Marathon weekend and "non-marathoners". How should I plan?

[4our4kids]

I've read on other posts about some crowds for the marathon weekend, and even a few days prior. We are going Tues. night, the 3rd, to Sunday the 8th. Any info on which park to visit, or avoid, on specific days would be helpful? This will be our 4th trip. Our last one was 8/03, we don't feel we have to see and do it all, this will be a more relaxed pace.

 

[GOOFYFREEK]

Ummm.... where did you read about crowds? Cause that is the slowest time of the year. And they are out of MK before the park even opens. Yes Epcot has area's blocked off, but you can easily still get around. This have very little effect on the parks at all.

 

[DisneyDuo]

We were there during the Marathon last year. The crowds in the parks were slightly higher a few days before, as the runners arrived and did their own park thing before the marathon. Not a huge increase - it is a nice and slow time of year.

The day of the Marathon traffic was bunched up getting to the parks for awhile, especially Magic Kingdom - we were staying at BCV so there was no problem, we just walked into Epcot after watching the runners go by for awhile.

So I would plan on that Sunday spending a nice leisurely morning in your room or at the pool, and by lunchtime things are pretty much back to normal.

Lin

 

[4our4kids]

Is there somewhere I can get information about the marathon(s)?. Are there different races at different parks daily that week or just on the weekend? I truly don't know anything pertaining to the marathons and would just like to be correctly informed about the happenings, that may impact us, for the week of our visit. From the above posts it seems I may not even know there are races going on!

 

[diswedwish]

We were there over Marathon weekend in 1/04 (at POR), and will be arriving at WDW that weekend in '06. From past experience, the night before the marathon wasn't very crowded - and from riding the buses it seemed like everyone running was trying to get an early night. The day of the marathon we had a relatively early PS at 1900 Park Fare scheduled. The bus dropped us off at the Contemporary because there was a back-up into the MK area, so we just rode the monorail to the GF. The rest of the day crowds seemed light, and we avoided PI because I think they host a party for the runners? PI wasn't closed to non-runners, we just wanted to avoid any potential crowds. But other than the thing with the bus, and seeing people with medals and people running, there wasn't really any big difference in the parks. HTH and have a great trip

 

[bearzabout]

The schedule is at:

http://disneyworldsports.disney.go.com/dwws/en_US/marathon/listing?name=Marathon2005EventListingPage

I was at the Magic Kingdom last year during the marathon. What a zoo!!! The marathon started at Epcot around 5:30AM. The half marathon ended at the Magic Kingdom's parking lot. There was a line of what seemed like thousands of people waiting to take the monorail back to Epcot at 9AM. I'd never seen anything like it.

The roads were partially blocked to allow for the runners in the morning and I waited nearly 15 minutes in a sea of cars to get through the parking booths.

Most drivers must have been there to pick up runners because the Magic Kingdom was rather empty early in the day.

I heard that there were so many runners that it took up to 20 minutes for the people in the back to cross the start line.

Next year, they are doing the marathon and half marathon on different days.

Disney set time limits and if you ran too slow, they stopped you from continuing. This allowed them to clean up quickly after this time limit passed.

I think the full marathon ended at Epcot. Awards were presented at Pleasure Island in the evening.

 

[jann1033]

i wouldn't say in 04 the marathon didn't have any impact on the parks...emh was at ak and the runners were there the same time emh started..it was a mess till long after official park opening, many shows were delayed, paths blocked off so it was very difficult to even get around, it was a mess for most of the morning. it could be due to the layout of the park but it was awful.not sure why they changed emh to ak for that day but i wouldn't go if it's there and i wouldnt go to ak that morning anyway unless the route changes.


other than that....
actual crowds in the parks weren't any different imo

 

[riu girl]

Does anyone know what the probable emhs will be Sat Jan 7/06?