Is runDisney Worth It? My Personal Experience + Tips and Tricks!

Written By Eva

runDisney’s Expo sign. I’m holding a Poweraid.

First things first, what is RunDisney?

RunDisney is Disney’s road race experience which takes place throughout and around Disneyland and Disney World’s many theme parks. There are multiple recurring themes throughout the year including: Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend, Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend, Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon Weekend, Christmas Virtual Races, Valentines Day Virtual Races, and many more.

What makes runDisney stand out compared to other marathons?

While running through and behind the scenes of Disney’s parks is cool in itself, runDisney includes so much more to add to the magic of your weekend spent there. My husband and I did the Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend; it was our first runDisney together as well as the longest distance run we’ve ever signed up for. Our ticket included: the experience,  half marathon medal, long sleeve running shirt, after party tickets, a $15 gift card to spend on food during the after party, exclusive character meet and greets, your bib, and a goodie box. What they don’t tell you up front, is that you’ll also receive many freebies during the Expo ( I will go more into depth on that in a bit), as well as a plethora of discounts offered at Disney Springs / Downtown Disney via your bib. RunDisney also provides training guides written by Olympic runners to help those of any skill level to achieve their goals!

My husband and I stayed at Disney’s Pop Century Resort for this adventure. On site rooms sell out fast for events like this, so we made sure to book our hotel nearly 2 months before tickets even dropped. We also bought our plane tickets early to dodge the inflated prices that show up when airlines realize an event is happening. Another option, if your trip is solely determined on your ability to get tickets to rundisney, is to place a 3 day hold on a room; this will allow you to not lose out on a deposit, but options will be more limited. There are always off-site hotels, but we really believe that Disney’s value resorts are a great bang for your buck, add to the magic of your trip, and include a lot of conveniences (especially for rundisney). 

Pop Century’s 50’s building. This was the section we stayed in.

On Site? Or Off?

Disney hotels provide buses that take you straight to ESPN Wide World of Sports, where the Expo takes place. The Half Marathon was the last race of the weekend, taking place on Sunday, so our Expo took place on the Saturday before. There are other Expo days, and you’re not required to attend any specific one, but we flew in for this event so the last Expo day worked perfectly for our schedule. We booked our hotel for the night of the Expo to the Tuesday after the race. Our Expo began at 11am. Another beautiful thing about staying at a Disney Hotel is the check in experience and convenience. Despite hotel check in being in the afternoon, guests are able to both check in early via their phones, and drop their luggage off with complimentary bellhops before their rooms are even close to being ready. Parking is also free for guests and available almost anywhere you can imagine needing to park. That being said, the morning of the Expo we drove to our hotel, parked by the lobby, checked in via our phones, and dropped our luggage off with the bellhops before immediately hopping on the provided bus to the Expo! 

Remy meet and greet available at the Expo

A Day at RunDisney’s Expo

Once there, we made our way to pick up our bibs. The line was long, but moved super quick! We had no idea that at the Expo we’d be able to meet characters we’d never seen before in the parks! Remy and his brother, Emile, were the Wine and Dine Half Marathon’s 2024 mascots, so they were available to meet during the last Expo day. After saying hello, we journeyed to the booth hall to pick up our shirts and an empty swag bag that we soon filled with freebee swag from many of the vendor booths there. The last thing to do at your expo is visit the official merch hall. I had been nervous of missing out on this merchandise due to the runDisney videos I watched suggesting you show up for the first expo and join the virtual queue for the merch hall as soon as it opens; I don’t know if this was just luck, but our merch hall was both quiet and completely stocked on the last day of the expo. We were able to grab everything we wanted and there was plenty left over. You’re able to pre-order some of the merch when buying your ticket, but not everything is available, including the legendary race-exclusive Loungefly!

Night and Day of Your Race!

By the time you’re finished with everything Expo, your room should be ready with your luggage waiting for you! We hopped back on the bus to Pop, ate some linner (lunch + dinner), then retired for the early night. 

We learned this the hard way, but it is possible to overdo electrolytes! Electrolytes are meant to help promote hydration balance in your body, but if overdone, they can unbalance your system and cause you to feel incredibly sick. I just wanted to give a fair warning, since electrolytes are so promoted and pushed for runners, especially during race weekend. 

We were up at 2:30am for our race; thinking back on it, we probably could have pushed for 3:00am, given we were in one of the last corrals. Disney hotels provide buses to take you straight to the race area; For us, this was right outside Epcot! I do believe the bus saved us a ton of stress and energy from needing to drive and park. The race officially starts at 5am, but that time slot is for the first gate of proven runners. My husband and I were in the second to last gate and started around 6am. There is a benefit to arriving early, as there are rare to find characters to meet, and you have a better chance of getting a further ahead spot in your gate. We were able to get a picture with Louis the gater; we had only ever seen him on the Disney Wonder Cruise before as a performer in Tiana’s Palace! 

Lois meet and greet at race entrance

Keep in mind that there are multiple gates per tier; an earlier gate, and the closer to the front of the gate you are, the more leeway you have during the race. The balloon ladies are the indicator for the end of the race, and keep that final 16 minute mile pace. They will start at the very end of the last gate to run, so the further ahead you start, the more time you have to take breaks or use the restroom without risk of being swept. Another fair warning: the ladies sometimes fall behind pace and need to jog to catch up to where they need to be, so don’t get entirely comfortable if you’re hanging in the back with them! The starting area does have a bag check, and it was super efficient! We dropped off some spare clothes and comfy shoes to change into after the race. Make sure to bring and eat a healthy breakfast in your hotel room (there are food trucks at the race, but the food wasn’t at all what I would want bouncing around in my stomach for 13 miles [we’re talking pizza, fried foods, desserts, etc…] they’ll all be there after the race)! I opted for a whole grain english muffin with peanut butter, and an anti-inflammatory fruit. During training, I found that this was the best breakfast for me, as it was both filling and great for digestion. 

This is really important and I apologize in advance for the tmi: USE THE PORTA POTTIES IN THE STARTING AREA BEFORE GETTING IN YOUR CORRAL! I cannot stress this enough! There are endless rows of these porta potties to choose from, and they are almost all CLEAN in the morning. Even if you don’t feel like you can go, go! Big races like this are nerve wracking; we all spent good money on this experience and want it to go well, but I think we all know what happens to our bowels when we get a big helping of nerves. I made the mistake of thinking I’d be alright, but the second the race started and the nerves were calmed by running, my tummy was kiiillling me! I wasn’t the only one, and unlike me, not everyone ate that nice clean healthy breakfast…. The lines for the very first in-race porta potties were LONG! There were people running behind the porta potties into the woods to do their business (not all of us are that brave), and not even halfway through the line, the smell hit like a truck. I am a very sensitive individual and if I had pushed closer to those death boxes, I would have vomited; my race would be over. The next porta potties were better, but there were only 2 and the lines were not moving at all. We were informed while waiting that there were bathrooms a bit further ahead (in Epcot’s Norway) and those were 100% the way to go. I lost my husband and I soooo much time trying to figure this all out and it was not worth it at all. I couldn’t run for long periods of time due to my lungs recovering from covid I had had the week before, but if it weren’t for the bathroom situations, I do believe I could have speed walked the entire race and made it in time due to the corral position we had. So I cannot say this enough, go before the race and save yourself some trauma!

Stage show at the starting line

The rest of the race was hard work, but magical! We ran through and around Epcot, the Boardwalk Resort, and Hollywood studios. There were amaaaazing character meets that we tragically didn’t have time for, but they were so cool to see and know that they exist. We ran past Gaston, Marie from Aristocats, the mice from Cinderella, Esmerelda and the Jester from Hunchback, Mike and Sully from Monsters inc., Bullseye from ToyStory (he was so cool), Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast, and the last one I saw before I got swept after 6 miles was Duffy the Bear.

Duffy was there to send us off on the sweep bus

I told my husband to go on without me, and he went on to finish the race! He was amazing and I’m so proud of him, but he was too focused on running to notice any of the characters he passed! I did a Google search to see who I missed… It only hurts a lot! The second half of our race had Sebastian the crab, Nick and Judy from Zootopia, Joy and Sadness from Inside Out, and the one that breaks my heart the most, Bowler Hat Guy from Meet the Robinsons. There is a bright side to getting swept, and that is now I get to tell you what it’s like! They have buses waiting at checkpoints, and anyone fallen behind the balloon ladies are guided onto the bus. Poor Duffy was posted right next to one of these checkpoints and forced to watch the slaughter of dreams. Lots of crying on the bus, but they have AC, Powerade and water! I was sad, but I knew I tried my best, so there were no tears from this girlie; we’ll get 'em next time! 

After the Race!

The sweep buses take you to a secret, behind the scenes, stop where you’re given your medal, a banana, and a goodie box of sponsored snacks that no athlete should be eating 😂. Cast members were also handing out cold wet towels to help you cool off. After grabbing your goodies, you get to emerge from a secret porta potty alley into the starting area where the food trucks and bagcheck are. May I just say, don’t forget to pick up your checked items! We did, and it was a bit of a hassle getting that stuff back. We ended up finding our stuff at Epcot's inner Guest Services during the after party, despite being told by other cast members that they weren’t holding anything from the race. I was able to get a video of my husband crossing the finish line thanks to my early finish, and it made getting swept even more worth it to see his success from the stands! All in all, runDisney’s Wine and Dine Half Marathon was such an amazing adventure. We wrapped everything up and were back on the bus to Pop Century by 10am. Once back, we stopped by the cafeteria and ate some much deserved lunch (I ate this Impossible meatloaf 4 times during our stay; it is beyond delicious).

Impossible meatloaf, rice, garlic green beans, snowflake cupcake

Full, satisfied, and exhausted, we hobbled back to our hotel room in the 50s. There were only 6 hours before the after party started, so we hydrated and had a Powerade before passing out for a much needed nap.

The After Party!

I’m starting to think the back entrance of Epcot is NOT the way to go for runDisney’s Wine and Dine afterparty. I thought I was so cheeky booking a room at Pop Century, but clearly everyone else had the same idea; Pop Century is one of the few hotels that have the Skyliner to the back entrance of Epcot, but there are 2 other stops between the hotel and Epcot. The line for the Skyliner at Pop was packed, but what shocked us was the line to get on the second Skyliner to Epcot. We were sardines! The icing on the cake was that the line to get into Epcot was twice as insane; the two ticket scanners had to process guests from every Skyliner hotel PLUS the deluxe hotels behind Epcot! Cast members also needed to give out wristbands and maps, causing a crowd to get backed up on the other side of the ticket scanners. I’m unsure how smooth the front entrance would be, but I imagine it must have been better than what we experienced, considering they have a considerable amount more scanners and staff! Next time, I think we’ll stay in AllStars Music and take a bus. 

Epcot at night

An amazing perk of the after party ticket is the 5pm early entry! This is 4 hours before the park officially closes; it was very busy, but completely worth the time and effort! I highly suggest not casually going to parks during a marathon weekend; they are packed! It seemed like every single racer took advantage of the early entry opportunity. Our first mission after getting into Epcot was to look for our missing checked bags. This ate up quite a bit of time, but we were able to hop on some low wait time rides and enjoy the extremely busy park before it officially closed and the regular guests left. Our next quest was to look for munchies. Wine and Dine fest was going on, so there were a lot of unique eats to choose from. Unfortunately, we didn’t nab anything before 9pm, so we needed to wait for the after party to officially start before food places opened up again at 10pm. If I were to do it over again, I’d:

  1. Not forget my checked bag

  2. Get food while the park is still open 

  3. Remember to use our free $15 gift card for said food

  4. Get in line for rare character meet and greets right when the park closes

  5. Ride rides the rest of the night

Instead we ended up eating at 10pm, and once I got in a character line it was a 2 hour wait to see Robin Hood! My husband opted to ride rides while I was determined to get an unflattering picture with a legendary plush fox and his balding associate, Friar Tuck; he was able to ride Soarin and Guardians while I accomplished this task.

Kenai and Koda meet and greet at runDisney’s afterparty

During the after party, I was able to meet Robin Hood and Friar Tuck, Kenai and Koda from Brother Bear, and Miguel from Coco. The party also had Max (Goofy’s son, not the horse from Tangled, I too was confused), Sweetums from Muppets, Olaf, and Tiana in her ballgown! Overall, the after party was a super unique experience! We hobbled back to the Skyliner to go back to our hotel around 12:40am. Needless to say we didn’t do much walking after that day; our legs were done. 

The Day After!

We found out the next day that our bibs gave us an insane 50% off of a Disney water park ticket, but there was no way we were hobbling over there, let alone drowning because we couldn’t use our legs to swim. Having the extra hotel day after the race is a must! It was the perfect opportunity to relax and play Switch games together all day while our legs healed enough to operate a car. I had just enough leg power to take a journey on the Skyliner to go to the Joffery’s I had seen the day before at the 2nd station.

The hotel was nice and empty due to runDisney guests either resting in their rooms or being gone. One of my favorite parts of a Disney vacation is having no rush and no obligations, so these days are always my favorite! The next day, we smoothly checked out on our phones and had our last breakfast at Pop (I had an avocado tot bowl with beans), shed a few tears, and said goodbye to an amazing experience.

Pop Century’s 1950’s statue

With the story being told, here’s the value breakdown: 

  • $822.90 after tax for 3 nights at the hotel 

  • $240 per person after tax for the Half Marathon tickets

  • $0 for parking & transportation

The total outside of food and merch (which depends on the individual), came out to be $651.45 per person; since there were two of us, the hotel cost was halved. All in all, the price averaged out to that of a normal 2 park day - 3 hotel night trip! It’s definitely a more physically taxing vacation; however, seeing the characters, parks, and running with the runDisney family is a once in a lifetime experience! I highly suggest giving a go at least once; you’ll probably get hooked like we did. Below is a list of gear I used during the run; I’ll preface it by saying I made it out with 0 blisters and 0 chafe! I’m not sponsored by any of these products, I just truly believe they’re great!

🌟All major tips are in bold for your convenience and easy reading!

Eva’s runDisney gear:

Thank you so much for reading!

I hope this blog helps you, makes you smile, or both!

Be sure to follow my content if you like Disney and learning from other’s mistakes!

More blogs are in the oven!

Last but not least, leave a comment letting me know what your dream character meet and greet is; I think mine is Bowler Hat Guy.

Bye Bye for now 🩷

About me:

I’m Eva, a twenty-something year old woman with an English degree riddled with dust. I have ADHD and believe that my strengths include noticing and listing details that others tend to miss; I hope this makes my content useful and helps others have the best experiences they can have! I work as a lobby host and want to start using my free time to creatively and mindfully create content for things I love, which of course includes Disney! I plan to share my experiences, game guides, crafts, recipes, and so much more; these things have done wonders for my mental health, and I want to share them with you all in hopes that they inspire your lives! Thank you so much for taking the time to read,

~Eva

Eva
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