It is unfortunate that guests have to pay for a ticket to see runners cross the finish line of this race. All the other Disney running events that I have participated in, spectators could watch runners cross the finish line without buying a ticket. I know this is because TOT actually finishes inside the park. Still, I think there should be a way to corral folks who just want to see their runner cross the finish line but not go to the Post Race Party.
In any case, I got into the party for free ( as part of my race registration), but we had to buy Scott a ticket. I don't remember for sure how much the ticket cost but I know it was somewhere between $65-75. I bought him the post race party ticket when I registered for the race because there is only a limited amount of tickets that are sold. I don't know for sure if they sold out or not.
I had packed a bag with some change of clothes and other post race essentials but to be honest, I was so excited to tell Scott how my race went that I didn't even want to take the time change clothes!
Limited attractions and food stands are open during this time. Some of the rides that were open included the Tower of Terror of course and the Rock n Roller Coaster, neither which I enjoy so we passed on those. The only ride I wanted to make sure we went on was Toy Story Mania. The past several times I've been to Hollywood Studios the lines were always SO long so it was something we passed on.
Since we would have had to cross the race course to get to Toy Story Mania, we were told that it would remain closed until after the race. That kind of stunk. But it worked out okay anyway because it gave us a chance to watch the other runners come through.
We hung out in the hub area where the Sorcerer's hat was. I was craving something salty after the race so we bought a popcorn bucket in a cute Hollywood Studios souvenir bucket. There was an open area in front of the Sorcerer's hat where we could watch the runners go by, so we enjoyed standing there eating our popcorn and cheering for the other runners. It was fun seeing all the fun costumes go by!
We cheered for every last runner that went by. Honestly, I was surprised to see how many people came in behind the balloon ladies. I'm assuming since they had made it into the park, that there was no reason for them to get swept up. After all runners passed by, the road opened up and we were able to head over to Toy Story Mania. Even though it "Supposedly" had just opened up, the line was not short. The wait time said 40 minutes, but I do believe we got on sooner than that. Regardless of wait time, it was a fun ride.
We hung out at Hollywood studios till 2:00 am. The park closed at 3:00am but we were both getting tired and couldn't hang in there one more hour! ~M
Do you enjoy post race parties? Or do you just want to go home and relax?
If you missed it, you can read about my Disney Tower of Terror 10 Miler HERE.
You can also read about my Mickey's Happy Haunted 5K HERE