D23 Expo September 9-11, 2022 Superthread **Updates in Posts 2 & 3**

[pharmama]

It’s possible that it’s not letting you book it since it does not include Friday night as a reservation. usually with group rates like this you need to have a night that overlaps with the actual convention but you can book nights before and after.

I’m looking to book Thurs and Friday night. There was a small message that said 3 night minimum when I tried to book that at the Westin (actually I’m glad I was paying attention because it had added Saturday night automatically). I guess I’ll just wait and see what happens if Thursday and Friday open up at GCH. I have the Westin booked directly too.

 

[dina444444]

I’m looking to book Thurs and Friday night. There was a small message that said 3 night minimum when I tried to book that at the Westin (actually I’m glad I was paying attention because it had added Saturday night automatically). I guess I’ll just wait and see what happens if Thursday and Friday open up at GCH. I have the Westin booked directly too.

It looks like it’s just the Westin that had that, I tried 4 points by Sheraton and it’s allowing a 2 night booking.

 

[Wookiecookie]

Given that the general 3-day and all Saturday tickets are sold out, does anyone else think/hope that Disney is doing limited capacity and/or making to easier for fans to see more?

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Given that the general 3-day and all Saturday tickets are sold out, does anyone else think/hope that Disney is doing limited capacity and/or making to easier for fans to see more?

It's hard to say. On the one hand that seems totally plausible. I was at Destination D last November in Orlando and all the seats were defintely not filled even though the event sold out within like 15 minutes of ticket sales. I'd say 1/3 of the seats were empty, which was nice as we always had at least one empty seats on each side of our party, sometimes more. I haven't been to previous D23 events but I'm assuming this was a reduced capacity measure. They may be feeling cautious still for the Expo and that might stuff is sold out. BUT, there is so much pent up demand that it's hard to tell.

 

[soniam]

Given that the general 3-day and all Saturday tickets are sold out, does anyone else think/hope that Disney is doing limited capacity and/or making to easier for fans to see more?

Like @Duckbug.Ducktales said, it's hard to tell. I know there was a lot of pent up demand, so that could make them go faster. I heard on a podcast, maybe the D23 one, that they would be at full capacity this year. I may have misheard or misunderstood though.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I have been to 5 previous Expos and always brought in water and small packages of cheese crackers with peanut butter. Pretty small, and they never said anything. Worst case, they might take them, no HUGE loss and worth the "risk" to me.

I don't remember seeing rolling backpacks, but did see folks who bought some luggage on sale at American Tourister rolling their luggage around, lol. I bring a backpack myself, regular sized one.

 

[Sakura1017]

Does anyone know if all the bookings through the event hotel site are 3 night minimum during actual event days? I was able to snag the GCH for Sat-Tues the other day but when I tried to book the Westin for Thurs/Fri to go with it I saw the Westin had a 3 night minimum.

My "real" plan is to keep checking and hope to snag GCH for Thurs/Friday too but that won't work if there's a 3 night minimum.

I haven't seen hotels having an issue with booking stays with a minimum. There could be an issue that the day your looking for is wait listed so that might affect the days your inputting. I've been checking the site regularly and had no issues almost purchasing a 1 day stay either at a hotel.

 

[Wookiecookie]

I haven't seen hotels having an issue with booking stays with a minimum. There could be an issue that the day your looking for is wait listed so that might affect the days your inputting. I've been checking the site regularly and had no issues almost purchasing a 1 day stay either at a hotel.

I booked Hotel Lulu for the very low rate (despite the reviews) from Thurs - Tues before purchasing my expo tickets since I was concerned about rate hikes and availability. Lucky I did since it says it’s fully booked; either that or they are holding rooms for later on. I heard rumors about loud A/C but that’s what earplugs are for.

 

[peng1]

Going to this as a first timer, only going on Friday and Saturday, this is my first time, so do you guys (and gals and those in between) have any good tips, current plan is to fly in on thursday, do something non disney that day (ie Knotts, something in LA or magic mountain), do disney on friday, d23 on saturday and sunday. Due to it overlapping with possible college things and the large time gap between the two, I don't want to commit to anything outside of the two tickets that I booked yet for d23, so any advice will be good.

 

[pharmama]

I haven't seen hotels having an issue with booking stays with a minimum. There could be an issue that the day your looking for is wait listed so that might affect the days your inputting. I've been checking the site regularly and had no issues almost purchasing a 1 day stay either at a hotel.

Seems to be something specific to the Westin for Thursday night arrivals. They have clarified the message since I first encountered it and it appeared earlier in the process so seems like others had confusion as well.

 

[TikiRob]

Sooo... got my 3-day ticket for my first D23... now what happens? Is this where we hang out until then?

 

[AquaDame]

They may not use the same reservation process this year. They have not released any info yet on how/if this will happen. The last one required people to get into a queue, like the tickets. to reserve a certain number of panels, signings, and other events. Originally, they said that if you didn't get a reservation, then you wouldn't be allowed into that panel and that there wouldn't be any lining up for spots. Well, many people didn't get many panels or signings reserved. I think I only got 1 of the big panels, Disney+, and 1 medium panel, Haunted Mansion. The first people into the "random" queue were basically allowed to get so many reservations that there was not much left for others. In fact, some of the people at the end of the queue didn't get anything; there was absolutely nothing available. They theoretically got onto their computer at the same time as everyone else. The organizers eventually said people could line up but would not be guaranteed a spot. We have no idea what they will be doing this year, so I wouldn't get my heart set on anything that has happened in the past. Hopefully, this year will be more equitable. I would, however, read past trip reports to get an idea of what could happen to be prepared. The panels will probably be organized about the same way/have the same presentations, especially the big ones in Hall D23, so reading about those to see what interests you would be good. Good luck!

I remember hearing about this - it sounds horrific. I honestly hope they don't do it this way again; it doesn't seem very fair being all or nothing. They could do a lottery for each event like they do for the Olympics tickets, or have a separate queue for each event and let you choose which is most important to go for first and then so on would be better.

Honestly with their IT though? Just do a lottery and that way you don't have your servers getting slammed all at once, people dont have to waste time queuing either, nor juggle five+ devices to see which gets the lowest number in the queue (I know you're out there).

 

[soniam]

I remember hearing about this - it sounds horrific. I honestly hope they don't do it this way again; it doesn't seem very fair being all or nothing. They could do a lottery for each event like they do for the Olympics tickets, or have a separate queue for each event and let you choose which is most important to go for first and then so on would be better.

Honestly with their IT though? Just do a lottery and that way you don't have your servers getting slammed all at once, people dont have to waste time queuing either, nor juggle five+ devices to see which gets the lowest number in the queue (I know you're out there).

I think most of us who didn't get squat last time are hoping for something better. It could have been fine if the queue they were using didn't have a loophole to jump right to the choices. Also, they really needed to limit how many things people could, instead of letting the first people in grab as much as they wanted. Why not limit the number of big panels, little panels, signings, and shopping I guess we will see. A lottery, like Star Wars Celebration could work too; however, people attending that were angry.

 

[dina444444]

I think most of us who didn't get squat last time are hoping for something better. It could have been fine if the queue they were using didn't have a loophole to jump right to the choices. Also, they really needed to limit how many things people could, instead of letting the first people in grab as much as they wanted. Why not limit the number of big panels, little panels, signings, and shopping I guess we will see. A lottery, like Star Wars Celebration could work too; however, people attending that were angry.

It was limited. You could book one panel in the main hall and one between the 2 smaller rooms each day and one store for each day. Not sure about the signings and freebies since I only signed up for one freebie after securing my panels.

 

[soniam]

It was limited. You could book one panel in the main hall and one between the 2 smaller rooms each day and one store for each day. Not sure about the signings and freebies since I only signed up for one freebie after securing my panels.

I thought I had read of people getting more than one main hall panel. It's a been a real whopper of a couple of years, so I may not be remembering correctly though In any case, I specifically know of people who didn't get anything, nothing, nada, zilch, no panels, no signings, no stores, no freebies. My group didn't get any main hall; we ended up camping out. I also don't think anyone in our group got any signings but wanted them. I know we didn't get any freebies. I think I only got 2 panels: Simpsons and Haunted Mansion. However, I couldn't get into to HM, because they started letting people line up way early in a really tight space, and I basically couldn't get to the pass line before they gave up those seats. I even lined up before many got there, and they told me they wouldn't let people line up yet and I had to leave the area. I went to the bathroom and boom, the line had exploded. Oh well. I still had a good time and bought tickets for this year. Spending time with friends was the highlight for me.

 

[dina444444]

I thought I had read of people getting more than one main hall panel. It's a been a real whopper of a couple of years, so I may not be remembering correctly though In any case, I specifically know of people who didn't get anything, nothing, nada, zilch, no panels, no signings, no stores, no freebies. My group didn't get any main hall; we ended up camping out. I also don't think anyone in our group got any signings but wanted them. I know we didn't get any freebies. I think I only got 2 panels: Simpsons and Haunted Mansion. However, I couldn't get into to HM, because they started letting people line up way early in a really tight space, and I basically couldn't get to the pass line before they gave up those seats. I even lined up before many got there, and they told me they wouldn't let people line up yet and I had to leave the area. I went to the bathroom and boom, the line had exploded. Oh well. I still had a good time and bought tickets for this year. Spending time with friends was the highlight for me.

It was one per day. So you could get either the morning or the afternoon panel, not both. So since I booked Disney+ for Friday I couldn’t do legends etc.

 

[Sakura1017]

I've never been to d23 expo and got preferred seating. So would I have access to all panels in the main room or is it gonna be lottery based for those panels?

 

[Wookiecookie]

Going to this as a first timer, only going on Friday and Saturday, this is my first time, so do you guys (and gals and those in between) have any good tips, current plan is to fly in on thursday, do something non disney that day (ie Knotts, something in LA or magic mountain), do disney on friday, d23 on saturday and sunday. Due to it overlapping with possible college things and the large time gap between the two, I don't want to commit to anything outside of the two tickets that I booked yet for d23, so any advice will be good.

It’ll also be my first D23 but I’m going to take the time to rest and get plenty of sleep before and expo nights so I’m not dead tired during the day.

 

[dina444444]

I've never been to d23 expo and got preferred seating. So would I have access to all panels in the main room or is it gonna be lottery based for those panels?

You’ll have guaranteed seating for the panels in the main hall as long as you are at least 30 minutes early.

 

[AquaDame]

How do folks who have gone before feel about hotel proximity to the convention center..? My husband would like us to drive down and bring our dog, but that means I need to find a reasonably priced hotel that allows pets while we're there (he's only going to walk around the convention a little bit and will be with her most of the time). The places we normally stay don't allow pets.. it seems I need to be at least 1/2 mile to a mile away or pay gobs of money to be closer. I don't mind the walk per se, but is it iffy in the early morning hours by yourself?