D23 EXPO THREAD - See you in 2019!

[keahgirl8]

In theory, you should be carrying your D23 membership card to gain access to separate member lines - I've always carried it and I believe I may have shown in once on 2015 to get in line in Hall E. They are giving away a print in 2017 to members and you will need the membership card to get the print, per the press release this week.

I can confirm that all tickets bought under a member account have the member's status on them - I have a single Gold account and always buy at least one additional credential for the weekend for a family member. Her credential is identical to mine, save the name, despite her not being a member. Again, to gain access to the perks, she would have to be with me and my membership card - even for the lines. We've never separated, so I'm not sure if that's actually enforced. As long as you are all together in the Gold line, you should be able to enter together. Key words - should be able.

There is always a learning curve with the Expos, so it doesn't always work out the way its supposed to.

Yup. Sometimes things change, or sometimes people have different experiences in the same year depending on who they dealt with. I would not hang all of my planning on anyone's previous experience. They won't take "Someone told me that last time..." as a reason.

@ashley0139 Hmm, good question. Usually the member designation the ticket isn't huge, I'm not sure Expo staff would be able to visually see it (when getting in a line versus actually being scanned in, two different things!) when checking to make sure you are in the right place.

But my understanding of the Gold single member credential perk has been that you can buy a ticket for yourself and up to three additional tickets - those additional credentials say member on them and they can (and do) go into the member line. I can see both sides of the coin here, both your point and @wilkeliza's. I just checked the current Things to Know in the website and the section on the 2105 D23 Expo app and it does not clarify it at all.

I would email D23 and see what they say.

Right. Don't just hope they don't see it or don't care. If they do end up telling her she can't be in that line, now she's got to go get back in the other line, which will have gotten very long by the time you get to the door.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I buy the CM tickets, and I am also a gold member, so I have to show my card with my ticket. I just stick my gold card inside the lanyard plastic holder thing. My guests do the same thing. (FYI the cast discounts are almost nonexistent this year, which may help cut down on the crowd slightly.)

I am not sure about a CM with a CM ticket, who is not a gold member, entering with friends who are gold members. I would guess that they probably would let them thru, as they are really not interested in holding up line over an argument involving one person. Plus these people working the lines, generally do not really care (they were DL CMs and volunteers one year, now I think some are park CMs (usually very good!) and others are from temp agencies (some fine, some not). They also have many Disneystore CMs working TDS lines.

But as others have said, every year is slightly different, and they often modify things that did not work well on Friday, for Saturday and Sunday.

 

[AMusicLifeForMe]

All of you are convincing me to switch my membership over to gold lol. I already purchased my tickets though through the "free" membership, and I don't know when I would be able to make it over to D23 to switch my membership. That is since people told me that I could switch my membership at Will Call.

 

[ashley0139]

I buy the CM tickets, and I am also a gold member, so I have to show my card with my ticket. I just stick my gold card inside the lanyard plastic holder thing. My guests do the same thing. (FYI the cast discounts are almost nonexistent this year, which may help cut down on the crowd slightly.)

I am not sure about a CM with a CM ticket, who is not a gold member, entering with friends who are gold members. I would guess that they probably would let them thru, as they are really not interested in holding up line over an argument involving one person. Plus these people working the lines, generally do not really care (they were DL CMs and volunteers one year, now I think some are park CMs (usually very good!) and others are from temp agencies (some fine, some not). They also have many Disneystore CMs working TDS lines.

But as others have said, every year is slightly different, and they often modify things that did not work well on Friday, for Saturday and Sunday.

Thanks for the info!

 

[lurkergirl]

@AMusicLifeForMe You can upgrade the account from Free to Gold online. I have heard that people have done so at Will Call, but I'd check with D23 on that. Again, anecdotal evidence has a tendency to morph even minute-to-minute.

If you do it online, you can also email the D23 staff and see if they can switch the credential prior to mailing it out...failing that, you should be able to have the credentials reprinted at Will Call, it is usually open on Thursday before the Expo starts to allow people to pick-up credentials that weren't mailed and to deal with issues.

 

[AMusicLifeForMe]

@AMusicLifeForMe You can upgrade the account from Free to Gold online. I have heard that people have done so at Will Call, but I'd check with D23 on that. Again, anecdotal evidence has a tendency to morph even minute-to-minute.

If you do it online, you can also email the D23 staff and see if they can switch the credential prior to mailing it out...failing that, you should be able to have the credentials reprinted at Will Call, it is usually open on Thursday before the Expo starts to allow people to pick-up credentials that weren't mailed and to deal with issues.

There. I have upgraded my membership. I really hope it is worth the price lol. Does anyone know when my membership will change from "general" to "gold" on the D23 website? That way I can email and ask for change of credentials.

 

[lurkergirl]

@AMusicLifeForMe I renewed recently and due to a snafu (don't ask), I was told that it takes 48-business-hours for the system to update. That should give you a time to start looking. I don't know if going from free to paid will mean that it will take longer, however.

 

[teeveejunkee]

This is a question for anyone that has camped overnight in line to get into one of the big panels. I recall reading previously that once in line, if you’re lucky enough to get into the building, they don’t let you out again or you lose your place in line. If that is the case, and assuming you had some bare essentials for camping out, then what did you do with your stuff the next day? I personally can’t sleep on the hard floor all night. I plan to bring a single inflatable camp bed and some sort of blanket. It’s probably more stuff than I care to lug around with me during the day. At SDCC I would camp out overnight for Hall H but then run my stuff back to the room in the morning. It doesn’t sound like running stuff back to the room will be an option at D23. If that’s true then my hope is they have some sort of bag check inside the Expo to store your stuff during the day. Does anyone know? Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. TIA!

 

[ashley0139]

This is a question for anyone that has camped overnight in line to get into one of the big panels. I recall reading previously that once in line, if you’re lucky enough to get into the building, they don’t let you out again or you lose your place in line. If that is the case, and assuming you had some bare essentials for camping out, then what did you do with your stuff the next day? I personally can’t sleep on the hard floor all night. I plan to bring a single inflatable camp bed and some sort of blanket. It’s probably more stuff than I care to lug around with me during the day. At SDCC I would camp out overnight for Hall H but then run my stuff back to the room in the morning. It doesn’t sound like running stuff back to the room will be an option at D23. If that’s true then my hope is they have some sort of bag check inside the Expo to store your stuff during the day. Does anyone know? Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. TIA!

Yes, they have a bag check (or at least they did in 2015).

 

[ten6mom]

Thanks for all the valuable information on this thread. This will be my first D23 convention

I have the free membership but a friend of mine with Gold was kind enough to purchase tickets for me and my husband (I can't remember WHY this was an advantage...), anyway, I don't recall ever having received a membership card although I am able to log in and see that I have a basic one.

Does it seem to be a good idea to email them and ask them to send me one? And I guess I should get a free membership for my husband too, just to be safe?

Thanks all

 

[SMD]

Thanks for all the valuable information on this thread. This will be my first D23 convention

I have the free membership but a friend of mine with Gold was kind enough to purchase tickets for me and my husband (I can't remember WHY this was an advantage...), anyway, I don't recall ever having received a membership card although I am able to log in and see that I have a basic one.

Does it seem to be a good idea to email them and ask them to send me one? And I guess I should get a free membership for my husband too, just to be safe?

Thanks all

There is no membership card for free members. Unless they offer the worthless extra hour priority line that will be 5 times as long as the regular line, there are no perks at the expo for free members either.

I've never had my ticket or badge checked at the expo, only my card. One year I had a cheaper CM ticket and got the charter "perk" by showing my card.

 

[ten6mom]

There is no membership card for free members. Unless they offer the worthless extra hour priority line that will be 5 times as long as the regular line, there are no perks at the expo for free members either.

Well that explains why I didn't get one! Thanks!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

People who have gone in the past...

About what time does the expo close each night? Do people go to the parks after the con is done for the day? Let's just ignore the exhaustion factor for the moment.

 

[lurkergirl]

@teeveejunkee As @ashley0139 said, they did offer a bag check in past. For what it's worth, because these things seem to be guidelines at best, in 2015 D23 staff allowed people to put things back in their vehicles before a certain time - they gave warnings about having x amount of minutes left before they were closing the lines/doors/whatever if you wanted to take stuff back to your vehicle. Of course, the ACC was also supposed to be not allowing overnight parking for people lining up in Hall E, but...as I said, guidelines.

@ten6mom The Gold Advantage is the discount, the earlier admission time...and in 2017, the priority seating-print-lounge. All of that is, of course, subject to how well they allow/enforce them. Theoretically, you need the card for the perks.

@OhioStateBuckeye Per the 2015 App, the floor hours were 9am/10am - 7pm. There have been later presentations, but they aren't a regularly scheduled thing - that varies from Expo to Expo. People do go to the Parks after the floor closes.

 

[teeveejunkee]

Thank you @lurkergirl. Very helpful info!

 

[wilkeliza]

This is a question for anyone that has camped overnight in line to get into one of the big panels. I recall reading previously that once in line, if you’re lucky enough to get into the building, they don’t let you out again or you lose your place in line. If that is the case, and assuming you had some bare essentials for camping out, then what did you do with your stuff the next day? I personally can’t sleep on the hard floor all night. I plan to bring a single inflatable camp bed and some sort of blanket. It’s probably more stuff than I care to lug around with me during the day. At SDCC I would camp out overnight for Hall H but then run my stuff back to the room in the morning. It doesn’t sound like running stuff back to the room will be an option at D23. If that’s true then my hope is they have some sort of bag check inside the Expo to store your stuff during the day. Does anyone know? Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. TIA!

I wouldn't count on being able to set up an inflatable camp bed. They space allowed for over night-ing was basically a foldable camp chair. Some at Star Wars Celebration got away with those blow up type that use a quick flip motion to fill it up with air and not an actual pump. They have not released information about overnight queues yet so not even sure if they will be doing the overnight queue hall or not.

 

[teeveejunkee]

@wilkeliza Thanks for the info. That's really good to know, especially before I go out and buy a bunch of stuff I can't use. The only big con I've ever been to is SDCC and while they claim you're not allowed to bring mattresses, they say sleeping bags are allowed. So I always got away with it by making sure my blow up mattress fit inside my sleeping bag. From the sounds of it, D23 doesn't even allow sleeping bags, eh? I truly hope they simply don't allow overnight queues. That would be such a relief! Although, it sounds like even when they don't allow something, people just line up anyway. Do they typically make these announcements in advance, as to what is allowed for queueing up?

 

[lurkergirl]

@teeveejunkee They have officially sanctioned overnight lines, in Hall E, in 2015 only. Nothing was full, per se, before we arrived at 5am-ish. The Live Action Panel was getting close to full, but we still got in and got decent seats.

Before that, the earliest was 5am, I believe...I believe it was enforced, I didn't see pictures of lines before that and we got decent places in line for the Arena presentations heading over from the Paradise Pier around 4:40am. But in 2015, with the overnight queue, people started lining up on Thursday, midday, unofficially.

Nothing has been announced for 2017, you can check for updates here - Things to Know

 

[wilkeliza]

@wilkeliza Thanks for the info. That's really good to know, especially before I go out and buy a bunch of stuff I can't use. The only big con I've ever been to is SDCC and while they claim you're not allowed to bring mattresses, they say sleeping bags are allowed. So I always got away with it by making sure my blow up mattress fit inside my sleeping bag. From the sounds of it, D23 doesn't even allow sleeping bags, eh? I truly hope they simply don't allow overnight queues. That would be such a relief! Although, it sounds like even when they don't allow something, people just line up anyway. Do they typically make these announcements in advance, as to what is allowed for queueing up?

I think they gave notice last year but can't remember how much notice. I'm going back through twitter looking for photos to show last years set up.

 

[my2boys2disney]

Sorry, I know this has probably been asked, but it's a long thread. Crowds at DL after D23? Like Monday and Tuesday?