D23 … Step by Step II
OK, so before reading this entry make sure to read what Dirk thinks about the D23 club so far in D23 … Step by Step… Done? Good! Now here is what I think about D23…
I became member on day 1, mainly because I am a Disney geek and whatever Disney does I’ll go for it. I love Disney, especially the parks, and when Disney put something on the market they can be sure that my money will leave my pocket and end up in their account. It was no different with D23 and once the site got live (I gazed at the white screen for a couple of times before it did) I got myself the charter membership… Living in Europe it set me back the $120 Dirk already talks about, but I had big hope and wanted to get my hand on some of the exclusive merchandise. Once I got my login information I visited the D23 shop. As a collector of Disney things I wanted to make sure to get the special D23 Tinker Bell Pin. It was the first in a series of ten, a series I was going to collect myself. So I went to the site, clicked on the pin and started to go to the checkout procedure…
To send the pin to Europe I was asked to pay about $25… That’s right, $25 for 1 pin. My eyes popped out, thought about it and figured if I wanted all ten it would set me back $250 on postage alone. I closed the website, without ordering the pin, and after joining only minutes ago already had my first D23 disappointment. I also sell pins on Ebay sometimes. I ask $5 postage worldwide. Some people already complain about that, even if that’s approximately what the post wants from me. If I would ask $25 postage for one pin I am even sure Ebay would remove my item, but I am not Disney, and they are allowed to ask a totally high postage price that should be unacceptable. I can’t imagine they have many European costumers, or many happy once… So, as a collector, it did hurt a little to close the shop, but I can do something else with my $250. How about 3 nights in Disneyland Resort Paris! Yes, that’s way better then spending it on postage… (and at the end of the day the money still goes to Disney!)
Now all I had to do is wait for the magazine and the gift.
I was a little more lucky then Dirk. I got the gift and the magazine on the same day. I opened the gift first and… another disappointment. That’s it? A print of Mickey? A print that will end up somewhere, in the original roll it was send in, at the back of one of my shelves. I hoped that for $120 I would get something a little more special. I guess all that was left now is the glossy magazine…
The magazine itself is, well how shall I put it, yet another disappointment! Come on Disney! There are better fan based magazines out there! After browsing the magazine I could not even bring myself to reading anything in it. Now, a couple of days later, I already checked out some of it’s stuff, however the only real interesting thing in it was the historic photofiles in the back. Most of the rest didn’t do anything for me. The Suite Story about the Cinderella Castle Suite was OK, although there are more interesting pictures already floating on the internet. The “On top of the World” also caught my eye, about one of my favorite restaurants in WDW; California Grill. The Sleeping Beauty Castle article will also get my attention, so will the Pixar article. That’s it.
The magazine looks more like a deluxe advertisement brochure. Not even the preview pictures of Tim Burton’s Alice make it interesting. We’ll get those on the web soon enough and we can find all the info on Tim Burton’s preview movies on the web too. Don’t need that in the magazine again.
It is easy to complain of course, some might ask what do I want then. Well, I hoped to get a more in dept look at Disney and the park. More on the history, things from the drawing board, behind the scene (and that silly “Shooting Stars” Article doesn’t count), more park stories, future plans, history of attractions (how they looked on the drawing board and how they came out in the end), etc, etc, etc…
Like I said before, the most interesting item are the Photofiles. But you get 5 pictures out of a series of 100. So that will be covered in 20 magazines. They will have to tell the story without me as I will not wait 20 magazines and not pay $120 every year for it. A real shame and I can only hope that maybe, when I am in Walt Disney World this year, there might be some on side surprises for the D23 members that would change my mind
Just for the record. I am a total Disney nut! I talk Disney every day, on the web, on twitter, on facebook, with my friends, with people I don’t even know. I love Disney and the parks and dream about it all the time, but this time I couldn’t bring myself to defending D23. I wonder how long the magazine will be there, how long this club will survive.
April 10th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
[...] in some way still is – but then fellow blog writer Andy muscled into “my” series with his post about his experience with the D23 “club” / “community” … so [...]