If you have been following along on my social media then you may have seen that I scored tickets to the D23 Expo in August this week! These are not easy tickets to get and we have never been to this event so we are really excited! But it occurred to me that not everyone knows what this event is or even what D23 is so I figured I would write about it all this week to share with you. If you want to read more more about the history of and about D23, you can do that on my previous post here. Let’s jump into all of the excitement!!
What is D23?
Since I linked the whole blog about this above I am not going to go into too much detail here. D23 is short for Disney 1923 and it is the Official Disney Fan Club. D23 offers a free membership as well as a paid Gold Membership that includes an annual gift and 4 quarterly magazines throughout the year. As a member of D23 you have access to special events, merchandise and discounts. On alternate years D23 puts on Destination D23 in Orlando and D23 Expo in Anaheim. If you want to read more about Destination D23 you do that here.
What is D23 Expo?
The D23 Expo is probably the largest Disney fan event you can attend. This years event is August 9-12. It happens in Anaheim, CA every other year and tickets sell out very quickly. It’s easy to see why when you look at the line up of events. There are celebrity panels, marque showcases that announce new movies, TV shows and park experiences coming in the future, exclusive shopping and all kinds of prizes and giveaways. It is truly a star studded, enormous event that is every Disney fans dream. They even induct the new class of Disney Legends at this event, we are so excited about this because they are inducting Harrison Ford this year!!
There is a big Disney Masquerade competition at the Expo that is huge! Fans make the most amazing Disney character costumes and showcase them for all to see. I honestly can’t wait to see this! This year the panels and vendors are still at the Anaheim Convention Center but the big presentations like the entertainment, experiences and legends showcases are going to be held at the Honda Center near by. We had to select our seats for the Honda Center when we purchased our tickets and let’s just say I will need to make sure I know how to use the zoom on my GoPro but I am not complaining! Ticket prices range from a one day ticket at $79 to the Ultimate 3 Day Preferred Pass for $999.
How To Get Tickets?
As I said, the tickets for this event sell out very quickly. I had three devices logged in all at the same time and entered the queue at three totally different spots! My phone was at #1333, my iPad entered at #4358 and my computer entered at #31,548 just to show you how many people were after these tickets! Keep in mind that everyone trying to get tickets yesterday had to be paid D23 Gold Members. The ticket queue opened up at 12pm PT/3pm ET, you had to be logged into your D23 account and just hoped you ended up with a good spot. Once it reached your turn you had 15 minutes to purchase your tickets before it kicked you off and back to the queue.
This was really nerve racking! I sat in the queue for over an hour and a half and was really worried I wouldn’t make it before they paused sales for the day. They also had a ticket sale today for D23 Gold Members that also have a Disney Visa and there is another tomorrow for general D23 members. Overall the experience was really smooth just long and nerve racking not knowing if you would get the tickets or not!
So What’s The Plan?
We are really excited because we have never been to Disneyland! Our plan is to try and stay on property and do a day in Disneyland and California Adventure. They are doing D23 Day at Disneyland for the first time ever and that’s when we are planning to go so that should be extra fun! I wish we could stay a week and go to the park every day but we are going to make the most of of our one day in the park. we are hoping to do a tour of the Disney Studios as well time permitting. It is definitely going to be a jam packed adventure. There are so many panels to choose from each day at the expo as well, it will be hard for me to not be able to do it all! If you have any California/Disneyland tips and tricks please let me know!!
Conclusion
Needless to say, I am beyond excited!! We were lucky enough to attend Destination D23 last fall here in Disney World and had the best time. It really started to plant the seed to try and get tickets and go to D23 Expo this year, a dream is a wish right?! This is a huge bucket list adventure for us with Disneyland, the Expo itself and possibly getting to go to the Disney Studios and see Walt’s office. Of course we are still working out the logistics since we didn’t want to book anything until we knew we would get the tickets. Now it’s time to get to work and book all the things! Funny story, I had told my husband that if I didn’t get these tickets I was booking a Disney Cruise instead to soften the blow! Hahahaha! So now next year we are gonna shoot for a cruise for the family vacation.
That’s it for this week, just a quick life update on some excitement if you will! I can’t wait to be able to share everything with you all in August. I hope you all enjoyed this weeks post and are as excited as I am for this adventure. Part of my excitement is sharing it with all of you, thank you for making my Thursdays the best days! Have a magical day!!