WWYD: arrival during marathon weekend

[megs1313]

Unfortunately, my arrival date has to be either saturday or sunday of marathon weekend in january. Currently, I have my room reserved starting on saturday, but I'm wondering if I should bump it to sunday. How impactful will the marathon crowd be on potential sunday touring? TIA!

 

[Robo]

Nothing to worry about.

 

[bumbershoot]

Saturday is the morning of the half marathon. Sunday has the full marathon.

Will you be actually arriving in the morning? If so I'd rather arrive on Saturday. Then use onsite transportation to get around for the weekend.

 

[megs1313]

Saturday is the morning of the half marathon. Sunday has the full marathon.

Will you be actually arriving in the morning? If so I'd rather arrive on Saturday. Then use onsite transportation to get around for the weekend.

No, we'll be arriving pretty late on saturday, but i'd like to be able to hit DHS or EPCOT on sunday...just worried about how intense it will be. I've never been during marathon weekend.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We have been during marathon weekend a few times and have found pretty much no impact on park crowds. Just lots of people in running clothes at the resorts

We honestly have not found the marathon to impact anything related to park crowds.

 

[Allison]

I wouldn't worry.

 

[StarGirl11]

No, we'll be arriving pretty late on saturday, but i'd like to be able to hit DHS or EPCOT on sunday...just worried about how intense it will be. I've never been during marathon weekend.

If your doing DHS or Epcot on Sunday the bigger impact will probably be the fact the course runs through both parks, at least in the morning. In the case of DHS it's in the last 20 or so. And Epcot is the last mile, literally. So you will have to navigate around the coned off area in the parks. As for runners in the park post race it's a bit of a harder call. Some people take a pool day, some go back to the hotel and then hit the parks, and others still just go straight in after the race.

Really I've done parks post race and I can't imagine it being any worse then a somewhat busy day at the park crowd wise.

 

[CarolynFH]

We were there for 2017 and found the parks crowded on Sunday, but not with runners. Instead it was related to so many kids still being out of school due to the way New Years holidays fell, so families extended their vacations. Something similar may happen in 2018.

That said, I'd arrive Saturday too!

 

[bumbershoot]

And Epcot is the last mile, literally. So you will have to navigate around the coned off area in the parks.

Yep. So don't be in a huge hurry to get somewhere inside the park because they are directing foot traffic of guests so they don't impact the runners.

and others still just go straight in after the race.

Shudder. After a marathon...I won't even do that after a 5K.

 

[roxymama]

Late brunch and also dinner reservations for places with hearty food or fancy celebration food may be hardest to get either day. Runners like to eat A LOT after a race and like to sit down. I'd expect restaurants to be busier than attractions . Pasta places early sat night may get slammed.
Also runners tend to try to go to bed early the night before races so late night parks may be less crowded on sat?

You could look at it as a way to see something really cool that doesn't often happen...people running through Epcot is quite a site and it's fun to cheer them all. As a runner myself, I'd appreciate a cheer or high five around those final miles

 

[scrapquitler]

I've been there twice during marathon weekend, and it didn't seem to impact the parks very much, if at all. Yes, I did see people walking around wearing their medals, but it wasn't tons of people.

The place that I did notice an impact was in the lobby and bus stop at our resort (Pop). There were extra things set up in the lobby like informational tables and signs describing the transportation to the expo and the race itself, but that was a tiny thing. At the bus stop, at certain times of the day there was a long line of people waiting for the bus over to the expo or the race start, but that didn't affect us because we were in a different line. I mean, I saw the stuff, but it didn't cause any kind of a problem for us.

Our bus did have to take a detour to get around part of where the race was being run (one of the times we were there the race was delayed several hours due to thunder and lightning), but if we hadn't been paying attention, we wouldn't have even noticed that.