Who has stayed at Bonnet Creek during the marathon, as a runner and/or park visitor?

[maryscooking]

I am looking for some feedback regarding staying at Bonnet Creek for the Jan 2015 Marathon long weekend. I've tried searching the forums but haven't found much info. I posted this in the off site hotels forum but haven't gotten any replies as of yet, so I thought I might have better luck here.

It seems like most marathoners stay on-site. But we'd prefer to be at WBC for many reasons if it is feasible. So please share if you have experience with this! Here are my questions:

- What is traffic like driving to the different races from WBC as a runner? I'm "only" doing the marathon, but my husband is planning to do the Dopey (ie, all the races) and if he is going to have to sit in 45 minutes - 1 hour of traffic every morning Thursday - Sunday, that could be a deal breaker for us.

- On the non-marathon days (ie, Thursday - Saturday), how bad is traffic when trying to get to the park from WBC before rope drop? I know the races will have finished at that point, and I'm hoping that means traffic will be better when we actually want to visit the parks.

- On Sunday, how hard is it for spectators to get to the park from WBC (ie, around rope drop time) to cheer for runners?

Thanks for any information!

 

[maryscooking]

Just realized maybe I should've posted it under the "Events" category!

 

[deekaypee]

We've stayed at WBC for the past 3 or 4 marathon weekends as runners, and have done both the half and full. It's our preferred place to stay during race trips. Generally, we have not found traffic to be bad on race mornings if you leave within the window Disney recommends for its bus transportation.

For this year's half (and I think for last year's Goofy), we left around 3:30 a.m.. It took us about 15 minutes to get from parking lot to parking lot. Two years ago, I believe, we left closer to 4 - 4:15 a.m. and it doubled our time.

I can't really help you with the park or spectator information questions; when we're not running a race we're usually volunteering or scream teaming at a time that gets us out about as early as the runners. Or we're sleeping in.

That said, when we've scream teamed outside DHS, we've arrived there at around 8:30 a.m. and it took us about 10 minutes to get there. I've not cheered at Epcot, which is the park I assume you want to cheer at?

Oh, and I should note - all this assumes driving your own car. I have no idea about WBC bus transportation.