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cja1899
01-16-2008, 03:04 PM
Hello All,

I'm a lurker here on these boards, and saw that this had not been mentioned yet. If it has sorry, just wanted to offer up my opinion of last night's first dream time event.

I'm a pin collector and decided that I was going to go on one of my usual pin walks yesterday. I always hope that around the corner the dream squad would be there to hand me a random prize. In the past I've won ears and the pin lanyard but yesterday I got something I had never seen before. I walked around the corner from Mc Donalds to Pizza Om Mow Mow in DCA. Standing there were two dream squad members handing out lanyards, I thought oh awesome, fast passes, but it was different, a larger single rectangle pass.

The front said Disney's Califorina Adventures Dream Time event with the year of a Million Dreams Logo, on the back had this information:

Congratulations!

Have you ever dreamed of staying in a Disney Park after closing time to experience the magic just a little bit longer?

Well, that dream is about to come true during tonight's Special Park Dream Time Event - created just for you as part of the 2008 Year of a Million Dreams Giveaway.

Join us at Hollywood Picture backlot Stage at Disney's California Adventure Park just after the park closes for the Special Park Dream Time Event kick-off.

So instead of going home I hung out and waited till the park closed. Back at the backlot stage there was a very cool banner that said, WELCOME DREAMERS, with the castle and dream's logo on it. Two very energetic guys were on stage playing games and trivia with the other dream winners. At 6 o'clock they said the park was officially closed and we were waiting for the last regular guests to be escorted out. At about 6:25 Mickey and Minne came out on stage to officially start our hour. At that moment the crowd shot in many directions, most towards either Tower of Terror, California Screamin, or Soarin over California.

I personally have been on all these many times and just wanted to walk the parks and "experience" what was actually happening. I know most people don't like DCA, I'm not the biggest fan of the park. But there is something to being able to walk around almost all by yourself. I walked from the front gates of the park all the way around grizzly river to mullholland madness before I saw another person. Most people were on rides, or maybe there really weren't that many people there. For me it was one of the coolest Disney moment to be able to walk around like that. There were most cast members around then guests, I really felt like it was my park.

I guess my fun was watching all the people running from attraction to attraction trying to get all they could in. It was very fun to see in the last 10 minutes people running from Tower of Terror to Screaming to see if they could get one last ride in.

Once the hour was over Mickey came back on the PA and announced that our hour was over. I walked towards the park exit and there was a long row of cast members there to greet us on our way out. Most were asking what the experience was like, others congratulating us on our prize, most just there to end their nights as well.

Overall it was really a great experience, one I hope I can also get inside Disneyland if it happens. But for me it was a really cool dream prize.

BIRDGIRLS
01-16-2008, 03:21 PM
Congrats! That sounds like a really neat experience.

Leap for Joy
01-16-2008, 04:28 PM
What a fun dream! Congratulations!!

Darkbeer
01-16-2008, 05:40 PM
OK, I specifically spent the day at the parks yesterday, first off, needed to be at the Press event for the newest Anaheim/OC Walk of Stars honoring the Yorba family at 10 AM, got there a bit early, and got some Anaheim GardenWalk photos first.

After the Press Event was over around 10:30 AM (handled by the City, which owns the sidewalk) but had Disneyland officials and CM's present, as the event took over the 15 minute lot. (Anaheim Police were allowing cars to stop on the road to drop off people, with a marked off lane and police officers controlling the area). So Disney had to tell folks walking to the park to avoid the area.

I headed to DCA first, mainly to get some shots of Toy Story Mania, as I usually get afternoon shots, and the sun position is better in the mornings. A lot of folks won Dream Fastpasses, and a few people won Pin Lanyards and Dream Ears, but no After Hour passes. Spent a couple of hours in the park, but the lines were basically non existent, Soarin' was a walk on, so was Mulholland Madness, the Sun Wheel, Screamin' was a one train wait, and they were running 2 trains. The Noon "Drawn to the Magic" had 8 people watching it at the beginning (and one of the performers did make a joke about it). Then I headed to the GCH for construction photos, walked back through DCA and walked much of the area, still no After Hour passes being handed out. (And I knew that Tuesday would be an "After Hour" event, as they had to schedule CM's to work the additional hours, as mentioned by myself and Al Lutz at another website to let locals know about the chance to attend the event).

Next was off to Disneyland, you can now see the new elevator building for the Dream Suite, which is a separate Green Tower that attaches the the original building with a bridge, to allow folks to walk under it. The Mark Twain was having its boiler cleaned. Tom Sawyer Island was having its dirt pathways repaired and repacked, and the Tea Cups had the metal spindles installed on the platform, but still no tea cups but didn't see any After Hour passes being handed out there either.

So back to DCA, started to walk the areas again, saw the After Hour Passes around some people's neck (it was a lanyard with a credential) in the Hollywood Backlot area, finally figured out they were handing the out at Turtle Talk with Crush, but just missed the last one being handed out (saw the Dream Patrol in white vests walking away), headed around to the west side of the park and saw another set of White Vested Dream Patrol CM's walking off-stage near the Orange Stinger, and then finally figured out there was a team handing them out at the Maliboomer exit, so I got one after riding, but wanted another one for Lisa, who was at work. So I walked back around the park, including Pacific Wharf and the Sunshine Plaza, then back by GRR and Bathroom Row. Got back to the Maliboomer, and they still had plenty of After Hour passes, so rode it again (and there was never a wait other than the current cycle) and got a second lanyard. Then since it was so slow, I got a third, which ended up being offered to a friend.

By this time, I was sick of the parks, and since I knew I was coming back, walked over to the Anaheim Convention Center to get some photos of the area that might be converted into a new hotel and more meeting space, plus some of the NAMM signage. Then checked out both the Hilton and Marriott lobbies, then back to the parks, walking through the Jolly Roger Hotel area for more photos (another hotel that might be razed for a new set of hotels). Headed to Disneyland first this time (around 5 PM), just to check crowd size and see if the Mickey Floral was working yet (The lights are the responsibility of the Entertainment Dept, and they haven't finished the programming yet). At around 5:30, headed over to DCA, checked up the Hollywood Backlot Stage area, where they placed a "Welcome Dreamers" sign and setting up a laptop computer on a stand on stage, so 2 folks could "DJ" the pre-event.

Lisa and my friend Mark finally show up at the Main Turnstiles at 5:59 and a lot of seconds, and were the last 2 folks allowed inside the park. Headed back to the Pre-party area, which you had to show your credential to enter. The purpose of this was to be able to clear out the park, and to get the "regular" guests to leave.

During this time, some of the crowd danced and relaxed around the stage. They handed out 2,000 Lanyards for the event, and I would say at least half showed up, but clearly not all. (!,000 to 1,500 is my guess).

At 6:30 they let everyone out of the area, with the announcement that the park would close at 7:30. Seemed like everyone headed to ToT, and once we saw the line, decided to head west. While walking over there, we saw more than a few folks opting to leave the park thru the exit (I presume they thought the event would be more than just an extra hour of riding). I think the only place to eat that remained open was Taste Pilots Grill, didn't see any shops open, and some places, like Disney's Animation were closed.

Ended up riding Mulholland Madness, no line, and they let us ride twice without getting out of the vehicle. Next was the Sun Wheel and the swinging cars. Then off to Screamin', in which many cars were only partially full. Since we took our time (and I was taking photos), it was getting close to closing. So we decided to do Soarin' instead of ToT, since it was closer. Good choice, we were on the last cycle of the night (they only had one side operating), and only 5 people on the attraction, so they didn't even bother with the outer two seating sections (they turned them off), so it was an amazing ride, with nothing to block your view (we were all on the top row, and the CM placed us in the middle of the row). It was a nice way to end the day.

On the way out the exit, 4 CM's stood at the exit and wished us a good night.

So, as a one time thing, it was interesting, but if I was a regular guest with a ParkHopper, it maybe wasn't the best thing, the only parade of the day at Disneyland was at 7 PM, so you needed to pick one of the 2 events. It also doesn't take into consideration the plans of the guests, as there is no way to plan for it. They might have a dinner reservation somewhere, need to meet family and friends, etc. when you are told only about 3 to 4 hours before the event happening. And what if only some of your party gets a lanyard? The Dream Team handing out the Lanyards at the Maliboomer refused to hand out any to those who did not want to ride, you HAD to exit the attraction to get one. (But if you really asked, you could find out that you could walk thru the queue, then "chicken" out at the last second, when they would send you out the exit, and then you would get a lanyard.) But the Dream Team kept it a big secret, and you had to ask the "right" questions to get the answer, it upset more than a couple of guests.

There are 5 more events planned for DCA, 2,000 guests for each one, and 6 at Disneyland, which will be 3,000 guests per event. (Basically one event a month, and as I understand it, always weekdays for operational reasons).

Of course, photos are coming at the link below, but I am still uploading as I type, they should be up in the next couple of hours.

mycutekitties
01-16-2008, 06:27 PM
That is VERY cool!!!!

Darkbeer
01-16-2008, 07:10 PM
And here is my GF Lisa's (aka Deogge's Mom) version of the evening...




Once you get over your shock that I'm actually posting and actually doing a trip report, I like to tell you about our evening last night.

Darkbeer called me at work yesterday afternoon to let me know that he had got "Dreamed" with a "Disney's California Adventure Special Park Dream Time Event" meaning that he would be able to stay at DCA for an extra hour after closing, along with 1,999 other people. He asked if he should try and get another one if I'd be able to make it to DCA before six. Long story short, Darkbeer got two other "Dreams" for the evening and invited Mickey Mark to join us. Mickey Mark was nice enough to pick me up at work and we headed to DCA to meet Darkbeer. It took us five minutes to get from Santa Ana to the resort area, where we seemed to miss every traffic signal by two seconds. We got parked and headed for the tram. Unfortunately a group with THREE wheelchairs had to be loaded into the tram before it moved into the loading area. I called Darkbeer and let him know we were there and was headed to the turnstiles at DCA. Mickey Mark and I were the last two people through the turnstiles before they shut the gate for the night. Darkbeer was standing there begging the cast member not to shut the gate as we ran up.

After getting our special lanyards from Darkbeer we headed to Hollywood Pictures Backlot Stage where our pass was checked by the cast member and we were allowed into the area. There were two DJ's/MC's on the DUH Stage leading the crowd in a line dance. Darkbeer of course walked around taking pictures, while Mickey Mark and I talked and watched the crowd. As it got closer to 6:30, we moved towards the Tower of Terror as we planned on heading there first when we were allowed out of the Backlot area. Very shortly before the crowd was turned loose Mickey and Minnie joined the DJ's on the stage and welcomed us to our dream. Mickey and Minnie counted down and we were released into the park for an hour.

Darkbeer, Mickey Mark and I headed to ToT. Everyone else did too. We decided not to waste time waiting in line for ToT and headed to the Paradise Pier Area. I wanted to ride the Sunwheel in a swinging gondola so we headed around that way first. As we passed Jumping Jellyfish, Mickey Mark suggested we ride. We settled into our seats and Darkbeer was trying to get something sticky off my shoe, so he and I weren't really paying much attention to what was going on around us. We got surprised when we started up. After JJ, we headed to Mulholland Madness, were we rode twice without having to go through the line for the second trip. After, MM we headed to the Sunwheel, but Mark didn't really want to ride in a swinging gondola, so we headed towards Screamin'.

We rode on Screamin' and realized our hour was almost up. After a short discussion, we headed to Soarin'. Soarin' would have to be the highlight of the evening. There were only two other people in line with us. We asked to be seated front and center in B-1 and were sent to gate B and row 1. No one else joined us, so the cast member brought the other couple over to B-1. Our flight attendant mimicked Patrick as the safety video played. We were ushered into our seats and fastened our seat belts. As there were only the five of us, only the center section went up. That was the first time I ever saw one of the sections moving by itself without the other two. Very cool.

Just imagine Soarin' without anybody around you. I really felt like I was gliding over California. It was worth the rush to get to DCA just for that ride.

As our time was up we headed out of the park and toward the tram loading area and our ride home. We walked out of DCA as the hordes came out of Disneyland after the parade. The line for the trams were horrendous, but thankfully there were plenty of trams running and they were loading at two loading areas. We only had to wait for one tram.

yohomama212
01-16-2008, 09:14 PM
Any chance of getting the dates for the Disneyland events in enough time to make plans to go and make a decent attempt at getting the passes?

Elizabeth

Darkbeer
01-16-2008, 09:33 PM
Any chance of getting the dates for the Disneyland events in enough time to make plans to go and make a decent attempt at getting the passes?

Elizabeth

We had about 1 weeks notice this time, so just keep your eyes and ears open.... It is "supposed" to be a surprise.....

CindyR
01-16-2008, 09:48 PM
Oh that's cool. I was there yesterday but with my cousins who only had tickets for Disneyland so me and my friend with passes didn't ever go into DCA. While we were in Disneyland though I think someone was given a cruise by the Dream Team while we were in Adventureland.

Darkbeer
01-16-2008, 11:23 PM
Here is some more info, First here is what a CM who was working near one set of the Dream Squad teams posted tonight at another site...




They were in Turtle Talk for three hours and couldn't hand out 300 passes because people did not want them. It was kinda sad. They came back and were hanging out in the entrance to the animation building handing them out but I had so many people just hand them back to me and walk off.



And here are some numbers and additional info from Westsider over at LaughingPlace.

http://mb.laughingplace.com/MsgBoard-T-93515-P-1.asp?C=1




Word from Guest Relations is that the Dream Squad gave out all 2,000 of the lanyards. The attendance for the event itself was about 1,300 Guests, of the 2,000 who were given the prize. After the event started, approximately 600 people left DCA within 5 minutes.
Guest Relations got several inquiries about the event in the form of verbal concerns. Apparently a lot of people thought there must be something more to it than just staying around inside an already deserted DCA, and they were hoping once they were all coralled they would be given some bigger prize of some sort. Some Guests thought it might be a big charade and they would be "SURPRISE!" on a TV show or something and be awarded new cars or big prizes. The mass exodus within minutes of the event starting time by 600 or so of the winners were those folks who were disapointed, and some were a bit angry at Disney for keeping them in an empty theme park late to not get anything more than another ride on Mulholland Madness.




And lets talk about the summer.

A weekday at Disneyland with an 11 PM closing.

They start handing out the Lanyard in the early afternoon, and hand out the 3,000 allocated prizes.

Now where to put 3,000 guests? More than likely at the Festival Arena, with the Big Thunder Picnic area as overflow, if needed. Now the rules state "selected attractions", so my educated guess, have security clear out Fantasyland and Tomorrowland first, and make that the "Dream" hour area, but you are still looking at around 30 to 45 minutes where folks will be "stuck" in the pre-staging area while they get the area clear. Then you start the one hour clock. This makes the end of the event close to 1 AM, depending on when you last enter an attraction. Now how many families, or even some non-family groups want to stay up an extra two hours than planned? For some folks, yes, but many folks might have to get up at a decent time in the AM, catch a flight, etc. Alas, it sounds like a nice offer, and might work better at WDW, where it was part of the first version of the Dream Giveaway contest (October 2006 thru December 2007), but based on the first Anaheim Dream Nite, it wasn't a big hit.

yohomama212
01-17-2008, 09:16 AM
See, all that seems quite ungrateful to me. You're awarded an extra hour in the park to run and play and be virtually alone (most likely with the ones you love). Isn't that enough? To leave because Disney didn't hand out keys to a car or a large cash prize seems very presumptuous. I'm so tired of people running around with this air of entitlement, you're at Disneyland be happy about that!

Congrats to the Dream Winners, I'm so glad you enjoyed the gifts you were given! We're going to make a few good attempts at winning this year!

Elizabeth

PhiSigDuchessCV
01-17-2008, 09:29 AM
See, all that seems quite ungrateful to me. You're awarded an extra hour in the park to run and play and be virtually alone (most likely with the ones you love). Isn't that enough? To leave because Disney didn't hand out keys to a car or a large cash prize seems very presumptuous. I'm so tired of people running around with this air of entitlement, you're at Disneyland be happy about that
Congrats to the Dream Winners, I'm so glad you enjoyed the gifts you were given! We're going to make a few good attempts at winning this year!

Elizabeth

I agree with you. Even if the park is normally very lite with attendance to still have some extra time would be great. I would love to have Darkbeers experience that he had on Soarin over California with being only 1 of 5 or 6 people on the ride.

houseofmouse
01-17-2008, 09:33 AM
Sounds like so much fun! Hope I can win something like that next summer!! I have won only ears so far and my friend gave me a pin lanyard she won, which was totally cool but an extra hour with not a lot of people sounds like fun!

HopeTrust N PixieDust
01-17-2008, 10:43 AM
Wtg Cja! It sounds like a wonderful prize. :)

Darkbeer
01-17-2008, 11:15 AM
Once again, I think the biggest problem is that most guests have no idea how the "27 months of over 2.25 million prizes" actually works. Lisa and I understood exactly what we were getting/winning, and went with the flow.

But if you don't understand the contest/promotion, I can easily see how someone could be disappointed. Tuesday's full attendance at DCA was about 7,000 guests, out of which about 1/3'rd got handed the lanyard, and for most of them, all the got was the lanyard (there is a scan of it at the link below) and a couple of words from the Dream Patrol, Such as Congrats, you won a pass to an after hour party.

The official name of the prize was on the front of the lanyard "Special Park Dream Time Event" and the back of the lanyard said




Congratulations!

Have you ever dreamed of staying in a Disney Park after closing time to experience the magic just a little bit longer?

Well, that dream is about to come true during tonight's Special Park Dream Time Event - created just for you as part of the 2008 Year of a Million Dreams Giveaway.

Join us at Hollywood Picture Backlot Stage at Disney's California Adventure Park just after the park closes for the Special Park Dream Time Event kick-off.



So it isn't clear that all you are going to get is about 30 minutes being entertained by 2 guys on a stage doing a DJ type act, followed by an hour in the park where only "selected" attractions are open, and all the stores and almost every food location was closed (I think only Taste Pilots Grill remained open for food and drink).

And once you got into the pre-stage area, you were forced to stay until 6:30, as security was clearing the rest of the park. Only after 6:30 were you allowed to leave, so maybe around 6:15 PM you find out and/or figure it out that all that was being allowed was a chance to re-ride some attractions that you rode earlier today. (and most folks would have had a chance to do anything and everything they wanted to if they were in the park for 4 to 6 hours prior to the event.)

So I understand why some folks were upset, and you can see it was a large percentage of folks that didn't care for the extra hour.

I think one of things Disney could do better is hand out a flyer along with the lanyard that explains the event in more detail, and maybe in multiple languages.

HTanner
01-17-2008, 11:45 AM
I agree with you. Even if the park is normally very lite with attendance to still have some extra time would be great. I would love to have Darkbeers experience that he had on Soarin over California with being only 1 of 5 or 6 people on the ride.

I agree. I didn't get a single dream when I was there over Christmas, and I was just thrilled to be in DL! But, if I had been given a dream - any dream - it would have been just that much more magical!

CindyR
01-17-2008, 11:47 AM
I think another issue you get like Darkbeer said is a lot of people don't randomly want to spent extra hours in DCA especially when it is a Tuesday where Disneyland was only open until 8. Disneyland was absolutely not busy that day and so I'm sure DCA was even less busy so most people were probably already able to accomplish what they had wanted to do and had false impressions on what they were going to recieve. When they figured out it was simply more time there, they probably were wanting to spend the time at DL or were ready to leave. I think it would have been great, but we were there that day with my cousins, one of which was there for a huge conference for her work. All of those people had 1 day tickets for Disneyland, and even though that park was only open 10-8, they were ready to leave at around 6. So not everyone had the tolerance to spend a lot of time in the parks in one day.

If they had a one day parkhopper they might have wanted to use the extra hours in DCA but someone who was there for multiple days may have been ready to leave and had more time another day to allocate for DCA and may have not neccesarily felt the need to stay there.

I think it sounds fun though. If I'd been in DCA and gotten one I would have tried to stay obviously. I think some of prizes are just better suited to passholders, which sounds weird but even though I'm sure some ticket holders were happy about it some don't know what to expect, while it seems like APs are happy with winning just about anything. Haha.

AVP
01-22-2008, 02:00 PM
A CM friend confirmed for me that the first Disneyland Dream Time event will be next Tuesday, January 29th. I'll be VERY interested to see if some of the problems reported from DCA's first event are resolved at Disneyland.

AVP

TTFN92
01-22-2008, 02:40 PM
A CM friend confirmed for me that the first Disneyland Dream Time event will be next Tuesday, January 29th. I'll be VERY interested to see if some of the problems reported from DCA's first event are resolved at Disneyland.

AVP

Aw, bummer! We'll be there on the 30th :(. I was hoping it would happen while we were there.

LacyBelle
01-22-2008, 03:12 PM
A CM friend confirmed for me that the first Disneyland Dream Time event will be next Tuesday, January 29th. I'll be VERY interested to see if some of the problems reported from DCA's first event are resolved at Disneyland.

AVP


Yay! We'll be in the park that day!

Now, I just gotta figure out when and where the Dream Team will be handing these out. :cool:

Thanks for the info, AVP. DH & I will be sure to keep our eyes out for them. Not that we're planning on stalking them, or anything. ;)

oregontraveler
01-23-2008, 03:42 AM
I was in DCA on the 15th. I already knew about the DreamTime event, so I was happy to see them inside Turtle Talk giving out badges. My biggest complaint was the half-hour wait for the park to clear. And alot of other people were antsy too. The 2 MC's on stage were entertaining though. I skipped the Mickiey appearance on stage and scooted over by Cruella's trailer to get a jump start at TOT. It was cool to walk down Hollywood St. with
no crowds. My main goal for the hour was to enjoy the lights since I so
rarely get to see DCA lit up. Got some wonderful shots of the lagoon and
Screamin' . I did go on that plus Soarin' and then the hour was up.
So overall I enjoyed the extra hour, I also knew I had a better chance
of scoring a DCA badge. Had I been in DL, I probably would have done more rides. However, as mentioned, they had very little wait time.