Moonlight Madness registration question

[Capang]

Not sure which night you attended but we went July 16th and I will say our experience was better that yours sounded. We arrived a little before 7 and got our arm bands at EPCOT. There was no problem, the line was smooth and moved quickly. There was no confusion on the part of the cast members checking us in. In the first line we were given our wrist bands and in the second our food vouchers, and directed to the stand that had maps for the evenings activities. When I say lines, there were maybe three other groups in front of us for the first and one for the second. The maps were very helpful. The ice cream line looked long but went very quickly. We had no problem getting our food at Sunshine Seasons but we were also there around 11:15, just before the fireworks. I will agree about the lack of information about beverages. The fireworks did start a bit early. I read 11:45 but they started closer to 11:35. They were gorgeous though. Our only long line was Frozen Ever After. We headed there during Illuminations and were in line for maybe a half hour. That was the longest wait of the night. The Living Seas pavilion- Ariel and Crush were walk on; Soarin' was a short wait and same with Test Track. We did not do any character interactions. We felt like we were able to get everything done in that one evening from 7 to 11 that would normally take us all day. And it was SO nice being dark and cool with no blazing July sun. We left shortly after the fireworks and had no problems getting on the bus to our hotel. I am sorry your experience was so bad but I liked this Moonlight Magic much better than the Typhoon Lagoon one we did in June or July 2016. Of course, I would always welcome less crowding but it wasn't too bad for us.

We had the same experience that night. We got food in America and the line was sort of long but it did move. The longest line was for merch, which I got in before the event started, but I met nice people there to pass the time.

 

[doombuggy]

When I attended the AK event in April there was a large party ahead of me waiting for one of the character Meet & Greets. Another large group joined them. They were obviously locals & seemed to be CM's judging by their familiarity with the CM's & Photographer who were working the line. Not saying that none of them were DVC Members but most if not all appeared to be CM's. I'm sure there are many who book the maximum # of spots to bring friends who aren't staying on property and aren't members.

I felt a bit insulted on 2 fronts reading your comments - 1 for being local and 2 for being a cm...who owns DVC. I have gone to 2 of these events over the years and both time with other DVC members who registered themselves. The first time, I registered 3 (me plus 2) but when my DVC member/co-worker registered herself and her son, I changed my reservation to 1 with no problem. When we went in February and we were standing in line for the Robin Hood characters at MK, we were talking with 2 other DVC members in the line who were TDS cast members. I work 7 days a week between my 2 jobs - since 1996 BTW - and don't have much spare time to enjoy the parks. I was fortunate to purchase DVC in 2006 at a good price and what was considered a small contract at the time (100 pts) which I bought direct and paid off in 2 years. While I have used it at WDW, I have used it in other places just as much - Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disney, Aulani, Vero, etc.

While I do agree with the process of giving registered guests first dibs, I don't think someone like me should be excluded from "perks" because I live 30 -40 miles away.