Marathon Weekend 2023

[BigEeyore]

SAFD: Going to give love to all the parks, because they are all great in their own ways!
- My favorite park is Epcot - if I am solo or with another adult (pre-covid Epcot with ALL the entertainment and without the big construction mess!). I am happy to just stroll and soak it all in, maybe an adult beverage in hand!
- My favorite park to do with my kids - HS wins this, my girls are teens, and HS just has so many great rides.
- Park with the best theming - AK for sure. Everest is the best ride on property!
- Park I would take someone to who had never been to WDW - MK of course! It is the most "Disney" park.

 

[Dom497]

Has Epcot ever remained fully closed until the Half Marathon and Marathon races are completed? Park hours for Marathon Weekend are out and Epcot does not open until 10am on the Saturday and 11am on Sunday.

Possible that park ops doesn't want to deal with the crowd control logistics and/or making some course changes that would make the logistics impossible?

 

[Herding_Cats]

Has Epcot ever remained fully closed until the Half Marathon and Marathon races are completed? Park hours for Marathon Weekend are out and Epcot does not open until 10am on the Saturday and 11am on Sunday.

Possible that park ops doesn't want to deal with the crowd control logistics and/or making some course changes that would make the logistics impossible?

Drop those numbers by 30min for early access for “on-site” guests AND if they let people in before that time (which I feel like they usually do around 15min early most of the time?)

The balloon ladies don’t finish until around 1pm on Sunday (plus whatever stragglers they allow to finish at that point.) There is 0% chance Disney would keep Epcot closed for that long just because of a few hundred (or thousand?) runners. They have CMs staged at places where guests will need to cross the course for everyone’s safety.

On Saturday the last of the runners should be finishing at around 9:30/10am so there should be minimal disruption for park-goers.

 

[jrsharp21]

I rented a car this past January, when prices were crashing. Oh my goodness, I loved being in total control over where I want to be, (mostly) when I want to be. I can't go back to using Disney transportation.

I'm staying off-site this upcoming trip, so I pretty much need a car, now. So I'm good!

This is me. When we first started visiting Disney World I was all about take Disney transportation and thought it was the greatest thing. But then I started realizing how much time we waisted waiting for busses to arrive. So then we started taking our rental car to the parks and love it. The only place where parking does kind of suck is MK. Such a process to park at the TTC then take the monorail or boat over. But definitely love driving the car around the WDW resort now instead of busses.

 

[jrsharp21]

SAFD: I am also an MK guy. Since I grew up going to Disneyland, MK is so close to the same set up as DL that I get a lot of that childhood nostalgia from the MK. No better feeling than walking underneath the train tracks and down Main Street first thing in the morning.

 

[PrincessV]

SAFD: EP is my fave - probably always and forever. I love the wide open spaces, relaxing atmosphere, and attention to diverse architectural detail. It’s not necessarily where I’d take first-timers, though: that would depend on who they are - my best friend and her young family? I took to MK. Another close friend as an adult? EP for F&WF.

 

[camaker]

SAFD: Magic Kingdom has always been my favorite and the park that I feel most epitomizes Disney. Any time I bring a first-timer, Main Street USA down to the castle is where I introduce them. As far as other parks go, I've always loved Epcot and it's been a close 2nd to MK. Until recently. I understand the need for progress and updating, but it feels like they ripped too much out of Epcot all at once and outside of World Showcase, its current defining feature is construction barriers, not Disney magic. As a result, AK has taken over the #2 spot for me. I hope Epcot makes a recovery at some point, but it seems far away right now.

 

[1lilspark]

SAFD Epcot …
Though I’d take first timers to MK first

 

[HangWithMerida]

Amazingly, I was able to run a 9:14 average and was actually on pace to run under 2 hours (9:09 pace) until the last three miles which were quite hilly. Glad to say I finished right on target for the goal pace, though I ended up with a super annoying time of 2:00:54 (still fair to say 2 hours??)

TLDR: trust the training. You can do more than you thought.

Fantastic!! That has to be a big confidence boost!

 

[kps7795]

A couple weeks ago I posted a question about how to pace a half-marathon called for on my training plan for the full. Thanks to a pretty clear consensus here, I ran it today at what Mcmillian says is the equivalent half time for my goal marathon pace (9:15 half -> 9:44 full). Though my PR is faster than that, I literally didn’t think I’d be able to stick anywhere close to a 9:15 pace given what I thought was my current fitness. I figured I could drop back to making it a marathon pace effort if I just wasn’t feeling it. Amazingly, I was able to run a 9:14 average and was actually on pace to run under 2 hours (9:09 pace) until the last three miles which were quite hilly. Glad to say I finished right on target for the goal pace, though I ended up with a super annoying time of 2:00:54 (still fair to say 2 hours??)

TLDR: trust the training. You can do more than you thought.

That's really great. Congratulations!

 

[marty3d]

SAFD: it’s like picking your favorite child!

ok - will go with the easy question first. MK if it’s someone’s first time.

For my favorite, I will also pick MK for nostalgia (DL was my first Disney park) With DHS a close second.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

SAFD: Is it a Disney park? Yes I love it. I love each on for it's own reason and will be happy in all of them. If I am made to choose I probably choose MK cause I have to get a pic in front of the castle every time. Also have to bring a first timer to MK cause that is what everyone thinks when they think Disney.

 

[accm]

Slightly unrelated, but I’m buying Hamilton tickets online, and the experience is just night and day from MW registration. I got an email this morning with a link, it specifically said that anyone in the queu prior to 10am would be placed in the queue in random order, with people coming on after being placed in chronological order. Even though I got a crappy place in the queue, at least I knew what was going on, and didn’t need multiple tabs open to try to increase my chances. Oh, and the website didn’t crash.
Why can’t RunDisney implement something like that?

 

[Dom497]

Slightly unrelated, but I’m buying Hamilton tickets online, and the experience is just night and day from MW registration. I got an email this morning with a link, it specifically said that anyone in the queu prior to 10am would be placed in the queue in random order, with people coming on after being placed in chronological order. Even though I got a crappy place in the queue, at least I knew what was going on, and didn’t need multiple tabs open to try to increase my chances. Oh, and the website didn’t crash.
Why can’t RunDisney implement something like that?

Because they know no matter what the races will sell out so they have no incentive to invest in updating the system.

 

[jpeterson]

Slightly unrelated, but I’m buying Hamilton tickets online, and the experience is just night and day from MW registration. I got an email this morning with a link, it specifically said that anyone in the queu prior to 10am would be placed in the queue in random order, with people coming on after being placed in chronological order. Even though I got a crappy place in the queue, at least I knew what was going on, and didn’t need multiple tabs open to try to increase my chances. Oh, and the website didn’t crash.
Why can’t RunDisney implement something like that?

Aside from the crashing that is exactly the system runDisney uses. People use multiple tabs and browsers to get the lowest possible place in the queue since it's random.

RunDisney uses a 3rd party queue. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's the same one you just used for Hamilton

 

[accm]

Aside from the crashing that is exactly the system runDisney uses. People use multiple tabs and browsers to get the lowest possible place in the queue since it's random.

RunDisney uses a 3rd party queue. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's the same one you just used for Hamilton

It’s not, because every person got an individual link after pre registering. So even if you opened multiple tabs, they would all be the same place in the queue. By having people pre register and get individual links, their site would get less traffic, which means it would be less likely to crash.

 

[jpeterson]

It’s not, because every person got an individual link after pre registering. So even if you opened multiple tabs, they would all be the same place in the queue. By having people pre register and get individual links, their site would get less traffic, which means it would be less likely to crash.

I wonder if they have any issues with link stealing or reverse engineering? That would have to be a concern of the developers.

If demand continues to rise for runDisney events, they may have to go to a lottery system like the bigger marathons have.

 

[pluto377]

SAFD- MK is my favorite and also where I'd take a first-timer. But I really love all the parks and appreciate how different they are.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Has Epcot ever remained fully closed until the Half Marathon and Marathon races are completed? Park hours for Marathon Weekend are out and Epcot does not open until 10am on the Saturday and 11am on Sunday.

Possible that park ops doesn't want to deal with the crowd control logistics and/or making some course changes that would make the logistics impossible?

The last finishers of the full won't finish until around or a little after 1. That is still a good bit of overlap on Sunday.

 

[Herding_Cats]

SAFD (2 days late): MK. For all of the reasons everyone already stated. I have nothing new to add.

In planning news, we bought our tickets and made our park reservations over the weekend. Also grabbed memory maker for all of the race photos. (MM is now full.)