Normally I plan my Disney trips months in advance. This last min planning is challenging.

DCA has early entry on Saturday but as far as I can tell the only way to get a pass is to stay on property. All the Disney properties are filled to the brim so I won't be able to get in until after the early entry hordes are already packing the place like the 405 at rush hour.

The Fantasmic dessert thingy is also booked solid so no reserved seats for that either...

This is going to take some creative solution planning...

Also fyi the Half Marathon is Sunday. Street closures etc. We've gone a number of times on Labor Day weekend and the crowds really aren't horrible.

Ok more info from a runner. The 5K and kids races are on Saturday. The 5K ends in Carsland and starts at 6:45AM. Kids races are in DTD. The calendar shows both parks not opening till 9AM. She says it's been really busy on the Saturday the last few years.

San Francisco? In the city or Bay Area? Any chance you will be free from the family thing for a Disney Museum visit?

Sadly I don't think so on this trip, but I could probably wrangle you an invite to great aunt's 90th birthday bash. I hear the Foxtrot will be the feature dance....

Ps.. San Rafael'ish I think.

Crud, so the park will be filled with people that can get to the fastpass machines faster than me?

Single Rider will work well for you (on RSR). Even when the line is long, it's only 45 minutes.

They do sweep the park after the 5K. But there is early entry at 8AM that day (not sure how they'll work that). But as Kevy said single rider is really the way to go.

Except I won't be single. I'm a +1

So on Sat Sept 1st:
DCA opens at 9:00am with no early entry
DL Opens at 9:00am with 8:00am early entry.

How long does a 5k rally typically take? If they start at 6:45am, will it be over before the gates open at 9:00am?
Reading the program, it looks like park admission is separate from the races. Which implies I won't find a park full of runners already in the park when it opens at 9:00am.

No the runners don't get admission to either park - they do a sweep. The timing seems pretty tight. It says that you must maintain a 16 min mile - which means it would take about 50ish minutes to complete. In my experience with all the characters out etc they didn't hurry us along much. And there are a lot of people running so it can take 15 or more minutes to actually get to the starting line.

Honestly doing single rider, you're with the person right up until you load so you're not apart that much. We've only stood in the "real" line once and that was at the preview. The rest has been single rider.

VKM! Thanks for all the information.

Does the queue for RSR's matter? Should I use the standby queue for my virgin ride before using the Fastpass or single queue?