I hate you Disney marathon!

[Unca_Scrooge]

A nightmare 40 minute round about thanks to the marathon detours. Detour took us off property into heavy night time traffic that led us back to even more detours. 5 minutes and 1.2 miles normally.

If they can't hold a marathon without massively inconveniencing other guests than they need to stop.

 

[johde]

Sorry to hear you had trouble getting around property. But, I hate to tell you stopping the RunDisney events is not going to happen. You have 14,000+ people each willing to pay at least $190 a piece That's over $2,500,000 right there. Then you add in the hotel rooms, food, merchandise at the expo, and Disney made a decent chunk of change. People are paying the big bucks to be able to race through the parks. Traffic problems between parts are inevitable.

That being said, they do try to minimize the impact of the races on other guests. Tonight's race started at 10:00 P.M. at Disney's Wide World of Sports, an hour after all the theme parks except the MK closed for the evening. The January races start at 5:30 A.M.

 

[snoopy5386]

Yes I was very glad we checked out today! Osceola parkway was to be closed from 8 pm - 2 am tonight. AKL where we were staying is on Osceola parkway. Not sure how folks were supposed to get to/from AKL and no info at all from the lodge about it either, not a phone message or a note under the door, nothing. Just one lone road sign warning you.

 

[weedles]

I never understand these type of posts. In life there are events planned that you are not a part of but hey they exist and you work around them. If you were a part of the marathon you probably wouldve been enjoying yourself. Because you were not and it caused you inconvenience it "should be stopped"

These events draw huge crowds, are a money maker for disney, as well as provide enjoyment for many many people.

Im truly sorry that it caused a less than magical experience for you but to suggest it needs to be gone is a pretty selfish view IMHO

 

[Unca_Scrooge]

Yes I was very glad we checked out today! Osceola parkway was to be closed from 8 pm - 2 am tonight. AKL where we were staying is on Osceola parkway. Not sure how folks were supposed to get to/from AKL and no info at all from the lodge about it either, not a phone message or a note under the door, nothing. Just one lone road sign warning you.

I had Boma reservations for 8:00, and it was a nightmare getting back to Coronado. I guess since Disney makes so much money on these marathons, I won't feel bad complaining to them. I'm going to cause them as much grief as they caused me. I just don't want to target any innocent workers. But when I get the right name, they will get an ear full.

 

[Unca_Scrooge]

I never understand these type of posts. In life there are events planned that you are not a part of but hey they exist and you work around them. If you were a part of the marathon you probably wouldve been enjoying yourself. Because you were not and it caused you inconvenience it "should be stopped"

These events draw huge crowds, are a money maker for disney, as well as provide enjoyment for many many people.

Im truly sorry that it caused a less than magical experience for you but to suggest it needs to be gone is a pretty selfish view IMHO

I don't pay to be massively inconvenienced when I vacation here. Disney had no business scheduling events that ruins things for everyone else. The marathon was only part of the problem, it was how incompetently they handled rerouting traffic that made it worse.

 

[DPCummerbund]

I had Boma reservations for 8:00, and it was a nightmare getting back to Coronado. I guess since Disney makes so much money on these marathons, I won't feel bad complaining to them. I'm going to cause them as much grief as they caused me. I just don't want to target any innocent workers. But when I get the right name, they will get an ear full.

Have you considered that they may not have caused you grief on purpose? Or that causing them grief won't actually make a difference, as they're not going to cancel the event just because you complained? Or that making other people miserable doesn't actually make you happy?

 

[bumbershoot]

Why not just give constructive criticism about what sort of information would have helped you?


Before I started running, or being active in any way, I got all annoyed at these walks and runs that would go by our condo. One, they were noisy VERY early in the morning. But the real problem was that the race organizers weren't communicating with the residents in ANY way. They didn't even let us know that our street, the ONLY STREET we can get out of the condo on, would be closed for x number of hours in the morning.

The last race they had before closing the street for nearly a year for construction (joy! what joy!), we absolutely had to get out, but there were some stragglers. There were cops alllll the way at the top of the street, and I finally said "whatever", and drove, very very slowly, up the street. When I got up there I asked them if the street was open, etc etc, and they acted like I was crazy for thinking the road was closed. Turns out they had NO IDEA the walkers/runners had been in the street. They were supposed to be on the sidewalks, you see.

Communication.

So I wrote to the Heart Walk people in my local area, and told them exactly how it was messing with our mornings, and that if the racers were supposed to be on the sidewalks, then they needed to have people out there enforcing that. Because it was keeping the residents inside. And since we live in a building mainly lived in by extremely-senior-citizens, there is a definite NEED factor in getting out, and fast, sometimes.


I didn't go off on the people, I didn't go off on the cops (even if I had been inclined to do something as silly as that), I didn't even go off on the race organizers. I gave them constructive criticism.


So why not do that?


Since the only rundisney event I've been there for was one I was involved in, I saw all the signs about the race. They applied to me so I noticed them. If it hadn't applied to me, maybe I would have not noticed them. Who knows?

 

[bumbershoot]

As an FYI, it was a half marathon, and it is called the Wine and Dine.

You don't want to confuse matters by calling it the "disney marathon", because that's in January. Along with a 5K (in epcot), a 10K, a Half, and "a Full marathon (runners will be getting up at around 2am for the half and full, to start early enough so as to inconvenience as few non-participants as possible, by the way...). Oh and 4 days of kid's races.

Wow. This year's Marathon weekend in January, there were 20734 Marathon finishers. 23148 Half marathon finishers. And that's just the numbers that *finished*. Pretend it was around $170 for each of those finishers to have signed up for the race (we'll just forget about the number of people who paid and then got injured before the race, or paid and then didn't finish, and we'll ignore all the other money those runners/walkers bring with them to spend). The dollar amount is astonishing.


And YES they should do better with communications with some of that money. So focus on that. Because they aren't going to stop the races, with 7.5 million dollars just coming from those *finishing* those two events.... (just checked the math about 3 times because that's an intense dollar amount)

 

[Unca_Scrooge]

Have you considered that they may not have caused you grief on purpose? Or that causing them grief won't actually make a difference, as they're not going to cancel the event just because you complained? Or that making other people miserable doesn't actually make you happy?

They don't care, they got their marathon money. If you look at a Disney map, closing that road totally cuts off the AKL from the rest of the property. They knew it would cause severe problems and did little to address it. If they did their job properly I wouldn't complain.
I've no problem with marathons, IF they can do it with only a minor inconvenience to the other resort guests. This is simply not possible if they have to cut off the only road into AKL.

 

[Maleficent53]

They don't care, they got their marathon money. If you look at a Disney map, closing that road totally cuts off the AKL from the rest of the property. They knew it would cause severe problems and did little to address it. If they did their job properly I wouldn't complain.
I've no problem with marathons, IF they can do it with only a minor inconvenience to the other resort guests. This is simply not possible if they have to cut off the only road into AKL.

I guess the tag line under your board name says it all.

 

[bumbershoot]

They don't care, they got their marathon money. If you look at a Disney map, closing that road totally cuts off the AKL from the rest of the property.

So did you end up on Sherberth?

Osceola is a pretty common one for them to use, so I bet any backroads you were pointed to were commonly used for the race days/nights. But I imagine that any given person doing the pointing could have been their first time doing it.

If you think they won't care, then why would you find a person to complain to. Write to rundisney's email address, give them info on how EXACTLY it was difficult for you, and how EXACTLY they could have made it easier.

I know that when we stayed at AKL once the communication was horrid, simply about the fact that the van going back and forth between Jambo and Kidani stops going at a certain time of night. They KNEW when our ADRs were for, KNEW we had a 7 year old with us, and KNEW that it was literally just a few degrees above freezing. And they didn't tell us that by the time we had checked in for our ADR at Sanaa the vans would stop running. Because they didn't share that tidbit with us, we left the car in the Jambo lot, took the shuttle, and came out to a mystery as to how we would get back. We had only checked in a few hours before, it was DARK, it was late, it was COLD, and we were lost (my vision is rotten in the night, too). They kept telling us to walk, but I kept imagining the walk being through the savannahs, and having to dodge giraffes, LOL. We finally took the WDW bus, and had another communication issue with the driver, and it was just lousy.

DH took the initiative to help management help the people that hadn't communicated fully. He was listened to, helped in other ways, and felt that he had assisted people at the resort.


Sorry I'm going on and on, but I've been somewhat in your shoes with runs inconveniencing me, I've been in your shoes with bad communication at AKL, and I also know that I felt bad for the backed up drivers waiting for the 10-miler people to clear the roads last October. Empathy all around, and I want you to do something that will help them AND make you feel better.

 

[DMCastner]

To be frank - stuff happens! I'm sorry that the half marathon was an inconvenience for your vacation but the dates for these runs are released a year in advance. It is not as if the information isn't available to you.

The last time we went to WDW all of the park hours and EMH changed because President Obama announced that he would be giving a speech at MK. We had to adjust a bit but we were at WDW - we couldn't complain too much.

Again, sorry for the damper on your day.

 

[DOOM1001]

They do an excellent job of opening up the streets as fast as possible.I don't remember which race it was but I remember I was heading out of WWoS into DHS and you can see the last runners heading into WWoS with the balloon ladies at the end followed by the street sweepers right behind them getting the street ready to reopen.These races are getting so popular that you can expect more new ones to be added throughout the year.

 

[AJ12345]

I have to say, the sign was up all week letting you know the road would be closed. We are staying at AKL and had Citricos reservations at 9 tonight. It did take us a few extra minutes but nothing out of this world. Talk about exxagerating the circumstances.

 

[fla4fun]

I am surprised that they did not leave a letter in your room explaining the schedule. I have stayed on property during the main marathon in January, and there has always been a letter delivered a few days before that explains the timing of the closures and routes and that you need to allow extra time to get to your destination if you need to travel during the marathon. If they did not do that at AKL, that is poor communication on Disney's part, and I feel that the OP has every right to contact Disney and let them know that the information wasn't disclosed properly. Signs along the roadway are not sufficient as far as I am concerned, because those are not likely to be noticed by passengers on the buses - only by people driving their own vehicles. The only way to be sure the guests know is to either leave a phone message or written letter in the rooms.

As to the previous poster who had a 9pm dinner reservation, the OP mentioned that they were re-routed during rush hour, which would make the traffic in general (especially if routed onto non-Disney roads) much heavier than it would have been at the time you were going to Citricos. I don't doubt that your ride went smoothly, but I also don't doubt that their ride was worse than yours either. I have made the mistake of driving in the Sherberth/192 area during rush hour and it's something I won't do again.

But getting angry and taking that anger out on Disney won't make them stop having marathons. Even constructive criticism won't stop them from having marathons. They just bring in too much cash. The best you can hope for is that the next time the information will be given out to the guests correctly so they can plan ahead instead of being surprised.

 

[madatmama]

We were at the Poly this week and got a traffic notice under our door explaining what was happening and how to best avoid problems. We had a split stay and were notified by the CM at check in Friday at ASMo too. So I do think they try to get the word out as much as possible. I know that was frustrating.

 

[AmyB2006]

A nightmare 40 minute round about thanks to the marathon detours. Detour took us off property into heavy night time traffic that led us back to even more detours. 5 minutes and 1.2 miles normally.

If they can't hold a marathon without massively inconveniencing other guests than they need to stop.

Or you could just pick a different weekend to go. Which seems simpler?

Not trying to sound cynical, well yes I am, but I am sorry you had a bad experience. That does stink to get rerouted and have it take longer. It's happened to me here before at home. I couldn't get to work!! LOL

 

[momof2minnies]

I do know that the Rundisney races are not a secret and when booking I always try to avoid any events that would cause an upset in crowd or availability to all the areas on property.


Going in Jan but had to wait til the end did not want to be there during marathon weekend


Linda

 

[Art 1]

Last night the parking lot to Epcot was closed, I parked in MK and took the monorail over. When leaving and heading to the interstate exit I noticed that most if not all exits to the resorts were closed.