Marathon Weekend 2025

[Jason Bryer]

SAFD:

1. Tarzan - I was a big Phil Collins and Genesis fan growing up. Funny, I just recently put on some old Phil Collins recently.
2. Encanto - Just love Lin-Manuel Miranda.
3. Lion King - A classic

 

[Baloo in MI]

SAFD:
The Jungle Book - guessing no surprise there.

Tarzan - my dad was a huge Genesis & Phil Collins fan, so I grew up listening to them as Prog Rockers and then in my teen years as Pop Stars. Then as an adult to have Phil Collins write the soundtrack for a Disney movie; I just love it!

Encanto - It is just so fantastic!

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

I love Hercules so much, the soundtrack is amazing. I also really like Brave, though most is just music and of course Nightmare before Christmas,

 

[FFigawi]

SAFD:
Nightmare Before Christmas
Lion King
Coco

 

[runwithperseverence7]

SAFD:

1. Beauty and the Beast - My favorite movie of all time! I know all the words and probably could put on my own production.
2. The Lion King
3. Tie - Frozen or Mary Poppins

 

[Cabius]

SAFD

This is really rough. I'm excluding live action/hybrid movies (sorry Marry Poppins and Pete's Dragon!)

1. The Lion King - honestly gets this place from the opening number alone, even if there was no other music.
2. Tarzan - I have a hard time totally hard time totally justifying Tarzan, but it's an emotional pick. The music goes so hard, and so much harder than it needs to.
3. Frozen II (and Encanto and Aladdin and Hercules and Mulan and...)

 

[Psymonds]

SAFD:
1. Hercules
2. Hercules
3. Hercules

Runners up are The Greatest Showman (assuming live action counts) and Encanto. I love a lot of individual songs from movies, but rarely the entire soundtrack.

Hercules has been growing on me the more I've heard the soundtrack in the past few years. I think I wasn't ready for it.

 

[sandam1]

Can someone who is staying onsite for MW do me a favor and check 1) that there are still tickets available for the 1/13 AH at the MK, and 2) how much they are with tax? I'm planning on being up early tomorrow morning to hopefully get 2 tickets, but I'd like to use a Disney gift card and want to make sure that I have enough money to buy them. Thanks!

 

[Naomeri]

Can someone who is staying onsite for MW do me a favor and check 1) that there are still tickets available for the 1/13 AH at the MK, and 2) how much they are with tax? I'm planning on being up early tomorrow morning to hopefully get 2 tickets, but I'd like to use a Disney gift card and want to make sure that I have enough money to buy them. Thanks!

Yes, they are still available and they are 186.38 with tax

 

[sandam1]

Yes, they are still available and they are 186.38 with tax

Perfect! Thank you so much! I was pretty nervous about this because I've seen a bunch of people participating in MW already got theirs.

 

[Bree]

Yes, they are still available and they are 186.38 with tax

That is a ridiculous price. I still miss the days of free extra hours when the parks would close at 1-2am.

 

[Barca33Runner]

That is a ridiculous price. I still miss the days of free extra hours when the parks would close at 1-2am.

While I agree, the cheapest 1-day base ticket to MK during Marathon Weekend appears to be $164 before tax. To expedite lines and get on every ride it is likely you’d need to spend extra on Lightning Lane Multi Pass, Lightning Lane Single Pass, or both. Outside of the parade and stage shows, the AH features the opportunity to do everything a day pass offers (and an extra fireworks show).

I think it is ridiculous, but it falls right in line with what Disney is charging for an experience at Magic Kingdom these days. Opinions may differ on whether you prefer the daytime experience or the After Hours experience; but, having done both, I think either opinion can be justified.

 

[Naomeri]

While I agree, the cheapest 1-day base ticket to MK during Marathon Weekend appears to be $164 before tax. To expedite lines and get on every ride it is likely you’d need to spend extra on Lightning Lane Multi Pass, Lightning Lane Single Pass, or both. Outside of the parade and stage shows, the AH features the opportunity to do everything a day pass offers (and an extra fireworks show).

Plus “free” ice cream, popcorn, and bottled drinks

 

[Cabius]

While I agree, the cheapest 1-day base ticket to MK during Marathon Weekend appears to be $164 before tax. To expedite lines and get on every ride it is likely you’d need to spend extra on Lightning Lane Multi Pass, Lightning Lane Single Pass, or both. Outside of the parade and stage shows, the AH features the opportunity to do everything a day pass offers (and an extra fireworks show).

I think it is ridiculous, but it falls right in line with what Disney is charging for an experience Magic Kingdom these days. Opinions may differ on whether you prefer the daytime experience or the After Hours experience; but, having done both, I think either opinion can be justified.

The pricing trick here is the marginal cost of a ticket.

If I am only buying a single day ticket to MK, this is only a slight premium.

But if I already have an AP, this is just extra spending -- and a good way to get folks who have already shelled out thousands of dollars for their family to open their wallets again.

Even if I just have a more-than-four-day ticket, it's many times more expensive than adding a single day to your multi-day pass.

There are lots of ways to think about how to value an experience, and whether it's worth it for your family. If you're just coming down to race and want a single park day, it probably makes sense!

But I'm a hard pass on Disney's strategy of shrinking park hours so they can sell the gate twice per day. I know it's probably inevitable -- in another 20 years, we'll look back fondly on the days when you didn't have to choose between a 'day ticket' or 'night ticket', and could come and go the whole day! -- but I'm noping out of this one.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

SAFD:

Soo hard...
Encanto
Frozen
Hamilton

 

[marty3d]

SAFD:

1. Soul. Worth watching for the music alone, it’s that good.
2. Jungle Book, both animated and live-action versions (but it still counts as one, right?!
3. STAR WARS

Didn't think of Star Wars! Can I add Raiders of the Lost Ark as one of my runners up? Another John Williams masterpiece. The music is as much the star as Harrison Ford and Karen Allen!

 

[Bree]

But I'm a hard pass on Disney's strategy of shrinking park hours so they can sell the gate twice per day. I know it's probably inevitable -- in another 20 years, we'll look back fondly on the days when you didn't have to choose between a 'day ticket' or 'night ticket', and could come and go the whole day! -- but I'm noping out of this one.

You explained it much better than me

I was just flabbergasted at the cost for a few hours and my thoughts went straight to the keyboard. I have been to the after parties when they first came out and they were so much fun. I used to take my autistic son to them before we learned about DAS. At those first few parties he would ride splash over and over and be the only one in the log!

 

[Barca33Runner]

The pricing trick here is the marginal cost of a ticket.

If I am only buying a single day ticket to MK, this is only a slight premium.

But if I already have an AP, this is just extra spending -- and a good way to get folks who have already shelled out thousands of dollars for their family to open their wallets again.

Even if I just have a more-than-four-day ticket, it's many times more expensive than adding a single day to your multi-day pass.

There are lots of ways to think about how to value an experience, and whether it's worth it for your family. If you're just coming down to race and want a single park day, it probably makes sense!

But I'm a hard pass on Disney's strategy of shrinking park hours so they can sell the gate twice per day. I know it's probably inevitable -- in another 20 years, we'll look back fondly on the days when you didn't have to choose between a 'day ticket' or 'night ticket', and could come and go the whole day! -- but I'm noping out of this one.

Yeah, I’m aware of the different groups that might buy tickets and how the “value” may not carryover the same way from one to the next (or, from the perspective of Disney, how such a pricing strategy can help to encourage even more spending from certain customer groups). ETA: My sister has an AP and I do not, so I have first hand experience with the fact that AH does not appeal to her in the same way it does for me. It is my preferred way to go to the parks and it isn’t even something she considers.

I was looking at the price purely in relation to what it takes to get into MK. From a one-off perspective $200 seems like it’s about the entry point; there are certainly ways to pay more to lower the marginal cost of MK visits, and the AH does not build into those methods, but as a cost of going to MK it falls just about right in line with their other offerings.

Fully agreed that I’d be a hard pass on just about every pricing and park experience decision Disney has been making the past few years. We are certainly paying more and getting less in almost all instances. I’m not sure anything can ever be done about the paying more side of that equation, but I will hope that at some point it will start feeling like the experience I’m getting isn’t downgraded.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Hercules has been growing on me the more I've heard the soundtrack in the past few years. I think I wasn't ready for it.

For me watching that movie, the key is to pretend that all the characters having names from Greek mythology is just a coincidence

 

[sandam1]

While I agree, the cheapest 1-day base ticket to MK during Marathon Weekend appears to be $164 before tax. To expedite lines and get on every ride it is likely you’d need to spend extra on Lightning Lane Multi Pass, Lightning Lane Single Pass, or both. Outside of the parade and stage shows, the AH features the opportunity to do everything a day pass offers (and an extra fireworks show).

This AH is going to be our only Disney park time during this trip* so this math definitely helps swallow the cost of the ticket. Also, my tolerance for the Disney crowds and planning nonsense is low on a good day and even less on a runDisney weekend. Knowing that, it is "worth it" for me.

*We're staying at and visiting Universal for the rest of our trip. I have an existing Universal annual pass so going there is "free" for me. My travel partner will have bought and activated her Universal pass during Wine & Dine so hers will be "free" as well.

Plus “free” ice cream, popcorn, and bottled drinks

I know that it probably shouldn't, but this does make a difference to me. I'm a penny pincher by nature and, as hard I try not to, the Disney food costs get to me. Having these things included in the price of the ticket (I'm not kidding myself - I know that they're not "free") lets me indulge without the sticker shock. I've done the Orlando Informer meet-up at Universal and the best part was the abundance of "free" food. Could I just buy a gift card for the ticket price and eat my way through the parks for less? Yep! Would I? Heck no!