Marathon Weekend 2021

[jmasgat]

SAFD: I, of course, love the E-ticket attractions, but will throw out a couple of dearly departed attractions for consideration. Osborne lights in its original installation on Residential Street. Truly a classic. Also, I have a favorite memory of visiting DHS Thanksgiving 1995. Toy Story had just come out, and I was there to see the Toy Story Parade. The music Strange Things still goes through my head. My kids were 6 and 4 at the time, so really enjoyed it.

Marathon memories....running through the costume area that was part of the old backlot tour. Also, running through DHS is the only time in my life that I have refused chocolate (seriously, it is my dietary Kryptonite). Somehow, mile 22ish is not really my time to want to eat Hershey miniatures.

 

[lhermiston]

Marathon memories....running through the costume area that was part of the old backlot tour. Also, running through DHS is the only time in my life that I have refused chocolate (seriously, it is my dietary Kryptonite). Somehow, mile 22ish is not really my time to want to eat Hershey miniatures.

I took chocolate in 2017 when it was like 40 degrees, but it sounded like an awful idea in 19 and 20. Heat, chocolate and my stomach don’t get along.

 

[lhermiston]

Anyway, DHS is home to three of my favorite WDW rides - Tower of Terror, Rise of the Resistance, and RnRC, two of which I always try to ride during the full, and the other is forever linked to Rogue Two with @lhermiston

I really hope Ms. FFigawi forgives you for missing brunch to make our board group.

 

[GBRforWDW]

SAFD - our only trip to WDW so far was only to DHS and MK with DHS being the first Disney park I stepped into, so right there is top thing I love about DHS. We went just after TSL opened and it was insane sidewalks full of people in there, but the individual character interactions were amazing. My profile pic is of me shaking Buzz Lightyears hand. I wasn’t going to meet him, just let my daughter do the M&G, but he dropped her pen when she handed him the autograph book and the pen rolled to me and when he realized I picked it up, came up to me and shook my hand. So that was pretty cool. We barely waited in line for him because he had stepped away and just got back as we were leaving the land. I heard a cast member say they were starting a line, so I quickly jumped in line about 5 back. When he stamped instead of signed the book, my daughter cried. She wanted his real autograph. lol

We waited til after dark to meet woody and Jess, but we had a ton of fun with them. Photo pass photographers got over 20 pictures of the interactions with my daughter. I wished I had recorded the whole thing though.

We all enjoyed the Frozen sing along as well as the Alien Swirling Saucer ride. We had dinner at Hollywood and Vine. I know people gave it terrible reviews as a buffet, but we were tired and hungry and had a good meal with more fun character interactions. We met Olaf after dinner.

That’s about all we did that day. Ithought I had a good plan going in, but as a noob, it’s so hard to know what to expect. We still had fun. Looking forward to my first Star Wars experience in 33 days.

 

[DIS-OH]

I have very fond memories of the Osborne Lights.

I love Toy Story Land and the Star Wars area...terrific theming.

Best memory is when I took an early morning run from Yacht Club to DHS. As I passed the crowd waiting to enter, Donald Duck came out and ran a bit with me!

 

[Neon Cactus]

I have so many great memories of DHS. My first adult trip to WDW was a few months after the Studios and Pleasure Island had opened, and I've always loved the atmosphere of the park. There's a lot of things I miss - Great Movie Ride, the behind the scenes tram and walking tours, the Hunchback of Notre Dame show, Monster Sound Show with Chevy Chase and Martin Short and the Animation Studio with the Robin Williams film, and of course the Osborne Lights.

Some of my best memories there are both of my daughters riding the Tower of Terror when they were four and it's still one of our favorite rides to go on together. And running backstage through the disco tunnel onto the Streets of America during the 2016 marathon. That was my first running event and I knew that if I made it to the Studios, I would finish the race, so making the turn and seeing the Tower of Terror right in front of me is still one of my best RunDisney memories.

Not a big fan of their quick service options, but 50s, Mama Melrose's and Brown Derby are some of my favorite WDW restaurants and love the atmosphere at Sci Fi.

 

[BigEeyore]

SAFD: As a big Star Wars nerd, I absolutely love GE and the opportunity to feel fully immersed in all things SW at HS (and of course RotR and MFSR are amazing!) The original Star Wars fireworks show that they had there was one of the best I have ever seen. Also - the details in TSL are fantastic, and TSM is always fun!
The new Runaway Railway ride is truly incredible and very well done.
Like others have said - the old marathon course that used to offer more time in DHS with some cool backstage stuff is greatly missed. Now it is a blink-and-you-miss-it park on the marathon, just so they can still say you get to run through all 4 parks.
Also, like most of you, I have a lot of nostalgia for things like the Osbourne lights and the backstage tram tour. I wish they could have figured out a way to have the new stuff, but still have kept some of the original intent of the park.

 

[Baloo in MI]

SAFD:
Of course I like Galaxy’s Edge, and ROTR is an absolute blast. But my favorite memories at Hollywood Studios remain some of the older things that are gone like Osborne Lights and the Great Movie Ride; and some things not as popular but remain my favorites The Muppet Show and the Walt Disney Story. And for some reason my family has to eat at the ABC Commissary when we go to HS. Nothing super special about but just a must do for lunch.

Honorable mention to Toy Story’s Midway Mania and Rock-n-roller Coaster! HS is a fun park!

 

[shellott-hill]

SAFD: We have reached my favourite park! I love MGM...I mean Hollywood Studios.

I have a plethora of found memories in this park. The majority of them have to do with shared experiences with others. Don't get me wrong, My favourite attractions are in this park.

I have found memories of Star Wars weekends (meeting up with a work friend who is truly obsessed with Star Wars and geeking out all weekend), Marathon weekends ( I had 7 park days for MW2020 and 4 of them started in HS in the morning, and a 5th day had the evening in the park), Christmas holidays with friends and family, My brothers 50th B-Day celebration.

The Brown Derby is my absolute favourite. The cast members are always very accommodating with my diet and come up with some scrumptious dishes. I still have one of the chefs business cards in my wallet (love the Mickey Mouse on the card!)

Attractions: I travel to other worlds with the immersive-ness of Black Spire Outpost, travel to another dimension with the Hollywood Tower Hotel, Travel in a super-stretch limo to the Aerosmith concert, travel to my childhood for the Muppet show and Travel to Cairo to watch Indy struggle to free Marion from the plane.

 

[SarahDisney]

SAFD:

To name a few of my favorite things:

- Toy Story Land
- Unique character meet & greets
- Fantasmic!
- Frozen Sing Along (sorry I love it I know that's weird)

DHS is my second favorite park. I love almost everything there (although I've never been to Galaxy's Edge and I refuse to go on Tower of Terror and I hate the BatB show) and I have to spent at least a day there every trip. Sometimes a day and a half.

 

[princesspirateandrunner]

SAFD: I loved the disco tunnel and Osbourne lights during W&D, when it was a night race, and amazing in the dark. Seeing the costume sewing area was really cool, too.
DH requests that I mention getting caramel m&ms at the 2019 marathon. I couldn’t possibly eat something like that at that point in a run (though any other time, I love chocolate), but DH found it to be the absolute perfect thing at that point.
I have wonderful memories of taking our boys to eat at Sci-Fi when they were little, and Toy Story holds a special place in my heart. I also have a fantastic memory of riding ToT with our youngest, when he wanted to prove he was Brave enough to ride it.
ABC Commissary is terrific, too.

 

[Wendy1985]

Does the virtual marathon count if you do it in the marthon

 

[michigandergirl]

SAFD: My whole family loves DHS for the rides. My kids haven't experienced Galaxy's Edge yet, but I know once they do, DHS will be the park they'll want to spend most of their time, for sure.

My daughter, who is now 13, has yet to ride TOT and it kills me because it's my favorite! She can't get past the name. We've lost count how many times she's chickened out. She's ridden every ride at Disney except TOT. I just know she will love it once she rides it. She's been begging to go WDW recently and the other day she said to me, "Mom, if you take me back to Disney, I will totally ride TOT." Right...

 

[lhermiston]

Not a big fan of their quick service options, but 50s, Mama Melrose's and Brown Derby are some of my favorite WDW restaurants and love the atmosphere at Sci Fi.

How could I forget Mama Melrose’s? So good.

I agree the quick service options don’t stand out, but I loved the totchos at Woody’s Lunch Box.

 

[FFigawi]

I really hope Ms. FFigawi forgives you for missing brunch to make our board group.

I'm sure she will one day

 

[PrincessV]

SAFD: As much as I love GE, I think I miss more that's gone from MGM than I like what's new. I miss SoA and Osborne Lights terribly: the O Lights were our annual holiday tradition from the first year through the last, and every year of my son's life until they ended. I miss the Backlot Tour. I miss Sounds Dangerous, and the Stars & Motor Cars parade, and Star Wars Weekends. I miss the Magic of Animation and actual animators working. And I miss GMR.

I am happy to have GE, and I enjoy a good meal at BD. And I still adore TOT. But that's really all that brings me to the park anymore.

 

[MissLiss279]

So... I received an email from runDisney wanting addresses to be confirmed by December 15th. Is there a tiny bit of hope we might get medals before the weekend is supposed to start??

Anyone know when W&D addresses needed to be confirmed in relation to when they started to be received? (I think I saw that some had received their medals.)

 

[Barca33Runner]

SAFD: A little late on this one.

DHS is responsible for one of my favorite park days and one of my least favorite.

Favorite: In September 2019 I went to DHS after arriving in on an early flight before the rest of my family arrived on our trip. My primary purpose was to scout Galaxy’s Edge and possibly come up with strategies for later in our trip. It was just a couple weeks after WDW GE opened and we thought it would be a madhouse. Whether it was the hurricane scare, GE fatigue from DL being open and RoTR not being open yet, time of year, or whatever other reason I’m missing, the park was far less busy than I could have imagined. Between 9:30 and 12:30 (before I left to go to Epcot for lunch at Food and Wine) I was able to ride Smugglers Run, explore all of GE, ride TSM, ride Slinky (FP+), ride ToT, and ride RnRC. It was pretty amazing.

Least: Wednesday of Marathon Weekend 2020. My sister and I woke at the crack of dawn and headed over to get a RoTR boarding group. Because the boarding groups are an impossibly terrible idea the whole park was packed to the gills at 6:30. We got a boarding group, but were unable to get into a line for another attraction before leaving for our intended park day at AK (the boarding groups eliminated the advantage of rope dropping by requiring everyone to rope drop).

We got our boarding group notification at around 1 (we’d had a good day at AK and this was built into the plan) so we headed back. Well, the ride was breaking down all the time that day, so by the time we arrived 1:30-ish we found out it had been down for over an hour. We waited over another hour for it to reopen and finally got on 5 minutes before we had a hard out to make our dinner reservation (we had planned to hit the expo before dinner but had to go after). We were in DHS for over 3 hours that day for one attraction.

Overall: DHS has parts I really like, but it is #4 on my list for cohesive park experience. I love the individual attractions but there is no good overall flow to the park.

Hotter than hot take: RoTR is fine as a ride. Nothing special

Illuminati (patterns within patterns) take: RoTR is a lemon. The reason the boarding groups exist is because it’s so broke as a ride mechanism that they have to build in for the reality that it’s not working almost as much as it is. They can’t have people in a line because they can’t even come close to guaranteeing people will get through. I think they’d have just opened it and let there be an 8-hour line if it was reliable enough to know the line would move.

 

[rteetz]

So... I received an email from runDisney wanting addresses to be confirmed by December 15th. Is there a tiny bit of hope we might get medals before the weekend is supposed to start??

Anyone know when W&D addresses needed to be confirmed in relation to when they started to be received? (I think I saw that some had received their medals.)

I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

 

[rteetz]

Does the virtual marathon count if you do it in the marthon

What exactly are you asking?