I have discovered the vast amount of Walt Disney World related content on the internet. I knew of a few planning sites from my last couple of trips, but there is oh so much more out there. Multiple blogs are dedicated to planning the trip (just planning, not actually saying anything about the parks or resorts, that's a whole other subset of blogs), and there are several podcasts as well. I'm sure there are numerous YouTube channels. I have discovered these rich veins of WDW topics and nuance in my effort to prepare myself for next year's half marathon. You could really feed an obsession with this kind of material. It's so plentiful that it can never be completely depleted. Just the runDisney tag on Instagram alone gets dozens of posts a day. That traffic will spike with this weekend's Princess Half Marathon weekend.
I'll be watching all of these posts unfold. My someday I'll do a runDisney race becoming I'm doing that in less than a year has become this year's obsession du jour. Last year I was all about my reading. It was about this time last year that I upped my reading goal to 52 books and decided to pursue Book Shelf Zero (I'm down to 176 after finishing Boy's Life Friday night). My runDisney experience is building to that same level of preoccupation. Our trip to WDW in January went about as ideally as possible. The positive vibes of that trip continue to persist a month after we got home. We did so much, but there were still things we weren't able to experience. And that's how they suck you in. You go down there once without any idea what you're doing. It's fun, but you're really only experiencing the parks and resorts at about 60% of maximum fun. So you go back and delve a little deeper into the nuances of everything. You find a great resort that allows you to walk to two parks with easy access to two other resorts. Options for what to do and where to eat abound. You try this and that, luck into a great evening after coming outside to eat, and see other places you want to visit and things you want to try. (And discover that some things people get all geeked about, like Dole Whips, really don't live up to the hype. I would take one of those Mickey ice cream bars over the Dole Whip every time.)
So you decide that you'll go back. You didn't get to eat in Mexico (the circumstances surrounding that failure stands out as the only really dark spot in our entire trip) so you want to check that off the next time you're down there. There are more rides to be experienced, more restaurants to check out, and more places to visit. Then you start reading these blogs and listening to these podcasts and discover a whole new level of park experience. The runDisney thing is just that kind of experience. The races are a different way to experience Disney magic while finding a whole new genre of merchandise to spend money on. This could be my only runDisney race, I have to get a jacket! Then they change the park, adding more attractions and tweaking what is already there. It's an endless cycle that draws you in deeper and deeper with every new post and update.(The Disney Parks Blog is particularly prodigious. There are several posts a day. And I suspect this is the slow season.)
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