Princess Weekend Registration Mayhem!

runDisney - Where the true accomplishment is simply signing up

Registration for runDisney race weekends has been one of the more stress-inducing aspects of the entire process. Not the decision to run, not the training, not the actually racing - but rather simply signing up. Many people take time off from work or otherwise drop whatever they're doing just to avoid distractions in hope of snagging a spot of a coveted race or challenge. This may not have been a big issue several years ago (I remember signing up for the 2022 Marathon on a random day in September - and I had several days to think it over first!), but between the recent running boom, the rise in runDisney popularity, and likely a bit of FOMO, there is now nowhere close to enough supply for the demand. Even a few months after the 2022 WDW Marathon Weekend, the runDisney site crashed several times to the point of delaying registration several hours. There have been major hiccups for most race weekends since that point, to include last year's Princess Weekend fiasco of the waiting room screen that needed a manual page refresh unbeknownst to many. But now...

As everyone waiting in the pre-queue waiting area for 2027 Princess Weekend registration and watched 10am come and go, it quickly became apparent something was very wrong. By 11am runDisney directed runners to check back for updates at 8pm, at which time it was finally announced registration would be moved to the following Monday on June 8th. Time will tell if anything will be different during the new registration window or if we get hit with more delays.

As to why this happened, runDisney has not offered any explanation. "Server overload" would probably be the most basic answer, but that only partially explains the issue. Some people online have speculated runDisney performs maintenance on their servers between Marathon Weekend registration and Princess registration, which would be bizarre timing if they are unable to test the servers for capacity.

On the demand side (i.e., us), there are probably three contributing factors. One is that demand is simply so high that the number or registrants crashes the site. Princess Weekend is popular, but I have a hard time believing it's more popular that Marathon Weekend or even Wine & Dine Weekend. Second is that by now the majority of people employ the "multiple devices" strategy so that for each actual person there are two or three (or more) devices all trying to access the site at once. The third explanation would be that some people are using AI to create bots that flood the system in hopes of securing one spot past the queue. I would not be shocked if this happened to some extent and the runDisney servers either recognized the bots or got overwhelmed by them, in which case runDisney IT needed time to figure out how to handle the issue.

Moving forward, registering for runDisney events will continue to be a challenge under the current format. I don't see the events becoming less popular, even with the dozens or so people declaring themselves fed up with the headache of registration (they'll come back... they always come back). Seeing as the events always sell out there is little incentive to make major changes to the process, but having to move the entire registration date back a week is not a great look. Some have called for a lottery process similar to some of the World Major marathons in which people have a week to register and they find out later whether they made it in or not. That doesn't seem like a great solution to me. If runDisney were to figure out a method to have people log in to their account before joining the queue, that would likely cut down on the issues quite a bit (although someone could create multiple accounts...).

One major shift that could occur is a move to more charity bibs. While the charity bibs typically require minimum fundraising amounts of at least double (usually more) the cost of registration, they help avoid the stress of hoping for a spot. I believe this is already happening as some charities have already filled their allotment of challenge bibs for Springtime Surprise, and that weekend in the only one that usually has Challenge bibs available well after registration day.

Regardless, it will be fascinating to see what happens on the 8th...

6/8 Update: Registration went off without a hitch... for those able to get through the queue. Everything went quickly in under two hours, so hopefully those shut out can turn to charities or hope spots open up later down the line.

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