New D23 Expo Superthread! (6/24/2019)

[theluckyrabbit]

...

• More CMs to help maintain line integrity
• CMs adapting the overnight /early morning line handling daily as situations warranted due to guest behaviors
• We were able to bring in water & snacks after all, though the stress of uncertainty was not fun at all and I did not have as much as I’d liked due to not wanting to lose it if it was confiscated
• D23 taking feedback from last Expo to try to make things go smoother
• Security at the perimeter of ACC property rather than at the doors...

I agree with these points and also with your dissatisfaction about the continued inconsistency with the bag check process. I really wish D23 would set up a separate department for Disability Issues, much in the way Disability Accessibility is separate from Security at DLR. Bag Check staff just aren't familiar enough with the issues or knowledgeable enough in general to handle the amount of case by case incidents that happen at Expo each day. Had I known about the blue bag tags, I would have requested one at the East Entrance on day 1. But no one there ever mentioned it during all the times I went in and out with my backpack. And I never changed the contents of my bag during all 3 days. It was only on the morning of day 3 that anyone even noticed my mini umbrella. And it was only the name of the Accessibility Services manager on my letter that stopped the security supervisor from confiscating my things. An Expo office focused only on dealing with disability issues and tags and specific issues that relate to medical needs would alleviate much of the anxiety, inconsistencies, and stress before and during the event.

 

[mose]

I'm a D23 Expo newbie who only walked around the show floor a bit on 1-day pass in 2017. My goal in 2019 was to try and do the bigger Hall D23 panels so lines took up a huge chunk out of my expo time. I did enjoy anytime I found a twitter post or such showing a neat costume or cosplay character(s).

https://twitter.com/x/status/1165009631292248065

I was lucky enough to see the Mousequerade 1st place winner in-person. I believe her costume was called "The Grim Grinning Gown"; was in awe at the level of detail.

Hall D23 panel lines:
I don't know how panels fared in 2017 but I assume that some felt they had to line up earlier for Hall D23 this year with the introduction of the online Stage Pass reservation system. I didn't get any SPs for Hall D23, I didn't know what % of seats were allotted for SPs, and I didn't know what panels were considered to be more popular, ...so I was unsure what was a good time to line up to make it in time for Gold priority. The anxiety of not knowing was what made me want to line up before midnight for fear of missing out on a decent seat.

Security Checkpoints:
Only went through the Katella/North Hall checkpoint. The first night was pretty lax, but the second night there now CMs guarding the entrance to the Arena plaza asking for any prohibited items. This is when I gave up my brand-new mini, collapsible chair (that I never had a chance to use) which eventually got thrown away by security. It was annoying to see that there were still some chairs that got through but I knew it was simply luck of the draw so I got over it pretty quick. For Saturday night I went to Walmart to pick up a blanket and ear plugs and these brought some relief from the torture devices that they used in Hall E.

Favorite Hall D23 Panel (out of 4 attended):
Disney on Broadway's 25th Anniversary

//Thanks to everyone posting about what your favorite moments were, it gives me an idea of what to look for if I go in 2021.

 

[tobikaye]

As this was my first panel, with a very anxious at times sister, overall D23 was okay and we might return. We would now know some adjustments we might make for our own ease.

We did have a blast at the Park panel, but that is because we are huge Epcot fans and they brought out Dick Van Dyke.

We got a bit frustrated with the Legends and trying to figure out which line was which. I could not get my sister to go to panels on other floors because of her anxiety, but in the future, now that she better understands the setup, she might be willing.

Thank you all for your help over this last year for us in preparation if D23. I have 2 DL/CA days left and to complete my trip report. I may not be as frequent of a DL forum visitor unless I have a future trip come up. I do think I might try a solo trip or with someone that rides similar rides to me within the next year. So, it might not be too long before I am back in this forum.

 

[maichan]

Was back to work this morning, so only posting my expo recap now...

I didn't get reservations for any of the Hall D23 presentations, so decided to take a more laid back approach to this expo by sleeping in and arriving between 6 and 7 each morning. We parked in the Marriott's self-parking lot for just $16 as we knew from Spot Hero that their lot wasn't restricted to hotel guests only.

We learned from 2017 to visit the Music Emporium booth on Friday if we were interested in any of the signings, so instead of Legends we made a beeline there and secured reservations for both the Coco signing on Friday and Moana signing on Saturday. This year, they did say they were reserving some stock for the weekend so they wouldn't sell out everything the first day like in 2017. In addition, during the signings they scanned your badge and took your photo which was then emailed to you, so it was both a signing AND a photo op. Overall, nice improvements to the system since the last expo.

​

I didn't get reservations to any of the Talent signings, but when purchasing Eric Tan's LE print set from the Cyclops booth I learned he would be there from 2-3 on Friday, so I was able to get him to sign the print set I purchased along with the Gold Member poster with zero wait.

I also didn't get any Storepasses, but the one toy I wanted (the metallic Ursula pop) was a shared exclusive so I was able to buy it online Thursday night from the BoxLunch website.

Then on Saturday, I had reservations to the Black-ish panel in the Arena so I thought I wouldn't be able to attend Disney on Broadway, but they pushed back the start time and announced on the show floor just as the panel got out that there were still seats in Hall D23 so we were able to walk-in just a few minutes late. Seeing Ashley Brown sing "Feed the Birds" in person legit made me tear up.

On Saturday evening, I attended the Disney Movie Insiders party but didn't get to meet any fellow board members because I am introverted and didn't participate in bingo or even wear a nametag (hides).

On Sunday, I didn't have a reservation for The Little Mermaid but managed to make it into the Gold queue. And since I had done all I wanted to on the show floor, decided to spend the rest of my day camping out for Character Voices in the afternoon and got into the front of the Gold B section for my new favorite D23 panel of all-time, supplanting the Power of the Princess.

So overall, even without reservations to the larger panels, stores, or signings, I was able to enjoy this expo and get into most of the things I wanted. I especially enjoyed the panels at the Disney+ and Pixar/WDAS booths and got to see Eric Goldberg, Mark Henn, Ron Clements, Jeff Goldblum, and Angela Kinsey by arriving just 10 minutes ahead of time.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I couldn’t believe how loud the movies and commercials in the waiting area were! So unnecessary!

I never realized how loud Aristocats was until last weekend.

 

[Mathmagicland]

They need to add capacity for the Archives presentations. These were always full & turning people away.

I noticed this too, it was different from last Expo where the Archives capacity was fine. I can’t help but wonder if this change was somehow related to the content of the other panels and people wanting more of the “classic Disney” or Disney history content of the Archives panels.

 

[dina444444]

I noticed this too, it was different from last Expo where the Archives capacity was fine. I can’t help but wonder if this change was somehow related to the content of the other panels and people wanting more of the “classic Disney” or Disney history content of the Archives panels.

Both archives panels I went to were not full.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

I couldn’t believe how loud the movies and commercials in the waiting area were! So unnecessary!

I never realized how loud Aristocats was until last weekend.

"The Incredibles" was LOUD (and I was wearing ear plugs!), but I figured it was just the whole superhero/action movie genre. Then when the commercials were LOUD, I figured it was Disney selling, selling, selling. But when "The Little Mermaid" came on, and I could barely hear the dialogue... and when I couldn't hear any of "Part of Your World" but could see Ariel's mouth moving? I figured that the earlier loudness had damaged my hearing.

 

[ImDMous]

Overall, we had a great expo this year. We've been to all of them except 2017, there definitely have been some big changes since the first year when they were at the Disneyland exit begging people to come over.

Started out a bit rocky when we woke up at 5:30 Friday and saw reports that Legends lines were closed already. I really wanted to go to that and was pretty disappointed. We headed over anyway, got there about 6:15 and got in the main floor line and just waited. Went to MoG and waited about 20 min, not too bad. We had a SP for the Music of Galaxies Edge so headed to that. Very cool to see. Went to the Disney+ panel that afternoon, we didn't have SP and the gold line was full but we got in about 15 mins after it started after waiting about 2 hours.

Saturday was HM day! We decided there wasn't anything we needed to be there for before opening so we showed up at 9:30. Walked right through security and right in the doors, no waiting at all. We got in the Gold line for the arena for the 5 years of HM, that was definitely chaos. I really enjoyed the reading of an early script they did. Uncle Deadly is a master of his craft. We also got to two on the Archives stage; I can't remember the exact names, one was Collecting the Creepy and the other was Horror, Humor and Voodoo I think. They both were pretty interesting but not really what I was expecting. I enjoyed them though. We also got into the Dream Store that afternoon and signed up for Disney+.

Sunday we waited to get there until 9. We had a SP for Stage 28 to see Heroines of the Disney Galaxies. They had shut down the security entrance because the ACC entrance was backed up. We waited about 15 minutes and then it opened again. We got upstairs and in line right at 9:30. I liked that panel a lot too, very emotional. We also went to 50 Years of the Disney Archives that afternoon. That was really cool listening to all the different archivists talk about their most interesting finds of the past year. Saw the street party, got into the archives costume display, hit up the other areas of the floor we'd skipped the previous days.

Overall, we got into most of what we wanted, even though we only had 2 Stage Passes for smaller shows and no Shop Passes. We were in standby lines for several things and got into them, were the last 4 people let into one, that was close! Beforehand I was very anxious about how everything was going to turn out, but it went very well and we saw lots of great stuff.

 

[ashley0139]

A more detailed recap of our experience:

Saturday

• We didn't get to go on Friday this year because of my work schedule, for the first time since we started going to the Expo. This was our third expo, and overall, favorite logistically and least favorite content-wise. I think we chose the wrong panels.
• Saturday we had stagepasses for 50 years of HM and Collecting the Creepy. We decided to get to the convention center at 5:30 to hit the show floor before the panels. We wanted to get into the Dream Store asap to get the convention merch (t-shirt, pins, spirit jersey, etc) and then were going to explore the show floor.
• At 5:30, we were barely allowed in the downstairs lines for the show floor (there were 1 1/2 rows after us allowed in). We waited for 9:00 by dozing, doing crosswords, and playing the Switch. We also chatted with people around us, one of whom just happened to be @WebmasterMaryJo! We sat next to each other for hours without realizing it. I'm not super chatty that early in the morning, but we had fun.
• When they opened the show floor at 9, we went right into the Dream store. I got the expo tshirt and 2 pins (my usual purchases) and a couple things for a friend. My friend got...a lot more. She ended up with the expo spirit jersey and the dapper dans spirit jersey, along with the dapper dans pops, among other things.
• We were out of the Dream store by 9:15! That was crazy. My friend is a much bigger shopper than me, so she wanted to get in line for MOG. I'm not big on waiting in lines for stores for 2 hours, so she waited for most of it while I explored the show floor (I know, not cool, but if they had told me I couldn't reenter the line to join her, I would have been fine with that. I HATE feeling like I'm wasting time waiting in line for a store).
• While she was waiting I did one of the Frozen animation pictures and got the Frozen 2 pin. I also looked in all the booths on that side of the floor, but didn't buy anything. I also got food for both my friend and me.
• By the time we got into MOG, it was about 11:15. We wanted to be out of the store to go to the HM panel by 11:30. Luckily, the store wasn't too big and didn't seem to have as much stuff this year so it was relatively quick. I got the parks mug in black and a pen, my friend went hog wild with the EPCOT stuff.
• We happened to get over to the HM panel at the perfect time and were in a good spot for the stagepass line.
• I thought the panel was okay...not really what I was expecting, and I was expecting better for a big 50th anniversary panel. Still fun though. I liked them showing the effects.
• After the panel we put stuff in the car and wandered the show floor and especially the vendor area for a while. I was deciding between going to Disney on Broadway or Collecting the Creepy and decided on collecting the creepy. Again, it was okay, but not what I expected. I enjoyed when the speaker showed the designs that he made for the 50th anniversary and how they made the decisions.
• After the panel we had spots for the Frozen print giveaway and Pixar ball so we got those and then headed out.

Sunday

• On Sunday we desperately wanted to go to the parks panel and did not have stage pass, so we got into the gold member line at about 4:30 and toward the front of the group in C. Slept on and off and played the switch again until we went into the panel.
• Parks is my favorite panel, but we got placed waaaaaay in the back (though centered) so couldn't see anything except the video screens. The announcements this year we thought were....eh. Nothing compared to 2017. Still my favorite panel, but a little disappointed with the announcements.
• After Parks we went down to the show floor to do Disney + and see the Heroes and Villains exhibit. I'm a big Once Upon a Time fan (as you can probably tell from my avatar) so I loved seeing those costumes.
• We did the Disney + thing and then wandered the vendor area a little more (my friend likes to browse the pins)
• At 2:30 (3? can't remember) I went to go see Christy Carlson Romano at the Disney + booth. I grew up with her and saw her as Belle on Broadway, so that was a fun throwback.
• At 3:30, after being up since 3am and exhausted, we decided to head out. We were getting up early to go to Disneyland the next day as well.

Overall

• A great expo and we will definitely be back
• I wish I had seen the character voices panel, Aladdin panel, and some of the other ones. I feel like we chose our panels poorly but of course, you don't know until the panel is over if it is worth it.
• I think the expo was run so much better this year. Splitting up the show floor made everything much smoother (at least for me). I never waited outside of the basement of Hall D23 though, so not sure how other areas were.

What did everyone buy? Let's post pictures of our cool finds!

Here is our haul (both of ours):

 

[azdisneylover]

I asked one of the employees and was told that we would be receiving emails about this bundle closer to November. Will also address if you want the non-ad version of Hulu.

Thank you for the quick response. I sure hope they do have an option that would give a decent discount for people who already have hulu and espn plus.

 

[chopstick]

Does anyone out there have an extra set of the Team of Heroes booth giveaways from Friday or Saturday that they would like to trade for a set from Sunday? I have an extra set of the Star Wars bag and pin and would love to send it to someone in exchange for the bag and pin from another day. Thanks!!

 

[lurkergirl]

Well, 2019 was an extremely uneven experience for us.

The cash registers going down at MOG on Thursday with little communication was frustrating. We were accused of line jumping Friday because of the snaking lines trying to get through security. The chaos at opening for the floor Friday and Saturday was frightening. We struggled with lines for panels, encountering several cast members that made up rules and chastised us as a group when we corrected them.

We had fun, saw friends and enjoyed our panel choices. But I’m not sure we will be back.

And injuring my finger Thursday afternoon made the weekend painful. Oops!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Well, 2019 was an extremely uneven experience for us.

The cash registers going down at MOG on Thursday with little communication was frustrating. We were accused of line jumping Friday because of the snaking lines trying to get through security. The chaos at opening for the floor Friday and Saturday was frightening. We struggled with lines for panels, encountering several cast members that made up rules and chastised us as a group when we corrected them.

We had fun, saw friends and enjoyed our panel choices. But I’m not sure we will be back.

And injuring my finger Thursday afternoon made the weekend painful. Oops!

I'm with you on not sure we'll be back.

I can probably be easily convinced, I get excited easily and jump onto the hype train. My boyfriend has sworn it off though.

 

[msteddom]

I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s experiences, so I’ll add mine. I attended Saturday and Sunday. I had Stagepasses for the Movies panel on Saturday and the Parks panel on Sunday.

Thoughts:
Both the Movies and Parks panels were great! I got decent seats without spending the night in line. That was a godsend, because I was (and still am) getting over a bad cold.

Why don’t the Dream Store and Mickey’s of Glendale swap spaces? For MOG to have so much more demand and 1/4 of the registers is not great customer service.

The Parks Pavilion on the show floor seemed much smaller this year. It was a bit disappointing.

I would have spent more time on the show floor and waiting standby for afternoon and evening panels, but I really wasn’t feeling great, so that cut my time short.

I will probably only do one day next year, unless something really exciting is announced. I’m glad I went, but I’ve enjoyed previous Expos more.

 

[CarolynFH]

DH and I enjoyed our first Expo despite exhausting ourselves to the point that we were too tired to hit the parks in the evenings as we planned. Most of our StagePasses were for the Archives Stage, but we really appreciated having one for the Parks panel. It meant we didn’t have to spend the night or arrive in darkness, which we agreed we would not do. We enjoyed the show floor too although we ran out of energy to see it all, what with panels and shopping. And I met Margaret Kerry, the model for Tinker Bell, my favorite character! We were also happy that the food trucks were inside security. All in all it was a positive experience for us, and we’ll definitely consider coming in 2021, hoping that they improve the online reservation system for it.

 

[CarolynFH]

Just wondering - did anyone here go to the “big surprise announcement” panel? We had a SP but decided to skip it after the announcement was made.

 

[PatMcDuck]

5th Expo for me. I am unsure about 2021. Friday I arrived about 4 am, headed to show floor. I went to Disneystore, as I collect those little keys. HA! 2 hour wait, which I think was pretty good. They are smarter here now, less variety of items then they used to try and showcase, which helps people get in and out faster. We had Stagepass for SHIELD that afternoon. We went early and got gold seats easily, after a little line confusion. GREAT PANEL, disappointed only 2 cast members appeared though.... LOVED IT. Got into Dreamstore pretty easily, got my D23 Spirit jersey and a D23 straw cup.

Saturday, I had Stage Pass for Studios, but still arrived around 5am. I just can't handle outside lines. Again brought in crackers, water, and my little tiny chair (it sits on the ground, not even really visible while I sit in it, lol). Studios was enjoyable, I was debating attending it, as it has so little content but like it, the Rock appearance was funny with Jungle Cruise.... So 2 good panels. BUT in the afternoon I had Immersive Worlds, with Imagineers including Joe Rhode. Sadly, it was kind of boring. I choose badly. I spent 2 hours afterwards to ge into Mickey's of Glendale. Now that line loved so slow, people were actually sitting on the ground. Took 2 hours. It was pretty great though. The line moves so slow, because they had SO much stuff in there, so many shirts, and jackets it took while to decide which one to buy and what sizes. (women's sizes are bizarre here, I wear a XL and need a 3X here, yikes).

Sunday, I had Stage Pass for Parks. "Slept in" and arrived at nearly 6 am. This day they said no chair. I was somewhat OK with that, but wanted to at least keep it in my backpack. No. I was upset, as it was a long walk to Paradise Pier, that little sucker cost about $70. They said other people promised to not open their chairs but then opened them anyway so no. This then became a long discussion. I could ask for and obtain a tag for it. But once in Hall E, I could not leave to get one. And I would need chair with me to get it tagged, yet Catch-22 I was not allowed to bring it in to get the tag. We went round and round (I never yelled or was disrespectful, just asked how this could be accomplished). Finally supervisor just gave me a tag. If I go next year, I expect me and hundreds of others will have Dr notes. Because why would a DR CARE, and any person could defend needing one, especially as I am now 61 years old). I felt BAD as others asked me how I got the chair tagged. I wish they would have just wrapped it in duct tape as not allowed. I still feel bad for others. I let a woman next to me who needed it even more share time in it. OK so I enjoyed Parks, because I live on east coast and most projects are for Epcot. They went thru stuff very fast though. In the afternoon, I had Stage Pass for Women of SE Galaxies Edge. Sadly, another pretty boring panel. Just talking, for example visual aids would have been nice, and also hearing about EXACTLY what they DID. I choose badly. Another guest said the music panels are usually the best and I have to agree. But in the earlier Expos they had great exciting fun panels on how they developed rides (like Little Mermaid, new Star Tours, Carsland), or one was all about Monsters University movie, and how they came up with the look for the characters, so entertaining. Got free Pixar sunglasses at 4 pm, had a Pass for that.

So the lines are ok for me, it was the 2 so-so panels that have me debating a return for a 6th Expo. Not the lines. I agree the reservation system was terrible. Even though I got 5 panels, most of my friends got nothing. So just a fluke it worked for me. Next time I could have nothing, and I like the Studios panel and standby had to be there by 1 am to get in. Should be just one panel a day, one signing a day? I have no idea how to fix the stores. They seemed better than in the past. Maybe TDS should split into 2 like MoG, with the very limited items separated to one location? I think MoG had too much stuff, which sounds crazy of course. Dream store is usually available in afternoons and line moves fast.

Good luck all! I did have lots of fun, the Costumes were better than EVER and the guests so friendly and CMs were great, the temps were trying, the food trucks an improvement over the other fare. Had fun on the floor with the photo ops.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

So here is my review:

Friday:

Panels: Disney+
-really enjoyed this one. Favorite parts were the Mandalorian, Obi Wan announcement, Lady and the Tramp, Anna Kendrick's Christmas movie and all the Marvel shows. Wanda Vision looks so weird and awesome. Also looking forward to Kristen Belle's high school theater reunion show.

I think they focused a bit too much on the Disney Channel shows. You need to know your audience and there weren't a lot of younger people in attendance.

Minute by minute of day:
Arrived at 5 am, placed into queue in the main basement. Friend arrived at 5:15, went into the overflow carpeted room.

Waited in the show floor queue. We were let upstairs and allowed to line up right outside the doors. We were let in just after 9. There were 3 of us and we all split up with different objectives. Friend went to MOG and was able to get right in. BF went to Music Emporium to get Anthony Gonzalez wristbands. I went straight to Talent Central to see how signings would be handled with no pass (wanted to meet the Broadway people). I was told that there would be standby, but the standby would only be accommodated if the pass people didn't show up.

I don't know what was happening at this point but the show floor was still very empty. I then went to Marvel to ask them about standby. I was the only guest in the pavilion. They said they would not be accepting standby for any of their signings, but that there would be standing room to watch the talks.

I met back up with my BF at the Emporium, we got our vinyls and there were no meet and greet wristbands this year, they scanned your badge which was nice. He probably waited 15 minutes in line in total.

We both went back to Marvel and got in line for the free giveaway. He got a water bottle and I got a Groot funko. I thought that was nice of Marvel, everyone got a chance to get a prize and they didn't require a reservation.

Our friend bought me a spaceship earth Phoenician shirt in MOG.

We met up with our other friend and took some pictures in front of the Star Wars booth. BF and I were cosplaying as Star Wars creators, he was Dave Filoni and I was Ashley Eckstein. After that I got recognized by a Her Universe rep who wanted my pic for their social media.

I got into the standby line for Broadway. I ended up ditching because a huge line was forming outside in the hall for Disney+ and we got worried. I heard later from my friend who was in standby for Jim Shore that none of the Broadway standby were ever able to go. They continue to let talent pass into line much later than they should have. The rules said 5 minutes before, but looks like the rules were never followed for passes. So much for standby.

At around 10:45 we got in line for Disney+. We were held upstairs for a long time before they let us in. We felt that the line was super long, but we got front row Gold A section.

Luckily, the volunteers were letting us leave the basement since we had wristbands on. We took turns going to the food trucks to get food. I won a Star Wars pin at the Amazon prize truck.

We hung out in the basement until we were loaded into the room around 2:45. Panel started at 3:30. It ran a little long and I don't think we got out until about 5:45. The gifts were Disney+ hats and an I Love you 3000 pin.

By that time the expo was almost over. We had wanted to do the Treehouse panel but it had already started.

We went to the Nat Geo booth, and did a quick 3 minute walk through. Then went to look around in the Epcot and Marvel Parks pavilions. That was pretty much it for that day.

Saturday:

Panels: Simpsons, HM 50 and Broadway.
-Simpsons: really good. Matt Groening, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith and a few writers were in attendance. Got to hear some good stories. They played tons of clips from when the show parodied Disney. They also showed a Stranger Things cilp from the upcoming Treehouse of Horros episode. I am kicking myself now, they opened the floor to questions and whoever asked a question got a signed sketch from Groening.

-HM 50: was a cluster to get in. We ended up in standby and were loaded into the 3rd floor after it had already started. There were plenty of seats still on the floor level. I enjoyed this panel, though I know others didn't. They showed how to do some of the illusions which was really cool. X Attencio's granddaughter spoke about him and his influence on the attraction. They had 2 jungle cruise skippers do a walkthrough with jokes on the HM, I really liked that because I love the JC. Then they did the script reading with the tightrope walker, X's granddaughter, and X's granddaughter.

-Broadway: we were held upstairs in the hall in line forever, and were finally allowed to enter after it had started. This panel was so good. All the performers were excellent and it was a great time.

Today we were doing a Captain Marvel/Top Gun mash up. Our friend was Carol Danvers in her flight suit, my BF was Maverick in his flight suit, and I was Goose in his flight suit but I had on cat ears and our friend made us a light up Tessercat toy on a string.

We actually got stage passes for the Simpsons, so we decided to sleep in and showed up around 8. We were held in the carpeted holding room, then led to outside the doors until the floor opened. We went to Marvel to get another giveaway, but ended up ditching because it was taking a while. We got in line for Simpsons stagepass.

We ended up getting pulled out of line while walking in and were led up to fill 4 empty second row seats. We all got Bart heads with Mickey ears on a stick.

Would have loved to do the signing but didn't bother with standby.

After that panel, we saw the cluster waiting to get into the gold line for HM 50 and went to the food trucks to get lunch. When we came back gold was closed so we got in standby. We were let in after the panel started and sat on the third floor.

The panel was over around 1:30. We decided to wander the show floor. Tried going to the vendor booth area, but it was so hot over there it made me sick. Tried to get standby for Ashley Eckstein signing but it was full.

We just wandered around some more checking out booths and the Pandora exhibit until we lined up for Broadway at about 3:30. It had been pushed back to 4 and we were seated as they were starting the first song.

Panel was over a little after 5:30. At this point we left early because we had got into the Disney Movie Rewards park meet up and had to DCA at 7-7:30 to check in.

Sunday:

Panels:
-Disney Parks: was super disappointed in this one. I felt it was just a giant commercial and that they had a bunch of filler. So many things that we already knew. Thank goodness for Dick Van Dyke, he saved the panel. I did not care about Target getting Disney stuff that we could instagram. Don't get me wrong, the Make A Wish was very touching, but I felt like it was filler because they didn't have a lot to discuss.

-Art of Disney Storytelling: Enjoyed this panel a lot. Was hosted by John Stamos and he called back to the panel he hosted in 2017 in which Marty Sklar was in attendance.

-Character Voices: by far the best panel. There were so many voices in attendance: Mickey, Donald, Goofy. Jim Cummings who does about 40 voices. Then they had Miguel (Coco), Tiana, Ariel, Belle, Judy Hops, Moana and Jasmine. I could have watched that panel for another hour, it was so interesting. Miguel and his little brother sang Remember Me and Moana sang How Far I'll Go.

This morning sucked. We ended up lining up at 3:30 for Parks because we didn't want to miss it. We got second row of Gold C. The panel went until noon and I was just meh with it. Our parting gifts were a $10 gift card (someone got a $2300 gift card) and a pin. I really wished they'd given the Mary Poppins attraction poster.

We went outside to get a food truck lunch. Then wandered around a bit. Went to the costume exhibit, then the Art of Storytelling panel.

Ducked out of that a few minutes early to beat the rush to Character Voices.

After Character Voices we did a quick run through of the vendors (most of the items were way too expensive for me there, and I don't collect pins of funkos). So not a lot to interest me.

We did a final circuit of the floor and got a lot of free stuff. Also signed up for Disney+. Were turned away from the Voluntears booth, they said they were at capacity for the day. Then kind of rudely said they were out of freebies anyway. I didn't even know they had freebies and was just trying to help, so whatever.

And that was it for the expo. I'll do my next post of critiques and praises.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Con Critiques and Accolades.

The Good:
-organization was so much better this year. Besides the HM 50 line up, all the lines seemed organized and no Parks snafus like 2017.

-security: security was great, there were no hour long waits like 2017. Also really appreciated the food trucks being within security. We ate there every day.

-Marvel booth: thank you thank you for doing a giveaway everyone could participate in. Was a breath of fresh air after all the reserved giveaways everywhere else.

The Bad:
-those stupid reservation passes. Obviously, if the passes worked in your favor you had a great expo. I only got a handful of smaller stage passes, one of which I couldn't even use because I was in line for Disney+ (music and sounds of galaxy's edge). I got no giveaways, and was told time and again there was no standby. I got no talent passes, and got turned away from every standby line I attempted. Really left a bitter taste.

I can't say enough how those passes affected most parts of the expo. In 2017 we were surprised a few times with giveaways at Disney/Pixar. I barely saw any reason to even go to their booth this year. So not only were the giveaways all done by passes, but I could get no talent signings except for the music emporium. So glad they do it the way they do.

So no giveaway chances except Marvel, no talent signings except Music emporium. That takes away a lot from the floor right there. I'm not a big shopper either.

We also wasted almost our entire day Friday to guarantee a spot in Disney+. I don't regret going to the panel, but geez, I really wish I didn't need to spend almost the entire day in line. And yes, it was necessary to go that early. Nobody knew how many stage passes were handed out, how early people would line up for gold and standby. It was either go early or roll the dice.

The Ugly:
-MOG pin line. Calm down people, geez. Just keep your anger and frustration deep inside like I do, the healthy way. No need to get physically violent.

-the volume in the basement waiting area. My gosh, I know they were trying to discourage people from spending the night but that volume on the movies was atrocious. I couldn't even hear the people next to me when they were trying to speak to me at some points.

-the temperature in the basement in the early morning was freezing. We weren't allowed chairs or blow up mats, so it was terrible to sit on the cold floor.

Thank goodness for some amazing panels like Character Voices, because the whole experience left me feeling a bit defeated.