Ep 3: Planning Disney Vacations - From Family Fun to Race Start Runs

In this episode of Rope Drop and Run, we dive into the magical (and sometimes chaotic) art of planning Disney vacations, whether we’re heading down for a RunDisney race weekend or a full-on family trip. As two Canadian sisters who love both Disney parks and Disney races, we share how our plans shift depending on who we’re traveling with and whether a start line is involved—covering everything from early-morning wake-ups and race expos to the importance of snacks, naps, and pacing ourselves. We compare the structured, runner-focused mindset of race weekends with the more go-with-the-flow energy of family trips, sprinkle in some dreamy hypothetical vacations, and remind ourselves (and you) that no two Disney trips look the same—but every single one is packed with memories, laughter, and just a little bit of pixie dust. ✨

Transcript

Jenny 0:00

Hey Disney friends. Welcome back to the Rope Drop and Run podcast. I'm Jenny,

Emily 0:05

and I'm Emily. Today's show is planning Disney vacations from family fun to race start run.

Speaker 0:19

Disney race.

Jenny 0:43

We are two Canadian sisters who love every Disney adventure, from travel with family to running marathons. On today's show, we're talking about planning dream Disney vacations. On Run Disney race weekends or not, and with family or not. Today we're talking all about planning Disney vacations. We'll discuss what you need to think about and how your plans can look very different depending on the kind of trip you're taking. So grab a coffee or maybe a Mickey-shaped snack and let's get into it. Okay, to start with today, as per usual it seems, I need to answer a few questions that Susan had because we use terms, it seems, regularly that she does not know what they mean. So for Susan, I need to define the terms photo pass and bell services. PhotoPass photographer is a Disney cast member who takes pictures in the parks. And can you think of anywhere else we find photo pass photographers? They have photo pass things set up even at the resorts. Like remember we had our picture taken with Cinderella Slipper at the end. And definitely if in the Run Disney events as well, all along the race courses, you'll have photopass people as well. Not that you're gonna stop and tag your your magic band, but it goes by your bib number instead. That's right. In the parks and in the hotels and on Disney property, wherever the photopass photographers are, after they've taken your photos, which you generally have to line up for to before you have your photo taken, because it's not like not a super long line. You might have to wait one or two people or one or two groups ahead of you. And like how you know is that they're wearing a green shirt. That's how you identify them and they've got a fancy camera. And then you just walk up to them and you get your picture taken. And it's just that you're gonna have pictures that are in front of the castle or in some unique location that has a nice backdrop, or maybe some fun poses that they'll have you do or something. Right. And then you just tap your magic band and that gets then linked with your My Disney Experience account. And you can look at the how quickly afterwards do the photos show up? Almost right away. Yeah, okay. Yeah. You can tap your magic band or your key card or your phone or however you are accessing your hotel or your park. Entry into the park. Entry into the park and all that. It's just all on one thing. So it uploads into your account, and we can talk more about my Disney experience another time, but it's basically an app slash account that you set up, and all of your information is there for your weekend or your trip. Photo pass. Then there's bell services. She didn't know what that was. Um, it's just your basic like bell hop service, like with helping you with your luggage or you know, getting in and out of your car or bus or whatever it is. It's kind of like the front desk, but not necessarily where you check in. It's just in the front lobby area. Right. When you first enter the hotel. And they will take your luggage for you if you are checking out or checking in and you don't have access to your room yet. So they'll store it for you for the day or whatever. They will also receive your groceries if you have a grocery order, and they'll store your groceries for you. And that's Bill Services. And of course, being Disney cast members, they also welcome you home every time you arrive back in, which is also nice. Yeah. Yeah, they're amazing. So we've I think we've answered Susan's questions. If you, listener, have any questions, we would love to hear them. So please email us your questions and we'll answer them on a future episode. Okay, so today we are talking all about the difference of planning vacations that involve Run Disney race events and vacations that don't, which maybe is a family vacation. So let's just start with what's maybe what are some of the differences, Emily, when you want to plan those. Well, planning for a family vacation. Normally, if we're going with a family vacation, we've we've done a lot of like big family vacations, like all of us, all how how many are there? 12, 10, 11, 11. I don't know. It depends on who sometimes some people can't go, but we're a big group. So when we're planning those big groups, I just, you know, I will do a lot of research and things, but the focus really is on the whole group and everybody's needs and wants and making sure everybody's happy. And if we're traveling with little kids or our older parents or what have you, then we have to consider everybody's needs, right? But when we're doing the like doing a race weekend, it's kind of all about me. Not really, but definitely take more priority on scheduling what do I need to eat. So I will request certain restaurants or things or timelines of what I would like to do in advance of the race. The schedules, of course, it has to go around I have to be at the race expo the day before, I have to get up for the races, and I'm of course will be on the course at a particular time. So those kind of schedulings, it's a little bit more set in stone than on a family trip, where you for me, I just try to go with the flow with what the group wants to do, which I'm happy to do because it's all really fun anyway. So pretty much whatever anybody wants to do, I'm game for it because I love it all. So that's not a problem. I think most Run Disney trips we've done have also involved family, except for you. You've done one that was just you and Charles. Yeah, just Charles and I. And we were both doing the race, yeah. And so for all of the rest of those weekends that we planned with family and Run Disney events, it does there is a bit of a juggling act because you're right. Like you do have to prioritize the races. That's what you're there for, primarily. And so we want to make sure that we're getting to bed at a good hour and we're hydrating and we're eating, you know. Theoretically, that's what we want to do, but we don't always achieve it. At least that is the goal of the day is to make sure we go to bed early or stay off our feet. But you're at Disney World, and when you have never been on Tron and you're in a lineup for Tron, you're not gonna leave like at 11:30 p.m. when you have to get up at 2 30 a.m. for a race. Yes, she did that. Which race was it? It was the dopey race, and it was the first for the 5k. So it was just starting it off. It was just for the 5k, but it is kind of starting off of a trend of four days in a row, and you're going into it already tart. Doesn't matter. I was running on pixie dust and adrenaline. Adrenaline. Yeah, yeah. Worth it, so worth it. No regrets. I know. I just you're right. Like we do in theory, try to plan around the races. It's really hard hard to hold back and not want to go to the parks and do all the things. But the focus is different. Yes. Whether we achieve what we set out to or not is one thing, but we definitely have a different focus when we're planning the vacation. And the family has to do the non-running part of the family will more cater to what we need to do and then fill in the rest of it. Whereas on a family vacation, everybody gets a say on what they want to do. And of course, like I said, game for it. It's all good. So let's do it. In terms of planning ahead uh for a race weekend, we need to think about it at least a year ahead of time. For sure. Like if you're going with your family, at least for us, I think we've planned Disney trips and pretty much three months out, like maybe for a March break trip, we'll start planning it in December and get excited for it. But for those race events, yeah, you have to know a year in advance that you're gonna do it because you need to sign up for it. And the sign up happens a good nine months ahead of the race time, and that's not like something you can sit on. You've got to be sitting at your computer ready for when the registration opens at 10 a.m. or whatever time. Yeah, and that's an adrenaline rush, too, right there. But yeah, you do need to know ahead of time, okay, I'm gonna go to this race weekend. It can't be a last minute decision. So And so even knowing like you have to register nine months ahead of time, you're thinking about it months before that. That that might be something that you want to do. It's not at least for us. I don't know anybody who's just been like, okay, sure, decide on the day. Well, yeah, exactly. I was just thinking that too. Like, is does anybody decide they're gonna do a race as a whim on the day? Maybe. Like, yes, probably it's like somebody's registering going, oh, you should do it too. And like you log on and you register and you don't like fully think it through, like, oh, I just signed up for a marathon and I've never run a 5K before. Like that happens, I'm sure. You get caught up in the in the energy of it and go for it. But it's still a least, you know, it's still a good chunk of time ahead of time that you start planning it. And then you I think personally think that you also have to think about your accommodations at the same time so that you get the what the hotel or whatever it is that you want. The places will fill up. It's true, but you can't always get the accommodations until a certain timeline, right? Like I remember in a previous year, we had to wait until that the accommodations opened, or maybe it was it for a particular sale. No, I think you're right. And now I just don't remember. Is it nine months ahead? They do wait to open the accommodations, but I'm also thinking about uh DVC rentals, and I'll pause there for a second and say for Susan, DVC stands for Disney Vacation Club, which is just like timeshare points, uh only it's Disney's version of it. And so some people who own DVC points may not use their points in a year, and so they will sell them to or rent them, I don't know how to really what the term is, but they'll rent them to a company that will rent or sell their points for them at a lower cost. So David's Disney uh vacation club rentals is a really popular one. We've used that before. And for DVC owners, the rooms open up 11 months ahead of time. So you can book things 11 months ahead. It kind of helps if you know that you're gonna do it. You could book it 11, and then you're more likely to get the place that you want. But anyways, I digress. All that to say, you st I still think you need to think about the accommodations ahead of time because the race weekends are busy and places fill up. Well, and I won't deep dive into this, but I'm also a planner in the sense of making sure you know what your budget is. So you can I there's a meme out there that says something about you know booking the Disney vacation and how am I gonna pay for it? Well, that's a problem for future me or something like that. Okay, that's that's great. Some of you might some people might go that way, but I would I personally would need to know, okay, like wrap my head around the whole package too. So there's that. Yes, budgeting is a big part of it, and the earlier you plan stuff, the better you can budget for it. So okay, so I just want to hear some of your thoughts. Like what would be different for planning a race weekend trip versus going with the family kind of trip. Well, I would like to think of it in terms of what my I not ideal is the not the right word because I don't know what that is for a Disney vacation. There are so many dream vacations I can think of, and they're all different, and not one is better than the other. They're all just different. So I don't know why I said ideal. Scratch that. I would like to imagine a couple of vacations if I could. Okay, let's hear it. I was thinking about what what race vacation would I like to do. That was something that I have never done before. Because I could easily and happily plan a marathon weekend vacation. We've done that several times. And I could still come up with new things that I haven't done before. But I wanted to like really go outside the box and try something different. It's I don't know, it's hard because then like you find the things you like, and it's like, yeah, I want to do that again, but there's so much else to do. So I was thinking, I looked at the Run Disney race roster of events, I guess. And I looked at the other race weekends, and I kind of went back and forth between Wine and Dine and the Princess race weekend. And I landed on, I would like to do the princess race weekend because it's the last weekend in February, and I feel like that's a good time of year for us because it's just coming not out of winter, but on the other side of it, and it's been dark and it's been cold, and it would sure be nice to have a little bit of sunshine and warmth. I'm not really sure what the weather's like in Florida at that time, but it is not as cold as it is here. So I want to do the Princess Race weekend. What? I was just gonna say in the news last week, they did get quite a cold slap snap, and and it was a slap. Slap in the face, slap in the face. But there was a fountain that had icicles coming off of it, and everybody was in their puffy jackets and toques. Yeah, I saw people's videos of how I guess the garden people had gone out and put white like tarps down over top of the gardens so that the plant didn't freeze and die. And it just looked like snow. Yeah. Yeah. It's really good. Well, and there were icicles on the on the fountains instead of the water. It was just ice. So somebody made some kind of joke about uh Elsa needed to Elsa needed to back off a little. So true. Anyway, so who knows? It might not be that warm and so. But typically that's abnormal, right? Yeah. That's that's nice. But it's not minus 32 degrees Celsius like it is here today. That's cold. I'm I'm pretty sure that's a guarantee that you would not have to face this kind of cold there. Yeah. Anyways, so that's the weekend I chose. Okay, and I want to just go with you. Wait, what? Just the two of us? Yeah. Okay. Well, I want to just do a race weekend with you. I don't want to take my kids. I don't want to go with family. I don't want to go with I I don't want to go with friends. I do want to go with family friends, kids, of course, but on this dream vacation, it's just you and me. Just parkslash race warriors. Oh, but you don't want to, okay. Let me hear what you have planned. Well, you're right. I don't really want to be a park warrior on this weekend. And that kind of gives me a knife in my stomach kind of feeling like, oh, what? I'm not gonna be a park warrior. I'm sorry, what? No, I'm kidding. I just want to try to do things differently. And I remember you talking about your trip with Charles and how laid back it was. Yeah. And how you guys just did what you felt like. And if you went to a park and just went on one ride and then you went back, or am I right? Yeah, it was totally a different pace than our family vacations. And I suppose every family is different, but for us, we are park warriors and and we go as a group and we go out like next ride, next ride. We try to do as many attractions as we possibly can. But when I was there, it was just Charles and I for a race weekend. We did our race, and Charles is a much faster runner than I am. So I would meet him back at the resort, we'd have a little rest, we'd go to a park, we'd wander around. I'm sure we would do some attractions, but we didn't feel the need to like check every single box. We just kind of mosied on along and snapped some photos. It was great. Yeah, it sounds so reasonable. Did some people watching? Yeah. And so I think I think this vacation would be a Thursday to Tuesday time span so that we could arrive on Thursday as early in the day as we possibly could, so that we would have the day to just be there and settle in. I would want to stay at the Polynesian. Oh, okay. Because remember, this is a dream vacation, and somehow we have budgeted and saved and whatever. We're gonna stay there. And when we get there, we're just gonna chill at the Polynesian. We're going to go to the pool and check out the shops, and we're gonna go over to the new DVC building and have dinner at the Waikiki Grill, because I hear it's really good. Some people say that they have the best burger on property. Oh, I've never been into the new like I I've been there since they were building it, but I haven't been since it's been open. It's really nice. It's very Polynesian, I think, in a much more contemporary way. I personally like the main style, that kind of 1950s vibe. Yeah. It's a very nostalgic, very I love it excellent theming. I just love the Polynesian, the tiki torches and the one of the pathways and yes, and it's one of the OG hotels. Okay, well, so I'm there for it. I'm at the Polynesian, okay. Keep going. Okay. What else are we doing? I think that that night we could maybe we could sit on the beach and watch the fireworks from across the lake or something. Like I I really think that first day we're just chilling at the hotel and night. And then the next morning would be the Friday morning, so we would get up and go to the race expo. And I really want to do that in the morning to make sure, number one, that we get there and get our race kits, because you have to do that before the first race day. You can't go on the day of a race. And it kind of alleviates some of the stress, maybe, that I might feel about making sure that we get that done. Yeah. And also leaves the rest of the day for other things. I love the race expo. That's where I get really excited and get the little buzz. So, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So you get there, and also then you have a enough time, you have all the time you want to be there. You know what I mean? Like at the other, if you went later in the day, there might be something else, a dinner dining reservation or something that you gotta make sure you get back for. But this way it's just kind of like leaves it open-ended. So if you go first thing in the morning, and maybe it's not as busy first thing in the morning. I don't know. I don't know what the wait times are for a race expo, but you'd go, and I know you, you like to look at every single booth, and you always say you're not sure what you might need until you see it. Exactly. Look, you don't get to go to a Disney race expo every day. You want to make sure you cover it. But I'm also one of those people that has to go through every aisle when I go to like Costco or something, just in case. Yeah. Just in case. You never know. I need to go through every aisle at the race expo. Yeah, and if you have the time, then it that open-ended nothing pressing on the other end of it, then you can sit and listen to Jeff Galway talk about the run-walk-run method, or you know, those speakers that come in. And I don't know, it just feels a little bit less rushed. Okay. And then after we went to the race expo, I think we would go to Disney Springs. See, I'm staying away from the parks.

Speaker 21:30

Ooh.

Jenny 21:30

I know. So the plan is to like not go to the parks until after all the races are done. Right. So that we really try to stick to the focus that we normally have, which is to be easy on our legs and try to stay off our feet a bit and not end up in a lineup for Tron and it's approaching midnight. Right. So if we go to Disney Springs, we can just I don't know, just, you know, check out some shops and Have something to eat. I really want to go to the polite pig with you. I've been there now twice and yum, it is so good. I hear a lot of people talking about it, but no, I've never been. And it's a quick service, which for Susan means it's a walk up and order your food at the counter and take it kind of place. It's not a sit-down and order your meal, which means that things generally go a bit faster. It's a bit cheaper, but I can't tell you that it's a barbecue place and it is so delicious. Well, what's your favorite? Well, what have you got? Both times I got the same thing because the first time I got it was like, this is delicious. And so the second time I went to- What did you get? It's this trio of sliders. It's making my mouth water. So good. Maybe it's lunchtime. So good. I think I'm hungry. Yum, I need water. So there's one that has fried chicken on it, and one that has brisket on it, and one that has pulled pork on it. And then I got the mac and cheese to go with it. Like a side? Like a side. You can get a couple sides to go with it. And instead of French fries, you got mac and cheese. I got mac and cheese. Something about mac and cheese at Disney. It seems like every spot has its own version of mac and cheese, right? Yes. And I don't know why, but I find myself in my mac and cheese era. I think because of that, because of the polite pig, because it was so good. It was creamy and yummy. And then the crispy chicken sounds good. Here's a hot tip. So first time I went, one of the I was gonna say waiter, I don't know what cra cast member that works there, said to me, Oh, try this. He goes, dip your put some of that mac and cheese on your brisket sandwich, and then talk to me. Oh, it was so good. Is it creamy or like what is like adding cheese to your sandwich, but it's like creamy and oh my gosh. That reminds me of the works. You know the restaurant, and then you can get all these different kinds of hot hamburgers and things and do it your way. Yeah, okay. I'm pretty sure they have it's not like the works, but all right. It's very delicious. So, anyways, that was a long thing about the polite pig, but we need to go there. I need to go back there. And what else are we gonna do? We're gonna go to Disney Springs, and there's stuff I've never done at Disney Springs that I've always wanted to do, like bowling. Oh, yeah, you talk about it's Splitzville, right? Splitzville. You talk about that a lot. Every time we go to Disney cross that off your to-do list and check it out. Because you are on your feet, but you can sit down, you're throwing the bowling ball, you're I don't know. Maybe it's a thing for that day. Maybe not. I don't know. But we're gonna go back to the hotel and we're gonna have a nice evening at the Polynesian. Okay. And we're gonna get up at the crack of dawn on the Saturday morning to run the 10K. You mean before the crack of dawn? This is true. In the middle of the night, we're gonna wake up and we're gonna get ready to go run the 10K of the race weekend that we're gonna. I was just thinking, is there a 5K? Yes, there is. It's on the Friday, but I'm not doing the 5K. We're not doing the 5K. We're just doing 10 and a half. So show me the t-shirts ahead of time then. We're gonna do oh, okay. Now that you said that, okay, so what I'm first was gonna say is I'm probably gonna want each of the t-shirts. Okay, then or long sleeve. I keep calling them t-shirts, but I mean like the race shirts. That's what I should say. So side note, I did look up the race weekend for the one coming up in three weeks. Yeah. And the collars are awesome. Oh my god, the t-shirts look so good. I'm like, I wish we were going to this princess race weekend. But anyway, we're not gonna do the 5K, we're gonna do the 10 and the half, which is the fairy tale challenge. Okay. So we're getting up and running the 10K, and then we're gonna go back to the hotel. We're gonna have a shower and a nap. And I know it's really hard to nap because we're super excited. I've never had a nap after. I have after the marathon. I don't like I don't remember sleeping. I remember having a rest, but it's kind of like telling somebody on you know Christmas Eve, yeah, go to bed. Yeah, exactly. I don't care if Santa's coming. Go to sleep. Nope. Just doesn't happen. But if we're not going to the parks, maybe I would are we still not going to the parks? We're still not going to the parks. Okay. So we take and plus we're sharing a room. So one of us is in the shower, the other one's resting, and so on. And so we're basically just chilling. We're going slow. We're chilling for a little while. And then maybe we go down to the pool. Probably gonna swing by the quick service spot at and get like a snack to have in the room. From Captain Cooks. Yes. Yes, that's they have delicious snacky. Because it would be breakfast time and you could get those. Oh yeah, that's I forgot about that. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. No, that's what I did the last time. And you get what is the what's the French toast? Tonga toast. Yeah. Yeah, that is a little like post-race snack. Yeah. For breakfast, I guess, really. True. Okay, yeah. So we're going to Captain Cook's and we're gonna get tonga toast. There, I'm adding to your schedule. Okay. And then we're having our well, whatever, shower chill, tonga toast time. Maybe we'll go to the pool depending on the weather. Is it warm enough? Okay. And and then I thought maybe we could like go over to the boardwalk area and just kind of check things out over there. Go over to the beach club. The beach club. Yeah, we could pop in to our old home. And we could go over to the cake bake shop, which is so beautiful. You're gonna just I don't know, it makes me think of you. I think because it makes me think of Cinderella's Castle, and I know that's a special thing for you. It's beautiful. And I like the I like the vintage things. I like I like the turn of the century stuff, but I also like well, the turn of the century and I also like mid-century. I think that's the the halfway point and the turning part. This whole isn't it in the kind of turn of the century vibe? Or do I have that right? Yeah, it's just and it's beautiful, it's ornate, it's gorgeous, and they have 20 different cakes. Did get a piece of cake from there the last time I was there. You have me at cake. Is a humongous piece of cake. It's not cheap, but you getting a huge chunk of cake. And I feel like we should go there and get a piece of cake so that we can take it back to our room and like snack on it and share it. And it'll last for a while because they're pretty big pieces. Is it kind of like having like a cake that's shaped like a slice of cake on a plate? Are they that big? Like are they multiple pieces? Okay. It's a very big it's a very healthy portion. I thought we could I don't know, there's the those bikes that you can rent. Oh gosh. We should rent one of those. No, because then we wouldn't be on our feet. No, no. And we could like be biking around the boardwalk. I I don't know. That's it's still too soon because well, you going with you might be a lot safer than going with Sarah and Mark and all the kids because we had to, it was like one of those ones where you can fit like six people on the bike, and we were doing the laps of the around the beach club, like the boardwalk, beach club, yacht club kind of lap. Oh my goodness. We uh was Sarah and Mark driving the thing. I saw my lights flash before my eyes because we had to race people. Oh no, it wasn't a leisurely little bike ride, it was racing people up and down for the things that I just you can't turn those things anyway. I live to tell the tale, but I don't know. It might I would consider it. I'm not going on with Sarah and Mark, but I'll consider going with you. Okay, fine. If it's just the two of us, and it's not a bicycle either. I just called it a bike, but isn't it like side by side? You're side by side and you're it's kind of I don't know. It's like a little carriage or like a little trolley. It makes me think of like those pedal boats, but yeah, like a trolley because everybody's pedaling side by side. You're sitting there, and you have like three rows of seats. Mm-hmm. I think they have different sized ones. I actually forget because Well, I want to do that. So we could just like tootle around, eating our cake. I'll face my fears. And then we could have dinner over at I think it's called Il Oh shoot. What's that place called? It's an Italian restaurant Trattoria Al Forno, Italian restaurant on the boardwalk. I thought we could have dinner there. I know the carbloating thing is a thing. Doesn't need to be pasta. I don't know. It just feels right. Just feels right psychologically somehow. That's where we should eat dinner the night before the half marathon. There is a place over at the Swan and Dolphin. As I was like looking at this area for Italian places. At the Swan and Dolphin, there's a restaurant called Il Molino. And I've heard people talk about it before who say it is delicious, like five-star, so good. So I looked it up and it just looks just the pictures of the restaurant look fancy, you know, like wine bottles and glass wine glasses, and it just they have a picture of the chef, you know, like the chef is telling you about it, uh, that's right up my alley. I would love to go eat there, but not the night before the half marathon, because I want to be able to do it right and drink all the wine. Maybe the night of as a celebratory. Yeah. Okay. Maybe. Someday. Someday we'll go there. So the next day is so we're gonna try to get to bed early by 8 30. Yeah. That would give us six hours. If we say that, it never works, but okay. We're gonna try. And then we're gonna get up on Sunday, run the half marathon, come back, do the same thing, shower, chill, snack, and then we're going to go to the Magic Kingdom with our medals on, and we're gonna walk around and just have a nice time at the Magic Kingdom. We're finally gonna go to the parks now that the runs are over, and we're gonna do whatever we want, just like you and Charles did. Nice. Go on the people mover, go in the tiki room, go on Tron if we want to, whatever we feel like, and we can stay as late as we want or go back as early as we want. No race the next day. Exactly. Yeah. And I also want you to go to the beacon barrel with me because it's very fun, which is that new It's the new tavern parts of the Caribbean, right? Yes. And I also thought we could go back to the Polynesian and go to Trader Sam's and have some beverages there because we don't have to get up to do a race the next day. Okay. So that's always really fun. Yeah. And then the next day would be Monday. And I'm calling this Park Warrior Monday because now the races are over. Now we're gonna go for it. So, but go for it in a way that we're gonna do three parks in one day. Why? Okay. And not necessarily like do like a million attractions in the day. It's just let's go to all the other parks we did. Well, if we're gonna do three, why not do four? Okay. I mean, who gets left off? Like, well, we did Magic Kingdom on after half marathon. So I was thinking like we just see what you're yeah, we'll just get up really early and go to the Animal Kingdom because I think that's a good park to be at first thing in the morning. And then in the afternoon we go over to Hollywood Studios, and then in the evening we go to Epcot. And we'll just have an agenda, like say we want to do one or two things specifically at each park, and we make sure we do those, and then whatever else we do, we do. And we're gonna go from the crack of dawn until the last monorail goes home, you know, like okay. But the crack of dawn is really actually sleeping in because we've just got up two days in a row, probably at 2 30 in the morning for the races. So we'll be sleeping in till what, six? 6 30. Okay, no problem. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, six probably if we're gonna go to Animal Kingdom. And then we leave Tuesday, and that's the whole trip. That makes me sad, even though this is just imaginary. Do we have to leave Tuesday? I know. It's hard to plan a trip from Thursday to Tuesday, but no, you gotta do what you gotta do. I know. Okay. So that's a dream race weekend for me. I like it. And I like it because there's no other people like when you said we're thinking about ourselves and what we need to eat, it really would just be you and me. Yeah, and if we're both running, then you don't have to feel kind of guilty, like is the other other the other people getting having a good time, or they just feel like they're getting dragged around. Yeah, because you really do have to kind of more focus on yourself and the schedule of the race too. But okay, and so that's a race weekend. Well, what about what would be the difference than a non-race weekend, like a non-Disney run event, say more with family or so with a family trip, I would want to go for a whole week. In a dream world, I'd go for 10 days, but win the lottery and do that first. I was thinking that we would go in the summertime. I really like going in the second last week of August. The crowds are so much lower. It's super stinking hot, but thinking of the teachers in the group. Yeah, I'm okay with heat. Yeah, and actually it's it is very, very oppressively hot, but you have lots of opportunities to go inside and get air conditioned and sit down, and it's doable. And uh yeah, I think we should go then. Okay. That gives you teachers in the group a week before school starts. Am I invited on this one too? All right, because this is a family vacation, this is everybody, even dad. Oh, awesome. Yes. So, and even Okay, so the whole the whole clan. Yeah. All right. Everyone we would go and stay at the Grand Floridian.

Speaker 36:32

All right.

Jenny 36:33

I'm listening. I I was like, oh, we should I should choose a different hotel. I'm imagining. Uh-huh. Yeah. But I just want to in this series of dream vacations, I want to be on the monorail. Yeah. So we're going to go to the Grand Floridian. I like the Grand Floridian. I like that idea. Okay. We're going to Disney bound or wear matching t-shirts every day, except for one day, which is going to be the day in the middle of our vacation, which is going to be our rest day. And on that day, people can wear what they want. But otherwise, everyone is bounding or wearing a matching. We have Incredibles t-shirts, so everybody's going to wear those, or our Mike Wazowski t-shirts, we're all going to wear those. Yeah, it's a must-do. And Sarah has to co-op. I was going to say, Sarah, you listening? You're wearing the t-shirt too. She always does. Yeah, but she always has to be different. That's how she's been ever since the beginning of time. She has to like tie it in a knot, or that's fine, whatever. I don't care about that. It's the wearing it for half the day and then taking it off. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, no, Sarah, you have to wear it for the whole day. That's right. Okay. Things that I want to do. Oh, and so ideas for Disney bounding that I had were we could do a Star Wars theme. I was thinking of Mark and George for that one. And I don't know what characters we would all do, but we don't need to go down that rabbit hole right now. I thought we could do one that was like everybody just pick your favorite character and create your Disney bound as your favorite character. I like all our old standbys, like uh when everybody's wearing their Incredibles t-shirt or everybody's in their Mike Wazowski t-shirt. Yeah, I have that. Oh, okay. I have that too. Like we can have days where we just wear the same t-shirts, but some days we could Disney bound. But like around a theme. Okay, well, if we're going to Animal Kingdom, I want to do up because I want to be the Wilderness Explorer. Yes. Because I really want to do, I really need to finish my wilderness explorer passport. And this would be a good trip to do that on. Okay. Because we could take the time to spend an entire time. I got about halfway on the last time, but I I have a goal of on one trip doing the whole passport. Other things that I would want to do in no particular order are to drink around the world with Molly. Okay. But by drink around the world, guys, like I cannot do 11 countries. Oh my word. I would it would just be awful. Yeah. So basically, you could share. Share or selectively drink around the world, be realistic about it or take turns or something. I don't know what it would look like, but I could not do the 11 countries. I definitely want to go to Trader Sam's with everybody because that's definitely a favorite place of mine. I think that would be a lot. Actually, that would be a lot of fun. With everybody. And I really think dad would have fun there. Yeah. Because the only time I've been it was the night before a race that I had to do. And I had to get up at 2 30 in the morning. So I had to leave early. And anyway, Sarah and I stayed till it closed the night before your birthday. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 39:44

We were the last ones out.

Jenny 39:46

I was a little bit worried. Yeah. I was a little worried about how we were going to get home. But we did it. I would like to do Galaxy's Edge with Mark and George. Yeah, I think we would like that too. And Charles. And I would also want to do the lightsaber building with all of them. I really think they would enjoy that. Building as in like constructing, because it sounds like building as in like a place that you would do. Oh, yeah, no, the you know, Savvy's workshop. Yeah, okay. So you create your own. Create your own lightsaber thing. Well, that would be cool. With all of them. I think they would really enjoy that. I really want them to see Galaxy's Edge. And I think I would want to do a monorail crawl with everybody too. That's fun to just go from lounge to lounge to lounge. So outside of Ohana at the Polynesian, there's the tamboo lounge. You can get the Ohana noodles, you can get the dumplings. You can get the bread pudding. Yes. Okay, great. And to do the different lounges, so the Enchanted Rose over at the Grand Floridian. Yes, I definitely want to go back there. And then oh gosh, what's the name of the lounge over at the Contemporary? Oh, I can't remember. Shoot, it's escaping my brain right now. But anyways, do a little monorail crawl with everybody would be fun. Because just not drinking crawl. I mean, you could have drinks, but it's like having small plates at place to place to place. Little apps and a very yeah. And I would have cocktails too. I keep thinking about the London fog martini that I had at Enchanted Rose. Enchanted Rose. It was good. Yes. I would like to Park Warrior most days. I think with everybody. But since it's a family of 10, 11, 12, however many people are with us. Even whatever days. You just move differently because you're a giant amoeba. We don't really split up. No, we tried to once. We tried to split, not really tried to, but we had suggested we were at the parks and we were thinking, okay, what do you uh does everybody want to do? And at one point we were going to break off into kind of small groups, and then half, okay, you guys go that way, and we'll go this way. And we started to walk away and they're like, well, wait, I think I want to do that too. And we just sort of blended back together. So we split up for all of 30 seconds and then got back together. Yeah, it didn't work out. Didn't work out. But if we did split up, doing a monorail crawl would be a little more doable too. I'm just thinking about like 10 people. Well, not everybody will want to go. Exactly. So that may be something that we would split up and do. Yeah. Maybe some people would do something else or just stay behind at the hotel, or I don't know what. Other things that I thought, like as a big group, what are fun to do are the animation experience over at Rafi Keys Animal Watch over at Animal Kingdom. There's lots of seats. We could easily have all 10 people do that. And it's fun to see what everyone's diagrams, drawings look like after. It would be fun to do Ohana for dinner. Number one, it's delicious. Number two, Ohana means family. And yeah, I think that would be fun with the whole gang. I would like to do tea at the Grand Floridian. Oh, it's open again. I really want to do that too. And since we're staying there, we should do that. Well fun, of course. Uh-huh. And also thought just for nostalgia's sake, and also because it is an excellent show and dinner, which is the hoop-de-doo we should do. The hoop-de-doo. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's a fun time. I like the hoop-de-doo. It sounds like a blast. I would go for sure. And I get to go to both of them. So okay. I have no complaints. Both of the vacations I've planned require planning, especially the family one. I when you talk about like planning ahead versus not. Not I think you can do a Disney trip on a whim if you're not a huge group of people. Yes. But if you're planning with uh our our big clan of people, yeah, you definitely want well at least we found to maximize your time there. You can't you have to have plans for what your meals are. Like we always had to have our reservations because if you're going with 10 or 12 people, you can't just show up at a spot and in and hope to get in within 20 minutes. You're gonna be waiting. Yeah, so time reservations is way better. Yeah, at Disney time is money. And you really need to book ahead. Yeah. You can book your dining reservation 60 days out if you're staying at one of the Disney hotels. And you can book Lightning Lane seven days out. Lightning lanes are passes that get you onto the rides. This is this is for Susan. This is for Susan that get you onto the rides a bit faster. So you don't have to wait in the regular standby line. You can go in the lightning lane ride. And with traveling with a big group like that, it's probably best to have an idea what people what everybody's expectations are ahead of time and what like if somebody has something they really want to do, you would probably want to know that all ahead of time so that you don't, you know, it's not the day before you're about to leave and there were still like four or five things that hadn't been accomplished that was on somebody else's list or whatever. But if you know going into it, you can you can know everybody's top plans and you can make plans around that so everybody at least gets their kind of top idea done, right? Because there's you can't get to everything, there's just way too much stuff. Yeah. But if you don't know, yeah, so asking everybody what what do you want to do? Yeah, and and also accommodating a little bit of flexibility is important too in the day. So that when things come up and you think, let's try that, you can actually go and try it. Okay, let's let's move on. I would say the the the biggest summary between Run Disney event weekend and uh family weekend is whose focus you're on. You know, they're both for fun and they're both about making memories with your loved ones. And you can still do all the things with your family on a Run Disney weekend, but for sure it's more about prioritizing the race and the things that go around the race versus the needs of the whole group when you're going with a family. And you can be a little bit more go with the flow, probably on a family vacation and and just on a whim. But your days can look different because you can go to the parks from morning till night, you can drink around the world, you can do all kinds of things that you wouldn't do if you were there for a race weekend normally. I'm not saying you wouldn't do them, but is there anything else? I think we've covered everything. Okay, well that's it for this episode of Rope Drop and Run. Join us next time to find out all about Run Disney race weekend must-haves. What's in our suitcase and run belt? If you liked what you heard, share this episode with a friend and follow us on Instagram at Rope Drop and Run. Please follow, subscribe, leave us a review, and send us all your Disney questions. We can't wait to chat with you next time. We'll see you at the castle or the start line.