D23 Expo 2015 - Who's in? Roll call!

[Kim3]

Well, this was our first and last Expo. We probably won't use tomorrow's tickets. Disney does a lot of things right, but Convention organization and management isn't one of them. My husband routinely attends a con i the Midwest that pulls in 60k plus in attendees without ANY of the chaos we saw at Expo.

The lines this morning were a complete mess. No labels, no stanchions, no clue. We got there an hour before the 9 am opening of the floor for Gold/Silver members. I knew we would not even be close to the first gold/silver member through the door but I was shocked that I didn't reach the front until just before 11am. My kids never made it. The heat and wait got to them and my husband took them back to the hotel. No Muppets panel for any of us.

Store passes were gone within the first hour, according to the staffer I spoke with at 11 am. The lines for the Dream Store and MOG were two hours long, according to people exiting the stores.

The show floor was better organized but again, line after line with not enough rope/stanchion to contain people which lead to you wondering, "What line am I passing?" Kudos to the Disney Interactive folks as they seemed to be most organized of the bunch.

I heard from other attendees that people were queueing up at noon today for tomorrow's live action studio panel. I don't know where they were lining up as that is not supposed to be allowed.

We are chalking this up as an expensive lesson and will enjoy the parks.

 

[Mr. Bastos]

That sounds pretty bad. And already a queue up for tomorrow? They said starting at 10? I may have no hope for getting into that panel after all since I won't be there until midnight or later

I'm sort of surprised at the chaos, I've known people who've gone in the past and they said there were lots of lines, but it never sounded as disorganized as this. I won't be discouraged though, I'm still going to make the most of it. It is my birthday tomorrow, and I planned on spending it at D23 lol. :T

 

[Kim3]

That sounds pretty bad. And already a queue up for tomorrow? They said starting at 10? I may have no hope for getting into that panel after all since I won't be there until midnight or later

I'm sort of surprised at the chaos, I've known people who've gone in the past and they said there were lots of lines, but it never sounded as disorganized as this. I won't be discouraged though, I'm still going to make the most of it. It is my birthday tomorrow, and I planned on spending it at D23 lol. :T

Well, they started lining up at noon yesterday despite the 10 pm stated time, so why not do the same today? Lol.

I expected long lines to get in and for panels. I'm used to waiting at parks for big rides and shows. It was the fact that ALMOST everything had long line that blew me away. In short, there are not enough events/displays/panels at D23 Expo to handle the number of people they admitted.

I hope you have a wonderful birthday at D23! Different strokes for different folks; maybe your experience will vary greatly from mine!

 

[Markolodeon]

Thanks for the honest first timer's review Kim3. This is our first as well and after reading so many mixed reviews of previous expos we took the advice of attending just one day and purchased single day tickets for Saturday. Your review really helps us keep our expectations in check.

Hopefully D23 will have some of the kinks worked out tomorrow. But it sounds like it's simply a throughput issue of too many guests being funneled through too few entrances. My guess is they cycled all of the overnight que'rs for the expo floor before letting in the after 7:00 line. My hope is it would be a parallel process, especially for gold members. We shall see tomorrow!

 

[Mr. Bastos]

Yeah, its my first D23 too. Really hope they have some things worked out tomorrow.

 

[rastuso]

The line to get in last time was crazy too. It took an hour or so at opening due to them having essentially ONE line to get in. And we got in line AFTER they started letting them in. I was in the D23 member line, but there were LOTS of people in the normal line that got in before me because the one hour head start wasnt enough, which is horrible. And they started blending in with our line, slowing it down.

What was the real story on Legends? Some people posted pics of a small line inside, but others said there was a huge line outside. "Media" had good seats, but I'd love to hear from someone in the second half of the seats, and when thwy got in line. Would have been nice to see, but the big stars, and the HUGE surprise of Depp only got like 3 minutes each to speak, which was just stupid. Did the first people get a lot more time?

The store lines are just dumb. Hardly anything is truly limited is it? Wait six months and you'll be able to get it on ebay a bit over original cost.

But your main point is spot on. Disney sells too many tickets for this for what they offer. But the same can be said for Comicon and Celebration.

Jason

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Tomorrow is our only day. Wishing we could exchange them for Sunday. I talked with and overheard several people who bailed the Expo and headed to the parks.

Ridiculous that they are allowing line ups for tomorrow already. What's to stop someone from cutting an unofficial line? That sounds dangerous. My girls and I were up for some fun, but I don't want to have an entanglements. We probably should have planned the Expo for the beginning of our trip. The heat and crowds are starting to give me a short fuse.

We came back to our hotel because we were considering an early bed time so we could head to the convention very early. My daughters saw the Instagram photos of Johnny Depp and begged me to consider a 12:00 line up.

I will have to gather more Intel on social media to see if this is a good idea. Good luck fellow Expo folks!

 

[BeccaG]

Silly question but I can't find the answer anywhere, what time do the shopping experiences close?

 

[keahgirl8]

Silly question but I can't find the answer anywhere, what time do the shopping experiences close?

Everything closes at 7.

I am just not stressing out about anything this year. I can't and I won't let it ruin my experience. I'm walking the show floor, which is awesome in itself. I do want to see a couple of things tomorrow, but I'm going to try not to let it ruin my trip if I don't get in.

 

[buttaflygirl03]

Went today and it did seem like a mess. I got there at 10am. I had a late start and figured by time I picked up friend and drove down most people should be at least inside. No what I found was a super long line with no clear direction. BTW we were general. Waited like 30 mins in the sun before we saw a friend who let us join her in line further up by almost before 11 we got in. Can't imagine if we kept our old spots in line when we would've got in.

I only manage to walk in the dream store before realizing nothing I wanted. Tried to find the Disney store line only to see how long it was and skip that. Then one of my favorite shows was coming up in a hour for the photo op so I got in the "unofficial" line for that waited a hour, did that. After that we walked around the show floor and did nothing else cause anything you wanted to attempt had a line that was a wait. And by that point I was sick of lines and we left around 3pm.

Going back tomorrow. Meeting up with a friend thats gold and getting there earlier than I did today for sure. Hopefully they have the lines more organized tomorrow. My main goal tomorrow is just the OUAT panel. Everything else I'll just be lucky to even try and bother to do.

Also as a CM I feel for the CM that work these especially the hourly. I can say they don't get told much at all before their shift at these type of things. I will say for best information try to find someone higher up or at least with a ear piece and hope for the best.

 

[pigletliz]

The line to get in last time was crazy too. It took an hour or so at opening due to them having essentially ONE line to get in. And we got in line AFTER they started letting them in. I was in the D23 member line, but there were LOTS of people in the normal line that got in before me because the one hour head start wasnt enough, which is horrible. And they started blending in with our line, slowing it down.

What was the real story on Legends? Some people posted pics of a small line inside, but others said there was a huge line outside. "Media" had good seats, but I'd love to hear from someone in the second half of the seats, and when thwy got in line. Would have been nice to see, but the big stars, and the HUGE surprise of Depp only got like 3 minutes each to speak, which was just stupid. Did the first people get a lot more time?

The store lines are just dumb. Hardly anything is truly limited is it? Wait six months and you'll be able to get it on ebay a bit over original cost.

But your main point is spot on. Disney sells too many tickets for this for what they offer. But the same can be said for Comicon and Celebration.

Jason[/QUOTE I got on the gold/silver line at 7 and I don't believe I was anywhere close to the front. We were definitely on line for over 90 minutes before being let in. Once we got inside the door, we were told that we needed to go back out and enter through a different door to gain entry for Legends or the Muppets. They only had one poor castmember working the new door. I felt sorry for her because she clearly had her hands full trying to scan and answer questions. There is no way that she should have been alone. Once inside, we waited almost another hour to get inside for Legends. In my opinion, Disney didn't have nearly the number of people they needed to work the lines or provide updates.

That being said, the Legends event was wonderful. Susan Lucci, George Lucas, Johnny Depp, Danny Elfman, Richard Sherman, along with some incredible animators and other Disney castmembers.

Also, take a small snack. The food lines were long!

 

[BeccaG]

Decided 2 nap a little instead of getting in line at 8, amid brewing controversy, hoping waiting to get in line at 1040 doesn't block us out.. Door is in sight...

 

[BeccaG]

We're in! Here's the line at 1118 section A and B (closer to you in the picture) and will sit behind the sorcerers

 

[BeccaG]

And section C, we're in row 2

 

[Mr. Bastos]

And section C, we're in row 2

Nice. I'm 40 minutes out. Gonna check-in, freshen up then head over.

 

[Kim3]

The line to get in last time was crazy too. It took an hour or so at opening due to them having essentially ONE line to get in. And we got in line AFTER they started letting them in. I was in the D23 member line, but there were LOTS of people in the normal line that got in before me because the one hour head start wasnt enough, which is horrible.

Jason

Well they clearly didn't learn much from last time. They once again created a situation where General was able to enter before Gold/Silver because an hour wasn't enough. Heck, 90 minutes wasn't enough because it appeared they delayed GA entry by 30 minutes. I was in line at the sidewalk between the Hilton and the ACC when that line moved for the first time at 10:30.

We think we might swing by tomorrow between 1 and 3 so the Hubs can shop at the vendors and the kids can see some of the character statues. My eldest son wants to try for a free Infinity character, but I doubt he will have the patience for the line.

In the mean time, we are making lemonade from lemons by enjoying the parks and switching our hotel for the last two nights to the Grand Californian

 

[BeccaG]

Curren space, middle section B

 

[BeccaG]

And the side sections look like this

 

[BeccaG]

Crowd arrival slowed for a few hours after the initial rush but now it's a steady but spaced arrival

 

[Halloweenqueen]

We watched social media and Becca's updates and decided to walk over at 4. We stopped at CVS for some water. Currently in Section C, about row 8. Really starting to fill up. My daughters and I are wearing our custom Tiki Bird macaw shirts. Be sure to say hi, if you see us! Super excited!

Thanks, Becca!