Marathon Weekend 2023

[camaker]

This is indeed a different process/algorithm and will change the strategy. In the past (earlier than yesterday) it seemed to make sense to start a couple of browser windows before registration started, and then a couple right after registration started. Now the "afters" will be behind all of the "befores" so it will make sense to start all of the browser windows early. Random order will also incent people to open even more windows up. We sorta laughed at 12 this week, but that may be a minimum for a lot of us during the next go around.

I don't think it's a change. This is pretty much how I've understood the system to work from the start. They're just explaining It now because so many folks thought the waiting room was like lining up outside a store for a product release.

 

[Ariel484]

I’m DVC also and would’ve preferred a monorail resort, but my home resort is CCV and I know there is very little/no chance of switching by the time the 7 month window rolls around. I love CCV, especially around the holidays, but the monorail loop would’ve just been a little more convenient.

I’m a SW fan as well, solely because I use points to fly, but the amount of direct flights has been incredibly limited since covid. I’m hoping to fly Tuesday evening after work, so I can get to the expo early (probably renting a car) Wednesday morning with limited issues. This will probably mean a nondirect flight though, which makes me a little nervous at that time of year…

You probably already know this since you own there, but I watched a YouTube video from someone who stayed at CCV for marathon weekend this year and I think they said they had pool-view rooms. They were woken up by the Electrical Water Pageant a couple of times, I think at 8PM and 11PM. So maybe keep that in mind if you put in any kind of room requests!

I don't think it's a change. This is pretty much how I've understood the system to work from the start. They're just explaining It now because so many folks thought the waiting room was like lining up outside a store for a product release.

I thought the same. I was trying to do some research on registration since I hadn't done it in so long - long enough that I hadn't yet registered for a race through runDisney since they switched from Active.com - and I did hear that people thought that you were assigned a random place in the queue even if you were in the "waiting room" ahead of other people.

The wrinkle is that I don't think anyone had any "official" confirmation of that (that I know of?), it was just based on guesses from previous registration experiences (for example, I got my info on how the waiting room/queue worked from an unofficial runDisney podcast). That and runDisney's "don't refresh in the waiting room" message was confusing if it turns out that really didn't matter.

It's better that runDisney is being a little more transparent about that now, but it's little/no consolation for anyone that waited ahead of time and got shut out. This info should have been laid out on their website - it shouldn't be something that you have to cobble together from podcasts, message boards, etc.

 

[jpeterson]

You probably already know this since you own there, but I watched a YouTube video from someone who stayed at CCV for marathon weekend this year and I think they said they had pool-view rooms. They were woken up by the Electrical Water Pageant a couple of times, I think at 8PM and 11PM. So maybe keep that in mind if you put in any kind of room requests!

I also own there and can confirm that from certain rooms the water pageant is loud! But that's true of the Poly and Contemporary/Bay Lake as well. Never stayed at GF, but seems it would be there too.

 

[thej]

At least you get the bling and the Disney trip. And you get to skip the early early morning wake-ups!!

Getting to sleep in is definitely a nice consolation prize!

 

[fatmanatee]

Yeah like I said, I was always under the impression that this queue system (enter fifteen minutes before, line is randomized at the start) has been in place for awhile, it just flat out didn’t work because the site crashed. I’m worried that this is going to continue to be a problem because people will have 10+ browser windows going AND additional windows for when registration opens, just in case that glitch happens again. Hopefully this is a one time thing due to the theme/increased international participation and it settles down for future race weekends.

 

[Kerry1957]

I don't think it's a change. This is pretty much how I've understood the system to work from the start. They're just explaining It now because so many folks thought the waiting room was like lining up outside a store for a product release.

I think you are correct for last week's MW registration, but in past years for at least W&D and for MW the browsers I started just after registration began were often the ones that I got into first.
I could never explain that fully, but guessed that even "late" (by a minute or two) entries used to get you in to some random order. They have now indicated that this will not happen in the future; people in ahead of the open will be served first in a random order, then others will be served in the order they entered the system.

 

[camaker]

I think you are correct for last week's MW registration, but in past years for at least W&D and for MW the browsers I started just after registration began were often the ones that I got into first.
I could never explain that fully, but guessed that even "late" (by a minute or two) entries used to get you in to some random order. They have now indicated that this will not happen in the future; people in ahead of the open will be served first in a random order, then others will be served in the order they entered the system.

Perhaps I'm reading too much (or not enough) into it, but the waiting room message seems to say that the people in the waiting room will be given a random place in the queue once it opens and people joining after registration opens will be placed into the queue in the order that they hit the site. Nowhere does it say that people joining as/after registration opens will be placed in line behind those that started in the waiting room. It's entirely possible that the queue that waiting room residents are placed in has gaps built in to accommodate those joining registration in progress. A seeding into the queue process would also seem to be consistent with the approach proposed by the "pre-queue" article that @lukemorenus posted which said that one of the reasons for the system was to level the playing field and ensure that people had more equitable chance of obtaining the product on offer by eliminating the first/fastest reward which can often be dominated by bots these days.

It's an interesting theoretical discussion around what constitutes "fairness" in an e-commerce system.

 

[Kerry1957]

Perhaps I'm reading too much (or not enough) into it, but the waiting room message seems to say that the people in the waiting room will be given a random place in the queue once it opens and people joining after registration opens will be placed into the queue in the order that they hit the site. Nowhere does it say that people joining as/after registration opens will be placed in line behind those that started in the waiting room. It's entirely possible that the queue that waiting room residents are placed in has gaps built in to accommodate those joining registration in progress. A seeding into the queue process would also seem to be consistent with the approach proposed by the "pre-queue" article that @lukemorenus posted which said that one of the reasons for the system was to level the playing field and ensure that people had more equitable chance of obtaining the product on offer by eliminating the first/fastest reward which can often be dominated by bots these days.

It's an interesting theoretical discussion around what constitutes "fairness" in an e-commerce system.

The new message is certainly open for interpretation. My interpretation of the statement "Those who enter after booking begins will be place in numerical order." was that in essence there would be a two-tier system. Tier 1) Those who enter before booking begins will be randomized at the start of booking, and Tier 2) Those who enter after will have to wait until the pre-booking entry people are done, and then will be served on a first come first served basis.

They do not explicitly state that the post-booking people will be second tier, but only that they will be placed in numerical order. That could, as you suggest, be within the "original" randomized pool. "Numeric order" would then suggest that there would be gaps built in and that the after registration begins joiners would fill those gaps with the earliest after registration begins joiners getting the best gaps. And that would in turn suggest that there may be utility in starting one additional browser the second after registration begins. Confusing and convoluted for sure.

And yes, it is an interesting theoretical discussion as I'm not sure if anyone outside of rD really knows how it works. I'm not even sure if rD knows how it really works.

 

[camaker]

And yes, it is an interesting theoretical discussion as I'm not sure if anyone outside of rD really knows how it works. I'm not even sure if rD knows how it really works.

Since they're basically just using the platform that ShopDisney uses for limited edition merch drops and the parks use for special ticket events, I would wager that you're right about RunDisney not knowing exactly what's under the hood.

The fact that it's used as a platform across multiple Disney departments, though, makes me think that it's highly unlikely anything has been changed with the system, especially just since Tuesday.

 

[NYC_MW]

@lookingforsunshine @Desdemona924 @jpeterson @Herding_Cats @Marebear_runs @accm @YawningDodo @HangWithMerida
Thanks for all the replies! So glad I asked. The experience and helpfulness of this forum saves the day again.

 

[sandam1]

I find it very interesting that as of right now (about 4.5 hours after opening), all of the virtual race options are still open. I would have thought that, with Tuesday's carnage, that people would have shifted to the virtual option. Maybe Disney did too?

 

[fatmanatee]

I'm not an IT person but I would venture a guess that they didn't build this system (which, as mentioned before, exists with a lot of ticketing and running sites), they just operate it. When the system crashed at 10, they mishandled the restart and it's possible (???) that there were two parallel queues, with the second being for people who lucked in by loading the site at 12:30. I'm wondering if they should have booted everyone from the 10 am queue, announced the new start time, telling everyone to get into the new queue at 12:15 (or, if possible, refreshing the site so everyone is entered into the new queue). And this is where I once again qualify that I'm talking about RD ops here so who knows if that would have been screwed up.

 

[accm]

I find it very interesting that as of right now (about 4.5 hours after opening), all of the virtual race options are still open. I would have thought that, with Tuesday's carnage, that people would have shifted to the virtual option. Maybe Disney did too?

I know I would have skipped the virtual options had I not been able to register on Tuesday. Also, the virtual races are only open to US residents, so that also limits the pool of people who can register.

 

[fatmanatee]

I find it very interesting that as of right now (about 4.5 hours after opening), all of the virtual race options are still open. I would have thought that, with Tuesday's carnage, that people would have shifted to the virtual option. Maybe Disney did too?

I wouldn't have. For me the appeal is doing the races in person, particularly if we're talking about marathons. Keep in mind that I wasn't in on this but if I wanted in and didn't get in, I'd more likely turn to one of the following two race weekends, or just wait for MW 2024.

 

[jpeterson]

I know I would have skipped the virtual options had I not been able to register on Tuesday. Also, the virtual races are only open to US residents, so that also limits the pool of people who can register.

I would have had to think hard about it. I like getting the medals and all, but this was really about the experience for me

 

[sandam1]

I know I would have skipped the virtual options had I not been able to register on Tuesday.

I wouldn't have. For me the appeal is doing the races in person, particularly if we're talking about marathons. Keep in mind that I wasn't in on this but if I wanted in and didn't get in, I'd more likely turn to one of the following two race weekends, or just wait for MW 2024.

I would have had to think hard about it. I like getting the medals and all, but this was really about the experience for me

I agree that the experience is a big part of the race weekend and I would never consider doing it virtually (particularly the marathon/Dopey), but something still just seems to be off with this whole thing. Reports were that people were gaga about the the theme and that helped cause things to go sideways on Tuesday. But the theme is the same for both in-person and virtual so if that was the case something from the virtual races should have sold out by now.

 

[HangWithMerida]

I find it very interesting that as of right now (about 4.5 hours after opening), all of the virtual race options are still open. I would have thought that, with Tuesday's carnage, that people would have shifted to the virtual option. Maybe Disney did too?

I also would not be signing up for virtual if I couldn't get an in-person spot. I have tried virtual events and they just aren't the same. I feel like I get a medal for a training run. The actual race day experience is what I am here for! I know some people love them but I just can't get excited for virtual races.

 

[dancingtodisney]

I registered for DVC Moonlight Magic and the Guardians DVC preview over the last week and a bit and both used the queue-it which worked so much better. You were assigned a unique queue ID and if you opened another browser window it simple showed the same queue ID (i.e it didn’t create a seperate place in the queue) - if you open and incognito window you got a 2nd queue ID but any further incognito windows opened returned the same ID as the first incognito window. I imagine this significantly reduced the number of unique queue IDs overall.

It worked in the same way in terms of a random queue allocation once the go live time hit although with the link you could join the queue at anytime (not just 15mins before) and if you joined after the go live time your queue number was allocated right away and you were at the back of the queue (I tested this).

This worked so much better than the RunDisney registration (although separately they completely messed up sending out invite emails only after the go live and luckily someone of here had identified the queue link and shared it by reverse engineering a previous one)

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

I agree that the experience is a big part of the race weekend and I would never consider doing it virtually (particularly the marathon/Dopey), but something still just seems to be off with this whole thing. Reports were that people were gaga about the the theme and that helped cause things to go sideways on Tuesday. But the theme is the same for both in-person and virtual so if that was the case something from the virtual races should have sold out by now.

The price is just soo expensive for being virtual. Like why are the longer race more expensive than the shorter ones?? It is a shirt and medal... if I did not get in (well I first try to fund raise) but if nothing else worked I would just save my money and try for princess.

 

[kristenabelle]

I also would not be signing up for virtual if I couldn't get an in-person spot. I have tried virtual events and they just aren't the same. I feel like I get a medal for a training run. The actual race day experience is what I am here for! I know some people love them but I just can't get excited for virtual races.

I did the Princess Virtual in 2021 for the Belle medal, and wiped out at Mile 11 since my running trail was frozen over. Limped myself to the end sans cheering or any kind of fun, and vowed never again