Race Weekend Schedule! (Early Planning, I know!)

[Hawkeyegirls]

Anyone that has ever run in the Princess Half/Glass slipper challenge (or really any Disney world Race) I have a question for your as far as Theme park schedules!
As long as I can finish my race on the computer to get signed up, that is I plan on doing the Glass Slipper Challenge next February. I just want an idea of what dates I should look for booking/planning (asking off work!)
Thinking of flying in sometime Thursday (late) or Friday am and would stay until Sunday late or Monday.

These are things I want to fit in in addition to the Expo & 2 Races. .
Ohana Breakfast
Pirate & Pal Cruise
1 day at MK

Im not sure what night would be the best to stay up Late & do the Pirates & Pal Cruise (with those early morning race wake up calls!)
Then what day to do MK and walk all day, if I do Saturday is that too much before the race on Sunday? Since only going one day it would probably be a full day there, not taking it easy.

Thanks for your input!

 

[tobikaye]

Maybe this will help you out as it looks like the schedule from 2014: http://www.mickeymilespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/2014_Princess_Program.pdf

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

If you are doing the challenge then no you don't go to MK on Saturday after the 10K. As a matter of fact you need to take it easy. Probably better to go MK after the race on Sunday or on Monday. Maybe do Ohana breakfast after the 10K?

You have to get there by Friday in time to pick up your bib. No one else can pick it up for you.

 

[Luv2Run]

I've run the past 4 PHM weekends, and always save MK & Epcot for after race day. The only parks I'll even attempt to hit pre-race are AK and HS (on separate days, of course). 1) It saves my legs from getting overworked before raceday, and 2) There's less stress squeezing in all the things I want to do before I have to go to bed early, and 3) It gives me something to look forward to after the races are over.

 

[nervous1sttimer]

I did GSC in 2014 and went Tuesday-Tuesday, which I realize is longer than you are planning. But I hit up the parks every day (I have young kids) and stayed late most nights. You will have a blast!

Consider coming in Wednesday or earlier Thursday so you can hit the expo early on Thursday and not burn a whole day for that.

Then I would do Pirates and Pals the first or second night, MK all day Friday, Ohana breakfast after the 10K. Walking after the half is also a good idea to keep you loose! I went to the parks for a full day post-race and it was awesome. The characters love the medals!

 

[Hawkeyegirls]

Thanks everyone...maybe I'm trying to fit too much in for just going on the weekend only. I may have to adjust our schedule and either go a day early or stay a day later. I just don't want to be super sore Sunday and have that be my only day for the parks. (my first half...I don't know how I will feel). I will be there with my daughter too, so Im sure she will want to be at a park everyday, that's why I was thinking the breakfast and pirate cruise would be good "lazier options".
So Much to think about! lol. When did you all book your hotels? Is it something where it will start selling out for those nights, or is it okay to wait until after registration? How long after you finished the race did it take to get back to hotel (like if you want to get some photos too)?

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Thanks everyone...maybe I'm trying to fit too much in for just going on the weekend only. I may have to adjust our schedule and either go a day early or stay a day later. I just don't want to be super sore Sunday and have that be my only day for the parks. (my first half...I don't know how I will feel). I will be there with my daughter too, so Im sure she will want to be at a park everyday, that's why I was thinking the breakfast and pirate cruise would be good "lazier options".
So Much to think about! lol. When did you all book your hotels? Is it something where it will start selling out for those nights, or is it okay to wait until after registration? How long after you finished the race did it take to get back to hotel (like if you want to get some photos too)?

I am always worried when I hear folks are moving up to a new distance for these "challenges" IMHO it's better to the do the half as a standalone first. IT's a BIG jump from 10K to 13.1 miles and if you haven't done one before you don't really know the impact. It will take a lot out of your legs. For that reason I would not recommend the MK at all before the race.

I would head over to the fitness board on here (can't think of the name and the new boards make it hard to look) and start digging around. Get some advice from other people who have done this.

Every hotel at Disney is a host hotel for this race so you can stay wherever and can probably wait to book. The rough part is getting registered! It does not sell out as quick as some races but will sell out. I don't know exactly how long it takes to get back to the hotels but the busses run constantly

 

[AThrillingChase]

First - congrats! Disney races are a ton of fun and the glass slipper is an accomplishment! I did the princess 5k and the princess half this year.

Race transportation -- We bussed from Animal kingdom lodge for the 5k. The race transportation IMO is very efficient. Note - they have a separate fleet of mears busses for race events, not park busses. For the half we stayed at the contemporary and took the monorail to and from the start line at Epcot.

Expo -- we ended up doing an O'hana breakfast and then took the Poly race busses to the expo. We spent hours there - if you haven't been it is fun and there is a lot to look through and photos to take. It is one of my favorite parts of race weekends. We are going in May and I already feel so weird not scheduling one! After the expo we went back to the resort to drop things off and recharge, then we just did an early ish dinner at Trattoria al Forno on the boardwalk, and then back to the room to get our stuff ready, hot tub, shower, and head to bed early. I am going to recommend a similar schedule after your Saturday 10k. Race, O'hana, resort or downtown Disney day, early dinner, resort and bed early for the half.

MK and cruise -- I do not recommend this for Friday or Saturday. I will suggest you try to fly in early Thursday and do a full MK day then. The park hours will be long on a Thursday, they usually have extra magic hours keeping it open in the range of 12-2am. Or, you could do 2 park days and do shorter days Fri and Sun to allow rest. I went to MK until 10pm after the half. It was rough! I did make it though. So if that is your only option, it can be done (just not recommended!) So, I will suggest MK day on Thurs or 2 shorter days at the parks. For the cruise, I think this would go well either Thurs or Sun night. If that is not possible and you really want it still, do it Fri and get a healthy nap in on Saturday after the 10k.

When you see the race start at 5:30 or 6:15 it seems early but not horrible. But in practice, you have to be on a bus around 3 or 4am ready to go. So you are waking up at probably 2am. And the pre-race party is fantastic, as is the post-race area. I spent an hour or two hanging out after the half with my glass of champagne and taking photos. So really you don't want to short change anything and/or rush your park days for such a special weekend. I went for 7 days before the races and hit up every park and my legs were fine because I was conditioned from training (and my reef flip flops are like magic) so I probably wouldn't worry so much about that. But I would want to rest feet and get enough sleep the day before the half. (I can also function well on little sleep when I'm excited, but you know yourself). If you have to pick, save the most energy for the half and take the 10k slower. And finally...don't forget to wear your medal all day afterwards

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Oh bring CASH! After the Princess if you wanted the Champagne, Beer or food other then the sad Disney snack box you have to pay (Disney post race free food is a joke IMHO) In February the Tragic Bands were moving so SLOWLY, but those of us with the green stuff were on our way quickly and generally cutting ahead of others as they took cash while they waited on Tragic Bands to respond!

 

[sunday3]

I already booked my room for that weekend. We will be flying in on Thursday so that we can hit the expo before taking on the three races and flying out Monday. FYI...Registration for the race opens in July. Good luck on the Glass Slipper Challenge.

 

[Hawkeyegirls]

I already booked my room for that weekend. We will be flying in on Thursday so that we can hit the expo before taking on the three races and flying out Monday. FYI...Registration for the race opens in July. Good luck on the Glass Slipper Challenge.

Oh wow, that's awesome that you have that all planned already!...you must have done this before. If your doing all 3 races, do you go to the parks as well since just going over the weekend?

First - congrats! Disney races are a ton of fun and the glass slipper is an accomplishment! I did the princess 5k and the princess half this year.

Race transportation -- We bussed from Animal kingdom lodge for the 5k. The race transportation IMO is very efficient. Note - they have a separate fleet of mears busses for race events, not park busses. For the half we stayed at the contemporary and took the monorail to and from the start line at Epcot.

Expo -- we ended up doing an O'hana breakfast and then took the Poly race busses to the expo. We spent hours there - if you haven't been it is fun and there is a lot to look through and photos to take. It is one of my favorite parts of race weekends. We are going in May and I already feel so weird not scheduling one! After the expo we went back to the resort to drop things off and recharge, then we just did an early ish dinner at Trattoria al Forno on the boardwalk, and then back to the room to get our stuff ready, hot tub, shower, and head to bed early. I am going to recommend a similar schedule after your Saturday 10k. Race, O'hana, resort or downtown Disney day, early dinner, resort and bed early for the half.

MK and cruise -- I do not recommend this for Friday or Saturday. I will suggest you try to fly in early Thursday and do a full MK day then. The park hours will be long on a Thursday, they usually have extra magic hours keeping it open in the range of 12-2am. Or, you could do 2 park days and do shorter days Fri and Sun to allow rest. I went to MK until 10pm after the half. It was rough! I did make it though. So if that is your only option, it can be done (just not recommended!) So, I will suggest MK day on Thurs or 2 shorter days at the parks. For the cruise, I think this would go well either Thurs or Sun night. If that is not possible and you really want it still, do it Fri and get a healthy nap in on Saturday after the 10k.

When you see the race start at 5:30 or 6:15 it seems early but not horrible. But in practice, you have to be on a bus around 3 or 4am ready to go. So you are waking up at probably 2am. And the pre-race party is fantastic, as is the post-race area. I spent an hour or two hanging out after the half with my glass of champagne and taking photos. So really you don't want to short change anything and/or rush your park days for such a special weekend. I went for 7 days before the races and hit up every park and my legs were fine because I was conditioned from training (and my reef flip flops are like magic) so I probably wouldn't worry so much about that. But I would want to rest feet and get enough sleep the day before the half. (I can also function well on little sleep when I'm excited, but you know yourself). If you have to pick, save the most energy for the half and take the 10k slower. And finally...don't forget to wear your medal all day afterwards

Thank you this is such good advice!! I enjoy running, so I know Ill be fine during both, but the one after another is the part that hopefully some more training in this next 10mo will make me more confident it.
I like the idea of doing expo and P&P cruise Thurs. night. Then the park Fri & Sun or just Sunday! Have you ever done the breakfast that is part of the race weekend? I haven't heard much on that compared to going to a place like Ohana.

 

[Hawkeyegirls]

I am always worried when I hear folks are moving up to a new distance for these "challenges" IMHO it's better to the do the half as a standalone first. IT's a BIG jump from 10K to 13.1 miles and if you haven't done one before you don't really know the impact. It will take a lot out of your legs. For that reason I would not recommend the MK at all before the race.


I would head over to the fitness board on here (can't think of the name and the new boards make it hard to look) and start digging around. Get some advice from other people who have done this.

Every hotel at Disney is a host hotel for this race so you can stay wherever and can probably wait to book. The rough part is getting registered! It does not sell out as quick as some races but will sell out. I don't know exactly how long it takes to get back to the hotels but the busses run constantly

Thanks for your suggestion. I know it is a big challenge. But since Im traveling all the way there I think doing the GSC is something I need to do. I'm not a new runner, but agree I shouldn't overdo it by going to a park in the day or 2 before!

 

[Keels]

You might ask over here on the Events/Competitions board for more feedback:

http://www.disboards.com/forums/events-competition.109/

The gang over there has been super helpful for me!

 

[AThrillingChase]

Oh bring CASH! After the Princess if you wanted the Champagne, Beer or food other then the sad Disney snack box you have to pay (Disney post race free food is a joke IMHO) In February the Tragic Bands were moving so SLOWLY, but those of us with the green stuff were on our way quickly and generally cutting ahead of others as they took cash while they waited on Tragic Bands to respond!

This is true, the line was long. And she had to take my magic band and do it differently somehow. Also - the ESPN booth sells the same champagne and has no line! I only waited since I was on the phone trying to find my cousin and she was looking for the champagne sign!

Thank you this is such good advice!! I enjoy running, so I know Ill be fine during both, but the one after another is the part that hopefully some more training in this next 10mo will make me more confident it.
I like the idea of doing expo and P&P cruise Thurs. night. Then the park Fri & Sun or just Sunday! Have you ever done the breakfast that is part of the race weekend? I haven't heard much on that compared to going to a place like Ohana.

I did do the breakfast, just this past Feb. after the 5k. I have mixed feelings about it...it was very cold that day - 26 with windchill at 5k start the announcers said! (not typical though!) so it felt amazing just to be warm and inside. And they had Ariel and Eric, and Rapunzel and Flynn, each meeting separately. The princes would walk the princess out and drop her at her spot and then walk over to their own across the room. It was funny to see prince Eric just strolling past the buffet... It was expensive though for what we got I think. I expected a few more choices in the buffet offerings. Having done both that and O'hana in the same trip, I'd be more likely to return to O'hana. And wear your medal! Stitch is a very fun meet and I think he'd have fun with it...

 

[Luv2Run]

Thanks everyone...maybe I'm trying to fit too much in for just going on the weekend only. I may have to adjust our schedule and either go a day early or stay a day later. I just don't want to be super sore Sunday and have that be my only day for the parks. (my first half...I don't know how I will feel). I will be there with my daughter too, so Im sure she will want to be at a park everyday, that's why I was thinking the breakfast and pirate cruise would be good "lazier options".
So Much to think about! lol. When did you all book your hotels? Is it something where it will start selling out for those nights, or is it okay to wait until after registration? How long after you finished the race did it take to get back to hotel (like if you want to get some photos too)?

I registered for the race on 07/15/2014 last year, and then booked our room on 07/31/2014 last year when the 2015 package rates came out. Since I was booking room w/military discount + QSDP, I wanted to make sure I got our reservation at POR, since that was our resort of choice and would have been heartbroken if it had sold out.

Let's see, I crossed the finish line at 8:12am on the morning of the Half. Got my medal, my Powerade, post-race pic, and snacks. Met up with my dbf who was waiting with two glasses of champagne (he got the email/text alerts of my progress). We hung out in the post-race area where we watched others cross the finish line on the JumboTron while I changed out of my shoes into my sandals, stretched a bit, ate some snacks, drank more champagne (lol), and just enjoyed the atmosphere. It was sunny and warm, so that was a welcome change from the freezing 5K weather. We actually got to witness the last person cross the finish line, and it was such a joyous celebration - it brought a tear to my eye! We left to get on the bus at around noon, where there was a line of about 100 people (I kid you not), but since they had 3 or 4 buses waiting for us to go to POR, we didn't wait long. Took about 20-30 minutes to get back to our room once we were on the bus.

 

[AThrillingChase]

I registered for the race on 07/15/2014 last year, and then booked our room on 07/31/2014 last year when the 2015 package rates came out. Since I was booking room w/military discount + QSDP, I wanted to make sure I got our reservation at POR, since that was our resort of choice and would have been heartbroken if it had sold out.

Let's see, I crossed the finish line at 8:12am on the morning of the Half. Got my medal, my Powerade, post-race pic, and snacks. Met up with my dbf who was waiting with two glasses of champagne (he got the email/text alerts of my progress). We hung out in the post-race area where we watched others cross the finish line on the JumboTron while I changed out of my shoes into my sandals, stretched a bit, ate some snacks, drank more champagne (lol), and just enjoyed the atmosphere. It was sunny and warm, so that was a welcome change from the freezing 5K weather. We actually got to witness the last person cross the finish line, and it was such a joyous celebration - it brought a tear to my eye! We left to get on the bus at around noon, where there was a line of about 100 people (I kid you not), but since they had 3 or 4 buses waiting for us to go to POR, we didn't wait long. Took about 20-30 minutes to get back to our room once we were on the bus.

I watched her finish too! I was sitting in the weird, old looking chairs just behind the bleachers. We watched through the split between them. I must have been right by you!

 

[Luv2Run]

Haha yes, you must have! We were sitting at one of the picnic tables closest to those weird chairs. It was cool seeing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers get their awards, too.

I know some people complain a lot about this race because it sells out so quickly, is "overhyped", expensive, overcrowded, or whatever. But it's stuff like that that makes me love this race. It's my one big race of the year (I do various 5K & 10K throughout the year), so I love that this one is BIG. It's awe-inspiring seeing everyone in their corrals before the race starts. It's like an ocean of people!

 

[DisneyBelle27]

So, it's a different race, different scenario, etc, but I'll share my one Disney race weekend schedule that I've done so far. You really can cram a lot into a little time.

I did the inaugural ToT 10 Miler in 2012. Race started at 10pm Saturday night. I flew in super early Friday morning, ME from the airport to my hotel, then bus over to MK. Spent a couple hours there, then back to hotel to get bus to ESPN for packet pickup. Then back to hotel to get a bus back to MK since I was attending my first ever MNSSHP. Saturday I did HS, but tried to do it at a leisurely pace. Back to hotel in the afternoon to rest and nap, then the race that evening. Was up late since there was an after-hours party at HS after the race. Up early the next day and spent all day in Epcot at F&W. Monday I spent most of the day at AK, then back to hotel in afternoon to catch ME back to airport to fly home.

It was an absolutely crazy trip, and I needed a vacation after my vacation, but totally worth it! Oh, and it was also my first solo trip and I found it thoroughly enjoyable!

Good luck!

(I think I still have a link in my signature to my mostly complete trip report if you're interested)

 

[sunday3]

I think you can do the parks as long as you dont try and slam through them. Just tour at a leisurely pace and enjoy yourself!