The World Report - May 20, 2002

The World Report
Page 1 of 4

by Stephen Halpin (archives)
May 20, 2002
Steve reports on the recent Annual Passholder event held at Animal Kingdom.

28792 bytes
Chester and Hester on stage
Click here for a much larger version of this picture
(1024 X 768, 149,940 bytes)

Animal Kingdom Annual Passholder Event

This is going to be a hard report to write I think. How to remain objective about an event that was both good and bad at the same time. So give me the benefit of the doubt as I report on my experience at the Animal Kingdom Annual Passholder Event, as well as report on my observations of this night.

First, I would like to say three cheers to Walt Disney World for offering an opportunity for Annual and Seasonal Passholders to have a special event to call our own…all at the amazing extra cost of FREE!!!! To thank all of us for being AP and Seasonal Passholders, Disney offered us the chance to see Dinoland at night, as well as see the opening festivities of Chester’s and Hester’s Dinorama. It was a great attempt to make the AP Passholder know that WDW cares about our business. I am afraid that it may be the last time that it may happen unfortunately. Let me explain…

The first surprise for everyone at the event was "There are A LOT of people with Annual Passes". I think much more than any of us expected. Even the Animal Kingdom was caught be surprise. Disney was expecting 6,500 guests and had over 10,000 people show up. All for an event that was restricted mainly to Dinoland, Its Tough To Be A Bug and Pizzafari. Imagine most of those 10,000 people in the small area of Dinoland and you can see how the problems begin to mount. But I get ahead of myself.

30007 bytes
Click here for a much larger version of this picture
(1024 X 768, 156,578 bytes)

The event was to start at 6:30pm. Wedway100 and I went to the Magic Kingdom first to check out the new Disney Theme Park merchandise from Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong at the Main Street Cinema (you will have to wait for the next World Report for those pictures) and then off to EPCOT for a quick dinner at Japan and to see if Imagination was running yet . It wasn’t but will be on June 1 (look for those pictures as soon as it opens). Anyway, we arrived at 6pm at the Animal Kingdom and the front gates were already open. It seems that despite what was reported to AP holders, which was you would need to exit and reenter at 6:30pm, the decision was made to allow AP holders to enter the park earlier and stay in. That was of course to reduce the number of people trying to get in, but it also created problems later in the evening.

When we reached the Animal Kingdom we were greeted with the usual security check and then ushered to the ticket booths where you presented your pass and received a wristband and a program that had the evenings event laid out and coupons for a free drink, free ice cream and a free gift as you left the park. Sounds great doesn’t it. I thought so. But read on.

< Prev