D23 EXPO 2019 Superthread - dates announced!

[Gaugersaurus]

Have there been any somewhat reliable rumors of when the second attraction will open up? Anyone think there is a decent chance it’ll be open by late October? Or do you think “later this year” means like a week before the new year starts? Has there been any write ups if the hold up is technical issues (that could be hard to nail down)? I’ll be down there for the Halloween event (Oct 19th to 24th) and am dying of curiosity on what chance I have in both attractions being up.

There's nothing really reliable rumor wise about when Rise of the Resistance will open. The main rumor is that there's been issues with getting the ride system to function in a reliable manner so it could be delayed until next year even if progress is slow.

 

[Geemo]

Does anyone know ride intensity for the new attraction ride(s)???

I'm thinking we need to start a campaign for ABC30 - Fresno, to send Cory James to SWGE media day.

In 2017 Cory covered the opening of Guardians for ABC30.
I don't think anyone briefed him on what to expect. He was surprised once the ride took off.
Talk about a good sport!!

 

[HydroGuy]

I will answer the ones I can...as best I can.

2) Does the D23 Expo still have the StagePass system in place for the presentations in the stages? If so, the location of this area and a refresher on how it works would be appreciated.

Yes, the last few times it is to the right after you enter. It has had marginal value to me, especially when I am solo. If I have someone with me to hold my spot somewhere (which I usually do) then at best I am able to get one StagePass.

3) I'm not willing to camp out overnight for anything, but I realize and am willing to show up (stupidly) early to guarantee I get into the big D23 Arena presentations on those first couple days (Legends, Animation/Studio, Parks & Resorts are all my top priorities if I can manage it). What time do you recommend getting to the convention center to get in line? Would 5 or 6 AM be fine? Or is that already pushing it?? I think 5 AM is kind of my "earliest" time I could handle... I don't know, we'll see.

For Day 1 I would say 5AM at the latest. Assuming they keep roughly the same schedule for the major events you mention, that will get you into the Expo earlier and into Animation. It is hard to do Legends first without risking Animation, so I have skipped Legends the last few times. Animation happens in the PM of Day 1 usually.

For Day 2, I arrived at around 3AM for Live Action last time and barely made it in. They closed it maybe 30 minutes after I arrived. This year I will come earlier.

For Live Action, I cheated towards the back as it came to a close so I could be first out and get into line for Parks & Resorts for Day 2 PM. That worked fine for me the last few Expos.

6) If we pop out of the Expo for lunch when we have a lull in our schedule... how much of a pain in the **** will it be to get back in? Do lines to enter the convention center die once the initial morning rush has come and gone? Additionally, I'd like to have a nice dinner at Downtown Disney or something like that after our days at the Expo... what time does the Expo close each evening? Does it vary or is it usually a set time each night??

No problem, except maybe during the morning and especially Day 1 morning when there are still large queues waiting to get in. The Expo show floor closes earlyish - like 5 PM? But usually there are good sessions going on until 7PM. On Day 1 eve and especially Day 2 eve I like to think I have energy to go to DTD for dinner, but usually I barely have enough to make it to my hotel room bed LOL. Sunday Day 3 eve is much easier for me to go out.

7) Is there currently a work in progress schedule of events for this year's Expo posted anywhere? I seem to remember from the past that it came out in advance but would update/change little by little until a week or so before the Expo. Is this still how things are? If there's no schedule out currently, where can I find it when it does get posted?

I have not seen one yet. As I recall the major events will get posted a few weeks or a month before. The secondary events trickle in right up until the Expo.

 

[Safari23]

So our Easter time trip didn’t pan out and now we’re considering middle of June. It would be sometime after June 16th. From what I’ve read so far on here up until June 23 you can only go into SWGE with a reservation, for a set period of time. If we were to go middle of June and not stay at a Disney hotel, how do we get access to SWGE? And if we’re there after June 23? TIA

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

At this point if you didn’t already get a free reservation and you’re not staying onsite, you won’t be able to access the land until June 24 at the earliest. They haven’t released any details about how access after June 23 will work but all of the free reservations for May 31 to June 23 are gone.

 

[jillyh]

I think you missed the boat if you're going before June 24th. Reservations for everyone not staying onsite opened up on May 2nd at 10am and were completely gone in about 2 hours. I think the only way you can get a reservation at this point is to stay onsite as they have put aside enough reservations for all rooms.

 

[ashley0139]

Feel free to join us over on the D23 mega thread! There are lots of people there who have also been several times and know the ins and outs really well.

I can say that you do get cast member discounts in the Dream Store and the Disney store but not Mickeys of Glendale. I think you will need to get there earlier than 5am to get into the main morning panels.

 

[abcboys]

I've still been super curious how many reservations they have set aside per each 4 hour period. I've heard answers ranging from 2,000 to 3,000 to 7,000. Anyone have any inside information what the number actually is? I suppose this will help determine how crazy its really going to be.

We are going for the first time planned way before the day was announced. Not even hitting up the new land but really anxious to see how this will all play out. I've heard everything from "going to be a nightmare" to "honestly won't be that bad with the system in place."

 

[Safari23]

Wow! Ok I had no idea. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[disneylover102]

If you go June 24th or after, you can still get in and stay offsite, but still get there early, because I’m sure it will still fill up to capacity, at least within the land, and probably the whole park as well.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Glad you've had good experiences so far. Unfortunately, DLR AP holders have a reputation for being persnickety and self entitled...

I'm an AP holder too. Always treat the CMs nice. I don't get how people can be nasty to CMs. Glad I haven't seen it tho.

How could you not be nice to the CM's? Just seems crazy to me people will give them grief.

Oddly enough, in spite of the reputation you hear bandied about on the internet, CMs we've spoken with have repeated that they love the local APs and can recognize us right away because we're the ones who always say "please" and "thank you," we're the ones who are nice to them, and we're the ones who smile at them first. They regularly get yelled at, hit (yes, people hit them to get their attention), and don't get thanked very often. So they say they love the local APs for making their days easier. For those local APs out there reading this, go team! Way to make some magic for the CMs who work so hard to make magic for us!

 

[Mathmagicland]

I’ll try to help with these two -

2) Does the D23 Expo still have the StagePass system in place for the presentations in the stages? If so, the location of this area and a refresher on how it works would be appreciated.

The stage pass system seemed to improve last Expo, they had a larger queuing area & it was a smoother process. They also have fewer different panel rooms and the rooms are much larger to accommodate a lot more people. I got a stage pass for one show the entire weekend in 2017, then spent the rest of the Expo using the stand by lines & got into every panel I wanted, however I did not attend any of the marquee panels ie parks, animation, or live action. I did attend one of the Alan Menken concerts without a pass. Those marquee panels are in the largest room, and take a lot of time to both seat people and then get out after the panel is over, so I don’t know that you could get stage passes or attend many other panels if the marquee panels are your first choices.

The way it worked last year was, no passes for the sessions before 11 a.m. You can get one pass for a session between 11a.m.- 2p.m. starting when the floor opened at 9a.m. Then starting around noon you could line up again to get one pass for a session between 3pm and 7pm. So if you are in the big panels, you can’t also be in line to get stage passes.

5) Since I reside in Canada, will-call pick-up for tickets is apparently my only option. I don't want to waste my theme park time beforehand walking over to the convention center just for that, if I can help it. If I order the D23 Expo tickets online and have them shipped to my friend in the USA, who will forward them to me... do they send out tickets right away when they are ordered? Or do they show up in the mail closer to the time of the Expo? I ask as my friend plans to move from her current residence in July, so I wouldn't want to have tickets be sent out to her old address, obviously. Any more exact specifications on how this works would be GREATLY appreciated.

My email confirmation for this year’s Expo tickets says this about when the tickets will be sent out - so based on this I’d expect tickets to start being sent out around the end of June.

Tickets are expected to ship to the provided shipping address approximately 6-8 weeks prior to D23 Expo 2019. If you purchased merchandise, it will ship separately to the provided shipping address, also approximately 6-8 weeks prior to D23 Expo 2019.

 

[CarolynFH]

Feel free to join us over on the D23 mega thread! There are lots of people there who have also been several times and know the ins and outs really well.

I can say that you do get cast member discounts in the Dream Store and the Disney store but not Mickeys of Glendale. I think you will need to get there earlier than 5am to get into the main morning panels.

Please post a link to the D23 mega thread or tell me where to look for it! We’ll be there for the first time too so don’t know what we don’t know!

 

[ashley0139]

Please post a link to the D23 mega thread or tell me where to look for it! We’ll be there for the first time too so don’t know what we don’t know!

You're on it now!

 

[Mathmagicland]

tickets available for Cast Members. I haven't been able to locate such a thing anywhere on the internal sites where such a discount/buying option is located. Are they not doing it this time around? Or is it something that's not guaranteed/doesn't show up until they're down to the wire and have lots of availability left? Any fellow CM's on here that could address this one, would be much appreciated! I'm starting to wonder if we should just bite the bullet and pay out of pocket as I noticed today that the 3-Day tickets are already sold out. We only planned to hit the Expo on Friday and Saturday, so we only were going to buy a single-day ticket to each day as it is... but I don't want to miss out altogether and have those days suddenly sell out on me!

Re this one - I am not a CM, but you might not want to wait too much longer if no one weighs in on this for you & your heart is set on attending. As you note, 3-day passes Are already sold out & there were some comments earlier in this thread about this year being the earliest this has happened.

Last two expos, the Saturday one day passes sold out first. With the three day passes no longer available, the Friday and Saturday single day passes are likely to be going next & may not be available by August. Since Saturday has had the live action and the parks panels, that day can be more popular for single day attendees. As info starts coming out about panels, the Legends honorees, & Guests, interest can ramp up for those sitting on the fence.

I met a CM at the 2015 Expo & she had mentioned for that one, they were given the opportunity to get a one day pass for I think only one of the Expo days, not all of the days.

 

[Katers]

I’ve been stalking this page for a while. I’ve read every post. Me and my family were unlucky enough to plan our first (and probably only) trip to Disneyland before the dates for SWGE opening was announced. We will be there for three days (6/29-7/1). We cannot change our travel dates due to high school football practice schedules. I have already warned my very Star Wars obsessed teenage boys and husband that we will more than likely not even see the SWGE due to the crowds. We go to WDW every year or so and they will see it there eventually.

My real fear is that we won’t be able to experience Disneyland at all for the most part. If the virtual queue requires park entry before you can obtain a spot (much like MaxPass) then I would imagine the line to go through security and the gates could take several hours (especially since we are going the first weekend after reservations end). This would completely prevent us from taking advantage of EM hours (we are staying at the GC hotel...mostly because we wanted to beat the crowds by taking advantage of EM hours, which seems to be a mute point now). Yes we have MaxPass but hours in line just to get in will drastically reduce our touring time. Not to mention the fear of the park reaching capacity before we even get in. I know we can go to DCA instead but there is a lot that we would like to see in DL as well.

I know that no one knows how things will run starting June 24. I just wanted to put my fears out there. Maybe someone who knows better how DL works can speculate on a way for the security and gates to be handled to prevent non-SWGE visitors from getting completely washed away in the madness. TIA.

 

[HydroGuy]

I’ve been stalking this page for a while. I’ve read every post. Me and my family were unlucky enough to plan our first (and probably only) trip to Disneyland before the dates for SWGE opening was announced. We will be there for three days (6/29-7/1). We cannot change our travel dates due to high school football practice schedules. I have already warned my very Star Wars obsessed teenage boys and husband that we will more than likely not even see the SWGE due to the crowds. We go to WDW every year or so and they will see it there eventually.

My real fear is that we won’t be able to experience Disneyland at all for the most part. If the virtual queue requires park entry before you can obtain a spot (much like MaxPass) then I would imagine the line to go through security and the gates could take several hours (especially since we are going the first weekend after reservations end). This would completely prevent us from taking advantage of EM hours (we are staying at the GC hotel...mostly because we wanted to beat the crowds by taking advantage of EM hours, which seems to be a mute point now). Yes we have MaxPass but hours in line just to get in will drastically reduce our touring time. Not to mention the fear of the park reaching capacity before we even get in. I know we can go to DCA instead but there is a lot that we would like to see in DL as well.

I know that no one knows how things will run starting June 24. I just wanted to put my fears out there. Maybe someone who knows better how DL works can speculate on a way for the security and gates to be handled to prevent non-SWGE visitors from getting completely washed away in the madness. TIA.

I would say your fears are mostly overblown.

First, MaxPass will be your best friend. Second, DLR has a much higher ride concentration than WDW. Third, DLR really has some great night time shows. Those are people eaters.

You are staying at the GCH. Use EMH as much as you can, take afternoon breaks every day and encourage your teens to take a nap or just get some quiet down time.

I am not saying your trip will be perfect and crowds are no big deal. I AM saying you can have a great time and the deck is stacked in your favor if you make the right moves.

 

[Gaugersaurus]

I know that no one knows how things will run starting June 24. I just wanted to put my fears out there. Maybe someone who knows better how DL works can speculate on a way for the security and gates to be handled to prevent non-SWGE visitors from getting completely washed away in the madness. TIA.

Since you're staying a GCH you have a dedicated security area at the entrance to dtd from the hotel so I don't think you'll be spending hours in line for security. The line may be long but you're only competing with guests who also stayed at GCH not the general public.

Lines at the gates usually move pretty quickly one they start letting people into the parks. There have been reports of lines that stretch across half the esplanade not taking more than 30 mins. If you plan to be there 30 mins or so before EMH start you should have no issue getting into the park in the morning. Now leaving or park hopping and trying to get back into the park in the afternoon may be a different story but it sounds like you're a family with older kids who won't need afternoon breaks.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

.

 

[cadien]

Since you're staying a GCH you have a dedicated security area at the entrance to dtd from the hotel so I don't think you'll be spending hours in line for security. The line may be long but you're only competing with guests who also stayed at GCH not the general public.

Side question. We'll be there in July and staying at Paradise Pier. Does that also have dedicated security or do we line up with the general public? I've been to DL before but haven't stayed on site.