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I watched the preparations leading up to Wednesday night's Haunted Mansion Enchanted Evening with a certain amount of trepidation. Recent merchandise events at the Disneyland resort have been a mixed bag. I respect the members of Disneyland's merchandise special event team. I know that they try very hard to put on a good show. When everything goes right, the result is a wonderful experience like the Mr. Toad event, which remains the gold-standard by which all other events are still judged. But when everything goes wrong, you wind up with something like the notorious Pirates event disaster.

The invitation to the event

The Nightmare event had been plagued with trouble from the very first day. Invitations were mailed later than planned and included the wrong date for guests to call in and order tickets. The Florida event services group did nothing to improve the situation when they opened their phone lines early, accepted calls on an unpublicized local number, and even allowed people to fax in their reservations the night before the tickets went on sale.

Despite these missteps, the event looked to be a sold- out hit. 200 dinner tickets and 1000 general admission tickets were purchased, and hundreds were on waiting lists in case of cancellations.

Jack and Zero marionettes

Once the event registration packets were mailed, again later than expected, concerns started to bubble up regarding the merchandise offerings. Why were the edition sizes so small, and the prices so high? What was with the new rule requiring you to buy everything you were given through the Random Selection Process? Where was the rest of the merchandise - surely this wasn't it?

By my rough calculations, the average customer was going to leave the event having spent under $300 on merchandise. That's not much when you're talking about a fan base like this. Unless the core merchandise was well- made and plentiful, many guests were going to go home with money to spare.

For some ticket holders, this is the first notice they received that Burton and Elfman were no-shows.

Then, of course, not everyone was going to the event for the merchandise. A lot of people were going for the chance to see Tim Burton and Danny Elfman in person. When both canceled, with barely five days notice, reaction from customers ranged from indifferent to extremely upset. Disneyland staffers tried to contact everyone by phone, but many did not learn of the cancellations until the day of the event. Hundreds canceled their tickets and the waiting list was depleted. Others, already having made travel arrangements, had no choice but to attend anyway.

We spoke to one couple who had apparently received their call while they were on their flight from Chicago to Los Angeles. They only got the message when they landed and checked their voice mail. When we checked into our hotel room Wednesday afternoon, we were handed a flyer advertising that tickets could still be purchased, six hours before the event was to begin.

With all that had happened, it looked like this "Nightmare" event was going to live up to its name. Fortunately, it didn't. While it never reached the level of the now almost legendary Toad event, I found our evening to be worth every bit of the $200 we had paid for it.

The event attracted a mix of Mansion and Nightmare fans - some are very devoted to their favorite ride. (Yes, that is a tattoo!)

I was not feeling so generous immediately before the event. The day began for many people at park opening, when the "core", or non- limited edition merchandise was released for sale. Some of this merchandise had already been offered during the two days before the event, and Cast Members were not enforcing the usual item limits on the more popular pieces. Both of these factors contributed to an early sellout of the merchandise, disappointing many who were only in town one day for the event. Sue Kruse was there, and writes about her experience in her column.

Tony and I opted not to get to Disneyland early, so we arrived about noon and checked into the hotel before proceeding to the event registration. Our first trip through the registration line was quick and fairly painless. We checked in, showed our IDs and retrieved our event packets. This included our credentials - a color-coded lanyard with the event itinerary printed on the back, along with a list of the items we had been assigned through the RSP and a "Second Chance" form where we could request merchandise that was still available.

Unfortunately, the list of what we had been assigned was very short, and the list of what was still available was even shorter. Of all of the complaints I heard about the event, this was the most common - there just was not enough merchandise to go around. Sure, everyone got a T-shirt if they asked for it, but with edition sizes of 50, 75, and 150 on popular items, guests were bound to be disappointed.

The pin and ornament sets, presented in a festive Christmas / Halloween display

We were told that we had the option of having all of our purchases shipped to our home for free, saving us from having to pick up our merchandise and storing it during the event. We were staying on property, so we chose to pick up our merchandise rather than waiting two weeks to get it. We were pleased to see that several of the Downtown Disney restaurants were offering 20% discounts for event guests, so we headed to Naples for a quick lunch.

We then went to collect our merchandise, and ran into the first little snafu - we had been given the wrong size in an item we had requested, and they were out of the correct size. We accepted the smaller size, and were promised first dibs on the correct size if one could be located for us. On a more positive note, the powers- that- be realized that opening the pickup location at the originally announced time of 4 p.m. would require the staff to distribute merchandise to 1200 people in 2.5 hours flat. Instead of subjecting us all to that trauma, the decision was made to allow attendees to claim their merchandise starting at noon, to create shorter lines for everyone.

Event customers wait in line to get their merchandise issues solved.

If only that had been our only concern! By 6 p.m., I had waited in the registration line four times to help get all of the MousePlanet staffers checked in and resolve the problems each had with their Random Selection Process. Two of our group had been selected for items they had not asked for, and another two had received the wrong size of items they had requested. The merchandise staff was extremely helpful and accommodating in solving these problems, but that was not the point. I wanted to be inside drooling at the gates of the Mansion, not standing in (yet another) line.

At least we were not alone. We had a whole line of people with similar merchandise problems to keep us company. To be fair, the staff was doing everything they could to accommodate everyone, even to the extent of allowing people to return merchandise they "just did not want anymore", despite the no- return policy, but the whole process was time consuming.

A fellow attendee decorated her cane for the party

By 6:45, we had all of the merchandise issues worked out, our packages were stowed safely in our room, and I was ready to just start the whole day over again. We joined the line of people entering the Fantasyland Theater, and were pleasantly surprised when we were handed a "krispie- ball" decorated as Jack Skellington.

Yummy!

A seating area had been reserved for customers with the dinner tickets, but we realized that it was entirely too close to the stage for our tastes. Sue Kruse had found much better seats, and we joined her. Tables around the theater offered guests their choice of coffee, tea, Fruitopia or bottled water, as well as a selection of cookies.

Disneyland Resort President Cynthia Harris opened the panel discussion

For details about the evening's entertainment and panel discussion, I will defer to our resident Nightmare expert, Sue Kruse. My only comments are about the noise level inside and around the theater. The panelists were using handheld microphones, and the entire presentation was very difficult to hear even in the front of the theater. With the added distraction of screaming guests on the nearby Gadget's Go Coaster, the cleaning crew in the rear of the theater, and a truck backing up backstage, (beep!, beep!, beep!), many guests found it difficult to follow the conversations.

The characters make their way off stage after the show

Steve Davison was the last person to speak, and his comments made the crowd anxious to finally see the Mansion. As the panel discussion was wrapping up, guests were already racing out of the theater and over towards the Mansion. Those of us with the dinner package were escorted over to the train station, where we embarked on a nonstop trip to New Orleans Square for the next part of our evening.

CONTINUED

Adrienne Krock with the $65 perspective

Sue Kruse on the event show

Sue Kruse tells you all about the ride

Sue Kruse offers another look inside!

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