Princess Half Marathon Weekend 2025 (Feb 20-24 2025)

[disneyrunnergrl]

One vendor has closed entirely, fluffy fizzies, and I will be very sad to not see them at the expo. They had great glitter lipgloss. But there are others out there.

I’m so bummed about this! I don’t use the glitter lips but i love the bounce back body butter. I’m on my last jar and if I had known this at Springtime Surprise I would have stocked up

 

[ClareCGlitter]

Hi! Question for folks that have signed up "late" for races before when availability changes after initial sell outs. I've signed up to get notifications for race alerts with Team Run Disney. I've already seen that the half has had availability a few times. I think I'd really like to do the challenge, but I'm wondering if this is realistic, and I should just sign up for the half when I have the chance. Does anyone here have experience doing this? Were you able to sign up for popular things like challenges late? If I sign up for the half and the challenge becomes available, is it possible to upgrade and just pay the difference? Thanks for any info anyone can provide!

 

[azrivest]

Hi! Question for folks that have signed up "late" for races before when availability changes after initial sell outs. I've signed up to get notifications for race alerts with Team Run Disney. I've already seen that the half has had availability a few times. I think I'd really like to do the challenge, but I'm wondering if this is realistic, and I should just sign up for the half when I have the chance. Does anyone here have experience doing this? Were you able to sign up for popular things like challenges late? If I sign up for the half and the challenge becomes available, is it possible to upgrade and just pay the difference? Thanks for any info anyone can provide!

Anything's possible

Availability for the challenge might pop up. I've seen it for other race weekends. All races usually open up one time or another, but there's never a 100% guarantee.

You can sign up for the half and, from your runDisney account, upgrade your registration to the challenge when it becomes available. But the timeframe to do that is the same as when race availability comes up, meaning really short. You'd have to act really quickly to upgrade to the challenge while it's open.

In the end, it depends on if you don't want to risk it and you want to sign up for the half just to make sure you at least get one race. Or if it's the challenge or bust, you might want to wait for that notification from Telegram.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Hi! Question for folks that have signed up "late" for races before when availability changes after initial sell outs. I've signed up to get notifications for race alerts with Team Run Disney. I've already seen that the half has had availability a few times. I think I'd really like to do the challenge, but I'm wondering if this is realistic, and I should just sign up for the half when I have the chance. Does anyone here have experience doing this? Were you able to sign up for popular things like challenges late? If I sign up for the half and the challenge becomes available, is it possible to upgrade and just pay the difference? Thanks for any info anyone can provide!

Disclaimer: I haven't actually done this myself.

I'm assuming when you say "alerts with Team Run Disney" that you mean telegram/X with the bot that is set up to send out notifications when registrations open up. It sounds like you aren't signed up for anything right now, so with that in mind there are a couple of options.

-Wait for the challenge to open and only sign up for that. It's an all-or-nothing strategy.

-Sign up for the 10k or the HM when one of them opens up. That way you are at least running something in the event that the challenge does NOT re-open (although history tells us that it will open up a few times with an unknown number of registration spaces.) These spots tend to go extremely fast. Having your CC info saved on your preferred device is going to help you get through that part of things more quickly.

THEN

Wait for the challenge to re-open and either upgrade or just register for the challenge. If you go with the latter, you would then need to email rundisney about your duplicate registration and they would process a refund, less a fee of about $40, for the single race.

If you're going to have a POT to submit (and you definitely don't NEED to have one) and it's after September 1st, you would need to have that information available to you when you're doing the registration. This will likely slow you down, and it may just be worth it to pick the first non-POT finish time if you would otherwise have a POT to submit (which is a 2:30 or faster HM.) Again, submitting a POT is optional and may not be the best strategy with how quickly these tend to sell out.



The other option is to find a charity with challenge bibs and fundraise. This option isn't for everyone, but it's definitely something that a lot of runners do in order to avoid the stress of registration day, or trying to snag a spot during the re-openings.

 

[prncssjas]

The other option is to find a charity with challenge bibs and fundraise. This option isn't for everyone, but it's definitely something that a lot of runners do in order to avoid the stress of registration day, or trying to snag a spot during the re-openings.

Yes, if this is financially feasible, it is an excellent option. I chose to do this for the challenge because I did not want to deal with the stress of registration and it felt nice to send money to charity (instead of ALL of it to Disney). I found a wonderful charity with what I felt was a *very* reasonable fundraising amount ($600) for the fairytale challenge. So it worked out well and they already sent me my registration link. I would totally work with them again. Good luck @ClareCGlitter , I hope you manage to get in!

 

[ande2428]

Happy 6 months until race day for all of us running the 10k!

 

[DisneyParrothead]

As a reminder, get your POT submissions in! I got the general email reminder today

 

[azrivest]

Friendly reminder Running Royals!

As DisneyParrothead wrote on Monday, today's the last day to put in your POT in your race registration.

172 days to go until the Expo!

 

[nostalgic4disney]

Speaking of the expo - for non club members, about what time do you think would be the average queue time? I’m trying to figure out if we want to go to HS after hours the night before and having to wake up early

 

[azrivest]

Speaking of the expo - for non club members, about what time do you think would be the average queue time? I’m trying to figure out if we want to go to HS after hours the night before and having to wake up early

Do you mean what time to join the VQ or what time you expect to be called?

At WDW, the time to join the VQ is usually 8:30 and the Expo opens to non club members at 10:00.

As for the average wait time, I've always been pretty lucky and gotten a group <20 so I've been called in the first hour. Anyway, I like to go to the Expo as early as I can so I'm there before my group opens. I just do other things like shop at the Vendor Booths while I wait.

it's all up to you if getting first dibs on the official event merch is important or not. By the end of the afternoon on the first day, the VQ becomes unnecessary to enter the merch area, so no need to wake up early just to snag a VQ group in that case.

 

[nostalgic4disney]

Do you mean what time to join the VQ or what time you expect to be called?

At WDW, the time to join the VQ is usually 8:30 and the Expo opens to non club members at 10:00.

As for the average wait time, I've always been pretty lucky and gotten a group <20 so I've been called in the first hour. Anyway, I like to go to the Expo as early as I can so I'm there before my group opens. I just do other things like shop at the Vendor Booths while I wait.

it's all up to you if getting first dibs on the official event merch is important or not. By the end of the afternoon on the first day, the VQ becomes unnecessary to enter the merch area, so no need to wake up early just to snag a VQ group in that case.

Thank you that helps!

 

[patty22407]

any guess for date of medal reveal?

 

[fatmanatee]

Last year they were posted on October 9.

 

[1lilspark]

any guess for date of medal reveal?

Sometimes between now & wine & dine

 

[The running raven]

This will be my first 1/2, but like 8?ish rundisney event. I usually stay at the Caribbean for races, but should I change for the half? Any suggestions on which hotel to do?

 

[DisneyParrothead]

This will be my first 1/2, but like 8?ish rundisney event. I usually stay at the Caribbean for races, but should I change for the half? Any suggestions on which hotel to do?

If you’re comfortable staying at CB then I’d say go for it. If you want to save your legs a little bit, you could spring for a preferred room to be closer to the front. You really can’t go wrong at any of the hotels for race weekends

 

[Spetch]

So it looks like my first half and first in-person rundisney event will be a solo trip. Does anyone have any recommendations for dining for the 20th and 21st? I am staying on property and normally would just go to the Disney family favorites. With this being solo I'm thinking of trying some new places that some of our picky eaters would never try.

Here is some of were I have been:

California Grill
Ohana
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Steakhouse 71
Jiko
Boma
Art Smith's
Paddlefish
50's Prime time
Mama Melrose
Teppan Edo

Was considering maybe even doing a small carb load on both these days, but don't know the best places on property to do that. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Disneyhanna]

So it looks like my first half and first in-person rundisney event will be a solo trip. Does anyone have any recommendations for dining for the 20th and 21st? I am staying on property and normally would just go to the Disney family favorites. With this being solo I'm thinking of trying some new places that some of our picky eaters would never try.

Here is some of were I have been:

California Grill
Ohana
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Steakhouse 71
Jiko
Boma
Art Smith's
Paddlefish
50's Prime time
Mama Melrose
Teppan Edo

Was considering maybe even doing a small carb load on both these days, but don't know the best places on property to do that. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

I loved Shiki-Sai in Epcot on my last trip, which looks up your alley based on your list. You can always order some extra rice to carbo load!

 

[Zutroy]

So it looks like my first half and first in-person rundisney event will be a solo trip. Does anyone have any recommendations for dining for the 20th and 21st? I am staying on property and normally would just go to the Disney family favorites. With this being solo I'm thinking of trying some new places that some of our picky eaters would never try.

Skipper’s Canteen in MK is probably the best restaurant in the park. Last time I went I got the fish of the day with a side of their coconut rice and it was amazing. Plus, if you like the Jungle Cruise or S.E.A. lore, the decor and atmosphere is top-notch. Browsing the library is one of my favorite things to do, lol.

Honestly, if I was solo I would probably hit up quick service places. They just did a complete redo of the Pecos Bill menu and it looks pretty good. Chicken and waffles at Sleepy Hollow. Space hotdog at Ronto Roasters. Satuli Canteen is always great for a nice carb/protein meal.

 

[Spetch]

thanks for the info. Didn’t realize sushi is something potentially positive to have, gonna have to make my way to epcot