WDW 2015 Marathon Weekend -- Four Seasons

[EWR2AUS]

Quick question to see if anyone else has looked into this.

I'll be running Goofy this year, and then sticking around for my 40th birthday on the 13th. The Four Seasons is opening a new property at WDW, on-property.

It seems that the arrangement the Four Seasons has with WDW is that the Four Seasons will provide its own bus transportation to theme parks for resort guests. However, with respect to getting to the race starting line, I've been unable to get a good answer on whether there will be bus service between the Four Seasons and the starting line.

I called the hotel, which is not yet open, and they are "looking into it" - they were more willing to look it when I explained that a significant portion of their guests that weekend would be participating in the marathon.

I left a message with Disney and got a very garbled message back about not providing transportation to non-Four Seasons guests.

Has anyone had better luck than me on this?

Thanks!

 

[goofeygirl]

Quick question to see if anyone else has looked into this.

I'll be running Goofy this year, and then sticking around for my 40th birthday on the 13th. The Four Seasons is opening a new property at WDW, on-property.

It seems that the arrangement the Four Seasons has with WDW is that the Four Seasons will provide its own bus transportation to theme parks for resort guests. However, with respect to getting to the race starting line, I've been unable to get a good answer on whether there will be bus service between the Four Seasons and the starting line.

I called the hotel, which is not yet open, and they are "looking into it" - they were more willing to look it when I explained that a significant portion of their guests that weekend would be participating in the marathon.

I left a message with Disney and got a very garbled message back about not providing transportation to non-Four Seasons guests.

Has anyone had better luck than me on this?

Thanks!

I could be mistaken but I believe one of the companies that transports runners is Meers. The same bus company that picks up passengers from the airport to their Disney hotels.
The first year I ran in Disney the hotel itself had no idea about busses or races! Seriously, I was like, really??? So I contacted (they were in the hotel) Meers and they had a schedule of all hotels and busses.

Just a thought. But I don't know if they were the same busses that transported people this year...or next for that matter.

 

[EWR2AUS]

Thanks! Great idea!

 

[caspad]

now that the hotel is open were you able to get an answer about transportation? I'm sure if there are a few people on property running that weekend, they could use the shuttle buses to get you to the starting line.

You might want to drop an email to Ben Shank, the resort manager, to get it on his radar.

 

[RnbwSktles]

I think they ran buses to the Swan and Dolphin hotels and I guess that would be a similar issue?

 

[EWR2AUS]

Just reporting back on this. I checked back in with the Four Seasons today and got a very prompt and nice follow-up message that they are working on arrangements for marathon weekend transportation and would call me back as soon as it is finalized.

By the way, the Four Seasons is just a bit different from the Swan & Dolphin because the Swan & Dolphin are served by Disney transportation daily. The Four Seasons has its own transportation system to the parks. Not to say that's a deciding factor, but it is what prompted me to ask the question in the first place.

 

[caspad]

Just reporting back on this. I checked back in with the Four Seasons today and got a very prompt and nice follow-up message that they are working on arrangements for marathon weekend transportation and would call me back as soon as it is finalized.

By the way, the Four Seasons is just a bit different from the Swan & Dolphin because the Swan & Dolphin are served by Disney transportation daily. The Four Seasons has its own transportation system to the parks. Not to say that's a deciding factor, but it is what prompted me to ask the question in the first place.

The coach bus for the Four Seasons is really nice. I think you'll be happy.

We also used Uber to get from the Four Seasons to the Magnolia golf course. It took about 10 minutes for the car to get to us and cost $7. That could be a possibility too for you.

 

[EWR2AUS]

For anyone staying at the Four Seasons, they have confirmed that they will have transportation to and from the expo and to the start and from the finish for all races.

It looks like the buses will run hourly.

For the half, the bus will depart the resort starting at 3:00 until 6:00, hourly. The bus will leave from EPCOT at the top of the hour from 7:00 to 11:00.

For the marathon, same idea, except the buses will start at 2:00 and return from EPCOT at the bottom of the hour, starting at 10:30.

The big question will be, of course, how many runners are staying at the resort and will the seating be sufficient. I suppose I'll just have Uber on standby, just in case!

 

[IamTrike]

For anyone staying at the Four Seasons, they have confirmed that they will have transportation to and from the expo and to the start and from the finish for all races.

It looks like the buses will run hourly.

For the half, the bus will depart the resort starting at 3:00 until 6:00, hourly. The bus will leave from EPCOT at the top of the hour from 7:00 to 11:00.

For the marathon, same idea, except the buses will start at 2:00 and return from EPCOT at the bottom of the hour, starting at 10:30.

The big question will be, of course, how many runners are staying at the resort and will the seating be sufficient. I suppose I'll just have Uber on standby, just in case!

I would highly suggest being on the first bus in the morning. If the driver hasn't driven before race morning routing and traffic can be a big suprise. We've had situations where bus transportation even at 3:30 took over an hour to get to the epcot parking lot and that was from resorts closer than the four season.