Part 3 of the 2025 Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend series — WDW Magical Castles Travel
(Just joining us? Catch up with [Part 1: runDisney Registration 101] and [Part 2: The 10K Race Recap] before reading this one!)
I left my phone on the monorail hours before my Princess Half Marathon start — and it very nearly ruined my race morning. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s back up a little bit.
After crossing the 10K finish line Saturday morning — medals collected, princesses photographed, shower taken — I did what any sensible person who has to be up at 1:30am the next morning would do: I took a nap.
Saturday is always a struggle for me during race weekends. I normally love spending a lot of time in the parks, but I also have a tendency to walk a LOT when I visit — and I really wanted to save my legs for Sunday’s half marathon. But I couldn’t be at Walt Disney World and NOT go to a theme park. So I decided to take the monorail to EPCOT for a few hours, promising myself I would take things easily and NOT go all over the place.
In 2025, EPCOT had an EXTRA advantage. The Festival of the Arts, which is normally over BEFORE the Princess Half Marathon weekend, was actually ending a couple of days AFTER the races. I hadn’t been able to enjoy the Festival of the Arts in years, and I was really excited. If you follow my blog, you likely already know that I LOVE the EPCOT Festivals. Flower and Garden is my favorite and I enjoy Food and Wine a lot as well. But as a theatre kid, the Festival of the Arts holds a very special place in my heart!
So I headed to EPCOT, proudly wearing my 10K medal. I spent about 4 hours people watching and checking out various art installations around EPCOT. I took lots of pictures and checked out lots of merchandise. I didn’t wait in any long lines for attractions — if the line was too long, I could come back Sunday or Monday. I just did NOT want to wear out my legs.
I planned to make it an early night since I knew I needed to be out of bed by 1:30 am Sunday morning. I’d love to say I was asleep as planned by 7:30 pm. But honestly, I struggled to fall asleep. I am normally a bit of a night owl, so going to sleep that early — even though I’d gotten up so early on Saturday — it just wasn’t going to happen. But I was back in my room and I’ll say, “resting,” by around 8 pm. I didn’t actually sleep until pretty late, so when my alarm went off, I might have said some choice words. But that’s all part of the runDisney magic.
The Longest 30 Minutes: I Left My Phone on the Monorail
I was up and ready to go right on time. (It’s funny — I really struggle to get up and get moving on any day in my “regular” life, but at Disney? It doesn’t matter how early, I’m always able to get up and get going! I wonder why.) I was through security and ready when the first monorail arrived around 2:40 am. I was so excited. I had planned to arrive even earlier on Sunday than Saturday because I wanted to be even closer to the front of my corral.
I loved not having to take the bus this morning — no stopping at two other resorts to pick up racers. I just boarded the monorail at my resort, changed to the EPCOT monorail at the Ticket and Transportation Center, and was on my way. I got off at EPCOT and headed down the ramps, making my way toward the starting corrals. I was feeling so JAZZED and ready to go. And Spaceship Earth was all lit up and glowy and I thought, I want to take a picture of that —
WHAM.
I realized I’d left my phone on the monorail.
I had it in my hand to take a photo on the monorail and I think I must have set it down for a moment to peel my banana and just forgot to pick it back up. One of those colossal STUPID moments. My stomach dropped and I very nearly panicked.
There was no way I could do the race without my phone. I mean, of course I could have done the race without my phone. However — I’d had my phone on every training walk. I walk with music. I wanted to take pictures on the course. I wanted to be able to scroll on my phone in the 2.5 hours before the race started. SO MUCH ANXIETY.
The photo I wanted to take when I realized I didn’t have my phone….PANIC!
Fortunately, the Disney cast members working the monorail station that morning were so AWESOME. They immediately called the Ticket and Transportation Center so the cast members there could check “my” monorail (red) as soon as it came back to the station. I was able to tell them approximately where I’d been sitting and they found my phone VERY quickly. They then gave it to the monorail pilot of the next monorail headed back to EPCOT. The whole thing only took about 30 minutes — but it was a VERY LONG 30 minutes. I sat down on a bench, ate my breakfast, and tried to stay calm and think about the upcoming race.
When my phone was finally back in my hand, I could breathe again.
And can we take a moment to talk about Disney cast members? The ones who get up so incredibly early to work on these race weekends? There are hundreds of cast members who sacrifice their sleep to make sure all the logistics of moving roughly 20,000 people around Walt Disney World between 2 am and 10 am go off without a hitch. It’s amazing, it really is. Those monorail cast members that morning were so incredibly kind to me, and I will not forget that.
Next up: The half marathon — Magic Kingdom, Cinderella Castle, the choir, and the finish line. Coming soon!
