Marathon Weekend 2023

[flav]

Do schools people really have time after Jan. 1 off? I find that most schools and people I'm aware of tend to go back right after Jan. 1. I've never understood why people say an "early" Marathon Weekend gets the holiday traffic.

I have a lenient employer around the holidays (1 full week for Thanksgiving, 2 full weeks at the holidays) and this year everyone is back on Tuesday, Jan. 3. The similar schedule will apply next year.

My kids’ schools start January 10th and 16th respectively.

 

[Herding_Cats]

My kids are off starting at lunchtime Dec 21 and don’t go back until Jan 4th, which is a SUPER long winter break for us. We usually go back on the 2nd.

 

[jennysdcc]

Tomorrow night, could someone with an open ADR window let me know if they see any CRT reservations available for Monday Jan 9th? Any time of day - I have a heck of a Wednesday scheduled this week and don’t want to destroy my sleep schedule trying to nab a reservation if there is no hope (If this isn’t allowed I’ll happily remove!)

Additionally - does anyone have any underrated pre-marathon dinners you’d recommend? I’ve got Morimoto Asia for Friday before the half, but thinking of maybe something more italian on Saturday? It’s been years since I’ve made it to Disney Springs so looking forward to explore.

 

[supersnoop]

Additionally - does anyone have any underrated pre-marathon dinners you’d recommend?

I ate at Terralina Crafted Italian before the Princess half this year. It seemed to work out for me. I don't remember it being great, but it must have been alright.

 

[pluto377]

SAFD- Most of my plans are set now. This is a solo trip for me doing the 5K, 10K and Half. My original plan was to take it easy and enjoy the resort pool and keep the budget in check since I'd like to do Dopey next year. That's kind of out the window now.

I have my SW flights booked on points. I'm planning to arrive the 3rd, but I'm holding a seat on the first flight on the 4th just in case of weather. I was able to snag a DVC rental at CCV a week or two ago, but my first night will (if I arrive the 3rd) will be at ASMo. I bought the after hours for HS on Wed night just because it sounded like a fun change of pace to do something crazy like stay at the park until midnight and then go run a 5K

I'm planning on buying a 1 day hopper and doing AK, EP and MK on Saturday after the half. Again just for fun and to try something I've never done before. I could get a longer park ticket and spread out the days to do parks on Thurs and Fri, but been there done that.

Just two ADRs for me, one at Brown Derby on Friday before the After Hours start and one at Beaches and Cream on Friday afternoon. Then I'll head to HH for the meet up after that.

My only question mark is transportation. I did a car last year and loved having it, but these prices are killing me. So I might just do Mears or something and deal without the car.

As for our winter break it's Dec 24-Jan 1 and that's normally what it is. But we also have a full week in February and more than a week in April.

 

[KSellers88]

SAFD: All our "plans" are in place, but traveling with a two year old means those will most likely be adjusted. This will be his second trip, we took him at 13 months old and stayed at Fort Wilderness and had the best time. We are driving down from Alabama on Friday and staying until the following Friday at AoA in a Cars Family Suite (two bathrooms!) since I am only doing the marathon. No park time planned for Saturday or Sunday, but all reservations are made for parks Monday through Thursday, along with Genie+ and Park Hoppers. I made our dining reservations today and shockingly got everything I wanted on the days I wanted. It probably helps that we eat dinner around 4:30.

My son technically will be missing a week of school as they start back on the 4th, but I don't think it matters much in K2.

 

[jrsharp21]

SAFD: All plans should be booked (hoping not missing anything). Booked our flights a long time ago. Wife and I are flying in on Tuesday morning. Rental car is booked through my work's National Emerald Club account. Love having that. Makes it so easy to just grab our car and go.

Staying at Coronado Springs Resort the first night. Our friends who are DVC members and doing some of the runs booked us a room at AKL for the rest of the week. So after we hit up the expo on Wednesday, switching over to AKL.

My son, daughter, and her boyfriend are flying in Thursday late morning. Son is doing the 10k and daughter the half. Daughter and BF are staying at Pop Century. Son staying with us. But on Friday night, son and daughter are flip flopping so daughter can drive with us over to the half on Saturday morning.

I have an AP, but purchased the tix for the rest of the family a few months ago. Luckily before the price increase. Park reservations are set.

Wife and I have an ADR for San Angelo Inn on Wednesday night. Haven't spent much time looking for others. Really not a ton of places that we really want to go to. May poke around but really not going to stress out and try to fight the ADR system.

Getting excited for MW2023! It's coming quick! Counting down to the corral info date.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

My kids are off school until January 9, which is CRAZY late for us. It caught me off guard -- I've always run the Goofy/Dopey with a friend, and left the kids and husband at home. But when we got this year's school calendar and noticed the dates, we decided that we might as well turn it into a family trip and head to WDW right after Christmas.

The last time we did MW during the school breaks (I think it was 2017???), I remember the parks being CRAZY busy, so I'm not really looking forward to that, but we're just going to embrace the chaos, I guess.

Anyway, it's the kids' (age 12 and 10) Christmas gift so they don't know about it, but I'm probably going to mess up at some point before then. We're staying December 29 and 30 at a hotel near Sea World so we can do a day at Discovery Cove, and then Yacht Club from December 31 to January 4. And then my husband and kids are going to fly home on January 5 while I move to Pop with my friend for MW. They've never seen me in Dopey Mode and this is not going to be the year that they do it.

 

[kirstie101]

Tomorrow night, could someone with an open ADR window let me know if they see any CRT reservations available for Monday Jan 9th? Any time of day - I have a heck of a Wednesday scheduled this week and don’t want to destroy my sleep schedule trying to nab a reservation if there is no hope (If this isn’t allowed I’ll happily remove!)

Additionally - does anyone have any underrated pre-marathon dinners you’d recommend? I’ve got Morimoto Asia for Friday before the half, but thinking of maybe something more italian on Saturday? It’s been years since I’ve made it to Disney Springs so looking forward to explore.

I see a 9:10 for CRT on 1/9 right now.

 

[Dopey 2020]

SAFD Flights are set, AKL 1BR value was booked last feb and dining was called in a few days ago
APs and park passes all set
just need to book a rental car and enjoy the week with my wife and DD before dropping her back at college.

very fortunate to have seen V&A closed on Sundays/Mondays in time to book it as my post Wine and Dine celebration instead of MW.

 

[GuinnessRunner]

SAFD: Mostly set. Solo trip for me this time which makes planning much easier. BW booked a long time ago for the weekend and may have gone ahead and made a reservation for Pop Monday night in case I can stay for DATW on Monday. Plan on driving at this point as well. After looking at costs it was clear I could actually spend much less $ including driving down to south Georgia Thursday night and staying at a hotel there and then drive the last 3 hours Firday morning to get to the expo when it opens. ADRs have been a disaster today like others have experienced. Got my Friday night dinner, but that's it so far. May try and call later for the rest of the ADRs, but I'm not real concerned as I can always figure something out for just me.

 

[marty3d]

I also think it would be better if MW was closer to MLK. I remember that was the case the first time I attended (2009) and the crowds weren't bad at all. I was already planning on skipping MW 2024 and the dates aren't making me want to change my mind.

 

[camaker]

I also think it would be better if MW was closer to MLK. I remember that was the case the first time I attended (2009) and the crowds weren't bad at all. I was already planning on skipping MW 2024 and the dates aren't making me want to change my mind.

Do you actually want it to be on the MLK holiday weekend or even on the weekend following it? That's the only way it could be closer to MLK day. I think the weekend following it would be tough for RunDisney, as they'd only have ~3 weeks between MW and Princess at that point.

 

[nekonekoneko]

Do you actually want it to be on the MLK holiday weekend or even on the weekend following it? That's the only way it could be closer to MLK day. I think the weekend following it would be tough for RunDisney, as they'd only have ~3 weeks between MW and Princess at that point.

I'm not sure about @marty3d 's line of thinking, but I inferred that @Barca33Runner was thinking the week (not weekend) before MLK. Maybe something like the Monday-Thursday before MLK

 

[Jillfo]

Woke up super early 3:30 am for reservations ( I am on Mountain time) this morning. Wow things are already booked up. Then I kept getting errors, so then switched to phone and that fixed it. Saturday lunch got Irish Pub at 11:15 or Morimoto Asia at 12:30. My original plan was Wine Bar George but no reservations.

I'm seeing reservations available for WBG on OpenTable. You're looking at lunchtime on January 7th, correct?

 

[camaker]

I'm not sure about @marty3d 's line of thinking, but I inferred that @Barca33Runner was thinking the week (not weekend) before MLK. Maybe something like the Monday-Thursday before MLK

I can't see that ever happening. Too many people rely on the big races being over the weekend to minimize or avoid spending vacation days. Holding the races in the middle of the week would be pretty likely to crash registration numbers. While that may not sound too bad given this year's run on registration, it wasn't too long ago that they weren't selling out the weekend.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

I'm seeing reservations available for WBG on OpenTable. You're looking at lunchtime on January 7th, correct?

Ohh open table, I was using disney app. Thanks! Got the reservation, dropped my other ones, thank you

 

[Let's Get Kronk]

SAFD: I have Beach Club booked 1/3-1/9. Had originally planned to fly in on the 4th, but decided that the night before would make expo day a lot less stressful. I still need to book flights, and should have enough CC points to cover them. I have a 5-day park hopper secured, but considering ditching one of the park days since Wednesday is expo, Drawn to Life at SS, and then I have a ticket to HS for DAH on the 4th. It seems trying to squeeze in park time earlier that day isn't worth the price of the ticket. Made my park reservations and ADRs; the only thing I could not get was Space 220 but my Disney travel agent said she might be able to help me make that happen so we will see. Booked Oga's on Thursday evening with my college friend who is rooming with me and I booked Be Our Guest for dinner after the marathon like @Blue Caterpillar. I just love the ambience in BOG and I've only ever done breakfast there, so I'm excited. I also booked the droid-building experience on Friday, which I am also really stoked about.

This will be my first solo trip anywhere, ever. My college friend will be my travel buddy for parts of the trip, but he's running Dopey and will have his own schedule for the most part. We will surely hang out together off and on, but I am oddly looking forward to having lots of time to myself to do whatever I want in the parks. Goals include: riding GOTGCR, ROTR, Remy, and Smuggler's Run (none were there on my last trip in 2019); successfully completing Goofy (late training start has me really anxious); and experiencing various other things in the park that I never have.

 

[Barca33Runner]

Do you actually want it to be on the MLK holiday weekend or even on the weekend following it? That's the only way it could be closer to MLK day. I think the weekend following it would be tough for RunDisney, as they'd only have ~3 weeks between MW and Princess at that point.

I was referring to the same weekend structure as always Thursday-Sunday and yes, using this year as example, I would definitely take my chances with crowds on January 11-15 rather than the 4-8.

I only referenced MLK holiday in that Disney/rD seem determined to avoid that weekend vs. winter break and I wonder why that is the case. Purely from a crowd standpoint, I wouldn’t think it’s a sound decision; although I could understand if they had slightly more altruistic reasons for avoiding an rD event overshadowing the MLK holiday weekend.

ETA: I’m not on a full vendetta against MW being the first week of January. We’ve gone every year since 2012 and the crowds have always been far worse during the first week vs. the second week of January (for lack of a better way to frame the dates) so I definitely have a preference. It’s likely that there just isn’t a great solution (crowd-wise) to years like 2023.

 

[camaker]

I was referring to the same weekend structure as always Thursday-Sunday and yes, using this year as example, I would definitely take my chances with crowds on January 11-15 rather than the 4-8.

I only referenced MLK holiday in that Disney/rD seem determined to avoid that weekend vs. winter break and I wonder why that is the case. Purely from a crowd standpoint, I wouldn’t think it’s a sound decision; although I could understand if they had slightly more altruistic reasons for avoiding an rD event overshadowing the MLK holiday weekend.

I don't think they really care about overshadowing the MLK weekend. When DL had races, they had no issues running SWLS on MLK weekend. At that time, there would've been no option to move MW out a week without also impacting the DL race, too. The prospect of achieving C2C in the span of a week was a popular one, too. I wonder if they have plans for that weekend with the DL races coming back?

Ultimately, I think they just don't have the same concerns with crowding during the weekend that we do and maintaining the current schedule is easy for them to plan for in their activities cadence across the resort, not to mention they've got a lot of institutional memory invested in the current schedule at this point.

I also wonder if they're sensitive to the possibility that moving a 5-day event out a week to MLK Weekend might adversely impact attendance. In addition to a lot of schools still being on extended break, it's generally a lot easier for parents to extend a break a few days for a family vacation versus letting kids go back into school for a week and then having to pull them back out for the trip. Also, the place I work typically has a shutdown over the holidays and is still recovering and gearing back up to resume production that first week of January, which makes it easier for me to get away. Pushing it back to MLK would make it harder for me to get away and I'm sure I'm not alone in that situation.

ETA: I'm not taking it as you having a vendetta against the current schedule. I think it's an interesting theoretical discussion to look at the pros and cons and speculation around potentially moving the weekend.