Marathon Weekend 2026

[forceword]

When will the dates be confirmed?

I know it’s almost certain to be the weekend of the 7th but I’ll be flying in from the UK for Dopey #3 and I need to wait until it’s confirmed before I can book the flights

 

[nekonekoneko]

When will the dates be confirmed?

I know it’s almost certain to be the weekend of the 7th but I’ll be flying in from the UK for Dopey #3 and I need to wait until it’s confirmed before I can book the flights

runDisney already confirmed the dates for the 4 race weekends in Florida for 2025-26.

W&D: Oct 23-26 2025
MW: Jan 7-11 2026
Princess: Feb 26 - Mar 2 2026
Spring: Apr 16-19 2026

 

[forceword]

Thanks for the reply.

Where is that confirmed? The Rundisney website is still showing last years dates https://www.rundisney.com/events/disneyworld/disneyworld-marathon-weekend/

 

[RuntheMouse]

Thanks for the reply.

Where is that confirmed? The Rundisney website is still showing last years dates https://www.rundisney.com/events/disneyworld/disneyworld-marathon-weekend/

https://www.rundisney.com/race-season-calendar/

 

[camaker]

Good morning RunDisney All-Stars! Welcome to this week's edition of Sundays are for Disney (SAFD). Last week we started building our brackets for March Magical Madness and this week we'll finish the job. Next week we'll go with a running question as a palate cleanser before getting down to the business of deciding our ultimate dining location. This week we'll fill out the Skyliner Bracket with our favorites from Epcot and Hollywood Studios. What are your top four favorite dining locations in each park? Please list them in order and no ties, please.

In the meantime, here are the dining locations that are moving on to the elimination rounds from last week's voting:

Magic Kingdom

1. Skipper's Canteen (I'm going to have to try this place)
2. Columbia Harbour House
3. Gaston's Tavern
4. Pecos Bill's

Animal Kingdom

1. Satu'li Canteen
2. Flame Tree Barbecue
3. Tusker House
4. Yak & Yeti Restaurant

 

[camaker]

SAFD:

Epcot is one of my favorite places to visit and eat. I love the ambience and being able to wander the World Showcase and eat at the different nations. Unfortunately, my #1 pick, Tangierine Cafe, was a Covid casualty and the pop-ups they've put in its location on occasion pale in comparison. There are still plenty of good options to pick from, though, so here's my list of favorites:

1. Via Napoli
2. Karamell Küche
3. Regal Eagle Barbecue
4. Chefs de France

Hollywood Studios is a tough one for me to pick out favorite dining, apart from #1, but I think it'll come down to these:

1. ABC Commissary
2. Ronto Roasters
3. PizzeRizzo
4. Roundup Rodeo BBQ

 

[Herding_Cats]

SAFD, in no particular order:

Epcot:
Karamell Kuche
Sunshine Seasons
Regal Eagle
Katsura Grill

Studios:
ABC Commissary
PizzeRizzo
???
???
(we don't spend much time in studios, and almost always eat at one of the 2 I've already listed)

 

[JackosinDIS]

SAFD:

Epcot - too many choices!

1. Spice Road
2. Le Cellier
3. Via Napolli
4. Creperie de Paris

Hollywood

1. Docking bay 7
2. Hollywood brown derby
3. Roundup rodeo
4. Woodys lunchbox

 

[camaker]

SAFD, in no particular order:

Epcot:
Karamell Kuche
Sunshine Seasons
Regal Eagle
Katsura Grill

Studios:
ABC Commissary
PizzeRizzo
???
???
(we don't spend much time in studios, and almost always eat at one of the 2 I've already listed)

Any chance of putting them in order? It's very hard to score them without rankings.

 

[Novatrix]

SAFD:

Now that Tangerine Cafe is a shadow of its former self, I usually prefer the festival stalls at Epcot, but here goes.
Epcot:
1. Yorkshire County Fish Shop
2. La Cava de Tequila (love sitting inside with a drink and some chips/gauc)
3. Garden Grill
4. La Creperie de Paris

Hollywood Studios
1. The Brown Derby (the Cobb salad is always worth the trip)
2. The Brown Derby lounge. Still great food, but you need to deal with Florida weather.
3. Sci-Fi Diner (not for the food, just for the movie clip nostalgia. Plus, it's hilarious how every "technology of the future" clip is now commercially available.)
4. Oga's Cantina (fun atmosphere)

 

[marty3d]

SAFD: These are the 2 most challenging ones for me!

Epcot: Love the festival booths but I will stick to permanent locations.

1 - Cava. Can I vote for this twice?
2 - Via Napoli
3 - Le Cellier
4 - I have about 10 choices for this one but given we actually had a great meal there this MW I’m going to vote for Space 220

DhS:
1 - Baseline Tap House. This is perhaps the only WDW location we go to every trip. Nice selection of beers, the charcuterie board is reasonably priced and it’s a great place to relax and people watch.
2 - Brown Derby
3 - Oga’s
4 - Fairfax Fare - for the waffle bowls!
I guess I’m in the minority here that I could have picked 5 other #4s for DHS.

 

[Barca33Runner]

SAFD: I think I could add 8 from Epcot and replace any of the other parks and be happy enough.

Epcot-Each of the other parks it’s difficult to get to 4. Here, it is going to be very tough to narrow to only 4.

1. Les Halles- I’ll get my no-brainer out of the way. The other location I alluded to last week that is a 100% visit rate from me in the parks. Even if I’ve been eating at festival booths all day, there is always room to eat something or take something home from Les Halles. Would be my personal #1 seed for the whole tournament.
2. Spice Road Table- I dearly miss Restaurant Marrakech. It has huge sentimental and nostalgic value for me in Epcot. Spice Road Table is not a full replacement, but I love grabbing a spot on the World Showcase Lagoon on a nice day and having some snacks and enjoying the location
3. San Angel Inn- I know, I know. It’s expensive, the seating it too close, everyone has their own place for Mexican food back home. I just love the location and still find it easy to suspend disbelief while I’m there. The Mexico pavilion is my favorite spot in Epcot and I find the food much better than the reputation and the price pretty on par for how everything at Disney is priced. I’m a vampire, so the dark, air conditioned space really suits me as well .
4. Le Cellier- This is tough, because I’ve only eaten here once and I tend to avoid steak on property because it something I can quite confidently make better at home for far cheaper. But the meal and ribeye I had here was excellent even when considering the cost. And, as I said earlier, I’m a vampire so the ambience is up my alley.

Hollywood Studios- I didn’t realize how much we had shifted to resorts and Disney Springs for dining until coming up with answers to this question.

1. Ronto Roasters- Surprisingly, a pretty easy #1 when it came down to it. I love the Triple Sun Breakfast Wrap. Ordered it by accident one time and now it’s my favorite breakfast at WDW (I am not a breakfast person). The Ronto Wrap is also a really reliable meal later in the day.
2. Epic Eats- Soft Serve, baby! Not as reliably visited as Anandapur in AK, but it doesn’t get much better than a swirl waffle cone watching Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. Or a loaded funnel cake if I really want to sugar crash later in the day.
3. Mama Melrose- Really enjoyed this place when we used it as part of Fantasmic! dining a few times over the years. I’ve seen some opinions that quality has come down. Not sure if that is to do with it being a lame duck at this point. I thought it still had a lot of the original charm of MGM Studios and will miss it.
4. Roundup Rodeo BBQ- I’m a little lacking of options at this point. This fills in for a bunch of places that are adequate enough (ABC, Backlot, DB7) and just pips the spot based on the ambience. Never been to Hollywood Brown Derby (looks good, but I’d need to be a little more excited about it for the price). Don’t drink alcohol and haven’t been to BaseLine. Seating is an embarrassment at Woody’s Lunch Box (and their loaded tots are put to shame by Green Eggs and Ham Cafe at Universal).

 

[Baloo in MI]

SAFD:
In both parks I have a few favorites and then it just drops off. We tend to eat outside of Hollywood Studios and stick to a few favorites at Epcot.

Hollywood Studios:
- Sci-Fi Drive-in Theatre (food is ok, mostly just fun and the cool dark atmosphere with AC is just wonderful!)
- ABC Commissary
- Mama Melrose (makes me sad)
- ????

Epcot
- Via Napoli
- La Cantina de San Angel
- Connections Cafe
- Les Halles Boulangerie-Pattisserie

 

[nekonekoneko]

SAFD:

EP:

1) Takumi Tei
2) Connections Eatery
3) Les Halles Boulangerie-Pattisserie
4) Popcorn in Canada - Love the maple popcorn!

HS:

1) Docking Bay 7
2) ABC Commissary
3) Hollywood & Vine
4) 50's Prime Time Cafe - Now I want some fried chicken!

 

[Herding_Cats]

Any chance of putting them in order? It's very hard to score them without rankings.

Oooooh. I thought we were just doing a tally and not a weighted ranking.

SAFD
Epcot:
Karamell kuche
Regal eagle
Sunshine seasons
Katsura grill

HS:
ABC commisary
Pizza rizzo

 

[nancipants]

Hollywood Studios:

Docking Bay 7 was my favorite, but they took my favorites off the menu.

1. Oga’s - because of course my favorite is a Star Wars cantina.
2. Backlot Express - I have a lot of fond memories eating here during Star Wars Weekends. And you can never go wrong with Disney chicken tenders.
3. Hollywood and Vine - the food is fine, but you can’t go wrong with a character buffet.
4. Sci-Fi - for the vibes.

Epcot:

Like others, I could make an entire list of just Epcot restaurants!

1. Les Halles - Yes, for the bread. Those of you who were at DATW will know how much I love that bread.
2. Garden Grill - I love Chip and Dale, and I love the food.
3. Rose and Crown - Love the atmosphere and the shepherd’s pie is so good.
4. Biergarten - I love restaurants that are meant to look like outside, and I love the band. For that reason, it edges out San Angel Inn.

 

[marty3d]

3. Mama Melrose- Really enjoyed this place when we used it as part of Fantasmic! dining a few times over the years. I’ve seen some opinions that quality has come down. Not sure if that is to do with it being a lame duck at this point. I thought it still had a lot of the original charm of MGM Studios and will miss it.

it pained me not to include this on my list. We made sure to go one last time in January.

 

[PrincessV]

Still not eating indoors, so my options are limited.

EPCOT
Honestly? Skyliner or boat to anywhere else! But if forced to eat there and there’s no festival…

1. Connections Eatery usually has something edible
2. Sunshine Seasons - great variety, but challenging to get stuff to go and eat outdoors
3. Norway bakery - for the “secret menu” Viking Ale
4. Regal Eagle - the jackfruit sandwich is surprisingly decent

DHS

1. Brown Derby
2. ABC
3. Docking Bay
4. Pizza Rizzo

 

[Disney at Heart]

SAFD:
Epcot
1. Les Halles (Crocque monsieur or jambon beurre+eclair chocolat)
2. Le Cellier (cheddar soup+filet+maple crème brûlée)
3. Spice Road (tapas, on the water outside)
4. Connections Eatery (pizza+Madagascar Vanilla Shake)

HS
1. Hollywood Brown Derby (Cobb salad)
2. 50’s Prime Time Cafe (fried chicken/ fun atmosphere)
3. Ronto Roasters (we sometimes make a facsimile of the ronto wrap and pork rinds at home!)
4. ABC Commissary

 

[princesspirateandrunner]

SAFD:

Epcot
1. San Angel
2. Spice Road
3. Garden Grill
4. Rose & Crown

Hollywood
1. Mama Melrose
2. Ronto Roaster’s
3. Sci-Fi
4. Sunset Ranch Market