Disneyland Half Marathon 2024

[fatmanatee]

Halloween race weekend thread is here, FYI.

 

[xjillianpaige]

Resurrecting this because i saw @DopeyBadger in the Disneyland recap race video on the runDisney insta! Coming through the castle.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Nice catch @xjillianpaige!

 

[J_GN]

What were the crowds like in the parks during half marathon weekend? I really want to do the 10k in 2025 (February 1st???), but it will only be worth it if my family and I can also enjoy the parks that weekend. My wife and kids have no interest in running, so it would just be me doing the race. A 10k is short enough that I should have enough energy to still enjoy the parks after the race. But if the parks are going to be crazy crowded, it might not be worth the trip.

 

[Archigeek]

What were the crowds like in the parks during half marathon weekend? I really want to do the 10k in 2025 (February 1st???), but it will only be worth it if my family and I can also enjoy the parks that weekend. My wife and kids have no interest in running, so it would just be me doing the race. A 10k is short enough that I should have enough energy to still enjoy the parks after the race. But if the parks are going to be crazy crowded, it might not be worth the trip.

Hard to gauge, but that being said, a few items-
1. Last year was also MLK day, and schools were off. Magic key holders in one of lines were talking about how they had never seen crowds like this and didn’t realize the races were back. There were so many people there just for the day

2. Even with a school holiday, my friend and I (with the purchased Genie+) were able to do everything we wanted in both parks and were done by dinner time so she could catch her flight. It was my first time in Disneyland and she hadn’t been in years. We did this the Monday after. If you are used to Disney World and know how to work the system, it’s doable!

We also did the parks after the 10k and had no issues. We left early since I was running again the next day, but again between those two days (one with Genie) we got through everything!

 

[DisneyParrothead]

Hard to gauge, but that being said, a few items-
1. Last year was also MLK day, and schools were off. Magic key holders in one of lines were talking about how they had never seen crowds like this and didn’t realize the races were back. There were so many people there just for the day

2. Even with a school holiday, my friend and I (with the purchased Genie+) were able to do everything we wanted in both parks and were done by dinner time so she could catch her flight. It was my first time in Disneyland and she hadn’t been in years. We did this the Monday after. If you are used to Disney World and know how to work the system, it’s doable!

We also did the parks after the 10k and had no issues. We left early since I was running again the next day, but again between those two days (one with Genie) we got through everything!

One of the things I noticed is rope drop wasn't crowded, and it didn't get crowded until 10:30 maybe? Even then not every ride is on Genie+ and those lines flowed. Peter Pan was a 30-minute wait when I hopped in line and it was a true 30 minutes.

 

[J_GN]

If you are used to Disney World and know how to work the system, it’s doable!

We also did the parks after the 10k and had no issues. We left early since I was running again the next day, but again between those two days (one with Genie) we got through everything!

Thanks. We live in Northern California and have been to Disneyland 3 times since 2019, so we know these parks pretty well. But we've never been during a race weekend. We always rope drop, so it sounds like it might work out. I just thought racers might flock to the parks at rope drop too -at least on 5k and maybe 10k days.

 

[fatmanatee]

Yeah I’d have to imagine that holding it on a non MLK weekend will peel off some of the crowds. That said, I don’t feel too overwhelmed that weekend and that was with what felt like an unusual amount of ride downtime.

 

[TarynM]

What were the crowds like in the parks during half marathon weekend? I really want to do the 10k in 2025 (February 1st???), but it will only be worth it if my family and I can also enjoy the parks that weekend. My wife and kids have no interest in running, so it would just be me doing the race. A 10k is short enough that I should have enough energy to still enjoy the parks after the race. But if the parks are going to be crazy crowded, it might not be worth the trip.

I didn't feel like the crowds were too bad considering it was a holiday weekend and a race weekend. We're out of state passholders who go every couple of months and we usually overlap with a holiday here or there, so I know crowds can be bad. I didn't feel like there was anything that we couldn't do and wait times seemed to match my expectations.