Race Week Park Strategy

[mmackeymouse]

My family and are coming for a few days for race weekend in January. We have 3 day, non hoppers. We planned to just do 2 days- one for each park, but for the extra day, it wasn't that much more, so we figured we'll have it just in case we want to go into the park for a few hours.

We arrive on Tuesday; Wednesday is for sure a park day. It's the most certain park day we have. Thursday is a potential park day, but with the expo and all that, not knowing how much time that will carve out of the day, it may also be a rest day. Then, Friday is race day. It is also a potential park day. Granted, I expect we will likely all be sleeping it off for half the day. So, while we could go into the park later into the day, I am not sure how much we would be able to get done. Then, there is Saturday. We have no plans for Saturday, so it would make sense to be a park day, since we would have all day. But, I'm not sure about the weekend crowds and all that. It might be better to do two partial days Thursday and Friday instead? I dunno...

Sunday morning, we fly home.

My gut says to do Disneyland Park on Wednesday. It will be our most laid back day. But there's a lot to get through, and having a long day with no other distractions gives us time for breaks, time for meals, and just an easier pace. Especially with a lot more standby attractions than at DCA. Another side of me says to go with DCA, for a couple of reasons. One, it will more likely have early entry; I hate the idea of losing out on that perk. It also gives us a chance to familiarize ourselves (well mostly my parents, and my nephew) with the finish-line area, the meetup point and all that.


What would be your preferred week, given all the parameters?

 

[catsrgr8]

One consideration is whether you’d like to see night time entertainment as it is the “off season” so fireworks will likely only run Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Personally I’d go to the parks Saturday as there are longer hours, night time entertainment etc. It looks like you’re doing the 5K on Friday so you’d actually have a lot of time for a park that’s day after the race. I ran the half at Disneyland in January and had a rest day the day before the race but was back at the hotel after the race early enough to make early entry, so you’d potentially have a full park day! Depending on how much time you’d like to spend at the expo that could be a good non park day.

 

[What_Is_This]

My family and I have been RunDisney racers since 2006 and have rarely missed a DL race in almost 20 years. You are correct in that Thursday will be used for the expo, registration pick up and going to sleep by 9 PM (remember to set your alarm for at least 3 AM; the race starts promptly. The security lanes have a tendency to bottle neck). So with only three park days, your gut is right. Wed, Fri, and Sat make the most sense for park days. Happy racing!