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Yesterday we were proudly one of the first to report that free tickets for the 2010 Disney Parks Christmas Day parade had become available for the Walt Disney World portion taping on December 3 and 4. Within several hours, registration for the event had closed.
However our source contacted us later on in the day and guests who reach out to the email address provided by the registration are confirming that the Walt Disney World Resort is stating that the tickets issued were only intended for cast members and parade volunteers, not the general public. Instead, guests are being told that they can watch the parade taping if they are in the park, but that park admission is explicitly required. Walt Disney World has been responding to all ticket inquiries with the following boilerplate response:
‘We appreciate your interest in the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade telecast. You may have read reports in the local media that tickets were available to the general public. Unfortunately, using sources other than Disney Parks, the media misreported this information and that is not the case for the telecast taping.’
The truth is, the media is not to blame for this snafu, the onus is entirely on Walt Disney World who could have easily averted any source of confusion by noting the supposed restrictions in ticket distribution. According to our source, not a single mention of the restriction was made in the initial email he received, nor did anyone at the Resort bother to add or change a simple word in the text presented to any guest registering for the event. Instead they left the text exactly the same as it had been in years past except for the dates and year and left it up to the population-at-large’s devices to figure out it wasn’t meant for them.
So rather than rewarding guests eager to attend the taping of the Magic Kingdom portion of the parade, the Resort is now brazenly penalizing guests who have been chomping at the bit to participate in the annual tradition.
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Hmmm…interesting. I registered and got confirmation of registration. My SIL and her children attended last year with free tickets. It’s unfortunate that WDW isn’t 1) taking responsibility for the snafu (especially when they so often benefit from the “unofficial” media attention), and 2) aren’t offering this opportunity this year. Further, I haven’t gotten an email explaining the mistake, which it seems would be easy for the company to generate. Thanks for the heads up, though. I appreciate it.
I saw the page too- it didn’t mention ANYTHING about having to have park admission for that day- only that if selected, you would receive a free E-ticket!! I imagine that is why it may have been overloaded or shut down ASAP!
No mention about it being for cast members either. Don’t they have some other kind of communications for things like that “backstage” stuff that is offered to them?
I wonder how many people are like FL Mom- thinking they are getting in free and doing the taping…
i to registered and got a comfermation saying that if selected we would recieve free tickets i do have a pass to disney so im not worried about that but maybe if we have or are willing to purchase tickets on the day of the event maybe we should be allowed early acess or vip seating area or something i think disney should definitly do something at least an apoligy email would of been nice
I still can’t believe that this is true. This year is been hard for most people with the economy the way it is. I was looking forward to at least have a Christmas parade celebration with my family and friends. We were getting colorful clothes to wear on the taping day. I think at least Disney World should send us an apology.
I don’t know about you guys, but I did get an e-mail with free tickets to the taping and I just did it a few days ago. They are gone now when I checked again, but I got the E-tickets for the 2010 taping.
They had been emailed to those who were eligible to receive them, namely cast members and registered sports enthusiasts.
Well All I must say is that Disney never said that the tickets were for just ANYONE. In the information released to Cast members it seemed to be an understood thing that it was for cast and our families and other specific people. I understand how frustrating it would have been but Disney did nothing wrong. You reported information that stretched the truth and was not from Disney itself but from someone who got information from Disney. Walt Disney World Never called you or released such information to the general public and/or media.
Making a public link which is available in Google and repeats the same premise as years past to the letter without a single mention of any such restrictions is essentially the same as making them open to the public in my book. All I pointed out was that they could have simply made one simple statement which would have hurt no one and would have saved a lot of grief.
They also only alerted people who had registered through an autoreply when they were emailed, otherwise nobody would have known what the deal was.
As I said, I saw the original email sent out with the registration link and I can see it argued both ways. In other words, due diligence was simply not performed on behalf of Disney Parks who should have known better given this was not their first time distributing tickets to the event.