New V.I. Passholder Events Include Some Free After Hours Access

[Jansanbren]

I just wish they would get these emails out REGULARLY to ALL passholders.. I can't imagine there is a worse run list that I have ever been apart of.. other lists email me after I ask to get off the list.. this one just forgets to send them to people in mass. I hope I get the email when it's actually time to sign up...

My hubby and have been passholders for many years and neither of got the email. By the time friends tolds us about it all perks were full. Very, very frustrating. Despite numerous attempts to get on the email list, we have NEVER been invited to sign up for anything!!

 

[Kman101]

My hubby and have been passholders for many years and neither of got the email. By the time friends tolds us about it all perks were full. Very, very frustrating. Despite numerous attempts to get on the email list, we have NEVER been invited to sign up for anything!!

I'm another one who has that e-mail issue. Many do. You'd think they'd go about this a better way. (But for this specific event, I'm a lower tier passholder so I don't know if it's just a mass e-mail they send or if they just sent it to those?) Did anyone with a lower tier pass get the e-mail? Just wondering.

 

[donsullivan]

My hubby and have been passholders for many years and neither of got the email. By the time friends tolds us about it all perks were full. Very, very frustrating. Despite numerous attempts to get on the email list, we have NEVER been invited to sign up for anything!!

After a seemingly endless battle on this topic last year surrounding the Pandora AP Preview, I finally got to someone who explained to me what was wrong and why I wasn't getting the communications.

It seems to all go back to an issue Disney had with sending marketing messages to parties that did not want, and/or should not receive them back in the early 2000's. It gets a little convoluted to explain here but if back in the early 2000's, you for any reason told Disney not to send you marketing messages even once, your email address was put on a block-list from their outbound email systems and no matter what anyone does, the message will never get delivered to that email address. Their systems will show the message was sent, but it will be dumped downstream and never transmitted by the block-list, and nobody can see that is what happened. Many people have commented that Disney asks them to 'get a new email address' and see if that fixes it. What they are trying to do is have you switch to a different email address that is not on the block-list because they have no ability to remove you from that list.

When I went through it with the Pandora preview last year I had reached the end of my patience and was determined to get it resolved (think dog with a rope who is not letting go). I did not relent for weeks and would be on the phone with people sending emails from the marketing system that were never received, but a message from a Guest.Relations@disneyworld.com address come right through. They couldn't figure it out so they started engaging more and more people until I got to some who finally knew why it happens. It's the block-list from the early 2000's. The frustrating part of all of this is that only certain types of communications get blocked which makes it even harder for them to troubleshoot. I get emails about Fastpass, or Dining Reservations with no issues at all.

Last year when the Pandora mess happened they finally agreed to add a second email to my account. I have a personalized domain and email and was unwilling to change email due to their systems problems. Now when the messages for Passholder related stuff (like the Toy Story Post-Preview & VIPassholder) go out they are sent to both email addresses (both show up in the To Field) but they are only received by me on the new address we added last year. To my knowledge, I'm now getting all of the communications for Passholders that I had not received in well over a decade.

I can't guarantee this will fix this silliness for everyone but I'd encourage trying to see if it works for you.

 

[nickys]

After a seemingly endless battle on this topic last year surrounding the Pandora AP Preview, I finally got to someone who explained to me what was wrong and why I wasn't getting the communications.

It seems to all go back to an issue Disney had with sending marketing messages to parties that did not want, and/or should not receive them back in the early 2000's. It gets a little convoluted to explain here but if back in the early 2000's, you for any reason told Disney not to send you marketing messages even once, your email address was put on a block-list from their outbound email systems and no matter what anyone does, the message will never get delivered to that email address. Their systems will show the message was sent, but it will be dumped downstream and never transmitted by the block-list, and nobody can see that is what happened. Many people have commented that Disney asks them to 'get a new email address' and see if that fixes it. What they are trying to do is have you switch to a different email address that is not on the block-list because they have no ability to remove you from that list.

When I went through it with the Pandora preview last year I had reached the end of my patience and was determined to get it resolved (think dog with a rope who is not letting go). I did not relent for weeks and would be on the phone with people sending emails from the marketing system that were never received, but a message from a Guest.Relations@disneyworld.com address come right through. They couldn't figure it out so they started engaging more and more people until I got to some who finally knew why it happens. It's the block-list from the early 2000's. The frustrating part of all of this is that only certain types of communications get blocked which makes it even harder for them to troubleshoot. I get emails about Fastpass, or Dining Reservations with no issues at all.

Last year when the Pandora mess happened they finally agreed to add a second email to my account. I have a personalized domain and email and was unwilling to change email due to their systems problems. Now when the messages for Passholder related stuff (like the Toy Story Post-Preview & VIPassholder) go out they are sent to both email addresses (both show up in the To Field) but they are only received by me on the new address we added last year. To my knowledge, I'm now getting all of the communications for Passholders that I had not received in well over a decade.

I can't guarantee this will fix this silliness for everyone but I'd encourage trying to see if it works for you.

Thanks for the explanation.

Seems like people have 2 options:

1. Change their email address they use for Disney

2. Persuade them to allow you to add a second email address to your account.

 

[raven]

Universal just did their Pass Holder event (for ALL levels of APs) and the entire park was open just for them...for a full 5 hours.

 

[Kman101]

After a seemingly endless battle on this topic last year surrounding the Pandora AP Preview, I finally got to someone who explained to me what was wrong and why I wasn't getting the communications.

It seems to all go back to an issue Disney had with sending marketing messages to parties that did not want, and/or should not receive them back in the early 2000's. It gets a little convoluted to explain here but if back in the early 2000's, you for any reason told Disney not to send you marketing messages even once, your email address was put on a block-list from their outbound email systems and no matter what anyone does, the message will never get delivered to that email address. Their systems will show the message was sent, but it will be dumped downstream and never transmitted by the block-list, and nobody can see that is what happened. Many people have commented that Disney asks them to 'get a new email address' and see if that fixes it. What they are trying to do is have you switch to a different email address that is not on the block-list because they have no ability to remove you from that list.

When I went through it with the Pandora preview last year I had reached the end of my patience and was determined to get it resolved (think dog with a rope who is not letting go). I did not relent for weeks and would be on the phone with people sending emails from the marketing system that were never received, but a message from a Guest.Relations@disneyworld.com address come right through. They couldn't figure it out so they started engaging more and more people until I got to some who finally knew why it happens. It's the block-list from the early 2000's. The frustrating part of all of this is that only certain types of communications get blocked which makes it even harder for them to troubleshoot. I get emails about Fastpass, or Dining Reservations with no issues at all.

Last year when the Pandora mess happened they finally agreed to add a second email to my account. I have a personalized domain and email and was unwilling to change email due to their systems problems. Now when the messages for Passholder related stuff (like the Toy Story Post-Preview & VIPassholder) go out they are sent to both email addresses (both show up in the To Field) but they are only received by me on the new address we added last year. To my knowledge, I'm now getting all of the communications for Passholders that I had not received in well over a decade.

I can't guarantee this will fix this silliness for everyone but I'd encourage trying to see if it works for you.

I was going to tag you because I remember you going through this. It is interesting and frustrating to hear how it all works. It's definitely a frustrating situation. Like you, I get e-mails when I can't use a FP for a specific ride, or other various e-mails, but never marketing stuff. So I knew I was blocked somewhere. I still get Disney Destination e-mails on another account I had at one point (probably a separate sign up somewhere for that one address). Hopefully I can get them to add a second e-mail for me. I don't really see the need to re-register and all that.

 

[donsullivan]

I was going to tag you because I remember you going through this. It is interesting and frustrating to hear how it all works. It's definitely a frustrating situation. Like you, I get e-mails when I can't use a FP for a specific ride, or other various e-mails, but never marketing stuff. So I knew I was blocked somewhere. I still get Disney Destination e-mails on another account I had at one point (probably a separate sign up somewhere for that one address). Hopefully I can get them to add a second e-mail for me. I don't really see the need to re-register and all that.

Last year, I just reach the end of my patience with this mess and was not going to let up until they fixed things. I wasn't willing to accept getting blown off like they had in the past. I had gone through the same hell around the New Fantasyland Preview and when it started happening again, I wasn't letting go until they fixed it.

You don't have to actually re-register; they can change the email on the account and everything in your profile is maintained including admissions entitlements, ADR's, FP+, etc.. I was just unwilling to change my email address on principle and they found a way to add a second address to the account. I still log in with the same email I've had on the account for decades, I just do not get any Passholder communications on that address when they are sent, they are received at the second email address that was added to the account.

 

[RonAnnArbor]

I was signed up for the Epcot passholders event this week, but I cancelled. There is just simply no reason to go. I have no reason to wait in lines to ride things for two hours at 9:00 when I can ride them any other day first thing in the morning at rope drop. I do think it is nice that they offer these, especially for annual pass holders staying on property and visiting from out of town - but for locals, this is just a nice afterthought to make pass holders feel appreciated. In reality its just sort of a EMH for locals for the most part.

As to World Showcase - they simply close off exactly what is closed off before that part of the park opens at 11:00 each day -- so consider the passholder experience the same as being in the park at 8 am for EMH before the park opens and you can't book FP during that hour anyway.

 

[Texas84]

Bump. Just got this e-mail. There is one error, MK is not Tuesday. The date is correct.

Magic Kingdom® Park
TUESDAY, 4/28, 11 P.M.–1 A.M.
Enjoy access to more than 25 of our most popular attractions and Character Greetings, too.

Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
SATURDAY, 5/18, 5 P.M.–8 P.M.
MONDAY, 6/3, 5 P.M.–8 P.M.
Take advantage of the first-ever V.I.PASSHOLDER Nights at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park. Experience magic in every drop with popular waterslides and splash-tastic surprises during this special evening event!

PLEASE NOTE:
Due to limited capacity of this event, registration for each Platinum Passholder is limited to just one of the above events. Registration is available on a first-come, first-served basis. You may register up to three other Gold, Platinum, Platinum Plus or Premier Passholders linked in your friends-and-family list to share the fun.

 

[JohnD]

Bump. Just got this e-mail. There is one error, MK is not Tuesday. The date is correct.

Magic Kingdom® Park
TUESDAY, 4/28, 11 P.M.–1 A.M.
Enjoy access to more than 25 of our most popular attractions and Character Greetings, too.

Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
SATURDAY, 5/18, 5 P.M.–8 P.M.
MONDAY, 6/3, 5 P.M.–8 P.M.
Take advantage of the first-ever V.I.PASSHOLDER Nights at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park. Experience magic in every drop with popular waterslides and splash-tastic surprises during this special evening event!

PLEASE NOTE:
Due to limited capacity of this event, registration for each Platinum Passholder is limited to just one of the above events. Registration is available on a first-come, first-served basis. You may register up to three other Gold, Platinum, Platinum Plus or Premier Passholders linked in your friends-and-family list to share the fun.

Yeah, 4/28 is Sunday. I arrive Mon 4/29. Just as well for me. Per usual, Silver is SOL.

 

[monothingie]

I was actually surprised at how easy it was to sign up for it.

As of now, the park is scheduled to still scheduled to close at 9PM. Park hours always wind up changing, so I would really be surprised if this didn't change to 11PM. Unless they are going to let day guests clear out before the hard ticket event starts. I'm also wondering how crowded it will wind up being.

 

[nickys]

I was actually surprised at how easy it was to sign up for it.

As of now, the park is scheduled to still scheduled to close at 9PM. Park hours always wind up changing, so I would really be surprised if this didn't change to 11PM. Unless they are going to let day guests clear out before the hard ticket event starts. I'm also wondering how crowded it will wind up being.

Don’t they usually have an hour between park close and the start of a hard ticketed event? Plenty of time to usher everyone else out.

 

[monothingie]

Don’t they usually have an hour between park close and the start of a hard ticketed event? Plenty of time to usher everyone else out.

Only with the holiday parties. The after hours events at the MK start immediately after park close. at DAK and HS, they start 30 minutes after park close.

This kinda annoyed me when we did the MK AH event because at 9PM HEA ran for 25 minutes and basically tied everything up in the park on AH time.

 

[Jansanbren]

Bump. Just got this e-mail. There is one error, MK is not Tuesday. The date is correct.

Magic Kingdom® Park
TUESDAY, 4/28, 11 P.M.–1 A.M.
Enjoy access to more than 25 of our most popular attractions and Character Greetings, too.

Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
SATURDAY, 5/18, 5 P.M.–8 P.M.
MONDAY, 6/3, 5 P.M.–8 P.M.
Take advantage of the first-ever V.I.PASSHOLDER Nights at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park. Experience magic in every drop with popular waterslides and splash-tastic surprises during this special evening event!

PLEASE NOTE:
Due to limited capacity of this event, registration for each Platinum Passholder is limited to just one of the above events. Registration is available on a first-come, first-served basis. You may register up to three other Gold, Platinum, Platinum Plus or Premier Passholders linked in your friends-and-family list to share the fun.

As per usual, no email.

 

[JohnD]

As per usual, no email.

I know why I didn't get it. I'm a Silver PH. I guess I don't pay enough for this "free" event.

 

[Kman101]

I didn't even notice it was for MK too on 4/28. Would have been nice before my birthday but it was filled in like no time ...

 

[donsullivan]

It appears that something might have changed in the e-mail blocking I've battled with for these emails over the last many years. I got it fixed 2 years ago for the Pandora Preview with a secondary email addres but I noticed today that this email came into the original email address that had all of the blocking issues in the past. I'm hoping that's an encouraging sign that the long term issue (10+ years) I've had with passholder communication might be slowly getting resolved.

 

[ParksAndPixels]

Missed chance to sign up! We arrive that evening...

 

[Piebald]

We signed up for TL. We did MK and Epcot in the past few months. Epcot was kind of lame because WS closed early and it just seemed dead (in a bad way) whereas MK was super enjoyable. Hadn't felt so stress free at MK in ages. Walk on to everything and just cool vibes all around. The drizzling probably cleaned out the crowds.

 

[Kman101]

We signed up for TL. We did MK and Epcot in the past few months. Epcot was kind of lame because WS closed early and it just seemed dead (in a bad way) whereas MK was super enjoyable. Hadn't felt so stress free at MK in ages. Walk on to everything and just cool vibes all around. The drizzling probably cleaned out the crowds.

It really was bizarre and felt so nice to not be stressed and surrounded by people!