Future runDisney Events

[camaker]

I don’t expect any toned down or limited registration events; I’d tend to think rD events are really only worth the hassle if they are full participation.

It was generally accepted, if not explicitly confirmed, that the planned 2021 MW, Princess and SWRR weekends had limited registration numbers compared to previous years. If RunDisney expected thone events to be viable with limited numbers, why would it change now?

 

[Krandor]

I’m still hopeful, but that was a big blow for me. I was halfway expecting to see an announcement in the next couple months about the return of fireworks and parades. Instead there is the early cancellation of an event built on fireworks, parades, stage shows, and character meets; replaced by an event that is substantially similar except for the absence of those features.

The return of those four things are basically what I’ve been looking for to start thinking rD events will be viable in Disney’s eyes. I don’t expect any toned down or limited registration events; I’d tend to think rD events are really only worth the hassle if they are full participation.

I could be wrong and hope I am but I was pretty surprised at the timing.

Totally agree. I was thinking Oct 1 for the 50th would be the date for return to normal with paradares, fireworks, etc. and internally that may still be their target but the fact they are not willing to commit to that for an October event is not a good sign. The window to announce MW is closing rapidly and as close after that as princess is i think either both happen or both don't happen.

 

[1lilspark]

I could see them limiting the race to US residents only, only doing select distances, a closed course with the same start/finish (with runners needing to provide their own transport), photo backdrops/magic shots on course with maybe a socially distant character selfie spot post race, REAL limited field (either a lottery or if there was a way that only past runners of rundisney events could run), no expo just a shirt/bib (and probably medal) pick up with the option to add on items like pins or magnets to your pick up packet

OR I can see them not holding a live event until mid-late 2022/early 2023 who knows?

 

[Krandor]

I could see them limiting the race to US residents only, only doing select distances, a closed course with the same start/finish (with runners needing to provide their own transport), photo backdrops/magic shots on course with maybe a socially distant character selfie spot post race, REAL limited field (either a lottery or if there was a way that only past runners of rundisney events could run), no expo just a shirt/bib (and probably medal) pick up with the option to add on items like pins or magnets to your pick up packet

The problem is if you have to do all that is it even worth doing? That isn't really a rundisney race to me.

 

[GreatLakes]

It was generally accepted, if not explicitly confirmed, that the planned 2021 MW, Princess and SWRR weekends had limited registration numbers compared to previous years. If RunDisney expected thone events to be viable with limited numbers, why would it change now?

I suspect they were willing to do it for those races because they had already incurred some costs and had a way to offset them with a limited participation event. Now that we are into a new fiscal year that ROI calculation has changed.

Just a guess.

 

[fatmanatee]

Mentioned this elsewhere but I'm not sure how much we can read into what Disney has done with Halloween plans this year. The 50th anniversary is a higher priority, I suspect that has more to do why BB is replacing the old party than the pandemic.

 

[Krandor]

Mentioned this elsewhere but I'm not sure how much we can read into what Disney has done with Halloween plans this year. The 50th anniversary is a higher priority, I suspect that has more to do why BB is replacing the old party than the pandemic.

The issue I see with the BB announcement is what isn't there. No word on fireworks. No word on meet and greeets and calcacades vs parades. Honestly I think those need to at least have an announcement date before disney will announce a rundisney race. The articles write themselves "Disney announces a bunch of sweaty people can run together through the parks in january but still no word on when fireworks will return"

I think we are going to have to have at least an announced date on M&G/FW/Parades before rundisney can be announced. Hopefully all that will happen soon but that is my concern with the BB announcement in that it makes it clear Disney isn't close to giving a date on those things yet.

 

[Barca33Runner]

It was generally accepted, if not explicitly confirmed, that the planned 2021 MW, Princess and SWRR weekends had limited registration numbers compared to previous years. If RunDisney expected thone events to be viable with limited numbers, why would it change now?

My feeling on those races was always that rD did the initial sales with the intention to open up more as the event approached if it was going to be viable. Also, cynically, it’s much easier to get people to stay in a high priced virtual race if they’ve already signed up for a now cancelled race weekend.

Now that they’ve had a year of cancellations I think the calculus has changed as well. At the time they had reason to try to keep things as on schedule as possible and continue their traditional events. Now that they’ve had the cancellations I think it’s much easier to look at “when can we bring back the events as we’ve always done them?” as opposed to “when is the fastest we can have an event and what changes would we have to make to have it be safe?” I think that second question was always more likely to be their priority when it was “what do we have to do to keep these events on the schedule?”

I could very easily be wrong. It’s just my personal, perhaps overly pessimistic, view of how they might be looking at the future of in person rD events.

ETA: I also very much hope I’m wrong about all of this. I have no inside info and nothing would surprise me.

 

[Krandor]

Now that they’ve had a year of cancellations I think the calculus has changed as well. At the time they had reason to try to keep things as on schedule as possible and continue their traditional events. Now that they’ve had the cancellations I think it’s much easier to look at “when can we bring back the events as we’ve always done them?” as opposed to “when is the fastest we can have an event and what changes would we have to make to have it be safe?” I think that second question was always more likely to be their priority when it was “what do we have to do to keep these events on the schedule?”

Agree and I remember reading an article with the race director of PTRR and even for last year in November he thought he could pull it off with just a ton of changes (4 races, 4 days in 4 different locations in the city with staggered start times, etc etc) and had started to work on lining up venues and then finally asked "yes we can pull this off safely but this isn't peachtree so is it worth it?" and decided no. They are planning to hold it in July this year but so far it looks like on the normal course but they are also requiring negative test or vaccination.

So I agree. There are things about rundisney races which makes them rundisney races. Disney could do something like run them in a confined area like ESPN but that isn't a rundisney race. If you can't run through the parks and have people cheering down main street or along the boardwalk and have character stops and all that it wouldn't be the same.

 

[Barca33Runner]

The issue I see with the BB announcement is what isn't there. No word on fireworks. No word on meet and greeets and calcacades vs parades. Honestly I think those need to at least have an announcement date before disney will announce a rundisney race. The articles write themselves "Disney announces a bunch of sweaty people can run together through the parks in january but still no word on when fireworks will return"

I think we are going to have to have at least an announced date on M&G/FW/Parades before rundisney can be announced. Hopefully all that will happen soon but that is my concern with the BB announcement in that it makes it clear Disney isn't close to giving a date on those things yet.

I can buy into the idea that MNSSHP is a large undertaking that they just aren’t prepared to commit to in lieu of the 50th Anniversary. I’ll hope they just wanted to take an early decision to be able to plan other things. I can’t entirely discount that fireworks, parades, and character meets might be back by then but this definitely wasn’t the step forward we were all looking for.

 

[Krandor]

I can buy into the idea that MNSSHP is a large undertaking that they just aren’t prepared to commit to in lieu of the 50th Anniversary. I’ll hope they just wanted to take an early decision to be able to plan other things. I can’t entirely discount that fireworks, parades, and character meets might be back by then but this definitely wasn’t the step forward we were all looking for.

I still think there is a good chance a lot of stuff like that will be back by October but clearly Disney isn't ready to announce that yet which to our topic means they are certainly not ready to announce a rundisney race and the time to pull the trigger on MW is dwindling quickly.

MW is also a very large undertaking... biggest of all the races and I know there has been discussion as to if rundisney would want to start with the huge one.

So no, the halloween announcement was now what I was hoping for not because I have ever gone to it (I haven't) but ramifications for other events like rundisney.

 

[Spikester]

I knew a lot of wacko stuff went down that year, but didn't remember it all. I think they had a Bronx 10k that was somewhat longstanding that was unexpectedly cancelled too.

I don't know if it's really better now. A friend was supposed to run one of their new races, I want to say Atlantic City? It was last year, which was postponed for obvious reasons. She's tried to contact them for months but they've been terrible at communication. At the beginning of the year, she was told swag was being mailed out and it should arrive in 6-8 weeks, aka March. No swag. Then she got another email a few days that makes it seem like the only way she's getting her swag (paid for over a year ago) is to run the 5k and the half marathon this weekend, maybe it was even this past weekend. My days have run together a bit, but it was a few days notice and she had the weekend to complete. And she has to submit times. Also, can't use a treadmill unless the tracker connects directly to the treadmill.

It has soured her on the RnR organization, even after good experiences in Philly. And, yes, it is Ironman that owns them.

I signed up for the Atlantic City half and they postponed then went virtual. I was supposed to do the VA Beach one last year too, and they sent out the swag which I finally got in Oct.
For the Atlantic City one, I got the email about the virtual half and having to send the time through their website and I'm kind of annoyed. I paid last year, and of course you can't get a refund.
Now you can go and just sign up for the virtual one, and do the run and get points.
I'm also annoyed because I fell last weekend and hurt my leg, so now I have to gimp through a half marathon to get my swag.

I also had signed up for Washington DC last spring, it was moved to last fall, then moved again to March. It has switched again to this fall, and I don't even know what I paid for.
The DC race is billed as "flat" too, and it a ton of hills.

Anyway, then I go and sign up for New Orleans in Feb, and the DC rearranged one that is in Nov.

 

[PrincessV]

Warning - this may wind up being a gigantic vent...

I cannot wrap my head around how or why WDW/rD is doing things and it's driving me nuts! What I want isn't going to happen: to hear Disney explain exactly what it's waiting for to increase capacity/bring back things/resume races/etc. The fact that FL has no restrictions in place makes it all really confusing, as every business is left to figure it out on its own, which has led to every business doing something entirely different. As a consumer, it makes it really hard to guess at and plan for what may be available in the future.

I was in WDW last week. It was nothing like my previous pandemic visits - this time there were WAY more people everywhere, little to no social distancing (walking around, or in attraction queues), and definitely less mask-wearing in places where they really aren't needed (outdoors, alone, like walking through a parking lot.) I sat on a bench across from the pyramid in EP's Mexico for a long spell and what I saw made no logical sense: no social distancing among people walking by, 6' between parties while waiting in lines to get into San Angel/La Cava/ride & shops, and then no social distancing once people got up the steps to the outdoor area of the pyramid. That was just one example, but it was like that at all parks and resorts I visited. I came home feeling like big changes toward normalcy were imminent... only to hear the announcement of a watered-down Halloween "party." It's utterly perplexing.

One big question I have is, is the mask policy keeping live rD races from happening? Could it be as simple as that? As long as WDW feels it needs to keep its mask requirement, there will be no races? Because I honestly can't come up with any other decent reason at this point. Hospitals aren't overwhelmed, so med volunteers are available. I'm sure they can get all the other volunteers they'd need. CP is resuming, WDW is hiring like crazy. Resorts are reopening, and so are attractions that have been closed. But all of this seems predicated on people continuing to wear masks. Meanwhile, nearly every other FL race is going forward... but they aren't run in a place with a mask requirement.

 

[lukemorenus]

I'm very worried the internal RunDisney conversation centers around "it's just not profitable enough to be worth the hassle right now" .... and that spring 2022 is our best bet

 

[Onceuponamarathon]

Warning - this may wind up being a gigantic vent...

I cannot wrap my head around how or why WDW/rD is doing things and it's driving me nuts! What I want isn't going to happen: to hear Disney explain exactly what it's waiting for to increase capacity/bring back things/resume races/etc. The fact that FL has no restrictions in place makes it all really confusing, as every business is left to figure it out on its own, which has led to every business doing something entirely different. As a consumer, it makes it really hard to guess at and plan for what may be available in the future.

I was in WDW last week. It was nothing like my previous pandemic visits - this time there were WAY more people everywhere, little to no social distancing (walking around, or in attraction queues), and definitely less mask-wearing in places where they really aren't needed (outdoors, alone, like walking through a parking lot.) I sat on a bench across from the pyramid in EP's Mexico for a long spell and what I saw made no logical sense: no social distancing among people walking by, 6' between parties while waiting in lines to get into San Angel/La Cava/ride & shops, and then no social distancing once people got up the steps to the outdoor area of the pyramid. That was just one example, but it was like that at all parks and resorts I visited. I came home feeling like big changes toward normalcy were imminent... only to hear the announcement of a watered-down Halloween "party." It's utterly perplexing.

One big question I have is, is the mask policy keeping live rD races from happening? Could it be as simple as that? As long as WDW feels it needs to keep its mask requirement, there will be no races? Because I honestly can't come up with any other decent reason at this point. Hospitals aren't overwhelmed, so med volunteers are available. I'm sure they can get all the other volunteers they'd need. CP is resuming, WDW is hiring like crazy. Resorts are reopening, and so are attractions that have been closed. But all of this seems predicated on people continuing to wear masks. Meanwhile, nearly every other FL race is going forward... but they aren't run in a place with a mask requirement.

I don't know if it's a mask thing. Other races have masks in the corrals and that seems to be the precedence. There was also a recent NYT article that outdoor transmission is at low as .1% (based on the research) and the CDC is saying it's something less than 10%.

I have 0 inside information and like someone said earlier, nothing would surprise me...but my speculation is Disney is just waiting because they can. There are still a lot of things that could happen that would derail things. Another variant that's even worse. A serious side effect in the children's vaccines that stopped their administration (and thus puts the breaks on vaccination rates), international levels of covid will affect if the race is open to just US or not. I hope they're doing everything being the scenes to figure out what it'll take to move forward. That seems like the sensible thing to do. But I think there's a "go date" where they look at the numbers and make the call sometime in June/July. There's no good reason to make the call before then unless they know it's absolutely not going to happen.

 

[Barca33Runner]

Warning - this may wind up being a gigantic vent...

I cannot wrap my head around how or why WDW/rD is doing things and it's driving me nuts! What I want isn't going to happen: to hear Disney explain exactly what it's waiting for to increase capacity/bring back things/resume races/etc. The fact that FL has no restrictions in place makes it all really confusing, as every business is left to figure it out on its own, which has led to every business doing something entirely different. As a consumer, it makes it really hard to guess at and plan for what may be available in the future.

I was in WDW last week. It was nothing like my previous pandemic visits - this time there were WAY more people everywhere, little to no social distancing (walking around, or in attraction queues), and definitely less mask-wearing in places where they really aren't needed (outdoors, alone, like walking through a parking lot.) I sat on a bench across from the pyramid in EP's Mexico for a long spell and what I saw made no logical sense: no social distancing among people walking by, 6' between parties while waiting in lines to get into San Angel/La Cava/ride & shops, and then no social distancing once people got up the steps to the outdoor area of the pyramid. That was just one example, but it was like that at all parks and resorts I visited. I came home feeling like big changes toward normalcy were imminent... only to hear the announcement of a watered-down Halloween "party." It's utterly perplexing.

One big question I have is, is the mask policy keeping live rD races from happening? Could it be as simple as that? As long as WDW feels it needs to keep its mask requirement, there will be no races? Because I honestly can't come up with any other decent reason at this point. Hospitals aren't overwhelmed, so med volunteers are available. I'm sure they can get all the other volunteers they'd need. CP is resuming, WDW is hiring like crazy. Resorts are reopening, and so are attractions that have been closed. But all of this seems predicated on people continuing to wear masks. Meanwhile, nearly every other FL race is going forward... but they aren't run in a place with a mask requirement.

Something/anything from rD in the form of transparency and explanation about their current holding pattern would go a long way for most of us.

Unfortunately, there are many differing opinions on when and how rD should be handling things and any clarification that wasn’t an immediate announcement that races are returning and registrations will begin in the next couple weeks will lead to a very vocal and angry portion of their customer base telling them exactly how they should be running things and why they are wrong about their approach. Avoiding those people makes silence the path of least resistance right now.

As for the current situation at the parks, yeah, it’s definitely hypocritical. I was there in January and I would put myself in the 90th percentile of how distanced I tried to remain and I’m quite sure that I was within 6 feet of thousands of strangers every day I was in the parks. It was impossible not to be if you wanted to do anything. Several places in each park would’ve been impossible to traverse without nearly bumping into others. But that’s different than telling people they can line the streets, pushing and jockeying for better sight lines for parades and fireworks. Plausible deniability and “we’re doing our best” exist with one and doesn’t with the other.

What you’re describing, the relaxed guidelines on outdoor mask wearing, and Disney’s undoubted desire to get back to normal were some of the reasons I thought an announcement laying a timeline for bringing back fireworks, stage shows, parades and meet and greets might be relatively soon. The MNSSHP cancellation threw a wrench in that thinking for me and now I’ve got no idea what they might do. Nothing would surprise me.

 

[The Expert]

Here's something that makes me optimistic about the MNSSHP announcement. Boo Bash starts in August, which I can see still being an iffy time for parade and fireworks crowds. They want to create a consistent experience for everyone, so they can't come out and say the August/September events won't have those but October will. I mean, they could, but people with earlier trips planned would be upset about missing out. I still think there's hope for an announcement of fireworks and parades returning October 1.

 

[PrincessV]

Ch-ch-ch-changes are coming... This is from the WDW website:

Physical Distancing

Temporary adjustments are still in place to promote physical distancing. While we will reduce physical distancing measures for Guests across many areas with a gradual, phased approach, six-feet distancing measures will continue in all dining locations, merchandise stores and in areas where Guests can temporarily remove their masks.
Physical distancing measures may include:

• Signage and Ground Markings: Please follow directional signage and ground markings, which have been installed throughout Walt Disney World Resort to help Guests better navigate common areas while practicing physical distancing.
• Physical Barriers: Physical barriers have been added in select places to help promote proper separation between people, including in queues and on transportation and attractions. Barriers may also be visible, for example, in areas around cash registers or at Guest Relations.
• Party Size: Guests traveling in parties of more than 10 are asked to split into smaller groups in queues, dining locations and other areas around our parks and resorts to better allow for physical distancing.
• Parking: Cashless payment is recommended at the auto plazas.
• Training: Cast Members are trained to engage with Guests and promote physical distancing guidelines in common areas and queues.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/experience-updates/#drawer-card-physicalDistancing

ETA: after digesting this - and what it does not actually say - for a bit, my guess is that they'll opt to retain the 6' in indoor queues, and ditch it (or make it 3') in outdoor portions of queues.

 

[Barca33Runner]

Here's something that makes me optimistic about the MNSSHP announcement. Boo Bash starts in August, which I can see still being an iffy time for parade and fireworks crowds. They want to create a consistent experience for everyone, so they can't come out and say the August/September events won't have those but October will. I mean, they could, but people with earlier trips planned would be upset about missing out. I still think there's hope for an announcement of fireworks and parades returning October 1.

That October 1 date is definitely the elephant in the room. Everyone knows it’s there, everyone knows that WDW will want to be fully reopened by then, and we’re all waiting/expecting things because of it.

 

[BikeFan]

I still think there is a good chance a lot of stuff like that will be back by October but clearly Disney isn't ready to announce that yet which to our topic means they are certainly not ready to announce a rundisney race and the time to pull the trigger on MW is dwindling quickly.

Though I'm not running it, I've been awaiting any sort of announcement on the 2021 Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend, just to get an idea on which way RunDisney was leaning, and of course we've heard nothing yet. I thought we'd hear something near the six-month mark, but that came and went, so I went digging up the date of the announcement that the 2020 event was switching to virtual. That announcement came on July 22 last year, suggesting we may have to wait a bit longer for any sort of determination regarding W&D, Marathon Weekend, or the Princess races. I guess it's a good sign they haven't made W&D a virtual event yet; maybe they're still holding out hope of a live W&D weekend? That's just speculation on my part, but it's pretty much all we can do at this point.