For four weekends a year, Disney World opens its gates early, letting thousands of people run through the parks, earn medals, and get their weekly miles. Because it happens so early in the morning, runDisney almost feels like a secret club you might not even know exists unless you’re driving around Disney World property at 2 AM.
©Disney
With so many extra people going on Disney World trips at the same time, are the crowds worse? What are the wait times? Are there wall-to-wall crowds of people? The Disney Wine & Fine Half Marathon Weekend just passed, and we’re diving into the crowds to see if it’s busier.
We generally recommend avoiding runDisney weekends if you can, since you don’t want to run into crowds of people if you don’t have to. EPCOT hosts the start and finish of the races, and it sometimes opens late, which can throw a wrench in your plans. For this past weekend, the park opened at 10 AM instead of 9 AM.
EPCOT
While we walked around EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom, we didn’t see many people, which was a bit odd. Now, don’t get us wrong, the parks were pretty busy with long wait times, but we’re not sure it was because of the runners or just because weekends have been busier lately. We were looking for fans with medals on their running gear, but we struggled to find them.
Rope Drop crowds
It’s a big tradition to head to the parks afterward (well, maybe more sleep and breakfast after running at 2 AM, then off to the parks) and take some cool photos in your medals. It can happen all weekend, but Medal Monday is also a big event.
Crowds
We were looking for runners, and trust us, we were, but we really didn’t see them. We saw normal Rope Drop crowds and an overall busy EPCOT, but that’s about it. We honestly expected more, but the lines everywhere felt normal for this time of year, which is typically pretty busy since it’s almost Halloween and we’re heading into the winter months.
Magic Kingdom
This is only the first race weekend of the season, and this time they opened more 5k slots, allowing more people to sign up. The rest of the weekends for the season include:
- 2027 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend: January 6th to 10th
- 2027 Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend: February 25th to March 1st
- 20277 runDisney Springtime Surprise Weekend: April 8th to 11th
©Disney
The rest of the season is already sold out, but it’s good to start looking forward to next year for more options. Could this be a fluke, and the parks not be as busy as we thought? Yep! It could also be affected since this is already a busy time of year. We wouldn’t be surprised if the crowds pick up for the next few races.
Make sure you keep following Disney Food Blog for more tips and tricks on how to have the best Disney World vacation yet.
I WON A RUNDISNEY RACE — HERE’S WHAT YOU ACTUALLY GET
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Did you run this weekend? Do you think the parks were busier? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
