Disneyland Half Marathon 2024

[fatmanatee]

Halloween race weekend thread is here, FYI.

 

[xjillianpaige]

Resurrecting this because i saw @DopeyBadger in the Disneyland recap race video on the runDisney insta! Coming through the castle.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Nice catch @xjillianpaige!

 

[J_GN]

What were the crowds like in the parks during half marathon weekend? I really want to do the 10k in 2025 (February 1st???), but it will only be worth it if my family and I can also enjoy the parks that weekend. My wife and kids have no interest in running, so it would just be me doing the race. A 10k is short enough that I should have enough energy to still enjoy the parks after the race. But if the parks are going to be crazy crowded, it might not be worth the trip.

 

[Archigeek]

What were the crowds like in the parks during half marathon weekend? I really want to do the 10k in 2025 (February 1st???), but it will only be worth it if my family and I can also enjoy the parks that weekend. My wife and kids have no interest in running, so it would just be me doing the race. A 10k is short enough that I should have enough energy to still enjoy the parks after the race. But if the parks are going to be crazy crowded, it might not be worth the trip.

Hard to gauge, but that being said, a few items-
1. Last year was also MLK day, and schools were off. Magic key holders in one of lines were talking about how they had never seen crowds like this and didn’t realize the races were back. There were so many people there just for the day

2. Even with a school holiday, my friend and I (with the purchased Genie+) were able to do everything we wanted in both parks and were done by dinner time so she could catch her flight. It was my first time in Disneyland and she hadn’t been in years. We did this the Monday after. If you are used to Disney World and know how to work the system, it’s doable!

We also did the parks after the 10k and had no issues. We left early since I was running again the next day, but again between those two days (one with Genie) we got through everything!

 

[DisneyParrothead]

Hard to gauge, but that being said, a few items-
1. Last year was also MLK day, and schools were off. Magic key holders in one of lines were talking about how they had never seen crowds like this and didn’t realize the races were back. There were so many people there just for the day

2. Even with a school holiday, my friend and I (with the purchased Genie+) were able to do everything we wanted in both parks and were done by dinner time so she could catch her flight. It was my first time in Disneyland and she hadn’t been in years. We did this the Monday after. If you are used to Disney World and know how to work the system, it’s doable!

We also did the parks after the 10k and had no issues. We left early since I was running again the next day, but again between those two days (one with Genie) we got through everything!

One of the things I noticed is rope drop wasn't crowded, and it didn't get crowded until 10:30 maybe? Even then not every ride is on Genie+ and those lines flowed. Peter Pan was a 30-minute wait when I hopped in line and it was a true 30 minutes.

 

[J_GN]

If you are used to Disney World and know how to work the system, it’s doable!

We also did the parks after the 10k and had no issues. We left early since I was running again the next day, but again between those two days (one with Genie) we got through everything!

Thanks. We live in Northern California and have been to Disneyland 3 times since 2019, so we know these parks pretty well. But we've never been during a race weekend. We always rope drop, so it sounds like it might work out. I just thought racers might flock to the parks at rope drop too -at least on 5k and maybe 10k days.

 

[fatmanatee]

Yeah I’d have to imagine that holding it on a non MLK weekend will peel off some of the crowds. That said, I don’t feel too overwhelmed that weekend and that was with what felt like an unusual amount of ride downtime.

 

[TarynM]

What were the crowds like in the parks during half marathon weekend? I really want to do the 10k in 2025 (February 1st???), but it will only be worth it if my family and I can also enjoy the parks that weekend. My wife and kids have no interest in running, so it would just be me doing the race. A 10k is short enough that I should have enough energy to still enjoy the parks after the race. But if the parks are going to be crazy crowded, it might not be worth the trip.

I didn't feel like the crowds were too bad considering it was a holiday weekend and a race weekend. We're out of state passholders who go every couple of months and we usually overlap with a holiday here or there, so I know crowds can be bad. I didn't feel like there was anything that we couldn't do and wait times seemed to match my expectations.

 

[SarahDisney]

What were the crowds like in the parks during half marathon weekend? I really want to do the 10k in 2025 (February 1st???), but it will only be worth it if my family and I can also enjoy the parks that weekend. My wife and kids have no interest in running, so it would just be me doing the race. A 10k is short enough that I should have enough energy to still enjoy the parks after the race. But if the parks are going to be crazy crowded, it might not be worth the trip.

For me the worst part was getting into the parks on Sunday morning, since we arrived (from the Harbor side) as runners were finishing the race (and going back to the on-property hotels) and we shared the same security lines.

Once we were in the parks, crowds felt very manageable.

 

[jrsharp21]

Was the registration process just as bad as it is for MW?

 

[fatmanatee]

Was the registration process just as bad as it is for MW?

Worse. Massive demand because it was the first race back at DL, I think fewer spots than races at WDW? I had the (now) infamous t-shirt size error. Easily the most anxious I've been about a RD registration. I think moving forward it won't be as bad though.

 

[jrsharp21]

Worse. Massive demand because it was the first race back at DL, I think fewer spots than races at WDW? I had the (now) infamous t-shirt size error. Easily the most anxious I've been about a RD registration. I think moving forward it won't be as bad though.

Thanks. Looking to sign up in June for the 2025 weekend. I want to do a coast to coast one time.

 

[fatmanatee]

Thanks. Looking to sign up in June for the 2025 weekend. I want to do a coast to coast one time.

I think this was also one of the race weekends where they were just letting too many people flow through to registration at once and they ended up having a few issues, namely complaints that people would get to the registration screen and not be able to get registrations done in time. Sometime since then it seems like they've changed to letting fewer people through at a time so it technically takes longer to sell out but people might just be dealing with longer queues.

Sell-out times for both 2024 race weekends below (note the delay in the first weekend start ), I ended up missing the challenge due to my registration issues but got into the half and 10k separately.

DL 2024 (*First race weekend in Disneyland since 2017)
Start (link)
Queue Delayed until 10:15am ET (link)
Wait times posted at 10:21am ET *Marking this as official "start" time (link)
Challenge sold out in 27 min (link)
Yoga sold out in 34 min (link)
5k sold out in 42 min (link)
10k sold out in 43 min (link)
HM sold out in 54 min (link)
Kids Race sold out in 57 min (link)

Halloween 2024:
Start (link)
5k sold out in 50 min (link)
10k sold out in 51 min (link)
Challenge sold out in 61 min (link)
Kid's Races sold out in 78 min (link)
Yoga sold out in 86 min (link)
HM sold out in 114 min (link)

 

[jrsharp21]

Does the sharing links trick, like with MW, also work for Disneyland?

 

[fatmanatee]

Does the sharing links trick, like with MW, also work for Disneyland?

Yeah it's the same registration system, so I think most people here fared well with registration for Halloween.

 

[nekonekoneko]

Does the sharing links trick, like with MW, also work for Disneyland?

It feels like rD on both coasts is just one bigger organization. I swear that Carissa Galloway, Jeff Galloway's daughter, was doing the announcing for all the races in January. She did like some of us and picked up her stuff, and went from Florida straight to Cali.

 

[Naomeri]

It feels like rD on both coasts is just one bigger organization. I swear that Carissa Galloway, Jeff Galloway's daughter, was doing the announcing for all the races in January. She did like some of us and picked up her stuff, and went from Florida straight to Cali.

Yes, Carissa was there. But John Pelkey wasn’t