Which hotel for Marathon weekend?

My wife and I are considering a monorail resort for the Dopey (Poly). Never stayed in one for a runDisney event. Can anyone provide their experience getting to/from the race while staying at a monorail resort?
I stayed at the Grand Floridian in 2013 for Goofy and took detailed notes the morning of the half marathon so I'd know what to do the next morning for the marathon...here's what I have...

- Left room at 3:20AM and arrived at the monorail platform at 3:28AM
- Brief stop at Magic Kingdom...doors opened and shut
- Stopped to pick up runners from the Contemporary
- Arrived at the TTC at 3:36AM
- Switched monorails and was en route to Epcot by 3:39AM
- Arrived at Epcot monorail station at 3:50AM
- Used the *real* bathroom at the front of Epcot (took my sweet time) and walked to DJ in staging area, arrived at about 4:15AM

So if you're staying at the Poly and just walking to the TTC to grab the monorail there, you could probably chop 10 minutes off of the above. The walk from the monorail station to the DJ area was longer than I'd expected (I was late meeting my brother - told him I'd meet him at 4AM). Also, this was before they had security like they do now (I don't remember stopping to have my bag searched and whatnot), so that may add some time. :confused3

ETA: The walk back to the monorails and up the ramp was a little rough after finishing the marathon. :eek:
 
We are trying to decide the answer to this as well as it'll be both of our first half marathons at WDW. It sounds like the way to go is book an Epcot area resort? Does anyone know if the busses run the same at the Swan/Dolphin?
Yes in addition to the Disney-owned resorts, the Swan/Dolphin is an official host resort.
 
I've stayed at contemporary or poly for marathon weekend for the past 4 years. Poly has the best location because you can walk to/from the resort to the TTC directly. From the GF and the Contemp you have to get on the Resort loop and change. I've typically left my room at about 3:30 and the trains aren't too crowded. I don't think there was anyone standing on any of the trains I was on. If you leave later in the morning I am sure that the monorail get's more crowded.

Some general pro's:
Getting there is easy. Poly was easiest followed by Contemporary ( on the return trip Contemp is the last stop on the resort loop though)
Getting there is consistent. ( you know it's going to take 15/30 minutes to get there)We've stayed at POR during Marathon weekend too and we've always had issues with the buses taking forever the day of the half. It took over an hour during one particularly stressful bus ride.
If you have specators it's nice for them to be able to watch you and then take the monorail to the finish. (poly is the best for this because you can easily see your guest at the TTC, in front of the poly and then at the finish. (you can do something similar from contemp but you have to hop on the resort monorail and if your'e runner is fast you don't have a ton of time to get from in front of the contemporary to in front of the Poly.

General Cons/ things to be aware of.
Not sure if the pool refurb has changed this but the Poly used to not have a hot tub
The last time we were there the monorail was only open early for the Half and Full you had to take a bus for the 5k. I can't remember about the 10k
The walkway up to the monorail at epcot is HARD, if you are sore.
 
Thanks for the replies. I think that I would want to leave my room at around 4am to grab a little extra sleep each day since I will be doing the Dopey (hopefully). Didn't think about the walk up the ramp after the marathon, but I don't think that it will be a problem. I plan on running the marathon about 2 minutes per mile slower than my normal marathon pace given all of the picture stops, so my legs should be fine. Glad to hear that the monorails are running for the longer races.

Can anyone confirm that the monorail runs for the 5k and 10k?
 


The picture stops shouldn't interfere with your pace while running, just your overall pace. If you really do plan on running two min/mile slower than normal, I recommend practicing that pace during some of your long runs. Going that much slower than you're accustomed to can lead to injury as your cadence and stride will be significantly different.
 
Thanks for the replies. I think that I would want to leave my room at around 4am to grab a little extra sleep each day since I will be doing the Dopey (hopefully). Didn't think about the walk up the ramp after the marathon, but I don't think that it will be a problem. I plan on running the marathon about 2 minutes per mile slower than my normal marathon pace given all of the picture stops, so my legs should be fine. Glad to hear that the monorails are running for the longer races.

Can anyone confirm that the monorail runs for the 5k and 10k?
I think they do now but not certain. In 2013 it wasn't available for the 5K, they just bused us in (which was fine).
 
The picture stops shouldn't interfere with your pace while running, just your overall pace. If you really do plan on running two min/mile slower than normal, I recommend practicing that pace during some of your long runs. Going that much slower than you're accustomed to can lead to injury as your cadence and stride will be significantly different.
Thanks - that is what I meant. My overall pace with the long breaks will amount to a time about 2 minutes/mile slower over the course of the marathon (based on my Goofy time in 2014). I stop for every character that I see. The time standing around allows my legs to recover a lot during the run and I have no pain at all after runDisney races. I wasn't even tired the day after the Goofy in 2014.
 


Thanks - that is what I meant. My overall pace with the long breaks will amount to a time about 2 minutes/mile slower over the course of the marathon (based on my Goofy time in 2014). I stop for every character that I see. The time standing around allows my legs to recover a lot during the run and I have no pain at all after runDisney races. I wasn't even tired the day after the Goofy in 2014.

What was your average stop time at the characters?
 
For those that stayed at Dolphin/Swan during marathon weekend what were your thoughts? Last two years were at POP, another year was with friends at SSR. Year before that was OKW.
 
What was your average stop time at the characters?
Varied greatly - I stopped for 23 characters during the marathon. My two longest waits were for Royal Minnie/Mickey outside of the Castle in MK & Safari Donald/Daisy in AK. Both of those were waits of more than 10 minutes. The others were anywhere from 30 seconds to 3-4 minutes. I probably spent about an hour total in lines, so most went very quickly.
 
So if we were looking at staying at Shades of Green now with my inlaws, I'd assume we'd have the same benefits as those staying at the Poly? (other than the additional walk from SoG over to it?)
 
Went to 2014 Half from Music and it was fine. Either we were the first off after the Half or our bus didn't share, not sure.

Used AOA for this year's Half and it was good too. Food at AOA is terrific, really good. We tend to go to the foodcourt there sometimes even if staying elsewhere.


Thanks. I am leaning towards Pop at this point, if we end up there we will have to walk over to AOA. With other feedback of all of All-Stars on one bus, I think I will avoid those. Looking forward to a non-running trip when we can stay at one of the nicer resorts. Love the RunDisney Races but 500+ for Dopey it has to be a Value Resort this trip. Thanks for the feedback.
 
For those that stayed at Dolphin/Swan during marathon weekend what were your thoughts? Last two years were at POP, another year was with friends at SSR. Year before that was OKW.

I've never stayed there, but I can tell you it's got the easiest drive to the start on race morning. Two quick right turns out of the resort and you're on your way to Epcot. :)
 
I've stayed at contemporary or poly for marathon weekend for the past 4 years. Poly has the best location because you can walk to/from the resort to the TTC directly. From the GF and the Contemp you have to get on the Resort loop and change. I've typically left my room at about 3:30 and the trains aren't too crowded. I don't think there was anyone standing on any of the trains I was on. If you leave later in the morning I am sure that the monorail get's more crowded.

Some general pro's:
Getting there is easy. Poly was easiest followed by Contemporary ( on the return trip Contemp is the last stop on the resort loop though)
Getting there is consistent. ( you know it's going to take 15/30 minutes to get there)We've stayed at POR during Marathon weekend too and we've always had issues with the buses taking forever the day of the half. It took over an hour during one particularly stressful bus ride.
If you have specators it's nice for them to be able to watch you and then take the monorail to the finish. (poly is the best for this because you can easily see your guest at the TTC, in front of the poly and then at the finish. (you can do something similar from contemp but you have to hop on the resort monorail and if your'e runner is fast you don't have a ton of time to get from in front of the contemporary to in front of the Poly.

General Cons/ things to be aware of.
Not sure if the pool refurb has changed this but the Poly used to not have a hot tub
The last time we were there the monorail was only open early for the Half and Full you had to take a bus for the 5k. I can't remember about the 10k
The walkway up to the monorail at epcot is HARD, if you are sore.
The pool refurb did change this, they now have an infinity hot tub.
 
I stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge - transportation during marathon weekend is usually great. Although if you're doing dopey and in the earlier corrals for the 5 and 10k you can end up waiting for the buses while the later corrals are still finishing.

The best thing about Animal Kingdom Lodge is that even if you're too tired to walk around there's plenty of entertainment right at the resort
 
Can anyone confirm that the monorail runs for the 5k and 10k?

Yes, the monorail runs for the 5k and 10K (I was sitting in my car at the EPCOT parking lot watching all the runners arrive). Not that this is a regular occurrence, but for the 5k this year there was a 20-30 minute span where the trains were not arriving because one had broken down at the EPCOT station and had to be towed away. I think this may have led to a delayed/less organized movement to the corrals for the 5k. This was not my first runDisney race but it was my first 5 and 10k length and the 10k movement to the corrals seemed more like what I was accustomed to for the half and full length races.
 
Last edited:
We are staying at the Baylake Tower DVC resort by the Contemporary. Since we will have my 2.5 year old daughter with us, we will be spending a lot of non-race time at the Magic Kingdom. And Grandma & Grandpa will be wanting to hop on the monorail to Epcot for date nights. It was between that and the Epcot area resorts, but it has always been my dream to stay on a monorail resort by the MK and I've already checked the Yacht Club off my bucket list. Seemed like the right time to finally go for a monorail resort!

I honestly do not think we will go over to AK or HS at all since it is just the long weekend trip for us.
 
We are staying at CR this time.

When I ran the Marathon in 2014 we were at BC and that walk from the finish line back to the room was long. But, it was pretty awesome walking through EPCOT having my medal on and having CM's and guests congratulate me on having just finished.

The morning of the race my plan was to catch the bus at 3:30, but my stomach was about 5 minutes ahead of schedule and I ended up getting in line closer to 3:20. At that time there were maybe 10 people in line. Anyway, the bus pulled up right at 3:30. When I looked up at like 3:32 the line had gone from about 10 people to over 50. Obviously a lot of people had the same plan I did (catch the bus at 3:30), but being a few minutes early might reduce your time in line.
 
Hi there! I will hopefully be doing the Goofy (if I can register fast enough) and we are staying at BC. It will be a first on both accounts. My husband and I love Epcot so we figured the convenience would offset the cost. Plus, my hubby can easily watch me as I enter Epcot and I can cut through Epcot after the race to get back to the resort. Only 4 more days until registration!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top