This has to have been the absolute worst sale for Disneyland Halloween tickets that I have ever seen in the past seven years I’ve been tracking this. Last year was the first year it didn’t take up to a few months to sell out, but days. It felt different too. This year was obviously very different but it felt a tad like last year but way worse.
Scalpers use bots to get through most online defenses to get multiples of what they seek. I’ve seen them hit a variety of things over the years and watched as various companies try to fight against it. Some succeed, to a degree, and protect their product for their actual customers and others just fail miserably.
Yes, Disneyland has a fraud department. Yes, they catch sales of these tickets and others on a daily basis. Yes, those tickets get cancelled and unsuspecting actual guests suffer the consequences of no entry with fake tickets.
What a fraud department does is mostly after the fact though. There is also a certain level of preparation needed for this that requires a high tech response and a more finessed process from the beginning on Disneyland’s part that I think they didn’t feel they needed after last year. But you see, that was a harbinger of what was to come and it was sadly unheeded.
Obviously Disneyland needs to do more. I feel they cannot have another sale with this current system. I believe it is compromised and it will fail again next year but more quickly. Or Spectacularly.
I do have my own ideas on how this situation could be improved and I hear the ComicCons have some successful methods that Disneyland could look at their best practices for this too.
But first, Disneyland really needs to listen, read, all of the comments from today all over social media everywhere. I wish I could send them all the messages I received all day yesterday and since 6/27 and continue to receive.
There is a LARGE population of fans of this event that spent the entire day on the first sale day on the 27th, signed in for the General Public sale on the 29th to have the system melt down, and then spent all day today getting bounced around by severe glitching only to end up with nothing. Hearts are broken. Traditions have been ended. Trips are being cancelled as I type this.
Alas the cries of the people that I listen to, read, and respond to daily… seem to fall on deaf ears at Disneyland. They don’t really like me up in management too. Perhaps because I’m so critical. But I love Disneyland too and it pains me to see this happen. It’s ok to point out opportunities for improvement when your entire way of doing things includes exceptional customer services and experiences. This does not rank up at the top but at the bottom for those two.
I want everyone to enjoy this event that wanted to go. It’s fun. I love it. It’s my favorite holiday. Heck, I had a Halloween themed baby shower with an invite that said “Rosemary’s Baby is having a baby” with the Rosemary’s Baby poster art…yes I was born after that movie came out and my mother is Rosemary but I digress. This is my Christmas and New Years. It’s special to me and I believe everyone that wants to enjoy this event should get a realistic chance to do so. Now every ticket reselling operation, app, and site has these available at just unrealistically high prices.
The problem is people will buy them and many will get scammed out of their hard earned money and end up at the gates on an event night..family in tow, all dressed up, and be denied entry. It happens every year but I fear it will happen more this year.
As I said earlier, last year’s sale was the harbinger that no one heeded.
And I feel terribly helpless because there is nothing concrete I can do to help anyone except listen and shake my head with them and wonder if Disneyland will do anything better in the future.
Pay attention Disneyland. This will only get worse. You must begin planning now and figure out something better for your fans, because not everyone is a vlogger with a huge following. You created the demand by giving those vloggers free reign, free souvenirs, etc. Now that the demand is there, protect it appropriately or the fans you are trying to draw in, will go to Knott's and Universal.