The goal of this blog series is to factually prove or disprove rumors, myths and mythconceptions in the Disney-verse. Tonight we are are going to look into “Dining Ticket Confusion” and “Running Feet Are Free.”
Dining Ticket Confusion
Over the last week or so I have seen the same question regarding dining in multiple places “I read somewhere that you could eat anywhere without a ticket to the park, true?” so I wanted to take a peek into this mythconception in hopes it would one day stop making its way around the internet.
Sadly this mythconception is false. While anyone can eat at a Walt Disney World Resort Hotel location, the Boardwalk or at Disney Springs without a park ticket, to eat inside the parks does in fact require a ticket. The easiest way to tell if a dining location requires a park ticket is to visit the official park’s dining site on desktop and the location will note is “Valid Park Admission” is required until the restaurant’s location information.
Running Feet Are Free
One of the better mythconceptions that follows the runDisney marathons is that runner’s get free entry to a park after their race. To be honest with you, I thought to a certain point that this was a TRUE mythconception, and that I could have sworn back around 9/11 when Disney and other tourist locations were begging guests to come that is had in fact been a benefit along with what Addie Clark explained runDisney racer’s currently receive on race day “the runner’s completion medal, pre and post race amenities, food, bathroom, transportation, entertainment.” While currently runDisney very directly addresses the topic on their site as to what is currently included with your entry in a runDisney race, that doesn’t mean free park tickets were never a part of your entry.
In speaking to Main Streeter Meghan Gorney who has been a runDisney gal for quite awhile I learned this mythconception is totally busted. In 2010, the weather for the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend was horrible. The weekend of 1/8-1/19/2010 saw temperatures in the 30’s, sleet and even snow flurries. Because of the weather in 2010, entry sales for the 2011 WDW Marathon Weekend were initially slow, so to increase sales runDisney did a “Marathon Monday” promotion that gave 26.2 mile finishing racers for that Marathon weekend park tickets for the day after the race, making 2011 the only year a park ticket was in some way included in a runDisney marathon entry, making this mythconception, Plausible, because it has occurred at least once.
Thanks to Addie Clark* and Meghan Gorney for their help in busting this myth.
Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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