Hi Anna!
Running at Walt Disney World with friends is so much fun! I love those trips. Here is a brief outline of how I plan for group vacations.
1. Choose a resort: I highly recommend staying at a
Walt Disney World Resort. They all offer complimentary bus transportation to each race weekend event. You can book online, with runDisney travel at 407-939-4786 or using a Disney Travel Planner.
2. Choose park and dining plans: Decide if you're going to visit parks. You can buy tickets as part of your reservation package or separately. It's also important to choose where you want to dine together and make your reservations.
Dining reservations can be made up to 180 days in advance and the most popular restaurants fill quickly. My favorite race-day dinner celebration is at 'Ohana.
3. Race extras: Do you want to purchase any of the extras for the race weekend? RunDisney offers Pasta in the Park parties, Race Retreat tents and more. All of the information for these can be found on the Walt Disney World Marathon website and you register for them through Active.com
4. Be ready to register: Registration opens on April 26 at Noon ET. If everyone already has their Active.com accounts set up, registration will go more quickly. The marathon hasn't sold out as fast as other races in the last couple of years, but I would register ASAP just in case.
5. Costumes: One of my favorite parts of planning is deciding what we are going to wear! It's fun to come up with ideas for the group. My friends and I don't do anything elaborate, but we do like to coordinate our Disney styles!
I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions.