Registration Mayhem!

Well, that was something.

Registration opened today for the 2026 Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend, and I imagine for many it did not go according to plan. runDisney threw a curveball in altering the registration page, and unfortunately a lot of people never even got the opportunity to enter the queue until it was too late. It seemed like the process had run relatively smoothly ever since the 2023 Marathon Weekend fiasco, but Disney seemingly loves to switch up processes to the confusion and chagrin of everyone else.

Like most people, I attempted to get to the Princess Weekend homepage to enter the virtual waiting room like in past race weekends. Shortly before 9:45am ET it became clear something was off: none of the links were visible and the site seemed to seize up from increased traffic. Around 10am the "blue screen" appeared, telling everyone they were in the right place for registration and that the page would refresh automatically when they could enter the queue. The page even suggested refreshing often, a departure from past years.

Meanwhile, on Reddit and Twitter people were posting their queue wait times as well as screenshots of the race selection page, indicating all the races were available. However, the vast majority of people (myself included) still only saw the blue screen with no way to enter the queue. In past race weekends you could at least hit the "Register Now" button just to be told you had "over an hour wait", but not on the blue screen. About an hour later at 11:05am, @runDisAlerts generated a tweet that the 10k had sold out.

I tried refreshing, opening new windows, and using multiple browsers, but I saw no change. At 11:24 the 5k sold out, followed quickly by the Fairytale Challenge at 11:26. What was happening? Eventually I found a few people online saying to clear your browsing history or hit Ctrl+F5. Sure enough, my blue screen finally changed and I saw the above page to register. By 11:44 the Half Marathon sold out while I was still waiting for my opportunity to enter the registration page. As of 11pm ET Yoga is still available, for what it's worth.

While runDisney IT gave many people the run around, it also seemed like charities were quickly bombarded as alternatives to regular sign up. Since the entire runDisney site was devoted to the Blue Screen of Registration Doom, the runDisney Charity page was unavailable as people tried to figure out how to get a bib. Luckily, I had already considered the charity route and researched a few ahead of time along with their fundraising options. Shortly after it became apparent the runDisney site was acting differently, many charities started selling out of bibs as well. I had to choose two separate charities, one for 5k bibs for my family (our first family runDisney event, minus my youngest who won't qualify for a few more years), and a different charity for the Fairytale Challenge. I suspect there are still some charity bibs floating around, but probably not for much longer.

So what did we learn from this year's Princess Weekend registration? I wouldn't be shocked if the blue screen becomes the new norm instead of the normal race weekend page changing from "Coming Soon" to "Register Now". Disney rarely reverses course on technology updates, and I expect runDisney to follow suit. We should know quickly as Springtime Surprise registration opens next month. If we see the same page format, at least now most people know how to properly update the page to attempt to register.

I also expect charity bibs to be more competitive in future race weekends. I get the sense that a lot of people who keep striking out of registration day are frustrated to the point to turn to charities early to guarantee their spot. Joining Club runDisney is at least a two- or three-year process to reach Gold status for early registration, and I suspect many will conclude they'd rather fundraise (or simply cover the entire minimum donation amount themselves) than gamble of Club runDisney Silver. That means bib availability during or after registration day will be scarcer, so it will have to be a hard decision to go the charity route or roll the dice with the runDisney site.

As with every registration day, the majority of those on social media are calling for wholesale changes to make the process "fair" for everyone. I get it - it's extremely difficult (and potentially expensive) to make the decision to train and plan an entire Disney World runcation only to get shut out. There are plenty of stories about those who miss out during the checkout phase by learning the race they are registering for has just sold out. Unfortunately, given the huge demand for runDisney races it is impossible to "fix" the system so everyone gets what they want. Even reserving a race in your cart during the checkout can lead to issues. I always say tell people (you know, all the people who listen to me) that if a rule or process seems stupid it's because somebody at some time messed it up for everyone. I can totally envision a scenario where someone (or even a bot) stockpiles race registrations as soon as they get through the queue only to quickly "resell" them by upcharging a select few to fill in their registration information. Will 99% of the runDisney hopefuls do this? No. Can I see someone trying this if runDisney ever did make this change? Absolutely. Even switching to a straight lottery (like many of the World Major Marathons) isn't totally fair to those who plan their Tuesday around runDisney registration.

So as far as registering for races goes, we will take what runDisney gives us. I feel for those that couldn't get the race they wanted - or in many, many cases, any of the races during 2026 Princess Half Marathon Weekend. Hopefully some will be able to go register and fundraise for charity bibs. And there's always hope for random registrations to open up through runDisney Alerts. Here's to hoping that Springtime Surprise registration goes much smoother for everyone involved.