Marathon Weekend 2023

[gosalyn_mallard]

SAFD:
As Disney CEO, not only would I get rid of Genie+ and individual LL, I would fire the senior leaders that championed it.

 

[lookingforsunshine]

Resort question for you pros… For marathon weekend would you prefer POFQ or Pop? I did Pop on 2020 and loved the skyliner access. Currently have a reservation at Pop but was thinking of trying POFQ instead.

I booked POFQ because it is smaller so less walking. It also has easy access to Disney Springs which I love. I am planning on limiting park days during the races so DS will be nice to go to and relax. IIRC the sky liner is not open to get you to the races in the morning so you’d still need to bus.

 

[camaker]

It doesn’t look like CBR has any preferred rooms right now. Are the Standard rooms super far away from everything?

Pretty sure most, if not all, buildings at CBR have a mix of standard (parking lot side) and preferred (lake view) rooms, so I don't think preferred really gets you any kind guarantee of being close to anything.

 

[azrivest]

It doesn’t look like CBR has any preferred rooms right now. Are the Standard rooms super far away from everything?

Pretty sure most, if not all, buildings at CBR have a mix of standard (parking lot side) and preferred (lake view) rooms, so I don't think preferred really gets you any kind guarantee of being close to anything.

Yeah and at CBR more than other resorts, it depends what you prefer to be close to. The Preferred rooms are in Barbados and Martinique which are closer to the lobby and pool, but further from the Skyliner stations that are near Jamaica and Aruba.

 

[Barca33Runner]

SAFD:

Last week:

My first Half and First Full Marathon I have separate under picture frames with pictures from the race weekend. My Dopey Challenge Medals are all on the same holder. All of my remaining medals are on another holder.


This Week:

If it were up to me I’d go back to no Genie + or FP+ with a virtual queue for RoTR only. Similar to pandemic when the lines were just the lines. Any type of double line system forces extra decisions from human beings, which slow things down and cause them to be inefficient. They also cause increased anger when people spend large portions of the day feeling like second class customers. When there’s one line, people can make better educated decisions about how they want to spend their time and CMs can get more people through the ride.

I would have RoTR go back to virtual because, as I’ve said before, the ride is a lemon. It’s completely unreliable to be running continuously so there’s no way to provide accurate line information. It will lead to the unfortunate reality that some will not have a chance at the ride, but that exists already.

Of course, neither of these things will happen. Disney appears to be very happy with Genie+ and the increased per ticket revenue it is generating. They appear completely unbothered by the complaints about the system and have merely posted a disclaimer that it will probably only get you on 2-3 attractions per day used; effectively acting both as a CYA against people asking for refunds and so people have very low expectations. I’d look for them to try to find ways to bring even more micro transactions to their economic model in the parks. The toothpaste isn’t going back in the tube at Disney or any other theme park.

 

[azrivest]

Here's my medal display. I've run out of room and need to get another one though. MW 2021 and 2022 are just sitting on a shelf. Shirts I wear- tech shirts I run in, cotton I use for pjs or beach shirts.


View attachment 659096

May I ask how you got your medals to hang so nicely?

 

[BigEeyore]

SAFD last week: I display all of my medals on 4 racks, and I wear my race shirts all the time!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

SAFD:
First I realize that it will never go back to free... so I will give disney that one with genie plus. I will let them charge it for a fee. Here are the things I would change with an understanding it will come at a cost:

1. Go back to fast pass system, just make us pay for it. Nothing is worse than having to stop in the middle of my half marathon to try to schedule a LL.... let me reserve 3 in advance so at least I know I have 3 I can use... use the whole same system. Just pay for it.

2. Get to modify LL without having to cancel it.

3. At a certain step the time can not change... it is ridiculous when I click on a time it changes by 3 hours... I cannot plan around that messes with reservations and hopping parks.

4. One payment for all of the rides. I hate nickling and dime, just give me one price. Just make it so we can only choose one ride from top tier, just like with fp.

5. Also need to make sure resort guest get first priority still in getting reservations no matter the system.

6. Fix the genie plus app... make it more intuitive. Easier to use and just less buggy.

 

[pluto377]

May I ask how you got your medals to hang so nicely?

It took a lot of work! Undo the velcro so that you can get the ribbon to lay flat. To hold the ribbons in place I got these little plastic things that are like bobby pins. I also didn't overstuff it. I could definitely fit more medals on, but I wanted to be able to see everything and since some (2020 Disney Virtual summer I'm looking at you!) that are enormous I left extra space. I ended up having to redo the whole thing twice to get it to look right.

SAFD:
First I realize that it will never go back to free... so I will give disney that one with genie plus. I will let them charge it for a fee. Here are the things I would change with an understanding it will come at a cost:

1. Go back to fast pass system, just make us pay for it. Nothing is worse than having to stop in the middle of my half marathon to try to schedule a LL.... let me reserve 3 in advance so at least I know I have 3 I can use... use the whole same system. Just pay for it.

2. Get to modify LL without having to cancel it.

3. At a certain step the time can not change... it is ridiculous when I click on a time it changes by 3 hours... I cannot plan around that messes with reservations and hopping parks.

4. One payment for all of the rides. I hate nickling and dime, just give me one price. Just make it so we can only choose one ride from top tier, just like with fp.

5. Also need to make sure resort guest get first priority still in getting reservations no matter the system.

6. Fix the genie plus app... make it more intuitive. Easier to use and just less buggy.

I agree with most of this.

1. I'm torn on the the advance planning part. I did like know beforehand that I had things I could count on and I didn't have to worry about mealtimes or other plans. But planning that far ahead brings its own stresses. Maybe the window should be shortened to like 7 days before your trip starts.

2. YES! So much YES! It was so nerve wracking to have to cancel and cross your fingers that there would still be something there when you went back.

3. YES again! Seriously, this was the most annoying thing.

4. Yup, my March trip we were spending Grandma's money so I sprung for the extra $100 for RotR. It's just absurd to charge that much for one ride on top of admission.

5. Yes, otherwise why bother staying on property really?

6. Yeah, the app is such a pain. I hated having to scroll through My Day all the time (which has so much irrelevant info) to figure out when my return times were.

Although I do agree with these changes above, I was actually really pleased with the system as whole on our March trip. We were able to use it really effectively, but that may have been more a function of how we split up our park days. For instance, we did two days at HS concentrating on GE one day and TSL the other day. So we had no issues getting the LL we needed because we weren't attempting all the headliners. We also did two days at MK and were able to get JC, PoTC, Splash, and BTMRR all on one day. The other day we got PP, IaSW, Pooh and Buzz, plus purchased SDMT. The hardest day was AK, especially because we didn't make rope drop. So we ended up skipping Pandora completely. I feel like this new system kind of forces you to have at least two days at each park, so maybe that's their end game- getting people to come on longer trips lol.

 

[Novatrix]

SAFD last week:

I wear race shirts basically every day of the week, sometimes multiple in one day. During the work week I wear them under a collared shirt for my job (makes me smile that I have a fun Disney character under professional clothes), at night I tend to rotate race shirts as sleep shirts, and the hideous shirts I save for yard work/dirty jobs. Ones that don't fit well become throw-a-ways for races.

For medals, every medal within the past rolling 12 months is displayed on a curtain rod in my room. Once the 12 months have passed, they are placed in 3 ring pencil cases with a clear window, then sorted in order in the appropriate year's race binder (which I also store bibs and related race documents in.)


SAFD this week:

While I realize Disney would never do this, I would completely do away with Fastpasses period in any way shape or form. Just make the "standby" line the line, in order to minimize the amount of pre-planning needed and optimize the number of people they can feed through the ride lines. Failing that, I'd make Genie+ eyewateringly expensive (for example $500/person) and have a hard cap at 1,000 people who can purchase per day, in order to minimize disruption to the general lines.

 

[Novatrix]

Boy, must've been tired. Accidentally posted my April Fools Half race report here rather than in the Running thread! Sorry.

 

[lookingforsunshine]

SAFD: Yes, I would get rid of Genie+. I think I like Universal’s model of paying A LOT more but not having times associated with rides… but I don’t know if that would work at Disney. I agree that at minimum IT should be fixed so you know what time you’re agreeing to before payment goes through.

 

[Barca33Runner]

I’d gladly pay $25 more for my ticket for no one to have Genie+.

Although I’m sure soon enough Disney will give me the pleasure of doing that anyway while Genie+, or whatever pay to play replaces it, is still intact.

 

[GollyGadget]

It doesn’t look like CBR has any preferred rooms right now. Are the Standard rooms super far away from everything?

I stayed in a standard room at cbr for marathon weekend this year and couldn't have asked for a better location. The only thing I put in my room request was near transportation. We ended up near the skyliner and the first bus stop of the runDisney bus route. The first bus stop was key because on neither the morning of the 10k nor the half did we make it to all the other stops since the bus was already full. Looking at the map, I'm guessing we were in building 43.

ETA: no one in my group ran the 5k or marathon so not sure how the buses were those mornings.

 

[dobball23]

How long is the typical window a PoT lasts? For example, if I get a proof of time this spring (May 2022), will it still work for Marathon Weekend 2024?

I know I've seen the typical window, but can't locate it at the moment.

 

[Dom497]

How long is the typical window a PoT lasts? For example, if I get a proof of time this spring (May 2022), will it still work for Marathon Weekend 2024?

I know I've seen the typical window, but can't locate it at the moment.

Covid has kinda messed up the PoT windows. For all races that have happened "post-covid", the PoT window has been valid from as early as January 2019. Disney hasn't published any info about Marathon Weekend yet so we don't know what the PoT window will be...though I suspect it will probably also be January 2019. The problem with pushing the PoT window to something like January 2020 or January 2021 is that races didn't happen in many parts of the States and in the world until recently (heck I live in Toronto, Canada and we are having the first "big" race since April 2020 this coming weekend...)

 

[dobball23]

Covid has kinda messed up the PoT windows. For all races that have happened "post-covid", the PoT window has been valid from as early as January 2019. Disney hasn't published any info about Marathon Weekend yet so we don't know what the PoT window will be...though I suspect it will probably also be January 2019. The problem with pushing the PoT window to something like January 2020 or January 2021 is that races didn't happen in many parts of the States and in the world until recently (heck I live in Toronto, Canada and we are having the first "big" race since April 2020 this coming weekend...)

Thanks. I'm curious what the non-Covid typical timeframe was. I would assume they'd eventually go back or get closer to that.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Thanks. I'm curious what the non-Covid typical timeframe was. I would assume they'd eventually go back or get closer to that.

Pre-COVID, the window was typically around 21-22 months. So with a non-COVID timeframe a Jan 2024 race window would have been Jan 1st, 2022 - Sept 30th, 2023. Since COVID they did change the window backwards, and they moved the MW POT submission deadline from early Oct to last day of Sept. (link)

 

[GreatLakes]

SAFD: I dislike FP+ and hate Genie+. I don't want to plan everything in advance. I want to wake up, decide that day what I feel like doing, and still be able to have a good experience. I'd either scrap fast passes entirely and go back to all standby or revert to a virtual version of the old paper fastpass system. You'd use your app like Genie+ but it wouldn't cost you anything, the FPs would be release in small bundles so you don't have to decide at 7am what you want to do, and you'd have to be in the park to reserve one.

 

[BigEeyore]

SAFD this week!
Genie + is an absolute disaster - I have used it twice, and it was actually worse the second trip so things are not improving. Paying for the ILL is just absurd, especially on top of paying for Genie +. The app is terrible, and the fact that you pick a time and by the time you finish, the actual time is 2-3 hours later, is crazy. Not to mention the stress and anxiety of the whole process - what a great way to start your Disney day! (said NO ONE EVER)
After watching that great YouTube video on lines (if you haven't seen it, you really should watch it - completely changed my thinking on lines!), I think the best option is to scrap Genie+ and go back to either standby only, or maybe the old paper FP system without the reserving in advance. I like the current ETPE situation for all parks on all days for resort guests. Staying on property should give you some advantage over offsite guests (like Universal), and if you take advantage of the ETPE you can usually get in at least 2-3 big rides before the lines get too long. I know the crowds were a lot lower during Covid, but it was very liberating to not have FP that you had to run to - you could just work your way through the park, ride what you felt like riding, leave when you wanted to leave, and I liked it a lot better than what we have now.