Official Wine and Dine 2016 thread

[bellrae]

@escriven75 - you can find the official event guide for last year here: http://as1.wdpromedia.com/media/rundisney/wine-and-dine-half-marathon/2015_WnD_Program.pdf

 

[Olallamom]

My DH and I are planning on doing this run this year.
It will be the final celebration of my 50th bday.
We are in training for the dopey 2017. So this run will be a nice 1/2 to run after our first full marathon in Portland in October.
I love the food and wine festival and look forward to an awesome birthday celebration as my birthday is on Halloween.

 

[escriven75]

My DH and I are planning on doing this run this year.
It will be the final celebration of my 50th bday.
We are in training for the dopey 2017. So this run will be a nice 1/2 to run after our first full marathon in Portland in October.
I love the food and wine festival and look forward to an awesome birthday celebration as my birthday is on Halloween.

My bday is one day before Halloween and this past bday I celebrated my 40th at the Food and Wine Fest. Looking forward to doing it again in 2016 and adding my first 1/2M to that!! Perhaps we'll bump into each other and can toast happy birthdays.....esp on a milestone like 50!!! Good luck with your first Full M in October.

 

[escriven75]

@bellrae....thank you for posting that. Its good to see how the weekend unfolds so I have some idea how to plan for things like flights.
Is the Expo only on the Friday before race day? Is that pretty standard? Its not a multi-day event? I surely don't want to miss out on all the cool exclusive race souvies!!
And do you all generally get your spectators post-race party tickets the same day as you register? Do those sell out immediately as well? I'm quite nervous that I'm going to do this wrong!!

 

[ExportedMolson]

@bellrae
Is the Expo only on the Friday before race day? Is that pretty standard? Its not a multi-day event? I surely don't want to miss out on all the cool exclusive race souvies!!
And do you all generally get your spectators post-race party tickets the same day as you register? Do those sell out immediately as well? I'm quite nervous that I'm going to do this wrong!!

The Expo is typically open on Friday and Saturday before the race. I don't buy any race merchandise, mainly because the place always looks like a madhouse to me. The train of thought tends to be arrive as early as possible at the expo if you want the best selection. Some even go straight to the merchandise before picking up their race packets. The Post-race party tickets have not sold out quickly the last couple of years so you should not need to worry much there. For booking of resorts, I would suggest booking as early as you can after registering for the race, so you can take advantage of the early ADRs and FP+ (though this is advice I rarely follow myself).

 

[flvy]

I went to the expo later in the day on Saturday and it was cleared out people wise and all the merch was there, but I've read some horror stories from the expos.

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

We're planning on doing this (finally) (again). We ran the 2015 1/2 a 1/2 Wine and Dine race. I just took a vacation day on 3/15, to help with registering us.

 

[Dan1]

Thanks for starting this thread!

My DW and I are doing the Portland Marathon (the first for both of us) 4 weeks before this (also a first for this) as our last long organized run before the Dopey (yes, a first for us as well). Sure, one could say this is becoming the year of the run for us.

We are planning to do the 5K in the morning, slowly, as a warm up.

She's the runner and I'm the run/walker.

 

[bellrae]

The Expo is typically open on Friday and Saturday before the race. I don't buy any race merchandise, mainly because the place always looks like a madhouse to me. The train of thought tends to be arrive as early as possible at the expo if you want the best selection. Some even go straight to the merchandise before picking up their race packets. The Post-race party tickets have not sold out quickly the last couple of years so you should not need to worry much there. For booking of resorts, I would suggest booking as early as you can after registering for the race, so you can take advantage of the early ADRs and FP+ (though this is advice I rarely follow myself).

In 2015 they also had a special event (about $195 from memory) where you got first access to the merchandise on the Thursday night as well as some exclusive merchandise that was part of the ticket price (wine glass, duffle bag, bag tags etc) and they did a "concierge style" packet pick up (which I must admit was a pretty good perk). Whilst it was lovely to buy the merchandise at a calm pace with no crowd (and a glass of wine in hand!) it was a pretty weird event, and I've seen a lot of feedback where people felt it was not worth the price they paid. We are not sure though if they will continue that one.

 

[escriven75]

So much great information from those that have done this before! Thank you!!
Does anyone have any strong recommendation of which resort to stay in for the W&D weekend? Do you go budget bc you'll be out and about? Or go deluxe because you'll be hanging around there the day of the race, relaxing? We almost always go with a Value Resort for regular stays because we honestly aren't at the resort other than to sleep and occasional dips in the pool. I've never stayed at Poly and am wondering if this is the right time to splurge on that or the WORST time? I've also never stayed at either of the Port Orleans resorts....not even sure what the differences are between the 2 but those seem to be a good option for race weekend too?!?!? Hoping to get a discount code in the mail.....I'm assuming there is no "runner discount" on resort/ticket packages right? That seems too good to be true!

 

[Dan1]

So much great information from those that have done this before! Thank you!!
Does anyone have any strong recommendation of which resort to stay in for the W&D weekend? Do you go budget bc you'll be out and about? Or go deluxe because you'll be hanging around there the day of the race, relaxing? We almost always go with a Value Resort for regular stays because we honestly aren't at the resort other than to sleep and occasional dips in the pool. I've never stayed at Poly and am wondering if this is the right time to splurge on that or the WORST time? I've also never stayed at either of the Port Orleans resorts....not even sure what the differences are between the 2 but those seem to be a good option for race weekend too?!?!? Hoping to get a discount code in the mail.....I'm assuming there is no "runner discount" on resort/ticket packages right? That seems too good to be true!

When my DW and I did the Disney Marathon weekend in Jan 2015, it was VERY cold. (sure, I did the 5 & 10K, she did those and the 1/2). We stayed off site and were glad we did. By staying off site we drove the rental car to the Epcot parking lot and were able to simply wait in our car until we wanted to get in the assigned corral. Those who stayed on site had to take the Disney buses which sounds great, but when the buses arrived in the parking lot the folks were forced out of the bus into the freezing (literally) code weather while the buses went back to get more people.

This won't be an issue if its nice weather. Yet, if its raining......

Having said that, we are actually staying at one of the Epcot area hotels. Our logic is since the race is in the evening / night, we can simply walk from the hotel to Epcot, get in the back entrance of Epcot (we'll have annual passes at that point) and then figure out where the race starts. Then after the race just walk back to the hotel (as if a 1/2 marathon was not enough) regardless if we take advantage of playing in Epcot at night after the run.

 

[SunDial]

When my DW and I did the Disney Marathon weekend in Jan 2015, it was VERY cold. (sure, I did the 5 & 10K, she did those and the 1/2). We stayed off site and were glad we did. By staying off site we drove the rental car to the Epcot parking lot and were able to simply wait in our car until we wanted to get in the assigned corral. Those who stayed on site had to take the Disney buses which sounds great, but when the buses arrived in the parking lot the folks were forced out of the bus into the freezing (literally) code weather while the buses went back to get more people.

This won't be an issue if its nice weather. Yet, if its raining......

Having said that, we are actually staying at one of the Epcot area hotels. Our logic is since the race is in the evening / night, we can simply walk from the hotel to Epcot, get in the back entrance of Epcot (we'll have annual passes at that point) and then figure out where the race starts. Then after the race just walk back to the hotel (as if a 1/2 marathon was not enough) regardless if we take advantage of playing in Epcot at night after the run.

The start for W&D is over in ESPN

 

[Dan1]

The start for W&D is over in ESPN

Nice.

Still like walking back to the hotel and not having to wait for a bus in the wee hours of the morning from the 'after party'.

 

[SunDial]

Nice.

Still like walking back to the hotel and not having to wait for a bus in the wee hours of the morning from the 'after party'.

I absolutely agree with that. After this year's half of a half I will probably stay at an EPCOT resort the next W&D I do.

 

[flvy]

So much great information from those that have done this before! Thank you!!
Does anyone have any strong recommendation of which resort to stay in for the W&D weekend? Do you go budget bc you'll be out and about? Or go deluxe because you'll be hanging around there the day of the race, relaxing? We almost always go with a Value Resort for regular stays because we honestly aren't at the resort other than to sleep and occasional dips in the pool. I've never stayed at Poly and am wondering if this is the right time to splurge on that or the WORST time? Hoping to get a discount code in the mail.....I'm assuming there is no "runner discount" on resort/ticket packages right? That seems too good to be true!

I'm not talking about all values here as I haven't been to pop or aoa before.

Personally I staid at an all star and wish I had gone for a moderate. My vacation had more days prerace So I spent a bit more time at the resort than I normally would. My all star didn't have a quiet place to kind of sit down and relax like a few of the moderates do. Not that there is anything really wrong with all stars it just wasn't my cup of tea.

I didn't have huge issues with the buses, though I can imagine the convenience of walking back to boardwalk/yacht club/beach club would be amazing. If I do this race again I may rent DVC points.

 

[Keels]

I stayed at AoA for New Year's Eve and I will never stay there again. From my continued (and still on-going, a week later) front desk/check-in issues to the sprawling "campus" to the almost motel-like feel, it just wasn't for me.

We stayed at AKL for W&D last year - and while not a host resort, it was the best on-property stay we've ever had and will probably stay there for every one-off night going forward. We had a Savannah View room and loved killing the time before the race by watching the animals.

FWIW - we took basic AKL bus transport to EPCOT and then caught the race bus from there. When we were ready to leave EPCOT, we got an Uber and our entire trip took 10 minutes (from the moment we called an Uber to when we were dropped at AKL) and cost $8.

 

[1girln3boys]

My husband and I are thinking of doing it. It will be our 1st one.

 

[GreatLakes]

So much great information from those that have done this before! Thank you!!
Does anyone have any strong recommendation of which resort to stay in for the W&D weekend? Do you go budget bc you'll be out and about? Or go deluxe because you'll be hanging around there the day of the race, relaxing? We almost always go with a Value Resort for regular stays because we honestly aren't at the resort other than to sleep and occasional dips in the pool. I've never stayed at Poly and am wondering if this is the right time to splurge on that or the WORST time? I've also never stayed at either of the Port Orleans resorts....not even sure what the differences are between the 2 but those seem to be a good option for race weekend too?!?!? Hoping to get a discount code in the mail.....I'm assuming there is no "runner discount" on resort/ticket packages right? That seems too good to be true!

I stayed at POP for all but one of the RunDisney events I've done and it always worked for me. The only time I could even imaging paying what Disney asks for a deluxe is if I was running W&D and wanted to walk back to my resort afterwards. That one event I didn't stay at POP was marathon weekend 2011 and I stayed at the Swan but only because of a great rate I got. That is another option. The Swan/Dolphin is always less expensive then the Yacht, Beach, or Boardwalk resort and in the same area. Even if you have to pay to get there because they don't participate in DME it will probably come out cheaper.

 

[1girln3boys]

For the after party do you have to run in the night run or can you just do the 5K?

 

[Ariel484]

For the after party do you have to run in the night run or can you just do the 5K?

You can do the 5K and then buy a ticket to the after-party.

EDIT: tickets are sold ahead of time, FYI.