We collected our suitcases and crossed back through the airport to the other terminal to catch the Magical Express motor coach. We checked in with our Magic Bands easily but the line was actually pretty long for our motor coach. After a bit of a wait, we boarded and were whisked away to SSRS via Port Orleans resort. We picked up our bags and headed off for the bus stop but after looking at the resort map and waiting for a bit, we decided to just walk over to the Grand Stand which, as it turns out, is the closest villa to the Carriage House (main house). The pathway to the Grand Stand wasn't very obvious so we stopped to ask a Cast Member and eventually found our villa. Our Magic Bands worked to open the door to our 1 bedroom villa. This was the first time we've ever bypassed check-in and gone straight to our villa. Very cool.
We quickly dropped our luggage off and grabbed our waivers and headed off to the Health and Fitness EXPO. I had read online that Dopey race gear would be available but had sold out within a few hours at last year's EXPO. We walked back to the Carriage House and caught the next bus to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex which wasn't very far away. In retrospect, I'm really glad we got a villa in the Grand Stand rather than some of the villas that were very far away from the race bus stop. I'm sure some people had to take the SSRS bus to get back to the Carriage House to catch the race bus.
The bus dropped us off at what was possibly the furthest parking lot away from the EXPO. We walked and walked and passed the parking lot we remembered being dropped off for previous packet pick ups, and then walked and walked some more. We finally arrived at the HP Field House and went straight downstairs to the Runners World Challenge booth where there was no waiting. One thing I thought was strange is that it's really unclear on the RunDisney website just how many waivers you need. There was a race waiver, a pasta party waiver, a ChEAR squad waiver, and even a breakfast waiver. I went ahead and printed out the custom waiver we received via email as well as one of the generic waivers from the website just in case. We each received a packet with 2 bibs, a black Runners World Challenge wristband, and a clear plastic bag with 6 shirts each. Unfortunately, our commemorative race pin sets were missing so we had to go outside, back inside, and upstairs to check on our pins - but after we each had our pictures taken with our Dopey Challenge bibs. This was the way that they would confirm that we had finished the Dopey Challenge and earned our medals.
We had a great deal of difficulty retrieving our pins. I was able to pull up Seth's confirmation that showed we had purchased the pin set but when I went to pull up my confirmation, hotmail had a melt down and, even though I tried on my phone, Seth's phone, someone else's phone, and finally the booth guy's phone - nobody was able to get into hotmail. After a good 30 minutes of trying, walking outside, coming back inside, using strangers' phones, I finally got through and pulled up my confirmation letter showing I had paid for those pins. There was no way I was going to just let it go - the commemorative pin set was over $80!
Finally with packet pick up complete, we did a little shopping right there next to pin pick up. There were still a good number of Dopey items left....except for the Dopey Challenge jacket and all of the "I Did It!" shirts which were gone. Seth did manage to find one more Dopey jacket in 2XL - the last one at the EXPO. This was seriously silly why they wouldn't order enough Dopey swag. I did find a Dopey Challenge car magnet and a Dopey Challenge cap to wear. We paid for our items and made our way to the EXPO.
I needed more KT tape and Seth needed more body glide which we found easily. New Balance had also just released their RunDisney collection of shoes which we had heard were snatched up quickly. We saw people walking out of the EXPO with half a dozen New Balance shoe boxes. It was just crazy.
We took the bus back to SSRS, unpacked our suitcases, and then took a short nap before heading out to Disney Springs. The other advantage to staying in the Grand Stand at SSRS is that it's very close to the boat dock with the boat that takes you directly to the middle of Disney Springs. Each time we went to Disney Springs, we took the boat and it seemed faster than waiting for a bus which makes a pick up at the Grand Stand and then winds its way to all of the other bus stops in SSRS before actually departing for Disney Springs.
We had some time before our 6:30 pm dinner reservation so we walked around a bit and marveled at how much "Downtown Disney" had changed. It looked like Planet Hollywood was closed. They were building another huge parking structure. There were a whole bunch of new shops (Sanuk, Art of Shaving, etc) and restaurants. We crossed the bridge and made our way over to the AMC theater. We didn't have time to catch a movie today but had decided that we could take in a movie on Saturday after the half marathon. We bought ourselves tickets for the 2:15 pm show and then make our way to Fulton's Crab House for dinner.
We arrived just a little early but were seated right away. We had the calamari for an appetizer but it wasn't the same calamari I remember from previous visits. The pieces were all the same shape and size, small, and the breading kept falling off. The sauce that came with the calamari was good but I was overall disappointed with the calamari - we won't be having those again. I decided that instead of ordering the crab legs, I would just have the seafood sampler appetizer for 2 as an entree which was actually quite a bit less expensive that an order of the crab legs entree. The sampler was HUGE too.
Every bit of it was great but I did wish that there was something to dip the lobster and crab in. Some drawn butter or something.
After dinner, we returned to SSRS via the boat again, set an alarm for 3:30 am, laid out our race gear, made more ice in the freezer for later in the weekned, and went to sleep early at around 9 pm.
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