Question about lodging during marathon weekend.

I apologize if my question and the circumstances surrounding it are a little unclear. I'm asking more on behalf of my mom.

Basically my family is having a reunion in WDW during marathon weekend. Three of my siblings and myself are running the half. Because some of us are married and living their own lives with varying levels of income, we're trying to make things as economical as reasonably possible while staying on property.

Yesterday I called the number on the runDisney page to get a price on our usual haunt (the AS Music) and the price they quoted me was for the length of the stay and was not dependent on the number of people inside. One person cost the same as four.

My mom looked at the rates for last year during marathon weekend (this year's dates are not available right now) and while she would expect a rate increase, apparently the increase was significant enough that she thought there was no bargain to be had making reservations as a runner. Also pricing rooms the "normal" way allowed her to knock a few bucks off a room that would have only 3 people in it. I did not do this research so I have no idea how accurate these claims are.

My question is this: Is there a benefit to booking with the runDisney number that I'm missing? Is this the ONLY way to book rooms for that weekend? I'd hate for my mom to wait needlessly for rates that will never come until very late in the game or book her rooms on the site and then find out that half the runners can't get on the shuttle or something because they booked the wrong way...

If it were me I'd check Mousefan Travel. They have marathon rates at certain resorts. Plus Disney hasn't released winter discounts yet which can make a difference too. If you want to contact my Mousefan agent her email is colleenj@mei-travel.com Tell her Lori sent ya!

I agree with Lori --> check with Mousefan Travel! They have worked so hard to help everyone I have sent to them, and I've never had a complaint...

Hap!

There is no advantage to booking through runDisney other than the discounts, so if you find a better deal somewhere else, book it! I'm working on runDisney race number six and have never stayed in a room booked through the runDisney package. All runners at host resorts- which for Marathon Weekend includes all resorts, including Swan and Dolphin - have the same access to shuttles. Just tell them you are there for the race when you check in, and they'll give you all the details as to what time the shuttles run.