When W&D was at night, it was a great event. It was easy to do as a quick weekend trip (not really a factor for an international trip), had a really unique atmosphere, attracted a set of like-minded runners, had a great course, and was generally a lot of fun. Going straight from the race to the afterparty was a blast, and gave an extra incentive to finish faster, to get more time at the party.
With the move to the mornings, it really lost a lot of what made it feel special. Instead of having the 5K Saturday morning and the Half Saturday evening, the races are now stretched out over 3 days. With everything so spread out, runners tend to get lost in the mix of regular park guests that weekend; it's a fairly busy time of year, especially at Epcot for the Food & Wine Festival
I haven't done the 5K since the previous version when it was the same day as the Half, but I thought it was fun. I'm not a huge fan of 5Ks, so I wouldn't want to make a special effort just for it, but if you really like untimed 5Ks you'd probably have a good time
The course is essentially the second half of the marathon, without WWOS. It's not a bad course, but it's also not the greatest. Other than running through Pandora, there's really nothing you'll see along the way that you wouldn't see during the marathon.
The afterparty was a total bust for me. After spending all day in the park, there really wasn't a ton that I wanted to do during the extra hours. Most of the attractions were closed, so it was just the F&W booths, some minor entertainment, and a couple rides. It wasn't bad, but there wasn't much to make it better than normal park hours beyond the additional time; I didn't think it was worth the extra night in a hotel and extra time off work just to experience that.
In general, I think W&D's current format is fine. There's nothing wrong with it, but it just doesn't really have that extra pop that makes all the other weekends feel unique. It felt like a local event that happened to be at Disney, rather than something that Disney put on themselves. It's particularly disappointing, knowing how great the old format was.
For me, I would rather run the Star Wars races again, and I'm not even a particular fan of SW. I know it's coming up soon (especially for an international trip), but registration is still open for both the Half & Challenge. The courses are the same as W&D, but the atmosphere was a lot more exciting and felt like Disney was really putting effort into it
.
