Marathon Weekend 2021

[drummerwife]

Not sure if I’ll take the refund or go virtual, but I did move our reservation to Christmas week. This will be our first true family vacation in years (no work or races) and I’m super excited to be spending Christmas at Disney!

 

[huskies90]

I don’t know maybe I just want to be disappointed and take in this news and not worry about future runDisney races. I think it’s a bit ridiculous to sit here and speculate that we have run our last runDisney races. We are in the middle of a pandemic still. Nobody is putting on major races right now and runDisney races are huge world class events. Maybe keep the negative thoughts to yourself once in a while.

Spoiler alert...I am just as disappointed as you as I was registered for both Wine and Dine and Dopey.

It is easy to blame the pandemic. But it always boils down to money. They are operating 4 theme parks with thousands of people everyday during a pandemic, for Pete’s sake. We know runDisney is not a big money maker. Do I think live races will be gone? No. I don’t. And I certainly do not want that. But it wouldn’t be the first time that Disney changed something that was beloved by loyal fans/customers. And I am sure you can see that them using the current state of affairs as an opportunity to move races and Club runDisney to a more profitable virtual model is a least a remote possibility.

 

[huskies90]

I sure hope that you are wrong, but you do raise a legitimate point.

As I understand the situation, runDisney began in a large part to increase traffic to the parks (and all of the other ancillary revenue) during traditionally slow periods. I do not know how profitable the races are in direct terms, but I do know that there are really no longer many, if any, slow periods. If Disney can make a nice profit selling virtual races, and does need need the extra attendance, then it is conceivable that they could decide to transition to virtual only. The current pandemic has given many companies cover to make changes that would have been much more difficult pre-covid.

Having said all that, I still hope your sneaky feeling is misplaced.

I posted before reading your post. Obviously I 100% agree. lol

 

[huskies90]

Not sure if I’ll take the refund or go virtual, but I did move our reservation to Christmas week. This will be our first true family vacation in years (no work or races) and I’m super excited to be spending Christmas at Disney!

We kept our Wine and Dine trip but we are going to cancel January because that is always a tough time to be away from work for me. But going for Christmas is an intriguing idea

 

[YawningDodo]

So I'm disappointed but not surprised, and I'm glad to know now rather than a month or two from now. This was going to be both my first marathon and my first runDisney event. I think I would have been happy running a modified race (I was assuming characters would be off the side of the course instead of doing meet and greets, that sort of thing), but in a way maybe it's not the worst thing to have to wait until things are (hopefully) closer to normal again.

Since I've got that nonrefundable DVC rental and annual pass and all, I'm still planning to take the trip. However, it may be a solo trip when previously I'd planned to take a friend on her first WDW trip (again, not the ideal time for that, but we've been looking forward to it anyway). She's likely to get a lot of pushback from her employer about travel and if it's not in service of a Big Life Event like my first marathon she has to evaluate how much she wants to deal with that. There's always the possibility a new statewide quarantine will come up or I'll deem it unsafe on my own judgment and I'll have to toss the plans altogether, but for now I'm still planning to use my reservations one way or another.

 

[rteetz]

Spoiler alert...I am just as disappointed as you as I was registered for both Wine and Dine and Dopey.

It is easy to blame the pandemic. But it always boils down to money. They are operating 4 theme parks with thousands of people everyday during a pandemic, for Pete’s sake. We know runDisney is not a big money maker. Do I think live races will be gone? No. I don’t. And I certainly do not want that. But it wouldn’t be the first time that Disney changed something that was beloved by loyal fans/customers. And I am sure you can see that them using the current state of affairs as an opportunity to move races and Club runDisney to a more profitable virtual model is a least a remote possibility.

Are those 4 theme parks operating at full capacity and making them the same amount of money they were prior to the pandemic? No absolutely not. Club runDisney was billed as an add on for in person races. That service makes no sense without them.

I don’t know maybe I just don’t want to be cynical or negative. I’m trying my hardest to find positives in many things these days. Without that my mental state would probably be terrible.

 

[lovingeire]

Of course I am disappointed. This was to be my bucket list race. First marathon and first Dopey. There is no way I'm running my first marathon, let alone Dopey, virtual so it will be a refund for our family. (DH & I both registered for Dopey and 3 kids for 5K..). We are still planning to do our trip, just going to change up our dates a bit. The oldest son turns 21 a few days after what was supposed to be Dopey weekend so we will still go DATW for his birthday. (or snack for the little ones). I'm just here trying to make lemonade out of lemons. Here's to 2022...(and hopefully W&D next year!)

 

[camaker]

Spoiler alert...I am just as disappointed as you as I was registered for both Wine and Dine and Dopey.

It is easy to blame the pandemic. But it always boils down to money. They are operating 4 theme parks with thousands of people everyday during a pandemic, for Pete’s sake. We know runDisney is not a big money maker. Do I think live races will be gone? No. I don’t. And I certainly do not want that. But it wouldn’t be the first time that Disney changed something that was beloved by loyal fans/customers. And I am sure you can see that them using the current state of affairs as an opportunity to move races and Club runDisney to a more profitable virtual model is a least a remote possibility.

Perhaps making the assertion that in person RunDisney races may be dead in the immediate hours following the blow of the latest cancellation was ill-timed, at best. Throwing “and there may never be another one” on top of everyone’s disappointment could not have been more poorly timed.

 

[smctopia]

When will the virtual marathon races go on sale? If it was in this topic, I totally missed it.

 

[Dug720]

Definitely taking the refund (NOT thrilled about the Half medal...). But I'm going to Disney that weekend still. I'm sick of being stuck in draconian NYC.

 

[Krandor]

When will the virtual marathon races go on sale? If it was in this topic, I totally missed it.

"For those who would still like to register for the 2021 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend and 2021 Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend virtual events, we will open additional registration opportunities on a limited basis on Thursday, September 24 at 10 a.m. Eastern time. These race events may be completed from home, a local running track or favorite running trail."

 

[hotblooded]

Considering how well the virtuals have been selling, does anyone get the sneaky feeling we may have already run our last in person races at WDW? #newnormal

Yes. That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. It happened in Disneyland, and it can happen in WDW too.

 

[MissLiss279]

Also, that first link @rteetz posted has the medals and shirts shown in it:

https://www.rundisney.com/blog/virt...X0alwgZf4l_Lbhr7jdbNW5YGKTpnkLCrR2icVMVZ2H7Vk

 

[Dug720]

Yes. That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. It happened in Disneyland, and it can happen in WDW too.

Disneyland happened because of issues with the City of Anaheim. There isn't enough land to have California races only on Disney property.

 

[Krandor]

Yes. That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. It happened in Disneyland, and it can happen in WDW too.

WDW is different then disneyland. I still have hopes of disneyland returning.

Unless we hear something like Trackshack filed for bankrupcy I wouldn't worry at this point. They are moving these to (very expensive) virtuals to try to keep money coming in. If enough people do the virtuals they can keep cash flow through this until they can do in-person again.

It's too easy to speculate on in-person being done forever. As of now, Star Wars is still happening. If rundisney was done forever for in-person they would have changed Star Wars too. They didn't.

 

[camaker]

"For those who would still like to register for the 2021 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend and 2021 Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend virtual events, we will open additional registration opportunities on a limited basis on Thursday, September 24 at 10 a.m. Eastern time. These race events may be completed from home, a local running track or favorite running trail."

So now my follow up question is can we register for the virtual option while we still have our current registration active pending cancellation and refund? I prefer to get my refund back in cash rather than a large partial Disney gift card, so I don’t want to just convert my registration over.

 

[MightyDuck001]

This will be my first time not doing marathon weekend in 8 years and I just want to send a virtual hug to everyone. At this point, it feels silly and shallow to be upset about missing out on (another) race and a Dopey Challenge I've already done 7 times.

But honestly, the cumulative effect of all the disappointments since March has really just messed with me and if you're feeling particularly burnt out by disappointment and bad news and cancelled plans that you don't even know when you can put them off till, I get it, I see you, and it's ok to be upset and disappointed. Sit with the feelings for awhile and don't feel like you gotta push to find a silver lining and a positive right now.

 

[Barca33Runner]

This merely reminded me that rD trying to make Oswald happen harder than Gretchen tried with “fetch”

 

[Krandor]

This will be my first time not doing marathon weekend in 8 years and I just want to send a virtual hug to everyone. At this point, it feels silly and shallow to be upset about missing out on (another) race and a Dopey Challenge I've already done 7 times.

But honestly, the cumulative effect of all the disappointments since March has really just messed with me and if you're feeling particularly burnt out by disappointment and bad news and cancelled plans that you don't even know when you can put them off till, I get it, I see you, and it's ok to be upset and disappointed. Sit with the feelings for awhile and don't feel like you gotta push to find a silver lining and a positive right now.

I figured this was coming (and have stated this on here the past few weeks) but it still hurts as have all the other races I wanted to do this year but didn't do. No Star Wars, no peachtree, no triple peach, no thanksgiving half (which is going to feel so weird to not run a race thanksgivign morning), and now no marathon weekend. The whole thing sucks but I also understand and agree with why it is happening.

I want normal so much... so much... but we can't get there yet for a variety of reasons.

One reason I still plan to go in January even if all the current modifications are still in place is that my last real vacation/trip was last marathon weekend and I need one now and will definitely need one by January.

 

[Rozzie]

How do we go about getting a refund?

Our payment information has changed so I will need to contact them by Oct 7. Do they mean just the generic RunDisney contact email to contact them?