Princess 1/2 marathon Park crowds????

[Adlergray]

How bad is princess 1/2 marathon weekend? have seen conflicting reports on really good to really bad. Are parks ok but restaurants full? Are areas blocked
off? TIA

 

[Itinkso]

How bad is princess 1/2 marathon weekend? have seen conflicting reports on really good to really bad. Are parks ok but restaurants full? Are areas blocked off? TIA

One roadway to Epcot is blocked off from Friday - Sunday but it doesn't affect Disney Transportation to the parks.

DD and I were 2 of the 10,000 runners who took part in the 5K on Friday and the majority of them went into the parks afterwards as most were finished before the parks opened. Because a lot of the runners were doing both the 10K and 1/2, DHS and MK didn't seem very crowded on Saturday. There was also a huge, long-lasting downpour on Saturday which I think helped to clear the parks.

We had a late lunch in Sanaa on Saturday and the restaurant was the most crowded I have ever seen. On Sunday, DTD was packed in the evening... a huge number of runners were there with their medals and there were a lot of photo ops set up. 25,000 ran the 1/2 and if they didn't go into a park, they probably chose DTD. I still saw runners in the park, DHS, on Monday and Tuesday.

 

[GovieMom]

I still saw runners in the park, DHS, on Monday and Tuesday.

We noticed quite a few visitors wearing their marathon medals in Epcot on Monday and again on Tuesday, as well.

 

[kaybird]

In the past, Marathon weekends did not affect the parks much. I do not believe that is true now. First, the 5Ks are marketed to families, and the runs have become more and more popular. Also, figuring 2 family members to every runner who then go to the parks, well, you see where I'm going.

We still had a great time, and the transportation was wonderful!!!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

We were there, I did all 3 races. It didn't seem any more crowded than usual and it was winter break for New England schools.
We road just about everything we wanted except Big Thunder (long fast pass return line). The only meal we didn't get was Be Our Guest dinner but that is always that way.

All the runs start in the early morning. Epcot was already open when I ran through the park a little after 9 but they have our "lane" blocked off but guests could still get around ok. I did hear MK was very crowded on Sunday, we went to DHS.

 

[roseandcrownfan]

We had 9:20 reservations to Akershus the morning of the 1/2 marathon. The final mile was through EPCOT. We were in line for the bus at 7:50 and had to go to MK to take the monorail over to EPCOT. There were signs and a note in our room about road closures around EPCOT. The traffic was really backed up. We made our reservation at 9:40. They did tell us on the bus that all reservations would be honored that morning and late fees waived because of the traffic. We did get seated within five minutes of arrival.

I did think it was pretty neat how they funneled the guests to Norway through the runners. They grouped the pedestrians in pods and shifted the runners around. Plus it was fun to cheer them on the last mile (I'm a runner myself and want to run Disney someday).

As for crowds, it didn't seem too bad for a Sunday. We were there again on the following Thursday and it was much more crowded.

 

[monkistan]

We were in Epcot on sunday as well. I don't think we arrived to the park until very close to the end of the half marathon. It didn't seem too crowded. It was also really cool how they funneled people into the park to avoid the runners. Took a little extra time, but that was time we got to cheer on runners, so all in all, pretty fun. Once we got to security, everything seemed smooth.