Whats up with the Delays for Marathon Weekend??

[GreatLakes]

- The biggest change has been how freaking crowded the races are now. My first race was Princess in 2011 and there were something like 12,000-14,000 runners. I just did Princess again in 2017 and I think that the field has almost doubled between then and now
- I also think the on-course entertainment has gone downhill a bit
- I don't like things like pushing the expo start time to later to allow people with early access to get in first - I just feel like that made things harder for everyone else (expo was more crowded around noon, sort of really eats into the day). I get that upcharge events are just what Disney does now, but this one leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I feel like it does negatively affect people who don't pay for it
- The unique races (Expedition Everest Challenge, ToT 10-miler, Wine & Dine at night) are gone
- Less swag in the race bags, but I think it's like that with every race now, not just runDisney
- And of course as @FFigawi said - the recent registration screw-ups/cancellations, misspellings, etc. It just makes them seem very disorganized, when I KNOW in some ways they aren't, because they successfully put on these huge events multiple times per year

The corral changes they have made, I think, have been up and down...I liked that the went to the "many smaller corrals" setup for the start (my first few races had 6 big corrals), and for awhile they were having people submit PoT up to a 3:15 half, which I thought was great. Now they have gone back to "fewer larger corrals with one giant corral at the end" and a 2:45 cut-off for PoT, so in some ways I feel like they took a step back.

To be fair, I do think they have made some great changes...
- 5K medals are metal now, that was a great one
- Their finisher medals and participant shirts are consistently pretty great, IMO
- Love that runDisney does the on-course photos now instead of MarathonFoto
- Women's cut shirts at races other than Princess/Tink!! Now they just need to get that for the 5Ks
- First Princess expo I went to was in ONE building at WWoS - bib pick-up AND the vendor booths. Spreading the expos out to 2 buildings was a very welcome change!

And the on-course support from volunteers, medical, etc. has always been great, and I have been lucky to have never had a problem with race day transportation.

That's all I've got off the top of my head.

My first race was 2006 and it was a great experience. It has gone downhill since. The races have gotten too big and what used to feel like a weekend for runners now feels like a money grab. I don't remember any up-sell opportunities that weekend beyond obviously being able to buy race merchandise. My last rD race was marathon weekend 2011 and by that time it just felt way less fun. I'm doing W&D this year so I'm looking to see how it compares.

I agree with what you have above and will add that not having awards or timing for a 5K that costs $85 is ridiculous. The metal medals are nice and all but I'm not paying $85 for a 5K if I can't go for an age group award.

 

[Ariel484]

@GreatLakes good point about the 5K awards. That one never occurred to me because I never have been, and never will be, contending for an award.

 

[IamTrike]

My first race was 2006 and it was a great experience. It has gone downhill since. The races have gotten too big and what used to feel like a weekend for runners now feels like a money grab. I don't remember any up-sell opportunities that weekend beyond obviously being able to buy race merchandise. My last rD race was marathon weekend 2011 and by that time it just felt way less fun. I'm doing W&D this year so I'm looking to see how it compares.

I agree with what you have above and will add that not having awards or timing for a 5K that costs $85 is ridiculous. The metal medals are nice and all but I'm not paying $85 for a 5K if I can't go for an age group award.

To be fair I think they don't offer awards because they explicitly don't want to attract elites. It's not an issue for me, but I think they are purposeful in not comping rooms/travel for elites and doing other things that would draw them to RunDisney races.

 

[GreatLakes]

To be fair I think they don't offer awards because they explicitly don't want to attract elites. It's not an issue for me, but I think they are purposeful in not comping rooms/travel for elites and doing other things that would draw them to RunDisney races.

I don't mean monetary awards, just a trophy, plaque, or award medal. Elites are not going to race without prize money.

 

[derekleigh]

- The biggest change has been how freaking crowded the races are now. My first race was Princess in 2011 and there were something like 12,000-14,000 runners. I just did Princess again in 2017 and I think that the field has almost doubled between then and now
- I also think the on-course entertainment has gone downhill a bit
- I don't like things like pushing the expo start time to later to allow people with early access to get in first - I just feel like that made things harder for everyone else (expo was more crowded around noon, sort of really eats into the day). I get that upcharge events are just what Disney does now, but this one leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I feel like it does negatively affect people who don't pay for it
- The unique races (Expedition Everest Challenge, ToT 10-miler, Wine & Dine at night) are gone
- Less swag in the race bags, but I think it's like that with every race now, not just runDisney
- And of course as @FFigawi said - the recent registration screw-ups/cancellations, misspellings, etc. It just makes them seem very disorganized, when I KNOW in some ways they aren't, because they successfully put on these huge events multiple times per year

The corral changes they have made, I think, have been up and down...I liked that the went to the "many smaller corrals" setup for the start (my first few races had 6 big corrals), and for awhile they were having people submit PoT up to a 3:15 half, which I thought was great. Now they have gone back to "fewer larger corrals with one giant corral at the end" and a 2:45 cut-off for PoT, so in some ways I feel like they took a step back.

To be fair, I do think they have made some great changes...
- 5K medals are metal now, that was a great one
- Their finisher medals and participant shirts are consistently pretty great, IMO
- Love that runDisney does the on-course photos now instead of MarathonFoto
- Women's cut shirts at races other than Princess/Tink!! Now they just need to get that for the 5Ks
- First Princess expo I went to was in ONE building at WWoS - bib pick-up AND the vendor booths. Spreading the expos out to 2 buildings was a very welcome change!

And the on-course support from volunteers, medical, etc. has always been great, and I have been lucky to have never had a problem with race day transportation.

That's all I've got off the top of my head.

My first race was 2011 and I'd agree with all of this. To me the crowds thing extends beyond the races. When I look back at some of my earlier Marathon weekend trips the parks were much less crowded too. I miss the swag as well. I think the virtual swag bag and the online program are poor substitutes for the actual stuff in your registration bag and the printed program guide.

Wholeheartedly agree with both of your comments. My first ever half was at Marathon Weekend in 2012 and it was amazingly. Park crowds seemed lower, physical Swag (pins, programs, samples,etc), race crowds seemed lower, etc.

While, I like that rD is open to all levels of experience, I hate that they've removed any uniqueness from race weekends and made them all cookie-cutter formats. I did do the 19.3 challenge at Princess, but I very much doubt I'll do it again as I'd rather focus on an AG placing in the 10k. I wish the Marathon Relay would comeback along with EE and a villains/Halloween themed race weekend.

 

[2Infinity&Beyond]

I am not sure if this has been discussed already, but if Disney is in fact making their own registration system, what are the odds they would allow gift cards as payment?

 

[jennamfeo]

I am not sure if this has been discussed already, but if Disney is in fact making their own registration system, what are the odds they would allow gift cards as payment?

That's a great question... Fingers crossed on that one!

 

[GreatLakes]

I am not sure if this has been discussed already, but if Disney is in fact making their own registration system, what are the odds they would allow gift cards as payment?

I would hope they use their already in-place reservation system and add functionality as opposed to designing it from scratch so I think it is likely they will accept the same payment methods including gift cards. Of course Disney does a lot of dumb I.T. stuff so they may design a whole new system from scratch and in that case God only knows.

 

[Z-Knight]

They will probably spend a billion $ so they could make a few million $... and like the Obamadeathcare site it won't work and will need another billion to fix or replace.

 

[rteetz]

They will probably spend a billion $ so they could make a few million $... and like the Obamadeathcare site it won't work and will need another billion to fix or replace.

Disney spent 1+ billion on the My Disney Experience project. No way this site would cost that much.

 

[Z-Knight]

Disney spent 1+ billion on the My Disney Experience project. No way this site would cost that much.

woah....that much for that website and it still has so many bugs qnd a poor design in some cases (like dinner reservations interface where hitting back cancels out all of your filters and you start over)?!!! crazy! I could develop a better interface for only a few million

 

[GreatLakes]

Disney spent 1+ billion on the My Disney Experience project. No way this site would cost that much.

woah....that much for that website and it still has so many bugs qnd a poor design in some cases (like dinner reservations interface where hitting back cancels out all of your filters and you start over)?!!! crazy! I could develop a better interface for only a few million

Not exactly. Disney spent $1B + on MyMagic+ which had many components, one of with was MDE. The back end computing infrastructure, physical RFID infrastructure, etc are all part of the project and contribute much more towards the total dollars than MDE which is really only the customer facing portal to a much larger system.

 

[rteetz]

Not exactly. Disney spent $1B + on MyMagic+ which had many components, one of with was MDE. The back end computing infrastructure, physical RFID infrastructure, etc are all part of the project and contribute much more towards the total dollars than MDE which is really only the customer facing portal to a much larger system.

I’m well familiar with the project and actually researched it heavily for a college class. I said my Disney Experience project. The app and site are arguably the biggest parts of that project.

 

[hotblooded]

They will probably spend a billion $ so they could make a few million $... and like the Obamadeathcare site it won't work and will need another billion to fix or replace.

Call it by its name. The Affordable Care Act has done great things for me and many others. Healthcare.gov is now working just fine.

 

[rteetz]

They will probably spend a billion $ so they could make a few million $... and like the Obamadeathcare site it won't work and will need another billion to fix or replace.

Call it by its name. The Affordable Care Act has done great things for me and many others. Healthcare.gov is now working just fine.

I would just like to remind everyone that there is a no politics rule on the boards

 

[Z-Knight]

Call it by its name. The Affordable Care Act has done great things for me and many others. Healthcare.gov is now working just fine.

hahahaha

 

[rteetz]

Let’s move back on topic please.

 

[IamTrike]

While there are plenty of issues with Disney’s IT in general I think Disney is pretty good a collecting data so that they can make informed decisions. I wonder what they were seeing that made them push for the homogenization of races. RunDisney got its start as a way to fill hotels in the off times. I’d guess that as Star Wars land rolls out they are going to be at capacity across all hotels. I wonder if that’s going to put parks and resorts at odds with RunDisney?

 

[rteetz]

RunDisney got its start as a way to fill hotels in the off times.

Yes and no. John Hughes really pushed to get Marathon Weekend started. He wanted a premiere running event at the WDW resort and it took him years to get that started. Here we are of course 25 years later though. The other race weekends are definitely looking at filling hotel rooms.

I’d guess that as Star Wars land rolls out they are going to be at capacity across all hotels. I wonder if that’s going to put parks and resorts at odds with RunDisney?

This is going to be interesting for sure. Crowds are only going to increase as time goes on into the WDW 50th celebration.

 

[Krandor]

Wholeheartedly agree with both of your comments. My first ever half was at Marathon Weekend in 2012 and it was amazingly. Park crowds seemed lower, physical Swag (pins, programs, samples,etc), race crowds seemed lower, etc.

While, I like that rD is open to all levels of experience, I hate that they've removed any uniqueness from race weekends and made them all cookie-cutter formats. I did do the 19.3 challenge at Princess, but I very much doubt I'll do it again as I'd rather focus on an AG placing in the 10k. I wish the Marathon Relay would comeback along with EE and a villains/Halloween themed race weekend.

While I do like doing the challenges it would be nice to see something different then the 5k,10k,half early morning races. Some nigh races again, a 10 mile distance, stuff like that would be nice to give a little more variety to the races. I've never done W&D and wanted to but now that it is just another morning race I don't have the same desire as when it was a nigh race with an afterparty.

This year for marathon weekends the park were ridiculous mainly due to it being so early in the month when schools hadn't started back yet. I think the 2019 timing of putting it a little deeper into the month may work better.