Getting around during marathon weekend in January

[momtotwoteens]

I'll share our experience this past January during marathon weekend. (I didn't realize it was a marathon weekend. Now I know to check first) DH and I got on the bus on a Saturday morning at WL to go to HS. We were the only ones on the bus and our bus driver seemed to know where he was going UNTIL we wound up going down the wrong road where we saw marathon runners on the left of us and spectators on the right. We were in the middle of the runners! He was totally on a road he wasn't supposed to be on. An officer (?) on a bicycle stopped him and directed him where to go and he wound up taking us to the Grand Floridian and telling us we had to get off the bus. Anyway, I want to avoid that next year. My question is, how is the traffic from say the Tuesday before to Thursday or Friday? Is Saturday the worst for traffic? TP shows the marathon weekend starts on a Wednesday.

 

[Brian_WDW74]

I've moved this thread to the Transportation board.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Disney had upped the Ante this year.

Thursday is a 5K, probably not a big traffic impact
Friday is a 10K, probably some traffic impact
Saturday is the half. Definite impact, especially at Epcot and MK
Sunday is the full. Even more impact. This one hits all 4 parks

Generally Disney transport does pretty well. However, every now and then you get someone who missed the memo...

 

[wdwfan22]

I will be there during that time too, and from everything I've read at easywdw.com, Josh says the Disney transportation is the way to go, rather than trying to drive with many detours.

As the pp said, Disney bus drivers should be well informed of alternate routes, sounds like you got one who wasn't quite with it.

 

[mountdew1]

Weds-Sat is the Expo at WWoS - Possible backups on the road going into WWoS. Traffic can back up with people in cars waiting to park. Not likely to affect you going to the parks as you go no where near that.
Thursday - No issue. 5k is contained entirely within Epcot and it's parking lots. The race also starts at 6:15, course should be cleared completely by about 7:30.
Friday - No issue. 10k does the roads in front of Epcot to begin, then shifts to inside Epcot, and over by BC out the International Gateway. Race starts at 5:30, course should be cleared by 8 at the latest. (Not sure how many waves they will have, but 6.2mi at 16min pace is about 95min, allows 1 hours for start waves)
Saturday - Possible issue. Race starts at 5:30, last runner should be starting by about 6:45. MK is about 5 miles into the course, which means that runners should be at the MK by about 8, or risk getting swept. Runners use World Drive getting to the MK, which can make an early morning ADR at MK or MK Resort a bit tough to get to. Runners then head back down World Drive, and go to Epcot to finish. But that portion shouldn't seriously affect traffic, and all runners should be done by 10:15 at the latest.
Sunday - Most likely to have issues. Race starts out the same as on Saturday, but instead of going back to Epcot, it swings through back roads to get to AK, and then through DHS before going into the back of Epcot. So runners will still be on the stretch of roads from AK to DHS and Epcot, and possibly messing up any transit that needs to cross that stretch. Once again, early morning ADRs can be tough.

Sat or Sun using DME might also be a bit tough for early morning. You may get picked up significantly earlier to make it to the airport.

 

[momtotwoteens]

Thanks. I guess we'll go earlier in the week, use Disney transportation and leave on Thursday or Friday.