Hello everyone, I am new to this thread. I've recently taken up running again after a few years break. I am not one of those runners who 'needs' to run, but I do it to keep fit and try to manage my weight (I recently turned 50
). I haven't gone beyond 5k very often yet as I have been working on my speed, but I am looking to step up to 10k after winter. I need a goal/reward to encourage me, so as a regular Disney visitor I have been researching run Disney events. However, it would be a solo trip. (from UK) I am happy to run solo so I can do it all at my own pace, but I would like to meet up with people for a meal or two during my trip. Is this possible? I would love to hear from anyone who's done this, who can offer some advice.
I just did Wine and Dine last month. This was a mostly solo trip - I say this because I pretty much travelled solo (long haul international flights, hotels, etc), but I met up a few times with a friend who lives near WDW, and we also did the 5K race together. I was on my own for the 10K and half marathon races.
I think the first question is - would you be happy doing a solo trip to Disney by yourself? Personally I am extremely happy and comfortable with solo trips (and I didn't know I was until I did my first Disney solo trip a few years back), but it can be hard to predict if you've not done one before. One way to see if you might be OK is to go out for a meal on your own, or go to a movie on your own, or a local amusement park on your own - if you find you are comfortable with doing these then solo Disney trips shouldn't be a huge issue!
When I did Wine and Dine, there was a thread here and there was a meetup organised at Hurricane Hanna's (pool bar at the Beach/Yacht club), so I went along to that and met a few other people from here! I was also on a couple of runDisney facebook groups and they were also organising meetups (didn't go for those though as I don't interact much in those groups).
There is also an Adults and Solo travellers board here, and I seem to recall there used to be a meetup thread in there. I'm not sure how active or how good it is though (and usual internet precautions apply with meeting strangers off the internet!) as I've not used it myself.
Oh, and I also did the DLP races in 2017 solo. This was completely solo and I was on my own for the entire trip, including my long haul flights, hotels, and the races. I stayed off-site (at the Val d'Europe area) to save on hotel costs, and at DLP it helps that the off-site hotels are very accessible. I was actually able to walk from the hotel I was at to DLP - this was like a 20-30 minute walk, but it was nice not to need to depend on transport especially when heading to the races.
Will add that I did enjoy the DLP races and loved the race routes the year I did it (5k and 10k almost all inside the parks; half marathon was 1/3 inside the parks, 1/3 in the surrounding area, and 1/3 around the hotels). I also liked being able to walk everywhere, without needing to depend on runDisney transport.
However now having done a WDW race weekend, I find the WDW race weekend organisation to be much better than DLP. Also, the Expo at WDW was amazing, with lots of official merchandise, and lots of vendors selling running stuff I actually wanted and would use; the DLP Expo was tiny with very little official merchandise and very little stuff I was interested in. I think I definitely enjoyed the Wine and Dine race weekend I just did a lot more than the DLP race weekend I did two years ago...
I will say, this year's race is a little more expensive and filling up faster than previous years, no doubt because it's the 5th Anniversary.
