Running in the Mitten & Beyond!

Day 2 (part 2) - Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios

We spent the afternoon at Animal Kingdom (my favorite park). First stop was Kilimanjaro Safaris. I was quite surprised at how many animals we saw for it being midday and so warm. The hippos were swimming and there were lots of elephants, rhinos and giraffes moving about.

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We then walked the jungle trek trail where many of the animal were showing us their best sides. :-)

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We had some time to kill before our Everest FP, so we wandered around looking for some of the #wallsofdisney

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We made sure to showcase our medals on EE.
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I needed a snacky snack before dinner.
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We then headed over to HS for our Sci-Fi dinner. I hadn't eaten there in over 10 years, but I love the cheesy-ness of it! We had a very entertaining waiter and the burger & fries were delicious - a great pre-marathon meal. I was able to snag us a FP for our favorite ride: Tower of Terror.

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We decided to call it a night and headed back to CB, where we noticed the big, bright moon that night.

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Next up: Marathon...er, I mean Goof Troop Roving Road Party!
 


Goof Troop Roving Road Party (TM) - part 1

We were up super early and on the first bus again, hoping for a better experience than the previous morning. Fortunately this time we had the most amazing bus driver who didn't dawdle and got us to the start in a timely manner. I could see traffic starting to back-up though and soon after we arrived texts from other Dis'ers were coming in about the traffic nightmares.

I was glad to make it to the pre-race meet-up where I put some more faces to screen names. If I'm remembering right I met @camaker, @PaDisneyCouple (DH), and @flav.

Angie & I then made the walk to Corral C with the other goof troopers @rteetz, @Bree, @FFigawi, @lhermiston, @jmasgat and Beth (sorry Beth, I don't remember your screen name). We camped out in the back of Corral C where I finally met @TCB in FLA, who was waiting at the front of Corral D. We snapped a couple of pre-race photos.

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After a delay due to the bussing issues, we were finally moving. I had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction soon after the start: the top for the battery pack of my light-up tutu popped off and sent my batteries flying! I was so bummed - no more lights for my tutu! I'm glad we at least have the one picture of us with the lights.

The original goof troop plan was to stop for every character, but corrals and the balloon ladies were released faster than anticipated, so we had to alter the plan on the fly. I think we hit this one before Epcot:
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I don't remember much about running in Epcot in the beginning except that the course seemed very crowded. A few of us made a bathroom pit stop.

A few more stops on the way to MK:
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Before we entered MK we saw @Keels and @jennamfeo cheering - this was the first time I had met Jenna in person, so I thought it appropriate to give her a big sweaty hug - sorry Jenna! :laughing:

Magic Kingdom:
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I was sweating buckets and had my cooling towel in my hand in all of my pictures. :crazy2:
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The heat & humidity was awful, but it was going to get worse.

To be continued...
 
Goof Troop Roving Road Party (TM) - part 2

After exiting MK, I made a bathroom stop and we lost the majority of the troop. Angie, Tavel, & I decided we needed to slow down a bit anyway, so the three of us ran together for awhile. The heat was starting to get to us. Somewhere before AK we lost Tavel - I think she made a pit stop.

Not much to mention about the stretch between MK & AK. We saw some turkeys on the side of the road. A gaggle? I don't know what a group of turkeys is called. 😆

We stopped for a Mickey pic:
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Our original plan was to stop at Thirsty River bar and ride EE, but the neither one of us thought we could stomach alcohol or a ride on Everest at the time so we trudged on. Angie clearly had more pep in her step than me:
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As I mentioned before, the trifecta of heat, humidity, & sun is like my cryptonite. And there was no breeze whatsoever. I had a really bad attitude between AK and HS. I hated everything and everybody after running around the Blizzard Beach parking lot. I wanted to punch the CM's for not letting us in the lazy river.

Once we made it to HS though, I felt better knowing the end was close.
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We considered a ride on TOT, but decided not to, and I'm glad we didn't because on the path from HS to the Boardwalk we caught up with the other goof troopers who were at a booze stop hosted by @Dis_Yoda and @MommaoffherRocker. And then Tavel caught up too and the Goof Troop was reunited!! I have no idea why this picture posted upside down, but it's funny, goofy even, so...
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Full of Jello shots, the Goof Troop Roving Road Party (TM) was off and running again. A few more character stops:
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And then we all finished the hottest Disney marathon ever together:
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We both had a blast, and even though it was the our slowest marathon, as Lee says, it was the funnest.

Next up: DATW
 


I am so glad I was able to be part of your marathon journey! Getting to know you and Angie helped the miles pass by during our race on the surface of the sun. And bonus points for your awesome light up costumes that gave me a moving target to catch up with the Goof Troop Roving Road Party (TM)!
 
Haha. I’ve know that for years. When I learned years and years ago that a group of crows was called a murder I went looking to see what all groups of birds were called.

We had a similar experience at our house recently. My kid went nuts at a glaring of kittens, a flamboyance of flamingos. I wondered how a group of narwhals became a blessing.
 
I am so glad I was able to be part of your marathon journey! Getting to know you and Angie helped the miles pass by during our race on the surface of the sun. And bonus points for your awesome light up costumes that gave me a moving target to catch up with the Goof Troop Roving Road Party (TM)!

Yes, fun getting to know you and I hope we both get into NYC!
 
I forgot to wrap up my trip report. Details are a little fuzzy, but here it goes...

Monday/DATW

Angie & I started the day in Hollywood Studios. We snagged a boarding group (group 81) for ROtR, then rope dropped Slinky Dog and TOT. We then had breakfast in Galaxy's Edge and wandered around the land a bit. We then rode Star tours and RnRC.

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We then hopped on the Skyliner and made our way over to Epcot for DATW. On the way in, we just had to stop and wait for a picture with Goofy.

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We then found the group in Mexico and kicked off a fun day with margs & guac. Once again, I enjoyed meeting more Dis'ers for the first time and getting to know others.

White Claw in 'Merica
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Group shot in Italy:
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Lee would yell "Goof Troop" to signal when we were moving on. Feeling fuzzy here:
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After Japan, our boarding group was called, so Ang & I hopped on the Skyliner (love that Skyliner) and went back to HS to ride ROtR.

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Very cool ride, although in our current state, some of the details were a little lost on us. We were feeling very happy and giggly - this didn't go unnoticed with the dark side and we kept being singled out. It was pretty funny and being a bit drunk, I really felt like we were in trouble.
It will be interesting to ride this ride sober someday.

After the ride, we met back up with the DATW group in England. They were still going strong, rocking out with the band. We took another group shot - Mary Poppins was a wee bit afraid of our group. :laughing:
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Now this is where things get really fuzzy...I don't remember Canada, but there was a ride on Soarin:
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And then we started again with a boat ride in Mexico. I think the CM was a little hesitant to let us all in the same boat, and for probably a good reason...:rotfl:

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Ang & I had to call it a night after that - we had another 2am wake-up for the magical express. We took one last picture with our Goofy medals:
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I had such a great time with everyone all weekend. I can't wait to do it again.

GOOF TROOP!!!!
 
GOOF TROOOOOP!

I don’t know how I missed your recaps of the full and DATW, but they were great. I’m missing marathon weekend and the Goof Troop Roving Road Party (TM) extra hard today.

Oh! And I went through all of the DATW photos you and others shared to jog my memory for my recap. We’ll see how much that works!
 

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