Ooops, sorry, Diane.......I see you posted almost the exact same answer! (great minds think alike) I just quoted and responded before I read further down.
I'm curious about what you said about the MK passes. For some reason, I was always under the impression you DID need a pass to get onto Main St. even though the rest of the park was not yet open to the public. Then when they do drop line at 9a.m. it's no big deal because all the runners have either passed through or (as in 2008) been rerouted around the MK. Obviously, you can't have people running through the real runners to get to an E-ticket ride. I was not aware of the fact that they actually clear out the park once the runners have gone through. It doesn't seem very efficient to me since the people who don't want to use a ticket can always cheer at TTC or Contempory among other places. Are you sure about not needing a ticket?
I've always steered my cheering squad to other locations because I thought they did.
LOL Jeanne! It's all good. Plus you pointed out going back to TTC to grab the monorail instead of taking it from the Polynesian. Save time and it's a nice maybe 5 minute? walk back to the TTC.
No ticket needed to view the race on Main St. They do a bag check as normal and let you in. You are only allowed on Main St and up by the Castle. My Mom has done it twice now and other Team Mates. So i'm going on what I've heard from them. If you go directly to the MK you might not be let in immediately. In Jan they don't let them in till 6 or 6:30 am. From what I heard in January and again not sure if this will be true in March...but something was open on Main St selling coffee. I thought it was the Bakery? Then I thought this year I read that it was Casey's. But somewhere there WAS coffee being sold LOL I can't believe it would be the bakery because you'd cross the course to get to it. But maybe they have it open for a few minutes and then close up again.
Anyways.. the runners go thru. then they clear it out and clean it up. The 1st year Mom watched us we were towards the back more so when she finished seeing us, she hung around abit, then hit the potty. Came out and planned on getting a photo of some characters that had been near the course and silence.
Apparently everyone was on their way out, they were clearing the park. No characters, the crowd what was left was moving out. They will close and reopen. For Epcot you will need a pass to get in and I'm not sure if they let anyone in before opening. I have never heard.
Lots of people like the Main St/Castle because hey it's the MK! What a great place to see your family. Now that I've done it a few times I'm asking my Mom and DH to go elsewhere. By the way, I was surprised there really wasn't a crowd by the Contemporary during this year's Half. I think there was a group of volunteers or something but not like the 2008 Full's crowd. So I wasn't sure if they were telling people to not cheer there? I had actually told Mom to go there LOL She went to the MK instead. Which is good too, I was able to drop things off before my Castle photo
Oh and another COFFEE mention... the Polynesian's counter service is open early. But if you go there and plan on monorailing to the MK they won't let you on or was it they won't stop at the MK till they are ready for the spectators. Mom mentioned the 1st year she stoped there for coffee and then headed to the monorail and either they wouldn't let her on the monorail yet because it wasn't stopping or it wasn't stopping at the MK yet. She still go in, she moved to the end of Main Street just before you turn to go towards Tomorrowland.
I hope all that is as clear as mud
And no you don't want me giving you driving directions to Goodings (which is over by Down Town Disney, very easy to find but I'd have you in Ohio LOL).
But, definately will hit Margaritaville some other time! Took me 1.5 hrs to get here.
, but I'm still going to try to go. But there will be plenty of others there.
