Magic Kingdom and marathon weekend

[MiniMelissa]

My family and I are going to be visiting WDW January 11 - 16 and I am wondering which day is better crowd-wise to visit Magic Kingdom.....Saturday or Monday?

We at staying offsite so I have read up on transportation issues for marathon weekend. I have also looked at easywdw for crowd calendars. Neither day is a recommended day for MK but we really want to see MSEP and don't have parkhoppers.

Any suggestions are appreciated

 

[StayAwake]

I ran the Saturday half marathon in 2012, and was a spectator for 2013. Here are my observations based on those experiences.

All of the runners will be through Magic Kingdom before rope drop. Given the pace requirement, all runners should be finished with the Saturday race by 10 am or so. Many of them will go straight to the parks, but others will go back to their rooms to shower, change clothes, eat and relax. In 2012 we didn't make it back to the Magic Kingdom until around 5 pm- the longest wait we had was at Big Thunder Mountain which was listed at 20 minutes and ended up being 40. Most everything else was 15 minutes or less as the evening wore on. I'm not sure how crowds were earlier in the day.

There will also be an exodus of some of the runners who are doing Goofy or Dopey and won't stay for MSEP/Wishes because they have to board the buses for the full marathon Sunday morning between 3 and 4 am, and want to get a little sleep.

A number of the runners (both half and full marathoners) will be leaving on Sunday. We typically had 15-20 minute waits on the Monday following the races for the popular rides.

Have fun, whichever day you pick!

 

[htran00]

My wife did the Goofy Challenge last year and we stuck around the Monday and Tuesday after. The park was almost empty on Monday! 10 minute wait for Dumbo in the morning, in the afternoon it was walk on. The wait to see Ariel was maybe 20 minutes.

Don't forget, this is slow season for Disney. Without the runners and their families there, the parks are dead. Of course this is also when they do their maintenance. I have yet to go on Splash Mountain!

Hai

 

[surferdave]

Given the pace requirement, all runners should be finished with the Saturday race by 10 am or so. Many of them will go straight to the parks, but others will go back to their rooms to shower, change clothes, eat and relax.