Planning your trip - Disney CA

Justkeepswimmin

So my husband had a conference in April at Disneyworld in FL. We stayed on Disney property and it was nice not to have to worry about parking and such, especially with us doing different activities (my daugther and I vs. him at the work portions of the event.)

If anyone has already done a marathon, do you think staying at one of the (limited) 3 Disney properties is worth the cost in CA? (Yes I know you get the magic hours and you are somewhat closer to the resorts). If you haven't run the marathon what are your plans? We can stay at the Embassy which is around a mile from Disney for free (on points), but I'm not sure what I really want to do at this point (Tinkerbell/January)

Since we did a lot of Disney stuff in April I don't feel like I need to do more than a 1 day park hopper, but the day of the marathon or the day after? This is my first so I don't know how I'll 'feel' at 8 AM after having run 13 miles LOL

AEFidgets

My Mom and I stayed at the Paradise Pier when we did the Tink last year and it was awesome. The race started right in front and ended just around the corner from it. Made things wonderfully easy. If I was doing the Tink this year I'd stay there again!!

bahacca

I, personally could hardly walk after the 1/2, so I have no idea how people went to DL and CA after the race. If you stay at the Embassy, will they have transport to the race? If they don't, keep in mind parking will be $15 for the race. You'd also have to go get your race packet at some point, but you can probably pick it up by parking at the Downtown Dis parking lot where a few hours are free.

AEFidgets

LOL we did the Adventure park after the race and the day before. But we didn't run the race we walked/jogged it so maybe it was because we didn't push our limits.

Justkeepswimmin

Post tink tips for anyone doing this next year (hopefully that includes meeeeee)

A) Staying at the embassy for free on points was vastly preferrable to over $300/night at the disney properties. We stayed 3 nights (the night before the race and two nights after) Basically arrived Saturday, raced Sunday, went to park Monday, left Tuesday.

If we hadn't had the free points I *may* have stayed on a Disney property and spent the extra appx $100/night but more than likely would have booked a less expensive hotel.

C) They did have easily accesible transportation for the marathon and a free '3' day bus pass. Apparantly most of the good neighbor hotels do.

D) Unless you're a seasoned runner (if so you're probably not reading this) I would NOT go to the park the same day of the marathon...I actually heard 2 women say they were slowing their pace up in order to save energy for the park later that day. It was so much more relaxing to celebrate, go shower, ice my legs, get a massage, wash up and have a peaceful dinner THEN go to the park the next day.

E) We got to everything we wanted to at both parks because DIsney was awesome! Their customer service was unmatched. When I accidentally got the Tinkerbell photo hours wrong they gave us 3 passes for our group for the next day to make sure I got my tinkerbell pictures before we drove out of town! Also, get your Cars fastpass first thing in the AM or you may not get on (if that's something you want to do). The Aladin show was great and one of the other highlights of my day.

F) It was freezing. I ended up wearing both my and my husband throw away sweatshirt AND my toes were stiff and numb and didn't flext for the first 3 miles. I know they say don't warm up cold muscles, but next time I'm going to seriously be warming up so I'm not in pain for the race. So be prepared CA is not that warm!

G) A great first 1/2 marathon for me...I cried when I finished. Not an overly impressive time (2:27) but I finished my first half *running* and that's what I wanted to do I followed the advice of the Jeff Galloway (the former olympic runner who writes the training programs for Disney) and really focused hard on not pushing myself too much at the start finishing the first 5K in 35 minutes (I know I can do it in about 29) and that strategy very much paid off at the end. (Probably useful info for planning any first 1/2)

H) Side note: My husband (a type 1 fragile diabetic) finished the race also He had strict instructions to text me his sugar every 30 minutes, and if anyone else struggles with this please pm me and I can let you know some of the strategies we tried training, what worked and what we may do differently next time!

caminiam

Thank you for the great tips on the Tinkerbell 1/2. I am really hoping to run the 2014 race. I will definitely keep this tips in mind as I prepare for the race. Congratulations.

fjrandol

I ran the Tinker Bell, and while we stayed relatively close to the parks (Red Lion), our whole group lamented not staying at the resort. I was in corral E (didn't have a time to work with when we signed up), and we were in the road literally right outside the entrance to Paradise Pier.

It would have been absolutely awesome to get a little extra sleep (it does start early after all), and have a private bathroom/warmup area right near the line-up! Our corral didn't even know the race has started until about 25 minutes into it, so unless you're pretty quick there's going to be a long time of just standing around. That really was the only cold part for us. Once the running started everything was golden. Just make sure to bring a throwaway sweater or some such thing for the first little bit. My sister and I both ran in running capris and tank tops; guess it just depends on what you're used to. :-)

We did California Adventure the day before, and Disneyland Park the day of the race. Just made sure to take it easy both days, and not run from ride to ride. Since there are tons of shows (and lines) it's not too hard to pace the park time. I got all nostalgic and dragged everyone with me to Captain EO, which was a hoot.

I would definitely recommend if you're bringing your own "Chear Squad" to go with the upgrade for them. My family all went for the Platinum pass and everyone said it was totally worth it. Awesome lounge areas, great Mickey stadium blankets, all that good stuff. Also, make sure if you do bring people that they stand out somehow so you can find them while you're running. Our group made big poster paper arrows to point themselves out. Haha it helped for sure! :-)