Definitely in my Top 3 moments of the race weekend!
All long distance races at WDW will include lots of highway miles, because that's the only way to get from one park to the other. DS actually has more park time than the Jan. half or PHM, which only include two parks. The only way to reduce highway miles would be to increase in-park miles... but then how do you get from park to park without adding distance to the race?! They have a little wiggle room in the AK parking lot, but not much.
That is the process, and I've done it a number of times successfully. Calling only gets you to a call center, though: you really have to email rD to get this done.
You can update your POT info as many times as you want after registering... as long as it's done before the deadline. The deadline is hard: you can't get in to change it past the deadline. My understanding with charity/late registrations done after the POT deadline is that you absolutely must enter POT info while registering, as you will not be able to do so afterward.
I think 2012 Wine & Dine had more park time than 2017 Dark Side. At least it felt like it did. Like I said, I think they did an excellent job with on course entertainment outside the parks. I would love maybe a mile or 2 more of park time, but I also understand that with a lot of construction going on right now, that may not actually be feasible.
Probably 2020. We don't know when Star Wars Galaxy's Edge will open, but I'm guessing it will be after April 2019. All we know is that Disneyland's version will open first.
That's a tough one. I think you can argue that a plastic spear is no different from a toy lightsaber or plastic sword. But you don't know what security is going to say on race day itself.
With Disney races you are paying for characters and atmosphere. If I wanted to PR every time, I would sign up for a non-Disney race and pay half the amount. How you do your race is up to you, but most of the people who run Disney races do it for the atmosphere and characters.
