Friday, March 2, 2012

Disney Princess Half Marathon EXPO


I did it!  I am now a princess!  I just got back from a whirl wind, weeklong trip to Walt Disney World.  The trip was amazing and I have lots to tell you about, like the Expo, meeting Jeff Galloway, several blogger meet up, the Tangled Royal Family 5k, and the main event—the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

Let’s start with the Expo.  The Expo was like nothing I had ever experienced before.  I went to the expo on Friday afternoon, around two.  First was packet pickup.  Packet pick up was a longer process than I anticipated.  Since I had two packets to pick up, my half and my 5k packets, it took even longer.  The lines were not all that long, there were just so many.  There were two bib lines, then a line to get my pin, then two shirt lines and finally a line to activate my timing chip. 

Inside the packets were my shirts, some pins and a clear plastic draw string bag.  I was disappointed in the “goody bag” or lack of I should say.  There was none!  No goody bag of any kind.  Big bummer!  The 5k shirt is cotton unisex with Rapunzel and Flynn.  The Princess Half shirt is a tech material women’s cut with the princess half logo.  I like both shirts very much and proudly wore them around the parks after each race.

After getting my packets, next it was time to shop!  My first stop was at the official merchandise booth.  As I expected, the Dooney and Bourke purses were sold out.  I was very tempted to get the “I did it” shirt, but decided against it.  Several friends had texted me throughout the day with rumors that the runDisney booth had a few Disneyland half entries left for princess runners.  I had to check that out.  To my surprise, Jeff Galloway was at the runDisney booth greeting and chatting with runners.  There is more to come in a later post about if got into the Disneyland Half and meeting Jeff Galloway.  Before leaving the runDisney booth, I spent quite a while drooling over all the runDisney bling on display.  They always have a way of drawing me in. 

My next stop was SparkleSkirts!  That was one busy booth.  Ladies of all ages, shapes and sizes were having a blast trying on all the fun designs.  I had a few minutes to chat with Leah, Queen Mum of Sparkle.  I then choose the perfect Rapunzel purple SparkleSkirt! to wear to the Tangled 5k Royal Family 5k. 
After that, I made a few more stops.  I got a water resistant SPIbelt, a few Sweaty Bands, and then visited the Bippity Boppity Boutique booth with my daughter for a fairy dusting.  We picked up some samples of Nuun, Luna Bars and rice.  After all that Expo fun, we were ready to hit the parks!

What did you think of the Expo?  How about the goody bag?  What were your favorite purchases? 

A dream is a wish…

Amy

11 comments:

  1. I was SO disappointed with the goody bag!! The tech shirt is okay but I was bummed it wasn't more princess colorful. I also considered the 'I Did It' shirt, however I was not crazy about the front. Wish the race map had been on the back of our shirts instead of the sponsors (who could have at least put something *inside* the goody bags for us!) On Sunday I was drooling over the volunteer shirts at each water station!! I wonder if it is possible to purchase those if we contact RunDisney...

    Onto Expo thoughts... loved it, my son and I spent a long time there on Saturday, thank goodness it wasn't crowded the first day! I got a few things and wrote down a few websites for later shopping!
    ~Susan

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  2. I was kind of surprised that there was no goody bag, especially with all the big name sponsors Disney had. I would have at least expected some H2O products and Dannon coupons or something at least...
    I got to the Expo right when it opened on Friday and the merchandise line was so long, some people had 2-3 Dooney bags, kinda teed me off as I did not see any at that time. I kninda wanted a tote and might have got one had I saw one but the line was crazy.
    My favorite Expo purchase was my new iFitness water belt! Love it!

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  3. The race bag was VERY sad.....nothing but the shirt and your bib....but that being said the entertainment on the race made up for it. The expo had some GREAT vendors and loved being able to sample stuff.....Cliff gel is no my fave! Also learned not so much a Nuun fan! I loved having a my yogurt snack too. I bought a double IFitness belt, just to have as seems like some races I have too much stuff for my single Spibelt, so decided to try theirs as well. My big splurge was a SparkleSkirt which I got pink to wear for the race under my team sparkle....worked great for the costume and I am not a HUGE sparkletech fan..didn't even take a belt on the race for my Gus, Glasses, Id, lipbalm, etc...

    Its was a great expo. I did also get the I Did It Shirt as that was the one thing I had to have and not risking them not have my size after the race.

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  4. You did better than me! Last year I got a necklace, the shoe lace bling with the date on it, a Princess jacket and purple shirt. LOL! If it wasn't nailed down, I got it.

    I feel so bad for everyone this year with the bags. Last year we got lime green mesh bags and the shirt. They weren't the best bags in the world, but it was something. I don't understand why they didn't do them again this year. And the shirts last year were white too. Not sure what's up with that.

    Looking forward to hearing all about the rest of your experience!

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  5. I got my Dooney & Bourke purse! :D And I got my Jeff Galloway Run/Walk interval timer!

    P.S. You cannot call a plastic bag with a shirt in it a goody bag. :-\

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  6. Loved the expo! I did score a Dooney purse but I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it. I'll decide on Monday. The goody bag was disappointing-not even a granola bar? Really? I love Disney though-what an awesome experience!!

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    1. I was so excited about the bags but didn't get to the expo until Saturday-If you decided not to keep the bag around and maybe haven't used it-let me know! I'm going again this year as well

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  7. It seems like the consensus is that everyone was pretty bummed about the lack of a goody bag. Maybe runDisney will hear us and fix it for next year. Congrats to you ladies who got the Dooneys. Maybe next year for me!

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  8. I did the princess as well, it was my 8th Disney race. Like all of you, I was very disappointed in the goody bag. I was wondering if the reason they didn't do the goody bag is because of the protein box at the end of the race. They have never done anything like that in any of the 8 races that I've done within the last year.

    I didn't get a Dooney either, that was a total bummer!

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    1. Berni--That is true. The protein box was pretty awesome. You can't go wrong with hummus and dark chocolate in my book, LOL. Not getting a Dooney is a major bummer.

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