I already wrote about how the Expedition Everest 5K was, but of course, that was only a small, tiny bit of the whole weekend! Here’s how the rest of the weekend went….
Diane C and her husband Fred flew with Dan and I down to Orlando from Providence (we were in RI dropping the kids off at my parents’ house for the long weekend). We arrived early, and I immediately requested that we all stop at Chick-Fil-A in the airport for lunch (I was starving, and needed my fix!). Of course, we wanted to get to the parks ASAP, so spent 20 minutes at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge (DAKL) getting ready before taking the bus to Hollywood Studios (DHS).
In a stroke of luck, the DHS bus arrived immediately, and we quickly arrived at the park. We had time to ride the Rock N Roller Coaster, the Tower of Terror (both with almost no waits) and then hopped in the standby line for Toy Story Midway Mania (by the time we arrived, 4pm, all of the FastPasses were gone for the day, which is pretty standard). Despite all my practicing with the Wii and iPhone Toy Story Mania games, Dan still beat me!
Then, it was time to meet Tanya, Gary and Mefries at the Boardwalk so we could try out Disney’s newest restaurant, Kouzzina by Cat Cora (in the old Spoodles location). We met up with Erin and her daughter there, and had a fabulous dinner capped off with what else? Celebrating Gary/Jerry’s birthday!
After dinner, we headed to Jellyrolls for our first reunion night. As always, and it was just a great time to get together and have a blast. The only disappointment is that not everyone was available to meet up on Thursday!
Friday, we had a jam packed day. The moms, and guests, headed off to the Give Kids the World Village to present a personal donation that we’d wanted to give them. We all feel so blessed to have been given this opportunity of a lifetime and just wanted to give back. I’m planning a completely separate post about the Give Kids the World – they do such amazing things there!
We had a brief period of time to freshen up, then we all gathered in the DAKL lobby to catch our bus to the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex. Margaret brought some tins of popcorn that Garrett Popcorn so generously provided to her for us, and we all almost stayed on the buses rather than leave. Once we did leave, we got a behind the scenes tour of the complex, and were treated to a delicious, if not entirely healthy, lunch. After lunch, we picked up our training packets for the Expedition Everest 5K, and then headed back on the buses for another short break at the resort.
Friday night’s festivities started out at the Crystal Palace, where we had a reservation before Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. The Crystal Palace was BUSY, and we had quite a wait, which we spent posing for more photos. We’d gone through a lot of discussion, and decided to forgo costumes in favor of matching shirts from the Disney Store. Once we were seated, we were starving, so we all devoured dinner. 
Of course, we had to celebrate Gary’s birthday again!
We had a few minutes to ride Pirates with Mefries (this time the boat didn’t almost sink) and then headed to the Main Street Train Station for our party. It was great to finally meet Darcie (we’d had the chance to meet Erin and Heather M earlier in the weekend). 
Before the party started, we filmed a very short video, and I think this was the largest Moms Panel gathering to date!
I hadn’t been to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party before, and I absolutely loved it! The parade was AMAZING! After the parade, we watched HalloWishes, then headed out to ride some attractions – the Haunted Mansion (SO cool during the Halloween party), and Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain (very fun at night!).
I slept very, very well that night! It was a long day.
On Saturday morning, Dan and I, and Diane C and Fred went to Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival. Since we would be racing later that night, we did all food and no wine. But, before the World Showcase opened, we had some time in Future World, and rode Test Track, Spaceship Earth, and Soarin’.
Before the race, we napped for all of 20 minutes, then went to Animal Kingdom to shoot another video and get ready to race. At that point, it was about 90 degrees, and I was starting to get a little worried about running. But it was still fun – we got to meet Lou Mongello (and pose for a picture), and hang out together (I just wish there were some chairs. And some shade).
I already wrote all about the Expedition Everest 5K.…. after the monsoon ended, we enjoyed the party (although we were all soaked) by eating at Flame Tree BBQ and riding Expedition Everest twice (if you haven’t ridden it in the dark – you have to!).
The next morning, we did a walk-up at Boma (only waited about 20 minutes!) and then headed out to the airport. It was great to see my kids – but I sure do miss my “second family”.
‘Til the next reunion!!
Photo credit: Jen DeCesari
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow…what fun! Sounds like you have made some lifelong friends!
JODI! Reading your recap was like re-living the weekend! So glad you didn’t have to sneak that Chick-fil-A into a park! WHEW!
Sounds like you all had a fantastic weekend! Thanks for sharing.