Expedition Everest Base Camp

Friday we land at MCO and decided that we would take it easy. This was our anniversary/ Christmas present and we had been looking forward to it for months. No parks the first day; just get our race stuff, hang out for awhile, dinner with friends and end with fireworks on the beach. In hindsight, best decision ever.

Our basecamp for the next 4 days

EEC base camp

Once we were ready to go to the expo (granted, it’s around 1pm on Friday. The expo opened at noon), no cast member had any idea what we were talking about.  The one that did, pointed us in the wrong direction. Really, Disney? I know this is a small event, but this is the host hotel. Someone should've had their act together. They didn't get signage up until Saturday, but whatever. Quirks of race weekend. 

The Expo

Blink and you would’ve missed it. I guess I was thinking it would’ve been bigger due to the fact that it is Disney and the only other experience I have with runDisney is Marathon weekend. I knew it wasn’t going to be that large (it is technically only a 5k), but a few vendors would’ve been nice. At least they had merchandise, which is more than I can say for the marathon relay (although no jackets. . .which I was hoping for. Oh well).

The wall

 I liked that the artist was creating the piece as the day went on. It was nice atmosphere but I have no idea what a graffiti like mural has to do with an Everest Challenge. . but a nice touch. Of course, I had to tag our team as obnoxiously as possible.

Team Happily Ever After reporting in!

We got our bibs. We got our pins. We got our shirts. We got pictures with basecamp. And then we got to wait 30 minutes for the presentation so we could make sure we knew what we were doing. They had a softball game going on and we could pick up our park tickets (score!) in the interim. 

I’m really glad they had these informationals, because even though I tried to do as much research as I could online, there isn’t that much out there for this event and I heard a few things changed this year. The Course Talk reviewed the rules and regulations with a course overview. 

There was also a Q&A and a ton of questions were asked; mainly about the scavenger hunt clues (seriously, runDisney, your clues are redonk). A few of my anxieties were addressed, but I was still a little worried about time (spoiler alert: we finished in time). As soon as I realized we weren't in the last wave, I felt better. They were spacing the waves out 6 minutes apart, so we were golden. The cast member assured me this was a “fun run” so have “fun”. Which helped put it in perspective, so I stopped worrying. (sidenote: Even in the dark and in costumes and hats, she remembered us after the race, and congratulated us. Now that's a cast member).

Did I mention this was the best vacation ever?!

 

Wishes from Polynesian

After that, we met a friend for dinner at Kona's Cafe in the Polynesian. I knew you could watch MK's Wishes from that hotel and I wanted a Dole Whip, so it was a win-win. The cherry on top? They were projecting The Lion King on the beach, too (I found out about hotels showing Disney movies the last time I was there. Outdoor movies are my favorite, I just didn't think I'd ever be at a hotel at 9pm to experience it). Feet in the sand, the weather cooling off, eating a Dole Whip with my favorite person next to me; It was such a great moment that even the kid throwing sand didn't even bother me. 

Then it was time for bed! The next morning was the only time I demanded we have a mission: run semi-psychoticly to Toy Story Mania; so we needed sleep :-)