D23 Mickey's of Glendale event at WDW - Comments
Being an East Coast collector we do not often have things like this happen at WDW. As a D23 member, I was luck enough to be at WDW for this event and would like to share some observations.The MOG store was located in the Contemporary Hotel in the Nutcracker Ballroom, similar to other WDW MOG events in the past. They wanted you to form a line no sooner than 200 PM, for the "doors opened" at 300 PM. We got there about 415 PM and saw about 20 people in line to get into the store - not bad at all we thought. However this was the queue line the next group of people to go in, the WAIT line was across the hall and wound up and down for about 6 new lines!! Bottom line we waited in line for 2 1/2 hours to get into the store!!
Once inside it was a bit disappointing since the merchandise was much less than what had been offered in the past, but lets go to the PINS. Yes there were the new releases of the Dapper Dogs and the Princesses and Princes dancing BUT you were limited to ONE purchase of each per person. The other WDI pins out were a mix of leftovers from previous events, the Pleasure Island pins from a few years ago, some Indian Jones ride pins, no 60th anniversary diamond pins at all. Also some framed pins that were very nice but priced crazy as usual. For myself as a Villains collector there were ZERO pins I wanted. I did pick up the Dapper Dogs for Traders since I have very little stock left at low LE levels and I hope to use them for some nice Trades. Given the Princess/Prince pins were very nice with jewel effects and were worth the purchase if this is your collecting focus.
On to CHECKOUT - what a disaster! We were in line for 2 hour to pay for our stuff!! They had 3 registers at the end and no special place just for pin checkouts, PLUS they were doing a "bag audit" prior to paying to make sure you only had 1 each of the new release pins!! Many folks had 2-4 of each pin, over a thousand dollars worth of pins, and they were told NOPE this will not happen. Disney did stick to the rules but as usual folks tried to get away with multiple pin purchases even though they were told at the pin kiosk the limitation rule.
I have been to MANY event over the years for Disney and they NEVER have enough registers to handle the people!! Why this is so much of a problem I really cant figure out, as usual I told the manager in charge that when people want to give you money you can't make them wait in line this long like they did. As usual I got the Disney smile, an apology, and the standard "have a magical day" response LOL!!
The pins - compared to other D23 MOG events at WDW the pin selection was very small this time around. Bottom line I spent about 6 hours of my day at this event, mostly standing in lines.
HINT - if you ever attend something like this again come in about 15 minutes before they close the queue line, in this case around 645 PM, and you will get right in the store. You will still have a 2 hour checkout line but you will bypass the 2+ hours on the front end. PLUS there is enough merchandise to go around and you will not miss anything IMHO.
Mike S.
Figment919
Once inside it was a bit disappointing since the merchandise was much less than what had been offered in the past, but lets go to the PINS. Yes there were the new releases of the Dapper Dogs and the Princesses and Princes dancing BUT you were limited to ONE purchase of each per person. The other WDI pins out were a mix of leftovers from previous events, the Pleasure Island pins from a few years ago, some Indian Jones ride pins, no 60th anniversary diamond pins at all. Also some framed pins that were very nice but priced crazy as usual. For myself as a Villains collector there were ZERO pins I wanted. I did pick up the Dapper Dogs for Traders since I have very little stock left at low LE levels and I hope to use them for some nice Trades. Given the Princess/Prince pins were very nice with jewel effects and were worth the purchase if this is your collecting focus.
On to CHECKOUT - what a disaster! We were in line for 2 hour to pay for our stuff!! They had 3 registers at the end and no special place just for pin checkouts, PLUS they were doing a "bag audit" prior to paying to make sure you only had 1 each of the new release pins!! Many folks had 2-4 of each pin, over a thousand dollars worth of pins, and they were told NOPE this will not happen. Disney did stick to the rules but as usual folks tried to get away with multiple pin purchases even though they were told at the pin kiosk the limitation rule.
I have been to MANY event over the years for Disney and they NEVER have enough registers to handle the people!! Why this is so much of a problem I really cant figure out, as usual I told the manager in charge that when people want to give you money you can't make them wait in line this long like they did. As usual I got the Disney smile, an apology, and the standard "have a magical day" response LOL!!
The pins - compared to other D23 MOG events at WDW the pin selection was very small this time around. Bottom line I spent about 6 hours of my day at this event, mostly standing in lines.
HINT - if you ever attend something like this again come in about 15 minutes before they close the queue line, in this case around 645 PM, and you will get right in the store. You will still have a 2 hour checkout line but you will bypass the 2+ hours on the front end. PLUS there is enough merchandise to go around and you will not miss anything IMHO.
Mike S.
Figment919
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