Disneyland Half Marathon 2024

[XoxoAmy]

So I'm a DVC member and I'm looking to book VDH this morning. AND I'm usually on the east coast but my dad is having open heart surgery today, so I'm in CA (yawn 5am booking window) and we needed to leave for the hospital at 5:15am... and of course the DVC booking site is down (no surprise) so now I'm on my laptop in the car and then will be trying from the hospital waiting room...... (of all the days....)

Update: I finally got through on the DVC site at 5:44am and all rooms are full for the runD weekend - no surprise there. So now I have waitlists for a 1 bed and a studio (fingers crossed). I also have a regular room at the DL Hotel booked if the DVC doesn't go through (I'm sure it won't!)

 

[Novatrix]

My DVC timeline today:
So booking window for DVC was supposed to open while I was on a flight from the East Coast to the west, with a layover in Chicago.

The site actually opened just as we were deplaning at ORD. MLK weekend was fully booked so I impulse grabbed the Mon-Thurs. (Doing Coast to Coast, so will fly from Orlando earlier than originally intended.) Queue dwarves as soon as I tried to waitlist the actual run dates.

I'm now sitting on my next flight trying to waitlist the dates. Lol. At the very least, I'm keeping that Wednesday night to try out VDH!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Update: I finally got through on the DVC site at 5:44am and all rooms are full for the runD weekend - no surprise there. So now I have waitlists for a 1 bed and a studio (fingers crossed). I also have a regular room at the DL Hotel booked if the DVC doesn't go through (I'm sure it won't!)

My DVC timeline today:
So booking window for DVC was supposed to open while I was on a flight from the East Coast to the west, with a layover in Chicago.

The site actually opened just as we were deplaning at ORD. MLK weekend was fully booked so I impulse grabbed the Mon-Thurs. (Doing Coast to Coast, so will fly from Orlando earlier than originally intended.) Queue dwarves as soon as I tried to waitlist the actual run dates.

I'm now sitting on my next flight trying to waitlist the dates. Lol. At the very least, I'm keeping that Wednesday night to try out VDH!

Good luck to everyone trying to do dvc with VDH. I tried to log in just to see and gave up. Lol. I do not really have the points for it, I would have had to borrow to do it (then that would mess up future plans) and I am excited to try out the new Pixar Hotel.

 

[Kender]

I am living vicariously through all of you staying on site lol. I hope it's magical

 

[nekonekoneko]

I am living vicariously through all of you staying on site lol. I hope it's magical

I'm not staying onsite. Just too expensive.

 

[Kender]

I'm not staying onsite. Just too expensive.

Same. Especially for how little I'm in the room. The value for me just isn't there, but I'm so glad it works for others. Plus I usually travel with my cat to DLR and none of the on site hotels are pet friendly.

She's not with me this time, but I'm a creature of habit and staying at my usual hotel I would stay with her anyways. Plus if something changes last minute and she has to come with me, I'm already at a pet friendly hotel

 

[Grabnar]

I'm not staying onsite. Just too expensive.

You can stay in a top suite at the westin for the cost of a partial view room at the cali lol

 

[RunWI1265]

I’m unfamiliar with DL in January. Are we going to be hitting a bunch of ride closures when we are there? HM, IASW…I will be so sad!!

 

[TarynM]

I’m unfamiliar with DL in January. Are we going to be hitting a bunch of ride closures when we are there? HM, IASW…I will be so sad!!

They usually only have one of HM or IASW down at a time after the holidays, so at least one of them will be open for the run weekend! Small World went down right after the holidays ended and Haunted Mansion went down after earlier this year.

 

[Kender]

I’m unfamiliar with DL in January. Are we going to be hitting a bunch of ride closures when we are there? HM, IASW…I will be so sad!!

Only one will be down during race weekend. Usually it's HM since it's been its holiday version the longest.

There have been two years IASW went down first: 2020 and 2023

2020 was due to a planned longer refurb for HM. 2023... I guess they just wanted IASW open for the kick off of the 100th celebration?

But yeah. Don't sweat not getting both of them. You'll get at least one, most likely IASWH, but HMH is a possibility. Everything else with a holiday overlay is a very quick turn around. I wish we still did Jingle Cruise. From what I was told ours was significantly superior to WDW's. My WDW CM friends didn't understand why I loved Jingle Cruise so much until they rode DLR's. It's been gone for years, though . But that was also a possible closure to have had to deal with.

GRR may or may not be down. It's not consistent with the date, but it's usually a "starts sometime in January" refurb with few exceptions.

Splash is obviously down since it's getting rethemed to Tiana.

I'm hoping they might hold off on anything but immediately necessary refurbs until after race weekend. But we'll see. I've already warned friends that if they come with me that it won't be like when they come with me at the height of a holiday celebration.

 

[nekonekoneko]

The posts for the holidays are coming up, and Disney announced that Disneyland's celebration will be until January 7. So most of us will miss it.

 

[fatmanatee]

HM was down both times I ran the SW races, but IIRC they said they were extending the overlay recently right? If so it might still be up for this.

BTW, hung out here earlier this week, wondering if the races will go by

 

[sandam1]

In the past, does anyone know if they allowed spectators in the parks for the shorter races? My friend isn't doing the 10K ("just" the half) and I was wondering how this worked.

 

[fatmanatee]

In the past, does anyone know if they allowed spectators in the parks for the shorter races? My friend isn't doing the 10K ("just" the half) and I was wondering how this worked.

I could be wrong but I think they only allowed spectators in the brief section between the parks, don’t recall there being a similar stretch up to the castle for DL. Wouldn’t mind it though!

 

[sandam1]

I could be wrong but I think they only allowed spectators in the brief section between the parks, don’t recall there being a similar stretch up to the castle for DL. Wouldn’t mind it though!

I hope that they do have areas for spectators. It makes the races a lot more fun. The CMs are fun, but they just don't add the joy that regular spectators do.

 

[DisneyParrothead]

In the past, does anyone know if they allowed spectators in the parks for the shorter races? My friend isn't doing the 10K ("just" the half) and I was wondering how this worked.

When I did the Tinkerbell 10K, there were no spectators in either park. There were cheering sections in DTD leaving DCA and heading towards the finish line.

 

[nekonekoneko]

I could be wrong but I think they only allowed spectators in the brief section between the parks, don’t recall there being a similar stretch up to the castle for DL. Wouldn’t mind it though!

Would this be the esplanade?

Oh and I'd so love Sleeping Beauty Castle pictures in the morning! It would go great with the Cinderella Castle pictures the week before!

 

[jmasgat]

Anyone else other than me totally underwhelmed thinking about/planning for this race weekend? I have yet to book a flight, although I snagged a nearby hotel after I registered. Maybe it's because tickets aren't available til next month--it just makes trip planning feel so premature. I just don't quite feel like I'm into this. I think if I don't get over the feeling, I'll just cancel the trip.

 

[fatmanatee]

Anyone else other than me totally underwhelmed thinking about/planning for this race weekend? I have yet to book a flight, although I snagged a nearby hotel after I registered. Maybe it's because tickets aren't available til next month--it just makes trip planning feel so premature. I just don't quite feel like I'm into this. I think if I don't get over the feeling, I'll just cancel the trip.

Flight tickets aren’t available until next month? That seems pretty late. I have everything booked except for a rental car, which I’m still deciding on but most likely I’ll be doing it.

Unrelated but RD is teasing medal reveals for MW tomorrow, so hopefully we get pics of DL medals soon. And… maybe CTC?

 

[Naomeri]

Anyone else other than me totally underwhelmed thinking about/planning for this race weekend? I have yet to book a flight, although I snagged a nearby hotel after I registered. Maybe it's because tickets aren't available til next month--it just makes trip planning feel so premature. I just don't quite feel like I'm into this. I think if I don't get over the feeling, I'll just cancel the trip.

I got my flight during SWA’s California sale a week or two ago, but the lack of packages is driving me nuts! Can Disneyland just release 2024 already???