How Busy in January - Marathon?

[antmaril]

I am in the beginning stages of planning a trip to WDW while my son is home from college for the Christmas break. I was thinking of going Monday, January 9th through Saturday, January 14th. I see the Marathon is on Sunday, Jan. 8th. Is this a bad time to go? Will it be busy after the Marathon, or is it busy leading up to the Marathon?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Bob P]

We've done the marathon and found it has no effect on park attendance.

There are some traffic disruptions on the Saturday and Sunday mornings of the races, but by the time you get there on Monday you won't even know anything happened. It's a great time to go if you don't like crowds!

Enjoy,

Bob

 

[wld]

WE were there last January and the only thing we noticed was that there were very few rooms available as the weekend got closer. We didn't notice anything at the parks.

 

[Goofy DS]

DW and I went on Marathon weekend in '04. I was nervous about it too, but it was a great time to go. It got a little chilly at night and we scrambled to buy a blanket on our 1st night for Fantasmic.

Crowds were light. Parks were not disrupted much at all, but traffic was ROUGH. We used Disney transportation so they knew the short cuts etc...
I don't think I would have wanted to drive to the parks on my own.

 

[roserae]

Ditto what everyone else said. We went in January during the marathon this year....our friend ran in it. The crowds were fine...in fact, I would say there weren't any crowds. We spent the marathon morning skipping the parks and waiting for our friend to run by that morning...that was neat. And we avoided Pleasure Island that evening as the runners get in free. It was a great time to go and the weather was beautiful!

 

[antmaril]

Thanks to all of you for your replies.

Sounds like I can go ahead with this plan.

Thanks again!

 

[jann1033]

we went to ak marathon day 2004...it wassupposed to be early opening for mk but they changed it to ak so we went there..it was a pain in the neck i must say as the marathoners were reaching ak the same time it opened so everything( including paths) was blocked off for a good hr or more even after normal opening, stuff delayed starting so limited things were open(like 10:30+ for some shows if I recall),. not sure why they did it that way but while the marathon itself isn't a big deal, i wouldn't go to ak again for emh the same day, i'd go for a good long breakfast instead !

 

[HopperFan]

Went last year and going this year. Since you are arriving Monday you should be FINE ! The runners will be heading home that day if they haven't already. Half is on Saturday this year, so many of those will leave Sunday.

Enjoy !