Hello and welcome to my runDisney Princess Half Marathon Weekend 2025 trip report! I’m returning to the blow-by-blow diary format for this trip. Read all the posts in this report here. Onward!
My Princess Half Marathon Weekend trip began as they always do: at the airport. I arrived early to do a little work at the gate, which I then continued aboard my plane with $8 Southwest wifi. Hot tip: it is NOT fast.
MEARS MADNESS
My flight happened to arrive about 30 minutes early, and upon texting fellow princess Becky, I discovered she was still at MCO. Yay, trip buddy! On the other hand: boo, she’d been stuck in line for the Mears bus for about an hour. In fact, I was able to disembark, get my luggage, travel from the A side to the B side, AND use the bathroom, and I was nonetheless able to meet up with her in the same Mears bus line. Peak efficiency…….? Becky theorizes there are simply not enough people traveling to Ft. Wilderness, but how many are frequenting the Disney Springs area non-Disney resorts? Seems sus to me.
Anyway, they piled us with a couple other groups onto one of their vans instead of a bus… and of all the groups we were the last hotel stop. So, uh, we might just go with Uber next time. Unless, of course, Magical Express comes back? Bob? Bob???
Despite our late afternoon arrival, our Ft. Wilderness Cabin was not yet ready for us. Ah well. Instead we checked our luggage and picked up a bus to the Fit for a Princess expo.
PRINCESS HALF MARATHON WEEKEND RACE EXPO
We wound up spinning by the official Princess merch tent first, where a very pedantic Cast Member refused to let me in with Becky’s Virtual Queue time BUT finessed another group into letting me in with their extra space? A curious approach.
There was a surprisingly long line just to enter the official merch area even at this late-ish time. I’d say we waited around 15 minutes before finally entering the sales floor. I picked some things up and put them down, but ultimately made no purchases of my own. As you know, if you want any of the GOOD stuff you’ll need to be there first thing in the morning.
I will say there was little to no line for the Fairy Tale Challenge 19.3 photo op, which was great! I love minimal lines!
From there we headed over to bib pickup, which had little to no line at least. We quickly grabbed our bibs and then headed over to the exhibitor’s hall.
After picking up my race shirts, I turned my attention to my next goal: a Wetzel’s pretzel. Like at WDW Marathon Weekend, there was an outpost on the expo floor, but the guy there was out of pretzels. Ah well; I instead headed up to the main Wetzel’s location by the entrance. They were understandably slammed, and it was another 15 minutes before I had my pretzel. Totally worth it, though – a wonderful carb-loading treat!
Becky and I browsed the expo a bit, but there wasn’t anything I really needed this time around so I managed to keep my wallet shut. Honestly, I kinda liked it during Dopey when I revisited the expo at a less busy time. I find Expo Day One a bit too crowded to have a pleasant and encouraging shopping experience.
TAKE ME TO DISNEY SPRINGS
Thus I was ready to go soon enough after. Here we parted ways – Becky headed to the parks, and I headed off to Disney Springs… slowly. I thought I was being all clever taking the bus to Old Key West, but the boat launch to Disney Springs was inexplicably shut down. Curses! I had to take a regular bus like a plebe.
My first stop was Gideon’s Bakehouse, as one of my little race weekend pleasures is buying a slice of cake to work on after my runs. There was no virtual queue in place; I wound up waiting, oh, let’s say twenty minutes before slipping inside.
I soon exited with cake and cookies for all my trip buddies! (Fear not; cake reviews are forthcoming.) I should have been onward and upward to my next mission, but here I was waylaid. While waiting in the Gideon’s line some Irish musicians had started performing at the outdoor Raglan Road bar across the way. I’m a big fan of Irish folk music, so I planted myself on concrete seating area and indulged myself in listening to the rest of their set. They did “Galway Girl” AND “Whiskey in the Jar,” so I had no complaints.
I couldn’t leave, however, without the traditional dip into Uniqlo. Normally I wouldn’t dream of stepping foot inside a Uniqlo without Erika, but I had a specific purchase in mind. Here is the picture I sent to Erika to communicate my forlorn state walking into Uniqlo without her. It feels WRONG!
The weather for the 10K was predicted to be chilly; I was hoping I could pick up another Airism long sleeve crop a la the one I bought for the 2025 WDW Marathon. Alas, my size was not available in the white I needed for my outfit. Instead I wound up with some sort of thermal white shirt that promised to keep me warm with “Japan technology.” I didn’t know what that meant but I was willing to give it the ol’ college try.
Having accepted my consolation prize, I picked up the bus to Ft. Wilderness and found myself at the Outpost (main lobby/drop off at the front of the resort) shortly after.
FT. WILDERNESS MUST BE EXPLORED!
By providence, Becky and I happened to converge upon Ft. Wilderness again within minutes of each other. I embarked upon retrieving our luggage while Becky headed off to secure our golf cart.
Oh, beloved golf cart! While Ft. Wilderness does have an internal bus system, I would HIGHLY recommended renting a golf cart if you can swing it. It’s not cheap, but it’s not bad split between friends and it gives you SO much more agency as you move across Ft. Wilderness’s sprawling grounds. I’ll explain more in my Ft. Wilderness-as-runDisney-resort review, but for now just know that I endorse golf carts with all my heart.
And so we finally became acquainted with our adorable little cabin. Again, deeper review to come, but it’s a definite upgrade from a regular resort room! More counter space, more mirrors, more beds, more space, full kitchen. Love love love.
We spent a bit of time chilling in the room until bedtime rolled around. Serendipitously, she wanted the top bunk and I wanted the bottom. We are the world’s greatest Disney roommates.
I slipped off to dreamland secure in the knowledge that I would soon be experiencing the Festival of the Arts for the first time. That’s right, baby – next installment we’re going to Epcot!
Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Threads @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!
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