Marathon Weekend 2020

[lhermiston]

Good morning, runDisney all-stars! We are 65 days from the kickoff of Marathon Weekend. Congrats to everyone who participated in Wine and Dine this weekend.

For this week's Sundays are for Disney, I'd like to know have you ever visited another Disney Park? How did it compare to WDW? Are there Disney Parks you haven't visited that you'd like to see?

Realistically, the only other Disney Park I'm likely to see in my lifetime is Disney Land. I think it would be cool to check out the original park. Of course, the international Disney Parks look incredible, as well. I think I'd really like to see how other versions of my favorite attractions - Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, etc. - look at other parks and see some of the attractions exclusive to the other parks, such as the Matterhorn or Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout.

At the end of the day, though, I love WDW and won't be disappointed if that's the only Disney Park I ever visit.

Have a great week everyone!

 

[BigEeyore]

SAFD: so far just Disneyland. I lived in CA as a child before my parents' divorce took me to the east coast, and I actually spent two summers working at Disneyland while spending the summer w/ my dad. (I worked in fast food in Fantasyland). Great memories! Disneyland is just a classic - sure it's smaller but that adds to the charm of it.
I would love to visit one of the international parks sometime - Paris is the most likely to happen, but Tokyo intrigues me. I have misgivings about China in general but the Shanghai park looks pretty incredible.

 

[SheHulk]

SAFD: Just Disneyland for me too. We have a local amusement park that people from the surrounding maybe 100-mile radius travel to visit, and DL had that same local park feel a little bit. Of course it was much better than our local park, but something about it had that same cozy feeling. I kind of appreciated that attractions were pretty much right next door to each other, my feet (and my kids were smaller so my kids' feet) were much less tired at the end of the day, you just didn't have to cover as much ground.

The only international park I'm interested in is Tokyo, but it's just too far to travel for me. I live on the east coast and the trip to Hawaii was my limit for any vacation.

 

[FFigawi]

SAFD: I prefer Disneyland for a weekend thanks to its compact size. You can get in everything you want to do without missing much. I like WDW longer stays because it takes more days to hit all the parks and see all the things.

 

[camaker]

SAFD: Only Disneyland for me, as well. In my opinion, DLP edges out the MK but I prefer WDW to DL for the overall variety and scope of things to do. DLP just seems to have more character than MK to me, with MK feeling a little “overly planned” for lack of a better term. I’ll also say that I found the food, at least the quick service, to be uniformly better quality at DL, too. I think @FFigawi summed it up very well as DL is better for 2-3 days, but WDW wins for longer trips.

As for other parks, I wouldn’t mind seeing DLP or Tokyo Disney, but with all the non-Disney options available in those locales, I don’t see taking the time away to visit them.

 

[rteetz]

I'd like to know have you ever visited another Disney Park? How did it compare to WDW? Are there Disney Parks you haven't visited that you'd like to see?

Not yet but hopefully headed to Disneyland next year!

 

[FFigawi]

Not yet but hopefully headed to Disneyland next year!

You, Mr. Disney, have never been to Disneyland? Shame!

 

[Neon Cactus]

I grew up about an hour from Disneyland. We went once per year until I got my drivers license and I jumped when they first started offering the annual pass with parking for $199. I like DL better than MK because of longer Pirates and Small World rides, plus they have Indiana Jones, Alice, Mr Toad, Submarines and Matterhorn. And longer park hours. Usually 8 am to midnight or 1 am. But I love Disney World too. The resorts have better theming, there are better dining options, Animal Kingdom, EPCOT. It’s a totally different experience.

I haven’t been to the others yet but I‘m doing the 36k challenge in Paris next year, so finally. And it’s good because I’ve always wondered how I’d rationalize spending time at DLP when there’s so much else to see in Paris, so thank you RunDisney! I’ve heard great things about Tokyo Disney Sea, so I may get there someday. Knowing me, I’ll probably plan a trip to Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong and hit all of the parks.

 

[rteetz]

You, Mr. Disney, have never been to Disneyland? Shame!

I know! July 2020 is a safe bet for my first time tho!

 

[JulieODC]

DH and I did DL a few years ago for the Tinkerbell half....but I’d like to go back with the kids.

Otherwise, DL Paris is on my list!

 

[hotblooded]

SAFD: I’ve been to every park, thanks to airline employee benefits.

Disneyland Resort is the best of them all, in my opinion. The parks are smaller, yet jam-packed with most of the best attractions from all four parks in WDW. Park-hopping via a short walk makes for a seamless visit. I love being able to walk to the parks as an off-site guest, and I took advantage of walking to the race start when Run Disney still operated there.

I visit WDW roughly once per year for marathon weekend, and a seasonal event every few years. Run Disney has made it worth repeat visits and I enjoy the on-site experience: no driving, and less stress overall. The new availability of plant-based menu options all over the resort has been INCREDIBLE.

Tokyo is my favorite international resort overall, with immaculate parks and excellent guest service. The excitement among guests is palpable and was truly lovely to experience. I loved how everyone stayed seated for parades, shows, and fireworks in order to improve the experience for all. Tokyo Disneyland had an amazing Christmas parade for day guests and didn’t hide it behind a hard ticket event, so that was a major plus. Trains from central Tokyo were nice and efficient.

I enjoyed the atmosphere of the DLP races during their inaugural year, but I was underwhelmed by Walt Disney Studios Park. It was a lot of emptiness plus four awesome rides: Crush’s Coaster, ToT, RnRC, and Ratatouille. I’ve heard there will be a lot of construction and improvements leading up to the 2024 Olympics in Paris, so hopefully that will be addressed. I didn’t like the prevalence of smoking in the parks, but transit from Paris was good.

Hong Kong Disneyland was small but charming. It was pretty funny being singled out during the English versions of certain attractions, which was unique for me because I blend in at US/FR parks. I went as a day trip from HK and didn’t spend much time there, but I preferred it to Shanghai based on queuing experiences.

Shanghai Disneyland was visually amazing, and I loved the Tron coaster. However, despite some old favorite attractions, the park felt like a theme park with a Disney overlay, rather than a true Disney park. I had a fun experience on the obstacle course within the parks, but halfway through started second-guessing my decision to take some of the more daring paths. I have travel insurance but I don’t have full confidence in the safety precautions of a park operated by a company other than Disney. Trains from central Shanghai were fast but crowded, in my experience.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Outside of the 4 WDW parks, we've done Disneyland and Disneyland Paris now. We really enjoyed Disneyland and California Adventure and really sad that the races there are gone as its hard to justify a trip to Southern California otherwise since we've been there a few times now. It was also nice when I worked at my last company & the division was headquartered in Orange County so I totally went to Disneyland a couple times during one week long work trip in the evenings.

There were things I really liked about Disneyland Paris/Walt Disney Studio Park but I'm good never going back there again. When we were there, they had just started the new creepy overlays for Tower of Terror and that really was cool. I think they have the best Space Mountain out of the three parks I've been to.

 

[Barca33Runner]

SAFD: Never been to any parks other than WDW. Not sure if the opportunity will present itself or not. I’d love to see each of the other parks worldwide, but none of them are must-do.

 

[steph0808]

I've never been to any other disney parks besides WDW. I do hope to hit Disneyland in the next few years.

I could have done Paris a few years ago (ok, 7), but we only had two or three days and did Paris, Versailles, and Normandy instead. After DL, I have the most chance of doing Paris because I will definitely be back to Europe because London is my heart city.

 

[Mickey Momma]

Other than WDW, I have only been to Disneyland, but will be traveling to Japan this summer. We will only have time to hit one park while we are there (traveling with family who are not Disney fans), so pretty sure we will probably go with Disney Sea.

I grew up with WDW and thought it would always be my absolute favorite, but I have really enjoyed my two trips to Disneyland. The history, the size, the lack of time spent on Disney transportation and the overall NOT having to plan every moment weeks and months in advance are big pluses for me.

 

[DIS-OH]

Disneyland in 2012 when I went Coast-to-Coast!

I remember feeling disoriented because the familiar landmarks were in the wrong places!

I loved the 1/2 course at DL and treasure my C2C medal.

(and happy to have real life calm down so I can be back here more! I judge High School marching band competitions, which has had me all over the state for the past eight Saturdays. I was off this weekend but am judging our State Finals next weekend. In addition, I’ve been filling in as the color guard director for the school where I work; the director had a kidney transplant in mid-September. And regular job had been busy...launching the school district’s new website tomorrow...I now know more about website development than I ever wanted to!)

 

[Abbie485]

I know that the Half Marathon ends right outside of the Epcot main entrance. We are going to be staying at Beach Club. Instead of taking one of the buses back to the resort, could we walk through Epcot to the International Gateway to get back to Beach Club? (Yes, we will have a park ticket for the day and I guess this would be assuming we wait around until Epcot opens for the day at 9am). Thank you in advance!

 

[DIS-OH]

I know that the Half Marathon ends right outside of the Epcot main entrance. We are going to be staying at Beach Club. Instead of taking one of the buses back to the resort, could we walk through Epcot to the International Gateway to get back to Beach Club? (Yes, we will have a park ticket for the day and I guess this would be assuming we wait around until Epcot opens for the day at 9am). Thank you in advance!

We’ve done just that in the past! It’s a long-ish walk, but fun!

 

[pluto377]

I've been to Disneyland and to Paris. But both were a long time ago and I don't remember much. I'm hoping to take my kids to Disneyland one of these days. They're not quite ready for the 6 hour flight though.

 

[flav]

SAFD: We were in Disneyland and Disney California Adventure this August! We loved the compactness of it, the possibility to ParkHop or to go get a shirt at our offsite hotel by walking 10 minutes max. We also liked the night shows a lot. Fantasmic seemed better even if we were seated on the ground. World of Color was amazing. Also, meeting Marvel and Pixar characters was a nice change. Some of the rides are better (Hyperspace Mountain!) and the QS were good too. We ended up liking MaxPass a lot more than FastPass

Very different from Disney World which we know well.

Maybe Disney Tokyo/ Disney Sea one day.

Right now, I am so irritated with Disney World that I will be taking down my Mickey pictures at the office tomorrow. We had a terrible customer experience recently. I am completely deflated with regards to our January trip. Sorry for venting.