My First Wine & Dine Weekend
I fell in love with RunDisney in 2018 at Princess weekend and before I had even left, I was trying to sign up for another race. Within just a couple weeks after the race weekend, I was registered for Wine and Dine weekend (that I actually booked through a travel agent back when agents could sell race packages with bibs!). This time I knew I wanted to participate in all 3 races. And what was even more exciting- my bestie was coming back with me and she was going to do the challenge this time (10k and half marathon).
We booked Pop Century as our resort for this trip because we wanted to be smart with funding. Pop is a very fun resort and very popular with RunDisney athletes. It can be a great option if you want to stay on Disney property for a lower price. The Skyliner was not open yet when we stayed there and I have to be honest that I did not love this resort for a RunDisney race weekend.
While the buses were easy and there are lots of food options at the food court, the rooms are smaller, there is no hot tub, the resort is pretty large (so definitely book a preferred room if you are an athlete) and it can be very loud especially when it’s so popular for families. If you go in knowing this information, this can still be a great resort choice, but these are things that have become a priority for me in my future race weekends.
I did the 5k solo during this race weekend and this is back when they did the Wine and Dine 5k through Animal Kingdom. I have to say, that was one of my favorite courses. I LOVED that the 5k for this weekend was different than the other race weekends and Animal Kingdom is BEAUTIFUL in the dark. I felt like I was flying during that race. I was in Corral A and I actually had to sit and after I had finished, I had to sit on the bus and wait for others to start so we could cross the course and get back to our resort. I wore ears for the first time in a race and quickly learned that the official Disney park ears were a “no” for me during races because they are too tight/uncomfortable.
For the 10k and half, I was with my bestie. We leaned into costumes a bit more this time around so we did Ariel and Ursula for the 10k (Sebastian was the theme) and then we did 2 different Belle’s for the half marathon which was Lumiere and Cogsworth. The 10k was pretty smooth sailing and fun. For the half though, the weather was very humid and it rained during part of the race. We did still go through Animal Kingdom for the half which I thought was very cool but during the course, my friend and I ended up separated and it took a while to find each other again. That was pretty nerve wracking because it was her first half marathon and I wanted to make sure she finished (she did!). This was the race weekend where I learned that I like to do photos with characters before the race each morning because we took photos after and I was so sweaty and gross that I don’t really like those photos.
The other big thing I learned during this race weekend was not all travel agents are created equal. Again, we had booked with a travel agent who sold us our bibs in our package. But the agent offered zero support outside of booking and I had to contact them multiple times to get them to process our final payment (thankfully, I knew when that was due). They were a recommended name in the RunDisney facebook groups so I was very disappointed at the lack of support we received and the lack of professionalism. But this is an important reminder that most travel agents are independent contractors under a host agency and they can run their business how they want. Many people likely booked with this agent because of the package with the bibs and didn’t know that there are so many other agents that would provide more support including information like how to navigate the expo, when proof of time is due and even help book dining reservations.
While travel agents are no longer able to book bibs (there are some circumstances where agencies are able to do this for international guests but this is not normal and our agency is not able to do this), I still love to help guest with their RunDisney experiences. If you are considering a RunDisney race, reach out to me today to learn how we can work together to create your best RunDisney racecation.
