Originally Posted By Doobie This topic is for discussion of the May 20th World Report colum on the Annual Passholder event at Animal Kingdom at <a href="News-ID140130.asp" target="_blank">http://LaughingPlace.com/News-ID140130.asp</a>.
Originally Posted By WEDWAY100 Speaking as the person on the other side of the conversation, "which is better, Indy or Dinosaur", I think that Steve very accurately described the event. As an Annual Passholder, I am very happy to see Disney offer events like this. I attended an AP preview of Fantasmic back in 1998, and it was handled very well. I think that as AP holders, we have become accustomed to a high level of quality entertainment from WDW, and this event did not live up to the expectations. Like Steve, I hope that Disney will continue to make these types of offers to AP holders, but will learn from the mistakes for this particular event. Steve, thanks for taking the time to write the article, and thanks to all of the WDW CM's for the effort!
Originally Posted By Craigcc Assuming the information you (Steve) provided is correct, it shows another mistake Disney made. I arrived at the park around 6, and actually went throught the turnstile at 6:32. At "registration" I received a blue sheet. There was no explanation given about the difference between blue and yellow. And while it's nice of them to make the free-drink and free-popcorn coupons good for 30 days, it doesn't help me. I put mine in a trash can as I was leaving the park, less than an hour after arriving. Also, while it's nice for those of us who live locally, on the parking lot tram returning to our cars, the family behind me had driven several hundred miles for this event. It won't be convenient for them to come back for their free items. I agree with you - I hope Disney tries again and is more prepared for the quantity of people.
Originally Posted By ifzorro Well the article was very interesting and informatrive. It does bother me to hear that several AP's took there fustration out at the Castmemebers as if it was their fault. I for one am a AP of the Disneyland Resort and it bothers me when other AP memebers think that they deserve more than others. I found it incredibly rude that they would complain knowing that things were FREE. The annual passholders events here in Anaheim were awesome. Many of the events had attractions turned of and made into walkthroughs with lights on. Tours of the controls areas and even one that i will never forget was a walkthrough through Indiana Jones before it was even finished constructed. During this time the Light Magic idea was in development and they treated us with peaks at the floats and changes the mainstreet building were going to go through for Light Magic. "too bad it did not happen" So what happen? Several AP members decided that they should complain for every thing during the events. The light Magic event was the one that killed it all. One person who many of us know decided to excite the crowds and demand for refunds making city hall look like a real city hall and people just strated to get out of hand. I understand that Light Magic was not super great but whoever did not like it should have been curteous and asked they get refunded but not involve other people that saw this oppurtunity to get some cash back and still enjoy the rest of the night to storm the place. I sure hope that the hand full of people that left their manners at home in the AK event did not ruin it for all the others that apreciated the FREE event and made Disney cancel the idea of any more events. Disney should be comended for the improvements being done to Passholders like the ap lounges and other things throughout the year.
Originally Posted By oneidasoftware Thanks to Steve for an accurate accounting of the evening. I attended more-or-less as a "filler activity" as I needed to to be at the airport to pickup some returning friends at midnight, and figured the passholder event would be a good way to kill some time in the interim. Yes - the crowds were excessive and the facilities open to them were insufficient to handle the numbers. But it was still a totally free event open only to a select crowd and I appreciated the effort that WDW put forth. I'm looking forward to my next visit in the upcoming weeks so that I can check out the priority seating at Festival of the Lion King and the priority viewing area for Jungle Jammin'. To be honest, I didn't even mind the long line waiting for my ice cream bar - it gave me a chance to make a few telephone calls I needed to make that evening. I DID pass on the seventy minute line for Primeval Whirl, but that didn't ruin the evening for me.
Originally Posted By spesko I thought the article was well balanced and appreciated it for that fact. I am a DLR AP holder, but live 400 miles away and have yet to attend an AP event. I too, hope Disney will take this as a learning experience and have more events. I'd hate to see AP events go away completely.
Originally Posted By bwanabob Thanks for the report, Steve. I hope the negative comments from some AP holders doesn't dissuade Disney from trying this again at WDW. That would be a shame. How was the LP meet?
Originally Posted By kencoates I'm not surprised that Dinorama was on the drawing boards for 4 years. Once they got the idea for DCA, they probably immediately tried to figure out where else they could put in this type of "money making attraction". Ken
Originally Posted By TDLFAN I had the chance to meet the imagineer (John?) and he was a very nice fellow, however Steve mentioned something he said about Disney's "specifications" concerning Primeval Whirl that made this ride unique. Well i have to say that this ride remains as ordinary as the next spin coaster in any carnival in town. The fact that most AP holders passed it up due to the wait time, makes me believe this is something NOT worth waiting for. I waited 15 minutes when it first opened and frankly that's all the time i'd wait for this kiddie ride in the future. BTW, i did enjoy meeting Steve and WEDWAY100. We shall do it again, i hope.
Originally Posted By plpeters70 And we need to meet up sometime soon too TDLFAN - I need to get that CD from you!! ;-)
Originally Posted By Disneybrad "The fact that most AP holders passed it up due to the wait time, makes me believe this is something NOT worth waiting for." You know saying most AP holders passed it up, in the same breath as saying it had a 70 minute wait time is contradictory. If the only reason they passed it up was due to the extreamly long wait time, all that means is MANY people were riding it.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN ...Maybe because there was not much else to do Disneybrad? And how come you didn't meet with us?
Originally Posted By leemac I must admit that I had to leave the evening early as it was such a disaster. The turnstile figures were supposedly must higher than 10,000 and it showed. Not being able to even get into the Dinorama area was just plain crazy. We got our wristbands at 6:20 and got blue flyers. Later, a supervisor said that it also depended which window you went to as to which colour. I was annoyed that people who got there later than that still got yellow flyers from other windows. We have been promised the litho (not a replacement) by the various managers who were there (and I have their names!), so I will not be particularly happy if we don't receive the cute Primeval Whirl one. On the whole, the sight of angry guests and people queuing 90 minutes for a free ice cream and Coke was both comical and disappointing. I'm not convinced that it is the right thing to do these AP events as the crowds are always going be to crazy if you give something away. I'm not sure I'll be going to any more! Could you imagine if DLR did this? Yikes, that would be a zoo! For me the whole evening soured a fantastic vacation that included that awesome inaugural Western Carribean cruise aboard the Magic. The articles will be up on LP soon!
Originally Posted By Brandis I am a shareholder at Disneyland Paris, and they also sometimes offer special events, like a guided tour of Main Street, Horticultural Tours or recently, previews of the new studio park. What is different from the AP event at Animal Kingdom is that they require registration. So they know how many people to expect. And if demand outnumbers capacity, they probably would add additional dates. Marc
Originally Posted By Disneybrad I spent most of the time, with some friends hanging out with the streetmosphere folks, since were are very good freinds with them.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN leemac!!! You didn't tell us you were going to be there? It would have been lovely to have you at the meet!
Originally Posted By spesko Brandis - what a great and simple idea to take registration! Kind of a no-brainer, huh?
Originally Posted By Disneybrad Like I said earlier, registration would have been a good thing to do in hind site. But they have never had AP Holders show up in these numbers for any other event I've been to since I moved down here 6 years ago. So there was no reason for them to assume that this many would show up for this one, since they never had anything close to this many people in the past.
