Marathon/race weekends vs Spring Break

[awdsmama]

Both of our trips, in 2012 and 2014, were during March Spring Break.

Crowded, YES but not as bad as April Spring Break from what I read.

I'm looking at doing a November 2015 trip with a friend and her family.

It would possibly overlap 1-Veteran's Day and 2-Avengers Marathon (if they have it the same weekend next year).

How are marathon weekend crowds in comparison to spring break?

 

[kim3339]

Both of our trips, in 2012 and 2014, were during March Spring Break.

Crowded, YES but not as bad as April Spring Break from what I read.

I'm looking at doing a November 2015 trip with a friend and her family.

It would possibly overlap 1-Veteran's Day and 2-Avengers Marathon (if they have it the same weekend next year).

How are marathon weekend crowds in comparison to spring break?

Haven't been for Spring Break, but race weekends, while a little busier than non-race weekends, aren't as bad as X-mas/Thanksgiving or summer. Fri morning should be good until mid-afternoon when runners are done w/ the expo. Sat/Sun early mornings are good and pick-up mid-morning. And then late afternoon Sat crowds should get lighter when runners go back to the rooms.

This is the 1st year for Avengers, so not sure what the crowds will be like. The DL 1/2 in Aug/Sept and the Tink races both fall/fell on holiday weekends so that kinda throws off the numbers a bit. However, the 1st Tink was held the last weekend of Jan. the 1st year. It was a while ago, but I don't remember it being that bad or close to what it was over the Labor Day/MLK weekends. You couldn't walk right onto everything, but the waits weren't long at all.

If you remember or are interested and bump the thread, I can let you know what the crowds are like. I'm there 1st thing Fri morning through park close Sun night and can let you know how it goes.

 

[awdsmama]

Haven't been for Spring Break, but race weekends, while a little busier than non-race weekends, aren't as bad as X-mas/Thanksgiving or summer. Fri morning should be good until mid-afternoon when runners are done w/ the expo. Sat/Sun early mornings are good and pick-up mid-morning. And then late afternoon Sat crowds should get lighter when runners go back to the rooms.

This is the 1st year for Avengers, so not sure what the crowds will be like. The DL 1/2 in Aug/Sept and the Tink races both fall/fell on holiday weekends so that kinda throws off the numbers a bit. However, the 1st Tink was held the last weekend of Jan. the 1st year. It was a while ago, but I don't remember it being that bad or close to what it was over the Labor Day/MLK weekends. You couldn't walk right onto everything, but the waits weren't long at all.

If you remember or are interested and bump the thread, I can let you know what the crowds are like. I'm there 1st thing Fri morning through park close Sun night and can let you know how it goes.

Thank you so much, I'll try to remember. Good luck on your race!

With spring break I'm definitely not used to walking right on to any ride haha.

I was contemplating going Nov 7-12 to avoid the marathon, but if it ends up not being that bad, I may push it to the 10-15 to hopefully catch the start of the Christmas décor!

 

[awdsmama]

If you remember or are interested and bump the thread, I can let you know what the crowds are like. I'm there 1st thing Fri morning through park close Sun night and can let you know how it goes.

Kim3339 - I'd love to hear your experience with crowds during Avengers!

 

[Sherry E]

I don't know about crowds in comparison to Spring Break crowds -- I was at DLR on one day during Spring Break earlier this year and I actually didn't think that the crowds were nearly as bad as I expected (I've seen worse during Halloween Time!), but that was only one day.

In this post, look under the "November 2014" category, and you will see that several of our DIS'ers were at DLR this year over different stages of the Avengers weekend (mvf-m11c, hclifford, liesel and egritz, to name a few) -- and they reported on crowds, etc.

 

[kim3339]

It was really crowded Avengers Weekend. I've done 7 of the DL 1/2 Marathon Weekends which fall on Labor Day Weekend and 2 of the last Tinks which have fallen on MLK and this weekend was by far the busiest race weekend that I've ever seen. And this race only had 2 races, 1 Sat and 1 Sun where the other 2 weekends have 3 days of races and pretty sure more people running.

I got there 1st thing Friday morning and didn't have too bad of waits on the rides. Frid night I did the single rider for RSR after dinner and it was a 35 min wait and TSMM was the same. I went to DL and got there park opening on Sat and was in line for Jungle Cruise and it broke down so then moved over to Indy and that was closed and then POC was as well, so HM and Splash had longer lines, but that could happen all day of the year. I popped over to DCA around 11 or so and TOT was already a 40 min wait.

I heard 1st thing Sun morning was not bad. I got into the park around 11:30 and it was crazy insane. I've been the weekend before Xmas and honestly think this was more crowded. My dad had run a race in LA on Saturday so he wasn't 100% up for long lines and we did pop over to DTD after lunch, but we only did 1 ride and the train Sun. We could have gone on more, but the lines were pretty much all over 40/45 min.

The crowds were the combination of the race weekend and it being the 1st official weekend of the Xmas Season. I could see next year being the same, only b/c Disney races always sell out, and given the current trend and the popularity of the Avengers/Marvel theme, they'll probably add another race next year extending it from Fri-Sun which means a lot of runners will come in on Thurs instead of Fri.

Sorry it wasn't a better report, or crowd report that you were looking for. If you are going for the atmosphere and decorations, I would say go and don't let the crowds deter you; I still enjoyed it, but I go a lot. If you don't go often and like to get on every ride, that weekend might not be the best.

 

[Chiomaca]

I've been in the park that weekend (on or right after Veteran's Day) every year for over a decade, except the two years I was deployed. I was pretty pleased to see that I wouldn't have to change my plans to run the Avengers race since it coincided with my regularly scheduled visit.

This year was a little more crowded than the last few, but not by a whole lot - more like the crowds on a long weekend than on a typical two day weekend. We hit DCA on Friday, and both parks on Saturday and Sunday. I didn't stay out late because of the run, but we got to ride everything we wanted to without a horrible wait. I might be off because I do a lot less in the parks on race weekends than I would a regular Disney visit.

Of course, now that my usual "regular" Disney visit has turned into another race weekend, I may need to re-think things.

 

[kirstie101]

It was really crowded Avengers Weekend. I've done 7 of the DL 1/2 Marathon Weekends which fall on Labor Day Weekend and 2 of the last Tinks which have fallen on MLK and this weekend was by far the busiest race weekend that I've ever seen. And this race only had 2 races, 1 Sat and 1 Sun where the other 2 weekends have 3 days of races and pretty sure more people running.

I got there 1st thing Friday morning and didn't have too bad of waits on the rides. Frid night I did the single rider for RSR after dinner and it was a 35 min wait and TSMM was the same. I went to DL and got there park opening on Sat and was in line for Jungle Cruise and it broke down so then moved over to Indy and that was closed and then POC was as well, so HM and Splash had longer lines, but that could happen all day of the year. I popped over to DCA around 11 or so and TOT was already a 40 min wait.

I heard 1st thing Sun morning was not bad. I got into the park around 11:30 and it was crazy insane. I've been the weekend before Xmas and honestly think this was more crowded. My dad had run a race in LA on Saturday so he wasn't 100% up for long lines and we did pop over to DTD after lunch, but we only did 1 ride and the train Sun. We could have gone on more, but the lines were pretty much all over 40/45 min.

The crowds were the combination of the race weekend and it being the 1st official weekend of the Xmas Season. I could see next year being the same, only b/c Disney races always sell out, and given the current trend and the popularity of the Avengers/Marvel theme, they'll probably add another race next year extending it from Fri-Sun which means a lot of runners will come in on Thurs instead of Fri.

Sorry it wasn't a better report, or crowd report that you were looking for. If you are going for the atmosphere and decorations, I would say go and don't let the crowds deter you; I still enjoyed it, but I go a lot. If you don't go often and like to get on every ride, that weekend might not be the best.

I agree with Kim on this one. I've done Tink the past 2 years and Avengers weekend felt much more crowded the whole weekend then it did for the Tink weekends. But that being said, the wait times for rides didn't seem bad at all. Go figure that one out! Maybe its because we were at the smaller rides but even walking by Indy and stuff the wait times didn't seem to reflect how crowded the parks felt.

 

[minniebeth]

I agree with Kim on this one. I've done Tink the past 2 years and Avengers weekend felt much more crowded the whole weekend then it did for the Tink weekends. But that being said, the wait times for rides didn't seem bad at all. Go figure that one out! Maybe its because we were at the smaller rides but even walking by Indy and stuff the wait times didn't seem to reflect how crowded the parks felt.

We were there over the Avengers weekend and I have to agree with kirstie101's statement that the wait times for rides didn't seem to reflect the crowds. I only have the DL 1/2 marathon weekend to compare to. Labor Day was crowded but the rest of the weekend was great. Way more crowded in November, but the wait times for rides weren't really that bad. The ride wait times were always a bit shorter than posted. It seemed like the waits were more for the bathrooms and food lines. As it was the first weekend of the holiday season, I'm thinking that was the huge difference. As tired as were were with our time change and the races, we pushed through, as the parks and ride overlays are GORGEOUS for the holidays!

 

[awdsmama]

I appreciate everyone's input, thank you!

If we go, our last days would be Thurs/Fri so we'd get a good majority done earlier in the week!