News and Developments for Future In-Person runDisney Events

[PrincessV]

What I think is happening is that Disney’s attendance numbers (at least pre-COVID) are high enough that they’re trying to figure out how to replace your 4-5 visits as an individual with 4-5 collective visits by other guests who spend more per trip.

^Nailed it.

I'm one of those APs Chapek probably wants to get rid of. I live near enough to WDW to do some day trips; the onsite resort parking fees have mostly driven me either offsite or to renting DVC points; I rarely buy merch and when I do, it's under $30; and though I do eat "on campus," I'm only buying meals for 1 or 2 people who aren't big eaters. I'm easily spending less than $50 a day most days, but let's go with $50... I'm visiting maybe 15 days a year... so under $1000 a year, minus the cost of the AP. Add in another $500 for a handful of resort nights at AP rates. So $1500 a year, give or take? Sure, times 30 years of visits, it adds up, but Non-Eisner Disney doesn't care about that: I'm not adding any beef to Chapek's yields on a fiscal year basis.

On the flipside, I'm also one of those Floridians who propped WDW up when things were rough, thanks to discounts and loyalty. There aren't that many of us down here, and we have lots of friends who live in other places who ask us if they should go to WDW... I'd think leaving too many Floridians disgruntled would be a mistake. It's a fine line to walk.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

^Nailed it.

I'm one of those APs Chapek probably wants to get rid of. I live near enough to WDW to do some day trips; the onsite resort parking fees have mostly driven me either offsite or to renting DVC points; I rarely buy merch and when I do, it's under $30; and though I do eat "on campus," I'm only buying meals for 1 or 2 people who aren't big eaters. I'm easily spending less than $50 a day most days, but let's go with $50... I'm visiting maybe 15 days a year... so under $1000 a year, minus the cost of the AP. Add in another $500 for a handful of resort nights at AP rates. So $1500 a year, give or take? Sure, times 30 years of visits, it adds up, but Non-Eisner Disney doesn't care about that: I'm not adding any beef to Chapek's yields on a fiscal year basis.

On the flipside, I'm also one of those Floridians who propped WDW up when things were rough, thanks to discounts and loyalty. There aren't that many of us down here, and we have lots of friends who live in other places who ask us if they should go to WDW... I'd think leaving too many Floridians disgruntled would be a mistake. It's a fine line to walk.

They have entire communities dependent on the FL resident annual passes to the various parks. IMO, if WDW ends the FL resident AP, people will stop retiring to Orlando, and that will kill the economy. If retirees stop coming and/or start leaving the area for the coast, Orlando is in trouble. Why live inland if the advantages are gone?

 

[Z-Knight]

This has been me the past few days...



...and will be me trying to get a Dopey registration. eeeek.

 

[dobball23]

This has been me the past few days...

View attachment 577958

...and will be me trying to get a Dopey registration. eeeek.

Me, too! My training has been gearing up for Dopey, and I am already booked for the cruise on the Dream the following week to finish the Castaway Cay Challenge. I hope registering, running and cruising all goes smoothly!

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

I think we’re looking at this from the wrong perspective. There’s no doubt that over the course of multiple trips per year, you’re spending more than one single trip visitor. What I think is happening is that Disney’s attendance numbers (at least pre-COVID) are high enough that they’re trying to figure out how to replace your 4-5 visits as an individual with 4-5 collective visits by other guests who spend more per trip.

As a business with a finite capacity, once you reach a certain portion of that capacity, the best option for increasing revenue is to figure out how to increase per-visitor spending. In a sense, your 4-5 lower spend visits are actually hurting Disney if they have the customer base to replace them.

I think this is spot on. Look at other entertainment/attraction based venues. Newer stadiums often have less seating capacity, but far more luxury boxes. Movie theaters the same- gone are them trying to cram as many people in to a theater, and bigger seats/recliners take up the space as 3-4 normal seats. In a sense, what more could be done to improve capacity? They’d have to build out an entire new gate or expand out existing ones, which is prohibitively costly. The newer rides aren’t exactly people eaters. I think you’re seeing movements across the board in entertainment and hospitality where the higher cost per person is valued over raw attendance totals. I also think attendance, from a per person perspective, has reached a saturation point. IIRC attendance in 2019 was down, while they still made more money than the year prior because of increased spending per customer (likely due to flex pricing and experiences purchased).

 

[PrincessV]

With my usual caveat of this may have absolutely no bearing on rD at all... it appears Universal Orlando is dropping its mask requirement entirely, starting tomorrow. (Confirmed by TMs who have been told, but it hasn't officially been released publicly yet.) No mask required, indoors or out. Except for TMs, who are still required to wear them on stage, but can go maskless backstage if vaccinated.

If things proceed as they have so far, I wouldn't be surprised to see WDW follow Uni's lead shortly. I'm feeling for the folks who've been designing, printing, and posting all the new mask signage this past week.

ETA for clarification: it was implied, but to make it crystal clear, my point here is that with each removal of COVID precautions, the various FL theme parks move closer to a "normal" state of operations... and, in theory, a state of "normal" should mean a return of races if those precautions were a hindrance to race operations. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

 

[1lilspark]

With my usual caveat of this may have absolutely no bearing on rD at all... it appears Universal Orlando is dropping its mask requirement entirely, starting tomorrow. (Confirmed by TMs who have been told, but it hasn't officially been released publicly yet.) No mask required, indoors or out. Except for TMs, who are still required to wear them on stage, but can go maskless backstage if vaccinated.

If things proceed as they have so far, I wouldn't be surprised to see WDW follow Uni's lead shortly. I'm feeling for the folks who've been designing, printing, and posting all the new mask signage this past week.

Disney I’m sure will drop masks tomorrow or within the week....
My fully vaccinated self will still be wearing mine indoors and in congested outdoor spaces
Hope they drop the plexi glass next
Back to topic makes me more cautiously optimistic for an update on June 2nd for global running day

 

[Kerry1957]

Back to topic makes me more cautiously optimistic for an update on June 2nd for global running day

Perfect....let's all stick to topic and keep this thread open!

 

[jkc5011]

According to the RunDisney site early access varies based on the membership level:

Silver: No access to early registration
Gold: Access to early registration for half marathon or greater distance each race weekend
Platinum: Access to early registration for one race of any distance each race weekend

Note that the benefits are specifically framed as “opportunities“, not guaranteed spots. Also, in true RunDisney fashion, there’s plenty of ambiguity in the language. I choose to assume for purposes of this discussion that a challenge counts as one race distance for registration purposes.

Before I signed up for Club runDisney, I did confirm that you are guaranteed that slot if you've got Gold or Platinum. The challenges count as one race. I haven't heard any updates after the year they extended memberships. We never got to use any of the benefits.

 

[brent02139]

I'm starting to wonder if because it is so soon after the start of 50th-anniversary celebration of WDW, they might be okay with another year of marathon drought. They'll forecast that unlike other years, 3 months after the start of celebration will bring plenty of crowds in first week of January, mean while collect that virtual marathon money.

That would really blow as I've already booked tickets and hotel to support my wife's first marathon.

 

[BikeFan]

I'm starting to wonder if because it is so soon after the start of 50th-anniversary celebration of WDW, they might be okay with another year of marathon drought. They'll forecast that unlike other years, 3 months after the start of celebration will bring plenty of crowds in first week of January, mean while collect that virtual marathon money.

That would really blow as I've already booked tickets and hotel to support my wife's first marathon.

It's hard to really know how all these various factors play out with respect to WDW attendance in the coming 18 months or so. While the USA should basically be back to normal by January 2022, how about the rest of the world? Plus, how much will the economic impact of COVID prevent people from taking expensive vacations, etc.? I agree that the 50th anniversary celebration will be a huge draw, but will it be enough to overcome those other factors? According to the most recent earnings call, the parks division is still losing huge sums of money, and I'm sure Disney will do all they can to recoup their losses over the past year and a half by boosting park revenue any way they can. Someone else posted earlier in this thread that RunDisney makes a pretty good profit on the various race weekends, which to me is great news. If RD is very profitable, Disney is that much more likely to bring it back as soon as soon its safe to do so. Until the Disney announces otherwise, I'm still going to take the lack of news from RD as possible evidence that they're still trying to return to live events in 2022, beginning with Marathon Weekend.

 

[run.minnie.miles]

I’m also hopeful that rD will be back in person for MW, but I’m not sure we can get an announcement before all of the hotels reopen or are at least scheduled to be opened by then. It’s hard to imagine a race weekend without all of the value and moderate resorts open... also hard to imagine that they’d still be closed in January.

 

[Barca33Runner]

The only thing rD could realistically have announced to this point is a cancellation if you consider the current state of the parks and their treatment of dense crowd events (parades, fireworks, shows). I think the lack of information is a good sign that they still would like to bring back in person races as soon as possible and they still hold out hope that the events that haven’t officially been cancelled (although they also haven’t really been announced) are still plausible to be put on live.

TL;DR

If they didn’t want the races to happen in person they likely would have already announced them as virtual/cancelled.

 

[camaker]

I'm starting to wonder if because it is so soon after the start of 50th-anniversary celebration of WDW, they might be okay with another year of marathon drought. They'll forecast that unlike other years, 3 months after the start of celebration will bring plenty of crowds in first week of January, mean while collect that virtual marathon money.

That would really blow as I've already booked tickets and hotel to support my wife's first marathon.

I really don’t think they’re going to want to have 3 years lapse between offerings of their marquee running and fitness event. I also think that the popularity of virtual events, at least longer distance virtual events, is going to plummet as live races return to normalcy.

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

Another factor in favor of in-person races coming back: WDW has hosted numerous sporting events, including the NBA bubbles and, this month, tons of cheer competitions.

 

[hotblooded]

I know there are still many reasons to have hope, but I read the Reddit thread that someone shared and it feels like Light Side’s cancelation all over again. With Run Disney, no news is bad news.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I saw an article over the weekend that said something to the effect of Google had the HEA show on some schedule to resume in mid-July, but it also said that they had no idea WHERE google had gotten that information and that it couldn't be confirmed.

A lot of our speculation has revolved around Disney getting back to "normal" with shows, etc. and that being another obstacle (large crowds in close proximity) removed from all of the reasons they would delay bringing back races.

 

[Onceuponamarathon]

I saw an article over the weekend that said something to the effect of Google had the HEA show on some schedule to resume in mid-July, but it also said that they had no idea WHERE google had gotten that information and that it couldn't be confirmed.

A lot of our speculation has revolved around Disney getting back to "normal" with shows, etc. and that being another obstacle (large crowds in close proximity) removed from all of the reasons they would delay bringing back races.

Wikipedia had a July reopen date, which someone then changed to August, then December. I think it was people just messing around but the screen shots made the rounds in the FB groups.

 

[Herding_Cats]

You mean not everything on the internet is true????

I was hoping someone had just caught a glimpse of something that good ol' IT let slip through....

 

[PrincessV]

Still feeling quite optimistic here... my Dopey 2022 training plan is on paper. In pencil, TBH, but it's always in pencil, lol!

Part of me expects to hear something tomorrow, National Running Day. But that also feels too obvious, so maybe not.