Future of west coast runDisney

[jennamfeo]

Disneyland in Spring or Disneyland early December is awesome.

We are thinking first weekend in March for my bday and my daughter's bday!

True - but getting up for a DL race compared to a WDW rD race was like night and day. For a DL race I got to the corrals by 4:45am but walking down the street form my hotel. At WDW we have to get up even earlier!

Dude, I am running my first WDW race in November and the early early mornings there miiiiight kill me. Disneyland mornings were a cake walk compared to what I think WDW will be like. Womp, womp.

 

[jaxonp]

We are thinking first weekend in March for my bday and my daughter's bday!



Dude, I am running my first WDW race in November and the early early mornings there miiiiight kill me. Disneyland mornings were a cake walk compared to what I think WDW will be like. Womp, womp.

It's fine. I don't notice a difference between the two... Both are early.

 

[StarGirl11]

I'm starting to feel like one of the few people who legit thinks they will come back judging by Facebook. I'm not saying it will come back to its full form. But I think they are shorting too many runners and lose too much money to not consider bringing it back after construction.

It also might be I'm in denial but let me live in it for now.

 

[bellrae]

The worst of this is still how long they took to announce this decision. When they postponed registration at the start of the year - they clearly knew, and yet they used language that gave people confidence in making travel bookings. People will be out of pocket. Not everyone will be able to get refunds on hotels and accommodation. I am now stuck with an extra week in the USA on vacation that I would not have taken and saved for something else had it not been for wanting to do light side and get my C2C (It would cost me $500 to change my flight, so I am just going to have to suck it up and make the most of it - I made my flight bookings as soon as I registered for Dopey back in January because that is what you have to do when you are flying from the other side of the world!). It is the silence and the delays that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Marathon weekend will be my last runDisney race for at least the next little while. The lack of customer service here is going to take a while to forget.

 

[jennamfeo]

I want to believe that they did not want to cancel the races. That they were trying to come up with some way, between the construction and the City of Anaheim, to make the races work. But they just couldn't. I don't think that the happiest place in the world would hold on to people's money for no reason. Sure, it sucks. Sure, they could have been communicating better about what was going on. But they didn't.

 

[JulieODC]

Wow, glad they finally made an announcement - and refunds are nice, but doesn’t make up for unrefundable travel costs.

I’m glad I impulsively did Tink this year - not sure we’d have made it to DL for a long while otherwise.

 

[Anisum]

I'm so happy that people are getting full refunds to their original forms of payment, but I'm really, really sorry for everyone who was planning on doing a 2018 event at Disneyland.

And I feel really, really sorry for the CMs that have to deal with the complaints...but I can't believe that runDisney waited so long to make this announcement.

I agree about the refunds. I do feel bad for anyone who had bought a non-refundable hotel or flight for a race weekend (such as Light Side) prior to all this.

I know they said they would refund but that doesn't help the people who signed up strictly for C2C. Are they going to refund that too if people ask? I wasn't signed up for either, just wondering.

My personal guess would be no. C2C has always been a bonus. I feel like runDisney's response will be that there is no reason to refund the WDW (or DL Paris) race since those are still happening.

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

Interesting that the runDisney site won't load this morning. Error 503 is showing for me. I'm thinking perhaps a major site renovation in light of the recent events?

 

[Anisum]

Interesting that the runDisney site won't load this morning. Error 503 is showing for me. I'm thinking perhaps a major site renovation in light of the recent events?

You would think they'd put up some kind of under construction.

 

[cavepig]

I'm starting to feel like one of the few people who legit thinks they will come back judging by Facebook. I'm not saying it will come back to its full form. But I think they are shorting too many runners and lose too much money to not consider bringing it back after construction.

It also might be I'm in denial but let me live in it for now.

I think they'll come back in a few years...so add me to add the few, but with what races who knows, I can't see them never returning. People are mad now but give it a few years, they revive it & people will get all excited again, wishful thinking maybe but I can't see them not returning.

 

[Keith Tyger]

I believe the decision to cancel the races also has to do with the current traffic at the parks. Granted, I have only been to Disneyland once. But, I have read numerous articles from regular visitors and bloggers stating how busy the parks have become in the last few years. So much so that the parks are packed nearly every day. Has Disneyland reached a point that they cannot handle the extra traffic that a race weekend brings when combined with regular customers? It is only going to get worse when Galaxies edge opens.

 

[Ariel484]

Interesting that the runDisney site won't load this morning. Error 503 is showing for me. I'm thinking perhaps a major site renovation in light of the recent events?

You would think they'd put up some kind of under construction.

Their tech has never impressed me, but this is a new low!

Also (may have been said upthread, I've been reading about this in different places and can't remember what was said where), I think it was lame of them to bury such a big announcement in the blog section of their website, which is not regularly updated or publicized, rather than put it on the homepage of runDisney.com - you know, when it was working. And they didn't link to it from Twitter or Facebook...in fact, there's nothing posted about it on any of their social media channels. You either needed to have received the Light Side refund email, happened to have found the blog, or read about it elsewhere/heard it via word of mouth. For such a big announcement, that's unacceptable.

The whole situation, from months of no updates and holding onto peoples' money, to now not even publicizing the announcement they finally DID make very well, is just so...I don't know, disrespectful? And bush league, for lack of a better term. I think they're turning a lot of people off to their brand with the way they are handling this.

 

[Anisum]

Their tech has never impressed me, but this is a new low!

Also (may have been said upthread, I've been reading about this in different places and can't remember what was said where), I think it was lame of them to bury such a big announcement in the blog section of their website, which is not regularly updated or publicized, rather than put it on the homepage of runDisney.com - you know, when it was working. And they didn't link to it from Twitter or Facebook...in fact, there's nothing posted about it on any of their social media channels. You either needed to have received the Light Side refund email, happened to have found the blog, or read about it elsewhere/heard it via word of mouth. For such a big announcement, that's unacceptable.

The whole situation, from months of no updates and holding onto peoples' money, to now not even publicizing the announcement they finally DID make very well, is just so...I don't know, disrespectful? And bush league, for lack of a better term. I think they're turning a lot of people off to their brand with the way they are handling this.

I agree. It's really unprofessional (not that it's anything new) but if it weren't for the fact that everything Disney publishes is immediately taken note of and the emails that went out to Light Side participants I doubt it would have been picked up on so fast.

I think overall runDisney may have gotten too big for them to manage in some ways. The overall presentation of months of silence followed by a poorly cobbled together notice that four of their races are being cancelled doesn't send a good message. If anything good can come of this, hopefully runDisney will be able to get their brand in order now that they are only running events in WDW (with the exception of Paris but that's not entirely the same thing). If they can show that they can provide organized and accurate information and provide the best races possible during this hiatus they may be able to turn some people who have turned away due to this kind of unprofessionalism.

I personally wasn't planning to run any races for a few years following this year's Dopey and this only reaffirms my decision.

 

[RnbwSktles]

I registered for the Princess Half Marathon in 2018 solely to get my pink coast to coast challenge. I contacted RunDisney a few weeks ago and the cast member that assisted me basically hinted that Tinkerbell (or any Disneyland races) for 2018 was not looking promising, so I requested if I could get refunded for the Princess Challenge since I lived in California and had only signed up for the Princess so I could also run Tinkerbell. They did process my full refund (minus the $25 Active fee). So if you signed up for an East Coast race next year solely to get a challenge medal, I'd definitely ask if you could be refunded. I'm terribly disappointed, as I had run Tinkerbell and Star Wars Light Side in previous years, and had finally gotten the courage to run the coast to coast challenge, but I'm not willing to spend the money/time to go all the way to Florida if the coast to coast is obsolete. : (

I am in the same boat as you and I am really happy to hear you were able to get a refund. I would do the same except I now have friends signed up for Princess with me and I can't just bail on it now

 

[ZellyB]

I broke the news to my girls this morning. They were bummed. But, quickly rebounded to say, "well, you can just take us to a race of Disneyworld instead".

 

[Ariel484]

I agree. It's really unprofessional (not that it's anything new) but if it weren't for the fact that everything Disney publishes is immediately taken note of and the emails that went out to Light Side participants I doubt it would have been picked up on so fast.

I think overall runDisney may have gotten too big for them to manage in some ways. The overall presentation of months of silence followed by a poorly cobbled together notice that four of their races are being cancelled doesn't send a good message. If anything good can come of this, hopefully runDisney will be able to get their brand in order now that they are only running events in WDW (with the exception of Paris but that's not entirely the same thing). If they can show that they can provide organized and accurate information and provide the best races possible during this hiatus they may be able to turn some people who have turned away due to this kind of unprofessionalism.

I personally wasn't planning to run any races for a few years following this year's Dopey and this only reaffirms my decision.

But do they have any reason to? People have been complaining about the way they do things for quite awhile now - releasing courses and event guides super late, making changes with little notice, etc. And yet, we keep signing up for their races. They do this unprofessional stuff, but they get away with it.

I'm not saying I 100% don't think they can make changes (they have done it before - people complained about course crowding a few years back, and that's how we got more, smaller corrals, which helps a lot) but at this point, I don't know that they have motivation to so long as they're still making money. If they take a hit financially, then maybe they will take notice.

And I too was planning on taking a break from runDisney...seems that it is coming at a good time!

 

[DVCFan1994]

As an east coaster, my DL race trip was my favorite. It was actually cheaper airfare, and the time change really helped with the early mornings. I was looking forward to the Disney Land half next fall, and eventually was hoping to do the Kessel Run. Hopefully the west coast races will come back someday, but the way they handled this, while not shocking, is still really disappointing.

 

[sunshine girl]

It's not just the runDisney website that's down right now ... Disney is having some kind of systemwide failure. The My Disney Experience app isn't working. The parks and resorts website is down. In the parks this morning, apparently fastpasses and dining reservations are unavailable to guests and CMs (there is some discussion here on the Theme Parks Attractions and Strategies board). So... it's a bigger issue than just runDisney at the moment!

 

[BikeFan]

I'm starting to feel like one of the few people who legit thinks they will come back judging by Facebook. I'm not saying it will come back to its full form. But I think they are shorting too many runners and lose too much money to not consider bringing it back after construction.

It also might be I'm in denial but let me live in it for now.

I'd agree that the races are coming back at some point. This is Disney, and I don't see them just shutting it down and leaving money on the table like that, unless it wasn't turning out to be profitable at DL. Not all races may come back, but I'd be shocked if at least one or two didn't return. Disney is NOT going to miss a chance to reap the profits from as many RunDisney events as they think the market will bear.

Unless of course this is true . . .

I believe the decision to cancel the races also has to do with the current traffic at the parks. Granted, I have only been to Disneyland once. But, I have read numerous articles from regular visitors and bloggers stating how busy the parks have become in the last few years. So much so that the parks are packed nearly every day. Has Disneyland reached a point that they cannot handle the extra traffic that a race weekend brings when combined with regular customers? It is only going to get worse when Galaxies edge opens.

If DL attendance figures are indeed up year-round, they may decide they don't need the extra 'pull' of a RD race to get people in the parks and hotels. Why go through all the trouble if people are showing up anyway?

 

[Ariel484]

It's not just the runDisney website that's down right now ... Disney is having some kind of systemwide failure. The My Disney Experience app isn't working. The parks and resorts website is down. In the parks this morning, apparently fastpasses and dining reservations are unavailable to guests and CMs (there is some discussion here on the Theme Parks Attractions and Strategies board). So... it's a bigger issue than just runDisney at the moment!

Cruiseline website down too.