Quick report on Nov 15 Moonlight Member Magic at the
Disneyland theme park. It was, for us, an
outstanding event all around.
==== Pre-EVENT ====
We arrived
Worldmark's Dolphin's Cove at 4P. Check-in was efficient and our room was ready. Parked our truck, dropped our stuff, and walked to the Disneyland Resort area. Enjoyed dinner at the Rainforest Cafe to exercise our
Landry's Select Club card for quick seating and loyalty rewards. When the bill came, we were pleasantly surprised to receive a $25 bill credit (award). Whoo-hoo, an unexpected "cheap eats" with lots of fun, tasty food and good service. A great start to the evening.
==== EVENT ====
Check-in and Entry
We joined the long queues outside the main gates at ~6:45p for the 7P start. The lines moved in an awkward, twitchy fashion which we later attributed equally to Disney's handling method
and guest behaviors. For Disney's part, there were multiple steps to the process:
- Have your name and ID verified at a desk equipped with electronic attendee management.
- Once verified and checked via the electronic attendee tool, Disney hands you the full number of tickets for your group.
- Each guest ticket is scanned individually on entering the park gate.
- Once inside, a Cast Member fits the Event wrist band to your left wrist.
I wish Disney had coordinated the check-in process similar to the handling of the recent Pirates movie screening. At that special event, they had multiple cast members walking through the queues performing each of the tasks. The attendees stood in one place while teams of CMs efficiently completed the work. Easy-breezy!
Where guest behaviors gummed up the process: Large groups missing 1 or more missing participants joined the event check-in line too soon. They’d get all the way to the park gate still missing members of their party and then clog up the gate area while phoning and texting frantically. [RANT] PEOPLE: Get your group together before you join the line. Follow the instructions given in the event confirmation email, “Entire party must check in together prior to event access.” [/RANT]
What we Rode/Experienced
Six hours in the park … what did we fit in? How did we do?
- Pirates
- Haunted Mansion
- Holiday Fireworks, viewed from Main Street
- Indiana Jones
- DVC Event special: Meet the Execs. Spoke at length with two and casually with 3 others. My goal was to thank as many as possible for the recent expansions and benefits added to our RCI relationship.
- Fantasmic!
- Space Mountain
- Matterhorn
- Peter Pan (crossed midnight while in the queue)
- Alice (great updates! loved the animations added throughout)
- Star Tours
I had wanted to ride Small World … but the line was insanely long. Oh, well ….
My fitness tracker showed 10.5 miles of walking just before midnight.
Foods:
After 9pm, the Event included three types of food carts in many locations across the park:
- Ice cream and beverage
- Popcorn and beverage
- Churro and beverage
Each of these were free. A few other restaurants remained open for purchase food options. FWIW, the churro lines were longest all through the night. We enjoyed “ice cream + water” while watching F! … and tried for “Popcorn + water” later. Water bottles were in high demand and we hit “temporarily out of stock” … oh, well. We found one later from another station.
==== Post-EVENT ====
On exiting Star Tours we lingered for a few moments in the store and were then gently directed to the Park Exit. Hopped the parking lot bus to a location near our off-property timeshare and trudged back to the resort following two other couples doing the same. In the morning, we checked out but left the truck at Dolphin's Cove to walk back to Downtown Disney for my favorite breakfast-dessert: Coffee and Beignets from
Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen® Express. We encountered a bit of Disney magic when we opened our bag of beignets at the table to find a few extra. Color me happy .. and covered in powdered sugar. Whoo-hoo!
After 'breakfast' we jogged over to the WM Anaheim location to attend our "owner survey" <wink> and left with a $100 Gift Card … which was quickly spent on animal feeds on the route home. Fitness tracker for Thursday mid-day showed 8.5 miles.
Home by 1:30'ish and back to work ... flooded with happy memories of a great evening.
THANK YOU, DVC!
==============
BTW, just in case anyone notices this very early morning post ... yes, I got up at 3:45a Pacific Time on a Saturday morning so I could book my FP+ for a January visit to WDW. Snagged FOP and 7D. Yes! But now I can't go back to sleep ... and it is too dark to go horseback riding ... so I'm writing an event review to fill the time. Hurry up, sun! lol ...