Whew, yesterday was a veritable whirlwind!

In addition to being awake for literally 24 hours, I was traipsing around the Expo and later EPCOT, which was fun but definitely not relaxing.

When last we spoke, I was telling you guys about how awesome the expo was. Did I mention I got these cool new limited edition runDisney shoes? 

If you’re not familiar, each year New Balance (the official runDisney shoe sponsor) puts out limited edition sneakers themed for different Disney characters and attractions. In the past they’ve done various princesses and iconic characters, but this year all the shoes are ride themed. I got the shoes themed for one of my all time favorite rides, the Mad Tea Party in the Magic Kingdom (more commonly known as the spinning teacups). 

At the expo I also got a cool new Ariel themed shirt that says “red hair don’t care” and has a dinglehopper on it. Very fitting!

So last night we made our way over to EPCOT around 7pm. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, this is our first time staying at the All-Star Sports resort, and so far I am pretty pleased, despite this being one of the oldest and cheapest Disney resorts.

Once we arrived at EPCOT, the first thing I noticed was tons of extra police and security officers out – far more than normal. I imagine the entire place is on high alert after yesterday’s mass shooting in Fort Lauderdale. 

Once inside, we were quite pleased that crowds were very low. I imagine this was mostly because the half marathon was scheduled for today, so many runners were already tucked in bed. 

We had about half an hour to kill before our Sparkling Dessert Party, so we made our way over to the Mexico Pavilion for one of my favorite EPCOT rides, the three caballeros.

After that it was time for the party! The weather was starting to look quite bad, so they moved the Sparkling Dessert Party indoors to the China pavilion. 

The Illuminations Sparkling Dessert Party is a special dining event at EPCOT where you get desserts (duh), heavy appetizers, champagne, and VIP seating for the Illuminations fireworks show. Normally the food portion is outdoors as well, but due to the threat of bad weather they held it indoors last night and then escorted us all out to the VIP fireworks seating at 9.

The lighting inside the China pavilion was pretty low, and my DSLR isn’t fantastic at low light shots, but I tried to capture some of the amazing food and drink.

The ganache tart from France, shown above, was one of my favorites. I tried the rice treat from Japan, and it was decent. The Morrocan baklava was far, far too sweet for my taste.

Next I sampled the chocolate pudding from the U.K. and looooved it.

Below is another shot of the French, Japanese, and Morrocan goodies.

They also had tea, coffee, champagne, and some sort of rum cocktail that my husband liked. (I tasted a sip of it and nearly spit it out — apparently I don’t like rum!!)

After getting our fill of sweets and bubbly we deliberated on what to do next. Thing is, part of the Sparkling Dessert Party was obviously paying for the VIP fireworks seating, but the weather was really starting to look bad, and we’ve seen the Illuminations fireworks shows a zillion times now.

We were both also knackered from being up for ages, so we decided to head back to the resort early to get some rest and avoid the impending thunderstorm.

I’m quite glad we did, as the threat of storms got so bad that last night Disney made the decision to cancel all of today’s races. That means all the half marathon runners unfortunately aren’t getting to do their race today. (Thankfully the weather looks crystal clear for tomorrow’s marathon, although it’ll be cold.)

I feel so bad for those runners who woke up today to the bad news, but I truly applaud Disney for keeping everyone’s safety in mind and making a hard decision.

The thing with races is that they really are a lottery. You sign up a year in advance and train your butt off, but reality is that weather, illness, and injury can strike at any time. If you’ve read my blog regularly you’ll know this same thing has happened to me before, not once but twice!

I am so proud of all the half marathon runners who are keeping a good attitude and making lemonade out of lemons today. A lot of them are going to wait for the weather to clear this afternoon and do an unofficial 13.1 miles around the resorts!

As for me, I am anxiously counting down the hours until my marathon tomorrow morning. Today we’ll be laying low so I can rest my legs up, and I might hit up the pool for some sunshine and relaxation under the palm trees.

Stay tuned!

Charlotte xoxo