Marathon Weekend 2021

[Novatrix]

We have! I remember the bus after the race shared with Ft Wilderness and Contemporary and that made for a LONG, stinky ride back after the full. But the resort itself is totally worth it.

How was the bus ride to the race in the morning? I was specifically wondering about that after hearing about the bus debacle from last year's marathon.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I’m a bit late to the thread but I wanted to post since I am officially running my first runDisney race, which just happens to be my first marathon as well. I would love to get some advice from those seasoned veterans as well as meet some other runDisney newbies!

Welcome and best of luck. My first race period was the 2011 Disneyland Half and my first marathon was the 2019 Walt Disney World Marathon. My advice would also be to follow the Running Thread because there are many runners in that thread that do not post regularly over here. I have learned much from these boards courtesy of the helpful advice from other runners.

Carousal of Progress; for some odd reason I actually enjoy it. 20 minutes of sitting in the cool doesn't hurt either.

SAFD: I love using indoor shows and attractions with long run times to beat the heat. Carousel of Progress is great. I will use it for a power nap as well.

I am pretty sure I have been doing the runDisney events all wrong so far. I am hearing about these cool things that I had no idea existed. Typically I run the race and the immediately hop on a bus.

Has @rteetz made a section on the marathon weekend thread that talks about all the cool things I am missing out on? Or does that require an initiation of some sort before I am enlightened.

I am hearing about beer in Epcot, special character photo ops after the finish line, Monday meet up after the weekend to celebrate in Epcot,... I am pretty sure I a missing out on the best part of the race weekend!

I just recommend following along with this thread. That's where I learned about all sorts of useful things such as the DATW meetup in Epcot the day after the Marathon and the very helpful in race character thread. What happens there is a couple of weeks before the race, the organizer @croach says to send him a DM with your cell number and he then sets up text messaging groups. Then during the Marathon Weekend races, the faster runners send out a group text where each character is along the course. As a much slower runner, I found this to be very helpful in determining how to pace myself in relation to photo stops. For instance, if I knew that Mickey was going to be at mile 18 and the line for Lightning McQueen was really long at mile 15, then I could skip the Lightning McQueen line because I wanted to save that time for Mickey. In fact this year, it helped me decide to skip Everest because I knew that a different photo that I wanted more than riding Everest during the race was available.

 

[lahobbs4]

How was the bus ride to the race in the morning? I was specifically wondering about that after hearing about the bus debacle from last year's marathon.

Race morning busses were no issues, but last year was not normal at all!! As far as I remember, every single resort had bus issues. My only advice is just to get on the first bus. Someone else may have better advice on that!

 

[lhermiston]

Good morning, runDisney all-stars!

In honor of the Fourth of July, fireworks and blowing stuff up, for this week’s Sundays are for Disney tell us your favorite Disney nighttime entertainment. All past and present shows, parades, etc. are fair game.

My all-time favorite is the one-two punch of Celebrate the Magic and Wishes! I thought both were great shows with great soundtracks. They even made me a little emotional.

A close runner up is IllumiNations, which I sadly only saw twice but always was in awe of.

Happily Ever After rounds out my top 3. I don’t think it’ll ever have the same emotional appeal as Wishes! but it’s really beautifully done.

Have a safe and healthy week, everyone.

 

[princesspirateandrunner]

SAFD: The Main Street Electrical Parade and Illuminations are my favorites!

 

[drummerwife]

SAFD: Sitting on the patio outside our room at CR with DH and son watching the Electrical Water Pageant. It was so peaceful and serene.

 

[FFigawi]

In honor of the Fourth of July, fireworks and blowing stuff up, for this week’s Sundays are for Disney tell us your favorite Disney nighttime entertainment. All past and present shows, parades, etc. are fair game.

1. NYE fireworks from the docks of the Grand Floridian. Being given glasses of vintage rose champagne to bring with us as we left Victoria & Albert's made it even better.
2. Illuminations
3. Wishes

 

[DIS-OH]

I can’t choose one! I love them all!

(...because my dad was one of those dads who made us leave early so we could beat the mass exodus crowds. Growing up, we were never permitted to stay for parades and fireworks. Hence, my obsession with nighttime parades and fireworks.)

 

[ZellyB]

SAFD: I loved Wishes but HEA has surpassed it. I love everything about it and that includes waiting in the hub for an hour with my kids eating hot dogs and popcorn and reliving our day.

 

[Novatrix]

SAFD
Illuminations. I would take any incarnation, but if I got to choose a time period I'd go back to when it first started in 1999/2000 and you had the performers roaming around world showcase on stilts. The music and message of the show couldn't be beat.

For a seasonal event, I absolutely love the Festival of the Arts Broadway performances. I typically will resee the same performance multiple times in the same day, using the break between shows to grab food at the festival booths around world showcase.

For outside the parks nighttime entertainment, both Trader Sam's and the Yeehaw Bob show are pretty fun.

 

[CDKG]

In honor of the Fourth of July, fireworks and blowing stuff up, for this week’s Sundays are for Disney tell us your favorite Disney nighttime entertainment. All past and present shows, parades, etc. are fair game.

My all time favorite Disney nighttime entertainment is the OG Disneyland version of Fantasmic! Honorary mention goes to my childhood favorite, Disneyland’s Main Street Electrical Parade and Paint the Night (which I am reminded of every time I cross the bridge from SSR to DS, because they always seem to be playing the soundtrack!)

@lhermiston This SAFD sounds like the perfect excuse for you to share your favorite Disney fireworks shots. Let’s see them!

 

[Disney at Heart]

SAFD: I love all of them, Wishes, Illuminations, HEA, Fantasmic, Star Wars Galaxy something fireworks, water pageant, Spectromagic/ Electric Light Parade, etc., even Rivers of Light, but I really miss the magic of my favorite Osborne Family Lights. With millions of lights, lightly falling snope, beautiful songs, a hidden black cat, and, well, Christmas.

@DIS-OH My husband is much like your dad. After we’ve seen a nighttime show once, the best he wants to do is stand in the very back near the exit and scoot out at the finale so we won’t have to wait for the bus, skyliner, or monorail!

 

[lhermiston]

 

[lhermiston]

 

[Neon Cactus]

Really hard to narrow this down.

My favorite is probably the original Disneyland Fantasmic, especially early on when you didn't need to buy a special package to get a decent spot to watch it. I loved Disneyland's 50th anniversary fireworks, with Julie Andrews narrating and the fireworks effect around the Main Street Hub that made it seem like you were in the Haunted Mansion chamber.

I'd also list the original Illuminations, Spectromagic and Wonderful World of Animation at DHS.

 

[SarahDisney]

Disneyland - World of Color.
WDW - Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes.
I also liked the 4th of July fireworks, but I can't call them a favorite because I only saw them once and that's not really enough for me to judge.

 

[rteetz]

Illuminations is my favorite by far. Happily Ever After falls right behind it. I do enjoy aspects of Epcot forever but it’s a little disjointed. Wishes was great for it’s time but HEA has really excelled everything about MK fireworks.

 

[YawningDodo]

SAFD: For me it has to be the two where I worked during my College Program days! I was in costuming both times I did the program (both times in WDW): in 2006 I worked Spectromagic as my secondary location, and in 2009 my secondary was Fantasmic!. Of the two I'm going to say my preference is for Fantasmic!

Spectro was my first time working at any kind of live show, and it was so dang cool. Everyone joked that you were a real Spectro crew member once you started hearing the music for the parade in your dreams...at least, I thought they were joking until that exact thing happened. I used to go to MK on my nights off to see the parade as it looks onstage, and my favorite floats were the Fantasia ones. The pegasus float always looked so grand. It was really kind of sad to see it again just a few years later when some of the mechanisms on the floats had stopped working and they'd changed the Spectromen costumes to remove the masks (and for some reason the performers didn't compensate by smiling...at all!).

Then Fantasmic! was even more fast-paced. On certain assignments I'd be able to watch parts of it from backstage, so I got to where I had the show pretty well memorized. I just have a real soft spot for it because it was such a big part of my life for four months.

 

[lahobbs4]

I don't love fireworks but will always hold a special place in my heart for Illuminations. Something about those torches and World Showcase lighting up all around.

But my #1 is Main Street Electrical Parade. THE best.

 

[camaker]

SAFD: So many to good things choose from, so I’ll cheat a bit...

Fireworks
1. HalloWishes - Wishes + Halloween, how can you go wrong!
2. Happily Ever After - No disrespect to the classic Wishes. I view HEA more as an upgraded evolution of Wishes than as a completely new entity.
3. Illuminations - I love the simplicity of its beauty with the music and lighting of the World Showcase juxtaposed with the raw power of its pyrotechnics and low bursting fireworks. Alas, it feels a bit dated now and for me Wishes and HEA do a better job with storytelling so it had to slip down the list a bit.

Parades/Shows
1. Paint the Night - I was fortunate enough to see this on my first ever DL trip right at the end of the Diamond Celebration. I was blown away. I wish they’d bring it back.
2. World of Color - Another DL revelation during the aforementioned trip. A masterpiece (if the wind isn’t blowing too hard). WDW really needs something similar (no, Rivers of Light isn’t) and I was half hoping they would replace Illuminations with something similar. The World Showcase Lagoon would seem to be the ideal location for it.