Overall, amazing race and weekend. This was the third race of the DOPEY challenge. Most of this review is similar to my 5K and 10K, since the only difference really is the course itself. But if you didn't read those I'll still mention it below.

T-Shirt/Swag: Shirts were a tech tee shirt, which was nice. When you picked up your bib and shirts, you got a small cliff bar, but there were plenty of samples throughout the expo. The race was Donald Duck themed, so he was featured on the medal, as well as the shirt.

Aid Stations: There were plenty of water stations through the race. I carried my own electrolyte drink since I don't like powerade. There were also plenty of portapotties and the start and the finish, as well as along the road outside the parks themselves. Once inside the parks, you could use the park restrooms.

Course Scenery: Can't beat Disney, even if it isn't the most gorgeous. Since its fully on property, there were characters all over the place. You start out along the epcot highway and head towards magic kingdom. The scenery isn't the best, but there are characters along the way to keep you occupied. You got to magic kingdom around mile 5 and running through those gates was amazing. Everyone was stopping to take pictures. Once inside the magic kingdom, you run down main street towards the castle, which still had the Christmas decorations on it and it was spectacular. You turn and go through tomorrow land and through the castle. Here is there the biggest bottleneck it. It took some people 10 minutes just to get through. It's very narrow and people kept stopping for selfies, but didn't get out of the way, which didn't help. There are photographers at the bottom of the castle in front where you can get some great pictures at.

After the castle leave MK at mile 6.5 and run the other side of the seven seas lagoon back to epcot, and enter around mile 12.5, so you just up one side to the lake and down the other to the finish shoot.

Expo: Crowded. I usually just pick up my bib and leave, buying gear is usually pricey and with the cost of the race I'd rather just skip everything. I was with a friend who has a list of things she wanted so I went to get in line with her so we could be there at the opening. While looking for her things I saw a track jacket I really liked and was able to pick up the last one in my size. By the time I left the crowds had come in full force, the lines to check in and purchase items where long and it was hard to navigate. There is usually a bunch of shoving and pushing to get the official "RunDisney Merchandise" which is why I usually avoid it, but since I was there so early I made it out before the craziness started. The merchandise area did seem smaller than at the princess race, but I really don't spend much time at One nice thing was that the check in and the shopping were at different buildings, so you could completely avoid the craziness of the gear area.

Elevation Difficulty. Slight hill to get over the highway but nothing of note.

Parking: I stayed on property and took a shuttle, which made travel very easy. The lines for the shuttles can be long, and with a 5am race, you are up by 3, it makes for a long day. If you choose not to stay on property, the parking lot was getting filled up real early and the traffic to get in was very long.

Race management: Overall, the management at Disney Races are great. There's always ways to improve though. First, the Corrals are HUGE, which causes bottle necks when the course gets narrow. Second, lots of people run these races, most for fun, but so many people are not aware of basic race etiquette, such as keeping right if your slower, rasing a hand if you're starting to walk, passing on the left, not walking 4 people wide and taking up the whole path.

Other: The Snack box at the end of the race is pretty nice, although it changes each year. This year there was a cliff bar, cheese tip, tortilla chips, dried fruit, oreos and a wet nap. They also hand out bananas. If the weather warrants, they hand out Mylar blankets to keep warm. There's plenty of water and powerade in the finish shoot as well. PHOTOGRAPHERS are everywhere on the course, and in the finish shoot. At the expo you have the option of purchasing all the photos of you for a discounted rate.

EXTRAS: The night before the race I did pasta in the park, which included entrance to the park at 6pm the night before and a pasta buffet, which included visitors from Toy Story. After dinner we had a reserved section to watch the fireworks show. I also did Race retreat for this race. Before the race you had an area you could go to with breakfast, characters, it was heated and had bathrooms/gear drops. After the race they had food as well, as access to message ($20 for 30 min). You just had to stand inline for the message, rather than sign up for a time. Still a nice treat. Glad I did it, but it was probably a 1 time deal.

I highly recommend this race. although I won't do it again since there are so many other runDisney races, and coming from Seattle the costs add up, so I don't do repeats here.