Hello from Disney World! As completely cheesy as it sounds, ever since I arrived on Disney property yesterday, I’ve felt transported back to my childhood.
My Disney-filled weekend began at The Grand Floridian, a beautiful white hotel located right on Disney property. I, along with the rest of the New Balance team, am staying here for the duration of the weekend.
It’s a gorgeous hotel and, yes, it’s definitely the same one the cast of Full House stayed in during the show’s Disney episodes. (And I love how many of you knew that just from looking at my pictures in Thursday’s post! High fives all around.)
After checking in, I had some time to unwind before everyone arrived and it was time to attend the Wine and Dine Meet Up & Tweet Up event.
Our New Balance group of bloggers and magazine writers met in the lobby and headed over to the Test Track at Epcot to get the party started!
First we had to design a vehicle and then hop into a car for a test run on the track. SkinnyRunner, Monica and I designed a snazzy mint-green car that was put to shame when we looked around and saw other cars with flames and intense designs. We gave our car the most hardcore engine we could and stretched out the length and width to make it look like a mint green batmobile, but it still got smoked on the track.
The Test Track was really cool and the black lights on the course made all of our crazy-colorful New Balance gear glow in the dark!
(Photo credit: @FitnessLauren)
The 1400 running shoe and the high visibility beacon jacket were both a huge hit with our group.
(SkinnyRunner, Monica, me, Gia and Jess)
We actually had a really hard time snapping group photos in our jackets because they kept reflecting! Aside from the reflectors, the yellow detailing you see on the jacket is glow-in-the-dark and will be visible in the dark if you let it “charge” under light for 10 minutes, making it ideal for added visibility during early morning or evening runs outside.
Once our need for speed was satisfied, we walked over to the lake in the middle of Epcot to catch the tail end of the IllumiNations show, complete with fireworks, music and pyrotechnics.
I am officially horrible at photographing fireworks.
At the IllumiNations show, we met up with everyone from the runDisney group to listen to a few speakers and enjoy some light refreshments before it was time for a quick 1.5 mile run around Epcot! I really enjoyed listening to Jenny Barringer Simpson speak but I’ll go into more detail about this in an upcoming post since we had a chance to talk with her at length today. Jenny currently holds the record for the fastest mile run by a woman in the United States this year. She ran a mile in 4:19! Unreal right?
A little after 11:30 p.m. it was time to run! Right before we took off, they started blasting music and we watched Mickey, Minnie and Goofy have a little dance party in front of us. We ran 1.5 miles around Epcot and it was really neat to be able to see the park after hours. And a run that ends with a glass of champagne? Sounds good to me!
More Disney fun to come!
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Wow looks like you are having an amazing time! Love those glow in the dark shoes they are too cool 🙂
Can’t wait for the next recap and to hear more.
Thanks, Jan! Hope you have a great weekend!
I love the Disney episodes of Full House!! Well, more accurately, I love every episode of Full House 🙂
Sounds like a fun trip already! Enjoy the rest of it & have a great run!
Wow! All sounds so amazing! Back in 2007, I ran my first marathon in Disney World, and everything was so well organized and executed. I have such fond memories of running through the parks and staying at the Boardwalk Hotel. I can’t wait to read more 🙂
This looks so much fun! I love the gear too. 🙂
This is fabulous! I’m a New Balance girl for sure. Just ran my first marathon and swear by these Newbies. 🙂 I did the Disney Princess half two years ago — such a great place to run. I love reading SR’s blog too — great pix!
What are you gonna be in SF for?! 🙂
I am so, so jealous. I’ve never been to WDW but I’ve been to Disneyland 3 times… #westcoastprobs. Ha!
I am loving those jackets and would totally rock one on all of my night runs but a $175 jacket isn’t in the budget right now. Maybe they’ll do a giveaway or promo code??
http://www.sneakersandspatulas.com/2013/11/09/fashion-show-in-the-bathroom/
Jenny went to my high school!!
So fun! That glow-in-the-dark gear is super cool. Can’t wait to hear about your other adventures!
Love the gear!! Looks fun and a great time at Disney! have a great weekend!
Look forward to hearing more about it 🙂
Do you actually design the car and then get to drive it? That sounds awesome. Have a great weekend.
You design the car and then you ride in a standard car they have on the Test Track, but you see pics of the car you designed and TV-screen reports of its “test track performance.” It’s kind of confusing to type out and explain, but I hope that kind of makes sense!
I love Epcot – hands down the best DW park 😉
I love that episode of full house.Did you hear that the show is coming back???!!!!http://www.tvovermind.com/full-house/a-new-full-house-is-coming-starring-dj-and-stephanie-tanner-223330
NO WAY!!!
How did you get the opportunity to go to WDW as part of the NB team? I would love to work with RunDisney or do anything that includes running and Disney. My dental hygiene degree is not getting me any closer to that goal. 😉
That looks like a blast!
I have some friends at Disney right now through the Make a Wish program. I wonder if you will ever pass them!
What a fun trip. I would love to run a race at Disney. Way fun, can’t wait to hear more!
Love those glow in the dark shoes!!! They’d be really cool for night runs.
I need some glow in the dark shoes in my life!!
This seriously sounds so fun! And I love the orange jackets! I can’t wait to hear more!
Looks like you are having a blast! I need to get to Florida and do this race one year.
I could have totally used that jacket this morning! It was soooo dark on my run!
Those trainers are awesome! Your firework photos turned out better than mine 🙂
Love, love Disney! Perhaps that will be my next vacation… 🙂 🙂
We stayed there for our anniversary trip last year. If you eat there for breakfast or brunch, I cannot recommend the Lobster Eggs Benedict enough! Amazing. Have fun!
It’s 8 years since I’ve been there but I loved Epcot! Especially the Moroccan food. You do feel like a big kid in a theme park…exactly the way it should be! 🙂 LOVE the jackets! Can’t wait to hear and see more!
Looks like you ladies had such an amazing and fun trip! Loving the sneakers 🙂
I will be working the wine and dine event tonight. Love the Disney races. So much fun!
A run at 11:30? OMG! What an awesome experience 🙂
You are NOT the only one who cannot snap pics of fireworks, I swear half mine turn out as “black sky with smoke” . 🙂
That last photo looks like you guys are about to bust in song! New Balance Chorus 😉
What a cool opportunity, can’t wait to read about the rest!
Can you tell me how that jacket fits? I’m usually a size 6 and was wondering what size I should order.
My grandma and aunt used to work at the Grand, so I got to visit and swim in the pool when I was 16. I have such a special relationship with Disney World because for me growing up, visiting Grandma was visiting Disney! LOVE.
Looks like you had a great time at Disney, Julie!
p.s. I would also like to mention that I also used the same template from Wedding Chicks for our Save the Dates and they came out so good. Ours are postcards that we ordered using VistaPrint but I wanted to thank you for keeping all your wedding planning info on here because it has been super helpful!
That makes me so happy!! Congrats on your upcoming wedding!
it looks like so much fun! I can’t wait for my first Disney run in February!
Seriously I need those glow in the dark shoes! So much fun!
Why was the race so late at night? Props to you as I would be half asleep by then!
That sounds like so much fun!! How did you get hooked up with New Balance? Just seeing pictures of the Test Track ride had me cracking up at memories of my family riding it way back when!
Seriously jealous of the awesome jackets! I loved the champagne toast at Epcot!