Carb Loading. Disney Style.

What’s your favorite park at Walt Disney World?

Mine is Magic Kingdom. Hands down. No questions.

The other parks are all great – and each have their own magical qualities and rides – but there’s just something about the original park that just feels extra special. I think it’s the castle. That’s why if someone hasn’t been to Disney in awhile, it’s the first place that jumps to my mind.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of tagging along with Callie, her two adorable sisters, and Theodora (who joined us later in the day) at the most magical place on earth.

Callie’s little sister requested we visit the princesses first. It has definitely been a princess-ful weekend, but it was good meeting Sleeping Beauty for the first time.

And I had a chance to discuss my costume dilemmas with Belle.

She didn’t offer much help. I guess she doesn’t have a chance to run much in her gown. Go figure.

After schmoozing with the princesses (we’re all BFFs now ), we headed to Buzz Lightyear, where Callie and her older sister kicked our butts.

Buzz Lightyear is a laser game where you shoot targets for points. Apparently Ashlyn and I are AWFUL at it because the other two scored about 300,000 more points than each of us. Ouch.

At least we ended up with a cool photo!

Take that! :-p

I’m not usually a creature of habit, but I have found that the Columbia Harbour House near Liberty Square is my favorite lunch spot in Magic Kingdom. I’m pretty sure I eat there every single time I come.

We used our meal vouchers and I walked away with way too much food. Ignore the cous cous below – they accidentally gave it to me and I just had a few bites to see how it was and – FYI – it was pretty good.

I ordered my favorite – the Lighthouse Sandwich on multigrain bread with hummus and broccoli slaw. Yum.

I subbed out the side and requested the broccoli instead of chips.

I chose the apple crisp for the dessert that was included with the voucher. The apple crisp was petty good. I ate about half and really enjoyed the flaky crusty and cinnamon.

There’s Theodora! She heard how much fun we were having and wanted to join in.

Now there are some rides everyone must do when they come to Magic Kingdom. Thunder Mountain (closed for repairs), Splash Mountain (not when your evening plans require dry clothes- darn), and Space Mountain.

Space mountain is a given.

Riding Space Mountain with your hands wrapped around your head is what all the cool kids are doing. Obviously.

Oh! And please ride (more like sit through) Philharmagic in Fantasyland. Especially if you love Disney songs. Awesome, Awesome 3D show.

We left Magic Kingdom just before 5:00 and I opened the Dry Roasted Edamame that came in our post-race snack box from the 5k. They were ok – edible, but nothing special.

Our group had dinner reservations at Via Napoli in Epcot for our pre-race session of carb-loading.

Via Napoli is my FAVORITE restaurant in all of Walt Disney World. They’ve won me over with their amazing wood-fired thin crust pizzas in the past and the atmosphere is just top notch.

I needed caffeine by this point. One cappuccino please.

FitFluential buddies

We started with bread. I had one of the tiny slivers.

And I was FREEZING, so I selected the Minestrone Soup as a starter. It warmed me right up.

And the main event!

An individual pizza with eggplant, ham, artichoke, and mushrooms. I ate 3/4s of it. A-MA-ZING.

Birthdays were celebrate – HAPPY BIRTHDAY RENEE! (woo hoo for February birthdays!)

And dessert was shared.

Hello beautiful. Where have you been all day?

And bellies were officially stuffed.

I got back to my room just before 10:00pm and had just enough time to set my alarm for 3:00am (!!) before crashing hard.

I’ll be back later with the full Princess Half Marathon Recap!

Tagged as: Carb Loading, Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Princess Half Marathon, RunDisney, Via Napoli