Marathon Weekend 2018

[DVCFan1994]

I am a planner. But I am starting to dislike it. I spent a while yesterday making our fast passes for a June trip and the more I think about it the less I like FP+. I like to wing it a bit, and FP just makes it too structured for me. But especially with kids its a requirement for certain rides, so I do what I have to. Just another reason we are going for 2-3 trips a year to only 1 trip every year to 15 months. Kind of said for someone who had a annual pass for 20+ years, but it really seems the best choice. Don't get me wrong, i still love Disney, but I am really struggling to enjoy trips as much as I used to...

 

[PrincessV]

I plan so that I can wing it! We'll plot out which days we'll go to which parks so that I can book FP+s for the things that are highest priority, and ditto for ADRs. But once there, it's not unusual for us to change FP+s while we're on the tram into a park and cancel/change ADRs a day or more out. I really do not enjoy the planning process, but it's become a necessary evil since I refuse to wait in lines for more than 20ish minutes.

 

[FelisLachesis]

I'm excited to be at a race weekend and not racing so I can enjoy all the happy hours I want!

After the 5k is done, I'll join ya!

 

[KSellers88]

I am a planner, but I also will change things around while we are there if possible. Most of the time I only move around FPs and leave dining plans the same.

 

[Dis5150]

We plan fast passes and ADR's but often park hop, cancelling fast passes to pick up a different one at a different park. So I guess we are both.

 

[jmasgat]

It's funny. I'm mostly a planner (ask me about my pinned map of London on maps.me!) Most of my visits were in the days before FP+, and so we would pick a park sorta in advance, then do the biggies first thing, while getting whatever FP we could get in later morning. Out of the parks by 1, tops.

But nowadays, as a solo race traveler without advance tickets (I used to pick some up volunteering before they changed the rules), I have had to "wing it/plan", i.e I can only plan 1 day in advance. The interesting thing with that is that most FP at that point are afternoon. So I have had the experience of going later in the day, and even closing out the park. It's a total change of pace from the past. My druthers is to do am parks, but the afternoons haven't been bad. What I DON'T like is having to spend a longer day at the park to see the same amount of things I used to be able to do before FP+.

 

[Disney at Heart]

Hope everyone had a great week!

Today's Disney question as Sunday's are for Disney.

When planning a Disney vacation are you more of a planner or go with the flow? Does it depend on the trip?

We plan ADRs and FastPasses, but don't sweat it if plans have to change. I also look to see which mornings are good days for runs around the resort!

 

[Sailormoon2]

The 180 day ADR thing still frustrates me because i'm up at 3am every day making reservations and then we end up sticking to none of them by the time we get to WDW. We end up picking all new stuff 2-3 days before we leave.

LOL!! Yep, this is so me!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Now that I'm registered for the WDW marathon, I just realized that I can join the cool kids here on this thread! And to answer today's question, yes I am a total planner! For me that is definitely part of the fun of a Disney vacation. Sometimes though, I have a plan but I don't let on to the others with me just how planned out everything is, and I'm OK if flexibility is needed

 

[michigandergirl]

I'm a total planner. We just got back from Disney for spring break and it was kind of funny how my kids were always asking, "okay, Mom, what are we doing next?" - I have them trained, lol! Really though, that only works at Disney, they rarely listen to me otherwise.

 

[GollyGadget]

I enjoy researching way more than planning. I like to know what all my options are and then wing it once there. I will make FP+ for our must-dos. From there, we'll just do whatever strikes our fancy between the FP.

 

[steph0808]

I'm in the middle. I plan ADRs and Fast Passes and what park we will go to on what day, but then sometimes we switch things around while we're there.

I will say that I was 6 months pregnant and going from 8 am until 9 pm in the parks every day was not easy at times! I shouldn't have planned as much for that trip!

I haven't taken the kids yet, so it's not as necessary to track down every character for them to meet, make sure they get to see specific shows, etc. I'm sure some more intense planning will be involved when it's time for them to go.

 

[pixarmom]

It's surprising to nobody that I'm considering switching from the marathon only to the Goofy. But I have good reason! Our oldest son decided he would like to run another disney half marathon with me, so I'm thinking about two possibilities:

1. Register him for the half. Transfer my registration from marathon to Goofy.
2. He will be 18, so encourage him to run the full marathon with me, and leave my registration as is.

I'm relatively sure I'll go with option #1. The runDisney website indicates that we can transfer ourselves from one race to another within the same weekend, subject to availability. Goofy is open right now, and I see the first step is to register for that race and then get the refund of my full marathon minus $45. But how does that actually work? I sent a message to runDisney two days ago regarding the transfer option, and have not heard back yet. A google search shows a transfer request form for 2016 and 2017, but not 2018. Does anyone have experience or info? Or maybe a link to a 2018 transfer request form? Thanks!!!

 

[rteetz]

It's surprising to nobody that I'm considering switching from the marathon only to the Goofy. But I have good reason! Our oldest son decided he would like to run another disney half marathon with me, so I'm thinking about two possibilities:

1. Register him for the half. Transfer my registration from marathon to Goofy.
2. He will be 18, so encourage him to run the full marathon with me, and leave my registration as is.

I'm relatively sure I'll go with option #1. The runDisney website indicates that we can transfer ourselves from one race to another within the same weekend, subject to availability. Goofy is open right now, and I see the first step is to register for that race and then get the refund of my full marathon minus $45. But how does that actually work? I sent a message to runDisney two days ago regarding the transfer option, and have not heard back yet. A google search shows a transfer request form for 2016 and 2017, but not 2018. Does anyone have experience or info? Or maybe a link to a 2018 transfer request form? Thanks!!!

I believe @Ariel484 has experience with transfers.

 

[pixarmom]

I remember!

Also, you have experience running a marathon for the first time at the same age as my son! I'm trying to recall the training details you shared earlier - do you mind sharing your longest run before the marathon? It sounds like you really enjoyed Dopey, and he would be running one race instead of four! (If I mention the full marathon to him, I'd want to give a relevant training example!)

 

[rteetz]

I remember!

Also, you have experience running a marathon for the first time at the same age as my son! I'm trying to recall the training details you shared earlier - do you mind sharing your longest run before the marathon? It sounds like you really enjoyed Dopey, and he would be running one race instead of four! (If I mention the full marathon to him, I'd want to give a relevant training example!)

Longest run was roughly 19 miles. I wanted to get to 20 but had some issues that day and never got around to another one. I ran a couple 15 milers and a 17 as well. On race day I didn't feel any problems going over that 19 miles. Now that might not work for everyone but that's what worked for me. I plan on getting to 20 or 20+ this year in training.

 

[Ariel484]

@pixarmom it's exactly like you said - you register for Goofy and fill out the form. runDisney refunds you're marathon registration minus $45. (I remember being surprised at how quickly I got my refund!). Maybe email them and ask them for them the 2018 form?

 

[pixarmom]

Longest run was roughly 19 miles. I wanted to get to 20 but had some issues that day and never got around to another one. I ran a couple 15 milers and a 17 as well. On race day I didn't feel any problems going over that 19 miles. Now that might not work for everyone but that's what worked for me. I plan on getting to 20 or 20+ this year in training.

Thanks for that! He's not going to train to 19, so I think I'll mention the marathon but we're probably going with Option #1!

@pixarmom it's exactly like you said - you register for Goofy and fill out the form. runDisney refunds you're marathon registration minus $45. (I remember being surprised at how quickly I got my refund!). Maybe email them and ask them for them the 2018 form?

Thank you! I sent a message to runDisney two days ago indicating that I wanted to transfer and requesting the necessary info, but no response yet. So I called, and they gave me an e-mail address to use to request the refund. Fingers crossed, because I registered for Goofy and registered my then-to-be 18-year-old son for the half!

I did remind him that he's old enough for the marathon. His immediate response was a buzzer sound.

Thanks again, and yay for Goofy!!!

 

[Ariel484]

@pixarmom glad you got someone on the phone!

 

[pixarmom]

@pixarmom glad you got someone on the phone!

That's another story! The person on the phone insisted that I go to the website rundisneysports.com. I insisted that that's not a website. She did not sound . . . tech aware, we'll say. Finally, she agreed to talk with a supervisor. On hold for a while, and then she returned and explained that it's actually an e-mail address and it's rundisney@disneysports.com, which is where I sent the first message. But this time, I included old registration # and new registration # and a reference to the policy, so hopefully it will all work out in the end!