Marathon Weekend 2026

[MissLiss279]

t

Two questions for you.
1. Are opening day prices the cheapest prices for the flights or will they drop?
2. I must have been living under a rock, what happens on the 28th?

From my experience, I think they can drop lower later; however, in the past few years that hasn’t been a big deal, since it was easy to re-book and get flight credit.
After the 28th, Southwest’s rules are changing. No free bags. Depending on which fare you book, your flight credit (for re-booking) may only be good for 6 months to a year. And I think it has been debated whether that is from the date of booking or the re-book date.
So if you rebook after the 28th, you might lose your free checked bags and if you re-book you might not have very long to use the flight credit. So, you need to be happy with your original buy-in price.

Since I recently got an AA card, I decided to book with them with those points, and the price was better (if I took into account adding early bird to SW flights).

 

[LSUlakes]

Since flights have been discussed I have a question. I use GU for fuel during the marathon. I do not fly very often so excuse my lack of knowledge here. Do you carry it on or check it with luggage? Is there a limit of how much I can brink with me? Will it explode from the pressure difference?

 

[MissLiss279]

Since flights have been discussed I have a question. I use GU for fuel during the marathon. I do not fly very often so excuse my lack of knowledge here. Do you carry it on or check it with luggage? Is there a limit of how much I can brink with me? Will it explode from the pressure difference?

If you carry on gels, they would need to go in your quart liquid bag. So, you might carry on a few, and put however many more you want in your checked bag - no limit. There shouldn’t be any air in the GU packaging, so it shouldn’t explode.

 

[pluto377]

t

Two questions for you.
1. Are opening day prices the cheapest prices for the flights or will they drop?
2. I must have been living under a rock, what happens on the 28th?

Prices change all the time on SW, but they don't have change fees so I check back at least once a week all the way up to the day of the trip and grab the lower price when I see it. As mentioned though not sure what's going to happen after the 28th...

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I stayed at POFQ this past MW and I really liked it. It's a quiet, small resort so that was definitely a plus to have somewhere peaceful to relax between races. The food court was the main negative for me. Food was fine, but not enough things on the menu that I liked. That notwithstanding I would stay there again for a race weekend.

Thanks for the head's up. I was figuring the food would be the worst part--except for beignets My plan would be Disney Springs for most big meals. Maybe DS is not as convenient as I'm hoping?

 

[Herding_Cats]

Thanks for the head's up. I was figuring the food would be the worst part--except for beignets My plan would be Disney Springs for most big meals. Maybe DS is not as convenient as I'm hoping?

We walked to the DS boat docks and took the boat to POFQ as soon as they started running one day (10am?) for beignets, and I think it was like a 12-15min boat ride? Plus waiting for the boat if needed.

 

[FFigawi]

Since flights have been discussed I have a question. I use GU for fuel during the marathon. I do not fly very often so excuse my lack of knowledge here. Do you carry it on or check it with luggage? Is there a limit of how much I can brink with me? Will it explode from the pressure difference?

I fly all over the world for races and have never had a gel packet explode. The only precaution I take with my fuel is to put the Tailwind bag inside a zip-lock bag. Last thing I want is white powder all over the contents of my suitcase.

 

[jrsharp21]

Glad you had a great preview day. When I attended, Stardust Racers, Mine Cart Madness (Donkey Kong ride), Ministry of Magic were all closed the entire day and Fyre Drill was closed until after 6 PM. The rest of the park strained tremendously under the pressure of so many primary attractions being closed, even with the lower crowds of a preview day. The park itself is very impressive, but I hope no one else experiences it the way I did. I’m not sure if I just had really bad luck during a preview or if these attractions will continue to be unreliable. I hope it was just my bad luck.

On our preview day, it was pouring rain when the park first opened. It was raining so hard to the point Super Nintendo Land was flooding in some area. It did delay rides opening most of the day. Mario Kart and Frankenstein were really the only ones open for most of the morning. Like you mentioned, the park was very strained because of this. But at the same time, there was not a ton of people in the park because of the rain. Later in the day, the weather cleared up and rides started to open. We were lucky and we were standing nearby when Stardust Racers and Donkey Kong opened up. Battle at the Ministry was scheduled to be closed, but they also closed Werewolf that day. But we rode everything else and was done by 4:30pm.

 

[jrsharp21]

Now that SW is open for flights, started really looking at flights for MW. It is looking like it is going to be almost $400 more for flights for MW 2026 than it did this past January. Good grief. Doesn't help that SW also moved out of IAH and now only operates out of HOU in Houston. In the past we were able to book the cheapest one way out of IAH on either SW/UA/Delta and then the cheapest one way back. But now SW is limited to just HOU. Also, we usually do fly UA, but they really tested our patience these past 10 days. We went to Vegas for work, then to WDW/US for a conference, and then to Arkansas to watch my son for baseball, and every single leg of our trip has had a delay. 5 flights, 5 delays. Multiple times over 3 hours. I thought yesterday my wife was finally going to explode when they delayed our flight to Arkansas and didn't tell anyone why.

 

[Dopey 2020]

Since flights have been discussed I have a question. I use GU for fuel during the marathon. I do not fly very often so excuse my lack of knowledge here. Do you carry it on or check it with luggage? Is there a limit of how much I can brink with me? Will it explode from the pressure difference?

I can’t speak for everyone or all airports but I have put a dozen in my carryon for every MW since 2019 and never had TSA look at them and never had one open. Knock on wood, cross fingers, etc.

 

[sandam1]

The only precaution I take with my fuel is to put the Tailwind bag inside a zip-lock bag. Last thing I want is white powder all over the contents of my suitcase.

I prepackage my Tailwind into little Ziploc bags and I'm always slightly concerned about flying with little bags of white powder. I've never had an issue, but...

 

[RuntheMouse]

I can’t speak for everyone or all airports but I have put a dozen in my carryon for every MW since 2019 and never had TSA look at them and never had one open. Knock on wood, cross fingers, etc.

I also haven’t run into any problems with gels and TSA, I put them in my liquids bag.

I did have them pull out a Costco sized bag of Craisins out of my carry on once. Large dense package on the X-ray machine…use your imagination. So embarrassing

 

[sandam1]

I did have them pull out a Costco sized bag of Craisins out of my carry on once. Large dense package on the X-ray machine…use your imagination. So embarrassing

I've also found out that they don't like frozen applesauce packets either. I froze them so that a) they wouldn't be considered liquids and b) I could use them as an ice pack for the lunch meat that I was bringing. I've done it twice and my bags have gotten pulled both times. Now I just take my chances with them in my checked bags.

 

[nancipants]

I once got pulled for additional screening because the majority of the suitcase was filled with Funko pops.

 

[JediKnightXan]

Southwest flights appear to be popular, the return (direct) flight we wanted on Monday the 12th is already sold out on the two cheaper fair levels. So if your thinking Southwest may not want to sleep on it.

We are looking at maybe moving to Thursday - Tuesday instead of Wednesday - Monday. Little worried on how that may affect our ability to get ADRs on some more popular things. Maybe Monday will be more open. Anyone have thoughts on that?

 

[Naomeri]

I once got pulled for additional screening because the majority of the suitcase was filled with Funko pops.

TSA were not fans of my Hades hat for Springtime--what could possibly be the problem with seeing 33ft of wire hooked up to batteries on an X-ray?

 

[camaker]

Good afternoon RunDisney All-Stars! Welcome to this week's edition of Sundays are for Disney (SAFD). We're going to have a lot of folks starting up new and/or longer training plans in the coming weeks and months, so let's make fueling our official topic for this week. What tips and tricks do you have to pass along and what have you found to work well (or not so well)?

SAFD: I've got two major tips to pass along. First off, if something sounds good to you or is highly recommended, try it out in training. Multiple times. Just because it works for someone else doesn't mean it'll work for you! Second, if something seems to work well, try it out on as long a run as you can, taking it the frequency you'll be using it in your race, if not a bit more frequently. I've had several fueling solutions that worked great in isolation during 12-16 mile training runs that absolutely blew my stomach up when taken over the course of a marathon. Trust me, that's not when you want to find out.

As far as fueling options go, I've found out that my tolerance for them is largely tied to the effort level at which I'm running and what may work in a lower effort regime just doesn't as the effort goes up. Here are some examples:

Low effort (easy pacing, ultra race paces): I can tolerate most things. What's worked especially well here for me are Uncrustables, Honey Stinger stroop waffles, grilled cheese sandwiches, oatmeal crème pies, Coke. Most normal foods, for that matter.

Moderate effort (long run pacing): Honey Stinger gummies & gels, Huma gels

High effort (marathon/half race pace): Honey Stinger gummies and Huma gels are my go to on race day here. Maurten gels also seem to work ok, but it's really easy to upset my stomach at this pacing.

 

[smileyanna]

SAFD: Repeat that you should try out fueling options on the training runs. The training runs are not just about mileage! They are about time on feet, and adjusting to all sorts of weather conditions, and peeling your tights back up after going to the bathroom. AND FUELING (and so many other things).

Aside from that, my other fueling tip is to get some variety for longer runs. I like having liquids, gels, gummies and salty chips when it comes to runs longer than 18 miles.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

SAFD: You probably need more fuel than you think! I aim for 60-90g of carbs/hour for easy runs more than 75 minutes or so as well as for all workouts, regardless of duration. I have noticed that I feel much more functional later in the day when I fuel this way (as opposed to ~30g/hour - i.e., a GU or UCAN gel every 40 minutes or so - like I used to do).

That much fueling is kind of hard to do with GUs or Hümas or whatever your favorite 20g gel brand is, but there are plenty of gels out there that have more heft to them. I have tried many, and I like Precision, Victus, and Carbs Fuel best. (Well, I don't actually like Carbs Fuel particularly, but at $2 for a 50g gel, I use it anyway. ) Liquid fueling is also an option if you have trouble with gels. I like Skratch, and I know a lot of people use Tailwind. Some people like gummies too, but I cannot chew and run at the same time, so I have no recommendations there.

Also, don't forget about fueling before and after your runs! I usually run after breakfast (oatmeal or yogurt) and afterwards I have a smoothie with Greek yogurt, a banana, spinach, and frozen strawberries, or a protein shake with a cookie or other baked good. Keep trying things until you find what works for you! Fueling is really important so that you can adapt to all the work you're doing.

 

[PrincessV]

SAFD: thirding the advice to try fueling during training, and I’ll add to train at least a couple times carrying ALL of the fuel you intend to carry during the race. Race day is not when you want to learn that the belt/vest/pocketed clothing/etc everyone said was so fantastic is monstrously difficult for you to use on the run, or that whatever you planned on using to hold fuel won’t actually hold as much fuel as you’ll need for your race.

Beyond that, my advice is to not wait until you’re hungry to start fueling: you’re already on the back foot at that point.