If you've been following the Villain's Event coverage here on Mouse Planet, you've seen quite a variety of opinions (Opinions are something that Mouseplaneteers rarely lack). Seems that Mouse Planet's very own Divas Sue, and Adrienne each attended a very different event. Now I know they were all at the same Villain's evening, because I was there! In fact, I had the distinct pleasure of spending time with these lovely and charismatic ladies at Thursday night's festivities.  

From the coverage I've read so far, Sue seemed to be most interested in the show aspect of the entire evening, and Adrienne in the merchandise. However, it is precisely this wide spectrum of perspective that allows you as the reader to view the whole story in a sort of literary 3-D. So, if only to further complicate matters, I too had a different take on Thursday's evening (does that make our coverage 4-D?).  

Spending $140 or more for any shindig isn't usually part of the Dusty Traveler's game plan, but for many reasons this one promised to be a one of a kind spectacular that I just didn't want to risk missing. I was banking on Disney pulling out all the stops on the Villains event after the very disappointing Pirates fiasco last Spring. This was their chance to make amends and that is exactly what Disney attempted to do.

You'll have to forgive me a bit for being such a guy on this coverage because I'm not usually one to shop, I'm not an expert in musical theatre, and I get a bit uncomfortable in large social gatherings.  However I do know is whether or not I'm having a good time. The merchandise wasn't important to me  but, I must say that I thought it was all very interesting. In fact, if I was a thousandaire, I might have bought a Disney Diva painting or two. But, I'm not, so I didn't. When the show started, and turned out to be a musical instead of the usual informational multi-media experience, I was skeptical. But again, I have to tell you that I was blown away. The stage show was an irreverent and impressive romp which was at once funny, creative, and refreshing. I didn't want it to end.  

The ladies who lurch...

So let's see, I had and evening filled with interesting merchandise, great food, an amazing show, dessert and rides in Fantasyland, a surprise special moment at midnight and lots of free stuff. I must have had one heck of a night! And I did, but it wasn't all I had imagined it to be.

Which brings me to the strange quandary of  the entire evening:  how could an event with so many great elements have failed to add up to the sum of its parts?  Or, why would Disney have allowed what can only be described as poor planning stain an event as wonderful as this evening was clearly designed to be? For me, it all boils down to inadequate communication and event management. To be fair, as a result of rain, most of the evenings locations needed to be relocated to interior venues. Certainly, this resulted in some reduced capacity and confusion which would not have been the case otherwise. However, at $140 a pop and up, I don't care about the rain; there should have been a contingency plan which adequately accommodated all 500 plus guests (especially since the long range weather report had been mentioning rain all week).

Throughout the evening, I continually needed to ask where to go next and what I might be missing. In spite of my efforts, I still managed to miss out on my Villains photo opportunity and on riding all but one of the Fantasyland dark rides. Some poor souls were forced to wait for dinner for over half an hour resulting in a skewed time table for the rest of the evening. So, as a result of a late dinner and a late show, our play and dessert time in Fantasyland was cut severely short. Although my party did manage to find the dessert location, most guests didn't. Sadly, dessert delayed us just enough to ensure that we would not be able to ride all the attractions in Fantasyland.  

Since the payoff of this portion of evening lay at the exit of each attraction (in the form of a unique diva pin), and each ride contained strategically placed live actors, I'm not sure I would have sacrificed riding Peter Pan, Pinocchio, and Mr. Toad for some chocolate bread pudding (although, it was very good). Consequently, my group was reduced to simply picking up pins at the ride exits so we wouldn't miss out. It made me feel like I was begging, not a proud moment.

The "magic moment"

I heard someone mention a "Magic moment" was scheduled for midnight, so I inquired about it and was informed that I should leave Fantasyland and stand in front of the castle on the Main Street side.  We found a great spot dead center in front of the castle and ended up waiting there for half an hour until the ultra brief "magic moment" came and went. You'll get a nice description of the individual element of the night's events in our previous Diva stories (listed on the contents page). This was the low point of the evening for me. Dazed and a bit upset, we attempted to figure out what we were supposed to do next. Our packages still awaited pick-up, we had numbers to view and purchase unsold merchandise, and we still wanted to go back to Fantasyland and see if we could ride the attractions we missed.  

Remembering the hours long wait for package retrieval at the Pirates event, we decided to get in line right away. This really wasn't necessary as Disney had provided for a mass effort to get our packages to us ASAP. However, half of our party had been incorrectly billed and needed to be escorted to the Main Street photo shop where they waited in line to get their billing matters resolved. As a result, we missed out on buying the left over pins that we wanted. Oh well, live and learn.  

By this point in the evening I was tired, rain soaked, disappointed, cursing all things Disney and vowing never to return to another merchandise special event. However, it is amazing what a few days rest will do to change your mind. In spite of the problems I experienced, the Villains event was filled with genuine "Magic" that continues to stand out in my mind. The Diva's show was priceless, a once in a lifetime presentation. My group was able to chat with Disneyland Resort President, Cynthia Harris for almost ten minutes outside of Innoventions. I'd almost have paid the $140 just for those precious few moments. Everything you hear about Cynthia's incredible people skills are true. But perhaps the most magical aspect to the entire evening was the time I got to spend with all the guests at the event, especially our Mouse Planet Divas and my own very special princess (who was quite the trooper throughout the evening).   

I sure do hope that the Disney folks aren't throwing in the towel on these very special events. But if they do continue to have them, let's hope that they take the time to learn from their mistakes so they don't continue to repeat them. I have great faith in Disney to continue to deliver a fantastic product. If nothing else, this event was filled with great ideas and a mass of effort, but lacked the unified project  management to deliver a smooth product. Despite my earlier bad feelings, I do not regret my date with Divas, Disney or otherwise. 

Happy travels!

You can e-mail Todd at dustytraveler@mouseplanet.com

All character art is © Disney