The Fairest Trip Report Of All: 1/7/23

It’s my favorite annual trip report – my WDW Marathon trip! See all the posts in this trip report here. Onward!

Day two of our WDW trip began with a fail.

It’s okay, it was only a little one! But we had plans to meet Becky for brunch at the Riviera, and I had made a grand plan to visit the ever-popular Gideon’s Bakehouse before we went.

Listen, it should have worked. Yes, the timing could’ve been tight, but my theory was solid! See, according to the internet, Disney Springs buses from the resorts start running around 9am. So we showed up to the bus stop at 9am. Unfortunately, the bus wait times sign, rather than displaying an ETA for the next bus, merely said “USE BUS,” which, yes, Disney, that was what we were trying to do!

After several minutes of this, I decided to call an audible; rather than get our Gideon’s before brunch, we would do it after. Instead we headed back to the room for a bit to organize our race stuff (if we were missing anything, it was better to discover it earlier rather than later) before heading over to Disney’s Riviera Resort.

There were, as far as I’m aware, two ways we could make this happen from All-Star Sports: either we could take the bus, presumably now running, to Disney Springs and then to the Riviera from there, or we could Uber. We elected to Uber for simplicity’s sake. Incidentally, when our Uber went through the security booth at the entrance, they asked me for my ADR information. Don’t think you can just come wandering in, you member of the proletariat, you.

Ever the paranoiac, I’d left plenty of time for travel in case latent half marathon traffic slowed us down. It didn’t, and we were hella early. Becky was kinda enough to invite us up to her room as she and her party packed, so we wandered up to the sixth floor to admire the view. It’s pretty darned admirable, yet it bothered me that some of the decor was 101 Dalmations-themed. I LOVE that movie, but England’s not on the riviera!

Anyway, we helped them bring their bags down to bell services, then went back on up to the top floor for our Topolino’s Terrace character breakfast reservation. I’ll do a full review post of this meal; for now, let’s just say that it was awesome.

Becky and company were headed to Epcot after our brunch, so we bid them a fond farewell before trotting down to the Riviera bus stop. Here Erika and I too parted ways, for we had two separate directives.

Erika had decided that what her race weekend was missing was a sparkly skirt, and thus she headed back to the race expo to get one – plus some of those 50% off water park tickets just for race-goers.

In the meantime, I jumped a bus to Disney Springs to get a spot in the Gideon’s Bakehouse virtual queue. It being Saturday, time was of the essence!

And so I hightailed it directly to Gideon’s the moment my bus hit the Springs. I was quoted a 4 hour plus wait, but it was still very early afternoon so that was fine. All I needed to do now was keep myself busy for a bit.

First I went into the Once Upon A Toy store to see if they had anything interesting, which they did – I saw a bunch of WDW50 Lionel train sets, which I bet my dad would love. They’re online too, though, so I’m going to wait in hopes of a discount code; those trains are not cheap.

I also went to the Marketplace Co-Op again, just in case I missed anything the first time, and then made a thorough exploration of Uniqlo, walking out with a couple t-shirts from their modern art collection. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Keith Haring shirt I got makes it into my next trip wardrobe.

Finally, I headed over to World of Disney, which was PACKED. I tweeted at the time that there appeared to be more people in World of Disney than some parks, and it really felt like that. Do NOT get between tourists and their merch, kids.

It was when I was in World of Disney that I received a text from Erika telling me she was all done at the expo. Her query: what’s the best way to get to Disney Springs from there? Of course I had the answer: bus to Saratoga Springs, then walk to the Springs from there. Duh. Hire me as your in-room WDW tour guide today!

There were still a couple hours to kill before our Gideon’s callback, so we headed back into Uniqlo so Erika could do some shopping there too. After that we wandered a bit, then took a seat near Gideon’s and relaxed for a while. Erika got a drink, like a normal person, while I refilled and chugged my water bottle like 87 times. My pee was, like, SO clear, you guys.

We had taken a quick field trip to the honey store when it happened: our Gideon’s callback came through! Hooray! As per usual, I dropped a silly amount of money there, but it was so worth it. At Pat’s request, I got six cookies, plus a slice of specialty cake for after the race and a t-shirt of the month’s girl-in-wolf-pajamas mascot, Butterscotch. It’s soooo cute it just might make my next trip wardrobe too.

Having accomplished everything on our to-do list, we hopped onto the bus back to All-Star Sports, dumping our stuff in our room before heading back to the food court for quick a pre-race dinner. On our way back we wound up chatting for a bit with a friendly fellow runner in the throes of Dopey. runDisney brings everyone together and if you’re not doing it yet you should!

And then we found ourselves in that weird night-before-the-race period where ya just kinda prep and then futz around, lost. We showered and put out our race stuff and then went to bed. Guess how much I slept? No, guess! The answer will be revealed in my marathon race recap.

‘Til then….

Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Twitter @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!