Here's my take on the Steamboat Willie release:
This was my first pin release ever, and we attended the release at DLR. My wife and I showed up at about 5:40 or so and saw a whole bunch of people standing in line, and we correctly assumed it was for the pin release. We got in line and waited. I think we were around 120 in line at that time. At 6:00 or so they started moving the line up in groups of 25-30 and spacing them out a bit. This was to facilitate the wristband distribution. They came around just before 7:00 and let us know there were 3 wristbands, one for the pin traders outside the parks (don't know the name... Disney Pin Traders?), one for Fly N' Buy and one for LGM. You could pick which one, and you were guaranteed a pin until 1:00 that afternoon. We picked LGM as we didn't plan on going to DCA at all that day. My wife went home to get our baby (who was being watched by my sister) and I went into the park. There were a couple traders getting their pins, but there was really no line, or commotion or anything. It was really relaxed. I went and looked at some of the pins, but opted not to buy until my wife came back to look at the scenes with me. There was nobody in line behind me, so I didn't feel I was holding anyone up just by taking a look. When she came back at around 10:00 we went to purchase the pins, and were given 10 pins to look at. Most of them were of Pete yelling at Mickey, but we got 4 scenes of Mickey driving the boat, which is what we wanted. There were only minor variations in the boat scenes that we got, one of them is a further back shot, and that's about it.
Overall, I felt the release was a success. There was really no stress, no angst, and no crabby traders. Everyone waited patiently in line, calmly got their wristband and then went on their merry way. I felt that Disney did a good job educating their employees about how the release was going to work, and they did a good job enforcing the rules. When I first entered LGM, I heard one person arguing with a cast member about not being able to purchase more pins. He had his two, and from what I could tell, he wasn't happy that he had waited in the checkout line again and wasn't able to purchase two more, which he said he had been able to do at previous releases... I laughed to myself as the cast member explained that the reason they have the wristbands was to prevent individuals from scooping up all the pins, and not leaving any for others (which of course this person knew). The release itself, in my opinion, went very smoothly. I was happy I didn't have to run all over the park and have to fight crowds and endure long lines waiting to buy pins. Based on what I've read from previous releases, it was much better this time around, and I hope they keep the wristbands around, as I think they did their job.
That is what I was tring to figure out, but I was under the impression that sales would start at the same time for everyone & every location. That is what sort of confused me.
