When you visit Disney 4 your races, how long do you usually stay?

[captaindavidhook]

I will be running in my first Disney race next April. I I was wondering do many of you make this an extended vacation stay or do many of you just basically run the race and leave about a day or two afterwards? Thanks so much for the help and would appreciate as much as feedback as I can get thank you.

 

[rteetz]

I’ve always made it a vacation. I stay a week usually.

 

[JeffW]

7-8 nights for us (at least for Marathon weekend). I never want to travel the day after the marathon, and when our family runs the 5k, we have to be at the Expo on Wed. So we usually make it a Tues-Tues or Mon-Tues trip

 

[ZellyB]

We always make it a vacation. For marathon weekend races we stay 7-8 nights. When we ran the Tinkerbell half in Disneyland in May we stayed 4 days.

 

[Krandor]

I will be running in my first Disney race next April. I I was wondering do many of you make this an extended vacation stay or do many of you just basically run the race and leave about a day or two afterwards? Thanks so much for the help and would appreciate as much as feedback as I can get thank you.

For me, I travel the day before the first race and then stay an extra day after the last race for a day I can enjoy things without wake-up calls, etc.

So normally for dopey Would go down Wednesday and come back Tuesday. This trip I'm coming back Monday but only becasue I plan to do SWLS but if they gets cancelled I'll expend it out till tuesday.

 

[bumbershoot]

For the ones I've done with my little family we make it a solid long trip. With the bulk of it after the race weekend.

For princess, that's a cousin weekend for me, and we don't budget for tickets. So I've gone home on the Monday.

 

[Anisum]

I make it a vacation to some extent. For me it's day or two before and after. I generally want to go on other vacations during the year though so I don't commit too much time.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

For WDW Marathon weekend - 2 weeks. For other events, 7-8 nights. I can't imagine spending that much money for a 4 day trip anywhere.

 

[VAfamily1998]

Usually just the day before and after the race. So for Dopey, we are flying in on Wednesday (early, our flight lands at MCO before 9 am) and fly out on Monday (late, our flight leaves MCO after 8 pm.) For the past several years, I've been doing multiple Disney races each year, and just can't afford to stay multiple days beyond what I need for the races.

 

[cavepig]

We make it a vacation and stay a week. We don't live close so have to fly so with all that we want to stay more than just a couple nights. It's a Disney vacation first with the race(s) as added fun.

 

[xjillianpaige]

This will be my first race, but I'm making it a vacation. I figure I might as well go all out if I'm flying down. I don't go often enough (although three times in two years will make it seem like a lot of trips) to not make it a vacation.

For Princess Weekend I'm going Thursday-Wednesday. Four or five days of parks.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Usually in Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, run a challenge Sat/Sun, then back home Monday. We made a mistake of flying back Sunday afternoon after a challenge and being cramped in a plane seat for 2 1/2 hours right after 2 races is not strongly recommended.

 

[fatmanatee]

I usually come in on Thursday and leave on Monday or Tuesday.

At my first half I met someone who had come in the night before (probably way late) and was planning on leaving right after the race, I couldn't believe it. She literally flew in just to run the Light Side half. I don't recommend doing that.

 

[kniquy]

If you are local and just driving to spend time there for the race i could see getting in and out in a short time. If you are paying to fly there then you might as well extend your time to relax and see the parks. It also depends on what race you are doing. Bib pick up is really only on Thursday so you need to get there by Thursday and if your race isn't until Sunday, well you are there at least for 4 days. And then seeing flights are usually a little cheaper on a Tuesday you might as well spend and extra couple days there.

I did the 5K because i was there for a conference tues to saturday. This coming april i am there during dark side. I waited to register and didn't get the 10K so doing the 5k again. It works out for the best because we are going Sat to Sat to WDW then Sat to tues to universal.

Really it all boils down to how much you are investing to get and stay there. If you drive then come for a couple days and leave. For us we are pay $2500 in air fair so we are staying for awhile.

 

[VAfamily1998]

If you are local and just driving to spend time there for the race i could see getting in and out in a short time. If you are paying to fly there then you might as well extend your time to relax and see the parks. It also depends on what race you are doing. Bib pick up is really only on Thursday so you need to get there by Thursday and if your race isn't until Sunday, well you are there at least for 4 days. And then seeing flights are usually a little cheaper on a Tuesday you might as well spend and extra couple days there.

I did the 5K because i was there for a conference tues to saturday. This coming april i am there during dark side. I waited to register and didn't get the 10K so doing the 5k again. It works out for the best because we are going Sat to Sat to WDW then Sat to tues to universal.

Really it all boils down to how much you are investing to get and stay there. If you drive then come for a couple days and leave. For us we are pay $2500 in air fair so we are staying for awhile.

What RunDisney race have you done where there is only bib pick up on Thursday for a Sunday race? I've done bib pick up for Sunday races on Saturday for many of my RunDisney races. I think the only time I haven't done a Saturday pick up for a Sunday race, is when I am doing a challenge.

 

[jeanigor]

I've done both.
Short trips: coming in the day before my first event and then flying home the night of the half or the next day.
Longer trips: a week or so with days added on to recover and relax.

I do prefer the longer trips, but as I usually do multiple runDisney events in a year (six continuous years Coast2Coast), that becomes prohibitive financially.

 

[BelleWannabe4]

I'm in the short trip crowd. For the marathon, we fly in Saturday morning and leave on Tuesday morning. I did Tink this year and spent a grand total of 30 hours in California - flew in Saturday morning, flew out Sunday at 1 pm. That was by far my shortest trip and, honestly, it was totally fine. I got back in time to do normal weekend chores, so it was more like I had done a local race with some bonus pool time. I don't have a lot of vacation time but I do love these races so I do what I need to in order to make them work. If I had extra vacation days, I would consider a longer trip but that's not in the cards at the moment.

ETA: I live in Denver, so I have to fly to both parks. The time zone change to Eastern is not ideal for these races :/

 

[captaindavidhook]

Thanks for all the good feedback so far. Do any of you feel jetlagged or tired if you come in the day before your race? Does coming in on Friday help you at all?

 

[jeanigor]

Thanks for all the good feedback so far. Do any of you feel jetlagged or tired if you come in the day before your race? Does coming in on Friday help you at all?

For WDW races, I stay in the Eastern time zone, so it isn't an issue. Going to DLR races, the time change works in my favor--except for flying home directly after a half.

 

[hotblooded]

I work for an airline, so it's more cost-effective to take short trips. Anything longer than 24 hours in one place feels like a vacation, so I'm generally content to stay 1-2 nights.