D23 Expo 2011! Who's attending?

[nunzia]

I would not worry about seating in the Arena. I think the capacity is more than 7,000. Myunderstanding is that it never sold out at the 2009 Expo, although some were turned away from Igor's talk due to time constraints.

My guess, knowing D23, is that they had problems with the website, either those with new memberships that were supposedly activated but were not or just more reservations booked than were actually available. The former is likely since each person booking these special options needed to D23 members and many (most/) families did not have multiple membership, so spouse and kids woudl have had to join shortly before reservations opened. I have had this happen where I had a D23 membership number that was not reconginized by the reservations system.

For those is the "cattle class," the small changes in those with front of the line privileges are probably meaningless. For those with the special privileges, I am sure D23 would refund you money now if you are concerned the value has been significantly reduced. -- Suzanne

I'm not concerned with the value..I loved the Expo last time and would even if I wasn't 'special' this year. It was quite simply a wonderful, amazing time and as I said earlier I'm sure the issues that came up during the last Expo, their first one, will be addressed this time. I was in that line for the cruise presentation in the room that had been cut WAY down from the Imagineer presentation the previous day and I saw the people joining friends, swelling the line, CMs trying to get an accurate count and thinking they had, only to have many people who thought they had been counted as in being turned away. IMO they will have a plan in place to prevent this this time, so I'm sure the special tickets won't be nearly as important as they would have been last time. No, people didn't get turned away from the arena..but we did wait in line a long time and still ended up in the balcony (which we discovered we really liked and if the 'special' seats are on the floor so far back as to suck I will be happy to tell my 'handler' I'll just saunter up to the balcony thank you very much. )I think this Expo will be MUCH better attended and the arena could actually fill up and people be blocked.
I'm sure the case with Sorcere and probably Premium being oversold was probably all the glitches with the ticketing (that seem to happen every time, actually) and they had to expand the ticket number to accomodate those who were blocked out and had a friend in, or something like that. I understand this..Disney is all about service. But..what does bother me (a bit, not enough to fall on the floor in a fit and demand a refund of my Sorcerer ticket) is that Disney is very squooshy about rules that they themselves make. IMO they should not have said STRICT limit of anything. They should have said something a little more vauge to avoid just this type of situation.

 

[franandaj]

I'm certainly not going to fall on the floor in a fit and demand a refund! I'm sure it will still be an improvement over 2009. I could have sworn that for the parks show, it was full, bit I' m starting to have more Sr. moments nowadays. According to Wikipedia the Arena has a capacity of 9100...who knew? I'm sure this Expo will be better attended than the last.

 

[DisneyGuys]

I was in that line for the cruise presentation in the room that had been cut WAY down from the Imagineer presentation the previous day and I saw the people joining friends, swelling the line, CMs trying to get an accurate count and thinking they had, only to have many people who thought they had been counted as in being turned away. IMO they will have a plan in place to prevent this this time, so I'm sure the special tickets won't be nearly as important as they would have been last time.

To address this one point....
It was a decision by Cruise Line and Disney Marketing executives to reduce the size of the room at the last minute for the Cruise Line Alaska announcement. This is, once again, Disney failing to anticipate the... let's call it "passion"... of Disney Fans and Enthusiasts. Because of all the Press and Media attending to hear the big announcement from Disney Cruise Line, the executives were worried there would be few people attending the venue and they didn't want their big moment to look like it was happening in a half-empty room. So, they ordered the room to be made smaller and lots of chairs removed hoping then all the seats would be filled and look good for the cameras. Disney has an unpleasant habit of playing to the media and pushing the paying guests/fans out of the way. So, that is why so many people were disappointed to miss out on that particular event at the Expo. Sure I understand why Disney did it, but it is still disappointing to be on the outside trying to look in.

On the flip side... if you made it into the room for the announcement, you were gifted with a really cool knit scarf embroidered with the Disney Cruiseline logo and "Alaska 2011" on it. There were boxes and boxes of left over scarves because of the size of the room being reduced.

I am very hopeful that Disney/D23 have learned a lot from the first Expo, the survey responses, and the feedback they received. If so, D23 Expo 2011 will be amazing times ten.
Daniel

 

[franandaj]

For Destination-D in September they were better prepared, but still caught off guard for some instances. However their recovery time on the mistakes had improved exponentially since the Expo. I think it will be a lot better run, but they will have many Many MANY more people to deal with!

 

[pycees312]

wait stop the press what is this premier passholder stuff i see?? did i miss some special perk????????? please let me know as this pass hasn't really had any as of yet.

 

[DisneyGuys]

wait stop the press what is this premier passholder stuff i see?? did i miss some special perk????????? please let me know as this pass hasn't really had any as of yet.

I think the instances you saw of "Premier" in this thread are referring to the Premier Package sold for admission to the D23 Expo 2011. It is not a reference to Premier Annual Pass which is for gate admission to DLR and WDW parks.

Daniel

 

[franandaj]

The Premier Expo passes sold out within days of going on sale. The Sorcerer Expo passes sold out within hours. They were ridiculously priced and came with quite a few perks.

 

[nunzia]

To address this one point....
It was a decision by Cruise Line and Disney Marketing executives to reduce the size of the room at the last minute for the Cruise Line Alaska announcement. This is, once again, Disney failing to anticipate the... let's call it "passion"... of Disney Fans and Enthusiasts. Because of all the Press and Media attending to hear the big announcement from Disney Cruise Line, the executives were worried there would be few people attending the venue and they didn't want their big moment to look like it was happening in a half-empty room. So, they ordered the room to be made smaller and lots of chairs removed hoping then all the seats would be filled and look good for the cameras. Disney has an unpleasant habit of playing to the media and pushing the paying guests/fans out of the way. So, that is why so many people were disappointed to miss out on that particular event at the Expo. Sure I understand why Disney did it, but it is still disappointing to be on the outside trying to look in.

On the flip side... if you made it into the room for the announcement, you were gifted with a really cool knit scarf embroidered with the Disney Cruiseline logo and "Alaska 2011" on it. There were boxes and boxes of left over scarves because of the size of the room being reduced.

I am very hopeful that Disney/D23 have learned a lot from the first Expo, the survey responses, and the feedback they received. If so, D23 Expo 2011 will be amazing times ten.
Daniel

OH! And I thought they had cut down the room size because they only had so many scarves.. whoops....and then..there we were in the ARENA for the Disney Store presentation (where you would have thought some plush would be flying throught he air as gifts or something but nope..did get a nice discount card though) and there was hardly anyone there, but the Imagineers panel was full quickly. SURPRISE Disney fre...enthusiasts really care more more about Imagineers than Disney Store cr..stuff.
and the coolest effect was the Parks area TV set thing..I wish I could have spent more time there, but we had another line to get in...

 

[nunzia]

The Premier Expo passes sold out within days of going on sale. The Sorcerer Expo passes sold out within hours. They were ridiculously priced and came with quite a few perks.

But hey. since Limited isn't really limited, maybe they can still be purchased

 

[SuzanneSLO]

But hey. since Limited isn't really limited, maybe they can still be purchased

There is no reason to think that they are not limited, just maybe not as limited as originally planned, but that may be becuase with additional planning D23 has a better idea how many they really can accomodate. I trully believe that those with the Sorcerer package will have much shorter waits in line (still probably need to arrive half hour or so early to let them know you want a seat) and less stress (you know you will get a seat if you arrive at the appropriate time). Same holds true for those withthe Premier package IF they wanted to be sure to get floor seats.

There still may be some waiting. Our longest wait was for the P&F presentation, which started more than 2 hours late. So a 1+ hour wait turned into more than 3 hours! Thank goodness one of the technical directors on the film was standing behind us in line so we picked his brain and the time flew by! -- Suzanne

 

[tinkcollector]

I am surprised that the number of tickets sold has leaked out. But, it does not alarm me. I have a Sorcerer’s Package. If I remember correctly, this level just guarantees me a seat in the Arena. As for the seminars, I will need to wait in line just like a regular guest. As for the speculation of the Premiere Package holders, I think they will pick the seminars they want in advance and have a special line in which to access the room. With that said, I too believe that the Premiere and Sorcerer groups will not wait in the same chicanes as the regular guest, and have a separate entrance to the Arena. At the last Expo D23 members and their guests were separated from non-members in the Arena lines by two different sets of chicanes. Also, we were separated outside the Convention Center prior to the opening of the Expo. I believe that the D23 staff learned a lot from the last Expo, and I bet we find everything to be very well planned out. Of course, you can’t please everyone so there will be nay sayers.

 

[franandaj]

I believe the Sorcerer pass holders don't have to wait for any of the seminars and Premier are only guaranteed access for the Arena seating. Both packages get access to the special lounge with snacks but only the Sorcerers get the complimentary chair massage. Everyone gets "gifts" but the Sorcerers get a couple more "gifts" than the Premier pass holders. The Sorcerers get to preview the convention floor on Thursday evening. That's what I remember from the registration, but that was a long time ago!

 

[SuzanneSLO]

I believe the Sorcerer pass holders don't have to wait for any of the seminars . . .

I would be surprised if D23 could guarantee the "no wait."

I would expect that those on this package would have to be at the location at some time prior to start time, maybe as much as 30 minutes and maybe as few as 5 mintues. Even if they pre-reserve every presentation, I would still expect they need to show up some time in advance of the start. I doubt they will hold 50-70 seats at every presentation in case a Sorcerer wants to walk in 30 mintutes late! -- Suzanne

 

[nunzia]

I would be surprised if D23 could guarantee the "no wait."

I would expect that those on this package would have to be at the location at some time prior to start time, maybe as much as 30 minutes and maybe as few as 5 mintues. Even if they pre-reserve every presentation, I would still expect they need to show up some time in advance of the start. I doubt they will hold 50-70 seats at every presentation in case a Sorcerer wants to walk in 30 mintutes late! -- Suzanne

Right..I would guess we would need to let them know what presentations we are attending and/or arriving at a decent time prior to the beginning. Sorcerers do get guaranteed seating in all presentations/arena or otherwise. Here is a listing of what we were told both packages would consist of (and thanks to the facebook guy who thought to save it all..I printed it out, but didn't save to my computer..)


<<<PREMIERE MEMBER
• Includes 3-day admission ticket
• Reserved seating at all Arena presentations
• Premiere level lounge with complimentary food, Archives exhibit, pre-show concierge desk and more
• Autograph booklet
• Masseur on site (for pay)
• Scrapblog giveaways
• Photo Pass
• Swag bag including a hard copy of the Treasure of the Archives book, pin set, Legends program, premiere access credential and lanyard (opportunity for other Business Units to include items as well)

And then....
SORCERER MEMBER
Includes everything in the Premiere Member Package plus:
Dedicated “Sorcerer level” concierge desk
Private tour and reception in the Treasures of the Archives exhibit
Expo artwork signed by artist Dave Pacheco
Hardbound Expo guide book
Sorcerer level access credential (Sorcerer signage to identify service locations)
Reserved seating at all presentations
Massage voucher
Access to Dream Store one hour early each day
Express check-out at Dream Store
Free merchandise delivery to local guest hotel
Morning coffee with the Archives staff
Hard-hat walk-throughs of the show floor with Steven Clark the night before and morning before the show floor is open to the public >>>

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Disney Geek announced on this weeks website that the Expo is almost half sold out! -- Suzanne

 

[tinkcollector]

Long crazy week and it is only Wednesday. Sorry, and yes Franandaj, I flippped the packages. I have the Premiere, not the Sorcerer's. So everything I said but backwards, lol....sorry gang. But, I still believe that the staff learned a lot and we will be in for a really great expierence. Also, something I forgot to say, at the original Expo we had a lot of Convention Center help that were not educated to the Disney news. So as we stood outside waiting for the Expo to open they could not give us much insight or news. Hopefully Disney, will put informed employees out in the mornings prior to "Expo Time" that can inform us on what to expect.

 

[DisneyGuys]

Disney Geek announced on this weeks website that the Expo is almost half sold out! -- Suzanne

AND the Sorcerer Package is almost one and a half times sold out!


Anyone who wants to hear the mention about how the Expo is almost half sold out can find the Disney Geek video here. The mention comes at 4:00 minutes into the video, and there is other news about the Expo, too. So, watch the whole vid.

Daniel

 

[nunzia]

AND the Sorcerer Package is almost one and a half times sold out!


Anyone who wants to hear the mention about how the Expo is almost half sold out can find the Disney Geek video here. The mention comes at 4:00 minutes into the video, and there is other news about the Expo, too. So, watch the whole vid.

Daniel

I really do enjoy the weekly Geek...Newsies!! I had heard rumors this would be a stage show..WHOOP!!!!!! must see.....how about a little preview at the Expo..hmmm??

 

[wdwislife]

I really do enjoy the weekly Geek...Newsies!! I had heard rumors this would be a stage show..WHOOP!!!!!! must see.....how about a little preview at the Expo..hmmm??

I look forward to watching Disney Geek every week!

My family just finalized our accommodations for the Expo, and a few days before and after for more fun in the SoCal area! We're staying at a timeshare within walking distance of the Convention Center and Parks. Can't wait!

 

[JackSparrowLive]

My wife and I are Sorcerer ticket holders for D23. While I'm not happy to see that they oversold the package...I'm certainly not devistated.

Knowing Disney, I'm sure they'll more than make up for this. As great as the listed perks are (like getting seats to all of the presentations!), I'm hoping for the chance of a meet and greet with Disney and Hollywood celebs. What else am I going to do with that autograph book!?!?