Help with marathon weekend as a non-runner?

[BigAlsGal]

Going the weekend of January 8-11th. I've looked up some of the schedule and am not sure how the races will affect our trip. What places and what times should we avoid? Please share experiences.

 

[siskaren]

Check out what Josh has to say:

http://www.easywdw.com/calendar/january-2015-walt-disney-world-crowd-calendar/#more-13807

 

[Run princess]

The two days with the biggest impact will be Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday the 1/2 marathon runs through Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. The race will be out of MK area and road re-opened well before the park is scheduled to open. EPCOT will be crazy and they will bus you to the monorail at TTC until about 11AM on Saturday.

Sunday is the full marathon. It runs through all four parks in the order of MK, AK, HS and once again ends in EPCOT. Same deal for MK as for the 1/2 marathon day. AK doesn't shut the whole road down but expect travel to this park to be SLOW. HS will not be as impacted as AK due to the course route for travel but again expect travel to be slow. EPCOT should be okay for travel to as the route does not go past any of the transportation areas so you won't have the same issues as you would on the 1/2 marathon day. The marathon should be completly finished by 2PM.

Disney has strict pacing requirements and will remove runners not keeping pace so expect traffic to ease earlier in MK and AK before it eases in HS and EPCOT.

Do not make an attempt to drive yourself on Sunday. You will get annoyed and frustrated. Saturday should be better and the race ends earlier.

 

[Itinkso]

Avoid DTD on Saturday and Sunday. Runners who don't have park tickets go to DTD and it is packed at night. DTD is decorated with marathon banners and signs so there are a lot of photo ops for the runners.

 

[RebeccaRabbit]

We have visited during Marathon weekend for the past three years, but only through the Saturday half-marathon. We stayed at CS where a lot of runners stay, so one impact was noticing a lot of very fit looking people sprinting around the lake Did not notice any particular increase in attendance at the parks, as long as you avoid the impacted park of the day. (So avoid EPCOT on Saturday.) Mostly the issue is that roads are blocked and buses are rerouted, so travel times can take longer. It's best to use Disney transportation that day as PP said - you will get very lost trying to get around yourself.

All in all not much of a big deal though.

 

[disnut8]

We had a family reunion during Marathon weekend a few years ago. As someone suggested, do not drive yourself on Sunday of the true Marathon. Take Disney transportation. We were going to Animal Kingdom with our son and his family to meet up with my brother-in-law and niece. Those two are almost locals so know the routes in and out of Disney World and were just visiting for the day. It took them quite a while to get into Animal Kingdom and I believe they went somewhere near Magic Kingdom since roads were closed or had runners at some point.

For us, we just boarded a bus and the driver knew which way to go and though it was a slower and longer trip, no hassles at all.

After our visit, we took the bus from Animal Kingdom to the Epcot resorts and had the same situations but arrived safely. We then walked along Crescent Lake to enter Epcot via the International Gateway and I was impressed with how Disney had cones up so us walkers didn't interfere with the runners but could still go about our day. Once inside Epcot, still more cones and we had to adhere to the Cast Members directing us but it was painless.

So, I wouldn't say avoid anything but pay attention to the Cast Member directions. This is a true Marathon so us non-runners can't interfere with the runners at all. Disney did a very nice job of "enforcing" that without making anyone feel weird about it.

Been to Disney over 60 times and wouldn't hesitate to go again during Marathon weekend.

 

[BigAlsGal]

Thank you so much for the responses. The day I was worried about was Saturday our magic kingdom day. It seems that it won't be a problem so far. I just didn't want to get stuck.

 

[RnbwSktles]

Thank you so much for the responses. The day I was worried about was Saturday our magic kingdom day. It seems that it won't be a problem so far. I just didn't want to get stuck.

I would just leave a little extra time to get to MK in the morning in case they drop you off at the TTC instead of in front of MK. That happened to us on Saturday of the last marathon weekend. Worked out great since we were going to the Poly for breakfast!

 

[ghtx]

The good news is that once you get into the parks, the marathon won't affect crowds very much (it will still be one of the least-busy times of the year).

 

[jbrostek]

I have been there during marathon weekend for 3 years now. On Saturday I tend to avoid trying to be anywhere early and noone seems to complain about having a nice breakfast before we leave for the parks. At the parks the crowds can be larger then friday or the monday after, but nothing I have ever noticed stopping me from enjoying the visit. Though you will have to get used to watching some people with more ice packs bandaged to them then you would expect.

I did find the bus system a little busy and the reroutes for the marathon causing some of that, but with leaving after 10am we don't seem to miss much nor have to deal with any of it.