This is one ride that I’m looking forward to challenging my fear of heights with, that’s for sure!

And of course, by all means – if anyone has any info on where I can find more clips from this series or even if it’s a new feature that just started or an old relic that only made it to two episodes, please do tell!

So as you may have already heard, it turns out that D23 isn’t a new DVD box set or any of those other rumors, but actually Disney’s attempt at building an official community for its fans.  And I say attempt because with all sorts of great free fan communities already online like AllEars.Net and MousePlanet and The DIS Boards and countless others,  I’m not really sure what would implore someone to actually spend $75 a year to be a “member” of D23.

But frankly, I think it goes a little deeper than just the $75 price point because let’s take a look at what exactly one gets for seventy-five bucks these days:

• a subscription to Disney Twenty-Three – a quarterly new magazine (cover price on these babies is $15.95 and word has it you can already pick up a copy at your local book store)
• a membership certificate and card (also known as a receipt)
• a “surprise collectible gift” (likely a pin or lithograph of some sort – I just don’t see them shipping out Mickey statues or crystal figurines here)
• discounted admission to an annual D23 Expo fan gathering
• D23 – the website, to stay connected and up to date on all of the latest Disney news (www.disney.com/d23)

So a couple of things here, with the most notable of them being that at least as of launch, there are no ways for fans to “connect” via the D23 website! Sure, you can read a few glossy stories that Disney has posted (and I wonder if these are the same that appear in the magazine…), but one of the huge attractions that people have to all of the unofficial Disney fan sites is the feeling of community and the ability to share content with each other, whether it’s by posting trip photos and other randomness in forums, leaving comments on posts made by the owners of a given website, or following updates and being able to respond via Twitter.  When you visit the official D23 website, you’re greeted with a few posts surrounded by plenty of options for you to spend some money on D23 – subscription prices, the upcoming expo, and of course, all sorts of limited edition, official 23 merchandise – and that’s about it.

Needless to say, I won’t be signing up for D23 … I may pick-up a copy of the magazine the next time I’m in Barnes & Noble, but that’s going to be the extent of my participation at least in the foreseeable future.  As several other folks have already said, there are just too many other things that could be bought with that $75, from a day’s park admission to a night at a value resort, a really nice dinner, etc.., and honestly, what’s being offered for that price isn’t really all that great of a deal anyways.  Those who’ve seen the magazine thus far (I have not) cite that, while all shiny and pretty, the content isn’t any better than any of Disney’s other publications, and I’m sorry, but just like their various pin expos for pin-trading fans, it’s kind of hard for me to get excited about paying a fairly high entrance fee to an expo just so that I can have the opportunity to spend even more on specialized merchandise … especially when in this case, the expos won’t even be exclusive to D23 members – they’ll just get a discount off the admission price.

To be truly cynical, it just sounds to me like the idea for D23 was cooked up when some executive at Disney was made aware of all of the unofficial fan sites already online and decided that they needed to get a piece of that pie … except that then they proceeded to just throw their marketing department at the project without actually doing any research into exactly what makes the existing community sites so successful.  That said, it’ll certainly be “interesting” to see how D23 evolves over the upcoming months – no doubt despite its lack of actual value, there will still be a hardcore audience that will happily send in their $75 anyways just because it’s Disney, but I don’t think that any fans of other community sites have much to worry about their favorite gathering places disappearing anytime soon.

You know, maybe sometimes things are better off being left unofficial…

• 23 Disney movies to be released on Blu-Ray (or 23 animated classics from The Disney Vault to be released as a huge boxed set)
• 23 new excursions to be announced from Adventures by Disney in 2009
• Pinocchio DVD / Blu-Ray release for its 70th anniversary (not sure how it relates to 23)
• the 23rd Walt Disney World Resort Hotel to be built
• Walt Disney World’s long-anticipated 5th park (by some, anyways…)
• something in celebration of Pixar’s 23rd birthday

Then again, what should really be interesting is just how long this kind of viral marketing campaign will be allowed to fissle before the actual gimmick is finally leaked out to the public.  Coincidentally, this year’s shareholders meeting is scheduled for March 10th so it’s probably safe to assume that Disney is going to try to make a big announcement then, but will it actually make it another month and a half?  I’m reading a lot of ponderings about exclusive this and collector’s edition that, so we shall see.

Your rumorous ramblings?

Link: Bob Iger rocks Disney

photo courtesy My Disney Mania (ZapperZ)

I know that photos of arguably the top Year of a Million Dreams prize have been circulating pretty much since the first guests spent the night some two years ago now, but seeing as the promotion has finally come to a close and it’s unclear at this point just how Disney will be using the souped up hotel room so far, I thought it might be fun to take one last look at the most coveted room on Disney property…

…of course, it didn’t hurt either that I found this awesome post over at My Disney Mania that featured tons of photos that “a friend of a friend” took when they won a night’s stay in the suite themselves.  One step worse than even the author of that blog, I never won anything during our many, many visits during the Year of a Million Dreams – not a dream fastpass, not even a pair of mouse ears – but despite being maybe just a little bit bitter about that, it’s hard to deny that these photos are very cool.  They cover not only the intricate details of the room, from the Cinderella relics on display to the multitude of mosaics seemingly everywhere, but even some of the more hardcore fan stuff like what their room keys looked like and even the stationary found in the nightstand!  After having missed out on the ill-planned passholder tour last fall, admittedly these pictures are probably a better walkthrough of the famed suite, anyways!

Of course, the ultimate question is just what the Mouse plans to do with this whimsical prize now that the promotion is well and done – will they offer it up as a high luxury prize for celebrities, keep it reserved for making a select few guests’ trips all the more special, or just board the joint up completely and move along to the next big thing?  We’ll leave that discussion for another day…

A little video of the first guest of the new year to cash in on the What Will You Celebrate? promotion that offers guests free admission to a Disney theme park on his or her birthday – it makes me wonder if every birthday guest will get one of those comical, oversized birthday cards with their admission, but judging from the emptiness of the park, me-thinks that it’s probably just more for the promotional photos and videos…

Either way, free admission is still free admission! Happy New Year, indeed.