Run­ning on vaca­tion at Dis­ney World

Fam­ily vaca­tions to Walt Dis­ney World can truly be a “mag­i­cal” time. The folks at Dis­ney take extra effort to help cre­ate a lit­tle bit of magic for every­one. Even run­ning can be a mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence at Dis­ney World — espe­cially if you’re stay­ing at one of the Dis­ney resorts!

Along with plan­ning beau­ti­ful themed resorts and won­der­fully man­i­cured land­scap­ing, the Dis­ney Imag­i­neers have also included a net­work of walking/​jogging trails around the resorts that you can run on. My favorite area is the Epcot Resorts area, home to the Dis­ney Beach Club, Dis­ney Yacht Club, Dis­ney Board­walk, Dis­ney Swan, and Dis­ney Dol­phin resorts. These resorts are beau­ti­fully set around a lake, tucked away behind Epcot’s World Show­case, with canals that con­nect both to Epcot and to Disney’s Hol­ly­wood Studios.

Lots of peo­ple are out run­ning every morn­ing, so you’ll have plenty of com­pany (or com­pe­ti­tion) to keep you moti­vated. I ran in the after­noon while the kids played at the Beach Club pool. There were less run­ners out then, and more casual strollers to look out for and avoid — espe­cially on the boardwalk.

There are three sec­tions of run­ning trails in this area. One runs along the canal to Disney’s Hol­ly­wood Stu­dios and then back on the other side (after cross­ing on an over­pass) to the Swan and Dol­phin resorts. (photo 1) If you’re lucky, you’ll get to race one of the Friend­ship boats down the canal (I won).

The largest sec­tion is a running/​walking path along Epcot Resorts Boule­vard, which cir­cles around all of the resorts. (photo 2) You have to watch out for one tricky part where the path stops as the road goes under the canal, but the length of this path makes it eas­ier to get some dis­tance in.

Of course the most pop­u­lar is run­ning around the lake. (pho­tos 3 & 4) This stretch includes a sec­tion on the Dis­ney Board­walk, and you can find run­ners here at almost any time of the day.

If you want to plan your course before you run you can do so on Map­MyRun. Or you can use Run­K­eeper to track your time, pace, and dis­tance on the fly.

So along with your Mickey Mouse ears, don’t for­get to pack your run­ning shoes, and have a mag­i­cal run!

2 Comments

• 
  Eduardo Lonon May 12, 2010 at 4:53 pm

  Exce­lent web page, I just came across it and I’m already a fan. I just shed thirty pounds in thirty days, and I am excited to share my weight loss suc­cess with as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble. If I can lose weight then any one can. No mat­ter what you do, never give up and you WILL accom­plish all your weight loss targets!
• 
  workout mommy February 26, 2010 at 7:16 pm

  I’m doing the princess ¹⁄₂ marathon in Dis­ney next week­end and these pic­tures have me excited about it!