Wine & Dine 1/2 Marathon

[XMom]

Need to make our reservation for the Wine & Dine 1/2 Marathon weekend next month. Our home resort is AKL. I understand that the race is centered around Epcot. Should I reserve a studio at AKL Jambo and then at 7 months try to move it somewhere else? Where would you suggest we move it to? We will be arriving Tuesday Nov 4th and checking out Sunday Nov 9th to go on the Dream for a 4 day cruise.

We would appreciate any help as we have never been to WDW before. Our first trip is scheduled for March with the kids. Our November trip will be without kids!

 

[rkold]

Need to make our reservation for the Wine & Dine 1/2 Marathon weekend next month. Our home resort is AKL. I understand that the race is centered around Epcot. Should I reserve a studio at AKL Jambo and then at 7 months try to move it somewhere else? Where would you suggest we move it to? We will be arriving Tuesday Nov 4th and checking out Sunday Nov 9th to go on the Dream for a 4 day cruise.

We would appreciate any help as we have never been to WDW before. Our first trip is scheduled for March with the kids. Our November trip will be without kids!

I've not done Wine & Dine but I just did Twilight Zone and I have a friend who did Wine & Dine.

If you're not renting a car/bringing your own, you need to make sure whatever hotel you stay in is a "race" hotel. For Wine & Dine in 2013, AKV was NOT a race hotel. That would mean you would need a car to get to all race locations. Last year, SSR, BWV and BCV were. (BCV might not have been official but if BwV is, you can always walk there.) You need to make it to ESPN Wide World of Sports for packet pick up and I believe the race starts there as well.

My friend who did the race this year said the after party was unpleasantly crowded and exhausting.

Unfortunately, since the race ends F&W Festival, BWV and BCV are very popular for bookings. If it was me, I'd possibly consider renting points from someone so that I could definitely get the nights I wanted there (IMHO the Friday before the race to do the packet pick up and the day of the race, Sat night) otherwise be prepared to rent a car or stay in SSR. Good luck!

 

[XMom]

Hmmmmm....I wonder if we could grab a cab to packet pick up and back to the hotel after the race. I think we will skip the post-race party.

I don't think we can rent points...

 

[rkold]

Hmmmmm....I wonder if we could grab a cab to packet pick up and back to the hotel after the race. I think we will skip the post-race party.

I don't think we can rent points...

I mean you could get lucky and find something at 7 months. We're new to DVC, but I've gotten the impression that getting BWV or BCV during F&W is hard and the last week end of it is probably even harder, especially since they are race hotels. BWV is much larger, I don't know how many points you have, but people here say 1BRs are easier to get than studios.

If you are at AKV you will need to: take cab to race packet pick up at ESPN Wide World of Sports, take a cab back from packet pick up, take a cab to ESPN Wide World of Sports for the race start, get a cab back from Epcot to AKV at the end of the race. I would definitely look into a car rental instead, since all those trips are really going to add up, and I don't know about FL but around where I live, we pay a premium for cabs between midnight and 6 am. (I'm slow, I know for me, I would finish after midnight and at least with ToT they really staggered start times. I was in group H and didn't start until more than 20 minutes after Group A.

You could also look into switching to SSR at 7 months? They tend to have a lot of availability and were a race hotel in 2013. Again, if you don't mind a split stay, do a few nights at AKV and then Fri+Sat at SSR with a Sun checkout. There is always the possibility more hotels will be added next year. Disney races seem to keep growing in popularity. Princess sold out so fast!

 

[XMom]

If we can't get In to BWV or BCV then we will try any other race hotel. I just feel like we should at least reserve something at AKV just so we at least have somewhere to stay. We will have to see what happens at 7 months and then decide on car rental at that point. Thanks for all your suggestions!

 

[jpeka65844]

If we can't get In to BWV or BCV then we will try any other race hotel. I just feel like we should at least reserve something at AKV just so we at least have somewhere to stay. We will have to see what happens at 7 months and then decide on car rental at that point. Thanks for all your suggestions!

This is exactly what I would do. Either SSR or OKW have historically been race hotels so you will most likely find availability there at 7 months. There was 7 month availability at VWL this year. That's where we stayed.

This was my first 1/2 and it was a great race. You will enjoy it! And we thought the after party was quite manageable. Maybe because we're slow and didn't make it in until a lot of people had finished and left. We shut it down at 4 AM which we didn't think we'd be able to do

ToT is up for us in 2014! We made 11 month ressies at VWL for that and will see what we can do at 7 months!!!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Simba's Mom]

DH did the Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon in 2011. We stayed at BCV, which in our opinion was the ideal resort. Being a host resort, you could get to package pick-up from there by taking the bus directly. Then for the 1/2 Marathon itself, DH said that the buses were literally lined up at the bus stop, and as one got full, they left and the next one started filling. Regardless of where you're staying, the best part as a spectator was walking out of the IG shortly before the finish and watching the runners pass the BCV. Unfortunately, that year, spectators weren't allowed at the finish line so that was our only chance to watch them run. Great experience! If you're relatively fast runners, the after-party's not bad early, but it gets real crowded later on-DH finished in just under 2 hours, and we enjoyed the first hour of the after-party after he finished. Then it was just too crowded, and we left.

 

[Deb & Bill]

This is exactly what I would do. Either SSR or OKW have historically been race hotels so you will most likely find availability there at 7 months. There was 7 month availability at VWL this year. That's where we stayed. ...

OKW wasn't listed as a race hotel for the 2013 Wine & Dine. SSR was, as was WL and YC. If you try to stay at the BWV or BCV for the night of the race, you can walk home from the party and catch a bus from the YC to the start. The race started at 10PM on Sat night this year, but next year's race isn't on the website yet.

My husband did the TOT 10 Miler this year and we stayed at BWV for one night (the night of the race) so we could walk to and from the race (it started and ended at DHS). We actually got a cab home from the race (via Celebration Hospital and Disney paid for the cab and the ambulance). It was real hot and he passed out after the end of the race.

 

[nolanboys]

We did the wine and dine 1/2 and stayed at AKV. It was not a race hotel, but it wasn't a problem. We took a cab for race packet pick up. The night of the race, we took a cab to Epcot. They were running busses from there to the start if the race. When we finished, we walked to BC and hailed a cab back to AKV. So although staying in a resort with race transportation is nice, it's easy to do from other resorts as well.

 

[Breyean]

We did the W&D 1/2 in 2012 and are doing TOT this year.

The issue with finding the right resort, since we don't rent a car and use the Disney transportation, is having to wait until runDisney announces which are the host resorts. They seem to switch things up year to year, esp with the non-EPCOT resorts.

So now I'm booked at OKW, my home resort. It was a host resort for TOT last year, but I'm waiting to see if it will be again this year.

 

[deltapilotwife]

My DH has done W&D all 4 years and my only suggestion is book your home resort NOW!

it's a crazy busy weekend....Jersey week, veterans holiday, & last weekend of food & wine. In 2012 we booked AKV value studio then tried to move and couldn't find anything. I also know of someone who waited until around 9 months out and couldn't get the room they wanted at their home resort also.

so, book now and deal with moving & transportation later.