question about buses and marathons?

[dizzy about daisy]

Hey everyone, this is my first post so I hope this is right. Me and family are going to WDW in Feb when the princess half marathon is on and we "heard" that there may be a problem getting buses to the parks on the saturday and sunday due to the race. Has anyone been or know about this?

 

[JennyDrake]

NO. You will NOT have problems if using WDW trnasportation, you WILL have issues if driving your own car.

 

[winthropf]

From personal experience, you probably will have delays and problems. The marathon routes go through the Epcot and MK bus loading/unloading areas. Transportation to both Epcot & MK in the morning will be to the TTC with many backups from left turn traffic. I once waited on a bus for 45 minutes to turn left to the TTC on a half marathon morning.

If I am there on a half or full marathon morning and wish to go to Epcot, I will take a taxi to the Beach Club and enter through International Gateway. If I am going to the MK, I take a taxi to the Contemporary (will have some delays due to single lane traffic) and walk to the MK (will have a wait to cross the street to wait for a break in the runners to allow crossing).

 

[disnut8]

Hey everyone, this is my first post so I hope this is right. Me and family are going to WDW in Feb when the princess half marathon is on and we "heard" that there may be a problem getting buses to the parks on the saturday and sunday due to the race. Has anyone been or know about this?

Buses will be the way to go for any marathon day. The drivers know the routes and will avoid any problem areas they can. We were there during the "big" marathon in January and while it took a bit longer on the bus, it wasn't that bad. You will absolutely get a bus to any park you want to visit those days. Just expect the ride to take more time than normal.

I honestly would just add maybe 15-30 minutes more for your commute (if that) and don't worry about it.

 

[Robo]

From personal experience, you probably will have delays and problems. The marathon routes go through the Epcot and MK bus loading/unloading areas. Transportation to both Epcot & MK in the morning will be to the TTC with many backups from left turn traffic. I once waited on a bus for 45 minutes to turn left to the TTC on a half marathon morning.

I wonder if you might be confusing some different events.
The OP is asking about the Princess Half Marathon in February.

Doesn't sound like there would be much of a problem with MK parking.


From HERE-

Disney's Princess Half Marathon Parking


Parking at Epcot® is free before 7:00 a.m. If you arrive afterward, you will be charged the daily parking fee. Athletes and spectators should plan on arriving at Epcot® by 4:00 a.m. on the half marathon race morning.

The main entrance of Epcot® from World Drive will be closed to all traffic from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. on the morning of the half marathon.
All traffic will be directed to the Magic Kingdom® Park Parking Lot where they will be transported to Epcot® via monorail.

 

[Robo]

And...

to posting on the DISboards, dizzy about daisy!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Hey everyone, this is my first post so I hope this is right. Me and family are going to WDW in Feb when the princess half marathon is on and we "heard" that there may be a problem getting buses to the parks on the saturday and sunday due to the race. Has anyone been or know about this?

We were there last year but for the marathon in January and we stayed offsite but used bus service to the parks. We went to MK the day of the marathon and had very few problems. I had wanted to get to MK for rope drop and but we ended up getting there between 9:20 and 9:30 due to delays from traffic.

You should be fine as long as you allow extra travel time, as others said!

 

[winthropf]

I wonder if you might be confusing some different events.
The OP is asking about the Princess Half Marathon in February.

Doesn't sound like there would be much of a problem with MK parking.


From HERE-

Looking at the race route map, the course goes through the MK parking lot and up World Drive past the contemporary and the finish at Epcot goes through the bus loading area. My experience in the past is that the racers haven't finished before the parks open.

 

[dizzy about daisy]

Thank you so much for all your great ideas, we were planning on taking a taxi maybe but sounds like this might add to the problem and we should just wait out the bus, not like we are in a hurry anyway we are at WDW. I should have mentioned we are staying at Pop century and on the Saturday we wanted to go to morning MH at HS for 8am then go to AK at around 10-10:30 for the rest of the day. From the map I am looking at maybe transportation won't be a problem at all?

 

[Luvchefmic]

Welcome Dizzy for Daisy as a local and a
guest for 30 years prior word of advice when it comes to
something like a marathon, holiidays.etc Always use Disney
transportation when you can when it gets right down to it they
are expensive a taxi and when / traffic is backed up they are just another
car dont worry just have fun planning y
ou'll be fine

 

[graceandhayes]

We stayed at the Wyndham next to DTD last year Sat night before the Princess Half Marathon. Sun, the morning of the Princess, we checked out and drove to the Polynesian to check in. I can't remember how long it took, but traffic was backed up and it took longer than normal. We sat in traffic on World Drive for probably 30 minutes trying to take a left onto Seven Seas to get to the Poly. We were then detoured into the MK parking lot where we detoured into another line of cars that then exited the parking lot back onto Seven Seas to head to the Poly. We were frustrated because we didn't know what was going on, but the CMs who were directing traffic knew what they were doing. There was a lot of confused drivers who kept arguing with the CMs, and trying to cut in and out of the lines of cars.

The busses did not seem to be having problems, and were able to avoid the traffic jams caused by the cars. So, I would echo what JennyDrake said. You should not have problems using Disney transportation, but you will be delayed by traffic if you are in your car.

 

[cruisingkat]

The Princess runs from the Epcot parking lot over to Magic Kingdom, enters Magic Kingdom up main street thru the castle and back out to Epcot. They run on World Drive using both lanes - one for going to Magic Kingdom the other side for running back to Epcot. The roads start closing down the night before because they have decorated character spots along the run route (last year when we were on the monorail going from Epcot to Magic Kingdom to cheer on our runners, we saw some of the character spots on World Drive including a pirate ship). So getting around early in the morning can take longer than normal as the buses are rerouted.
Last year it seemed to be quite crowded at the parks - the resorts were sold out. Of course, that week included President's Day, Mardi Gras, and that weekend was also the NBA All-Star game was in Orlando (and Yacht Club where we stayed was not only a host resort for the Princess, but also was one of the hotels for the All-Star game as they had buses for both events).