D23 Aloha Aulani events at Disneyland and WDW

[Dustysage]

D23 is hosting a pair of DVC Aulani events, one at Disneyland Resort and one at Walt Disney World. If you've been curious about the new resort in Hawaii, these events should be right up your alley. I'm a DVC member and have been looking forward to more info about the Hawaiian property. If possible, I hope to attend. Here's the scoop:

D23's Aloha Aulani Reception at the Disneyland Resort

Join us as we celebrate Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas, Ko Olina, Hawaii! Our friends at Disney Vacation Club are throwing a party just for D23 Members where guests will have a chance to get a peek at this lush new resort, which opens in 2011. Enjoy Hawaiian refreshments, groove to a live deejay and grab a photo with a Disney character! Guests will also be able to check out D23's "Disney's Hawaiian History" exhibit, which photographically explore Disney's long connection with this tropical paradise.

You will have the opportunity to chat with the D23 team and mingle with your fellow D23 "Ohana" (family, of course!). Disney Vacation Club Cast Members will be on-hand to answer questions about this new Hawaiian Resort — and other properties — and if you're interested, you can sign up to attend a session that week to learn more about Aulani and Disney Vacation Club.

DATE
Wednesday, June 30, 2010

LOCATION
North Ballroom, Disneyland Hotel
Anaheim, California

TICKETS
Available June 23 at 10 a.m. PST. Check back here for ticket link.

COST
Free (please note there will be a $5 ticket processing fee).

SCHEDULE
7 - 9 p.m.

For more info and tickets, please visit: D23 | The Official Community for Disney Fans

D23's Aloha Aulani Reception at the Walt Disney World Resort

Join us as we celebrate Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas, Ko Olina, Hawaii! Our friends at Disney Vacation Club are throwing a party just for D23 Members where guests will have a chance to get a peek at this lush new resort, which opens in 2011. Enjoy Hawaiian refreshments, groove to a live deejay and grab a photo with a Disney character! Guests will also be able to check out D23's "Disney's Hawaiian History" exhibit, which photographically explore Disney's long connection with this tropical paradise.

You will have the opportunity to chat with the D23 team and mingle with your fellow D23 "Ohana" (family, of course!). Disney Vacation Club Cast Members will be on-hand to answer questions about this new Hawaiian Resort — and other properties — and if you're interested, you can sign up to attend a session that week to learn more about Aulani and Disney Vacation Club.

DATE
Sunday, July 18, 2010

LOCATION
Ballroom of America, Disney's Contemporary Resort
Orlando, Florida

TICKETS
Available June 23 at 10 a.m. PST. Check back here for ticket link.

COST
Free (please note there will be a $5 ticket processing fee).

SCHEDULE
7 - 9 p.m.

For more info and tickets, please visit: D23 | The Official Community for Disney Fans

-Dusty

[girlfromtn]

So they are charging you $5 for the privilege of attending a sales event for DVC????

[SuzanneSLO]

So they are charging you $5 for the privilege of attending a sales event for DVC????

Well technically, "Disney Vacation Club will not be soliciting timeshare opportunities at this event; guests will be able to sign up to attend a session to learn more about the Aulani resort and the Disney Vacation Club." But I agree that this seems like a "free" event that should not be subject to the ticket processing fee, but hey, what do I know, it may sell out immediately and the processing fee will keep those with only a casual interest from signing up. -- Suzanne

[disneylandtour]

Attention D23 Staff:

As you've probably noticed, most every division at Disney will want to use your mailing list of uber-fans to create sales for their events, products and experiences (DVC, Consumer Products, El Cap, etc.). You need to repeatedly say NO to these divisions. If you can't maintain D23 as a quality, premium experience for its members--and not a way to hock a bunch of shares in, cough!, the DVC--you will lose members, lose trust of existing members and ultimately ruin the possibility of having a unique "club" for all of us who are interested. I would suspect that at this point maintaining membership for D23 is key. These types of sales events--with a $5 ticketing fee??--are not helpful in building your image and maintaining membership.

What has been great: the tours, the screenings, the special events (such as the Roy screenings).

[Mickeychick62]

This sounds like fun. There is no pressure to sign up for the spiel. I'm thinking it will be like another mixer-type party. Food, music, fans, fun and a character photo op thrown in for good measure. Anyone complaining about the $5 processing fee needs to get over it. I'm sure anyone attending will be eating more than $5 worth of food. Hope it works out that I'll be able to go, but if not, have a great time everyone.

[ryanvalle]

Attention D23 Staff:

As you've probably noticed, most every division at Disney will want to use your mailing list of uber-fans to create sales for their events, products and experiences (DVC, Consumer Products, El Cap, etc.). You need to repeatedly say NO to these divisions. If you can't maintain D23 as a quality, premium experience for its members--and not a way to hock a bunch of shares in, cough!, the DVC--you will lose members, lose trust of existing members and ultimately ruin the possibility of having a unique "club" for all of us who are interested. I would suspect that at this point maintaining membership for D23 is key. These types of sales events--with a $5 ticketing fee??--are not helpful in building your image and maintaining membership.

What has been great: the tours, the screenings, the special events (such as the Roy screenings).

the Disney fan community has such a large variety of people that have different likes and dislikes of all things Disney. D23 is just trying to cater to the various things people may like over others. For example, Im not a sports person, but d23's espn mixer event was something my brother was excited about while the opposite can be somewhat said about Disney classic movies like pollyana.

The ticketing is there to help maintain the "supply and demand" and cover the cost of travel and setting up such events.

For some, the $5 is just a small fee to help give them access to an aspect one may really love - the vacation club. In my opinion, it's a move towards expansion and garnering interest from those who no don't have a membership yet or to get dvc members to take interest in the club since this is a great opportunity for those people to learn more about the benefits their membership can bring to them.

[cruisedude4]

I don't think it's catering to different interests, because it really is a blatant sales pitch. D23 for the most part is ADVERTISING different aspects of the Disney Company and giving closer access for fans. I don't mind it, as I like that close access, and five dollars isn't all that much. We get a gift and some food. But it's an ad, at the real root of the event. I don't think the organizers sat around and said "Let's do an event around the new Hawaii resort because people LOVE the DVC and we'll sell it out." More than likely DVC came to them and said "Can we pitch this resort to your members? They spend a lot of money already on Disney already, probably are already members, and we can convince them to come in at a later date and we can hard sell them on why they need to buy more points to come out to Hawaii."

[lonegungirl]

I guess my disinclination towards this event stems from the fact that it really does seem identical to the DVC pitch sessions they've had in the past, for free. At all the DVC presentations I've gone to at DL, they've had the same information session with dessert/dance party and character meet and greets, so there really doesn't seem like there's any difference between this and the usual sales presentations, except the $5 fee.

[Dustysage]

Fishy and I just signed up. Is anyone else going?

[disney33]

Fishy and I just signed up. Is anyone else going?

I'll be there!

[Coheteboy]

I'd like to... but.... wednesday evening with an hour and a half commute and then probably dealing with 5North closures afterwards.... really unsure.

[a-goofy]

I am going. It was a great excuse to hit the parks. I haven't been in a few months, so I am looking forward to it.

[ALIASd]

Received an invite today for the evening of 7/1.

[ryanvalle]

Okay, I just received a tweet of D23 members doing the chicken dance at the DL event. I'd love to hear any kind of trip report because at the moment, I'm quite confused as to what this event was designed to do haha

[lurkyloo]

I just got back from the D23 Aulani presentation and even *I* am confused as to what this event was designed to do!

It was pretty much the mixer described by a previous poster: a character meet-n-greet, a DJ doing lame party games for a pin, and a few random appetizers (chicken wings, shrimp thingy and fruit at 7pm when we'd all just had dinner...?). It could have been a party for anything, and I certainly wouldn't have known it was for DVC if I'd just wandered in off the street. (Pictures in my Twitter feed: @lurkyloo)

Now I know they said there'd be no sales presentation, but I was kinda surprised to find pretty much ZERO info on the new resort. They had a model and a couple DVC reps you could talk to, but that was it. Oh, and a very few pieces of concept art of the furnishings but no resort overview art.

I guess I thought they'd be making all the announcements that have been leaking over the last few days: points charts, the introduction of fixed-week reservations, etc. Instead, they had sign-ups for a real sales presentation over the holiday weekend.

I actually kinda feel like it was a waste of time to drive down there... oh, except I got the scoop about D23's Sip 'n' Stroll event at Epcot in October from... Richard? (namely that there IS no scoop, they haven't even started planning it, and there's no way we'll have any inkling what to expect when regular sales open for Food & Wine Festival events on July 20).

OH! And they said they'll be releasing info about Destination D and some other events next week.