Who has stayed at Bonnet Creek during the marathon, as a runner and/or park visitor?

[maryscooking]

I am looking for some feedback regarding staying at Bonnet Creek for the Jan 2015 Marathon long weekend. I've tried searching the forums but haven't found much info. I posted this in the off site hotels forum but haven't gotten any replies as of yet, so I thought I might have better luck here.

It seems like most marathoners stay on-site. But we'd prefer to be at WBC for many reasons if it is feasible. So please share if you have experience with this! Here are my questions:

- What is traffic like driving to the different races from WBC as a runner? I'm "only" doing the marathon, but my husband is planning to do the Dopey (ie, all the races) and if he is going to have to sit in 45 minutes - 1 hour of traffic every morning Thursday - Sunday, that could be a deal breaker for us.

- On the non-marathon days (ie, Thursday - Saturday), how bad is traffic when trying to get to the park from WBC before rope drop? I know the races will have finished at that point, and I'm hoping that means traffic will be better when we actually want to visit the parks.

- On Sunday, how hard is it for spectators to get to the park from WBC (ie, around rope drop time) to cheer for runners?

Thanks for any information!

 

[paxsarah]

I've stayed at WBC for the Goofy Challenge in 2012, as well as a separate spring break vacation last year. Driving from WBC for Goofy was a breeze. Both mornings I was at my car at 3:20 and was pulling into Epcot by around 3:30, IIRC. Traffic would be worse if you waited until later to go. Leaving after the races was super easy because Backstage Lane is directly across from Chelonia Parkway, so you don't even need to turn after you exit Epcot.

On the non-race days, you should be fine. We drove and made rope drop almost every day on our spring break trip and it was never a problem.

My SIL came with me on the Goofy trip and took the resort's shuttle to Epcot to catch me at the finish line of the full marathon, because I had driven the car to the start. I think this is the area where you'd run into the most issues with transportation. Because it wasn't a Disney bus, the shuttle was routed all over the place before finally landing at Epcot - fortunately she left early enough and still got there with plenty of time. I think driving during the races in order to spectate, especially the full, can also be pretty messy. I'm sure there are others who have direct experience with family members driving to spectate who can chime in on this.

 

[maryscooking]

That is great info, thank you! We stayed at WBC in 2012 and loved it, much preferred it to staying on-site, and would love for it to work this trip as well.

I thought driving during the race would probably be the worst. I'm thinking that we might just have my parents or nanny (not sure yet who is coming with us) just have a resort day with our daughter until we are done with the race, rather than dealing with trying to see us on the course. And go to the park later in the afternoon.