Official 2015 Disneyland Half Marathon Thread.

[pamster]

I'm probably the black sheep in this thread, but I'm staying at the Holiday Inn Buena Park about 6 mi away since I have hotel points to use and will have a car anyway. @Slogger, I am planning on parking at the Mickey & Friends structure on race day; I think the current price is $17/car.

 

[zanzibar138]

We stayed at Peacock Suites back in 2011. The walk to the parks was doable, about half an hour from door to door (reasonably brisk pace). Add another 15 minutes to get to the corrals though. So you could walk, but whether you would want to before and after a 10k/half marathon is something you'd have to think about.

Desert Palms would definitely be doable. We stayed at the Portofino on our last trip, which is just across the road, and it only took us about 10 minutes to walk to the park. Personally I would pick that one!

 

[zanzibar138]

I'm probably the black sheep in this thread, but I'm staying at the Holiday Inn Buena Park about 6 mi away since I have hotel points to use and will have a car anyway. @Slogger, I am planning on parking at the Mickey & Friends structure on race day; I think the current price is $17/car.

If you're planning to drive anyway, I can't see it making much difference if you're 1 mile or 6 miles away - may as well get the best bang for your buck (or points as the case may be)

 

[pamster]

If you're planning to drive anyway, I can't see it making much difference if you're 1 mile or 6 miles away - may as well get the best bang for your buck (or points as the case may be)

Haha! So true. The point conversion for using 15k point is about $85 per night. Not too bad, I think.

I used to live in Los Angeles, so this is the first time I've had to consider hotel options. Definitely an interesting experience!

 

[croach]

Thanks Keels and almacdonald. We are staying off-site and my better half is leaning towards Embassy Suites, Peacock Suites, or Desert Palms. The Sheraton Park looks decent too.
But some of these are at least a mile away.....
meaning we may have to take a shuttle bus,
drive to the park, or walk a long way

I used the shuttle quite a few times last year, especially on race mornings. It was pretty convienient and it's free for runners.

Embassy Suites have free breakfast which can be a bonus.

 

[almacdonald]

I'm not so concerned with the walk TO the corrals, so much as the walk to food AFTER the race LOL!

 

[Mickey'sfriend]

Flights from the northeast are about $400 right now, too. They came down a bit this week, but I'm still holding out.. hoping they drop below $400.

 

[Ariel484]

I've found the flights I want ($429 RT into LAX from CLE...direct both ways) but I'm waiting to book. Just got a credit card that will give me enough bonus points to book my flights for $0 once I meet the minimum spending requirement.

More money for merch!!!

 

[croach]

Signed up for the party Thursday night so I guess I'm adding an extra day to the front of my trip. Hopefully can meet up with some of you guys for that. I'm traveling solo again this year so it will be nice to have some meet ups. Post again as we get closer but if anyone wants to meet up for rides or meals let me know.

Think I might try to volunteer for something on Friday. Thinking about working the race Friday morning. Anyone do that last year?

 

[croach]

I've found the flights I want ($429 RT into LAX from CLE...direct both ways) but I'm waiting to book. Just got a credit card that will give me enough bonus points to book my flights for $0 once I meet the minimum spending requirement.

More money for merch!!!

Nice to get a direct flight! And extra merch!

 

[Ariel484]

Nice to get a direct flight! And extra merch!

I was thinking about it yesterday, and between Disneyland merch (this will be my first trip as an adult), 60th anniversary merch, Disneyland Half merch AND Coast-to-Coast merch...my wallet will be hurting. Getting the flights for "free" will feel like a big win!!

 

[kelly 1]

I used the shuttle quite a few times last year, especially on race mornings. It was pretty convienient and it's free for runners.

Embassy Suites have free breakfast which can be a bonus.

Last year I stayed at the Sheraton. I used the shuttles a couple of times but found I could walk faster. The morning of the run it is okay I just walked down Katella to the corrals about 10 mins.

 

[Mickey'sfriend]

I've found the flights I want ($429 RT into LAX from CLE...direct both ways) but I'm waiting to book. Just got a credit card that will give me enough bonus points to book my flights for $0 once I meet the minimum spending requirement.

More money for merch!!!

Direct is awesome!! I'm trying to avoid the flight with the 3 hour layover in San Fran, but it gets me to DL in time to hit up the Expo on Friday! Everything else in my price range doesn't land until after 6-7pm, and we all know that being on time is highly unlikely.

 

[Ariel484]

Direct is awesome!! I'm trying to avoid the flight with the 3 hour layover in San Fran, but it gets me to DL in time to hit up the Expo on Friday! Everything else in my price range doesn't land until after 6-7pm, and we all know that being on time is highly unlikely.

Yes! This one is really the only direct option from my airport and the times for the flight going there is perfect (no good options for going back ). I'm really anxious to book but I want to wait until the rewards points are there.

 

[Keels]

I have a late Wednesday ticket and an early Thursday ticket on hold with points. Have I mentioned that I'm not a morning person? I also can't sleep on planes, so I'm facing a tough decision. The struggle is real, y'all!

 

[zanzibar138]

I have a late Wednesday ticket and an early Thursday ticket on hold with points. Have I mentioned that I'm not a morning person? I also can't sleep on planes, so I'm facing a tough decision. The struggle is real, y'all!

Late Wednesday. Then you can wake up in Anaheim and stroll to DTD for breakfast before hitting up the expo at opening

Just to put it in perspective... we've finally locked in all our flights and they look like this:

Melbourne - Hong Kong
Hong Kong - LAX

1 week at DLR

SNA - Boston
Boston - Buffalo

1 week in the Niagara Falls/Toronto area

Buffalo - Boston
Boston - Tokyo
Tokyo - Seoul
Seoul - Hong Kong
Hong Kong - Melbourne

Going business (international)/first (domestic) with points, we didn't have too many options We do have one night in Hong Kong on the way over, and one night in Seoul on the way home though to break up the trip!

 

[croach]

Late Wednesday. Then you can wake up in Anaheim and stroll to DTD for breakfast before hitting up the expo at opening

Just to put it in perspective... we've finally locked in all our flights and they look like this:

Melbourne - Hong Kong
Hong Kong - LAX

1 week at DLR

SNA - Boston
Boston - Buffalo

1 week in the Niagara Falls/Toronto area

Buffalo - Boston
Boston - Tokyo
Tokyo - Seoul
Seoul - Hong Kong
Hong Kong - Melbourne

Going business (international)/first (domestic) with points, we didn't have too many options We do have one night in Hong Kong on the way over, and one night in Seoul on the way home though to break up the trip!

Wow, that's quite the travel itenirary. Nice to have those overnights to break up the travel. Will you have time to do anything in those cities?

 

[zanzibar138]

Wow, that's quite the travel itenirary. Nice to have those overnights to break up the travel. Will you have time to do anything in those cities?

Unfortunately with our fare rules, we weren't able to do any actual stopovers (because our fare is actually all the way through to Buffalo with a stopover in LA), but we got around it by spending 20-23 hours in both HK and Seoul.

We plan to spend our night in HK at HKDL. Realistically we probably won't get to the park until early evening, but we should still have time to check out Mystic Manor, which is new since we were there last, and possibly the Lion King show which has been down for maintenance on every other trip. Our flight leaves at around lunch time the next day, so we won't really have time to do anything in the morning.

In Seoul we plan to spend the night at an airport hotel for convenience. The airport there offers free layover tours for transit passengers, and we'll have time to do two of them the next day before our evening departure. It seemed like an easy and 'safe' way of doing things (in terms of getting back to the airport on time etc), so I've already booked them in.

 

[croach]

Unfortunately with our fare rules, we weren't able to do any actual stopovers (because our fare is actually all the way through to Buffalo with a stopover in LA), but we got around it by spending 20-23 hours in both HK and Seoul.

We plan to spend our night in HK at HKDL. Realistically we probably won't get to the park until early evening, but we should still have time to check out Mystic Manor, which is new since we were there last, and possibly the Lion King show which has been down for maintenance on every other trip. Our flight leaves at around lunch time the next day, so we won't really have time to do anything in the morning.

In Seoul we plan to spend the night at an airport hotel for convenience. The airport there offers free layover tours for transit passengers, and we'll have time to do two of them the next day before our evening departure. It seemed like an easy and 'safe' way of doing things (in terms of getting back to the airport on time etc), so I've already booked them in.

HKDL is a nice layover option. So you're flying from Boston to Tokyo - dumb question time. Is that non-stop?

 

[Slogger]

I have a late Wednesday ticket and an early Thursday ticket on hold with points. Have I mentioned that I'm not a morning person? I also can't sleep on planes, so I'm facing a tough decision. The struggle is real, y'all!

C'mon Keels. Take the late Wednesday flight. Stay up all night before your Disney runs and then go to bed!!! Sleep all morning. Problem solved.