D23 Expo 2015 Recap

Buzz Lightyear Macy's Parade Balloon Greets D23 Expo Attendees at the front of the Anaheim Convention Center.

We attended D23 Expo this year on Friday the first day of the show as fans/attendees and not as media/press so our coverage is very lite since we didn't have a lot of time and wanted to do as much as we could with the time that we had.

This year, D23 Expo seemed very unprepared when it came to the lines. Back in 2013, they had signs that told you what the line was for etc... This year they had none! You had to ask staff members which there were not very many outside handling the crowd to see which line was for Gold/Silver Members or General. If you were in the General line, the line did not start moving until after 10:20AM the show opened at 10am. Even some of those in the Gold/Silver Line didn't get in until after 10 and they were let in at least by 9am.

What took a lot of time was that they had only 2 people to scan your badge as you entered and then you get in another line to get you badge holder, souvenir guide and swag bag. This is why it took us until after 11:30am just to get into the convention center.

Did we also mention that we were in line for at least 3-4 hours or more before the show opened and it was extremely hot outside (90-100 degrees with hardly any shade and remember everyone has been waiting there for multiple hours). Yes, the lines were outside. Not sure why they couldn't use other parts of the Anaheim Convention Center to have everyone lineup especially if they had watched the weather report for the days when D23 Expo took place. Other conventions like Wondercon have their lines lined up inside the convention center so at least you are comfortable and not outside in the elements.

They were so unorganized with the lines that they were still putting tape on the ground to have people form lines and this was after the show had opened at 10am. This should've been done ahead of time. It really shows how unprepared they were for the lines. Not sure on why they couldn't do what they did back in 2013 when they had signs telling you were to line up at and had queues already formed for you to stand in. 

Line management is definitely something they need to work on as well as time management on scanning badges, getting badge holders etc... Here's a suggestion, have more people scan badges at least an hour before the show opens and have all the bags/guide book and badge holders all together and just hand them to people to make the line move faster.

Other than the line issues and getting in almost 2 hours (3 if you count the Gold/Silver members getting to go in an hour earlier.) after the convention opened everything else was good. The lines for the Stores were at least  2-3 hours wait. Pretty sure all the Storepass etc... were gone by the time we got in so no need to try for that.

One of the main things that we wanted to see was Pixar & John Lasseter's Hawaiian Shirts Collection. One of the exhibits that we loved was the Shanghai Disneyland Exhibit which shows everything from the concept to what the resort will look like. They will have a Toy Story Hotel and so much more awesome rides from Tron, Pirates of the Caribbean etc...

Obviously the exhibits inside made up for the line issues and wait time to just get in but it still made us lose a couple of precious hours that we could've used to go shopping or watch a panel. We'll see in 2 years if they find a better solution to handle the lines and how they process passes etc... to enter the show.

Check out all of our pictures below in our slideshows!