Let me wind the clock back. A few years ago, a great mystery fell upon Disney fans? On simple, enigmatic question . . .
Nobody knew what it meant? Some strange riddle perhaps? A great philosophical self-analysis? Am I 23?
Is the answer 42?
The big mystery was soon revealed. The curtain thrown back and many fans were incredibly . . . well . . . underwhelmed.
D23 is the first official Disney fan club, created and administered by the Disney company. What did that mean? Would we get free park tickets? Would we get free anything? Well, not really.
For $75 a year, members would receive (wait for it) FOUR whole magazines! And . . . a watch!
But wait, there's more!
Clubs mean exclusivity right? Well members of D23 had the exclusive privilege to buy exclusive D23 merchandise from the special exclusive D23 online store. You're not imagining! It's not too good to be true! You could pay for the exclusive privilege to pay some more later!
Perhaps the one aspect that did excite fans was the announcement of the D23 Expo in Anaheim.
A first of its kind that would rival even the great San Diego ComiCon! Johnny Depp was there! The Avengers were there! Members would have access to advanced tickets sales, advanced entrance to special presentations, even a members lounge.
And the first year I heard nothing but raves from members about the Expo. It was said to be amazing!
However two years later, the stories changed drastically. For whatever reason, attendance increased but space was decreased. The members lounge was reportedly a messy room where members could buy terribly overpriced cans of Pepsi. Event lines were horrendously long and if you weren't willing to wait for hours, missing everything else going on, you would not get in to the presentations. I've heard tales of attendees who spent the entire weekend sitting in lines - not seeing anything on the floors - and in many cases were still turned away at the door. Meanwhile there were entire sections of seating left empty inside.
These are the stories that make me glad I didn't attend, as those experiences could sour ones affinity for a brand. I will say it has been widely reported there were major shakeups in management after the last expo and next year hopes to be much improved, closer to the original in every way.
But that is not why last December, after literal years of debate, I finally joined D23. It was announced there would be a travelling "mini-expo" of sorts in the summer of 2012, and the final stop would be sweet home Chicago! That was it. I wasn't going to miss Disney coming to town. So I clicked "Join."
I got my first magazine. Nice enough, I guess. And I eventually got my promised watch. Which I did love, even though the band was clearly not made for a man's wrist. And when the time I came, I bought my ticket for the D23 Chicago Fanniversary. You can check out my review elsewhere on this blog but essentially it was "meh." D23 was probably smart not to reveal too much of what we might expect. That's exactly what it was for me as well as many I've spoken to: not what we expected. An hour long slideshow.
In the 8 months I've been a member, I guess I don't really see where I got my $75 (+ roughly $30 for the Fanniversary ticket and train into the city) dollar value. The magazine covers are admittedly gorgeous, but inside haven't really presented anything I couldn't see online. The watch has already tarnished and the band is disintegrating. And I haven't really seen any news coming down the pipe to get me all that excited about re-upping another year.
I'm just wondering, how many fans out here have continually renewed their memberships? Is there something I'm missing? Do you really think it's worth the money? Am I, in fact, 23??? Are you?
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