Forgive me if this comes across as insensitive because I absolutely do not mean for it to be, but are you unable to wheel over with everyone else walking to the start line? Is there a different process for races at WDW? I'll admit I do not have the slightest idea how the logistics of all of that work, but I am imagining a throng of people all moving to the start line from the Disney hotels in a herd.
I’ve talked about this a bit upthread a few months ago but always am good to talk about it again. Because I get most people don’t know what the process for us is.
There’s a few things going on here. Like for one It’s a mile and a half from the hotel to the start. And I get that’s the typical walk for WDW with certain races. But for us at WDW we actually have a different loading in process to get to the start. This is what it looks like basically for Marathon and Princess. (From 22 Marathon weekend)
And I don’t have a video from Springtime but we basically walk straight in front of the corrals for the parking lot starts. All of this to say we don’t normally take the long way to get to the start the gen public does.
As it is we were always going to have to be handled a bit differently. Because they are going to have to figure out how to load us for the 5k. Which from what I remember from the in park starts is pretty much first come first serve. Which definitely doesn’t work that well if you’re in a chair. And traditionally we’re put in front of A/S1 So I’m not sure what’s going on.
Also I’m just not enthusiastic about pushing the chair accross rather wide streets at 3:30 in the morning. Especially without knowing how morning is going to work with road closures and when we’ll roll out. And I am ambulatory so I could walk the distance but pulling the chair for a 3 mile round trip especially after the half is something I’m less enthusiastic. And I would try the Toy Story Shuttles but I’m not sure how enthusiastic they would be about having us on there. Our things aren’t exactly very short. Mines personally almost 6 ft from one end to another
I was wondering the same. Again not trying to be disrespectful and I understand that WDW races offer transportation. But if the DL races aren’t- are they offering transportation? I’m trying to think of like rock and roll- big races that people may travel for. Do they provide AWD transportation? I really don’t know! Regardless- they should answer- even if it’s a no so you and others can plan.
So I don’t have experience with Rock N Roll as a chair or ambulatory for that matter and I really don’t plan to. But I do have experience with NYC and Boston as an ambulatory AWD. And I know they use a similar process for chairs. And will be having experience with Grandmas as a chair and already have had this convo with them because their point to point. And I wanted to know prior to registration.
Yes we do have separate transport for bigger races. Admittedly it’s the same type of buses they use usually on race weekend. But I call it separate because we leave earlier on buses specifically marked for us because like in NYC we actually don’t go through the normal entrance to get to our holding area. And Boston has separate waiting areas for the start depending on what classification of AWD we are.
For small races my experience is usually email them before hand if I see we need to shuttle. And they’ll usually give me instructions on where to park because a lot of times they use either coach buses or school buses for race transport which are not the most accessible to us to say the least.
They could also in this case I guess give parking instructions. But they need to say something sooner than later. I really don’t want to find out on Thursday of race week how this is going to work.
As for WDW weekends we also have a separate transport entirely. They have a different sent of vehicles they contract out specifically for AWDs who can’t go on the coaches. In fact that caused a problem at Springtime 5k this past year where they were taking forever to get back. I had to wait an hour just to get to my hotel.
So this wouldn’t be the first time they have separate transport for us but they also have a different person in charge of us for DL AWD according to the WDW person. So I’m not sure what’s going on.
All of this to say we typically have a different way of going about it. And even if DL has plans in place for the rest of the pop usually those are different from the ones we get.