D23 Expo

Confession: I'm not a member of D23. I would definitely like to be. The perks are there but the price is a little too steep for me, despite my great love of Disney. (Now, if you wanted to make a donation towards my membership fee, that would be perfectly fine!)

The big draw, for me at least, of membership would be the annual D23 Expo. I'd imagine it is for many other members as well. And after reading the reviews of the events of this past weekend's expo, I can't say I'm jumping at the chance to join.

I read a number of reviews all of which had the same basic themes: waited hours in line for one event, it went long and I missed the second event, couldn't get into this event, lines were cut off after an hour and a half wait for this event, spent a whole day there and only toured the floor twice. What the heck Disney?

I don't know who was in charge of planning this out but it sounds like for future events Disney needs a bigger venue and some more input from theme park designers. It sounds like they had no method of knowing when venues would fill, resulting in people waiting hours only to be told there was no room for them. This kind of disappointment is unacceptable for a Disney event. Also, the lack of things to do besides waiting in line for theater presentations was noticeable.

If I were Disney, I would consider making future events longer. 3 days seems like too short a period of time (that having been said, you would also have to increase the number of events, as spreading them out over 5 or 6 days would only make the lines that much larger.) I would also move the most coveted events to a larger venue, like the Honda Center in Anaheim.

They might also consider moving the next expo to Walt Disney World, where they would have the room to build specific venues, almost like a World's Fair (my how things come full circle, don't they?) Plus they could spread events out around the parks and hopefully give people more things to do.

There is so much that can be done with this event. Leaving people shut out and disappointed it not one of them. Disney has a long way to go before I consider shelling out the dough to join D23 and even consider attending an expo.