Hotels for the WDW Marathon

[dizchick]

You guys seem so knowledgeable about the WDW marathon and so supportive that I'm hoping you can help me out. My father and I are thinking about running the WDW marathon in 2009.

What hotels are best to stay in for ease of getting to the race? I know they all have buses on race morning, but are there any where you can walk to the starting area? What about about the Epcot area hotels? Is the Int'l Gateway entrance open on marathon morning to walk through to get to the starting line? We may have family with us to cheer us on, so I'm hoping wherever we stay is central enough to make it easy for them to come out and cheer for us. I know the monorail resorts would be an easy choice, but they are a little pricey, so we'd prefer to look at some of the others. I tried to go to the Disney website to look at prices yesterday, but it didn't look like I could reserve rooms for Jan. yet.

Thanks for your help. I'm really excited about the race. I've been running for 14 years and this is my first marathon and my father's second. We're both looking forward to completing it together.

 

[laughinplace199]

Bumping this up for you. I'm interested in this as well.

 

[Kristi1357]

Runners can walk over to the start from OKW or POFQ.

As for cheering, that's a different story.
It would be easiest to be on the monorail line, or at one of the Epcot resorts (for the full).

Personally, I had always stayed at any WDW resort. DH would bus to the start of the race.
I would then drive our car to Epcot and park it at 7am.
From there, I would use Disney transportation to follow him around the course.

 

[dizchick]

Thanks for the help! I've always wanted to stay at POFQ, so maybe this is the chance. Having my family drive over to Epcot later is a good idea.

Is the Int'l Gateway entrance to Epcot not open that early in the morning to walk over to the start from an Epcot/Boardwalk area resort?

 

[ultramickeymouse]

Thanks for the help! I've always wanted to stay at POFQ, so maybe this is the chance. Having my family drive over to Epcot later is a good idea.

Is the Int'l Gateway entrance to Epcot not open that early in the morning to walk over to the start from an Epcot/Boardwalk area resort?

No, IG isn't open for you to walk to the start from the EPCOT/BW resorts. Sure wish it was.

 

[10nis]

Monorail resorts are easiest for the scream teamers. There is great advice in previous threads about how to best get around on marathon morning and also resort info. (I don't know how to put the link in here, sorry!!!) For the scream teamers, driving to EPCOT at 7am and using the monorail sounds like a great plan. The monorail is the best transportation option marathon morning for scream teamers.

We always stay at EPCOT resorts but the only added benefit of that for marathon week end is being able to walk back to the resort through EPCOT IG after the race and burn off some of the lactic acid build up. I must admit, the benefit of walking to the race start from one of the close resorts is very tempting, as are the monorail resorts. It is a tough decision - when I can't decide I usually end up back in my favorite area...an EPCOT resort

 

[TnTsParty]

If we stay at POFQ and walk to the start how hard is it for our scream team to drive later in that area? I am not sure what roads will be closed off and wondered if they would have a problem driving from POFQ to Epcot.

 

[momof2minnies]

Please tell me how you walk from OKW to start-where abouts?
TIA,Linda