Remember when I talked about Disney’s new fan club D23, and couldn’t decide whether or not to join? The price of membership was a little high, and I was mostly interested in the earlier and cheaper ticket benefits D23 members get for the D23 Disney convention.
A Disney convention sounds like a playground to me. Only tickets for the convention are open to the public, not just fan club members, hence my indecision. Well, it looks like it’ll be another year before I need to make up my mind.
Disney execs have decided not to hold the D23 convention again this year. Instead, it will take place every other year, swapping turns with an event called “Destination D.” The new event makes its debut this year on September 24 and 25.
Destination D is a cool new gathering that celebrates Disney history. It’ll have a specific theme each time, and this year’s is “Disneyland ’55.” The Anaheim theme park, Disney’s first, opened in July 1955, so this year’s Destination D commemorates its 55th anniversary.
Some of the planned panels and presentations for Disneyland ’55 include “Weird Disney,” highlighting little known facts about the company (presumably with a focus on the park), and “Disney Undiscovered,” which will look at planned rides and other attractions that never came to fruition. In addition, Disney archivist Dave Smith is confirmed to speak about Disneyland’s history.
It’s to be a much smaller gathering, held not at the Anaheim convention center but instead in the Grand Ballroom at the Disneyland Hotel. That leads me to wonder whether or not it’ll be a more formal event as well. Conventions like D23 are full of sneaker-and-jean-clad enthusiasts snapping pictures at panels and gushing over merchandise.
Instead, an event held in not just a ballroom, but a “grand ballroom” fills me with images (no doubt heavily influenced by Disney films) of swirling gowns, elaborate suits, and flutes of champagne. While I don’t imagine that Disneyland ’55 attendance requires dress that fancy, I do wonder if the event is more formal than the D23 convention.
At most it’ll probably be a slacks and collared shirts-level event, if even that (because this is all my conjecture). I do believe that the main reason for switching the event’s location to the Disneyland Hotel is that the event organizers predict smaller crowds than those at last year’s fan convention.
After all, lectures and panels on Disney history likely draw lesser crowds than celebrity appearances and sneak peeks of anticipated movies. And while learning about Disneyland’s history doesn’t interest me, tales of general Disney history, especially those that pertain to the movies, do.
So perhaps I’m back where I started on my conundrum over D23 membership. The big question is whether the smaller Destination D will require D23 membership, as opposed to the open-to-the-public convention. Perhaps learning the answer to that question will help me finally decide whether or not to join D23.
Tickets for Disneyland ’55 go on sale this summer here, and around the same time tickets for the 2011 D23 convention will be available here.
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