Official Wine and Dine 2016 thread

[Ariel484]

A big change to the course would be no Osborne Lights (obviously)...and possibly the entire Streets of America section is gone? I haven't been paying much attention to where the Studios construction is happening and what has been closed...

 

[PrincessV]

General thoughts on booking a W&D resort from a frequent WDW visitor... General public/passholder/Florida resident discounted rates will appear eventually. If you have your heart set on a particular resort, and will pay rack rate to stay there if no discounts for it become available, it's not a bad idea to book now. If you want a host resort - any host resort, not picky about which - no need to book now, but don't wait until the bitter end, either; once discounts are announced, jump on it. If you have your own transportation, or are willing to use a cab or Uber, and/or don't care if you wind up onsite or off, you have plenty of time.

2014 W&D I waited until a few weeks out to book - there was still availability at WDW resorts, but not at a price I was willing to pay. I booked offsite at a great rate and drove to the race.
2015 I really wanted to be onsite, but didn't care if it was a host resort - booked a Value in July when a discounted rate came out and I was able to stack it with an Orbitz code, rebooked in Aug. when a Moderate became available at a discount + Orbitz code. I kept looking after that, but that Aug. rate was the best it ever got. Again drove to the race.

Hope this helps!

 

[PrincessV]

A big change to the course would be no Osborne Lights (obviously)...and possibly the entire Streets of America section is gone? I haven't been paying much attention to where the Studios construction is happening and what has been closed...

I think this is very likely - it sounds like that whole area will be torn up by then.

 

[Closet Disney Junkie]

That's the way that I see it.



•Being a race weekend and the Food and Wine Festival, the values and moderates will most likely be at capacity(no vacancy) for the weekend. Booking something now just ensures you get a room at the resort you'd like and as the previous poster stated, there would be more than enough time to cancel any reservation without penalty of losing your deposit.
•Although the course hasn't been announced yet, I don't believe that they will make any drastic changes to the route. Yes, more of the Studios will be closed/walled off due to Star Wars construction, but I still suspect the same geral course.
•The after party goes until 4am. If you are running, the party starts as soon as you finish and get through security. If you have a after party ticket, you are allowed entry at 7pm (a full hour before we need to be at the starting area at Wide World of Sports). Last year's ticket pricing was on a tiered time table, $75, $85 & $95 as you got closer to the event.
•Arriving on race day can be exhausting. As long as you are ready for a long day and remember that the expo closes at like 3pm on Saturday in order to pick up your bib. Veteran's Day Weekend (a week after the race) is usually pretty busy. It is a long holiday weekend and makes an attractive destination for folks in the south east.

Amazing ... thanks for all of the great info!

 

[Closet Disney Junkie]

Hi!

If you booked one of those resorts now you'd be able to cancel your reservation with a full refund if you weren't able to get in for the race. The course for this year will be different from past and hasn't been announced yet. You can look at the previous year's course for an idea (though some of those areas are closed for construction those the changes.) There's some speculation the Star Wars Dark Side race in May will run a very similar course to Wine and dine (just backwards) so once that's released we might have a better idea. If your husband purchases a ticket for the after party he'd be able to enter Epcot at 7pm. I think in past years the party has been until 2am and the cost per a ticket might have been in the $60ish range. (I'm sure someone else will have more accurate info from experience.) I recommend doing a google search on veteran's day crowds to see some historic crowd calendars. The crowds will be a little higher (but even more so if this overlaps with Jersey week.) This isn't the busiest time of year so you still won't see wall to wall crowds by any means though.

Thanks so much, Emily. Lol I'm actually the husband and debating on the party ticket for my wife. I guess my avatar makes that a bit confusing but I'm the one in the background

 

[escriven75]

Can anybody comment as to what, if any, ticket discounts will be available once (or should I say IF) we are registered for the W&D? We're planning to book the room online portion now just to play it safe. And then we'll add the tickets on later, IF we get registered. Is it a discount on a very specific ticket? or just a % off of minimum ticket? For instance, we're planning to get 4 day NON park hoppers for everyone in our party. Any help is appreciated!

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

General thoughts:
I recall Soarin', SSE, and Test Track being open for the party. Almost fell asleep on Soarin'. I'll forever regret deviating from our inside Epcot meet-up plan (with DW). I tried to spot her finish, and coming out of the packet pickup area. Bad idea. Put us an hour behind, which turned into no food (besides stopping the cheese kiosk again).

Already booked at Boardwalk Inn, as we got a deal through our TA for about 30% off rack rate. It was so nice to stay there last year, and just walk back after the race. To quote DW, "if I had known Osborne was so nice, we would have come and seen it years ago". Running through the lights was probably THE highlight of the 2015 course for us.

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

Dumb question - would the inclusion of the Boardwalk Villas in the host resort list make the boardwalk itself a host resort by default? I've stayed at both BC and YC before and would love to try BW. having said that, last year for W&D I ended up at GF after I extended my dates and Poly (where I was originally booked) was fully booked, so I just walked to and from the host resort (and I know some people have flamed others for doing that, which I've read, so please don't start on that track again - it's all Disney!).

We stayed at the Boardwalk last year. They had a large poster/sign in the main lobby from Thursday through Saturday with all sorts of race information on it. If I can figure out how to post a photo again, I'll post it. The transport pickup was over at the BW convention center. Walk like you are going to the regular BW bus stop, and take a left at the fork in the path.

 

[emilyindisney]

Thanks so much, Emily. Lol I'm actually the husband and debating on the party ticket for my wife. I guess my avatar makes that a bit confusing but I'm the one in the background

Haha- whoops! Well, I'm glad someone else a little further down got you some more accurate party into for your wife

 

[escriven75]

For those that aren't new at this, do you also purchase your guest tickets for the after-party on registration day? Do those sell out as fast as it sounds like the registration will?
It is hard for me to get a good idea of the registration process never having done this before. Some are saying it sells out in a couple of hours....I've even heard mention of 30 minutes!

 

[PrincessV]

For those that aren't new at this, do you also purchase your guest tickets for the after-party on registration day? Do those sell out as fast as it sounds like the registration will?
It is hard for me to get a good idea of the registration process never having done this before. Some are saying it sells out in a couple of hours....I've even heard mention of 30 minutes!

Last year, registration did sell out VERY fast! I believe it may well have been around 30 mins. So that should be your priority. (It may not be so fast this year - hard to say. Better to assume a fast sellout and get in, though, right?!) I've never bought party tix, but I remember clearly they didn't sell out right away.

 

[jeanigor]

For those that aren't new at this, do you also purchase your guest tickets for the after-party on registration day? Do those sell out as fast as it sounds like the registration will?
It is hard for me to get a good idea of the registration process never having done this before. Some are saying it sells out in a couple of hours....I've even heard mention of 30 minutes!

The past few years (if not every year) the party tickets were available until almost race time. Securing your registration for the race is far more of a necessity when they go on sale than the after party ticket.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

The after party ticket is for sale after the initial half registration.

 

[bumbershoot]

W&D is sucking me back in. My friend and I bailed on the afterparty during the Splash&Dash 2014, and I've never quite forgiven myself

Since it looks like (if I've read the rD website correctly) this might be the only race being handled this way now (host resorts), I wonder if this isn't destined to change?

Well, since those are the only 3 events going on at WDW (January, princess, Dark Side, and W&D) I guess there's no good way to know right now. Didn't Tinkerbell used to be at WDW? TOT was limited hotels, I know that. If that comes back, we'd have to see what happened. Please oh please let it come back.

But I didn't realize that Dark Side had all hotels as hosts!


For spouses thinking of attending the afterparty, DO! If the runner thinks they'll be able to have fun and the spouse wants to go, just do it.

DH and DS went to the Tower Of Terror 2013 afterparty; we are west coasters and we hadn't gotten onto eastern time, so that worked out well. They had a nice time, but if I do a night race again and they go with me (if I do W&D I might have to do it alone), I am insisting that they have FUN. At the TOT party they just sort of wandered and didn't know what was going on and they were just waiting for me. Ugh. That wasn't my intention for what they should have done; heck, I flat out told them "no more than 4 times in a row on RnRC", which is basically saying "go do that 4 times, dudes". And then, apart from my training, TOT was the longest distance I'd ever done, in 80+ degree heat, and I was wiped out and sweaty, so we just sort of wandered.

If you can do the afterparty better than we did, GO. After all, we did it pretty poorly but we would go again.

 

[bumbershoot]

And I feel that the rD MCs play up the challenges a lot more as well.

January Half 2014 I *really* felt that they did a terrible disservice to the non-challenge people. It was like they flat out ignored that many people were NOT doing that, and that those people deserved recognition for doing *what they were doing*.

I wrote in about it, and the following year they were better about it pre-Half.

Challenges are exciting. AND doing AN event is exciting. Those doing non-challenges deserve to be told they are amazing as well, because they are.

 

[Keels]

Challenges are exciting. AND doing AN event is exciting. Those doing non-challenges deserve to be told they are amazing as well, because they are.

Getting off the couch and doing ANY race, especially these way-too-early Disney races, are worth celebrating. By the time runners get their medals, they've already done more activity that day than a large portion of the population will do at all.

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

Getting off the couch and doing ANY race, especially these way-too-early Disney races, are worth celebrating. By the time runners get their medals, they've already done more activity that day than a large portion of the population will do at all.

Or races like this that start (and end) after normal bedtime. I still can't believe how functional we were staying up so late. Didn't hit us until about an hour after finishing.

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

For those considering travel to MCO via Southwest, I wanted to post this, taken from their web site tonight:

Travel Tools


We are currently accepting air reservations through August 5, 2016. On February 18, 2016 we will open our schedule for sale through November 4, 2016. This date is subject to change! Please check back frequently.

 

[afan]

There's this too, not sure how it will play into the party going until 4am. I look at it as an extra hour of sleep though since the clocks will have to go back so we can stay at the party longer as long as we go by the none changed time.

Daylight Saving Time (United States) 2016 begins at 2:00 AM on
Sunday, March 13
and ends at 2:00 AM on
Sunday, November 6

 

[slp1650]

Or races like this that start (and end) after normal bedtime. I still can't believe how functional we were staying up so late. Didn't hit us until about an hour after finishing.

Totally agree... Luckily that running high, especially a race running high, kept me going till I got in my bed.

Anyone who gets out and does anything outside their comfort zones or anything active in general deserves to be applauded and cheered on.