marathon weekend

[mattsdragon]

Ok, so we're owners at SSR, and the transportation there is always horrible at best. So we want to stay somewhere else for marathon weekend in January. Transportation to the expo and the actual event (half-marathon) is key. Which resort is best for that. I don't care if it is DVC or not. We just want the one that doesn't involve 45 minute lines for a bus to the event in the morning.

Thanks.

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

Ok, so we're owners at SSR, and the transportation there is always horrible at best. So we want to stay somewhere else for marathon weekend in January. Transportation to the expo and the actual event (half-marathon) is key. Which resort is best for that. I don't care if it is DVC or not. We just want the one that doesn't involve 45 minute lines for a bus to the event in the morning.

Thanks.

We have been there marathon weekend the last three years. The first year we did Kidani and it was NOT good for transportation. The second year we did GF and it was much better because we could use the monorail. This year we did BLT and it was the easiest of them all. The kids and I were able to go down in our pajamas to watch DH run past. That was neat. Then we hopped on the monorail to watch him cross the finish line at Epcot. I know he went to the expo at least twice from the CR (they had a shuttle stop out front that took him straight there) and I don't remember him mentioning anything about a long wait. I preferred CR/BLT monorail to the TTC over the GF because it was faster.

Next year we are booked for BCV. I'm excited to try it out and see if it makes marathon weekend even easier for us. This is the first time we've been able to book it (through a family member who owns DVC) and our first time being in an Epcot resort for marathon weekend!

 

[mattsdragon]

I'm running, I need to know which resort has good transportation to the Wide World of Sports and EPCOT on the morning of the races.

Any suggestions?

 

[Miz Diz]

I'm running, I need to know which resort has good transportation to the Wide World of Sports and EPCOT on the morning of the races.

Any suggestions?

All host resorts provide transportation. For the Princess half, all Disney resorts were host resorts. I stayed at CBR and the transportation to the Expo and the race was very good. The busses came more feequently than park busses. The morning of the race, i saw a bus pulling away as i walked to the stop. When i got there, another bus had just arrived. CBR, in my opinion, has terrible service to the parks because wait times were always long. I was surprised the expo and race busses were so frequent.

My guess is that all resorts have good bus service for the races. The only negative i had was that traffic to the race was bad. Don't get on one of the last busses.

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

Our runners have never had trouble getting to the race, usually they all have to leave at 3:00 or 4:00 AM and the buses are ready to go! We've had family running from deluxes, values, moderates, DVCs, all of them have made it to the race in plenty of time. The much harder transportation issues are for spectators. The best resorts for them would be on the monorail or the Epcot resorts. Trying to get anywhere by bus that morning is nearly impossible. We sat on a bus from Kidani to the TTC on race morning two years ago and missed everyone crossing the finish because we were in gridlock.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

We ended up driving ourselves evennwhen staying on site, as I wanted to go with my husband to the start and due to the traffic we left very early and then at least I could go back and sit in the car for awhile. As others have said, spectators getting there is also am issue. I then took the monorail around, seeing him in the MK and around the Ticket and Transportation center.

 

[mattsdragon]

Ok, let me start over. . .

I've run the race before. We stayed at SSR, our home resort. The transportation to the expo the day before was actually quite good, we didn't wait longer that 15 minutes. But because SSR is such a HUGE resort, the line at the bus stop the morning of the race was atrocious. If you are familiar with the resort layout, the pick up is at the Springs stop. And the line went in two different directions. one half way to Congress Park, the other most of the way to the bridge to the Paddock. SSR is famous for horrible bus service, so I don't want to have to sprint to the corrals again next year because the line for the bus is so bad.

I'm hoping that other resorts have better, more efficient and more frequent busses to EPCOT the morning of the race.

 

[Wood Nymph]

You might have a better chance of finding someone who can answer your question about the buses over in the Events/Competition forum in the W.I.S.H.E.S. section of Just for Fun.

http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=109