No character "test" during Tink 5K and 10K.

[jaxonp]

I've just heard the characters might be at the 10k tomorrow. I guess will have to wait and see. Seems like a huge oversite

I'd like to add to this... it was from a fellow runner that spoke to RD... so this could totally be like talking to the bus driver... lol

 

[jaxonp]

I feel genuinely bad for everyone at this race (well, as bad as I can feel for people who are at Disneyland ). I know you'll make the best of it though.

I hope they course correct from this decision, but I'm sure most will make lemonade out of lemons if they don't. RunDisney shouldn't be placing that burden on their consumers.

Does anyone really think RD isn't a cash cow? Give me a break- this is typical Disney style management... milk that cow... people still come anyway.

 

[maw]

Here's my character picture from this morning... there were cones in front of them and we had to stay behind the cones.
View attachment 236830

It's good though for a selfie - mine always look crazy

 

[Ariel484]

It's good though for a selfie - mine always look crazy

Hey thanks!

 

[jaxonp]

Pan, Tink, Hook at a minimum, if nothing else. Croc since it's not wdw... Come on now..

 

[maw]

At the very least they could list what characters will be on the course before hand which then people could plan what characters they stop for.

Or put a sign ahead of the line so you know what the line is for before you get to the beginning.

 

[jewelspirit]

Spoke to my brother, other than checking in with the Volt temp agency QR code (and all the pre-race tax docs and background checks), the actual working was the same as our previous volunteer experience. His shift was scheduled for 2:30-8am, and he worked the first water stop. However, they did send them home early at 7am, once that position was done. In my opinion, as an hourly position, being sent home early is essentially a pay cut, but he doesn't see it that way .

As a volunteer, you also occasionally finished your shift early, depending on your position, but it still counted as a shift for ticket eligibility.

He's working again tomorrow, for the 10k, and I'll be dropping him off at 2am. The things I do for my baby brother.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Or put a sign ahead of the line so you know what the line is for before you get to the beginning.

The 2012 Disneyland Half actually listed what characters would be available along the course and where they would be. It was really nice. In that race, stopping for some characters was something that I actually could do. I probably spent maybe 12 minutes in line total for pictures with Phillip and Aurora in front of the castle, and Darth Vader and stormtroopers in Tomorrowland. That's 12 minutes if it was that much for 2 photos. By the 2015 Star Wars half, character lines had exploded to 15-20 minutes for a single photo in the Disneyland Star Wars races if you were lucky. So character photos became a much bigger deal.

Warning! Rant coming.

Each runner needs to take responsibility for his or her training. If character photo(s) and finishing are a priority for you, then train accordingly. If you're not fast enough to do both, then you need to make a decision and live with the consequences of that decision. This means you may have to get swept.

If you don't like running a race with characters along the course, then choose to run a different race someplace else. If you're upset that you can't smash your PR because the course is crowded, then choose a different race. And if you want the experience of running through Disney parks, then you also have to deal with the crowds because it's a race at a Disney park. In case people haven't noticed, the Magic Kingdom is the most popular theme park in the entire world based on attendance. Disneyland is the second most popular ranking ahead of the other WDW parks.

RunDisney is not blameless here either. They need to do a better job explaining to runners that time spent in line for character photos will slow down your race time and may cause you to be swept. They should clearly outline what their medal policy is. I'm not trying to open up the can of worms associated with finisher vs participant medal. I just think runDisney can better educate runners, especially new ones about what this experience really is. Yes, it's a lot of fun. But that fun comes at a cost. Most people simply cannot roll out of bed one morning and decide they're going to run a half marathon today without training for it. Even fewer people can roll out of bed, decide to run a half marathon in the allotted time, and get fun photos with Disney characters without having trained for it. RunDisney can post on their website that character lines will be very long and runners may need to skip the line to finish.

But they should not pull characters from any of the races. If possible at this point, they should reverse this terrible mistake and put characters out on the course for the 10K tomorrow morning. And if they can't, they should announce no later than the end of next week (if not Monday or Tuesday), that this was a mistake they will not repeat and characters will be available on the 5K and 10K courses at all future runDisney events. Or if this is a new trend, they need to announce the change so that runners can make an informed decision and sign up for a race with full knowledge that characters will not be there.

I think runDisney handled the cancellation of the WDW Half this year well. But as well as they handled that difficult decision, they really screwed up this time. Time will tell if they learned their lesson. Because while I think too much is being made of races with 14,000+ runners not being sold out if they turn their events into regular races without the Disney experience and touches we've come to expect, they will see a lot fewer runners.

 

[FelisLachesis]

I know you are ranting, but I just want to touch on couple of points you made.

Each runner needs to take responsibility for his or her training. If character photo(s) and finishing are a priority for you, then train accordingly. If you're not fast enough to do both, then you need to make a decision and live with the consequences of that decision. This means you may have to get swept.

The vast majority of us agree completely with this statement. You know your time best, you know how much lead time you have before the balloon ladies (or whatever they have at DLR) come by. If you get caught while waiting for a picture, that's on you, that's not on rD or Disney to give you that time. I think there's another reason for removing the characters, and it's not people complaining about getting swept while waiting for a picture. It's some sort of cost-cutting move, but how bad will it affect their bottom line?

I think runDisney handled the cancellation of the WDW Half this year well.

Weather is funny, you can't do a thing about it. You hope the clouds break up just before they get overhead, but sometimes, like at the 1/2 this year, you can't do anything about it. It was called off at the last possible moment, when the meteorologists said it's definitely going to hit, and it ended up hitting. At least rD did the right thing by giving everyone their medal, having it count for Goofy and Dopey, and giving everyone a refund.

But, like you said, for everything right rD did with the half marathon in January, they almost totally undid that goodwill with the Neverland 5k

 

[bumbershoot]

You both have valid points, which doesn't explain my theory at all. The only thing I can think of is that this is the test run to see how much it affected times. Though aren't rD 5k runs generally untimed? I wonder if they keep times but just not publish them (or do the 5k bibs not have timing chips?)

Jumping off of your thoughts....

They know when people start and when the last person comes in. They know how long people are out on the course vs how long they usually are. They know how much time it takes to get the sag wagon/bus off the course and back. I mean, they know these things. We don't.

But...they give us a time. Looking at the time per mile starting from the end, there's a finite amount of time that THEY are setting. I've never heard of people being well behind the bike people and being allowed to stay (this is actually one policy they stick to, shockingly). If that amount of time isn't right for their needs, that's on them, isn't it?

Hopefully they'll rethink and at least have start/finish area picture opportunities since they make us get there so early!

Thinking back...they had two picture opportunities at Light Side pre-corrals, and I SWEAR I saw a character M&G beforehand as well. We could see the lines for princess M&Gs before the corrals as well. I have NO idea if there were characters/princesses before these events in 2016 even though I was at both of them.... Hmm.

With each successive detail, I get more confused. None of it makes sense and I can't figure out how any of these changes were ever seriously considered as options, leave alone actually instituted.

I can see it now. They are going to solidly blame the TEMPS for not setting things up and for not making spaces for the characters, etc etc. There were *supposed to be* characters, but those darned temps...

Or put a sign ahead of the line so you know what the line is for before you get to the beginning.

Agreed.

And then you wouldn't have the problems of people running backwards on the course to go back to a line they passed. (still won't stop the coaches of the charity teams I saw, or the faster spouses choosing to take their lives into their hands by running back to the slower ones)

Each runner needs to take responsibility for his or her training. If character photo(s) and finishing are a priority for you, then train accordingly. If you're not fast enough to do both, then you need to make a decision and live with the consequences of that decision. This means you may have to get swept.

I agree.

They need to do a better job explaining to runners that time spent in line for character photos will slow down your race time and may cause you to be swept.

I agree. Though how people could imagine it WON'T slow down your race time I do not know.

They should clearly outline what their medal policy is.

YES. And stick to it. And if they keep it as it is, maybe don't rely on fans to tell other fans the policy? Maybe publish it? But if they change it, publish THAT, and stick to it!

But they should not pull characters from any of the races. If possible at this point, they should reverse this terrible mistake and put characters out on the course for the 10K tomorrow morning. And if they can't, they should announce no later than the end of next week (if not Monday or Tuesday), that this was a mistake they will not repeat and characters will be available on the 5K and 10K courses at all future runDisney events. Or if this is a new trend, they need to announce the change so that runners can make an informed decision and sign up for a race with full knowledge that characters will not be there.

Yes yes yes yes yes and probably more yesses.

If it's a new trend, though, and they stick with it AFTER we've all already registered, my cousin and I are going to need about $150 back for the "fairy tale challenge". $100 for my cousin (b/c she loves characters) and $50 for me (b/c I enjoy seeing them on the course).

I think runDisney handled the cancellation of the WDW Half this year well. But as well as they handled that difficult decision, they really screwed up this time.

Yep. Apparently Disney can only make one decent decision per 3 years LOL. All the rest are terrible or at best neutral IMO.

 

[bumbershoot]

It's some sort of cost-cutting move, but how bad will it affect their bottom line?

Gotta say I'm soooo glad I couldn't go to Tink this year. Because that merchandise is absolutely adorable, and my eyes wanted to spend about $500 on it. However, I have a solid policy of "you didn't do the race (or visit the place), you don't get the stuff". If I were there, I would be having some serious problems of wanting to stick it to them (and tell them WHY I didn't buy anything) vs buying ALL the things.

 

[FFigawi]

I would also be interested in how many people cheat on PoT and corral placements in an attempt to allow themselves more character picture times.

More than you think. There are even some posters here who do this.

For what's it's worth, I don't think this change was driven by cost cutting. Paying a handful of CM $10-15 per hour for five hours isn't a material amount of money. I don't buy the safety explanation either. If you want to reduce crowds in line, you have more lines and more options to spread people out. Though, I suppose zero lines do eliminate the issue.

I don't know what the real reason is, but I'm sure whoever dreamed it up didn't think it all the way through very well. Hopefully rD realises their mistake and doesn't try this again for future races.

 

[FelisLachesis]

I don't know what the real reason is, but I'm sure whoever dreamed it up didn't think it all the way through very well. Hopefully rD realises their mistake and doesn't try this again for future races.

I looked at Facebook and Twitter, and rD is taking a beating! They talked about how quickly everyone was finishing the Neverland 5k, and the vitriol just got slathered on thick!

The most common response was "we finished so quickly because there were no character stops!"

People are saying this is their last rD race, ever

People are going "where's the 'fun' in a fun run if we can't stop for pictures?"

Since that post, rD gone to complete silence on social media.

The Tinkerbell 10k starts in a few hours. Let's hope they reversed direction.

 

[Chrissie86]

Oh boy! I hope they have a few out or the Princess 5K next year! It will be my frist and I'm looking forward to the character pictures!

 

[cavepig]

Though how people could imagine it WON'T slow down your race time I do not know.

I know, It's surprising, but I guess some people think their chip magically stops timing when in lines for characters or bathrooms.

I'm probably in the minority but I love the surprise of finding out what characters are out so wouldn't want a list ahead of time, making the split decision to stop or not is part of the fun for me. A couple signs posted right before saying character on the left or right would be nice (although probably easily missed). In the 10k for darkside R2 was on the left and I was on the right so had to carefully wiggle over not messing up other runners (I felt like frogger), well for the Half they had a CM out there with a megaphone in the middle of the road saying "R2D2 on the left, if you want a picture move to the left." First time I had seen/heard a CM doing that.

Hope the Tink 10k goes well for all today.

 

[rteetz]

I looked at Facebook and Twitter, and rD is taking a beating! They talked about how quickly everyone was finishing the Neverland 5k, and the vitriol just got slathered on thick!

Definitely. I was vocal on twitter. The Facebook groups are going nuts.

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

I thought of a way that this could be an effort to "goose" the line on someone's profit graph:

Where I work, if we supply product to another department, we charge that department internally. Though it may be at cost, funds are shifted from their department to ours. No "profit" for us, just cost shifting. Then I thought of a colleague who was at a California conference recently. One day, there were character photo ops, and she overheard someone from the conference talking about how much Disney was charging them for the characters.

Even if at cost, and an internal transfer, runDisney can decrease their costs (on paper) if they eliminate characters. Think of the costs for a character: set up and tear down of the scene (if there is one), RV rental for characters to rest and dress in, handlers, character staff, and perhaps more. Eliminate just one character stop, and runDisney could avoid that internal transfer of funds to the character department (or whatever dept. it is). Thus their costs go down and their net profit line goes up.

That being said: I think I'm glad that things do not line up for us to return to W&D this fall. We don't usually stop for the characters, but they are something we look forward to seeing on course. I agree with @FelisLachesis and others who've said that they've destroyed a lot of good will. We were talking seriously about Dark Side 2018, the possibility of marathon weekend sometime after that, and a return to W&D to exorcise some demons.

Sean

 

[Ariel484]

Live from the Tinker Bell 10K...

I'm about to Mile Marker 4 and am in line for character stop #3!!

 

[jmasgat]

I know, It's surprising, but I guess some people think their chip magically stops timing when in lines for characters or bathrooms.

Gee, another possible application for the Magic Band!

 

[rteetz]

Live from the Tinker Bell 10K...

I'm about to Mile Marker 4 and am in line for character stop #3!!

That's awesome! Glad they listened.