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

[soniam]

Welp, theres goes my plans today. I was hoping to get into mog pin store before parks panel started. But the app kept glitching and freezing to join the queue. I was hoping to get the chipmunks pin. Guess i can be happy my wallet is going to save today. Unless anyone knows what other vendors have chip n dale pins.

Fyi, certain vendors are not gonna be restocking and all they have out is what is left. Mickeys glendale merchandise expo 2022 the baseball jerseys only had XL, 2xl, and 3xl remaining around 645 ish. Some people did manage to grab a Large but it was gone really quickly.

I heard that the pins at MOG pins sold out by 11am Friday, except for 5 pins. So, if you didn't do the standby queue that started at 9am, probably in line outside by/before 4:30am, or the an early VQ spot, you probably wouldn't get anything. I was trying for it too but didn't get a VQ. They were doing standby on Sunday, but only had the Inside Out and Castle pins left.

Had a wonderful time at the expo. I’m exhausted but can’t wait to do this again next time.

I think we met in the preferred line and when exiting Parks. I have short light blue hair. We were exiting Parks when we, my friend and I, caught up with Craig and Ryno.

Another thing for people that are potentially considering going to destination D, OI does a meet up/park buy out at Universal typically in the fall/winter and for the last couple of years one of their weekends is the weekend of when destination d usually is if your looking for other things to add on to that trip.

I think OI is doing their Universal meetup the first weekend of December this year. I am going to Universal for a podcast meetup that same weekend, and most of the UO hotels are sold out for the OI meetup.

 

[dina444444]

I think we met in the preferred line and when exiting Parks. I have short light blue hair. We were exiting Parks when we, my friend and I, caught up with Craig and Ryno.

We did, I was sitting with them for the parks presentation. We originally met in the elevator at the Sheraton on Thursday evening I think.

I think OI is doing their Universal meetup the first weekend of December this year. I am going to Universal for a podcast meetup that same weekend, and most of the UO hotels are sold out for the OI meetup.

OI has 3 weekends of meetups for their winter dates, the weekend before thanksgiving and the first two weekends of December. I’m going to be there the first weekend of December for the meetup on both nights before heading over to Disney.

 

[Wookiecookie]

I got marketplace boarding grp 81 originally 320 minutes. Those who had 320 estimated minutes for marketplace for the 6 am session what time did it let you in? Im going to marvel panel today. Hopefully 29th century goes last so i can skip that part if it came down to it

Its really fast at mickeys of glendale. There was a section of muppets. One shop section el captain stuff. 70 years imagiining. I was kinda disappointed in that shop and felt it was a wasted venue pick for me.

For those that are saying marvel is capped did u try reaching out to them saying why rules were being broken?

Agreed. I was looking forward to seeing what imagineer items there would be based on 2019, but I ended up with nothing from there.

 

[Wookiecookie]

They did not. They didn’t mention the shop either fwiw.

Going to assume they are going to replace Hungry Bear. Just like DCA will now purge out any remnants of paradise pier with Pixar, maybe Tiana’s will wipe out critter country.

 

[Wookiecookie]

Expo was a lot of fun and I barely waited in lines. The lines I did wait for was on clean carpet with AC and wifi (minus the Amazon booth which looked up a bloodbath every time they reopened the line).

Only two disappointments. One was a better clarity of giveaways as I didn’t know about the different Spider-Man poster giveaways each day at Iron studios or that Pixar booth didn’t allow standbys for the Pixar hall or sunglasses. Second was the Spider-Man panel where I tried to do standby 1.5 hours beforehand and an employee said the line was closed so my friends and I walked away. As we walked away, another employee said it was open and we went back in a new line but farther back. Then a third employee looked at the line, stared right at my group then cut the line right before me and said closed. I told them what happened and I asked for them to justify why it’s cut off at me but the employee gave me a “not my problem someone else messed up so deal with it”.

 

[noisycricket]

Mods, feel free to put this back in the main thread if it's appropriate.

I'm starting my budget for D23 Expo 2024. To the lucky ones who had the Preferred Seating passes...how was it? How early did you have to get to the panels and were you able to get to be seated the way you hoped? Would you do it again?

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I have lots of thoughts about the expo. I think I might actually do a trip report about our expo/Oogie Boogie Bash/two day park experience so I'll post the link here when I do if anyone is interested.

I went with a lot of friends this year but it was my husband and my third, we did 2017, 2019 and this year.

2017 was amazing and we had an incredible time.

2019 was more disappointing, we lost out big time on the reservation lottery and barely got anything. However, we were still able to somewhat easily see all the Hall D23 panels that we wanted: the Disney+ panel, Disney animated movies and Disney parks. The highs definitely won out over the lows.

I will give it time to sink it but I think this year was our last. We did not win any Hall D23 reservations and did not have preferred tickets. Brian won reserved seating to Society of Explorers and Adventurers, Strange World signing and Tron. I won reserved to Eric Goldberg/Mark Henn signing, Strange World signing and Ratatouille anniversary signing.

We didn't try for any Hall D23 on Friday. We would have liked to see Disney Movies, but our Eric Goldberg/Mark Henn signing would have only left us an hour and a half to line up, and I was pretty sure that wouldn't cut it and it didn't. The standby had closed right around 12:30 pm. We had a friend who lined up at 12:25 and said it was closed a few minutes after she made it.

So on Friday we showed up at security around 6:30. There was no wait and we walked right in and got settled on the show room floor queue in the basement. We had tried for our virtual shopping queue at 6 am. I was in a group of 5, then we had 3 others we ran into occasionally and helped out with shopping queues. The earliest MOG queue we got was group 35.

Our show room floor lined started moving a few minutes after 9 am open. We divided and conquered, two of us went straight to MOG where they were letting people walk in without a VQ. We didn't even wait, just walked right in. Was pretty disappointed by the merch, I spent so much money in 2019 because they had a lot of attraction based stuff. This time they had some Muppets HM stuff (a few things different than they'd had at Destination D23) and one or two Runaway Railway things. Tried to show the group pics of what was available. Only ended up buying a few things. Couldn't get the virtual checkout to work so just walked up to a register. Will have pics of all the things we bought in the longer trip report if anyone is interested.

At that time Brian and his sister had gone immediately to the Music Emporium. They grabbed a pre-signed Susan Egan Hercules record for our friend that was only $25. In expo's past the Music Emporium always had in person signings so they had gone to check if they would have any this year, the answer was no so they just left with the record and got in line for the Lorcana cards.

At this point it was 9:45 and Brian had his reservation for the Society of Explorers and Adventurers panel. We had no idea how strict they would be on the 'line up half an hour early with a reservation' so he ditched the Lorcana line and we went. They had a cap on two card packs per person that day (switched to one for the other two days). I think they released about 300 packs and Stephanie got two, one for her and one for us.

Our friend got in standby for D23 Expo Marketplace at 9:53 am (thank you FB messenger time stamps). The line was short and she got in soon and sent us 500 pics of merch. She ended up getting 3 Tron backpacks (I got one and two other friends wanted one). I'm not sure when they sold out at the expo but they weren't there Sunday afternoon. They later showed up on Shop Disney for $10 cheaper and you could use discounts...so happy I got one at the expo (sarcasm). She also got a Tron pin set and just one or two more things. Oh, I also got a Darkwing duck t-shirt.

Meanwhile we were in our reservation pass line for Society. We were in roughly the third row, having lined up about 40 minutes in advance.

Our panel was good if maybe a bit dry. I'll talk more and share pics in the trip report. One thing of note is that they did reference the Disney+ show with Ron Moore, so looks like that is still happening.

We headed downstairs to help our friend with all the Marketplace merch, then went outside for food at the trucks. Lines were pretty long, but we jumped into the hot dog place line as it opened. Those hot dogs were delicious and we had them Saturday too.

While we were eating on the main entry floor Marvel asked if they could film us in our Loki variant costumes, so we did that. Hope we show up on their site/social media. That was fun.

This is when our friend got in line for Movies and was one of the last in line.

At this point I think we walked the show floor a bit and got in line 10 minutes early for our 2 pm Eric Goldberg/Mark Henn signing at Disney/Pixar Animation booth. The line moved fast and we got a really sweet Eric signed Genie drawing and a Mark signed baby Simba drawing.

We ended up walking by the Talent signing area and saw Daniel Logan (baby Boba Fett) was listed even though we hadn't seen his name before. He was walk up only so we got in line and had a great interaction with him. He's really fun.

We saw some random friends and hung out with them at the Disney Family Museum and Marceline booths and signed a Marceline bench. We separated and got in line for an Andreas Dejas Jungle Book print signing. This kind of sucked. He was late and they kept warning us we all might not make it. Long story short, they cut us off when there was only 11 of us left. It was pretty disappointing and a big waste of time.

We did get to slightly entertain ourselves, I think the corner by Talent is where the VIP lounge was backstage. We saw Feige walk right by us and Josh D'Amaro popped out to do a couple photo ops then went right back out again.

We spent the rest of the day looking at the show floor. We got to walk right in to see Walt's Plane with no VQ. We also went to the Walt's Plane panel by showing up to standby roughly 45 minutes ahead of time.

At that point the day was over and we headed out. We had got tickets to the Hulu After Party which was also a low point. It was raining so we walked all the way to Splitsville. I think they might have oversold the party. There was a long line to get it and when we finally got in there were absolutely no seating or tables available, they were all taken. It might have been a more successful strategy to show up later, but we wanted to get to bed soon.

The food options were pretty good and didn't have long lines, they had pizza, mini burgers and sushi (did not try to the sushi, line for that was actually much longer than the others). You could also order a drink from the bar. Not sure about what alcohol was on offer, we just got a Coke.

Since we couldn't find a seat and had to eat standing against the wall we were kind of over it and headed out. They did give a swag bag on the way out, I'll have pics in my trip report.


Well geez, this turned into more of a mini trip report than anything else. I'm going to make another post with more bullet point type lists for our second days.

 

[dina444444]

The expo marketplace was taking Disneyland Magic Key discounts.

 

[ashley0139]

We had a great time at our 4th expo! We ended up only going Friday and Sunday because 3 day/Saturday tickets sold out before we could get them. Luckily almost all the panels we wanted to see were Friday and Sunday. I was bummed to miss The Santa Clause panel though. I love Elizabeth Mitchell.

Friday we lined up in the Expo floor queue around 5:30. Mostly we just like to get in early so we don't have to worry about being held outside or crazy security lines. We lines up for Hall C but we really wanted to go straight to the D23 expo store. We got VQs for MOG and MOG pins (which ended up being useless as they were all gone by the time our group was called). They wouldn't let us upstairs to go to standby for the Expo store, and kept saying the standby line was full. I think most staff didn't realize there was another store up there, because they clearly meant the annex store was full. When we got upstairs right at 9, there was absolutely no line for the expo store. Nobody ever actually knows what's going on. We got our t-shirts/pins/sweatshirts for the expo and headed to the show floor. We did the 100 years exhibit and the Journey into Storytelling exhibit.

Next we went to the SEA panel which we had reservations for. I really enjoyed the first half, but thought the moderator/author was pretty terrible. I then got to meet rock climber Alex Honnold via standby. I have been climbing for about a year and a half so it was fun to meet him. Then we went to the ink and paint panel at the animation studio which was interesting. I didn't realize the entire ink and paint department is now only about 4 people. We took some more pictures and headed out for the day. By that point it was about 5pm.

Saturday was our Disneyland day.

Sunday we had reservations for the Parks panel. We got there around 6am again to make sure that we were inside and in line in time. They had already cut off the standby line by then, which was crazy to me (although I think they ended up letting more people in). We also got VQs for MOG pins to try again and the marketplace. We enjoyed the parks panel even though there weren't any huge announcements. The performance of Into the Unknown in three different languages was incredible. Also I love Jennifer Lee so it was fun to see her. We then booked it to the 70 years of imagineering panel. After the panel we walked through the Parks exhibit and then went to see Walt's plane. Love the mid-century theme. We walked around the show floor more and got freebies and did some shopping in the emporium. I was shocked by how few vendors there were this time compared to previous years. Our final event of the expo was the Disney Character Voices panel and this was AMAZING. I love Susan Egan so it was great to see her along with all the other voices.

Overall a great expo for us. We got to do pretty much everything we wanted and I bought more than in years past, even though it seemed like there was less merchandise. I'm wondering if it helped that we only did 2 days instead of 3 to be less overwhelmed. Can't wait for the next one!

 

[Beatitude]

If the Hall D23 panels are a particularly important aspect of your experience, it’s… pretty awesome. It looked like the first ten rows (approximately) in the center two sections were reserved for preferred pass holders. I got in line 1-2 hours before the scheduled start and always ended up in the first 5 rows. The one exception I made was for the live action film panel on Saturday morning. I got in the queue when it was officially supposed to start (4:30 AM), and ended up in the first row, which was particularly amazing. Almost as valuable, the pass afforded considerably more time to sleep in a comfortable hotel bed at night and shop during the day. Totally worth it if that’s your thing.

 

[AlohaNow]

Here is my little rundown of my first-timer Sunday only experience at D23. I got no RSP panel reservations out of the lottery system, so I was on my own. I went in with no expectations and followed the sage advice to pick your must-do’s and consider everything else gravy. I walked through the doors of the convention center at exactly 10:00, after security let me through with my own snacks and water. I went to four panels in total and only really had to wait in a line for one, the Princess Concert. I wasn’t there for the start of the Sneak Peek of The Mickey Story, but I got caught up real fast on who the panel members were and enjoyed hearing them talk about making the documentary. I also didn’t make it into the MSEP panel so I jumped into the 100 Years of Animation one and found it really interesting. Jodi Benson is a wonderful ambassador for Disney, to say the least. The moment that ended I think the whole room headed to the basement to standby for the Princess Concert! I waited for about an hour, sitting on the cool floor, talking to others in line about their Expo experiences. But like @ashley0139 said, the absolute highlight was the Conversations with Character Voices panel. It was outstanding in its quality and content. With two special surprise guests at the end – one of which was Donny Freaking Osmond. I’m still not fully over it!

On the show floor I had time to do the Disney on Broadway VR experience, see Walt’s plane with absolutely no line, got a shopping slot for the Marketplace, got a Pixar Ball, got my D23 Gold poster, and perused most of the booths. Overall the experience was definitely worth more than the ticket price that I paid. Now that I kind of know what I’m doing I look forward to going again in two years. But one of the best parts was the other attendees. The costumes were completely amazing and people couldn’t have been nicer. The Obi Wan Kenobi who I chatted with in the security line, the ladies who I talked to in the basement line while waiting for the concert, and the wonderful lady who pulled me out of the Character Voices line because she had a +1 she wasn’t using. Disney fans are the best!

 

[PatMcDuck]

It is so interesting how everyone has a different experience! This was my 6th Expo, the last few I did overnight lines so this year meant a new stratedgy. I had the reservation seating thing for Friday afternoon Disney/Pixar Studios, Sat AM Lucas/Marvel/Fox Studios, and Parks on Sunday morning. How did I get all 3 of these? I ONLY asked for these; nothing else, no givaways, no smaller panels, nothing else. We walked from DL Hotel each day, both ways, and ugh had Fantasy building (furthest! Asked for Frontier!)

Friday arrived at 5 am, I just can't help myself lol. Met some friends. Waited downstairs in E for Door A. At 6, we got some store boarding groups. I got MoG 37, but 2 others got Marketplace Group 2, another got MoG group 8. They moved us upstairs and when doors opened, we just WENT to Marketplace and walked in, so we did not use the boarding group. Then we went over to MoG, and waited about 5-10 minutes and again, did not use our boarding groups. Agree the selection at MoG was a big disappointment this year. Walked around until heading down to wait for Pixar/Disney Studio panel.

Saturday arrived somewhat early even with the reservation, maybe around 7. I like Hall E haha, it is like home. Enjoyed this Studio panel too. I think it was SAturday (?) that I stumbled on a panel for The Orville! I love that show, and 4 cast members were there (not Seth McFarland) and it was one of those ones you walk in and sit on floor. YAY. After that, I saw a Ms Marvel one in another similar floor location. These 2 were so enjoyable.

Sunday also arrived around 7, Did the Parks panel. It was my least favorite Hall D23 panel. Except I loved those baked goods, omg, I ate them right after the panel and thus avoided a long food line. Next Expo, IF I go, I will skip it and watch on CCTV or later on Youtube. And will do more small panels. I prefer the panels to the floor. That afternoon I did ELP panel on standby and it was enjoyable. I regret not seeing more small panels, but overall fewer looked interesting to me. Wish I did trivia and Voices though! I missed the Archives floor exhibit the line swere so long. I regret that greatly.

They handled the crowds better than any previous Expo, at least to my eyes. Perhaps I have a skewed view though, as I always go so early. (I need to get inside and have bathrooms available). I watched most of Legends on the CCTV on the floor, huge screen, after the shopping. I did few giveaways as I don't want more stuff. I did get the MoGX store late Saturday to see the D23 merch, so odd it was way far away from the floor and many were unaware it was up there.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I've begun my trip report which includes OBB and the expo in case anyone would like to follow along:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...alloween-give-a-scream-its-halloween.3896440/

 

[Sakura1017]

I heard that the pins at MOG pins sold out by 11am Friday, except for 5 pins. So, if you didn't do the standby queue that started at 9am, probably in line outside by/before 4:30am, or the an early VQ spot, you probably wouldn't get anything. I was trying for it too but didn't get a VQ. They were doing standby on Sunday, but only had the Inside Out and Castle pins left.



I think we met in the preferred line and when exiting Parks. I have short light blue hair. We were exiting Parks when we, my friend and I, caught up with Craig and Ryno.



I think OI is doing their Universal meetup the first weekend of December this year. I am going to Universal for a podcast meetup that same weekend, and most of the UO hotels are sold out for the OI meetup.

Interesting. I actually had boarding group 9 on Friday but the pin I really wanted was gonna be released on Sunday. So if MOG decided to do all the days on Friday I canceled my original grp since it was my first expo I thought we had to be in line an hour before panel started.

 

[soniam]

Interesting. I actually had boarding group 9 on Friday but the pin I really wanted was gonna be released on Sunday. So if MOG decided to do all the days on Friday I canceled my original grp since it was my first expo I thought we had to be in line an hour before panel started.

They weren’t very clear about the arrival time for preferred. I forgot about the Saturday and Sunday releases. The stuff I wanted was released in Friday; that’s the stuff that was gone. I think they released the other stuff on the correct days. Boarding groups didn’t start until 10am, so even if you arrived 30 minutes before for preferred, you would have had to skip the morning panel for BG 8. It just seems very difficult to get the limited edition stuff and see morning panels

 

[Sakura1017]

If the Hall D23 panels are a particularly important aspect of your experience, it’s… pretty awesome. It looked like the first ten rows (approximately) in the center two sections were reserved for preferred pass holders. I got in line 1-2 hours before the scheduled start and always ended up in the first 5 rows. The one exception I made was for the live action film panel on Saturday morning. I got in the queue when it was officially supposed to start (4:30 AM), and ended up in the first row, which was particularly amazing. Almost as valuable, the pass afforded considerably more time to sleep in a comfortable hotel bed at night and shop during the day. Totally worth it if that’s your thing.

View attachment 702431

They did not save the first 10 rows in the middle section for preferred pass holders. Staff were saying the 4 middle sections were reserved for preferred seating. Majority of us wanted to sit in the 2 center middle sections but they kept saying the sides next to the middle section were also preferred seating. So I wrote in the feedback form that preferred seating should be the section that they launch confetti.

I was so upset on marvel day that I got one of the side sections. A person cut the line to join their friends in line while we were in the basement. So when it came for them to do seating in hall h that person said they were a party of 1. That person got to sit in the middle section while their friends got pushed to the side area. Then when it was my turn of just 1 they told me to go to the side area as well.

Staff was very unaccommodating. They only listened to your concerns if you had a medical condition, and of course majority of people that said they had a medical condition wanted to sit in the aisle. I think maybe the first day you could get away with staff switching to different sections. There was a group in the afternoon panel on day 1 upset with their view on the side panel. I think it was about 3 rows of people that stalled the line. Then there was a rush saying move to the middle section. But day 2 they were definitely no and kept saying keep the line moving.

It was very annoying to sit in the side areas paying 899 when people sat in the same area as you from stand by lines.

I think in order to sit in the middle 2 sections when you lined up in the basement you had to be in the first 2 lines. After that it depends on the staff.

 

[Sakura1017]

Mods, feel free to put this back in the main thread if it's appropriate.

I'm starting my budget for D23 Expo 2024. To the lucky ones who had the Preferred Seating passes...how was it? How early did you have to get to the panels and were you able to get to be seated the way you hoped? Would you do it again?

I'd say if you have preferred seating in the future to line up earlier by 2 hours. 1 hour getting there does not get you as good as seats you were thinking. They claim the 4 middle sections of the stage were preferred and everyone wanted to sit in the 2 middle sections and they would not accommodate movement to those sections.

There was not a priority security check in area for preferred this year, which wasn't a big deal but Sunday was the worst to check in. Lines were longer than usual.

No special vip shop time so that sucked and it was based on virtual queue. Didn't get anything on Sunday. Also don't rely on vendors having the same policy as to what Disney was advertising. Learned that you really have to do the most important ones you want on Friday since they don't restock items once it sells out. Also learned that items you thought were limited edition at the expo will eventually appear at the parks or on their website. So that would have been great to advertise that on the items so it would have helped with packing/shipping.

I had preferred and the stupid rsp system for other panels sucked. It gave me a panel that I already had so technically I lost out on any other signings/panels due to the randomness.

I think for expo 2024 it's gonna come down to what is most important for what you want to do and what the preferred seating is going to include and what price point as well.

Since I'm not from California and I've been to SDCC for a couple of years, I did not want to wait in line for hours for the biggest panels. So having preferred for my first expo is something I was going for. If you got to sit in the 2 middle sections for preferred seating it was worth it. Having to sit majority on the sides of the 2 middle sections I would say not worth it since your practically looking at the screen which you would be looking at in the other sections not preferred. In addition, if they had seats available they let people in standby sit in those areas on the sides of the 2 middle sections as well.

So if you wanted a rating system. I would say preferred seating was a 7/10. Nothing special from previous years but I heard this year was less expensive than usual. I'm not sure if preferred seating from previous years is the same section as this years.

 

[dina444444]

I'd say if you have preferred seating in the future to line up earlier by 2 hours. 1 hour getting there does not get you as good as seats you were thinking. They claim the 4 middle sections of the stage were preferred and everyone wanted to sit in the 2 middle sections and they would not accommodate movement to those sections.

There was not a priority security check in area for preferred this year, which wasn't a big deal but Sunday was the worst to check in. Lines were longer than usual.

No special vip shop time so that sucked and it was based on virtual queue. Didn't get anything on Sunday. Also don't rely on vendors having the same policy as to what Disney was advertising. Learned that you really have to do the most important ones you want on Friday since they don't restock items once it sells out. Also learned that items you thought were limited edition at the expo will eventually appear at the parks or on their website. So that would have been great to advertise that on the items so it would have helped with packing/shipping.

I had preferred and the stupid rsp system for other panels sucked. It gave me a panel that I already had so technically I lost out on any other signings/panels due to the randomness.

I think for expo 2024 it's gonna come down to what is most important for what you want to do and what the preferred seating is going to include and what price point as well.

Since I'm not from California and I've been to SDCC for a couple of years, I did not want to wait in line for hours for the biggest panels. So having preferred for my first expo is something I was going for. If you got to sit in the 2 middle sections for preferred seating it was worth it. Having to sit majority on the sides of the 2 middle sections I would say not worth it since your practically looking at the screen which you would be looking at in the other sections not preferred. In addition, if they had seats available they let people in standby sit in those areas on the sides of the 2 middle sections as well.

So if you wanted a rating system. I would say preferred seating was a 7/10. Nothing special from previous years but I heard this year was less expensive than usual. I'm not sure if preferred seating from previous years is the same section as this years.

We had at least part of our group there by 7am each day.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

I'd say if you have preferred seating in the future to line up earlier by 2 hours. 1 hour getting there does not get you as good as seats you were thinking. They claim the 4 middle sections of the stage were preferred and everyone wanted to sit in the 2 middle sections and they would not accommodate movement to those sections.

There was not a priority security check in area for preferred this year, which wasn't a big deal but Sunday was the worst to check in. Lines were longer than usual.

No special vip shop time so that sucked and it was based on virtual queue. Didn't get anything on Sunday. Also don't rely on vendors having the same policy as to what Disney was advertising. Learned that you really have to do the most important ones you want on Friday since they don't restock items once it sells out. Also learned that items you thought were limited edition at the expo will eventually appear at the parks or on their website. So that would have been great to advertise that on the items so it would have helped with packing/shipping.

I had preferred and the stupid rsp system for other panels sucked. It gave me a panel that I already had so technically I lost out on any other signings/panels due to the randomness.

I think for expo 2024 it's gonna come down to what is most important for what you want to do and what the preferred seating is going to include and what price point as well.

Since I'm not from California and I've been to SDCC for a couple of years, I did not want to wait in line for hours for the biggest panels. So having preferred for my first expo is something I was going for. If you got to sit in the 2 middle sections for preferred seating it was worth it. Having to sit majority on the sides of the 2 middle sections I would say not worth it since your practically looking at the screen which you would be looking at in the other sections not preferred. In addition, if they had seats available they let people in standby sit in those areas on the sides of the 2 middle sections as well.

So if you wanted a rating system. I would say preferred seating was a 7/10. Nothing special from previous years but I heard this year was less expensive than usual. I'm not sure if preferred seating from previous years is the same section as this years.

The stores were restocking some items.

 

[Sakura1017]

If you went to the Disney Movie Insiders booth, today is the last day to redeem the code for 500 points. But don't bother trying to redeem and get the MEG pin, it's currently sold out.

Feel free to email them to open up a claim to get the MEG pin but no guarantees. They must have given everyone the option to get the pin who didn't attend the expo as long as the person had 500 points in their account.