Getting to Magic Kingdom on Marathon Day

[CAStevens218]

41 days until our marathon weekend trip!!

We are heading down to run the half marathon and would like to hit the parks on Sunday. Ideally, I would love to do a breakfast at Kona on Sunday morning and then be at the Magic Kingdom for rope drop. However, I'm concerned that it will be too difficult to get from Pop Century to Kona for a 730am breakfast ADR.

I'm thinking our best plan might be to take the bus from Pop to EPCOT and then monorail to the TTC and then to the Poly for breakfast. Then we could take the monorail to MK.

Does anybody have any words of wisdom to share? Should I plan to do this on another day? We have a whole week after marathon weekend but I would love to hit MK this day to ride BTMRR and Dumbo before they close for rehab!!

 

[mickeyonasticky]

The Epcot monorail most likely won't be running early enough to make a 7:30am breakfast. Honestly, I would just plan your breakfast for another day.

I'm not even going to recommend that you take a taxi, because I remember driving through property to get to work at MK on marathon days, and it was seriously a mess. Transportation CMs will have the most knowledge on what roads are closed and which routes to take. An outside taxi driver probably won't know this.

 

[BeerMe]

We were there a couple of years ago and stayed at SOG. We used the monorail and had no problems. Our daughter ran the marathon and we caught her at the TTC in front of SOG and in Epcot. We went to MK that evening and it was the least crowded I've ever seen it. Never rode on a bus at all.

 

[CAStevens218]

Thanks for the replies!

I thought the EPCOT monorail would be running to accommodate the marathon, but maybe I was wrong?

I guess a good alternate plan for us would be to just plan on spending the day at MK anyway, but not planning on breakfast, that way there is less pressure to be somewhere at an exact time.

 

[CAStevens218]

We were there a couple of years ago and stayed at SOG. We used the monorail and had no problems. Our daughter ran the marathon and we caught her at the TTC in front of SOG and in Epcot. We went to MK that evening and it was the least crowded I've ever seen it. Never rode on a bus at all.

Ahh, so you did use the monorail! Maybe we will keep the ADR and double check when we check in on Friday.

Thanks for the help!

 

[winthropf]

The marathon path goes through the bus loading area at EPCOT. Transportation to EPCOT will actually go to the TTC and then monorail to EPCOT. This happens for the half and the full marathon.

I recommend taking a taxi to the Contemporary and then pickup the resort monorail. I will be taking a taxi from Pop to the Contemporary than morning and then walking to the MK.

 

[CAStevens218]

The marathon path goes through the bus loading area at EPCOT. Transportation to EPCOT will actually go to the TTC and then monorail to EPCOT. This happens for the half and the full marathon.

I recommend taking a taxi to the Contemporary and then pickup the resort monorail. I will be taking a taxi from Pop to the Contemporary than morning and then walking to the MK.

Ohhh, thanks for the info! That means we could potentially take the EPCOT bus from Pop and it will take us to TTC, and then we could take the monorail to the Poly!

The cab is a great idea as well....thanks for the help, I appreciate it!

 

[mattsdragon]

Are you driving to WDW for the marathon weekend? If you will have a car, drive to TTC, park for free and walk over to Poly.

I'll see you there that weekend. I'm doing the half marathon myself, but plan on spending the rest of the weekend in the spa recovering.

 

[CAStevens218]

Are you driving to WDW for the marathon weekend? If you will have a car, drive to TTC, park for free and walk over to Poly.

I'll see you there that weekend. I'm doing the half marathon myself, but plan on spending the rest of the weekend in the spa recovering.

Hmmm, we may rent a car but we weren't planning on picking it up until Monday. We just want to go off property twice, to go to Universal and Kennedy Space Center. But maybe we should get it Saturday afternoon.

Good luck with the half marathon! Its my first big race and I'm very excited! The spa sounds like a wonderful plan for the rest of the weekend!!

 

[Deb & Bill]

The marathon path goes through the bus loading area at EPCOT. Transportation to EPCOT will actually go to the TTC and then monorail to EPCOT. This happens for the half and the full marathon.

I recommend taking a taxi to the Contemporary and then pickup the resort monorail. I will be taking a taxi from Pop to the Contemporary than morning and then walking to the MK.

I hope your taxi driver knows how to get to the Contemporary. If he isn't familiar with the road closures for the marathon, he might get totally lost.

OP, I'd reschedule that ADR for a different morning. But still try for MK at rope drop.

 

[CAStevens218]

I hope your taxi driver knows how to get to the Contemporary. If he isn't familiar with the road closures for the marathon, he might get totally lost.

OP, I'd reschedule that ADR for a different morning. But still try for MK at rope drop.

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it. I think we will plan on having our Kona breakfast a different morning and just be at the bus stop very early to try to get to rope drop.

 

[mattsdragon]

Ohhh, thanks for the info! That means we could potentially take the EPCOT bus from Pop and it will take us to TTC, and then we could take the monorail to the Poly!

That's the way to do it, no need for anything else if the EPCOT bus goes to TTC that morning.

 

[CAStevens218]

That's the way to do it, no need for anything else if the EPCOT bus goes to TTC that morning.

Here's to hoping! Thanks again for the help!

 

[scoolover]

Here is a picture I took a few years ago while running the full. I believe that it's World Drive just before you pass H.S. My guess is that it was about 10am.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Thanks for the replies!

I thought the EPCOT monorail would be running to accommodate the marathon, but maybe I was wrong?

I guess a good alternate plan for us would be to just plan on spending the day at MK anyway, but not planning on breakfast, that way there is less pressure to be somewhere at an exact time.

This is anectdotal, so take this for what it's worth...

Around the time that you plan on doing the monorail--many other folks will have the same idea. While I don't recall the precise timeline--I do recall folks posting that the monorail is very crowded on monorail day. It is running due to getting runners and spectators to the various spots. But I do believe that at a given hour leading up to race start, priority perhaps may be given to runners. However, going FROM EPCOT, you shouldn't run into that issue. What you will run into is all the folks who were there to cheer the start of the race and then cheer as runners round their way from the start back into the parking lot to begin their morning tour of EPCOT (for whichever corrals get to go that way). Those spectators will then hop the rails to try to get to TTC before their runner does.

No idea how many folks that will be--but that is a possibility.

I don't personally think you will have that much of an issue getting to your 7:30 ADR IF you plan well enough ahead. Hit the monorail BEFORE the fast first runner gets to it and then you will miss most of the folks scurrying to it. So if you get to it by 6, you should be okay to make 7:30. The monorail lets you bypass ALL of the road closures. Allow for at least an hour to get to the monorail.

If you can get a hold of a map of the route, you will see what the road closures will be like.

 

[winthropf]

Ohhh, thanks for the info! That means we could potentially take the EPCOT bus from Pop and it will take us to TTC, and then we could take the monorail to the Poly!

The bus to the TTC has to make a left turn through heavy traffic from the backed up and blocked roads. Last year the bus took an hour to get from POP to the TTC mostly waiting to make the left turn. Only 1 or 2 buses made it through every cycle of the light.

 

[fla4fun]

Here is a picture I took a few years ago while running the full. I believe that it's World Drive just before you pass H.S. My guess is that it was about 10am.

That would be my worst nightmare!

I have been at WDW over marathon weekend many times, usually staying at an Epcot resort. I typically go to Epcot and DHS that weekend, so I don't have to get out on the roads in my own vehicle, or someone else's.

 

[Disneyhayes]

What are the dates for the marathons?

 

[kaligal]

41 days until our marathon weekend trip!!

We are heading down to run the half marathon and would like to hit the parks on Sunday. Ideally, I would love to do a breakfast at Kona on Sunday morning and then be at the Magic Kingdom for rope drop. However, I'm concerned that it will be too difficult to get from Pop Century to Kona for a 730am breakfast ADR.

I'm thinking our best plan might be to take the bus from Pop to EPCOT and then monorail to the TTC and then to the Poly for breakfast. Then we could take the monorail to MK.

Does anybody have any words of wisdom to share? Should I plan to do this on another day? We have a whole week after marathon weekend but I would love to hit MK this day to ride BTMRR and Dumbo before they close for rehab!!

First of all, if you are at the TTC, you should walk to the Poly. The sidewalk that goes about ten feet through the landcaped path will deliver you there in less time than it would take to climb the ramp to the platform where you'd wait for the monorail.

But I don't know if you need to go through all that. I've been to MK on Marathon Day more than once. I've had delays, I once had to go over by OKW and drive in that way...but never not been able to get there. It is possible that you couldn't, though. I dunno.

Transportation Board would probably know more than people here.

 

[AllyElly]

Sunday the 8th is going to be our first day going to the parks. We have an 8:15 am reservation at Chef Mickeys then we are heading to MK for the day. I don't know much about the marathon and didn't take it into account when planning my ADRs. We have a group of 12 so I don't know if I'll be able to reschedule and we have a bunch of kids going for their first visit so Chef Mickey's is a must to meet the main characters.
What time do you think we should we leave to get to Chef Mickey's on time? I was just planning on taking the bus from Pop to MK, than walk or monorail to the Contemporary.
Thanks for any help!