Marathon week questions

[kelmac284]

We have a trip planned for next Jan of 20. We will be flying into Orlando on Jan 4th with our first park day being Jan 5th (Sunday). We plan to do Epcot that day, MK on Monday and we normally do AK on Tuesdays but since the marathon people will start arriving on Wed and with the new star wars stuff I decided to switch it and do HS on Tues and AK on Wed. We always do 2 days at MK and epcot so I planned to do MK on Thurs and Epcot on Fri. I know the marathons will be there on Thurs and Fri so trying to figure out how messed up we may be trying to go to those parks during that time. Does anyone know typically what parks have which races on which days and any ideas on areas to avoid? Since AK and the studios will have the newest rides I wanted to leave those towards the beginning of the trip to try and avoid the marathon crowds but also don't want to get messed up going to MK or Epcot on marathon days. TIA for any help!

 

[rteetz]

We have a trip planned for next Jan of 20. We will be flying into Orlando on Jan 4th with our first park day being Jan 5th (Sunday). We plan to do Epcot that day, MK on Monday and we normally do AK on Tuesdays but since the marathon people will start arriving on Wed and with the new star wars stuff I decided to switch it and do HS on Tues and AK on Wed. We always do 2 days at MK and epcot so I planned to do MK on Thurs and Epcot on Fri. I know the marathons will be there on Thurs and Fri so trying to figure out how messed up we may be trying to go to those parks during that time. Does anyone know typically what parks have which races on which days and any ideas on areas to avoid? Since AK and the studios will have the newest rides I wanted to leave those towards the beginning of the trip to try and avoid the marathon crowds but also don't want to get messed up going to MK or Epcot on marathon days. TIA for any help!

I just got back from my 5th marathon weekend.

Marathon Weekend is the following week. January 8th-12th is when the races will happen.

 

[disneygirlsng]

Thursday and Friday will just be the 5k and 10k respectively. Those are both only around Epcot and will be finished well before the parks even open. Saturday and Sunday that weekend is when there are larger impacts.

 

[kelmac284]

Great that is what I was hoping. We leave on saturday the 11th

 

[gillep]

We have a trip planned for next Jan of 20. We will be flying into Orlando on Jan 4th with our first park day being Jan 5th (Sunday). We plan to do Epcot that day, MK on Monday and we normally do AK on Tuesdays but since the marathon people will start arriving on Wed and with the new star wars stuff I decided to switch it and do HS on Tues and AK on Wed. We always do 2 days at MK and epcot so I planned to do MK on Thurs and Epcot on Fri. I know the marathons will be there on Thurs and Fri so trying to figure out how messed up we may be trying to go to those parks during that time. Does anyone know typically what parks have which races on which days and any ideas on areas to avoid? Since AK and the studios will have the newest rides I wanted to leave those towards the beginning of the trip to try and avoid the marathon crowds but also don't want to get messed up going to MK or Epcot on marathon days. TIA for any help!

Just keep in mind that for the newer rides it will be easier to get FPs, and with more time options, the later in your trip you try to book them. We just did our 10th marathon trip (we do the Wed before the marathon to the Wed after the marathon) and crowds were very manageable the whole time, although with SW opening anything could happen with crowds next year.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Just keep in mind that for the newer rides it will be easier to get FPs, and with more time options, the later in your trip you try to book them.

Only if OP is staying onsite.

 

[kelmac284]

Only if OP is staying onsite.

What do you mean by later? Like later in the day or later in the week or what I'm confused. And no we aren't staying onsite so I am stuck with the 30 days. I know that some of the new stuff will probably be next to impossible. (Star Wars etc because it will have just opened that fall and we are going in Jan) but I am hoping that might take some of the heat off some of Avatar and Toy story land. I guess we shall see. We will do the best we can but that is why I planned AK and HS for Tues and Wed before the crowds really start showing up. We purposely picked that week as I know all the kids here in CA go back to school that week and I was hoping that since they would have been off school the prior 2 weeks most people wouldn't want their kids missing more but who knows. When we booked our timeshare we didn't realize there was the marathon that week. I wish they didn't do it RIGHT after the holidays were over :/ We can't move our trip back either because our timeshare is already booked and paid for and my girls have to go back to college right after our trip. We only get to go once every 4 or 5 years so I hope we are able to do the things we want to do and it is not packed.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

If you were staying onsite, you can book your FastPass+ at 60 days from your check-in date. But you can book FPs for your whole trip on that one day, meaning if you were staying 4 days onsite, you can book the FPs for your last day 63 days ahead (60+3). It gives you more FP availability for the last days of your trip, since fewer people have access to book that far in advance. For long trips, 60+8 or 9 is golden