2025 Dopey Challenge Recap: 5k and Epcot

The 5k Race

Sleep is hard to come by during a Dopey Challenge, and I feel like it's especially difficult before the 5k. The mix of anticipation for the races ahead and the anxiety of missing your morning alarm (for real, I've had nightmares about missing a race from oversleeping) makes it hard to fall asleep, and I usually wake up a couple times to check time before I actually need to get up. On the morning of the 2025 WDW 5k, however, I woke up hearing my daughter tossing and turning in the other room of our Art of Animation family suite. Around 2am I got up to help her as she was sick to her stomach. Not off to a great start. But my wife got up to help her back into bed and I got my 9-year-old son up and ready for the 5k. We grabbed a couple quick snacks we brought from home, bundled up, and ambled our way to the bus.

Getting to Epcot and walking all the way to the starting line area, we were surrounded by other runners in layers of blankets jackets. My son and I had made custom T-shirts for the race, as I recalled being pretty warm in previous WDW race weekends. My son was the star from Wish, and I was a blue wish from the movie with a picture of my son and I running together and my daughters on the back (i.e., running with my son was my wish come true). We layered the 5k long sleeves underneath, and we each sported gloves and throwaway hoodies. I also wrapped up my son in a mylar blanket, and gave him a throwaway beanie hat (which he kept on the whole race and I wore for part of the 10k), and some Hot Hands. As cold as it was, my son never complained and seemed to take in the excitement of the atmosphere. We chose Pluto for our pre-race photo, and then made our way to Corral C.

The race got underway and we eventually got ourselves through the starting chute. I told my son to set the pace, and we started off jogging at a decent pace. We trained to jog for at least the first mile or so until we hit the first character stop, and after a very brief side stitch early on we cruised around into Epcot. The first character stop we passed was Mickey Mouse in a snazzy director outfit by Connections Cafe, and my son decided called out to stop. After a long line we got our photo and we were off again.

We skipped the next couple character stops, which turned out to be the Evil Queen/Dopey from Snow White and Pinocchio. Just as my son was raising his hand to signal he needed a quick walking break, we ran into Thumper from Bambi. I don't think I've seen Bambi since I was little, and I don't think my kids have ever seen it, but we stopped for the photo nonetheless. We continued on thinking we hit our last character stop, but just as we were getting ready to exit we spotted Jose and Panchito from The Three Caballeros. This line was long, and I got a kick out of seeing a couple other kids (including my own) sitting on nearby benches while everyone else waited in line. But he hopped up for the photo and we ran down the home stretch.

We turned the corner to see the choir singing and my son and I chugged along to the finish line. I cheered on my son as we crossed the finish line. We collected our medals and ended up keeping them on all day long. It was still dark and cold when we finished, so we got ourselves on the bus back to AoA. My wife and older daughter cheered us on as we got back to our room, and I was mostly relieved to see my daughter had bounced back from her earlier sickness. We threw on some jeans and headed right out to the Skyliner for a day at Epcot.

Epcot

We arrived through International Gateway just a few minutes before official Early Entry rope drop. We were right next to a long line for Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, but since we had a Lightning Lane for later in the day we decided to walk along the International Gateway to Frozen Ever After. We arrived to a big mass of people and learned the ride was not yet operating. Worried that we had wasted our time walking over, we almost followed the quickly-dispersing crowd away when the ride suddenly opened. We squeezed our way into the queue and walked right onto the ride. For my 19-month-old daughter it was her first Disney ride and she enjoyed everything, including the last little drop.

We slowly made our way to our first Lightning Lane, Journey Into Imagination, and we may have been the only ones on the ride at 9:30am. As soon as I tapped into the ride I saw availability for a 7pm Frozen Ever After and decided to go ahead and book it as I assumed we'd want to ride it again later. After riding Journey, my kids explored the interactive area for a while until all of a sudden Figment showed up. Just like Mickey the day earlier, my youngest took to Figment right away.

Love it. She kept the party going at our 10:15 breakfast at Garden Grill. My family love a good character breakfast, and Garden Grill quickly became one of our favorites. The food was great, and my kids loved the Mickey waffles, eggs, and cinnamon loaf. Rotating around Living with the Land was a fun touch, but the highlight is always the characters. My son got a few photos with his medal, and my youngest gave big hugs to Farmer Mickey, Pluto, and Chip and Dale. Dale even made sure to point out the similarity of his teeth and my older daughter's missing two front teeth. I know they're expensive, but I will always advocate for a character meal for young families.

After a filling meal, we headed to our next Lightning Lane at The Seas with Nemo & Friends. We spent a good amount of time exploring the awesome aquarium, letting the kids wander and enjoy the area. Eventually we moved along to check out the Journey of Water. Even though it was still pretty cold outside we still had fun with the interactive water elements. We were taking our time and around lunchtime it was time for our Lightning Lanes to Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind for me, my wife, and my son. We did the Rider Switch so my wife and I could both ride with my son, and then I took my daughters to a quiet spot nearby for popcorn. I noticed Asha from Wish was about to make an appearance, so my daughter changed into her Asha dress we brought along. My wife and son exited the ride with rave reviews (she was pregnant with my youngest the last time we visited Epcot), and I went to Cosmic Rewind while my wife took my daughter to see Asha.

The only other time I had ridden Cosmic Rewind was right after running the 2023 WDW Marathon on an empty stomach, so I was better prepared for it this time around. It really is a great rollercoaster, and my son had an awesome time riding back-to-back through the Rider Switch. We met back up with the rest of my family. My daughter loved meeting Asha, and I'm pretty sure she was one of the few girls that day dressed like Asha complete with a little wish star. We looped back through the World Showcase to France to get on our Ratatouille Lightning Lane. We made it through the ride (it's fun, but I don't love the screens), and I was starting to fade a bit so we hopped on the Skyliner back to our resort for a quick break. Just as we were getting back to the resort my mom and niece arrived to Pop Century. While I got to take a quick break in our resort room, my kids got their second wind to play with their cousin. I thought my son would be fading by the mid-afternoon, but he was somehow still going strong.

We headed back into Epcot as it started getting darker and colder, and we hopped from country to country in the World Showcase to stay warm. We shared a few pastries from Les Halles, I got barbecue from Regal Eagle, and we used our Frozen Ever After Lightning Lane for our last ride of the night. The cold kept most people away, so we had plenty of good viewing spots for the Luminous firework show. As the fireworks went off overhead I could tell my kids were finally nodding off. We got ourselves back to the Skyliner and our resort and I finally got in bed around 10pm. Only a few hours away from waking up for the 10k!

Next Section: 10k and Magic Kingdom