Marathon Weekend 2023

[luv2cheer92]

I've gotten even more excited for this trip! My dad and I are doing Dopey. I think I've talked my mom into doing the 5K. But we will be doing a big family trip with my brothers and their families! 10 of us total. We have rented a 5BR house near Flamingo Crossing. 6 nights for right at $1000, can't beat that anywhere. It will be my (then) 2 and 3 year old nieces first trips! Maybe I can talk my one brother and his wife into doing the 5k also. Let's just hope we can all get in!

 

[WDRunner37]

In preparation for April 19 registration @ 10:00am....I would like to register for Dopey and my wife would like to register for 5K.
What should I initially register for? 5K or Dopey? and is it true I can register both of us at the same time? Any help would be
greatly appreciated.

 

[GreatLakes]

In preparation for April 19 registration @ 10:00am....I would like to register for Dopey and my wife would like to register for 5K.
What should I initially register for? 5K or Dopey? and is it true I can register both of us at the same time? Any help would be
greatly appreciated.

I'd recommend you both get your own accounts and register concurrently for what you want. Both could sell out quickly and having your own registration linked to your own account has been a much smoother experience ever since the racing came back last year.

My wife and I have our own accounts and even if I were to register for her it would be with her account, not with mine.

 

[Baloo in MI]

I agree with @GreatLakes. 5K tends to go fast and with this being the 10th anniversary of Dopey it could go fast also. It is always a little bit of the unknown, but I think it is going to be a very quick sell out year. Hope I am wrong!

 

[sandam1]

My dad and I are doing Dopey. I think I've talked my mom into doing the 5K. But we will be doing a big family trip with my brothers and their families! 10 of us total.

You must be a very brave person - adding a big multiple family trip onto Dopey. All I can say is "wow!"

 

[luv2cheer92]

You must be a very brave person - adding a big multiple family trip onto Dopey. All I can say is "wow!"

This will be our 3rd Dopey, so I'm hoping I have an idea on how to manage haha.

 

[accm]

I'm really anxious about registration. I'm going to have to try and register multiple family members who will be on vacation for the 5k. I need to sit down with my husband to come up with a plan of attack, and maybe ask my sister if she can also help. It doesn't help my anxiety that they've already purchased their flight coming in from Brazil. So ya, I'll just be over here stressing out for the next week and a half...

 

[accm]

OK. I'm overthinking this, so if anyone wants to help me figure out the best way to go about registration, I'd really appreciate it. This is the registration breakdown:
For my family it'll be me: Dopey, DS: 5k, DH: 5k and half. For my aunt's family, it's 4 people running the 5k. My husband and I both have a runDisney account. I'm thinking of asking my aunt to make an account as well and I'll register her, my uncle, and two cousins there.
Ideally, I can get one more person to help me with registration, so I'd be in charge of registering myself, my husband would register him and my son for the 5k, and then go back and register for the half, and then the third person would register my aunts family all at once.
Is this the best plan? What happens if I can't get a third person? I guess then whoever is done with their registration first would do my aunts family? And I'd prioritize that over my husbands half? My aunt is going to be on vacation when registration happens, so she's asked me to register them.

If you couldn't tell, I like to stress and overthink things.

 

[jpeterson]

OK. I'm overthinking this, so if anyone wants to help me figure out the best way to go about registration, I'd really appreciate it. This is the registration breakdown:
For my family it'll be me: Dopey, DS: 5k, DH: 5k and half. For my aunt's family, it's 4 people running the 5k. My husband and I both have a runDisney account. I'm thinking of asking my aunt to make an account as well and I'll register her, my uncle, and two cousins there.
Ideally, I can get one more person to help me with registration, so I'd be in charge of registering myself, my husband would register him and my son for the 5k, and then go back and register for the half, and then the third person would register my aunts family all at once.
Is this the best plan? What happens if I can't get a third person? I guess then whoever is done with their registration first would do my aunts family? And I'd prioritize that over my husbands half? My aunt is going to be on vacation when registration happens, so she's asked me to register them.

If you couldn't tell, I like to stress and overthink things.

I would do the 5ks first. Get those done, then move on to the half and the dopey. The more people to help the better. I understand the stress and anxiety. I feel it myself and I'm only registering myself!

 

[accm]

I would do the 5ks first. Get those done, then move on to the half and the dopey. The more people to help the better. I understand the stress and anxiety. I feel it myself and I'm only registering myself!

My sister said she'd help if she's not busy with work, so I'm hoping she's available. But I also don't think she fully understands how quickly these things sell out. I'm worried about signing everyone up for the 5k, and then Dopey selling out before I can register. My son is really excited about doing the 5k with me.
I need to find more people in my life who are good at quick registrations and won't be busy on April 19th at 10am.

 

[GreatLakes]

OK. I'm overthinking this, so if anyone wants to help me figure out the best way to go about registration, I'd really appreciate it. This is the registration breakdown:
For my family it'll be me: Dopey, DS: 5k, DH: 5k and half. For my aunt's family, it's 4 people running the 5k. My husband and I both have a runDisney account. I'm thinking of asking my aunt to make an account as well and I'll register her, my uncle, and two cousins there.
Ideally, I can get one more person to help me with registration, so I'd be in charge of registering myself, my husband would register him and my son for the 5k, and then go back and register for the half, and then the third person would register my aunts family all at once.
Is this the best plan? What happens if I can't get a third person? I guess then whoever is done with their registration first would do my aunts family? And I'd prioritize that over my husbands half? My aunt is going to be on vacation when registration happens, so she's asked me to register them.

If you couldn't tell, I like to stress and overthink things.

You are a better person than me. I'd register myself and give them the information to register themselves. If they miss out they miss out.

 

[accm]

You are a better person than me. I'd register myself and give them the information to register themselves. If they miss out they miss out.

I think if they weren't going to be away for registration, and the language barrier, I probably would. No. That's a lie. I like to stress myself out and make my life harder than it needs to be. I also feel bad, because the only reason they're going is to run with us.

 

[HangWithMerida]

You are braver than me. I have a reservation starting Dec 31 I’m waiting to modify because I’m avoiding calling

Me too! Anything to avoid the phone call!

 

[camaker]

You are braver than me. I have a reservation starting Dec 31 I’m waiting to modify because I’m avoiding calling

Me too! Anything to avoid the phone call!

Why not use a travel agent, then? There's no cost and they make all the phone calls for you. I've had my reservation all squared away for Marathon Weekend for the exact dates I wanted for a couple of months now. No phone calls, just a couple of emails to the TA.

 

[jpeterson]

Why not use a travel agent, then? There's no cost and they make all the phone calls for you. I've had my reservation all squared away for Marathon Weekend for the exact dates I wanted for a couple of months now. No phone calls, just a couple of emails to the TA.

Second this. We are DVC so don't use a travel agent anymore for WDW but have in the past and it was fantastic. We are using Dreams Unlimited Travel for our upcoming Disney cruise and that's been super awesome experience.

 

[HangWithMerida]

Why not use a travel agent, then? There's no cost and they make all the phone calls for you. I've had my reservation all squared away for Marathon Weekend for the exact dates I wanted for a couple of months now. No phone calls, just a couple of emails to the TA.

I used a TA exactly 1 time for a disney trip. Maybe I just had a bad TA or maybe I'm too much of a control freak when it comes to planning my vacations, but it wasn't a great experience for me. Lots of emails, back a forth convos for silly things that I can just take care of myself.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I used a TA exactly 1 time for a disney trip. Maybe I just had a bad TA or maybe I'm too much of a control freak when it comes to planning my vacations, but it wasn't a great experience for me. Lots of emails, back a forth convos for silly things that I can just take care of myself.

This was my experience as well. I will willing admit that I am a control freak when it comes to Disney trips, and having to go through a 3rd party if things are off/weird with the trip is really annoying.

 

[jpeterson]

This was my experience as well. I will willing admit that I am a control freak when it comes to Disney trips, and having to go through a 3rd party if things are off/weird with the trip is really annoying.

I hear that. And I do all my own WDW planning too, but if I was completely avoiding the phone call, I would probably let a TA handle it.

 

[Baloo in MI]

OK. I'm overthinking this, so if anyone wants to help me figure out the best way to go about registration, I'd really appreciate it. This is the registration breakdown:
For my family it'll be me: Dopey, DS: 5k, DH: 5k and half. For my aunt's family, it's 4 people running the 5k. My husband and I both have a runDisney account. I'm thinking of asking my aunt to make an account as well and I'll register her, my uncle, and two cousins there.
Ideally, I can get one more person to help me with registration, so I'd be in charge of registering myself, my husband would register him and my son for the 5k, and then go back and register for the half, and then the third person would register my aunts family all at once.
Is this the best plan? What happens if I can't get a third person? I guess then whoever is done with their registration first would do my aunts family? And I'd prioritize that over my husbands half? My aunt is going to be on vacation when registration happens, so she's asked me to register them.

If you couldn't tell, I like to stress and overthink things.

Sounds like you have a good plan as long as you get the third person to help. I think that will make a big difference. I tend to work myself up and am usually running multiple devices with different start times and freaking out until I get my confirmation. And then I think, it worked out why were you so anxious!

Food for thought. For Spring Surprise I tried to get two challenge registrations for myself and my daughter and I tried to get two more 5K registrations for my other daughter and wife. I did the two challenges on the first device that let me in. I was worried about taking too long so I tried to get the two 5Ks on the next device to open. The 5K filled prior to me completing that, so my 2nd daughter and wife did not get to do the 5K. So maybe going with the two 5Ks first would have been better? But I ran into several people who were not able to get Challenge registrations while I was there last week. And the purpose of the trip was for my daughter and I to run the challenge together.

So after that ramble here is my advice based A) we don’t really know what to expect for MW2023, but can expect demand to be high: many more people vacationing, much less restrictions and anniversary years for Dopey, 10K and Marathon. B) we can make estimated guesses on what will happen based on history, but there are no promises.

So assess your plans, decide what is most important to you and what would be least upset about losing out on and then prioritize based on that. If Dopey is most important, register for it first. If the 5Ks for your family are most important, do those first. Just make sure your first action is the one you really want, get help with the rest. Good luck! (I am stressing right along with you. Dopey, 5K, 10K and Half registrations to get and for four different people! Ooof!)

 

[accm]

Sounds like you have a good plan as long as you get the third person to help. I think that will make a big difference. I tend to work myself up and am usually running multiple devices with different start times and freaking out until I get my confirmation. And then I think, it worked out why were you so anxious!

Food for thought. For Spring Surprise I tried to get two challenge registrations for myself and my daughter and I tried to get two more 5K registrations for my other daughter and wife. I did the two challenges on the first device that let me in. I was worried about taking too long so I tried to get the two 5Ks on the next device to open. The 5K filled prior to me completing that, so my 2nd daughter and wife did not get to do the 5K. So maybe going with the two 5Ks first would have been better? But I ran into several people who were not able to get Challenge registrations while I was there last week. And the purpose of the trip was for my daughter and I to run the challenge together.

So after that ramble here is my advice based A) we don’t really know what to expect for MW2023, but can expect demand to be high: many more people vacationing, much less restrictions and anniversary years for Dopey, 10K and Marathon. B) we can make estimated guesses on what will happen based on history, but there are no promises.

So assess your plans, decide what is most important to you and what would be least upset about losing out on and then prioritize based on that. If Dopey is most important, register for it first. If the 5Ks for your family are most important, do those first. Just make sure your first action is the one you really want, get help with the rest. Good luck! (I am stressing right along with you. Dopey, 5K, 10K and Half registrations to get and for four different people! Ooof!)

Thank you. I need to sit down with my husband and talk it out. I think he's ok with leaving his half registration for last. I'm OK with missing out on Dopey, but not OK with missing out on running the 5k, which ties into the Dopey registration. I'll also feel terrible if I don't manage to register my other family members. So ya, definitely need to prioritize. I think if it turns out that my sister is busy, I might ask someone at work to help me.

Good luck to you as well! I hope we're all sitting here in a week and a half wondering why we were so anxious.