Special AP Event 10-12 and 10-17 * Official Thread *

[met19]

i've seen the parade during the day from fantasyland and at night from main st. the one at night had few people, you could get within 2 feet of the float later in the evening. additionally heard kevin kidney speak about the making of the parade. plus i only waited 15 min for star tours!

 

[BecomingObsessed]

The party last night was SO SO SO FUN!!! It was like a 4 hour magic morning. Practically no waits at all. That is invaluable with a 2 and 4 year old in tow. They were so entertained, they made it all the way to closing the park at midnight!!

The parade was also really fun. Last night was our 5th night in the park and the cast members just seemed to have a lot more energy than the previous times we'd seen it. The floats are beautiful and the entire show is fun to watch. It kept my 2 year old dancing. She tried multiple times to run out and join in the show herself If I wasn't smitten with Disneyland already, I would be now!

I did NOT know about the free cupcakes though! If I didn't have 34 (that is NOT a typo, it says 34) pounds of candy from Tuesday's Halloween party to console me, I might be upset... bwhahahahaha!

 

[MotoXPrincess99]

The party last night was SO SO SO FUN!!! It was like a 4 hour magic morning. Practically no waits at all. That is invaluable with a 2 and 4 year old in tow. They were so entertained, they made it all the way to closing the park at midnight!!

The parade was also really fun. Last night was our 5th night in the park and the cast members just seemed to have a lot more energy than the previous times we'd seen it. The floats are beautiful and the entire show is fun to watch. It kept my 2 year old dancing. She tried multiple times to run out and join in the show herself If I wasn't smitten with Disneyland already, I would be now!

I did NOT know about the free cupcakes though! If I didn't have 34 (that is NOT a typo, it says 34) pounds of candy from Tuesday's Halloween party to console me, I might be upset... bwhahahahaha!

Between my boyfriend and I we got over 20 pounds of candy on Tuesday night! And that's not counting the apples and carrots we put in the fridge before we weighted the bag!

We had fun, too. Sarah, I totally forgot you were going to be there. Would have loved to say hello.

We went on Star Tours at the end of the night, and it was a walk-on, which was great since I've only been on it once. After the ride, CM Angie let us stay on and ride again! It was a blast.

Kelly and me on Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy

Great picture! Here's mine:

We had so much fun! It's really nice that they did this for the AP's.

I had never seen the parade before and I really enjoyed it. It was cool to be able to get up close to the floats afterwards.

 

[Diznygrl]

I got an email confirmation for the 17th, but I have yet to see this "list" of names that's supposed to be online. Every link I go to says page not found. Did they take it down right away? And why?

 

[jkpatrick]

I got an email confirmation for the 17th, but I have yet to see this "list" of names that's supposed to be online. Every link I go to says page not found. Did they take it down right away? And why?

You're right the list is no longer on the Official Disneyland Parks blog page. I suppose if you got an email stating you were picked, you are ok. Maybe call the number.

 

[SarafinaPink]

Forgot to post about the night, but I will echo what everyone else said, it was great! I loved being in the park and not having long waits, but what I liked best, was being with all the other APs that love love love the park. Watching the parade with people that have seen it multiple times and still love it was so fun. Going on ST and having everyone chanting for their favorite parts to come up (and groaning when we got Pod Racer Scene and saw Jar Jar Binks) was really fun. Not to mention it was very quiet and not busy, so even if you didn't take advantage of short wait times, it was wonderful to just walk around and not have 8 million people around you.

I was bummed we didn't hear about the special foods until we ate dinner, but oh well.

 

[ATGMom]

We got in and have 3 spots available for tomorrow night if someone wants to meet me. We will be checking in for it at 12 so as long as you can meet us at the park at that time.

 

[aprincess@mail.com]

I'm just back from my 7 day Disneyland vacation and we were able to attend the special AP event and it was amazing! My daughter loved the photo ops with the characters and floats I hope they do this annually it was awesome!

 

[disneylandkitkat]

We got in and have 3 spots available for tomorrow night if someone wants to meet me. We will be checking in for it at 12 so as long as you can meet us at the park at that time.

sent you pm would love 2 spots

 

[kkmcan]

We did the AP event on the 12th and it was pretty awesome! No lines, wide open walkways, the parade seemed like it was a private viewing just for us! We loved it! Especially with the crowds and the heat last week, that really topped our Disneyland experience!

Hope they keep doing these and we get the chance to do another one. Being in Az, just isn't close enough to go there just for one of these events but it just worked out that we were already going to be there.

Now, did I see something about free cupcakes?? We must have missed that cuz we definitely did not get free cupcakes.

 

[mariezp]

Wish I could have attended! It sounds like a wonderful event. Just curious. Has there been any mention of additional upcoming AP events or the frequency of future events? We'll be in the park in November so I would love to have another chance.

 

[Pinocchio #1 Fan]

So is anyone elkse as excited about tonight's private party as I am? I have to work late tonight, so we won't get there until 730 or 8, but I've been mentally doing a happy dance all day at work! I haven't seen the Soundsational parade before, so I'm especially interested in seeing it with a minimal crowd.

 

[goofycathy]

So is anyone elkse as excited about tonight's private party as I am? I have to work late tonight, so we won't get there until 730 or 8, but I've been mentally doing a happy dance all day at work! I haven't seen the Soundsational parade before, so I'm especially interested in seeing it with a minimal crowd.

We are We are!!! Sitting in our hotel room resting before this awesome event! Were excited about riding everything with minimal wait times...and trying the different foods and seeing the parade! YAY!

 

[jkpatrick]

Party was awesome, I was able to go thanks to bbangel and it was great to meet a fellow Dis'er. I hope your tour was fun!

I think the party on 10/17 was more crowded than 10/12. I talked to a few CMs at Town Hall and they mentioned that it was a bigger party.

Soundsational was neat, parade at 9:45. Then all the floats came back out about an hour later for a quiet parade, 5 of them stayed along with the characters for pictures on Main St., they were Tinkerbell, Donald, Mary Poppins, Aladdin, Princess Tiana. From what I saw, there was only Photopass photographers at Donald's float. Which I found odd.

The cupcakes were not free, there was a mini free one with purchase at the Tomorrowland Terrance, the big one at Blue Ribbon was $4 something.

All the Fantasyland rides were walk ons, except Peter Pan. In fact all the other rides, you didn't have to exit, you could keep riding and riding. Star Tours was a walk on during and after the parade, which was awesome. You spent more time walking through the queue than waiting to board...

All other rides in Tomorrowland were also a walk on. We stayed till after midnight, they let you hand around Main St with the floats, the characters left, but the Imagineers stayed and chatted and took photos with people. Nemo didn't run, nor did Storybook Canals, Casey Jr and Matterhorn shutdown at 11:30. I'm not sure if Captain EO or Autotopia was going. Our main goal was the pictures and parade since we could do rides at any other time.

I was a bit disappointed that there weren't many more Photopass photographers out. Although that seems to be the issue at any time at DLR. Whereas at WDW, they are all over the place.

 

[Pinocchio #1 Fan]

The only complaint I had was they were serving the Macaroni and Cheese Hot Dog as a special promotion, but when I got to Coke Corner, they were out of the all beef hot dogs at 10pm. They made the dog using the regular hot dog, which was alright, but it seems to me if they are marketing a special item, they should have the ingredients in stock.

Other than that, it was a fantastic party. I'm hoping they do something like this during the holidays!

 

[jkpatrick]

We talked to a few people while waiting for the Parade, they mentioned that Disney was trying to get AP holders to come during a quiet period rather than making it too busy during other times.

We talked to a CM at the exit gate who seemed to be a manager since he was dressed up. I asked why they were doing it. He mentioned it was just to reward AP holders and give them a different experience. He mentioned that DLR has a ton of APs (he expressed it as too many APs) and that they are planning another event so watch our emails. There were a lot of official CMs walking around at the parade and afterwards people watching.

Gift shops weren't open, other than Emporium and Star Traders so they weren't making too much money and only some food stores were open. So money wasn't the goal. There was an official photographer out taking photos of the parade and stuff probably for some promotional material.

So I can't really figure it out. I mean if it was to reward APs, why not the whole park? If they want money, why not open all gift shops and restaurants and have photopass photographers everywhere.

 

[PryncessChrysty]

We talked to a few people while waiting for the Parade, they mentioned that Disney was trying to get AP holders to come during a quiet period rather than making it too busy during other times.

We talked to a CM at the exit gate who seemed to be a manager since he was dressed up. I asked why they were doing it. He mentioned it was just to reward AP holders and give them a different experience. He mentioned that DLR has a ton of APs (he expressed it as too many APs) and that they are planning another event so watch our emails. There were a lot of official CMs walking around at the parade and afterwards people watching.

Gift shops weren't open, other than Emporium and Star Traders so they weren't making too much money and only some food stores were open. So money wasn't the goal. There was an official photographer out taking photos of the parade and stuff probably for some promotional material.

So I can't really figure it out. I mean if it was to reward APs, why not the whole park? If they want money, why not open all gift shops and restaurants and have photopass photographers everywhere.

This was the first time they had done something like this in a LONG time, and it was evident that it was a test event.
To keep the entire park open would cost them quite a bit of money for this free event. Even to keep additional shops open/running would cost them money, especially when they didn't know if people would even be interested in making purchases.

If they want to allow me to come into the park after hours with 16 attractions open that have little to no wait (15 min for Peter Pan!), give me 5 free Photopass pictures, a free cupcake with my dinner, the opportunity to get up close to the floats & characters, AND get to listen to (& later meet) a panel of the show designers & producers, I am SO there (again). As an AP holder, I definitely felt like this was truly a fan appreciation event. We had the opportunity to do things that normal park goers aren't able to do. If I wanted to shop, I can go back to the park during normal hours to do that.

 

[mariezp]

He mentioned that DLR has a ton of APs (he expressed it as too many APs) and that they are planning another event so watch our emails.

That's what I am hoping for! Now if it would just happen when we are planning to already be there.