Fantasyland Expansion and Marathon Weekend

[dragitoff]

I thought of putting this in the Theme Park Strategies section, but I thought marathoners would know better. I'm running the 2013 full marathon and was going to visit a park Sunday after the race. We're not heading home until Monday morning.

Since we're staying at the Contemporary and DW and DD's can utilize the monorail to see me run and get to and from the hotels and parks, we were thinking of going to MK Sunday after the race. Our primary motivation is for the new Fantasyland Expansion.

Based on past years, how busy is the MK post-marathon? I should finish up around 10am and could be in the parks by noon after showering and changing. It's EMH that night so the park is open until 10pm.

We know the parks and will probably spend the majority of the time in the parks doing our favorite attractions, but most of it in Fantasyland. How crowded should we expect it to be?

 

[disney_runner]

I've done the MK EMH twice now on marathon Sunday (2008 and 2012) and it was a LOT more crowded than I thought it would be. Can't comment on the regular park hours though as I didn't arrive until fireworks time. But there were long lines everywhere. This year, I specifically remember BTMRR having a 40 minute wait (didn't bother), HM was about 20, and Jungle Cruise was maybe like 20 also. I think I waited for Pirates about 10. So not terrible by any means, but longer than I had hoped for. And with tired legs, I just gave up after that. Sorry, probably not what you want to hear. But maybe it's better during the day.

 

[dragitoff]

I've done the MK EMH twice now on marathon Sunday (2008 and 2012) and it was a LOT more crowded than I thought it would be. Can't comment on the regular park hours though as I didn't arrive until fireworks time. But there were long lines everywhere. This year, I specifically remember BTMRR having a 40 minute wait (didn't bother), HM was about 20, and Jungle Cruise was maybe like 20 also. I think I waited for Pirates about 10. So not terrible by any means, but longer than I had hoped for. And with tired legs, I just gave up after that. Sorry, probably not what you want to hear. But maybe it's better during the day.

Hey, I want honesty here! Good, bad or indifferent!

Normally, we're hardcore parkers where it's rush, rush, rush to the next attraction. Between the new FP rules and tired legs, I expect it to be a "take it easy" kind of day for me.

 

[Reep]

When I ran in 2003, it was cool and MK was not very busy. In 2010, it was freeeeeeeezing, but there must have been some East coast holidays, or late back to school time because all the parks were pretty busy considering the weather. I think a lot of the park loads will be determined by when most East coast schools get back in session.