D23 Event Ticket Distribution Fail

Are you 23? Are you angry?

You should be, unless you were one of the lucky few that managed to land tickets for the member-exclusive "D23 Days at the Walt Disney Studios and Archives" event.

The tour is one of the "free" perks available to those who paid the $74.99 fee to become a D23 member. As described on the events page of the official D23 website:

D23 Members will have the rare opportunity to enjoy a 2-hour tour of The Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney Archives, hosted by D23 and Archives staff. Only two dates are available for the Summer 2009 Calendar, and space is limited.
Dates: Saturday, June 27, 2009 and Saturday, August 15, 2009
Location: The Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, California

Rare indeed! The chance to tour the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California and delve into the Disney Archives is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and would make the mouth of any avid Disney fan drool. A WIN for the Disney community, right?

Below: The Animation Building

The Burbank studios is notorious for never, ever hosting guided tours. In December 2008, the Walt Disney Studio Store, Disney Employee Center, and Studio Commissary on the studio property were open to the public, but the intent was mostly to sell merchandise, not to tour the property itself, and most of the studio grounds and buildings were off-limits to guests.

That's why, when this D23 event was announced late May, it was the closest real-life example I could think of to getting a golden ticket into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Finally, D23 offers a truly unique event that makes the membership price worthwhile.

Below: The Michael D. Eisner Building

Little did I know that the process to get your tickets would be just as hectic, confusing, and plain unfair as the worldwide pandemonium for Wonka bars in Roald Dahl's novel.


D23 members were told that their tour reservations could be made online starting promptly at 11am PDT this morning. However, according to several determined members who were frantically refreshing their screens, the link was active at 10:57am. In a window that amounted to just seconds, all the reservations had been filled, and by 11am everyone who clicked the 'Submit' button was told that the tours were full but that they could be put on a waiting list for the desired date. By around 11:05am, the waiting list was full too. Fail.

Some members who could not be put on the waiting list at the time of submission later received an email saying that space on the waiting list had opened up, but when they clicked on the link and signed up again, they received the 'event full' message a second time! Fail again!

Above: Icon on D23's website announcing sold out tour

In the minutes following 11am, livid members who followed the rules but didn't get in made their frustration heard across the Twitterverse:

@SnorkletsMom If you're a D23 member, the studio tour ticket method was an absolute joke. Anyone as mad as I am?

@myrnal D23 Days at The Walt Disney Studios and Archives event full both days in 4 min...did not get in...rats!

@lurkyloo So much for D23 members' access to exclusive events - both studio tour dates filled up 90 secs before the 11am release time.

@steveberg D23 FAIL: Studio tour sells out in under 1 minute for both days. Way to go again Disney.

@BriarRose461 D23 Studio tour tickets available at 11am. NOT! Sold out and wait list FULL at 11:01. How is that possible? Frustrated D23 member!

Meanwhile, a message appeared on the official "DisneyD23" Twitter page, meant to appease those who didn't make it in:

@DisneyD23 Thanks 4 ur enthusiasm 4 the Studio/Archives tours. We're exploring ways 2 offer more tours later this year! Stay tuned 4 details.

To which many Twitter'ers responded:

CottageWayOfLif @DisneyD23 Fantastic news D23. While you're at it could you please look into a better way to distribute tix? Today's method was a failure.

cstephens2 @DisneyD23 Really frustrating to get continuing emails from waitlist saying there's room now, only to submit request and be told it's full.

djaffe @DisneyD23 At 10:57 California time you guys were sold out. Totally lame- I won't be renewing.

michaelshearin @DisneyD23 WOW, extremely frustrated that the Studio Tour is sold at 11 AM on the dot! Guess that is what we get for having free events!

chriscorry @DisneyD23 who do we contact to voice some serious complaints with this mornings reservations???

Skorp28 @DisneyD23 You've managed to upset a lot of your most valuable fans. Good job!

Just to be clear, I am not a D23 member, but now I know I do not want to become one. How can you blame me? Be tantalized with an opportunity to tour the Walt Disney Studios with extremely limited space, then put up with a severely flawed online reservation system that deceives people by going live before it's supposed to and is more of a contest of whose browser window refreshes the fastest? Is that what I want to pay $74.99 to do? Yeah, thanks but no thanks, D23.


Smell familiar? This D23 DisneyFAIL reeks with the same stench that plagued past exclusive event fails, like the Enchanted Tiki Room 45th Anniversary merchandise fail (remember how incredibly tough it was to get your hands on that fountain?) and the annual Candlelight Processional online registration fail (the server crashed multiple times last year). What always happens is that Disney severely underestimates the demand for these events, and chaos ensues when everyone tries to get their hands on the same thing at once and Disney is not organized or prepared enough to make things go smoothly.


Why couldn't more than two dates have been available for the D23 studio tour from the start? Clearly they should have known that two dates was not enough to reasonably meet demand. Disney says they are adding more dates in the future in reaction to what happened today, but that will do little to undo the hurt done to the members who got burned this morning.

If some D23 members have to be turned away, why couldn't there have been an orderly lottery system instead of a free-for-all clicking fest? Entering a lottery and being told you have not been selected would have at least made the pill of rejection easier to swallow.


Unfortunately, unless you hold the Golden Ticket, there's no easy way to swallow this epic DisneyFAIL.