On Tuesday, April 22nd, RunDisney registration will open for the 2015 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. It is an anniversary year for the Goofy Challenge, and a special medal will be presented. It’s medal was revealed earlier in the week.
Registration typically opens at Noon EST on the day registration opens.
Here are all the events you can register for:
Dopey Challenge
Goofy’s Race and Half Challenge
Marathon
Half Marathon
Walt Disney World 10K
Family Fun Run 5K
Family Reunion Breakfast
ChEAR Squad
Race Retreat
Pasta in the Park Party
runDisney Kids Races
If you are Disney Vacation Club or Annual Passholder you should go to the respective member site and do early registration to make sure you get in.
Good luck if you are planning to register. I am taking 2015 Marathon Weekend off, to do another state in my 50 By 50 Challenge.
On our recent visit to Walt Disney World, we tried a new restaurant, Splitsville Luxury Lanes, at Westside at Downtown Disney.
Splitsville Luxury Lanes was built earlier this year, in the old Virgin Megastore location. I imagine they call in luxury lanes, because it is far more than just a regular bowling alley. It is a combination of a restaurant, bars, sushi bar, game room, and bowling alley. There is also an outside walk-up bar if you just want to have a drink. It is a very vibrant place, lots of color, televisions, and loud music. It reminded us of some of the night clubs on the Disney Cruise Line.
As for the layout, it is two stories. On the first floor you have restaurant seating, 10 bowling lanes, a couple of bars, and the store. On the 2nd floor is more seating & bars, and another 20 lanes for bowling. It was interesting to see bowling on something other than a first floor.
For this trip, as a Disney Vacation Club member we decided to use our Tables in Wonderland card to try it for dinner, which got us 20% off the price. We made a reservation for 6:00 PM on a Friday night. However, when we arrived there was plenty of seating, and we were seated immediately.
For dinner, I chose a Angus Bacon Cheeseburger on a Pretzel Roll and my wife chose a Margarita Pizza. The meal was alright, but for the price for a table service meal at Disney, it did not compare highly to other Disney table service meals. Just this and a dessert were near $60, and that did not include any bowling.
If you desired to bowl, that was another fee on top of dinner. Also, if you chose to bowl from the beginning, there were tables at each lane, so you could eat while you bowled. Since we chose not to bowl, we were seating away for the lanes. The price for bowling, which included shoes was $20 per person per hour. So if you are a slow bowler, you don’t get much. So if you add that on to the cost of the meal, that is near $100 to eat an bowl. So we passed on the bowling.
As for Splitsville Luxury Lanes, we asked our waiter if it was a chain, or was this the only one. He said they have a few others around the country in Texas, Virginia, and a couple others in Florida. He did say the company plan to expand to other locations in the future.
Overall, it was alright. We just found it very pricey for the quality of food, since it was on Disney property. We would like to bowl sometime in the future, but probably will not eat, unless we just get some appetizers or play over dessert.
On September 22-26, 2013, my wife and I took a 4-Night Bahamian cruise on the Disney Dream. This was our 2nd time on the Disney Dream, as we did a trip on it during the Inaugural Year of 2011. This time we went by ourselves, where in the past we have gone with other couples.
We drove down to Port Canaveral on Saturday, Sept. 21st. Like the past 2 years, we stayed at the Country Inn and Suites – Port Canaveral. We like to stay here, because it is close to the port, and they have a package where you can have breakfast before going to the ship, you can leave your vehicle there during the cruise, and they have a shuttle to drop you off and pick you up at the cruise terminal. From the hotel, we could see all the cruise ships in port.
On Sunday morning (9/22) we got to the Disney Cruise Line terminal around 11:45. The check-in went relatively quick, as we had done all the prior check-in arrangements online. Since we had requested to board the ship around 11:30, as soon as we checked in, we were allowed to immediately board the ship to let the fun begin.
Disney always welcomes your family to the ship in grand fashion. When you enter, they ask you last name, and then announce your entering of the ship over the speakers of the ship.
Once on board, a member of the crew welcomes you, and gives you directions on where you can go for some lunch, and the events of the day. On the past 2 Disney cruises, upon boarding, we would be directed to the large buffet, Cabanas for lunch. However, for some reason we were guided to the Enchanted Gardens dining room for a less crowded buffet. The food was awesome, but this Pumpkin Pie was the best I had had in many years (aka Grandma’s!).
After lunch, around 1:30, we were allowed to go to our staterooms. This was our first time getting a room with a balcony (#6574, on Deck 6). Let’s just say this spoiled us, and we will have to have a balcony on all the future cruises! It was awesome. So much more freedom that lower decks with just a porthole window.
We had our special gifts for being a repeat member of the Castaway Club (2 more to GOLD Status!)
It is always fun to decorate your stateroom door in Disney fashion on the cruise. Many do it, and it is fun to walk down the halls and see ideas for future cruises. Here is our stateroom door decorated.
We changed and walked around the ship. Our first stop was a Disney Vacation Club Member (DVC) Meetup. This typically means “free stuff”!
After the meetup, it was time for the life boat drill at 4:30. After this, we went back to the room for the sail away. Typically on the past cruises, we have gone up to the pool deck for the sail away party. However, on this cruise, since we had the balcony, we thought we would try it out from our room instead, with no crowds and a glass of iced tea!!! Awesome!!!!
After the sail away, it was time to get ready for dinner, since we had the main seating at 5:45pm. Our first night’s dinner rotation was in Animator’s Palate. This is a neat restaurant as it has many different screens in there, and Crush and others from Finding Nemo, rotate through the room and visit tables, interacting with guests. Since we did not go with another couple this year, we figured we would probably get paired with at least one other couple for dinner. We were a little nervous about dinner, and as to whom we would be dining with for the remainder of the week. We we arrived there were two other couples seated at the table. We seemed to hit it off really well with all of them the first night. It was difficult to hear in the restaurant, so we couldn’t carry on a great conversation, but we got to know the others. One couple had reservations at Palo (I will tell of this restaurant in Day 3’s review, as that is the night we went there). Just to spoil the later posts, but we really liked the other couples from our table. They were really awesome, and we all hung out about the ship for the remainder of the week. We later found out the one of the couples, was actually in the stateroom next to ours! We all liked each other so much, we met at Disney World on the Saturday after we got off the ship!
I almost forgot. We received word from Disney Cruise Line, that for the first time ever, that the 4-night cruise, starting with ours, until Halloween, was going to be a Halloween themed cruise, called “Halloween on the High Seas”. So there were Halloween decorations everywhere, and Halloween themed shows and events throughout the cruise.
Upon boarding the ship, we saw this unusual tree in the lobby atrium. It was a ghostly tree, that had branches but no leaves, looking really eery.
Well, after dinner, the first Halloween themed event was to gather at “The Pumpkin Tree” as we learned of it’s name and purpose. They had an older lady come out and tell the story of the pumpkin tree.
At the conclusion of the story, we were given cards with tear away pumpkin seeds on it, where we would put our names on the seed, and place them in a bucket at the foot of the tree. Strange but ok.
The next day the Pumpkin Tree began to grow pumpkins on its branches. This continued throughout the cruise, and you will see the progression of the tree in future cruise posts. It turned out to be really neat.
After this, I hit MAN HEAVEN! They were playing the Sunday Night Football game on the huge Funnel Vision screen out on the pool deck. I experienced this last year on the Disney Fantasy, and it is truly awesome, to watch NFL football at sea, on one of the biggest screens ever! We sat on the pool deck chairs and watched some of the game until it was time for our next event of the evening.
We did not go to the show on the first night, as we had seen it before on prior cruises. So we held out for another Halloween themed event with a late night showing of the “Nightmare Before Christmas” in 4-D in the Walt Disney Theater. It was called the “Nightmare Before Christmas – Sing & Scream”. That sounded interesting. I am not one for 3-D movies, but this was really neat. I had never seen the movie before, so that added to the excitement. As the movie progressed, if there was a song, the put the subtitles at the bottom to sing along. Throughout the movie, they used special effects, sounds, and lighting elements in the theater to add to the movie experience. At the conclusion of the movie, Jack Skellington & Sally came out for a meet and greet.
This concluded our first night of Halloween on the High Seas on the Disney Dream.
Tomorrow I will do a post on Day 2 when we were at Nassau, Bahamas.
“….let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Hebrews 12:1
MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.
