Marathon Weekend 2026

[marty3d]

Mine opened today and I definitely noticed this. We're finally going to try Beak and Barrel and Geo-82!

My ADRs open Monday. I can’t do Beak & Barrel for the first time by myself - might have a family mutiny over that. But Geo 82 is definitely on my list.

 

[Herding_Cats]

My ADRs open Monday. I can’t do Beak & Barrel for the first time by myself - might have a family mutiny over that. But Geo 82 is definitely on my list.

I mean.....you don't have to tell them.....

 

[GuinnessRunner]

All this talk of airport shutdowns has me worried… defo cant drive from the UK! Fingers crossed it works out soon, and sorry for anyone that is caught up in it.

Not a guarantee but at least Delta has said they don’t expect to adjust international flights in their cutback.

 

[accm]

We have a short weekend trip at the beginning of December that I’m slightly worried about. I can deal with our return flight getting cancelled/delayed, but not our flight down. I haven’t heard anything about international flights getting canceled, so I hope we’re ok. I just checked, and we’re a 25hr drive away, which is a nonstarter with 2 kids.

I only had to book one ADR - Topolinos for brunch, which had completely open availability. What a change from a couple of years ago. Thankfully my friend booked us for Artists Point, because there was nothing available for 7 for me, and only 9pm for 4.

 

[accm]

Speaking of ADRs, I cannot believe how good of a deal the free kids dining plan promo is. Even with going to places that are a “bad” use of a credit (hoop Dee doo and Artists Point) we’re still coming out way ahead.
Also, since we’re doing a 3 way split stay, and there are 4 of us, we’re going to end up with 12 mugs. We do not need 12 mugs, my friend already claimed 3, but we’ll have at least 5 available if anyone is interested

 

[JackosinDIS]

Speaking of ADRs, I cannot believe how good of a deal the free kids dining plan promo is. Even with going to places that are a “bad” use of a credit (hoop Dee doo and Artists Point) we’re still coming out way ahead.
Also, since we’re doing a 3 way split stay, and there are 4 of us, we’re going to end up with 12 mugs. We do not need 12 mugs, my friend already claimed 3, but we’ll have at least 5 available if anyone is interested

If any of your stay is at BLT I’ll happily take a couple of mugs from you

 

[camaker]

Good afternoon RunDisney All-Stars! Welcome to this week's edition of Sundays are for Disney (SAFD). We've started to enter the ADR window for Marathon Weekendm so let's talk about dining. What's your approach to dining during MW? Are you ADR heavy, a "go with the flow" counter servicer or something else entirely?

SAFD: I'm a solo traveler and, as a general rule, prefer to go with what I'm feeling on a given day, so I don't do too many ADRs. It's almost always counter service at whatever park I happen to be in. The exceptions to the rule, though, have been getting an ADR at Via Napoli for quattro formaggi pizza on the first day of my trip and another ADR for my post-marathon dinner. I was hoping to get an ADR at Le Cellier post-marathon, but they've apparently already dried up. I've got a Space 220 reservation for now, instead.

 

[KellyKateri]

This is so nice of you!! We’re doing a split stay between Coronado/Rivera/Yacht, we’d love to take 2 off your hands!

Speaking of ADRs, I cannot believe how good of a deal the free kids dining plan promo is. Even with going to places that are a “bad” use of a credit (hoop Dee doo and Artists Point) we’re still coming out way ahead.
Also, since we’re doing a 3 way split stay, and there are 4 of us, we’re going to end up with 12 mugs. We do not need 12 mugs, my friend already claimed 3, but we’ll have at least 5 available if anyone is interested

 

[Zutroy]

SAFD: I don’t do ADR for race weekends because I never know how hungry I’ll be or when I’ll want to eat. For MW I usually stay club level at the Poly/GF or get a villa at BLT and use the kitchen to cook my meals. I can count on a bunch of uncrustables, bananas, bagels, oat meal, and other foods I like eat during race weekends at club level.

 

[marty3d]

Good afternoon RunDisney All-Stars! Welcome to this week's edition of Sundays are for Disney (SAFD). We've started to enter the ADR window for Marathon Weekendm so let's talk about dining. What's your approach to dining during MW? Are you ADR heavy, a "go with the flow" counter servicer or something else entirely?

SAFD: I'm a solo traveler and, as a general rule, prefer to go with what I'm feeling on a given day, so I don't do too many ADRs. It's almost always counter service at whatever park I happen to be in. The exceptions to the rule, though, have been getting an ADR at Via Napoli for quattro formaggi pizza on the first day of my trip and another ADR for my post-marathon dinner. I was hoping to get an ADR at Le Cellier post-marathon, but they've apparently already dried up. I've got a Space 220 reservation for now, instead.

SAFD: I'll be going solo this year too - I'm actually going to be doing something very similar. I have a split stay so my ADRs for Thursday/ Friday opened today and I booked Geo82 for Friday night. I'm hoping to get Geo82 for Sunday night post marathon celebration when the rest of my window opens tomorrow. If I get it I'll switch into Via Napoli on Friday. Other than that I will likely wing it based on what I'm feeling.

BTW, we did Space 220 last year for the post marathon celebration. DS and I splurged and upgraded to the Ribeye. Certainly was not lacking for post-marathon protein intake

 

[RuntheMouse]

SAFD: We don’t do a lot of table service, it gets to be too much for us. I did go ahead and grab 2 Geo-82 reservations for MW because we really love it there. Also got a Yak & Yeti lunch reservation for after Up Close with Rhinos. We might be the only one with zero interest in Beak & Barrel so I didn’t grab that.

We have 2 more ADR windows for the remainder of our trip but I doubt I’ll try for anything else.

 

[JackosinDIS]

SAFD: we are going heavy on table service, as we have friends coming with us (their first time to Disney!). Going for Yak & Yeti after my 10k, Ohanas on the Saturday, and Chef Arts for brunch after marathon (if DH finishes in time…). We’re also going to be hitting the parks every day to show them round, so have Beak and Barrel, Ogas and a few others. Think I’ll need to do another few 10ks when I get home to shift the weight!

 

[Erika10021]

SAFD: We have found that the food tastes better after a half marathon and amazing after a marathon! We are planning on Kona Cafe brunch after the half and Steakhouse 21 for dinner after the marathon. We always make way more ADRs than we ever use, usually canceling two or three because we are less ambitious when actually there.

We have done club level for race weekends and that is my favorite.

 

[DisneyParrothead]

SAFD: if I’m with a group, we’re ADR heavy since we do parks. I’ll be doing Princess solo and since this is my fourth consecutive Princess Weekend, I’m not doing any park time. As such, I’m focused on restaurants on Open Table. So far I have Wine Bar George and Il Mulino, and I’m waiting on Rosa’s booking window to open for that weekend. It’s very relaxing knowing I won’t have to be awake at 4am my time to battle for ADRs.

 

[Herding_Cats]

SAFD:
We usually do a few ADRs, and just go on vibes for the rest of the meals. We are staying in a 1br this trip, so I'm planning on having breakfast stuff in the room, and a few mostly-premade things for other meals. Those will be things I know we like and don't bother my stomach and may include the chicken alfredo and street taco dinners from costco. I have a generic grocery order list of things we purchase every year, and have gotten that pretty dialed in as far as what we actually use, and how much to get.

Since DD is coming with us this year, we picked out a couple of sit-down places that we think she will enjoy, coupled with places we really enjoy or haven't gotten around to trying yet.

This year we have booked: Beak and Barrel, Raglan Road (DD will love the dancing), Sanaa (for the bread service), Boathouse (because DH wants to try it), and Whispering Canyon Cafe (because DD will love the antics.) We're also planning on eating at Nomad Lounge in AK one day, and possibly making a stop at Oga's.

I've avoided scheduling a sit-down for Sunday night since I'm assuming we will have some leftovers to snack on, and this past MW we also ended up with a basketball zoom meeting during our dinner reservation time coupled with the fact that I wasn't ready to eat yet, so I pushed the res. back and hour and their software didn't keep and and it was kind of a mess. Marathon day is always very odd for when I will feel like eating versus how early I want to go to bed.

I find a lot of the QS to be lacking in the parks, or heavy on the fried items, so I have a hard time with just eating in the parks based on wherever we happen to be.

This past MW we also did a monorail crawl (was supposed to be with BIL/SIL but they had to cancel their trip last minute) that was really fun, but definitely not something I'm interested in doing with a 6 year old this year. We are already trying to come up with plans to keep her busy during DATW because the girl has no chill.

 

[accm]

SAFD: It really depends on the trip. Most trips we'll make either no ADRs or one ADR. For marathon weekend, since it's a longer trip, we'll usually make a few ADRs

If any of your stay is at BLT I’ll happily take a couple of mugs from you

I'll be checking in to BLT on the 7th! Send me a message closer to the date and we can coordinate!

This is so nice of you!! We’re doing a split stay between Coronado/Rivera/Yacht, we’d love to take 2 off your hands!

Not sure your date, but I'll be at BWV from the 3rd to the 7th, and then moving to BLT.

 

[Barca33Runner]

SAFD: Traditionally we have gone very heavy on ADRs while running Dopey; we were looking to lock in meal times between 4 and 5 PM and had a ton of restaurants that were new to us and we wanted to try. Recently, and for this coming MW, we have been much more relaxed. There are not as many “new”places anymore, we aren’t going to the parks heavily, and the quick service at Disney Springs has jumped to a level that we feel fairly comfortable without reservations. If we can’t walk up for table service, I guess we have to slum it at eet or Polite Pig or any number of others we like, darn. We’re also off-site, so we will be making our own dinners some nights.

This year, we’re doing something at Disney Springs on Wednesday after the Expo. No reservation planned. Thursday we’re at Epic Universe. Friday we’re having dinner at a Greek restaurant in Orlando. Saturday we’re are trying a “new” place with brunch at Summer House on the Lake (reserved through OpenTable). Our post-Marathon celebration we are planning on going back to Boatwright’s, which has been our tradition since staying at POR for our first marathon and not having the ability to go any farther . Our recovery has gotten better over the years, but it’s still a tradition. We have nothing planned for Monday other than the After Hours event at MK. Might try to make a reservation for something at one of the MK monorail resorts before continuing on to the park.

 

[JackosinDIS]

I'll be checking in to BLT on the 7th! Send me a message closer to the date and we can coordinate!

Fabulous thank you! I am checking in on 6th so will message you 7th. Very kind of you!

 

[PrincessV]

SAFD: MW eating has always been a challenge for me, but was made MUCH easier the years I rented a unit at Wyndham Bonnet Creek with a full kitchen so I could mostly prepare and eat my own meals. Other than that, I bring my own breakfast and snack items, eat offsite when I can (thanks Panera!), and rely on a few QS places in WDW where I know I can get things that work for me. My groups of running friends used to do a big group ADR for marathon day dinner, but one year we just didn’t pull it together and instead some of us met up at Cosmic Ray’s… I never went back to TS for marathon dinner after that! Those were easily the best fries I’ve ever had in my life. And not sitting at a meal for a couple hours after doing Dopey was much nicer, too.

 

[AZMermaid]

SAFD- my ADR day is tomorrow so we’ll see! We are hoping to book something carby for the day before the marathon and something delicious for afterwards. My friend really wants to get massages Sunday afternoon. I’m not sure we’ll get in, but if so we’ll be looking for dinner at Poly or Grand Floridian.