Disney- Wine and Dine Race Weekend 2024

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Wine and Dine Race Weekend

By now, you know we LOVE the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival! We try to go yearly at least once but usually end up going multiple times because there is so much to try.  But did you know they also have a RunDisney Half Marathon weekend that accompanies the festival each year?

This is the second year in a row that we have participated in Wine and Dine Race Weekend, and I am so excited to share about our entire 2024 weekend experience! 

Every RunDisney race weekend starts at the Health and Fitness Expo.  The Walt Disney World RunDisney events have the Expo at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, which is larger than life.  The event kicks off all the excitement of a RunDisney weekend.

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Wine and Dine Health and Fitness Expo

RunDisney races require runners to attend the Health and Fitness Expo at least one day before their first event to collect their race bibs and shirts, which are included in the registration costs.  We were technically going to sit this race weekend out since we had such an unbelievable year with our trip to Japan, Springtime Surprise Weekend, my 40th Birthday celebration, and Disneyland Halloween Weekend, but we couldn’t resist the first and ONLY race they have ever themed to the Muppets, so we decided to join in for “just” the 5K.  Then, girl math said we had to make a whole weekend out of it!

The Expo always runs from the day before the first event until Saturday afternoon, the day before the last event of the weekend.  For example, a typical race weekend consists of the Expo starting on Thursday, the 5K on Friday, the 10K on Saturday, and the Half Marathon on Sunday. (Marathon weekend is Expo on Wednesday, 5K on Thursday, 10K on Friday, Half Marathon on Saturday, and the Full Marathon on Sunday).

Driving to the RunDisney Expo

We drove straight from the Tampa Bay area to ESPN Wide World of Sports on the opening day of the Expo and arrived just after it opened at 10 AM.  When you attend the Day One Expo, you must pack your patience because many people are rushing to get their Disney Race-cation started.  We usually account for being at the Expo on Day One for several hours, if not half the day, depending on what you want to do there.

While we drove that morning, we also joined the RunDisney Merchandise Virtual Queue, which is always required for Day One on the My Disney Experience App.  This is unnecessary if you attend the Expo on any other day.  You do have to be within 40 miles of the Expo to join the queue.  We don’t usually buy much of the merchandise but do enjoy looking at it.  However, we got a high queue number this time, meaning a very long wait time.  To make up for it, we also snagged a Virtual Queue for my favorite ride at Epcot – Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind! 

Wine and Dine Expo 2024

Once we arrived at ESPN, we headed straight to the State Farm Field House to collect our Race bibs. This is where you show the cast members your Expo Pass, which is emailed a few days prior, along with your ID. They do not allow you to pick up anyone’s bibs but your own.  This is the step where you also find out what corral you are placed in.  This time around, Mark got C, and I got D.  We planned to walk this race together and just have fun, so Mark dropped back a corral with me to stay together. You cannot move up a corral but can fall back to be with friends and family for these races. 

Once we had our bibs in hand, we headed to the Athletic Center next door and collected our race shirts and gear check bags, which also came with our registration fee.  Pro Tip – Wine and Dine Weekend and Marathon Weekend are always long-sleeved race shirts, while Princess Weekend and Springtime Surprise are always short-sleeved race shirts! 

The vendor expo is also held in the Athletic Center building. In this area, you can shop dozens of sports and health vendors selling everything from clothing, shoes, and running gear to supplements and first aid items. You can also meet Jeff Galloway and the Galloway running pacers.

The Expo also features special food and drink items that are themed after the race weekend, plus the famous RunDisney cups! IYKYK!  This year was the 15 year anniversary of Wine and Dine Race Weekend, and they featured items themed to Tiana, Remy, and The Swedish Chef! 

RunDisney Check-in Day

We accomplished everything we wanted to do at the Expo but sadly, we still had a two-hour virtual queue call-back time, so we decided to skip seeing the official RunDisney merchandise this year. Instead, we called our hotel to see if they would allow early check-in, and they said yes!  

We had been excited about this weekend for quite some time because we were staying at a resort we had never stayed in before- Shades of Green, a Walt Disney World Resort.

Shades of Green Resort

Shades of Green is an Armed Forces Recreation Center (AFRC) on Walt Disney World property. It offers a unique, value-oriented lodging experience exclusively for military service members, retirees, and their families – all within the magical Disney World bubble. 

We have been annual pass holders since 2016, and honestly, I didn’t even know this resort existed until I heard about it on the Rise and Run Podcast.  Since Mark is a Military Veteran, I knew we had to check it out.  To shorten this post, I will write a more detailed post about the entire resort soon.

Overall, we were highly impressed with our stay at Shades of Green for Wine and Dine Race Weekend. Like all Walt Disney World Resorts, the resort provided transportation to and from all the RunDisney events throughout the weekend, right from the lobby. It was a great place to stay for the value; we will keep it in mind for future events. Here is my full post about this resort! 

Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Once we checked into our room, cleaned up, changed into our Halloween outfits since it was, in fact, Halloween, and explored the grounds a bit, we headed to our park reservation of the day—Epcot! You didn’t think we could go to Wine and Dine weekend and not attend the Food and Wine Festival for a culinary trip around the world, did you? 

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening eating and drinking around the World Showcase at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival.  Plus, we rode my favorite ride – Guardians of the Galaxy, and got this epic attraction photo where you can see me capturing social media content when I can’t even see my phone or know what’s going on as the ride flings us backward. Always the best! 

It was a long but fantastic day, but it was a race weekend, so we had a 2 AM wake-up call.  We headed back to Shades of Green to get ready for the Muppets 5K the next day. 

Total for Day One:
Steps – 17,513
Miles- 7.58 miles

Wine and Dine Muppets 5K

Yep, every single time the alarm goes off at 2 AM, we question all our life choices.  But again… THE MUPPETS – so I threw on my Miss Piggy shirt, heart shaped sunglasses, sparkle skirt, and pink feather boa for the Muppets 5K and we were out of the room and on the bus by 2:50 AM.  The bus left for Epcot precisely at 3 AM and drove us directly to Epcot.  We cleared the security in a matter of minutes and were on our way to the staging area and corrals.

For the 5K, they had food and beverage options, a DJ, and true-to-the-race theme character photos with Chef Mickey and Minnie, Tiana, Remy, and the Muppet Chickens. The energy was like none other. Everyone was so excited to be back at Disney World for the first official race of the WDW RunDisney Season.  The costumes for this race were better than I have ever seen; everyone went all out for the Muppets.  

RunDisney Improvements at Wine and Dine

RunDisney must have streamlined some processes, hired new coordinators, or finally listened to runner feedback because this was the best RunDisney race experience we have ever had. This is saying something because we have participated in 7 Race weekends.  We were impressed by the organization, entertainment, corral setup, and efficiency of the runners moving over the start line. 

In the past, when I was in the last corral, I didn’t even cross the start line until over an hour after the A corral runners took off. For this 5K, Mark and I crossed the start line just 20 minutes past 5 AM—unbelievable! I genuinely hope they keep this system in place for future weekends. During a race in Florida, the more time runners have before the sun comes up, the better! 

The Muppets Themed 5K Race

Did I mention that this 5K race theme was The Muppets – lol.  Well, it was, and they went all out.  In the past, races have felt random, and very often, nothing to do with the overall theme was represented on the course or in the before and after entertainment, but not this time.  

Every single detail screamed The Muppets.  The big screens all had scenes specially recorded of all the muppets cheering on runners, silly banter, behind the scenes from Jim Hensen, and the music was nothing but classic Muppet songs and covers.

Between the music, entertainment, runner costumes, characters, and seeing Sweetums at the finish line, my face hurt from smiling.  It’s hard to describe what a morale and energy boost it is then seeing grown adults fan-Girling about seeing their favorite Disney and Muppet Characters or singing along to Muppet songs.  The amount of times we heard grown men shouting – OMG looks it’s (insert muppet name) was hilarious! It’s the greatest escape from the sometimes ugly reality we live in and this particular race will be hard to top in the future.  But you know we will try.

After we crossed the finish line and got our Swedish Chef medal and runner snack box, we returned to the buses.  The bus for Shades of Green is coupled with The Polynesian and The Grand Floridian.  We were at the third and final stop and were back at the hotel by 7 AM.  While hopping off the bus, we again joined the Guardians of the Galaxy virtual queue and snagged a boarding group for later that afternoon. Next, we grabbed breakfast sandwiches from the lobby before heading to the room to shower and crawl back into bed for a long nap.

Wine and Dine Weekend Day Two

We woke up, got ready for the day, and headed back to the parks around 2 PM. Just in time to continue eating and drinking around the World Showcase for our last visit to the 2024 Epcot Food and Wine Festival. This was our last chance to try everything we hadn’t tried yet and revisit a few of our favorites. We successfully tried every booth we wanted and only skipped a few this year. It was another fantastic festival, and I can’t wait for the next one! 

Of course, I had to wear my new Guardians of the Galaxy Minnie Ears and Cassette tape purse, which I picked up during our visit to Disney’s California Adventure. We ended the evening with another ride on Guardians and did some fun photo pass opportunities, along with a nightcap of mimosas under the Epcot lights—the perfect day.

Total for Day Two:
Steps – 22,288
Miles- 9.82 miles

Wine and Dine Weekend Day Three

Our last full day at Disney had us relaxing and sleeping in at the resort.  We took our sweet time getting ready for the day, and by the afternoon, we decided to kick it off with some retail therapy at all our favorite stores in Disney Springs.  

Naturally, we also got our favorite drinks from Splitsville and roamed the Springs until we were hungry for lunch.  It had been a little while since we visited Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar, which is an Indiana Jones-themed restaurant at Disney Springs, so we stopped in and ordered a couple of appetizers.  This place is genuinely underrated and always worth a visit – it was so good!

Lastly, I ordered one of my favorite South African wines from the to-go window at Wine Bar George, and we headed to the food truck area for another Rise and Run Podcast race weekend meet-up.  If you missed my story about this beautiful group of people – you can check it out in my last post. 

Unfortunately, it started to rain, so we hung around long enough to be in the group photo before we headed to the buses and on to our last park reservation of the weekend – Hollywood Studios.

Hollywood Studios

We spent the rest of the evening at Marks’s favorite park, Hollywood Studios, doing some of our favorite things. Our favorites include seeing what new photo pass magic shots they have, strolling around listening to old Hollywood music, hanging out in the muppet’s courtyard, strolling through Galaxy’s Edge at night, and enjoying the ultimate Disney Adult treats like the charcuterie board and giant pretzel from Baseline Taphouse.  

Since it was raining off and on, the park felt practically empty compared to what we are used to, so it was a fantastic night. We even rode one of the most popular rides in all the Disney parks, Rise of the Resistance, with less than a 20-minute wait.  

Hollywood Studios at Night

We ended the rainy evening by watching Hollywood Studios’ nighttime show – The Wonderful World of Animation- a projection and fireworks show presented at the Chinese Theater. It was our first time watching it. It was well done and an excellent option for anyone who wants a night show full of nostalgia but doesn’t want to fight the crowds at Fantasmic, Epcot, or Magic Kingdom for Happily Ever After. 

Once again, it was a magical weekend full of memories, accomplishments, and new experiences. Every time we plan a trip, whether for just one day, an entire weekend, or more, we always want to return for more. We never have the same experience twice, and the magic never fades. Until next time…. 

Total for Day Three:
Steps – 14,957
Miles- 6.42 miles

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