I'm assuming they're done and the extras were baked into the initial sellout. This is the first time that the 5k was LAST to sell out. If they end up releasing more than the usual one or two bib spurts that come up randomly I'll be a bit surprised. Definitely possible, there isn't really a precedent for this, but they clearly had more bibs in the initial sale.
Yup, I betting on an expansion of CrD to keep more money coming in for the same spots.
Strong disagree that they’re going after the legit runners. RunDisney has always been the every one is welcome and can participate crowd. You hear it walking around the parks as well as online. The vibe is coming in undertrained, fun run.
I hardly even talk about rD outside of here because of the reputation outside of Disney fans. It’s part of the reason I don’t even buy merch anymore. A lot of runners don’t take the rD crowd seriously.
Without a legitimate method of transferring bibs, this is complicated and a huge risk to both parties. Club registrations are limited ONLY to the Club member and are only accessible in the rD system after you're logged in. There's no way to register for someone else during Club access, so the buyer would essentially have to bandit and run under the Club member's name. This also means the Club member would have to visit the expo to pick up the bib and shirts and hand them off to the buyer in person. If they were caught, both would be banned from future rD races.
There was a video going around social media with the caption "this is why people don't take runDisney seriously" and it was showing the finish chute of the marathon. It made me so angry.Strong disagree that they’re going after the legit runners. RunDisney has always been the every one is welcome and can participate crowd. You hear it walking around the parks as well as online. The vibe is coming in undertrained, fun run.
(Thankfully, local races in the area aren't super elite because a lot of locals also do runDisney.)
Not just FL residents. I know this isn't entirely in Disney's control but I have never seen Canadian resident offers as strong as they have been in the last six months. Since I can get either Canadian or Florida resident discounts I'm always comparing the 2, the CDN offer for MW was better. I think right now it's shifted back in Florida resident's favour. But there's definitely a capacity issue going on at the hotels and parks. I wonder if that also drove the increased marketing around rD. Right now it's all about filling rooms and getting people into the parks.
The drop in Canadian snowbirds and tourists is HUGE over here in Tampa Bay and the beaches. It’s really hurting the local hospitality economy. Interesting to see that the parks are feeling it, too.
Thank you - this will now be stuck in my head for the next week...
Good info! I had no idea how it actually worked thank you for the explanation. Making sure I understand this correctly, you cannot sign up your spouse/kid under a platinum and each needs their own CrD? That's kinda wild.
I guess I don't see why they should continue with CrD being limited for guaranteed registrations. What does runDisney care about limited registration? More money per registration is better for them. I think with the pure lotto style now you'll see increased demand for CrD. Which is going to lead to price increases for CrD. Then you expand the numbers for CrD and make the lotto even lower odds of hitting.
They are not immune to public pressure and the risk of backlash isn't worth it to them right now. Hence, they're choosing to increase revenue through expanding the 5k field.
Correct. Only the member is eligible for personal early registration. (Also only the member gets the on-site benefits of early expo entry, packet pick-up and corral bump, respectively.) Gold members get one registration per weekend and Platinum gets two. One registration can be either a single race or a challenge. The reasoning behind two for Platinum was that you could sign yourself up for the 5K and Challenge for any given weekend where those are split.
One big difference between NYRR and CrD is CrD is currently limited to US residents. If they were to change registration to the point that you almost need CrD to get in, this would exclude a lot of international runners - and Disney is still pushing hard for international tourists to come to WDW.
I think this is where the GMA segment came from. As far as I'm aware, runDisney started off as an attendance boost to otherwise low attendance times. Adding more 5k bibs and advertising means hopefully they'll end up with more people who are first timers or will spend more money.
A lot of people keep their CrD membership because they know it'll be next to impossible to get it back. If it became unlimited, that incentive would no longer be there. They would also get a lot of pushback/bad publicity if they did this, and made it impossible for the general public to register. The people signing up for CrD are also the repeat runners, who may be less likely to spend money on merch and on property in general.
Why not do both? Increase CrD spots, not more than demand but just enough to grab more money per registrations that now are harder than ever to get. People don't let their CrD lapse because of the perceived limited availability. Then continue to increase registration costs for all races. As long as they keep selling out they have no incentive to change things to better the consumer experience.
