D23 Memberships

[nicb88]

Forgive me if this is the wrong place - really not sure where it would go and D23 Expo threads have been here - but I’ve just been reading up that they are no longer allowing international sign ups or renewals to D23 Gold.

Does anyone know why? This seems rather short sighted, given the number of international Disney fans. It’s almost like they’re saying you have to be American to get the most out of being a Disney enthusiast!

Also, they just held a D23 expo in Japan - it seems really odd they’d suddenly want to alienate overseas subscribers!

 

[nickys]

Forgive me if this is the wrong place - really not sure where it would go and D23 Expo threads have been here - but I’ve just been reading up that they are no longer allowing international sign ups or renewals to D23 Gold.

Does anyone know why? This seems rather short sighted, given the number of international Disney fans. It’s almost like they’re saying you have to be American to get the most out of being a Disney enthusiast!

Also, they just held a D23 expo in Japan - it seems really odd they’d suddenly want to alienate overseas subscribers!

The site says that they are “unable to allow international fans to join or renew” and that they are “exploring options to be able to offer membership to international fans”. Words to that effect anyway.

Not sure what the issue is. GDPR is the first thing that springs to mind.

@wdwmagic - Any insight?

 

[ABZDisneyFan]

I've been thinking about subscribing to D23 for a while now even with the exorbitant international shipping charge to have the magazines sent to the UK.
I've not looked recently but I assume from the first post that they have now stopped that option.
I doubt very much it would have anything to do with GDPR, if you live in Europe & have signed up to any Disney service online or booked a holiday or cruise then your personal data is being processed outside of Europe & most probably in the States.

I've been trying to sign up to their UK streaming service (Disney Life) for a couple of weeks now & have had no end of problems, it won't let me login & join with my existing Disney account details & when I try to create a new account the site tells me that an account already exists.
I've contacted Disney UK for help & am waiting for someone to get back to me.

 

[Jon81uk]

Not sure what the issue is. GDPR is the first thing that springs to mind.

If you are opting in and choosing to receive communications then I doubt it is GDPR issues. Also everyone already has Disney accounts to book Fastpasses etc and therefore Disney UK will have done the work to make sure their systems are compliant.

 

[nickys]

The reason I suggested GDPR is because Steve (or someone else using the @wdwmagic user-id) said the reason for us in the U.K. not being able to access certain newspaper publications’ websites - like the Orlando Sentinel for example - was because of GDPR.

I suspect in that case, it is either an over-zealous interpretation of the rules or because they are worried about the implications of violating the rules. The same could be the case with Disney, being cautious of any inadvertent violation of the rules. Especially since they say on the site “our lawyers are working on restoring the ability of our U.K. fans to join” or similar.

However, in an interesting twist, I just went onto the D23 website, and there is no warning that I can see. What I did see was that they have updated their terms and conditions, to say that as of 15th August, membership will automatically renew each year. That was the date from which international membership was stopped for renewals and new members. Which is making me wonder whether that was the issue. The automatic renewal of membership when dealing with an international bank account.

I tried adding it to my basket and got all the way through to the payment page. At that point I got a message saying the address was not a deliverable one. I need to consider whether I actually want to join before proceeding. Because I do now have a US address I can use, thanks to my DS’s work having a NY office.

So I’m not sure if this is still a problem or if it’s been resolved. There certainly isn’t a warning coming up once I signed in, which there definitely was before. It knows fine well it’s a U.K. address, as it tells me it can’t deliver the magic bands which I have left in my basket!

 

[Goofnut1980]

They also auto renew D23 membership now! shady!