Disney Princess 10k recap 2024

A look at the Disney Princess 10k this year, and my experience running it:

I’m really going to try and keep up with my RunDisney recaps going forward! I will admit that I sadly did not recap a good chunk of the races I did in 2022 and 2023 due to just being very overwhelmed in work and in life. But I managed to get done the Wine and Dine half marathon recap for 2023, and I’m going to keep the momentum going!

Because the next time I was back for a RunDisney event was less than a month ago, when I ran the Disney Princess 10k (by the way – when did they change the name from Enchanted 10k to Princess 10k? I feel like that may have subtly happened a few years ago and I never noticed. I did know that they changed the challenge name awhile ago, but this one tripped me up a little!).

I did also do the Princess half marathon this year for the challenge, but I’ll get to the details of that one in another post.

Princess race weekend is, of course, themed after the princesses, and they typically pick a specific princess to represent each race. This year the 10k was all about Tangled. This means you usually see a lot of people in Tangled costumes of some sort, but I try to avoid the theme since there are so many (plus, I’ve already done a Rapunzel running costume). I like to just pick a random princess I haven’t done yet, but now that I’ve done so many princess races I’m running out of choices!

However, there are still a few more well-known princesses I haven’t hit yet, including one you might not typically think of – Giselle from Enchanted!

And so there I was at 2:30am putting on my princess outfit and heading down to the race bus so I could get to Epcot. I wish that’s all I could say about this part of the recap, but alas, there is more story to be told here.

Because I should be saying “I got on the bus, and then arrived at Epcot.” That is not what I will be saying, however.

If you have done RunDisney before, you probably know that transportation can be, quite frankly, a bit of a nightmare. And not in the traffic sense (though we’ll get to that at the end of my half marathon recap…), but in the “the bus drivers often don’t know where they’re going” sense. Or “the bus system does not seem to be well organized and a lot of time will pass without a bus and people start to panic” sense.

I managed to get myself outside and waiting for the bus at 3:12am. The bus showed up at 3:21am, which feels like a really long time when you’re worrying about getting to the race on time, how you’re going to run, etc., but it was really a reasonable amount of time.

I was staying at Wilderness Lodge, and the bus was maybe 1/3 filled when we got on it. I knew it shared a bus loop for the races with Fort Wilderness, so that made sense. There was still room for everyone waiting so I figured we’d be in Epcot in 10 or so minutes and good to go!

But our bus pulled out and went in the opposite direction of Epcot. I realized they must also stop at Contemporary Resort for the 10k (in fact, most of the park buses I used during this trip shared with Contemporary). So at 3:28am we were pulling up at the Contemporary.

Annoying, but fine. However, there was already a race bus at the Contemporary. So our bus pulled behind it, sat there for a minute or two, and then just left. At least we were moving towards Epcot now!

…or were we? Because ten minutes later, at 3:40am, we’re BACK AT WILDERNESS LODGE. The bus driver apparently had no idea where he was going. Or was it just so early that he forgot he didn’t bring us to Epcot? Either way, runners were pulling up their phone GPS, our driver was talking to the gate attendant at Wilderness Lodge, and then finally we’re back on the road in the right direction.

We see the gates of Epcot, yay! But then – our driver does not take the correct turn where the buses are supposed to go, and instead follows the cars (which is very slow moving traffic). Again runners panic, shouting at our driver he missed the turn. And so our bus driver decides it’s a good time to go off-roading, and turns the bus through the grass median to get back on track.

Illegal? Maybe. The right choice when you have a bus full of angry runners? I think so. We were off the bus close to 4am, so the whole thing took about an hour, but I made it! And I can also say this was only my third worst RunDisney transportation experience.

After that epic tale, it was actually time to get ready to run a 10k! I was in corral B and managed to get myself there around 4:15, did a little stretching, and then we got ready to go. I started around 5:07am and took off, trying to get myself in a comfortable pace and keeping my eyes peeled for characters, of course!

My first mile was quite a good bit faster than I was planning, but for RunDisney I find it important to get ahead of people who might be taking it easier during the race for my own safety (and frustration). I settled into a more comfortable pace after the first mile, and also passed by some characters which I chose not to stop for. Mulan and Moana were the first ones I saw.

Something interesting I noticed during this race weekend was that a lot of the character stops seemed to have 2 different characters switching out – so the ones I saw were not necessarily the ones someone else might have seen. They’ve done this sort of thing in the past, but the part that was more unusual was the fact that these characters were usually completely different, and from different films.

For instance, in past races I’ve seen Belle and the Beast switch out. But this time it was totally different characters (like Pocahontas and Snow White), and it seemed to be almost every character stop. So I’ll do my best to report the characters I saw, but other runners may have had very different character experiences!

My first stop was for Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame. I believe this was in between miles 2 and 3, and she may have switched out with Belle. You don’t see her very often! At some point after that I also passed by Maleficent and Jasmine.

Then, after about 3.5 miles, we finally entered a park! The 10k route this year had us going to Hollywood Studios, but I have to admit this was somewhat disappointing. We were barely in Hollywood Studios at all before we were out of it – we entered by Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, past Rock N Roller Coaster, and up Sunset Boulevard a little – but exiting about halfway down the street. I wish we could have at least run through Hollywood Studios a little more!

The next part of the course goes on the walking path from Hollywood Studios to the Boardwalk area. This is a fairly narrow path, and this part of the race can get a little congested, but it wasn’t too bad for me at that time.

Once we hit the Boardwalk there were lots of spectators… and another character stop! With a shorter line, I decided it was time for another photo so I posed with Lady Tremaine and the Stepsisters. They’re quite funny, and now that we know they won’t be returning to dinner at 1900 Park Faire, I’m glad I grabbed this photo.

We then ran up the Boardwalk and to Epcot (not all the way around the Boardwalk – so we didn’t go past Beach Club or Yacht Club). I saw another character stop with a sign that said “Mirabel or Raya”. It was Mirabel when I ran by, and as much as I love her I’ve gotten some recent photos so I kept running.

Then it was into Epcot… again, for what felt like a very short time. We entered I believe by Canada, then headed towards Spaceship Earth before turning past Connections, in the direction of Mission: Space, where we exited the park. While in Epcot I saw two more character stops – Asha and Mickey.

We had a little bit more backstage running before we finished the race, and I saw an usual character without a wait so I figured, why not grab a photo! Her sign said “Ivana Dream.” From what I can gather, she’s a character the Disney parks created who appears at conferences, races, and other events. I hear she’s sassy and hilarious, and from my less than 30 seconds with her I’d agree – she pointed to my water bottle and asked if the vodka helped me run faster. 😂

Right after my visit with Ivana, I was nearing the finish line, with the 2024 Princess 10k complete. I got my medal and then went to have a celebration drink!

Normally I get the specialty beer, but I was somewhat disappointed this time to find that they had a specialty hard cider instead. It was called Berrytale, made by 81 Bay Brewing Company (I believe the specialty beers used to be through Playlinda). They called it a strawberry shortcake hard cider, so I decided to try it anyway. It was… fine. I do miss having a real specialty beer!

While hanging around at the finish area I decided to get some character photos as well. I really like that they have them at the finish line so that you can still get some characters without worrying about it affecting your race time. They had all of the princesses (and most of their princes) who were part of the race theme this year.

First I decided to grab and photos with Tiana and Naveen, since Princess and the Frog is one of my all-time favorite movies and they’re one of my favorite Disney couples! I also stopped for Rapunzel and Flynn, since this 10k was Tangled themed.

After that I decided it was time for me to get back on the bus to Wilderness Lodge so I could shower and nap before some time in Animal Kingdom.

Overall it was a pretty good race (once the bus finally got me there!). I was happy with how many characters they had out and who they were. And the weather was pretty great too, as it was around 55-60 degrees (still humid though!). I’m still just a bit disappointed in the course though. I believe this is the same as last year’s, which is a variation of 2022. But in the “before-days,” the Princess 10k had one of my favorite courses. You’d run through most of World Showcase and around the whole Boardwalk. It was beautiful and great, and maybe they’ll get us back there someday.

Characters at the 2024 Disney Princess 10k (as best as I can remember):

• Mulan
• Moana
• Pocahontas / Snow White (?)
• Esmeralada / Belle (?)
• Maleficent
• Jasmine
• Lady Tremaine + stepsisters
• Mirabel / Raya
• Asha
• Mickey
• Ivana Dream

Have you ever run the Disney Princess 10k? Which characters would you stop for?