January crowds and the Marathon

[JulieEck]

We are planning a trip from January 2 to January 7 (Tuesday night through Sunday checkout), but Friday night is a problem for hotels. The values and moderates are completely booked that night and sometimes I can get a deluxe or DVC room to come up, but the prices are around $350-400 a night. I've looked at the crowd level calendar at a certain website and it has 5 for Wed, 7 for Thur, 5 for Fri, 6 for Sat and 4 for Sun. Those don't seem too bad to me except for Thursday, but the numbers really are for MK and not the other parks. My questions are:
How do the marathons affect the crowd levels in the parks? and
Why is Friday night booked up?
Is it because of the marathon? Should I be expecting much bigger crowds than I am because the hotels are booked?
Thanks for any insight!

 

[mamacatnv]

Per what I have read and what my TA tells me; the Marathon has a huge impact on the availability of hotel rooms & dining reservations outside of the parks and a much smaller impact on the overall park attendance.

I booked way back in March knowing we were there during the Marathon then a couple of weeks ago Disney released a package promotion for January and what little was left got sucked up real fast.

My TA told me that Marathon clubs and groups book large sets of rooms and as we get closer to the date they start to release these rooms if they are not being used. I would also check with Disney via phone instead of online and get a CM to do some digging for you.

Good luck & happy planning

 

[susykt4]

We stayed at Pop during the marathon this year. I heard the resort was sold out but we NEVER would have known this as far as food court, etc. The food court was not overly busy. I think the marathoners had activities, etc that occurred way earlier than even the park opener crowd would ever use the food court.

We went to Epcot (where the marathon ends) on marathon day. We got there right after opening and spent the entire morning on the Land side with minimal waits and crowds. By the time we crossed to the Test Track side the marathon was over. We stayed until 5 or 6pm, the entire time in Future World and did everything with short waits and low crowds. I've heard it's difficult to cross from one side of future world to the other while the marathon is in progress, but otherwise it really didn't affect us AT ALL. I'd definitely go during marathon weekend again!

Oh, I do remember reading to take resort buses on marathon day rather than driving your own car because many roads or at least lanes of roads are closed.

 

[allfordisney]

Me and my girlfriend will be there the exact same days you are! Weird!

 

[Faline]

we'll be there the exact same time also, Jan 2-7. We booked the Caribbean Beach with AAA discount in Sept, but were unable to change to the promotion because nothing was available. Wish you luck in getting rooms. Sometimes, Old key West or Fort Wilderness cabins came up with availability when I checked. They're a little more, but maybe if you can book one of those for that night, you can keep trying and get to switch later. I'm rooting for you.

 

[Deb & Bill]

The Family Fun Run 5K and kids' races are on Friday. The half marathon is on Saturday. The full marathon is on Sunday. People will start arriving for Marathon weekend on Thursday, especially if they are running on Friday. There is no package pickup at the races. That has to be done at the Expo at least the day before.

 

[Vallie]

my DBF and I are staying at All Star Movie Resort Jan 6-8th (marathon weekend) I booked about 2 weeks ago and all that were left were preferred rooms! Call Disney directly I found they were VERY helpful finding a resort we could afford!

 

[eeyoreiscool]

The parks won't be that bad crowd wise early in the day since the runners will either be running or recovering for most of the day. Traffic going to MK and Epcot will be really bad so you might consider going to another park Saturday and Sunday.

 

[simzac]

I'm sure you realize your planned trip is only 7 weeks away. Waiting so long to plan a trip to WDW can always be a problem. I guess you had no choice, my best advice would to plan much earlier in the future if possible. Good luck with your trip.

 

[cjb71870]

I'm sure you realize your planned trip is only 7 weeks away. Waiting so long to plan a trip to WDW can always be a problem. I guess you had no choice, my best advice would to plan much earlier in the future if possible. Good luck with your trip.

They are right. But, keep trying. People do cancel often close to thier dates. Just keep calling and trying.

 

[mamacatnv]

we'll be there the exact same time also, Jan 2-7. We booked the Caribbean Beach with AAA discount in Sept, but were unable to change to the promotion because nothing was available. Wish you luck in getting rooms. Sometimes, Old key West or Fort Wilderness cabins came up with availability when I checked. They're a little more, but maybe if you can book one of those for that night, you can keep trying and get to switch later. I'm rooting for you.

I had the same problem, could not partake of promo either due to availability and happy I got the AAA

 

[JulieEck]

Thanks for your responses. We've decided to go anyway and hope the crowds won't be too bad in the parks. We'll be doing the package special for the first three nights (the room works out to be $70/night plus getting 10 day non-exp tickets with the free add ons) and reserving something at an offsite hotel for the last two nights. I will keep checking occasionally for any rooms that have been cancelled on though.

I hope everyone has fun!