Expedition Everest Challenge: Expo

Earlier this month (it's still May so I can say that), I headed down to Disney to participate in Expedition Everest.  Since I'd like to get these recaps done before Grandma's (fingers crossed!), let's get started with the expo.

We arrived in Disney on Friday and after checking in and getting settled at the hotel, we (planned on) headed to the expo.  Unfortunately, it was pouring, so we grabbed some food and then went to the expo during a rain break.  It was still raining slightly, but no longer monsooning, so that was good.

This was my first during Everest and let me just say it was a bit different then other Disney expo's.  The entire thing was contained within the stadium.  Which would normally be fine if it wasn't raining.  But since part of the expo was outside, the rain put a damper on things.

First we headed into to the packet and shirt pickup.  It was located right in the stadium, under the stands (on the outside if that makes any sense).

They did have the entire area decorated very well and totally in the theme of Everest.  I've always loved the theming of Everest so this was a big hit with me!

The lines at packet pickup were non-existent and we quickly got our numbers.  After that we headed to the separate t-shirt pickup.  The shirts seemed to be running really small, but fortunately they were doing size switches so I was able to change my size.  The shirt is a great orange color and I love the design.

They had a very small section of merchandise, really just an 'I Did It' shirt as well as a bunch of runDisney merchandise.  It was nice not to be tempted to spend money!  I had pre-ordered a pin so I did have that.

They did have an area right outside the stadium that was supposed to be the speaker area as well as a few vendor booths (I know Raw Threads was supposed to be there) but because it was raining all the booths were closed.  The New Balance booth was inside, but since I didn't want the sneakers (there was no line and plenty of sizes so if you want them, this event would be a good one to get them at) we didn't really stop there.

After that we checked out the course map and headed back to the hotel.  We managed to miss the hard rain while waiting for the bus, but it started raining again when we got back to the hotel.  Which would be the theme of the weekend (rain).

While definitely a different and smaller expo then other runDisney expo's, I really liked this one.  It would be a great one for a new runDisney participant because the expo is more manageable and not so overwhelming.

Up next - the Expedition Everest 5K!