PHOTOS: How Busy is Disney World During the runDisney Princess Half Marathon Weekend?

Rise and shine; it’s runDisney’s Princess Half Marathon weekend! Lately, the crowds in Disney World have been unusually high for this time of year. We’ve been seeing some extreme wait times and tightly-packed crowds, but the big question of the week is how will Disney’s Princess Half Marathon impact the crowd level?

Good morning from Disney World!

We went into the Disney parks early in the morning, fully prepared for big crowds at every turn. Was that our experience? Let’s find out!

Right as we jumped onto the My Disney Experience app, we were greeted with a Traffic and Parking Update. The message said, “Walt Disney World roadways and parking may be impacted by a runDisney event on Sunday, 3AM until 1PM. Please be sure to give yourself extra time to get to your destination.”

©Disney

When we arrived in the Magic Kingdom first thing in the morning, we saw pretty low crowds! This area fills up with people pretty quickly, though, so we’ll check back later.

So far, so good!

Magic Kingdom officially opened at 9AM, and for about an hour, the crowds were very light.

Whattt?!

The later into the day we got, the more people began to arrive in the Magic Kingdom. Here’s our theory: everyone participating in the runDisney event made their way to the parks after the race, which caused a mid-morning surge.

The crowds started to pick up

We’ll let you in on a little crowd-tracking tip: look at the common choke-points to determine the crowd level. We could tell the park was extra-empty in the morning just by looking at this bridge! The same principle applies to places like Main Street, U.S.A. and Adventureland.

Few people = low crowds (obviously)

If you were wondering, we noticed pretty much the same thing happening over in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Low crowds at first, then a steady increase.

Let’s check in on Disney’s Animal Kingdom!

By about 11:45AM, the crowds had arrived.

Sigh…

Isn’t it wild to see what a difference just a few hours can make in Disney World? One minute, you can walk right down the middle of Main Street, the next, you’re fighting through a crowd!