Preliminary October 2014 Crowd Calender: TOT 10-miler crowds?

[bramble4]

Good morning! With the preliminary October 2014 crowd calender being released on easywdw, I'm looking for some help. The only two EMH our family's interested in are HS and MK. We're staying at an Epcot resort and thinking about heading over to HS the day we get there so we can get that EMH out of the way. We'd like to visit HS another day when crowds are lighter, but just found out that the TOT 10-miler is that weekend. As of right now it's showing Saturday the 4th (day of the race) as a recommended park? Is the park usually light crowds until the runners come that night? I thought it would be an avoidance all day. If we should avoid it Saturday, what other day during the first week would be slow at HS? We've never visited during this particular week so I don't know what to expect. Does anyone have experience with that week and the marathon crowds?

Thank you.

 

[Spunky946]

My dh ran that race last year and we went to HS the day of the race and it was not overly crowded. We were there for rope drop and stayed until after the 1:30 stunt show.

I don't remember the crowds being that bad. Now that night while he got ready, I took the kids to MK and it was nuts.

 

[siskaren]

Josh (the guy who writes easyWDW, in case you didn't know) doesn't have his day to day explanations for this October up yet, but I just checked October of last year, which also had the ToT 10-miler the first Saturday. He recommended HS that day too and said that the reason is because the park has shorter hours due to the race and that the race doesn't affect crowds negatively because the race doesn't start until 10 pm. I would assume his reasoning is the same this year.

 

[bramble4]

My dh ran that race last year and we went to HS the day of the race and it was not overly crowded. We were there for rope drop and stayed until after the 1:30 stunt show.

I don't remember the crowds being that bad. Now that night while he got ready, I took the kids to MK and it was nuts.

Thank you so much for the response and info!

 

[bramble4]

Josh (the guy who writes easyWDW, in case you didn't know) doesn't have his day to day explanations for this October up yet, but I just checked October of last year, which also had the ToT 10-miler the first Saturday. He recommended HS that day too and said that the reason is because the park has shorter hours due to the race and that the race doesn't affect crowds negatively because the race doesn't start until 10 pm. I would assume his reasoning is the same this year.

I just started using the site for this trip so I didn't know about the day to day explanations. Thank you for the heads up and info! It looks like we'll head to HS that day since the shorter hours aren't a problem for us.

 

[notfrostyjosh]

Yeah, the current schedule seems like an oversight that weekend. It's not the first time the originally released schedule hasn't taken into account a new-ish special event. Assuming Disney does change the operating schedule so Saturday at Hollywood Studios is 9am - 6pm with no Fantasmic, it would make the Studios far less crowded because casual vacationers will visit when the hours are longer and they can see Fantasmic. If you're theoretically paying $95. $65, whatever to get into the park, you're not going to go on a day when you're forced out before dinner. Also, Magic Kingdom is going to be tremendously attractive with the long hours and rare nighttime entertainment and Epcot will be much more crowded for the Food and Wine Festival. And Animal Kingdom would be more attractive to resort guests with the morning extra magic hour.