Marathon Weekend 2018

[MommaoffherRocker]

That's lousy!!! Did they at least have chocolate?!

I was lucky enough to get the box of chocolates at the finish but I heard they ran out for the people in the back

 

[lhermiston]

I hope any runDisney all-stars in Irma's path stay safe and dry in the coming days.

 

[rteetz]

Was a little distracted by Hurricane coverage.

I hope everyone in the Florida area is safe and doing well.

Today's Sundays are for Disney question:

How do you deal with weather on a Disney vacation?

My answer: The rain and such doesn't bother me. I don't think I've ever been at a Disney park where is rained for much longer than 20ish minutes. Usually we will just find an indoor attraction or show and wait it out. In terms of rundisney I've never had an issue with weather during races as the half was cancelled this year. The full was cold for sure but coming from Wisconsin it's nothing I hadn't experienced before.

 

[FelisLachesis]

At the first sign of rain, I run around like chicken little. "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"

No, seriously. I've got waterproof hooded windbreakers, a handful of disposable ponchos, and a mini-umbrella for the parks.

Only once did it rain for a race. My girlfriend had a disposable poncho, which she discarded before mile 2. She said it got too hot under the poncho. I had an umbrella handy and a towel and fresh clothes in a clear bag waiting for her at the finish line.

 

[camaker]

Was a little distracted by Hurricane coverage.

I hope everyone in the Florida area is safe and doing well.

Today's Sundays are for Disney question:

How do you deal with weather on a Disney vacation?

My answer: The rain and such doesn't bother me. I don't think I've ever been at a Disney park where is rained for much longer than 20ish minutes. Usually we will just find an indoor attraction or show and wait it out. In terms of rundisney I've never had an issue with weather during races as the half was cancelled this year. The full was cold for sure but coming from Wisconsin it's nothing I hadn't experienced before.

Sounds like you've been pretty lucky with the weather. We've had a number of parades and fireworks displays at MNSSHPs disrupted by thunderstorms that rolled in and didn't want to leave. As a result, we always bring packable hooded rain jackets with us. They don't take up too much space in the backpack and allow us to wait out the weather.

As for races, the 2016 10k was rainy at the start and I just carried a light rain jacket with me. It was a pain to carry during the race, but it was just for 10k. The 2017 marathon was much worse with the cold and win. Fortunately I don't have much cold tolerance and had packed for the possibility of cold weather. I had throwaway sweats and long sleeves and tights to run in. The biggest issue was the wind, which turned my Mylar blanket into a flowing Mylar cape before the race.

 

[Sailormoon2]

DH and I are pretty flexible regarding the weather. We are usually there late August, so rain is an unavoidable part of our experience. We do the poncho thing and will pretty mcuh bear it out, however, as a result of weather and scheduling neither of us had ever been able to see Wishes.

 

[Barca33Runner]

Sunday question:

A couple of my most memorable Disney days have come as a result of rain. First, when I was little (9 or 10) on my first trip to MK with my family it rained in the afternoon and the park cleared out. My brother, sister, and I hit splash mountain about 7 times in an hour. Sure, my parents were the people with three crazy, soaking-wet kids running around; can't say any of us let the rain ruin our day though.

Second, a few years ago we went to Epcot on the Thursday after running the 5k. It was overcast, a little cool, and there were scattered showers throughout the day. It made the park attendance very light for the day so we had a great time leisurely strolling around world showcase and, in general, loving a slow-paced Epcot day.

I've never attended on a day with seriously inclement weather and have never cancelled plans to avoid it.

 

[lhermiston]

We've been pretty lucky, weather-wise (knock on wood). We got rained out of Fantasmic once, but that's been about it.

Besides, when life hands you rain, make reflection photos.

 

[Simba's Girl]

Sunday's QOTD: Weather happens. Roll with it. The only weather that really I could do without was the surface of the sun hot a few years ago in August.

 

[PCFriar80]

Today's Sundays are for Disney question:

How do you deal with weather on a Disney vacation?

We've had all types of weather on our Disney vacations over the years ranging from the low 30's during the 2010 marathon to HHH 90 degree days during our May F&G trips. We also were there [BCVs] when Wilma went through back in 2005. Fortunately, it was a quick mover, west to east and only resulted in a half day closure [AM] of MK and EC which opened around 2:00 PM, and shutdown of HS and AK for the entire day. F&W went off with limited booths, but the Beach Boys played their 3 sets that evening. For all weather occasions we just go with the flow, plan and dress accordingly.

 

[courtneybeth]

The bulk pack of ponchos on Amazon is the gift that keeps on giving. I think in all the days we've been at WDW, we only used them once.

Highly recommend just packing them in your go bag and enjoying the day. A little rain makes for fun later when you splash in the puddles to cool off

 

[hotblooded]

This year, I went to the parks on Marathon Weekend with my sister and my cousin. I always check the weather before I go on a trip, but my travel companions made the mistake of thinking Florida is guaranteed to be warm in January. I was the only one to bring winter gear, and temps dropped to the 40s on Saturday. Our park time was miserable because they were freezing, and it made me feel guilty that I hadn't babied them and warned them to pack winter coats. To this day, I'm bitter about their lackadaisical attitude and failure to plan ahead.

But anyway: I pack for any eventuality, and I fit it all into my carry-on. And from now on, I'm sending a screenshot of the forecast to anyone I'm traveling with.

 

[FelisLachesis]

This year, I went to the parks on Marathon Weekend with my sister and my cousin. I always check the weather before I go on a trip, but my travel companions made the mistake of thinking Florida is guaranteed to be warm in January. I was the only one to bring winter gear, and temps dropped to the 40s on Saturday. Our park time was miserable because they were freezing, and it made me feel guilty that I hadn't babied them and warned them to pack winter coats. To this day, I'm bitter about their lackadaisical attitude and failure to plan ahead.

But anyway: I pack for any eventuality, and I fit it all into my carry-on. And from now on, I'm sending a screenshot of the forecast to anyone I'm traveling with.

This was back in the mid 1990s, way before cell phones were anywhere near as prominent as they are now. I was traveling from Philadelphia to Indianapolis (or the other way around, I don't remember), and I looked up the weather for both cities. I noticed that the temperature in the city I was starting in was in the low 70s, but the destination was in the mid 30s

I'm at the originating airport, looking really stupid wearing a huge parka, while everyone else is wearing t-shirts and shorts. The flight was uneventful. As we get off, the cold air at the destination city is seeping through the connector between the plane and the terminal. Everyone's getting off shivering, and I'm strutting off, now really comfy in my big jacket.

 

[lhermiston]

This year, I went to the parks on Marathon Weekend with my sister and my cousin. I always check the weather before I go on a trip, but my travel companions made the mistake of thinking Florida is guaranteed to be warm in January. I was the only one to bring winter gear, and temps dropped to the 40s on Saturday. Our park time was miserable because they were freezing, and it made me feel guilty that I hadn't babied them and warned them to pack winter coats. To this day, I'm bitter about their lackadaisical attitude and failure to plan ahead.

But anyway: I pack for any eventuality, and I fit it all into my carry-on. And from now on, I'm sending a screenshot of the forecast to anyone I'm traveling with.

Ugh to this. It's so hard not to get resentful when someone else's lack of planning negatively impacts your trip.

 

[DVCFan1994]

I've had my fair share of bad weather. We've had trips we had to buy hats and gloves, ponchos, or cut our day short because everyone was exhausted from hot weather for us northerners. Race wise, I've gotten caught once under prepared. For PHM in 2015 I went to my parents in Vero first. When I left MA the 7 day forecast seemed fairly seasonable for that week. Cool morning and evenings, warm days. But, as we spent time in Vero the weather changed and it was literally freezing at the start of the 5k. My then 6 year old daughter was doing it with me, and because the forecast got so much colder we had to buy extra warm gear at the expo. Now, regardless of the forecast, I bring multiple layers. Luckily we are DVC members and stay in Villas with a washer dryer, so I don't have to bring a ton, I just need to do laundry if I go through more than I brought.

As for vacation impacts, in WDW such a large percentage of attractions are indoors, that temps and rain are more of a problem getting from attraction to attraction. I do think this is one drawback of FastPass plus. In the past we'd change up our park plan based on weather. Let's say it were pouring and we'd planned AK. There is so long between attractions there, I'd rather reschedule it. But now with fast pass plus, we'd lose those hard fought for fast passes, and not get them for whichever park we'd rather switch to.

 

[Anisum]

Sunday's Question: Rain wise, I will use an umbrella if I need to. I find that most people go with ponchos and I'm tall enough that I can hold my umbrella above my head without hitting people or other umbrellas. There is a 50% chance that I will just allow myself to get wet though, the rain doesn't bother me that much. Most of the time I have sunscreen and a light jacket. If the forecast predicts it could be colder (as in marathon weekend last year) I will probably have a jacket/scarf/gloves already packed for park time because I'll need them going to the airport for my flight to MCO.

 

[dzak1717]

I always pack ponchos/rain jackets. Some of the best memories is of our group wading through the rain. Shorter lines and less people to deal with when the skies open up. Our last time at wdw we did a quick 1 day stop during our FL spring break trip and packed the ponchos but left them in the car because FL was in a huge drought last spring. Yep it was the one day it rained for like 90 days. We stopped at one of the gift shops so my kids could buy something but then asked for the largest bag they had so we could line the stroller seats with them.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Sunday's Question: We have only taken our WDW trips in the winter months, so we have enjoyed pretty mild weather. If we have a rainy spell, we just put our ponchos on and roll with it. DH and I were in Magic Kingdom on marathon day this past year and it was so cold! That was definitely the coolest WDW day I had ever experienced.

 

[regul8ter18]

We are from the Midwest so running months August-May if we are going to out of town races we bring all our winter running stuff just in case. I am always cold (sitting at work right now with a blanket on). Sometime we just shake our head when we see/ hear people who complain about the cold. We have even asked them "didn't you check the weather?" and the answer is usually no.

 

[Dis5150]

I had never been to Disney World until February 2015 and on our first park on our first day the sky opened up and poured on us! We had read all the blogs and had our ponchos in our park bag so put them on and continued our fun. Since that one time, it has never rained on us when we were out of our hotel room again.

Our family trips were in September for 2015 and 2016 and it was so hot! We decided to start going in November this year but had to cancel our trip due to some of our kids finances and my son being deployed.

I am also always cold (at my desk in a hoodie right now!) so after that first trip, I pack for all weather. I had one hoodie and a scarf that I had worn on the plane since it was cold at home when I left. Ended up wearing them several times on that trip. But also wore shorts several days lol. Gotta love Florida weather!