I last posted in February so since then I’ve visited Walt Disney World again for the Flower and Garden Festival, graduated from college, and accepted an offer to intern with one of Disney’s offices out in California!
I plan to post occasionally about my adventures out in California. I definitely plan to do a few Disneyland trip reports as well as travel posts for any other sites I venture to!
Filed under California
About two weeks ago, my friend and I ran the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend 5K. I was also supposed to run the half marathon for my 21st birthday but that’ll be discussed later, as well as the expo. The 5K was my first 5K (why not run 6 half marathons and then run a 5k?!) and it was so much fun! I decided to split the morning in half so I can describe the race in more detail.
3:00am: My alarm goes off. I had been debating whether to shower or not shower before the race and as I woke up exhausted that morning, I decided not to. So I snooze the alarm.
3:05am: My friend’s alarm goes off and unlike me she gets up and starts getting ready.
3:10am: My friend asks me if I am going to get up and shower because I need to start getting ready. We laid out our clothes the night before with our bibs pinned so we didn’t have to spend time doing that in the wee hours of the morning.
3:10am-3:45am: I thought I had plenty of time to get ready so I move slow as a slug at first but then start to speed up my pace. We eat a quick breakfast in the room tip toeing and trying not to wake anyone else up (that didn’t work).
3:50am: We catch the first bus leaving Old Key West to the race. The bus driver was funny asking us why we woke her up so early just to run a race. She also reflected on her first Marathon Weekend where she saw marathoners board in their heat sheets and had to say “You got this!” as they tried stepping up into the bus. We were with a lot of Dopey runners on the bus (if you run the 5K, 10k, half, and full). There was not any traffic so we arrive at Epcot around 4:05am with two hours to go before the race officially starts and just under three before our corral starts.
4:20am: After walking to the main area, we had our photos taken in front of the WDW Marathon Weekend banner sign and then waited in line to get a photo with Pluto (who was the mascot for the 5K).
4:45am: The photo line for Pluto moved fairly quickly even with his quick break to get some treats. Seeing other people’s costumes is one of the best parts of the runDisney races. We saw a whole family dressed as the cast from Beauty and the Beast, a very convincing Captain Hook, and even two Tooth Fairies who sprinkled some fairy dust on my friend. We joined the pump up party which is always a blast. The announcers are very energetic even as the rest of us were still waking up. We did the YMCA and other people were full out dancing.
5:05am: My friend and I decided it would be a good time to use the porta potties since the corrals would open at 5:30am and we guessed there might be a long line right before then. We did not have to wait at all to use them so then we stretched for a bit and talked, anxious to get in the corrals and get going.
5:38am: Finally the corrals opened after what seemed like forever. Thankfully, the weather was perfect so we were not cold waiting around but it had already been 2 and a half hours since we had woken up! My friend was in Corral E so I moved back to E so that we could run together. Part 2 will discuss the corral waiting game, eavesdropping, and the actual race!
Filed under WDW Marathon Weekend 2017
I am not in London anymore as I start classes tomorrow at University in Northern England. But, I have a few more London posts to catch up on as my blogging as been a bit sparse the past month or so! Sorry about that!
We visited the Imperial War Museum, which I actually really enjoyed. The museum had extensive sections on both World Wars with many artifacts arranged in an easy to follow layout. This was the first museum that our professor told us we could explore on our own and just leave when we were done as long as we spent a reasonable amount of time there. I figured I would be done after an hour, but I ended up staying for about two and a half hours. The Real to Reel exhibit was the highlight of the trip for me. You had to pay an extra fee to get in, but we had some money to use as an educational fund so I was reimbursed for the exhibit. I spent almost an hour just looking through the movie artifacts from Casablanca, Saving Private Ryan, and more. Walking around felt like I was in the Great Movie Ride a little and they even juxtaposed scenes from the Normandy Beach landing on a television screen with the landing scenes in films. The exhibit was also fairly empty, probably because you had to pay extra and it was a weekday.
The next museum was the Science Museum, which I actually had to do a presentation on after the field trip. I visited this museum with my family last summer and this visit was unfortunately not as enjoyable as I had to rush through to see as many exhibits as possible to highlight in my presentation. You could easily spend a couple of hours here though and the museum is very kid-friendly.
I also took a trip to the Disney Store on Oxford Street this week because I stumbled upon it and had to go in of course. I was looking for a London Tsum Tsum but unfortunately the cast member said that New York and Hawaii have them but not London yet. I was very disappointed. I still ending up buying a souvenir though and so did my two friends because you just can’t walk into a Disney Store and leave empty handed. I found out that this is the largest store in Europe, but it is nowhere near as large as Times Square (but just as packed).
The other field trip of the week was to the Bond Vehicle Exhibit in Covent Garden. I went here on a Saturday with a few friends and the exhibit made me really want to watch all of the Bond movies. I will definitely have to start watching one a weekend of something! We saw cars, motorcycles, and random memorabilia from the movies. I saw Q’s ID from Skyfall which was neat but of course the cars were the best part. And they had the movie scenes playing behind the cars, helping visitors to contextualize when the cars made an appearance.
I have one more week in London to recap and then I’ll almost be caught up to the present! Plus hearing about a boring orientation week isn’t too interesting and classes start tomorrow so I have to draw out my exciting travel posts from London, Spain, and Germany!
Filed under England Study Abroad
Summer 2016 is officially over for me. It was fantastic but flew by. I did not post this summer, mostly because I had a Disney Professional Internship (yay!) and was very busy. We went to Walt Disney World in June (trip report to come) for a week, then I had my internship, and we were just back at Disney for a day before dropping my sister off at college. In between those events, I went to a sidewalk chalk festival, went to see An American in Paris on Broadway, visited friends and family, and more.
This weekend, I fly to London for the start of my semester abroad in England which I am very excited about. Over the next few days, I will highlight more of my plan for London and the first few free days I have and then will use the blog when I am abroad as a way to update my family and friends on my experiences. I also made a public Instagram account if you want to follow my travels. The account is travelonmymind_mc
Here’s a fun photo from our June trip when my sister and I met Chewbacca because I couldn’t post without including one photo from the summer.
Filed under Uncategorized
is TOMORROW at noon Eastern for Annual Passholders and Disney Vacation Club Members! And then a week from tomorrow, registration opens for everyone at noon Eastern as well. I’m crossing my fingers that registration goes well for all tomorrow as well as next week. If I don’t get in tomorrow, I will be trying again next week! 
Filed under Running, Walt Disney World
D-Luxe Burger is a new burger place which will be open in May in Disney Springs. To be honest, I do not care about having a burger place in Disney Springs. What caught my eye is that D-Luxe Burger will have a wide range of gelato milkshakes! I think that is the best Disney news I have heard in a while.
Disney is also piloting an After Hours ticketed event for Magic Kingdom where you pay around $150 to stay in Magic Kingdom from 11pm-2am. The latest buzz in the online community is worry about the Extra Magic Hours for resort guests going away. I would really hate if this was true because I personally won’t be paying for four hours in Magic Kingdom.
My family was in Walt Disney World a few days ago (without me) and could not get over the parking system at Disney Springs. They also asked why I had not mentioned it before so I figured I could mention it now. The parking garage at Disney Springs tells you how many spaces are free and also has green lights above the spots that are open and red lights above the spots that are occupied.
Only a few weeks until registration opens for January WDW Marathon weekend! Is anyone signing up? I hopefully will be.
Filed under Walt Disney World
Here’s a lovely photo from two year’s ago when we spent St. Patrick’s Day in Disney. We went to Raglan Road the night before for dinner and went to Animal Kingdom the day of where everyone was dressed in green. How did everyone celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year? Unfortunately, I did not do much to celebrate the holiday and couldn’t find my favorite St. Patrick’s Day movie “The Luck of the Irish” from the Disney Channel anywhere online.
Filed under Walt Disney World
Eek! It’s been a month since I last posted. I’ve only gotten about five reminders from my cousin that I need to post so here’s a short post finally.
In the past month of my blogging absence, Disney has come out with news update after update. I feel like I have been away from this blog for a year. Here are a handful of the updates I have found especially interested from the past month:
Filed under Walt Disney World
When plans crumble, remember that cookie crumbs still taste good, even though they are not what you originally intended to eat.
I realized yesterday that this was the semester that I had been planning to participate in the Disney College Program. As you can see, instead of hanging around on hotel rooftops and taking selfies in front of the Magic Kingdom…
I am stuck in the middle of nowhere at my college drinking away my sorrows. 
Okay, that’s not accurate at all as this photo was not taken at my college, is with cranberry juice, and I am really enjoying this semester but thought it would be funny.
As I said, since 7th grade I was going to spend this spring in Florida at my dream company working hard and having fun in the parks. I am a Capricorn and plan out every little bit of my life to the last minute. A recent EliteDaily article titled “If You Know An Intimidating Woman, She’s Probably A Capricorn” almost perfectly describes me (at least in the first few sections), especially when the author writes: “She has a vision for her life, and she knows that only hard work and ambition will get her there.” I had wanted to work at Disney since forever and since the College Program was highly recommended on many of the Disney Intern job postings, I was going to do it. Nothing was going to stop me. When I did not want to do homework in middle school because I thought it useless (which sometimes it honestly was looking back), I made my goal the Disney College Program and that was my motivation. I repeat, not the goal of getting into a good school, but being able to participate in the Disney College Program. Yeah, I was a crazy kid.
Due to some rules at my college I had not known about, the Disney College Program started to seem less likely after the first week I spent talking to the academic office. After spending a lot of time following one of my favorite quotes-Raundy Pausch’s quote from his book “The Last Lecture”- “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people” and trying to knock down the brick wall my school was putting up, I had to stop. After speaking with some high up officials with the school, I realized that the rule could not be changed and I was not willing to risk reapplying to my school after completing the program. I found out it was not feasible for this semester, but that I could definitely apply my last semester I was in college for the following semester. I made a new goal to graduate a year early from college (which is going to happen) and modified my life plan that I had focused on for years.
If I had done the college program this semester, I would not have had the chance to go on the trip to Orlando with my school which was absolutely amazing and provided some great networking opportunities. I would not have been able to go on the trip to Nebraska I will be going on in a few months. I would not have joined a community service co-ed fraternity. I would not have been able to present the research I had worked on last semester with a professor. Yes, the Disney College Program would have provided me with lots of amazing things and I love reading about current DCP bloggers who are there, but at this time, it was not meant to be for me.
I remember dreading this semester after my first semester at college because I knew that I would be wishing I was in Disney. But, being that it took three weeks for me to realize that THIS was the semester I had planned to be there shows that I guess I have committed to a changed plan and locked that new plan in.
Would I have still gone to this school if I had known I could not participate in the one thing that I had made my goal for years? Hmmmm….not completely sure of the answer to that but I am fairly sure it would have been a definite no.
This change might not be as drastic as some other people’s changes in college plans, but to me it was a huge change I had to get used to. Change happens and whether it is because of someone else or because you have a realization, everything will turn out okay. People say it will, but it actually does.
I started off this post with an analogy (albeit somewhat of a bad one) but I should probably end with it too. My perfect cookie cutter plans crumbled. But I picked up the pieces that I could and designed a new plan. The old plan and the new plan still taste like the same cookie, the Mary Cate cookie, but they are different forms of my goals. It was a bit crummy at first, but I have accepted and grown to like that I am on campus for the semester I never intended to be.
Filed under Uncategorized
Where have I been? Why’s my trip report been paused? Well don’t worry, I still have lots to tell about Universal, Legoland, and the Hard Rock Hotel plus many more photos but the recap will resume next week. My sister asked me to make a few top planning tips for someone she knows who is planning a trip to Walt Disney World (staying offsite and with kids) so here they are!
1. Book a few advanced dining reservations. You can do this online or by calling 407-WDW-dine. If there is a restaurant you’d really like to eat at, book a reservation. Many of the table service restaurants fill up with reservations and don’t have many walk up slots. Counter service restaurants can be crowded as well so sometimes it is nice to have a reservation for a restaurant. Some of our favorite restaurants include Be Our Guest and Liberty Tree Tavern in Magic Kingdom, Yak and Yeti in Animal Kingdom, Teppan Edo and La Hacienda de San Angel and Via Napoli in Epcot (most of the restaurants in World Showcase are very good), and Mama Melrose’s in Hollywood Studios. If you don’t stay on property you can still take the monorail from Magic Kingdom over to the Contemporary, Grand Floridian, or Polynesian which have great places to eat as well
2) Plan to see at least on fireworks show. Our personal favorite is Wishes at Magic Kingdom but Epcot also has Illuminations and Hollywood Studios has a new Star Wars Galactic Spectacular. So if the kids need to recharge mid day, take a quick nap in an attraction (like the Hall of Presidents in Magic Kingdom) or go back to the hotel for a few hours.
3) If you have already bought your tickets, create a my Disney experience account online and link your tickets so that you can book fastpass plus reservations. If you are going to buy tickets when you get there, then you can either download the my Disney experience app or book fast passes when you get to the park. Having three fast passes a day will really cut down your wait time for the more popular attractions.
4) When you go to the park each day, have a game plan. The night before or even earlier, decide which park to go to and make a list of the attractions everyone would like to go on. For Magic Kingdom, either go to Fantasyland first thing to get those rides done or start on the left of the castle with Adventureland since most people head to Fantasyland first. Try to get fast passes for Space Mountain or Peter Pan. For Epcot, do not go on Spaceship Earth (the ride inside the big ball) when you arrive. Everyone sees this as a first ride and gets in the line. Later on when most people are leaving, the line will be much shorter. Try to get fast passes for Test Track and Soarin. In Hollywood Studios, try to get fast passes for rock’n roller coaster or Tower of Terror. Don’t miss the Great Movie Ride. There are not really any tips for studios but in all of Disney, pick the left line and not the right if given a choice. In Animal Kingdom, fast passes would be best for Expedition Everest and the Safari. The animals on the safari are out more in the morning when it isn’t as hot as it is around 2pm in Florida. If it’s a chilly morning though you might want to book the fastpass for later on.
5) Some must do’s include getting a first time or celebration pin at Guest Relations at any of the parks, trying a Dole Whip in Adventureland in Magic Kingdom, eating a Mickey’s Premium Ice Cream Bar, getting a photo in front of the castle, meeting Mickey, and getting an autograph book for characters if your children like characters.
Filed under Walt Disney World
Travel on my Mind 