Princess Half Marathon 2015 recap

 

On the morning of February 22nd, I woke up bright and early at 2:45 am.  I thought about texting my brother Happy Birthday, but I suspected he wouldn’t appreciate the super early morning wishes!  So instead I got into my costume for the Princess Half Marathon.  I had done Princess Anna and will soon be featuring a post about how I put my costume together.  I was down to wait for the bus by 3:15. It was almost time for my very first half marathon!

Luckily, it was warmer than it had been for the Enchanted 10k the previous morning.  I still had my throwaway jacket, but I felt good with that and didn’t need anything else.  I hung out with my friends for a little bit before we headed toward the corrals.  I started in I, along with the lovely Brittany – who you might recognize if you’re a fan of fitness pages, as she is the Brittany behind the popular Brittany Eats Clean page!  I hadn’t really gotten to know her too much until this moment, but she was super sweet and I was so thankful to have someone to talk to and pass the time with before we started.

And then we started somewhere right before 6am I believe.  We ran out away from Epcot and toward the Magic Kingdom and the ticket and transportation center.  The half marathon had way more entertainment than the 10k – even where there weren’t characters there was something going on, like a band, cheerleaders, or a DJ!  And there were tons of characters.  The lines in the first half were pretty long so I didn’t stop, and in the second half I just wanted to finish so I didn’t really stop then either.  I did try to keep track of who all was out there though (list at the end of this post!)

My husband was going to be at the ticket and transportation center to spectate, but it seems he and the other husbands got a little behind schedule and I was texting him, worried that I might beat him there.  So I stopped for a couple of photos – one with the Richard Petty race car, and one in a throne they had set up near where the villains were doing their meet and greets.  And it worked out because I did manage to make it to the meeting area right around the same time as my husband!  I ran on, and he jumped on the monorail to get a spot in Magic Kingdom to see me again.

Making a Snow White running costume

I use the term “making” here a little liberally as I only actually made from scratch one part of my costume for the Enchanted 10k – the rest of more of how I put the costume together from various pieces I had or bought.  But I was really happy with how it turned out, so I wanted to share what I did to make my Snow White running costume!

The shirt I used is from one of my favorite running shirt companies, Raw Threads.  They make shirts inspired by tons of Disney characters.  I actually got this one as part of a mystery pack that I had ordered, which is when you can get three shirts at a discounted bundle price, but you don’t know which ones you’ll get.  Receiving this one is actually what inspired me to do a Snow White costume!  Even if you don’t want to do something like this, any blue running shirt will work for the costume.  I just like the bow with the apple because it adds a bit extra “Snow White” to it.

February 2015 monthly round up

Disney in your Day News

Yay, it’s finally February!  That means I’m going back to Disney!  If you’ve been following my blog you probably know that I’m running the Glass Slipper Challenge, so I’m getting excited but also a little nervous about that.   We have so many other fun things planned too – dinner at Yachtsman, FP+ to meet Anna and Elsa, and even a trip over to Universal to check out the Harry Potter stuff!  Plus, I’m now signed up for the Disneyland Half marathon – which means I’ll get my coast to coast medal, and I’ll be going to Disneyland for the first time!

As for the blog, once I return from my trip expect to see lots of park updates.  I’ll also be continuing some of the regular series, such as “thoughts on Disney movies.”  I’m hoping to get some more recipes and crafts up too.  And I may or may not have recently become a little obsessed with tsum tsums, so I have a feeling they will be appearing on the blog as well!

Disney News

• First the “big news” was that Disney was introducing these cool looking mugs at their Starbucks locations.  However, now the Epcot mug has been pulled because of the monorail having a purple stripe on it (the color of the monorail from the fatal accident in 2009, a color that has since been retired by Disney.  My bet is that they’ll change the color of the stripe and have the mug back on the shelves as soon as possible.
• Disney is already getting ready to make new Indiana Jones movies… and rumor has it that Chris Pratt will be playing the lead role.
• People have been clamoring for Disney to introduce a Latina princess, and now she’s here – Elena of Avalor, who will have her own show on Disney Junior.
• If you’re concerned about the construction at the Magic Kingdom, check out this update to see what exactly is going on now.
• Peter Pan’s Flight now has a new queue – I’m looking forward to seeing this when I visit!
• This makes me so happy: it has now been announced that Emma Watson will be playing Belle in a live action Beauty and the Beast film.  I think it’s a great casting choice!
• Disneyland is going to be celebrating it’s 60th Anniversary this year, which is the diamond celebration.  Disney has announced some of the exciting things that will be happening for that event!

Bucket List: Attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

This year was exciting because it was my very first time attending Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party!  If you haven’t been, there are a number of things to look forward to!

Costumes

For me, one of the most exciting things about attending the Halloween Party is being able to wear a costume into Magic Kingdom park!  While kids can always dress up like princesses or pirates or whatever they like, adults are not normally allowed to wear costumes.  For this party though, that’s all different.  I got to dress up like a princess (Belle) and prance around Magic Kingdom.  It doesn’t get much better than that!

Make your own Belle Halloween costume

I was super excited about the chance to go to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party for the very first time, and if course one of the first things on my mind was my costume. I absolutely love costumes and getting dressed up.  Part of this may come from my experience in theater, but I will wear costumes whenever possible.  Halloween, of course, races, and murder mystery parties that we throw once or twice a year.  Of course for this year I was going to have to go with a Disney costume.

Since I went with a big group of friends, we all tried to do Disney costumes but didn’t want to duplicate anyone else. The answer for who I wanted to be was pretty obvious – I went with Belle, my absolute favorite princess.  We created a doc ahead of time where we signed up for our character, and I put my name down way back in May or something like that, and didn’t really think about it again til August.

I started searching around for Belle costumes, and found that there was nothing I really liked. All of the ones for women were either ridiculously expensive, very cheap looking and not authentic, or way too revealing.  So I decided I would have to try and create my own costume.  The process was frustrating at times, but I’m ultimately happy with how my costume turned out.  Since I’m not really a sewer I knew I wasn’t making anything from scratch – so here are the steps I took.

Kill, Refurb, Marry: Disney Princesses

Uh oh.  This month’s Kill, Marry, Refurb theme is Disney Princesses – which means I’m killing, marrying, and refurbing (?) actual human beings!  The murder didn’t seem so bad when it was just a Disney ride.  I know this one will be hard, but also interesting.  I love the princesses, many of them.  For this I’m going to consider both how the princesses are presented in their respective movies, but also their presence in the parks.  I’m also only including the “official” princesses.  So that includes Mulan and Pocahontas, but not people like Esmeralda or Megara.

Kill – Aurora

Aurora – another classic Princess found at Akershus and Cindy’s Table.

I’m sorry Aurora!  I really, really didn’t want to kill any princesses.  And I enjoy Sleeping Beauty.  But if I absolutely have to, I guess I would kill Aurora because we just don’t get to know her as well as some of the other princesses.  After all, she spends half of her movie sleeping.  I can’t think of any unique personality traits that come to mind about her, so I feel like she’s rather undeveloped as a character.  I’m sure she would be quite lovely if we got to know her, but if I’m forced to choose one to kill then the princess that does the least to stand out is Aurora.

Bucket List: Stay in a Royal Room at Port Orleans Riverside

 

During this past trip I was very excited because we had booked a Royal Room at Port Orleans Riverside!  First of all, I absolutely love the Port Orleans Riverside resort.  It’s special to us because it’s where we spent our honeymoon, and it’s also just beautiful.  The Royal Rooms are in a building that is conveniently located – not too far from the main building, one of the bus stops, the main pool and a smaller pool.

The “story” behind these rooms is that Princess Tiana owns the place, and all the other princesses came to visit.  And in order to help decorate the rooms, the princesses left Tiana mementos.  There’s a cute letter explaining all of this from Tiana – a “copy” of the letter is painted onto the table, but you also get your own paper copy to keep when you check in.

 

Disney on Ice: Let’s Celebrate!

On January 3rd, my husband and I attended Disney on Ice: Let’s Celebrate! when it came to Philadelphia.  We had been to Rockin’ Ever After last year and really enjoyed it, so we were excited for this one.  We don’t have kids, and I will say that we were definitely in the minority on that one.  It’s certainly a show that is geared toward children and not adults, but if you’re a true Disney fan at heart I think you’ll enjoy it regardless.  It’s a fun, feel-good time.