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

[Halloweenqueen]

LivE Action Panel is full.

 

[Kim3]

We watched social media and Becca's updates and decided to walk over at 4. We stopped at CVS for some water.

what social media sites are you all checking? I tried #D23Expo via twitter yesterday and will the media tweets were drowning any fan updates.

Kim

 

[Duchessa]

Some have mentioned gold/silver/GA confusion... I bought a ticket under the free membership, but it says gold/silver on it. Is this normal?

 

[Markolodeon]

Ok, I thought I had more than mentally prepared myself for the lines to get in but I was still jaw-dropped-open shocked with what we witnessed this morning. The gold/silver line went around and all the way back to Katella ave. They had taped lines that snaked back and forth with thousands standing in the brutal sun/heat. Tents could have been put up but the organizers of this event clearly have no concern for the well being of their fans, or as Johnny Depp would say, their employers.

Crazier still are all the doors the line passes, clearly designed to admit convention center attendees through multiple locations but a concept far too complex for D23 management (who are so, so fired by these two "employers").

We stopped at will call to see if we could exchange our tickets for Sunday but they talked us out of it, said Sunday is almost sold out too. Instead they suggested coming back around 2:00 so we can at least experience the expo floor that we should have been admitted to at 9:00.

Then there were the Jesus freaks with enormous signs playing scripture from a boombox. The whole scene was entirely apocalyptic.

On the way back to the hotel we ran into a Disney Interactive staff member who confirmed coming back in mid afternoon as a good plan. We talked about the difference between D23 and Disney. While they both roll up to the same corporate entity they are very much separate and stovepiped. For example Disney lines of business rent their floorspace from D23 with "funny money" being exchanged between the two. This helped explain how D23 could host an event so hostile to guests and completely opposite of any Disney park experience. Heads need to roll on the D23 leadership team.

And perhaps even more perplexing is while there are a few posts of outrage the overwhelming majority of expo attendees are apparently ok with being treated this way. This helps explain the Jesus promoters, clearly ripe and fertile ground for the easily converted. But unfortunately no higher power can save anyone from such a hopelessly mismanaged event.

 

[Kim3]

And perhaps even more perplexing is while there are a few posts of outrage the overwhelming majority of expo attendees are apparently ok with being treated this way. This helps explain the Jesus promoters, clearly ripe and fertile ground for the easily converted. But unfortunately no higher power can save anyone from such a hopelessly mismanaged event.

I'm so sorry today wasn't any better, as you just described yesterday's experience. However, some people did complain enough to prompt this:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fans-677476-lines-disney.html

We are headed over in 15 minutes to walk the floor

Kim

 

[Markolodeon]

Thanks Kim, it's positively bizarre the boards aren't more lit up with outrage.

If by chance you could post an update on lines when you get there that would be most appreciated.

 

[EricaL78]

I'm headed over in about 30 minutes. My first Expo, and maybe my last, from what I am hearing. I've had a wonderful first visit to Disneyland though!
When do they start allowing people to line up for the Parks and Resorts panel this afternoon?

 

[Kim3]

No lines outside!!

 

[Markolodeon]

Thanks Kim, heading out now.

 

[Kim3]

Anyone in line for Parks/Resorts yet? I want in, but I'm not picky about seats. I'm hoping I won't have to get in line until 1:45.

Also, why isn't Disney using the 9,000 seat arena that the acc has in place of hall 23?!?

 

[EricaL78]

Anyone in line for Parks/Resorts yet? I want in, but I'm not picky about seats. I'm hoping I won't have to get in line until 1:45.

Also, why isn't Disney using the 9,000 seat arena that the acc has in place of hall 23?!?

I got in the line over an hour ago, and am sitting on the floor. Not packed in here yet,but people are still waiting to get wristbands.

 

[Kim3]

Any idea why they are making people line up outside? When I checked 25 mis ago, they had the escalator roped off and were making people line up in the heat.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Guess the only way to avoid the morning insanity is to line up inside at 4.

Our wait was long. My daughters wanted something to eat around six. Waited 90 minutes and all that was left were veggie burgers and fries. . We should have brought more than water at CVS. The line was fine though. Played some games and chatted neighbors. We were the only out of state fans around. Most were locals who hadn't really invested in the Expo like many.

The panel was amazing! Worth the price of admission. My daughters got to see Chris Evans and I saw my teenage crush...Harrison Ford! Johnny Depp came out as Captain Jack. Pretty cool!

Then we were released into chaos. Honestly it took us forever just to get our bearings. Finally found the bag distribution area, so we had a good place to put our new Star Wars and Jungle Book posters! Waited a hour to get a Stagepass for Once Upon a Time panel at 6. The floor was impossible and the lines were huge, so we headed to the Hilton for late lunch. Crowds not much better here. Actually sipping my Starbucks slowly, hoping things improve so we can at least see something of the floor. 30 mi ute wait for lukewarm Sbarros.

Way too many people. Don't know what the solution would be. Maybe make it for D23 members? More floor space, etc? Daughters disappointed we will not get to shop. No way I am waiting three hours to buy a Tsum.

Lots of people at the panel today only interested in Marvel or Star Wars. Guy next to me kept heavily sighing during all the Disney talk.

My daughters want to brave the crowds. Wish I could just continue in my little Hilton hideaway with my coffee and wifi.

 

[Markolodeon]

Solutions, so many solutions:

- Move the 2017 expo to Orlando with triple the capacity
- Utilize every available entrance
- Ensure the queues are shaded
- Replace Jesus nuts with costumed Disney characters
- Replace blaring boombox scripture sermons with Disney music
- Offer more tiered level of ticket prices and benefits. There needs to be more than Sorcerer and the current gold member benefits are a joke if not flat out deceptive advertising.
- Offer advance sale of tickets to presentations/shows, tied to your name with no option to sell or transfer tickets (just like the admission tickets).
- Align the D23 Expo experience to the same high quality level of Disney parks
- Split off Star Wars and Marvel to a separate expo
- Quadruple the size of the stores and get rid of limited edition eBay bait items

 

[rastuso]

WOW, I think I'm officially not upset I missed this year. SOunds like crowds are MUCH worse, as Saturday's floor wasn't too bad at all last year, especially later on.

However, they definitely brought the big guns this year for cameos. Depp at TWO presentations, Cameron, Lucas, Ford, Stan Lee. All mega A-listers. Even though they all truly made just cameos. I would say the entire active stage time of all of them was about 15 minutes, since Cameron just stood there for most of the time. However, they really didn't seem to announce much of anything in any of the presentations. I mean, think about it. All there seemed to be were a few seconds of Civil War footage, 2 or 3 Star Wars Land concept drawings, and perhaps the biggest thing was 10 seconds of Iron Man Experience, which all the Universal haters that say they do nothing but screen rides will I'm sure say shows how amazing Disney is.

(EDIT: I somehow missed Toy Story Land's announcement. Wish there was a big picture available. Looks like the coaster is quite long.)

Am I missing anything else? Oh, and a size for Star Wars land. Basically the size of Cars. Which, while large, is sort of deceptive with the long, narrow road. SOunds great, but here we are two years after


and we still know very little about Star Wars Land. If Dwarf Hill took like 3 years, SWL will take easily 5, so we're looking at 2020. When will they cut admission to Disney Studios by 50%?

Universal will buy another IP, and build a full land for it by then. Pretty soon I'll be worrying about my mortality preventing me from ever seeing SWL. I mean, THE ENTIRE THIRD TRILOGY will be out before SWL opens. Think about that.

As for D23, unless severely cut the number of tickets, or sell tiers, I can't see me returning. Essentially the best plan of action this year was to wait in line for the big presentations. However, I still haven't heard a report from someone in the cheap seats for one of them. They clearly oversold the event, made a hall big enough to "hold" people, but not big enough for them to see the show. I guess lots of people are happy with just being in a room and watching a screen that shows something exciting happening in that room that they can't see.

Jason

 

[VickiHD]

My take and experience...Friday morning flew in early from the Bay Area, checked in to the hotel and was at the convention center by 9:15. Found someone knowledgeable and was told to go inside to get my one day will call ticket. As a Gold Member, I was under the impression we were to be let in prior to 10:00 a.m. which it still was....not the case and had to go back outside and stand in a make shift line which was merging with another line and finally reentered the convention center by 10:00 a.m.

This was a very last min. trip for me and I only wanted to check out the floor and different exhibits, so I had no plans to see anything in the hall D23. Had to wait in line for 1 hr to get into Mickey's of Glendale store, my wait time would have been longer if I wanted pins...it would have been closer to 1 1/2 hrs. (Again this was early in the morning) Once inside the store it was pretty empty. Waited close to a 1 hr to see the DL archives...totally worth it. Finally left around 4 in the afternoon to rest.

My thoughts are....I forgot how bad the lines were at these things. I am still really surprised that the morning was still so unorganized and poorly executed. (They should learn from prior expos) I definitely think they should sell fewer tickets. I went the first year they had the expo...(you know when they were giving away tickets) and it was easy to get into presentations, the big ticket presentations, and see the floor. The 2nd expo year the lines were horrible and waiting for hours to shop or see any presentation. And I guess that hasn't changed much even with the "backstage and shopping passes". I did enjoy seeing the different costumes, most were done really well. I'm glad I went for 1 day....that was enough for me.

 

[BeccaG]

I expected comic con type lines because of the type of event, has anyone been to both and want to compare?

 

[BeccaG]

I'm pretty sure the answer is no but have any general admission folks made it to a 10am session besides the main D23 stage? I think the line outside in the morning simply cannot be controlled, because people are going to show up when they show up, but you could let people in sooner if you had a place to put them before the expo floor opens, like Main Street before rope drop. I just don't know if that is possible. Opening more doors seems like the obvious choice...I'd love to hear why there's one door....

 

[BeccaG]

Got in line for GA this morning at 849, through the door at 1019

 

[Mr. Bastos]

Just got home from Anaheim, only attended Saturday. Maybe I was just lucky, but overall I had a great experience. We got into the hotel just past midnight on Fridat, freshened up and headed over to the convention center around 1ish to wait for the live action movie panel. Middle section was nearly full, but I was in section a 5th row (in line). Got into the panel with no problems, and met some really cool people while we waited (even some other people from the Bay area, although they drove up on Thursday).

After the panel, I decided to not line up for Parks and Resorts, because they had announced the SW land during the movie panel, which was my main draw for the parks panel. The expo floor, was simple for us to get into (mind you it was already noon, so may be why I had no line). I walked around, took a bunch of pics and had a great time. I decided to not wait in line for the Disney store or Mickey's of Glendale, I wish we could have but I had a dinner reservation that night and didn't know how the long we'd be waiting. Though we only stood in line for the Dream store for maybe 15-20 minutes. I'm sure my experience could have been very different but I'd definitely go back again, and am looking forward to 2017.