Future of west coast runDisney

[DVCFan1994]

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!

DVC is down too, can't do my daily "outwit the waitlist" check for Marathon weekend.

 

[Anisum]

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!

That's a good point. On the one hand races are generally still selling out. On the other hand what used to be a sell out in minutes or hours has become a sell out in days or months. For runDisney it's still a sellout either way at this point. I think if they stop getting sellouts, especially at Florida races it may force them to make changes. Until then I agree, I'm not sure what else would convince them to change.

 

[Ariel484]

That's a good point. On the one hand races are generally still selling out. On the other hand what used to be a sell out in minutes or hours has become a sell out in days or months. For runDisney it's still a sellout either way at this point. I think if they stop getting sellouts, especially at Florida races it may force them to make changes. Until then I agree, I'm not sure what else would convince them to change.

I was gonna check the website to see what sold out...and of course I can't!

I think Princess is the only weekend that is totally sold out at this point, but I could be remembering that incorrectly.

 

[DLgal]

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.

I disagree with that. The crowds have absolutely EVERYTHING to do with the existence of the Southern California APs. Plain and simple. Block those out and crowds magically become reasonable.

I went to Disneyland the Saturday of the Disneyland Half weekend in September. So Cal and Deluxe APs were blacked out that day. The crowds were VERY reasonable. Just a medium busy Saturday from my observation. On Labor Day, with the blockout lifted? The crowds were packed like sardines in a can.

 

[Anisum]

I was gonna check the website to see what sold out...and of course I can't!

I think Princess is the only weekend that is totally sold out at this point, but I could be remembering that incorrectly.

I couldn't find Dark Side but a quick look at the other races on Active show that W&D still has Half marathon bibs, Marathon Weekend still has marathon bibs, and Princess is pretty much sold out.

 

[Ariel484]

Here's a thread to follow: https://www.reddit.com/r/rundisney/comments/77f1np/hello_rrundisney_my_name_is_brandon_hough_and_i/

Why you should follow...this is an AMA from someone who was Director of Operations for Disneyland races from 2014 to 2017.

From the OP:

Hey Folks!

I'm Brandon, avid redditor of 6+ years, Air Force veteran, owner of two of the dumbest dogs in the galaxy, lifelong runner, I somehow spent a portion of my young life managing runDisney's course ops for three years between 2014 to 2017, and I've been lurking this community for 3+ years and casually answering questions from time to time without making myself known!

...

To clear things up, I worked for a company called Spectrum Sports Management, Inc which owned/managed upwards of 20 events a year throughout SoCal. For Spectrum I was their Director of Operations in charge of all things, well, operational! What that typically entails in the event space is course design/certification, supplies such as food/water/cups/tables/portos/etc, obtaining permits from cities to close roads and hold the event, getting traffic control plans, working with traffic control teams to set up courses for major events or doing it myself for smaller events or trail races, etc.

Fun fact: This is the guy that made the call to cut the Tink Half course this year for some runners.

 

[jennamfeo]

Here's a thread to follow: https://www.reddit.com/r/rundisney/comments/77f1np/hello_rrundisney_my_name_is_brandon_hough_and_i/

Why you should follow...this is an AMA from someone who was Director of Operations for Disneyland races from 2014 to 2017.

From the OP:


Fun fact: This is the guy that made the call to cut the Tink Half course this year for some runners.

He has been "on" for an hour and only has one question asked. I wonder if I need to make some popcorn....

 

[Ocelot]

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.

The parks are busy, but there's definitely a number of weekends where it's not excessive and the traffic's fine, in my experience. I feel like the fact that the Disneyland races are all on holiday weekends is really a bigger problem in relation to the traffic versus race road closures - things will definitely be crazy with Galaxy's Edge opening, but given that construction includes the hotel and Eastern Gateway, I'm expecting any hiatus to extend quite a bit past Galaxy's Edge's opening and to a point where the traffic flow will be pretty different than today so it's hard to know what that will look like.

I'm kind of hoping that, if the races return to the west, we'll see an adjustment to the weekends they use for some of them. It seems like any problems with traffic and crowding get compounded by the holiday factor, and it seems like it would be more useful to bump up some of the less-crowded weekends early in the year than the current setup.

 

[Ariel484]

He has been "on" for an hour and only has one question asked. I wonder if I need to make some popcorn....

He's answered 3 posts so far! Pretty thorough overall I think.

 

[roxymama]

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Here's

Fun fact: This is the guy that made the call to cut the Tink Half course this year for some runners.

Hehe! Figured I would start with a question different than he would have expected

 

[Ariel484]

Hehe! Figured I would start with a question different than he would have expected

Props to him for his honesty, and props to you for the question.

I think any questions I have either 1.) have been asked, or 2.) are things he can't answer (i.e. why is the communication so far) so I'll just continue to be a lurky loo.

 

[courtneybeth]

The answers to my questions were very thorough and thoughtful. I'm impressed.

 

[bumbershoot]

Hehe! Figured I would start with a question different than he would have expected

Aha, that was you?

I wonder why they couldn't have just made a blog post about the Tink cut after it happened instead is letting people stew? It makes a lot of sense when explained that way.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Aha, that was you?

I wonder why they couldn't have just made a blog post about the Tink cut after it happened instead is letting people stew? It makes a lot of sense when explained that way.

That's me!

It did make complete sense. Its good to know that there are 2 to 3 spots that they may cut the course for those reasons. I just remember all the posts about it when it happened.

 

[Keith Tyger]

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.

I believe east and west coast run RunDisney's are run separately. This came up when West Coast RunDisney let Rudy the announcer go. Yet he was still doing the east coast races.

 

[StarGirl11]

One of the former course ops (he left after Tink) guys on Reddit is doing an AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/rundisney/..._brandon_hough_and_i/?st=J8YVY2RL&sh=64f095bb

Thought I would share.

 

[StarGirl11]

I believe east and west coast run RunDisney's are run separately. This came up when West Coast RunDisney let Rudy the announcer go. Yet he was still doing the east coast races.

Yep. I talk to a friend who somehow knows stuff (seriously I have no clue how she knows this stuff, not a CM. But she knows a few so maybe that's how). Anyway I remember her mentioning before right around all this stuff started to happen that West Coast runDisney had a new manager. And she was blaming quiet a few problems on that.

 

[fatmanatee]

One of the course ops guys on Reddit is doing an AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/rundisney/..._brandon_hough_and_i/?st=J8YVY2RL&sh=64f095bb

Thought I would share.

Thought he handled this very well.

 

[Anisum]

I believe east and west coast run RunDisney's are run separately. This came up when West Coast RunDisney let Rudy the announcer go. Yet he was still doing the east coast races.

The day to day is. For example Spectrum Sports is involved of west coast where as Track Shack takes a much larger roll in east coast. Overall however they're both run by Disney so some decisions apply to both and at the end of the day Disney has to put the seal of approval on the event. For example the decision to switch registration from 9 months out to 11 months out happened across the board.