WDW Marathon weekend - parks crowded?

[Harambe]

For those of you who have been for this weekend, but are not running (or anyone in your party is running), how was park attendance? Reading the schedule for this year (we are planning Jan 2017), it seems there will be loads or people looking for Disney hotel rooms and restaurants, but do the parks swell up, too? I already figure we will have a resort morning on Sunday, since we will be there the whole week after that weekend, and even a few days before the weekend, and may as well stay out of the runners way - LOL!

What's it like?????

 

[magicaldisney]

Quite honestly we didn't feel the parks were crowded. That being said we are use to Thanksgiving, Spring Break and Summer crowds so maybe I'm not the right person to comment on the crowds. However, getting to/from the parks during the run time was definitely worse. We don't have a car when we visit WDW, so we take the buses and I am so glad we didn't have to maneuver the traffic and closures.

 

[Harambe]

That's what I was thinking - we are also August people, so we see some crowds, but we did go once in January and it was great - no crowds at all (it was cold, but not Boston cold!). I think that morning might be a late breakfast at Olivia's for us!

 

[magicaldisney]

I think that's a great idea. I will say though, we went to Epcot the morning of the race and they ran right through the park and everything was walk on because people were just standing there watching them run by. Good Luck and have fun!

 

[Lucius Best]

What's it like?????

We've run the marathon, and also been to WDW marathon weekend purely as a vacationer, and I would not worry about crowds. There were a lot of people there (I think over 20,000 running the marathon) but the parks did not feel crowded. In the days before and after, I'm guessing many runners are resting/recovering, they are not at the park from rope drop to park close. Also seems like many runners are just there for the weekend, so the rest of the week had very low crowds. I think the mornings of the races are great times to be in the parks, just allow extra time to get where you are going. Evenings are theoretically good too, the runners are setting their alarms for 3-4am because the races start around 5:30am. The one area that was crowded was DTD for dinner, tons of runners there eating dinner Friday/Saturday nights.

 

[Harambe]

^^Thanks! That is exactly what I hoped for. I also figured it would be good to go to Epcot the night before to see Illuminations and hang a bit, since all the runners would be in bed early. And that does make sense that going to a park that morning (we are staunch Early Morning Hour people!!!) would be okay as well. Okay! I feel better now!