Where To Stay For Races

[Luv4WDW]

I am planning on running in the Wine and Dine Half Marathon this year (SO excited!!). I have never done a Disney race before. We will be taking DME, so we won't have a rental car. I know there are certain hotels recommended for races that are priced for participants. Are these the only hotels with transportation to and from both the race expo and the race itself? How does it work if you stay at a different hotel on property? Thanks!

[disneygoofball]

All the Disney hotels on property have transportation to the events. We stayed at Pop Century for Marathon weekend and loved it. The reasons we liked it so much were:
1. They have Powerade as fountain beverage - so free refills with the resort mug. (surprisingly, of all the other food courts we visited - CS, AoA, Poly, POR, POFQ, & WL - only one had Powerade.)
2. Most of the time we had our own bus line (sometimes it was shared with AoA).
3. The resort was located near ESPN (for the expo) and relatively close to Epcot where the races all started and finished.

If we had the money, I would have loved to stay at Boardwalk or Yacht & Beach club. They had prime locations within walking distance of Epcot and the course. I don't know what the Wine & Dine course is, but I would think it's also centered around Epcot. And staying on property is the way to go. We had to get up early to get to the bus and into start corrals on time, but trying to drive in from off property looked like it would have been a nightmare.

Hopefully someone who stayed at a hotel off property will come by and help you out. I have no idea what the transportation options are from non-Disney hotels.

[clausjo]

I've stayed off property both times I've done the Wine and Dine so I can't help too much with the hotel advice, except to say that not all of them have race transportation. The Wine and Dine is a much smaller event than marathon weekend. I would recommend using the link on the runDisney site to look for the host hotels. This way you're not stressing about transportation.

Good luck - this race is so much fun!

[Disoriented]

Only during marathon week do all of the Disney hotels participate as host hotels.

For smaller events such as the Wine & Dine half, only select hotels are host hotels. If you are not staying at one of these hotels you would either have to find your own way to a host hotel or to the event itself.

Since the Wine & Dine is at night getting to the event may not be a big issue but depending on how fast you run or how late you party, getting back maybe a problem.

On second thought leaving might not be that difficult since you should be able to exit Epcot via International gateway and catch a cab at the Beach Club.

[disneygoofball]

Good call, Disoriented! I was wrong in my previous post. According to the official run Disney site, only specific host hotels will provide transportation. Currently the site lists the hotels for the 2013 Wine and Dine, so there may be changes once registration officially opens. You'll want to be sure to double check it, but for 2013, the host hotels were:

All Star Movies
All Star Music
All Star Sports
Beach Club
Boardwalk
Caribbean Beach
Polynesian
Pop Century
Port Orleans Riverside,
Port Orleans French Quarter
Saratoga Springs
Wilderness Lodge
Disney's Yacht Club Resort