Planning for Princess 5K

[mirnmart]

Hi all!
Very new to the world of running. Doing my first 5k in February at Disney World! Just trying to make some plans and wondering how much time I should expect to spend getting to and from the race. I see on the website it says board the bus no later than 5am for 6am race. After the race is done how long can I expect it to take to get back to my resort (staying at Saratoga Springs). Thanks for the help!

 

[Anisum]

First of all congratulations! The Princess 5k was my first runDisney race and I had a great time.

So, I've never stayed at Saratoga Springs so I can't say for certain. What I will suggest is getting on the first bus which is usually around 3:00-3:30 depending on the race. I say this because buses have been known to get lost. This usually is a larger concern on the half since things are much stricter with start times and such but I always feel like better safe than sorry. According to the internet it will take you about a 1/2 hour to get from Saratoga to Epcot and since the race starts in the Epcot parking lot I would bet on similar time. When you finish a bus should be waiting to pick up or just arriving. Depending on the number of people they may wait for a little bit so it can fill up but you'll be sitting on a comfortable bus. Again it's probably a 1/2 hour back. Maybe a bit more since things will be starting to pick up with cast members coming into work and such.

Depending on your corral (which for the 5k doesn't seem to have logic connected to it) you may start closer to 7am than 6am. So to figure out when you'd be back add in your run time + 45 minutes (because even once you finish you gotta grab your medal and post race snacks) if you plan to head straight to the bus. If you plan to stop and take pictures post race (also a great thing) then you may need more. Usually I don't think we book anything before 12pm dining wise because we are all about showering when we get back to the hotel (also there are usually 3+ people in my group).

Hope that helped and have a wonderful race!

 

[roxymama]

I've only ran one disney 5k at WDW...but I went back to my race recap to see my timing in the morning. It was marathon weekend so not sure how different that makes the experience.

I woke up at 3:45am
Grandpa woke up at 4am
We left our hotel about 4:20 ish
50 people in front of us in line for bus at the Contemporary
We got onto the 2nd bus that pulled up but it did take awhile.
We arrived at Epcot and walked to the corrals and they were still extremely empty. I lined up about 4 rows back from the front of my corral after water and potty breaks.
I was in corral B & Grandpa was in C.
I ran 38 minutes and he ran 39 min. He almost caught up to me because I spent almost 6 of those min. stopping for pictures (the character lines are waaaaay shorter apparently for B corral people & Grandpa didn't stop at all.)
The bus line back to the hotel took awhile and we got on the second one once we were in line (missed the first by one seat!) NOTE: some bus drivers let people stand and some do not since they are not all official disney busses...so # of people allowed on each bus varies.
We stopped at two other resorts before going to Contemporary.
We were inside the Contemporary at 8:15am just in time to join rest of family at Chef Mickey's


I know I'm only one person with one experience...but I hope that helps.

 

[Keels]

You might ask this on the Princess Thread as there are MANY past runners active on there - I'm sure someone has stayed at SS and could give you insight!

 

[Fire14]

I've run 5k but never stayed at SS. I personally have been in corral C or E. I usually don't book anything before 9:30 A reservation wise. I know in 2015. I was in Corral E started at front of corral and was heading back to my resort ( pop) by 8:15ish. WE went back to room, drop stuff off, wiped faces down and headed out to brfst res at poly. If not for monorail issues we would have made it in time for 9:30 a res. We also had lost Husband issue in amongst that time