Oye. I booked on the Tinkerbell marathon week (& a few Q's)

[Angrose]

If you can get Hojo for your dates then I would do that. It's only a 10 min walk to the gates. The kids will enjoy the little water park. I also saw that the Courtyard Themepark Entrance is available for your dates, but it's $300/nt. It's a brand new hotel next to Hojo with a very cool looking water park.

You will probably want to either bring or rent a stroller for your 4yo. I think it's City Strollers that I've seen recommended. It can feel like a long walk for little feet even going back to the DLH at the end of the day.

Good luck with your planning!

 

[bumbershoot]

So I have never understood what the marathons entail. Are people running through the parks? Around them?

IN the very early morning they are in the parks well before they are open.

Then they are on city streets until the finish, which tends to be in the DLH parking lot. The main area that gets impacted is Downtown Disney as the morning goes on, because of the way they have runner traffic shuttled through it. Try to not be in a hurry if you end up in DTD during that time frame.

So the date change won't work. But DH said he would rather be around runners than teenagers . I'm really torn on the Ayres. It's got fabulous reviews but it definitely isn't walking distance. ART has pretty terrible reviews so I don't know that I want to deal with using them. Staying at the anaheim Fairfield or Hojo is the only option I see right now. Dates are limited for 5/5 thru 5/8. I called Candy cane and Park Vue but nobody had availability for all three nights. I know those are two favorites around here. Any other runner ups?

Anabella.

Best Western Stovall's.

We stayed at Anabella over Star Wars in January (we participated in 5 and 10Ks), and walked our bags up the street to Paradise Pier on the half marathon Sunday. Easy! Could have taken a few more minutes to get ourselves to DLH if we had been staying there.

Other than road closures early in the morning the race itself should not impact your park days.

Agreed. And even then it's half of the road that's closed, not the whole thing.

I thought races entailed people running through parks in between crowds .

OH gosh no. That would be insane.

I read a review with a picture of some grotesque bed stain

Stop looking at tripadvisor! No reviews! Trust people here. And you can find that sort of picture at any hotel, even the fancy ones. The question is...what will you do if you check in and find it? What's your plan? Because it can happen anywhere.

At WDW people abandon rented strollers in the afternoon when they Park hop which you can then "aquire" (hey, I'm doing disney a favor because I always return it). Is that a thing at Disney land? If strollers go between the parks than probably not.

They go in between parks.

Bring YOUR OWN stroller. The parks are easy peasy compared to how tiiiiiiiiiiiired they get at the end of the day. And the start of the day they are just as tiiiiiiiiired.

 

[linzjane88]

If you can get Hojo for your dates then I would do that. It's only a 10 min walk to the gates. The kids will enjoy the little water park. I also saw that the Courtyard Themepark Entrance is available for your dates, but it's $300/nt. It's a brand new hotel next to Hojo with a very cool looking water park.

You will probably want to either bring or rent a stroller for your 4yo. I think it's City Strollers that I've seen recommended. It can feel like a long walk for little feet even going back to the DLH at the end of the day.

Good luck with your planning!

OK I think I will HOJO it up . I really want to try the Courtyard but if I am putting that kind of money out I want to be on site. I have looked at it a million times but thats quite a nig chunk of money.

We actually did WDW with DD3 in December. We only pulled it off because she's lightweight AND by mid-afternoon there are abandoned strollers lying around to commandeer. Since it sounds like that option isn't at DL I am looking at picking one up before we go.

 

[linzjane88]

IN the very early morning they are in the parks well before they are open.

Then they are on city streets until the finish, which tends to be in the DLH parking lot. The main area that gets impacted is Downtown Disney as the morning goes on, because of the way they have runner traffic shuttled through it. Try to not be in a hurry if you end up in DTD during that time frame.



Anabella.

Best Western Stovall's.

We stayed at Anabella over Star Wars in January (we participated in 5 and 10Ks), and walked our bags up the street to Paradise Pier on the half marathon Sunday. Easy! Could have taken a few more minutes to get ourselves to DLH if we had been staying there.



Agreed. And even then it's half of the road that's closed, not the whole thing.



OH gosh no. That would be insane.



Stop looking at tripadvisor! No reviews! Trust people here. And you can find that sort of picture at any hotel, even the fancy ones. The question is...what will you do if you check in and find it? What's your plan? Because it can happen anywhere.



They go in between parks.

Bring YOUR OWN stroller. The parks are easy peasy compared to how tiiiiiiiiiiiired they get at the end of the day. And the start of the day they are just as tiiiiiiiiired.

HA! I laughed when I read you walked your bags up because that has been running through my head. I didn't know how crazy we would look dragging our suitcase up the street to the DL hotel on check-in day.

I will look into those hotels too. Thanks for the tips everyone! I am getting excited again . I got a little overwhelmed by all of it earlier today. We aren't going to tell the kids til the day we leave. They have a few WDW trips in but never DL. The last time DH and I were there they were building Cars Land.

 

[ejcraft]

And be careful....MANY Run Disney Runners- were NOT runners unitl they saw how much fun everyone was having and getting medals!
I hated the concept of running unitl I discovered you could run through the castles, wear a costume and run from character photo-op to photo-op! Now this year I will do 3 1/2 Marathons, including two challenge weekends (10k Sat & 1/2 Sun) and 2 5ks all in Disney...it gets addictive!

can I ask how long it's taken you to get to this point?, running the challenges and all? I will be running my first 10K at the Tink, and are looking into ramping it up to the half and then finally a challenge, but right now can't even imagine being able to do that, still have days when I think I should be shot in the head for even considering I could run a 10K. I'm doing the Tink , then the wine and dine 10K in Nov. and was thinking I then may be ready for the Half in January with the star wars, what do you think?

 

[bevcgg]

can I ask how long it's taken you to get to this point?, running the challenges and all? I will be running my first 10K at the Tink, and are looking into ramping it up to the half and then finally a challenge, but right now can't even imagine being able to do that, still have days when I think I should be shot in the head for even considering I could run a 10K. I'm doing the Tink , then the wine and dine 10K in Nov. and was thinking I then may be ready for the Half in January with the star wars, what do you think?

That sounds great! Increasing to the 1/2 for Jan shouldn't be too much of an issue! Esp if you are doing the 10k in November for Wine & Dine. My DD 14 will be doing her first 1/2 at DL over Labor Day- and she will run a 10K for proof of time Memorial Day weekend and build up to the higher miles over the summer. Check out the Jeff Galloway training plans on the Run Disney site- and follow those. Find a 10K you can do near home for a Proof of Time race- so you can get a higher corral placement in the half that gives you more of a cushion- so you can have fun and enjoy photo ops etc.

Are you on the Run Disney forum here? on DIS boards? Lots of great folks that will keep you inspired! And locate Team Run Disney Group on Facebook - another place to pick up great tips and stay inspired! We are all a little crazy there! Most of all HAVE FUN and don't stress- you can do this!!!!

The biggest impact I felt from the challenges was not the running aspect it was the $$$$ - the extra nights/days at Disney for race weekend!! LOL!

 

[SMD]

HA! I laughed when I read you walked your bags up because that has been running through my head. I didn't know how crazy we would look dragging our suitcase up the street to the DL hotel on check-in day.

I will look into those hotels too. Thanks for the tips everyone! I am getting excited again . I got a little overwhelmed by all of it earlier today. We aren't going to tell the kids til the day we leave. They have a few WDW trips in but never DL. The last time DH and I were there they were building Cars Land.

You won't be able to cross the esplanade with suitcases. On a regular day you would have to wait until a security escort is available. On a race day, I don't see it happening at all. Your best bet is to have someone take a cab with the bags and the others walk. Or store your bags at your hotel and go back and get them after the race when DTD is clear.

 

[Kender]

Concurring with the other runner: many of us limit park time. I'm doing the Pixie Dust Challenge again this year and trust me when I say while it might be my birthday weekend, I'm going to go take several naps. Although after Dopey, PDC might feel a lot easier this year than last.

Mother's day weekend was NOT that bad last year even with Tink going on. Road closures were terrible, of course, but park wise there was little impact from the races that I noticed. The worst day was the half marathon (held on Sunday). And it is an important distinction that it's only a half marathon and not a marathon. This is because a full marathon impacts the parks and roads into the afternoon. A half is only going to impact the morning. The only full is held at Disney World currently.

I've been on race weekends that I wasn't running in. It was not bad at all. I would rather deal with happy people high from a run than teenagers. I didn't even want to deal with them when I was one.

The worst I experienced was trying to enter bag check from the DTD side (I was meeting my mom in the esplanade after I finished the half) and the lines were quite backed up around 10am as both guests and runners were trying to go through. Beyond that it wasn't terrible in the parks when I returned after a nap and I'm a person with high crowd anxiety.

Honestly knowing about it and paying attention to times when things occur is most of the battle. The races at DLR are significantly smaller than the ones at WDW. They always put out a race guide that will have road closure information in it. It'll let you know which roads to avoid if you have to drive at all.

 

[pigletliz]

Also just a quick note: If you have not already done so, you may want to consider making dining reservations for Saturday and Sunday nights if you want a sit down meal. Runners will be heading to any place that even remotely sells pasta on Saturday and Sunday is the celebratory "I just ran a half marathon" and Mother's Day meal. Have fun!

 

[linzjane88]

Thanks for all the awesome suggestions. I did book reservations for those days, I did Napa Rose and the Steak place at the DL hotel. We can play it by ear of we want to do the parks those days or just the pool. We are toying with the idea of moving the trip to 2 weeks up but that would entail missing an annual family function and I don't know if I want to take the heat for that. Although it does sound fun to be somewhat irresponsible and just go and have fun.
I'm looking at strollers now for dd3. 5. Feels odd buying a stroller for a kid that old but I think it's necessary. I would rather do that then slow down for little legs. By the end of our last trip she was purposely slowing down so I would carry her.

 

[SMD]

Does anyone know if they still sell umbrella strollers at the rental kiosk for $40-$50? You'd pay a premium, but you wouldn't have to transport the stroller there. Then you could just leave it to another family at the end of the trip. $50 is probably cheaper than renting something.

 

[sdchickie]

As for strollers, if you can rent a sit and stand stroller those are great. If you aren't going to rent one then I would suggest going to wal mart and getting a cheap umbrella stroller. I have rented a car at the airport and driven it to the store on the way to the hotel to pick up snacks and waters, then dropped the car off the next morning at DTD and walked straight to the parks. As for race crowds Sat night should be pretty good because the race is so early Sun morning that the racers usually go to bed early.

 

[linzjane88]

As for strollers, if you can rent a sit and stand stroller those are great. If you aren't going to rent one then I would suggest going to wal mart and getting a cheap umbrella stroller. I have rented a car at the airport and driven it to the store on the way to the hotel to pick up snacks and waters, then dropped the car off the next morning at DTD and walked straight to the parks. As for race crowds Sat night should be pretty good because the race is so early Sun morning that the racers usually go to bed early.

I actually have a sit and stand and it made it through a couple of WDW trips. I even got crafty and sewed a sling type thing on the back so that when my older daughter was on it she could lay back and sleep as well. I was pretty impressed with myself for that

My issue with the cheap umbrella type is that my DH is 6'4 which means I would be pushing it the entire time since the handle are so short. We're at the beach this weekend and I saw someone with a Summer Infant 3d Lite and it looked like it would do. They have open box versions on amazon for <60$. There's also a couple Maclarens for around that price on Craigslist.

 

[Disney Lvr of Old]

I actually have a sit and stand and it made it through a couple of WDW trips. I even got crafty and sewed a sling type thing on the back so that when my older daughter was on it she could lay back and sleep as well. I was pretty impressed with myself for that

My issue with the cheap umbrella type is that my DH is 6'4 which means I would be pushing it the entire time since the handle are so short. We're at the beach this weekend and I saw someone with a Summer Infant 3d Lite and it looked like it would do. They have open box versions on amazon for <60$. There's also a couple Maclarens for around that price on Craigslist.

Last time I went I ordered from city stroller- my DS was 5 and it was a Godsend. I think it was $60 for 8 days. It was at the hotel when I arrived. The people I spoke with were wonderful and very friendly.
http://m.citystrollerrentals.com/?url=http://www.citystrollerrentals.com/#2651

Easier than buying- it was large And held everything we might need. This time he's 8 and I'm trying to reconcile myself with having to carry things.

 

[bumbershoot]

HA! I laughed when I read you walked your bags up because that has been running through my head. I didn't know how crazy we would look dragging our suitcase up the street to the DL hotel on check-in day.

If you go to a satellite/map hybrid view of the area, you can see that Anabella and Stovall's are just a straight-ish walk up to PPH, and then just a bit beyond for DLH.

If you go from a Harbor hotel (like HoJo) to DLH, take a taxi. It's NOT worth the walk. If there were no race going on you could get up super early and go through the esplanade and up to DLH before security is there (the esplanade is not locked up when everything is closed, you can go through), but with races going on it wouldn't be that easy. Actually, remembering spectating for Star Wars 5K, security wasn't going that early, so you could just walk in EARLY, and then they have a system that allows people to cross the race route as runners go between the parks. But still, it would be a pain. Take a taxi if you stay on Harbor before moving to DLH.

We didn't feel silly walking up to PPH. We felt hot, but not silly.

can I ask how long it's taken you to get to this point?, running the challenges and all? I will be running my first 10K at the Tink, and are looking into ramping it up to the half and then finally a challenge, but right now can't even imagine being able to do that, still have days when I think I should be shot in the head for even considering I could run a 10K. I'm doing the Tink , then the wine and dine 10K in Nov. and was thinking I then may be ready for the Half in January with the star wars, what do you think?

you didn't ask me, but...

I started slowly running again, with intervals, in mid 2012 while losing 85 lbs. (I've since gained back 20 and am working to lose 10 of those) Tower of Terror 10 miler October 2013. First Half marathon January 2014. Did 5 more in the 12 month period including that Half. In 2015, October, I did a 10K and Half challenge with Rock 'n Roll Vancouver, and it went much better than I thought it would. Please note that I do not train as much as I should, so I'm rather slow and I hurt more than I should. I did the 5K and 10K at Princess this year, and plan to do those plus the Half at princess '17.

If you look on rundisney.com there's a link for Training. There you will find links to training plans for all sorts of rundisney events, and Galloway (the walk/run guy) is the trainer for rundisney. Those give you free plans for training even for the challenges. Pretty cool.

You won't be able to cross the esplanade with suitcases. On a regular day you would have to wait until a security escort is available. On a race day, I don't see it happening at all. Your best bet is to have someone take a cab with the bags and the others walk. Or store your bags at your hotel and go back and get them after the race when DTD is clear.

Before they clear out the race stuff and set up for the day they could, actually. There was no security that I went through from Anabella to viewing the 5K from the DTD side of the esplanade, and I would bet it was the same on the Harbor side. And they have a system for people to cross the running paths periodically. But that's an early morning. And a bit of a pain.

I do recommend a cab. But walking *could* be possible.

I'm looking at strollers now for dd3. 5. Feels odd buying a stroller for a kid that old but I think it's necessary.

Does it feel old? Hmm. We never used a stroller at home except for the dedicated jogger for jogging. The other stroller we had was specifically, and ONLY, for Disney. DS used that through the age of 5, because I'm not interested in slowing down (walking slowly HURTS my hips and always has), and I was highly sympathetic for sore legs.

You're from WA, I see? Where?

 

[linzjane88]

If you go to a satellite/map hybrid view of the area, you can see that Anabella and Stovall's are just a straight-ish walk up to PPH, and then just a bit beyond for DLH.

If you go from a Harbor hotel (like HoJo) to DLH, take a taxi. It's NOT worth the walk. If there were no race going on you could get up super early and go through the esplanade and up to DLH before security is there (the esplanade is not locked up when everything is closed, you can go through), but with races going on it wouldn't be that easy. Actually, remembering spectating for Star Wars 5K, security wasn't going that early, so you could just walk in EARLY, and then they have a system that allows people to cross the race route as runners go between the parks. But still, it would be a pain. Take a taxi if you stay on Harbor before moving to DLH.

We didn't feel silly walking up to PPH. We felt hot, but not silly.



you didn't ask me, but...

I started slowly running again, with intervals, in mid 2012 while losing 85 lbs. (I've since gained back 20 and am working to lose 10 of those) Tower of Terror 10 miler October 2013. First Half marathon January 2014. Did 5 more in the 12 month period including that Half. In 2015, October, I did a 10K and Half challenge with Rock 'n Roll Vancouver, and it went much better than I thought it would. Please note that I do not train as much as I should, so I'm rather slow and I hurt more than I should. I did the 5K and 10K at Princess this year, and plan to do those plus the Half at princess '17.

If you look on rundisney.com there's a link for Training. There you will find links to training plans for all sorts of rundisney events, and Galloway (the walk/run guy) is the trainer for rundisney. Those give you free plans for training even for the challenges. Pretty cool.



Before they clear out the race stuff and set up for the day they could, actually. There was no security that I went through from Anabella to viewing the 5K from the DTD side of the esplanade, and I would bet it was the same on the Harbor side. And they have a system for people to cross the running paths periodically. But that's an early morning. And a bit of a pain.

I do recommend a cab. But walking *could* be possible.




Does it feel old? Hmm. We never used a stroller at home except for the dedicated jogger for jogging. The other stroller we had was specifically, and ONLY, for Disney. DS used that through the age of 5, because I'm not interested in slowing down (walking slowly HURTS my hips and always has), and I was highly sympathetic for sore legs.

You're from WA, I see? Where?

We are about an hour north of Portland/Vancouver. If you have ever made a drive from Portland to Seattle you've driven pretty close to my house.

And I second the idea of not slowing down. I am literally the most impatient person you will ever meet . We never use strollers EXCEPT for Disney because I can't handle waiting for those little legs. DD3 looks backwards, sideways, and everywhere else in front of her as she walks so it's extra painful (not only is she slow but she is running into people/things).
I just think the sit and stand is past its hayday. Doesn't roll as well anymore and I don't want both kids to be on it. DD8 is tall and about 70 pounds. DD3 is a tall but a little bean pole at about 35lbs. We make big kids

 

[linzjane88]

OK, I couldn't help it. I was getting overwhelmed by the idea of an extra zillion people descending upon the area we are trying to vacation to. Even if runners are nice, friendly, don't visit the parks much.....my gut was telling me that if EVERY hotel nearby was entirely booked for almost all of our stay we would definitely notice the extra people in the area.
SOOOOOO. I decided to go with my 5/19-5/24 dates. I am waiting on confirmation from my husband that he can change his travel dates. He was 99% sure it was OK but his boss has been in meetings all day and hasn't got back to him yet.
We can change our SW flights for free to SNA so that will alleviate a big chunk of stress as well. We can stay at the PV for $871 for all five nights which I decided to do instead of a split stay on property. I just can't justify those prices! Not to mention we won't need a rental car . Our cost for room and transportation went from $1383 to $941. And SOOOO much less stress.


Hubs just texted. Time off approved!

 

[lovebug33]

Are Thursday and Friday out of control? That's when we were going!

 

[linzjane88]

Are Thursday and Friday out of control? That's when we were going!

It seems like most people have said (here and on old threads) it's busier in the vicinity though not necessarily in the parks. It seems some people ONLY do the marathon and don't even visit parks. However, I can't find much availability with any of the hotels within easy walking distance. The fact that everywhere is booked tells me alot of people are going to be in the general area. Even if not everyone wants to go the parks I don't necessary want to be dealing with the extra volume in downtown Disney and the area restaurants.

 

[ImDMous]

The race Expo will open on Thursday morning at DLH and then races are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. DTD will be very crowded every morning since the runs go right through there. Also people will be having meals to prepare for races early every evening (at least we do, gotta carb up). We go into the parks every day, but with 4:00 wake-up times, we're out of there and back at our hotel by 8 so I have no idea what the parks are like at night.