Might a Halfway to Halloween live event help ease some Oogie Boogie Bash ticketing pains? – DePaoli on DeParks
If you recently went through the process of trying to get yourself a ticket to Disneyland Resort’s Halloween party Oogie Boogie Bash, you know how frustrating the process can be. There needs to be a solution to these ticketing woes, and maybe a Halfway to Halloween live event could help ease the problem.
If you didn’t experience it for yourself, Oogie Boogie Bash tickets recently went on sale and were sold out in less than three days. This speed of sale is unprecedented for the event. They’ve created quite an impressive party at Disney California Adventure, so I’m not surprised to see tickets in such high demand. What does surprise me is how frustrating the ticket-buying experience continues to be, leaving so many guests left with a bad taste in their mouths. It’s like being forced to swallow a Good & Plenty instead of Snickers.
Many guests waited in a virtual queue for numerous hours, often for most of the daytime, only to not get a ticket. Sure, there are only so many tickets to sell, but it’s super frustrating to spend your time trying to obtain one just to have the system crash and have to start all over.
The purpose of a virtual queue is so people aren’t waiting in a physical queue for hours. But maybe some sort of physical event could be the solution. Disney loves to make announcements about the upcoming Halloween festivities during Halfway to Halloween in April. Perhaps instead of just announcements, they could throw a live event somewhere like Downtown Disney or the Disneyland Hotel convention spaces.
I’ll preface the following description by stating that I don’t personally like all these ideas. But it could help ease some of the bad guest experience ticketing issues. If you’re familiar with D23, you’re probably familiar with events where you pay admission for the “opportunity” to buy merchandise. This is done a lot with the Mickey’s of Glendale store at Walt Disney Imagineering. And these events sell well. People literally buy a ticket to go and spend more money on stuff at a unique location.
What if they sold tickets to a Halfway to Halloween event that sold Disney Halloween merchandise, desserts, and you guessed it, tickets to Oogie Boogie Bash. Would people buy into this? My guess is yes.
There’s also nothing keeping them from making this event free as its main purpose is to sell, but perhaps that would make the crowds unmanageable. I say it’s worth testing as a free event. They’d still make a bunch of money on Downtown Disney parking alone. Throw a bit of entertainment into the mix with a Halloween character or two and the crowds would flock.
This idea isn’t perfect. It certainly doesn’t help anybody who’s not local. And they can just as easily run out of tickets in person. If the tickets are in such high demand maybe the process simply needs to become a lottery system like they do with D23 Expo panel selection.
One thing’s for certain. What they’re doing now is creating a lot of angry guests. But when you look at it as strictly business, it’s selling out in record time. So, perhaps all is well in their eyes.
If you’d like to hear more about the creation of Oogie Boogie Bash, listen to the following episode “Dizney Coast to Coast” podcast as talented folks from Disney Live Entertainment discuss the event’s backstory and creative process.
What do you think? Do you like the idea of an in-person event for ticket sales? Do you think it would just create more problems? Do you have a better solution? Leave a comment and let me know.
Jeff DePaoli is a producer and voiceover artist living in Los Angeles. He can be heard as the voice of Disney Trivia on Alexa as well as the host of “Dizney Coast to Coast,” the ultimate, unofficial Disney fan podcast. Get your FREE gifts of “America’s Hidden Mickeys,” “On the Rohde Again,” “Theme Park Comfort Kit” and more at DizneyCoastToCoast.com. DePaoli’s opinions are his own and do not necessarily represent Attractions Magazine.
