….until the next visit.

January 10, 2011January 5, 2022

Disney Marathon Weekend 2011 Day 4

Day 4 started with a bit of rain as we got ready to head over to the Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. We first had to check out of the Beach Club and store our bags for transfer to Bay Lake Tower. If you are staying at another Disney hotel, just need to take your bags down to the bell stand, or call to have them picked up, and they will take them over to your new hotel with a few hours. When you arrive at your new hotel and check in, just call down and they will bring up the bags to your new room. If you check out of one hotel early to hit the parks make sure to take with you what you need for the day, as you can’t usually check in to your new room till 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

We walked over to Hollywood Studios after checking out and arrived just before it started to rain again. We ducked into the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and a few other rides before making our way to Toy Story Mania. I had always wanted to try that ride but that ride is very popular and the lines are always huge. We thought we would be able to use out VIP passes but the fast passes were all gone by 11am. Undaunted, Matt suggested we ask the cast member who was standing in front of the closed fast pass machine if there was anything we could do with our VIPs. It happened that this particular cast member was from Pittsburgh and Matt was wearing his Pirates shirt so we had a very pleasant conversation for a few minutes before he reached into his pocket and pulled out two passes that where set to expire in 15 minutes. We were on the ride within 3 minutes and had a great time. Thanks Richard you are the man and that is the Disney spirit above and beyond.

I had to buy a poncho after that since it had started to come down pretty good. We did a few more rides with not much wait and then headed over to Animal Kingdom to attempt Expedition Everest. I say attempt because I had done it a few years ago with Matt as the very first ride of the day and it wrecked me for the whole day. Today it was not too bad and I discovered that if I felt like I was going to hurl, I just had to close my eyes to get through it. I know that takes away from the experience but I was doing this one so Matt had a riding partner, not for me.

We did all the open rides except the spinning thing outside Dinosaur and that would have made us both throw up big time. This was the first time I had closed down Animal Kingdom so we got to see the little dance party they have near the exit as you are leaving. Very cute to see all the little kids and some parents dancing with them

We took a bus back to the hotel and went to check into the Bay Lake Towers. When we got to the room it was still a 1 bedroom, so I figured the charged me one bedroom points instead of studio points. I went down to the front desk and sure enough she had booked me into the 1 bedroom for 2 nights and charged the 1 bedroom rate for the two nights. After another 20 minutes of ‘fixing’ things. I went back up to the room to wait for the new room to be ready. I went back down to the front desk got the new keys, went back up, moved the bags from the 5th floor to the 14th floor and took the old keys back down. At least we ended up with a nice high floor and a good view.

We quickly changed for dinner and walked over to the Contemporary Hotel to catch the monorail to dinner at Epcot. The Bay Lake tower is connected to the Contemporary by a bridge on the 5th floor so you can get to all the transportation easily. We boarded the monorail for the Ticket and Transportation Center (we need to change monorails there to get to Epcot) and the driver comes on the loudspeaker and says he needs to power down the systems and software to reboot to train. That was a first for us and it added an extra 5 minutes to the journey so we were almost late for our dinner reservation.

We enjoyed and excellent dinner at La Hacienda de San Angel, the new table service restaurant in the Mexico pavilion on the water. I tried their Margarita flight which is five samples of some of their more exotic margaritas and enjoyed the one on the right the most, the Orange Mango Fire. It includes tequila, ginger liqueur, orange juice, mango, fresh lime juice, tobasco sauce and Tajin chili powder on the rim.

We chose this place and the 7:45 reservation so we could have a nice relaxing dinner and then see the Illuminations fireworks from our table. The restaurant dims that lights and pipes in the music from outside so you get the full experience except for the evenings cold weather.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to go to the Top of The World Lounge to watch the BCS Championship where the Oregon Ducks fumbled their way to a loss to Auburn. A bit disappointing as I had hoped for a non SEC team to win it just once, but with Purdue not even in the hunt this year it was a bit hard to get into it.

Time to get some sleep before our last day in the parks.

January 9, 2011

Disney Marathon Weekend 2011 Day 3

I decided to sleep in today after a bit of tossing and turning because of knee pain following the run. I did make a new best friend yesterday and his name is Ironman Muscle Rub Gel. I had never used a product like this since my high school days when Ben Gay was the only player in town. The gel had no nasty smell like Ben Gay did and it had a very nice cooling effect after I applied it on my knees and thighs. I only had to rub a little bit on to ease the aching that I usually get day 2 and day 3 after the run. Last year it was hard to walk around the parks especially after sitting on a ride for a while then getting up to continue on. I saw quite a few ‘shufflers’ at the park the next day (those who had run one of the races and had a bit of trouble walking around).

I did get up in time to see and cheer on many of the runners who where passing by our hotel by the 8:30 mark (they will have finished in just over 3 hours). I stayed out there for about 45 minutes to show some support before we went into the parks for the day. Below is one of the videos I shot on Saturday during the full marathon. The audio a not the best because of the cheering, but I will get in and fix that up once I get back in town.

Disney Marathon 2011–Runners passing in front of Beach Club Resort at mile 24.5

Matt and I went into the parks for a few hours then made our way over to the Bay Lake Towers for a 1pm Disney Vacation Club meeting to see a preview of the Aulani resort they will be opening in Hawaii. We had stopped by the DVC booth in Epcot on Saturday just to say hi and the cast member told us about the preview and signed us up.

On the way to the preview I stopped at the front desk of the Contemporary hotel to see if we could come over to Bay Lake a day early and leave Beach club a day early. The manager on duty said there was availability and the we cold make the switch from a 1 bedroom to a studio for both nights with out a problem. the only problem was there was a bit of a language barrier and I had to explain what I wanted to do three times before she understood. She then said she could not make the change and that she had to call member services to have them do it. I was a bit concerned when I saw her doing children’s puzzles in crayon as she was talking on the phone to them. She finally put me on the phone and they confirmed that they would down grade me to a studio for 2 nights and inform Beach Club that I would be checking out early.

We made it to the preview 2 minutes late because of the difficulty at the front desk, but I put my happy face back on ready to enjoy the DVC gathering. During the preview they had a trivia DVC Trivia contest where they asked questions about the DVC properties, point values and other interesting questions. Matt and I both had a our names draw to win some VIP fast passes that we could use during our stay this week. The VIP passes have three uses loaded into them and you can walk up to any fast pass machine and print out an immediate fast pass to use right then (regular fast passes require you to come back at a later time to use them). The preview lasted about an hour including the tour of the Bay Lake Towers rooms (we had stayed here before so that was no surprise for us). We had a fun time and were now off to test out the fast passes.

Since we were so close to the Magic Kingdom we walked over there from Bay Lake Towers (one of the benefits of that property) and went directly to the big three (Pirates, Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain). Pirates and Haunted Mansion were not busy at all (there were only two other people in out boat at Pirates so we did not test the passes till Space Mountain which showed a 50 minute wait time.

We walked up, inserted our VIP cards and the machine treated us to an immediate entry paper fast pass (you still need to hand the paper fast pass to the cast member to get on the ride like any other fast pass). We were on and off the ride in about 15 minutes total. Nice. The rest of the day we just park hopped and tried to do some things we don’t normally do.

Tomorrow, more Disney magic and Ironman gel for my knees.

January 8, 2011

Disney Marathon Weekend 2011 Day 2

The Disney Half Marathon 2011 is in the books. I am pretty happy with the performance because even though I did not make my goal time I did PR and cut 13 minutes of my previous time. I f you would like to see the route we ran this morning as well as my splits click on the link below which will take you to the RunKeeper activity from this morning. Add the satellite layer if you want to see the parks we ran through.

http://runkeeper.com/user/runmorganrun/activity/22689008

The day started at 3am, again, with my trusty Android phone acting as my alarm. I got dressed quickly having laid out the cloths the night before and was out the door by 3:15. As I closed my room door I saw another guy with a bib on (for non runners this is your name and number fastened to your shirt with bobby pins, not a spill protector) and I struck up a conversation. Turns out he was from Lansing Michigan and was running his first Disney race so I filled him in on what to expect leading up to the race. After that it was up to him. Disney tells you that you must be on the bus no later than 4AM so that you have plenty of time to get to your starting corrals ( again a running reference where they line us up in groups for a start in waves, nothing to do with Woody’s Roundup). Once you exit the bus, it takes about 20 minutes to walk to the starting line and get in place.

I had planned on running with the Cliff pace team but they were no where to be found and I discovered later that they had lined up in the corral behind mine. Since I am not a master at pacing so I went out to fast, excitement and all, and ruined the pace. But as I said at least I got a PR (Personal Record) today.

I had talked previously about one of the best motivational moments of the race, that being the full on gospel choir about 300 yards from the finish line, but I experienced another one today. I don’t know if I just missed it last time or f they recently added it, but when we are about to enter Cinderella’s castle running towards main street, up on the balcony outside there were two trumpet players with those 5 or 6 foot long horns, signaling or arrival. Pretty neat, and I must say that the gospel choir got me choked up as it does every year.

I finished up and went to the medical tent to have them wrap my knees in ice and get some Tylenol.
Let me just say that it sucks getting old. Stuff hurts that never hurt before and the hurt takes much longer to go away. Children, don’t waste you youth. But I digress.

We will head into the parks later this morning and I am looking forward to displaying my medal and seeing all the others who are doing so. I is a tradition to wear you medal into the parks post race and the only downside is saying congratulations over and over to all the people I see. And with 27,000 plus entrants I may need to say it quite a bit.

I’m looking forward to next years race and invite anyone who has thought of doing a distance race to contact me for 2012. I would be happy to run with you, or if you are a lot faster than me when can hang out before and after.

Thanks to all the well wishers. I will post pictures as soon as I get them from the course photographers.

January 7, 2011

Disney Marathon Weekend 2011 Day 1

The day started early with a 2:45 wakeup call from my ringing Android phone. The dogs could not figure out why I would want to get out of bed that early and gave me a strange look before closing their eyes and going back to sleep. The taxi showed up at 3:30 and took Matt and I on a quick quiet trek to Terminal 1 at O’Hare.

Instead of the usual United flight that I would take I decided to use my frequent flyer miles on first class seats as Matt had never flown first class before. The upside was that I could get the first class seats on Continental going out and US Airways coming back as I could for coach on United. the bad news was that we had to fly through Houston going out and Charlotte coming back. But that early in the morning we were going to do a bit of sleeping on the plane anyway so what the heck, more time to spend with my son.

He could not believe that we were served real food on real dishes with real silverware, twice (once going to Houston and once going to Orlando). He also was able to get as many drink refills as he wanted and was even offered a drink as soon as he sat down, not having to wait till takeoff. It will be hard for him to go back to coach after this vacation.

We arrived in Orlando at about 12 noon eastern time and jumped on the Disney Magical Express for our ride to the Disney Beach Club Resort. This is the same place we stayed last year and like the central location especially for the marathon weekend. After finishing either of the races, we can just walk right through Epcot back to our hotel instead of waiting for a bus back. (Note that you must have a park pass to get through just like any other visitor.

We checked in to the Beach club which is still decked out in Christmas decorations including an amazing gingerbread carousel in the main lobby, before we took another bus over to Disney/ESPN Wide World of Sports for race check in, packet pickup, chip timer testing and my meet up with the Cliff Bar Pace Team who I will be running with tomorrow. this year the check in went very fast and we were in and out and back on the bus within about 35 minutes, back at the hotel within 50 minutes and over to the boardwalk for a late lunch with an hour. Funny enough our waiter at the ESPN zone was from Lombard, so we talk a bit about the Cubs, the Sox and the Bears.

We decided to take it easy tonight and not burn a full days park pass on just a half day. Instead we did our usual tradition of playing catch out on the lawn by the lagoon (guys you are never to old to play catch with your son) and took a walk over to the Epcot back entrance then over to the Hollywood Studios to stretch our legs. One of the other benefits of the Beach Club or the Boardwalk Resort for that matter is that they are situated between both parks so you can walk to then or take a nice boat ride to either.

Well the fireworks just ended at Epcot (we can see the form our balcony) so the means it is bedtime for me. I have a big day ahead of me and I need to start to wind down.

More tomorrow.

January 5, 2011

Disney Marathon Weekend 2011 Is Almost Here

Only two more days till I leave for Florida for the Disney Marathon weekend. I am both excited and sad at the same time because I always have a great time at that event, but none of my family is running with me this year. I will be posting throughout the weekend like I did at last years event, this being the one year anniversary of starting my blog.

I will have various technology with my like I always do and I am going to try a few tracking solutions so those who are interested can track my progress or if you are not up at 5:30am on January 8th, you can at least view my path when I have finished.

One of the technologies I will be trying is from InstaMapper.com . Instamapper lets me post my location in near real time for others to see. My location is posted every 60 seconds so you need to refresh your browser if you are following along as I run, or you can just click around the map if you are viewing post race. Instamapper is made more for tracking me while driving but I want to see how it works while running.

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The other technology is from RunKeeper which is made for tracking workouts including running. I tried this during the Bonefield Express on Thanksgiving but I don’t think I gave it enough time to lock onto the GPS as my chip time and the Runkeeper time were way off.

Regardless of what tech I use, or no tech at all, I will still be posting what Matt and I experience this weekend. Good luck to all the participants in this years , Half Marathon, Full Marathon and Goofy (running both the half and the full).

January 1, 2011

Happy New Year 2011

This past Christmas Eve the whole family was sitting in my great room having a Skype session with my uncle Steve and his lovely wife Vicki, who live in Excelsior Minnesota. during the session, they mentioned that they were having their annual New Years day brunch at their house and that we were all invited if we wanted to come up.

After the call ended, my son looked over at me and said ‘Let’s go’. Knowing Matt was very spontaneous, I knew he was serious and I started to think of how we could arrange it. My mom said she wanted to go along, but I don’t think she thought Matt was serious. Little did she know that he was and that we would be calling her later in the week to make plans.

Fast forward to New Years Eve morning and we are out the door at 8 am driving to Excelsior. Steve did not know we were coming but I had coordinated ahead of time with Vicki to make sure it was OK to ‘crash’ the party. We were on the road for a little over seven hours traveling from 51 degrees and rainy to 23 degrees and hail/sleet when we arrived in the twin cities.

We arrived at the hotel at about 3 to check in (Matt and I were staying there for one night so I could get to my next hotel rewards level before the end of the year) then headed over to Steve’s to surprise him.

I rang the doorbell with Matt standing out of site to the side and mom sneaking in through the garage door. Needless to say Steve was very surprised to see me and then Matt and then mom when she snuck in from the side. Vicky did not look so surprised as she knew we were coming and had been nice enough to email me weather reports as were were traveling there.

We had a real nice visit before Matt, Mom and I headed downtown for a very pleasant New Years Eve dinner at Hell’s Kitchen in Minneapolis. Excellent meal, highly recommended. The roads were not at all treacherous like the local news tends to embellish, except for one intersection that I slid right through near their house. The funny thing about that incident was there was a police officer sitting at the intersection and he just watched just slide right through and did not pull me over since he was probably glad that I did not hit anyone and he did not need to get out of his squad car to investigate.

The next morning they had a brunch with about 30 guests coming in and out into the early afternoon. Plenty of good food and conversation in a very relaxed atmosphere. A nice way to start the year.

After everyone left Matt helped Steve organize his CD Collection of operas and classical music. Steve has an extensive collection and even more extensive knowledge of classical composers, opera composers and opera singers. As they were organizing, Steve gave us some background on the many of the operas and suggested that we catch one of the high definition broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera that are shown at some of our local theatres. We plan on catching Capriccio in April this year as I would like to see and hear the scene that is paid homage in ‘The Fifth Element’ where the Diva Plavalaguna sings on the space cruise ship.

We leave tomorrow morning to head back home at the same time Steve leaves to play organ in St. Paul as he does every Sunday. I’m glad we took the time to come up for the party as I learn something new about the family every time we all get together and why would you sit on the couch when you can be out making memories.

Here’s to making many more memories in 2011. Happy New Year to all my friends past, present and still to be discovered.

UPDATE: As Steve pointed out in his comment, the scene in ‘The Fifth Element’ is from LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR (not CAPRICCIO). Sorry opera fans everywhere.

The Diva Plavalaguna from The Fifth Element

December 12, 2010

Awesome Christmas Decorations

We were done at Purdue a few weekends ago to see the Boiler Women’s volleyball team compete in the NCAA Tournament (they beat Kentucky on Friday and Louisville on Saturday). My wife an I both went to Purdue so we like to walk around campus whenever we are down there and this time was no exception.She was in the AZD house which is not very far from where the matches were played, so we decided to walk by there after the game.

To our surprise, we came upon a nicely decorated house two door down from her sorority, but what really caught our eye was the house between the two. If you look closely at the photo below, just below the re added that I added in, you will see the word ‘DITTO’ and an arrow in lights pointing to the house with all the decorations.

I guess they thought instead of putting the time in to decorate, they would just let the neighbors do it and say they feel the same way. Made me laugh.

October 28, 2010

Flying Porter Airlines

I had a day trip to Toronto that I need to accomplish and wanting to keep costs down, I select Porter Airlines out of Midway to get me there. I have flown Porter a few times before and was very impressed by their enthusiastic staff, comfortable planes and convenient location. Porter is based out of Billy Bishop Toronto City Centre airport (YTZ). The airport is right next to downtown Toronto and is actually separated from the city by just a thin canal of water (YTZ is on an island). Once you land, you take a short 1 minute ferry ride across the canal to Toronto. From there you can either take a cab into the downtown area or take the free shuttle bus that drops you off near the center of Toronto.

Porter is the only airline that is serviced by Toronto City Centre airport so you will have no issues finding the correct airline or gate for your departure.

When you get off the ferry onto the island, you go through security as usual but with much less wait and crown lines. After security, you take an escalator down into the Porter lounge to await your flight. The lounge is very modern and comfortable with plenty of flat panel monitors showing upcoming departures times and gates. There is a large snack area that has free coffee, bottled water, soft drinks and snacks while you wait for your flight. They also have a bank of 20 plus iMAC computers for customer use over in a quiet area. I found the lounge very comfortable and a welcome change to the usual sparse waiting area that the non elite customers have to endure.

Once on the plane, Porter provides another perk that you usually only find in first class; free food and in the evening free alcohol (a limited selection of beer and wine).

My ‘dinner’ on the way back consisted of a small portion of very tasty potato salad, a chicken chibata bread sandwich and a small chocolate bar. I opted for the red wine, which came in real glass not plastic and was even offered a refill.

The only downside to the flight was there were only 10 people on the return to Chicago. How is that a downside you may ask? Well, I want the airline to stay in business and with that few customers I don’t know how they can keep it up.

October 16, 2010

Chicago DO Seminar Day 1

Had a fantastic day today at the Chicago DO Seminar in Elk Grove Village. I was there to learn more about some of the tips and tricks that frequent flyers use to maximize their miles, trips and membership points. Some of the data was review for most of use but there was quite a bit of new information that I found very useful.

Since both kids will be in college next year, I plan on taking more frequent trips with my wife and knowing some of these strategies will help us do that less expensively and more often. I also want to get the kids familiar with what I am learning from the seminar presenters and other attendees so they can get a leg up on accumulating miles. I made sure to get them signed up early for all the free travel programs (airline, hotel etc) that they are eligible for, so that they can start accumulating now.
One of the presenters has been a 1K member on United since he was 17, so it is possible if you plan and execute correctly. I only wish I had known some of these things when I was younger so that I could have started accumulating points, miles and free trips at an early age.

But, let’s not dwell on the past. I like to keep moving forward, and for me that means making the most of what I know now.