Another D23 convention weekend has come and gone, and this was one the biggest one yet!

This year I attended D23 for the very first time, and now I’m here with all the tips I could come up with after experiencing it for myself and stumbling through all the incomplete information, chaos, and anxiety. (it was fun though, I swear!)

I’ll try to be as detailed as possible here for anyone looking for some guidance for their first or future trips to D23, because as someone who was going for my first time, it was hard to find a lot of helpful information out there! This year was also the first year they implemented virtual queues, reservations, and Honda Center showcases, so there definitely was a lot of newness to the overall experience!

Also as a note, D23 is always changing and adapting, so not all of this advice may be relevant to future years, but hopefully this just gives you a good idea of what you can expect!

Getting Tickets

The first step, of course, to attending is getting the tickets! If you were around and trying to get D23 tickets this year, you already know how chaotic this experience was for so many people. There’s not much you can do here except hope that luck is on your side and you end up with an early queue spot.

Tickets for D23 2024 went on sale in March 2024, which was 4-5 months before the actual event. So if you’re looking to go in 2026 or beyond, try to get a good idea of who you plan to go with around 5 months out so the sale doesn’t sneak up on you!

D23 Gold Member & Visa Cardholder Sales

D23 Gold members had access to the first day of ticket sales. This sale was particularly rough as a lot of D23 Gold members were not able to secure tickets. I’m not a Gold member so I wasn’t part of this sale.

I did, however, utilize the Visa Cardholder sale which was the second day of ticket sales.

The more opportunities you have to join the queue the better chance you’ll likely have of getting tickets. Based on how Gold member ticket sales went, I’m not sure it would be worth getting a gold membership just for the early sale dates, though there are other perks that may make it worth it.

Queue Assignment

When the queue opens up, everyone gets assigned a position number which will allow you in to choose your tickets. I was so incredibly fortunate that my position was in the 1600s whereas the other people in my party that I was planning to go with all got positions in the 37000-45000. Like I said, for something like this, I don’t think there’s a real trick to it, I think you just have to be lucky enough to refresh your page at the exact right time (and hopefully have stable fast internet).

Purchasing Tickets

By the time I could purchase tickets all of the 3-Day passes were sold out, so I ended up buying 3 1-Day passes with Honda Center tickets for each of us. This part was very stressful since I had to pick each 1-Day ticket then find seats in the Honda Center for all four of us while seats were disappearing before my eyes (takes me back the Eras Tour concert tickets debacle). Again, I was lucky enough that I was able to secure us tickets and Honda Center seats for all three days.

I will note, though, that there is a service charge that comes with each ticket purchase, and since I had to buy 3 1-Day tickets for all of us, we had to pay for 12 service charges total instead of just 4 if we would have been able to get a 3-Day pass with Honda Center. That was rough, but since we really wanted to be able to do everything, we accepted it. In total, it cost $327.50 per person to all three days with tickets to the Honda Center for each day.

Transferring Badges

Another thing you’ll need to know if one person purchases tickets for a group of people is that badges will need to be transferred prior to the event.

As the ticket purchaser, I was notified about the badge transfers two months before the event, and badges needed to be transferred within the month (so at the latest, one month before D23).

Transferring badges is not required but it is in everyone’s best interest so that each person can partake in the panel/activity reservation process. The reservation process, discussed in more detail below, can only be done by a D23 account that has a badge for the event. So if you bought 4 tickets to the convention and didn’t transfer them to your other three attendees, your email is the only active D23 account that can make reservations. Once you transfer the tickets to each person, they can each do their own reservations, increasing everyone’s chances of getting a reserved spot in a desired panel or activity.

Also note that as the transferrer, you’ll initiate a badge transfer, but the person receiving the transfer also needs to accept it before the deadline in order for it to complete.

Reservation Selection Process (RSP)

One month before D23, the reservation selection process (RSP) opens up. This comes along with a release of the programming schedule for the event. Here you’ll find a full schedule of all the panels, meet & greets, and other things for which you’ll be able to request a reservation. This gives you a chance to take a brief look at all the different activities and decide which ones you’d like to see.

The selection process was open for 5 days (July 15-July 19) and it involved choosing which events we wanted to attend for each stage and how many additional guests would be joining us for each of them.

The selection process is random and not on a first-come first-served basis, so there’s no need to be the first person to choose your selections on the first day. This is another situation where I think all you can do is hope that you get the experiences that you really want. I would also recommend trying to be as certain as you can be about how many people you want to attend with. While you can choose the maximum number of guests in case you wanted to invite other people to join in with you, it may or may not hurt your chances of getting the panel since it would be harder to fit your group in. That’s just my suspicion. I also found that during the event it’s quite difficult to coordinate with a group that you aren’t actually attending the convention with.

Once you’ve completed your selections, all you have to do is wait for the reservation confirmations to come in, which occurred around 2 weeks later.

For most of the experiences, there were standby lines that people could wait in if they didn’t get a reservation for them, so if you don’t get a reservation, there’s a decent chance that you could get in through the standby line. However, for some more intimate experiences like meet & greets and signings, I found that those didn’t open a standby line at all because of the popularity.

D23 Convention Weekend

What Time To Arrive

This really depends on what you are trying to do. If there’s an experience that you really want to get to that starts first thing in the morning and it has no virtual queue, and you know that it’s going to be quite popular, you may want to be there EARLY.

D23 official policy this year stated that queuing would not be allowed until 4:30AM, though I am aware that many people were waiting as early as 2:00AM. The people participating in this early queuing were there for the Lorcana booth which did not have a virtual queue and had some exclusive things happening. I don’t know the specifics because I don’t play Lorcana, but I believe there was a D23 exclusive set that was available in limited quantities.

I’m not exactly sure what the situation will be like in future years, but for this year, unless you were after the Lorcana booth, early early morning queuing appeared to be unnecessary.

If you have a Virtual Queue

This year, D23 implemented a virtual queue for their shopping experiences. The virtual queue opened up at 4:00AM and 1:00PM and the experience is similar to getting a boarding group for virtual queues for Disney parks rides. If you were able to snag an early virtual queue boarding group, there really is no need to worry about arriving extra early.

All early morning queues started off in Hall D (there’s lot of staff directing people towards it). Inside there are different lines set up for the different shopping virtual queues and then many large lines set up in the back of the room for general standby - this is to enter the show floor at the time of opening.

At our virtual queue boarding group number and store, we found a staff member, showed them our boarding group, and they gave us a wrist band with our boarding group written on it. For all shopping virtual queues, each person signing up could only bring a maximum of one guest, so if you’re in a part of more than two, you’ll need to split up.

I arrived at the convention on Friday morning around 6:30AM. In the Hall D show floor queue, my boarding group queue was very small and there was only a couple parties ahead of me. The standby queues however were quite long. From there, we waited until around 7:40AM and were brought to the lobby in order by boarding group number to queue in front of the Hall doors to be let in closer to opening time. We waited in this lobby queue until we started being let in around opening time at 9:00AM.

While we were waiting in this lobby queue, more people with boarding groups started arriving and were being led to their place in line by staff members. It was a bit hectic and chaotic, however, because many of the staff members weren’t sure which line was for which store and where boarding groups started and ended so they kept asking or calling out to the crowd things like “Where is Group 6? Where is Mickey’s of Glendale?”. And unfortunately there was a party in line with me that was led there by a staff member but were actually supposed to be in line for a different store and they didn’t find out until they had made there way all the way to the Mickey’s of Glendale store to scan their boarding group QR code. So they basically wasted their time and lost their spot in the shopping line of the actual store they were trying to go to. :/ So I would say if you don’t mind that kind of chaos and risk, you could come closer to opening if you have a virtual queue boarding group. Otherwise, try to come a little earlier (maybe an hour at least?) to get your bearings and make sure you’re in the right spot. Many staff members have different information so you’ll want to ask around to make sure things are checking out.

Overall, unless you’re trying to avoid crowds at the security line, because of all the reservation processes put in place, there doesn’t seem like a reason to start lining up at an unreasonably early hour anymore, which I think is nice!

I arrived around 7:00AM - 7:30AM on Saturday and Sunday mornings and had an easy time getting through security and into the convention.

Parking

The Anaheim Convention Center offers parking for $25 per vehicle. I believe their parking structure opens early in the morning, so if you’re trying to come extra early, you may need to park here.

If you’re a magic keyholder and have access to the Disneyland parks parking, I would recommend parking at the Toy Story parking lot. The Toy Story parking lot doesn't open until 7:00AM though, so that’s the earlier you’ll be able to park and walk over to the convention center.

Security

Rules around what’s allowed and not allowed in the convention center changes by the year. In previous years, snacks were allowed which I would imagine was very helpful throughout the day. However, this year, no food of any kind was allowed unless you had dietary needs that required you bring your own food.

And although the D23 app stated that the convention center policy only allowed empty bottles into the convention center, water was allowed.

Cosplays and Outfits

Conventions are such an amazing place for people to showcase all of their creativity and pay homage to all our favorite characters and stories! I’m not a cosplayer myself, but it was so cool seeing all the amazing costumes walking the show floor all weekend! Definitely an inspiration for future years!

Some people go all out, and others might want to prioritize comfort. I think the most important thing is to wear what works best for you!

Shopping

On Friday, the first day, all shops had a virtual queue that you could sign up for starting at 4:00AM and then again at 1:00PM. I’m not sure whether or not they opened up standby lines on Friday, but they did start doing standby line at least starting Saturday for those that couldn’t get a virtual queue boarding group.

If you’re looking to shop, I would HIGHLY recommend trying to get a virtual queue boarding group at the earliest time. It made a world of difference to be one of the first groups to get to enter a store. We could browse and get our items without waiting long at all because once the day starts the queues feel never-ending.

From personal observation, it looked like mid-morning was just about the worst time to be in a queue for a store. That’s pretty much around the time everyone’s trying to get into the shop - the earliest groups may have come and gone, but a majority of people are now there waiting to be let in. One of the biggest and most popular stores, the D23 Marketplace had over an hour wait just to get in around the 10:00AM timeframe. But when my boarding group was allowed in around 12:00PM, I only waited about 5-10 minutes. Of course, you can’t exactly help the boarding group you get, but if you can wait it out just a little, I think it’d be better. And by the time we got in, everything was still in stock, including all the sought-after masquerade ball dolls.

I did swing by the D23 Marketplace again on Sunday just to see what was still in stock. Most of the apparel and special pins were sold out as well as the dolls, but other than that, everything else was still there. So as another note, if you’re not going after any limited edition items, you might be better off avoiding the stores until later in the weekend.

Panels

Access to panels were guaranteed if you could get a reservation for it as part of the RSP. Otherwise, pretty much all the panels had a standby line, so if there was something you really wanted to see but couldn’t get a reservation for, you could still wait in the standby line and would most likely be able to get in.

Each stage that hosted a panel had a different required arrival time for reservations but ranged from 30-45 minutes. So you had to be in the queue area at least that 30-45 minutes before the panel started (earlier if you wanted to get a closer seat). I’m not exactly sure what time people in standby had to start queuing since I only went to panels I had reservations for, but I would guess it would be around that long or just a bit earlier. Since each stage had several panels throughout the day, the standby queue for one wouldn’t open until the previous panel started, so that should be a pretty good gauge of how long standby attendees would need to wait.

The panels I attended were very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed them. There’s something very inspiring about hearing from the storytellers who’ve created the movies and stories you’ve loved talk about their creation process, the challenges they face, and the things they care about when creating these stories. And it feels like such an intimate and honest conversation.

Show Floor Experiences

Be prepared to be overwhelmed. There’s so many things to see and do on the show floor, the likelihood that you will get to everything is very low. So it’s okay if you missed out on some (or a lot of) stuff!

I think it definitely helps to scope out the map before the convention starts, probably while you’re waiting in line! You’ll be able to see the layout of where everything is, maybe prioritize things you want to see or places/shops you want to visit.

The D23 app also has an interactive map so you can read little blurbs about what’s at each booth which could give you a better idea of what’s there.

Personally, I love freebies, so I was definitely looking for booths that had free giveaways or things like that. If you’re able to go to the convention for multiple days, I think the first day is a good time to scope out what everything has to offer and also see what booths are most popular and will likely require longer waits.

Walt Disney Animation Studios

Visiting this booth was fun! There were several photo op areas for Moana 2, Zootopia 2, and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. And with the Moana 2 and Zooptopia 2 booths, they gave us prints to take home as well! In this area, they were also giving out cute pins throughout the day too!

World of Disney: The Product Experience

This section was where the large D23 Marketplace was held. They also had booths surrounding the D23 marketplace like a Marvel store, the Disney publishing store, a Star Wars darkade, and a Lego section. They also had this cute Mickey & Friends section where the gang was themed after this kind of emo-era that they’re into right now. To go along with this, they even had a Simple Plan concert on Friday evening!

My personal favorite was the Disney Store claw machine. Here, people waited in line to get a photo with the giant plushie mountain and then tried their hand a free claw machine to get a plush of their own. We got two tries each, and if you didn’t manage to get one by then, the staff member would reach in and get one for you, so everyone’s a winner!

Here were just some of my favorite giveaway items!

This year, some of the really popular booths that I could see were the TVA walkthrough experience, the Avatar experience, the Canva free tote bag booth, the Star Wars booth, AVA Fest, and the FX walkthrough experience. Just be prepared to wait in line for everything.

Food & Drinks

Like I mentioned, food of any kind was not permitted into the convention center. So the only way you could eat was by purchasing food inside or by leaving the convention center to eat.

There was so much that I wanted to do, and I felt like I was just going from one place to another for the entire day that there wasn’t really time to find something to eat or to leave to get food (because then I’d miss out on stuff!) So I ended up finding food to eat inside each day. The food is pretty pricey, but we did find a banh mi cart that was decent and also very fast so we didn’t have to wait too long to get our food. Right outside the convention center main entrance are food trucks that many people ate from as well, so those are an option, though from what I heard throughout the convention, the lines were often long and the food was even more expensive.

There were also a couple food courts inside that had things like burgers and sandwiches that were available.

Evening Showcases

I was lucky enough to get tickets for each of the nighttime showcases!

The schedule was as follows:

Friday: Entertainment Showcase - film and television

Saturday: Experiences Showcase - global parks news

Sunday: Legends Ceremony - induction of the new Disney Legends class

Getting to the Showcase

There were several ways to get to the Honda Center from the Anaheim Convention Center.

The event offered a complimentary shuttle from the ACC to the Honda Center that started round trips 2.5 hours before the showcase started. This seemed like a pretty smooth process getting there; however, after the showcase, lining up for the shuttle seemed like a nightmare. I personally didn’t use this route because I had a feeling leaving the Honda Center would be a pain, and it did indeed look to be so.

The Anaheim Resort Transportation (ART) buses were also in operation all evening with a special route from the ACC and nearby hotels to the Honda Center (complimentary if you show your D23 badge).

Additionally, the Honda Center had two parking lots that were open to people driving to the event that were also complimentary with proof of a Honda Center showcase ticket.

And as always, there are rideshare options available like Lyft and Uber.

D23 recommended that guests attending the Honda Center showcases give themselves 90 minutes to get to the Honda Center. This means you’ll have to leave pretty early into the convention, and unfortunately means that you’ll have to miss out on some panels/activities or won’t have as long on the show floor. We left around 5:00PM on Friday and Saturday, and around 4:00PM on Sunday to get to the Honda Center.

Showcase Events

The showcase events themselves were great! I will say, however, that the D23 app stated that they were 2 hours, 1.5 hours, and 2 hours respectively. BUT they all were 3 hours long, so be prepared for that.

Each night, the show also started at least 15 minutes after the posted starting time.

The showcases at the Honda Center were very cool and very grand. I’m not sure what previous years’ were like, but because this was the first year at the Honda Center they really made them all shows worth watching. There were so many guest celebrity surprise appearances and great performances!

I personally found the Experiences Showcase to be the most exciting. The Entertainment Showcase felt really long (maybe because I expected it to be 2 hours but it was 3) and we watched a lot of trailers and things like that which, while they were cool to see, were online as soon as the showcase ended. I would have much preferred to hear more about the projects from the people themselves.

The Legends Ceremony was also a very special moment to behold. This year’s class had such a wide breadth of specialty, and it was just so cool to see them all honored in such a special way.

D23 Convention Tips

** Just another reminder that these tips are based off of my experience at the D23 convention in 2024. Policies and things can and often do change!

1. Download and use the D23 App

   The D23 app was extremely helpful all weekend. This is the app you’ll use (alongside the Disneyland app) to sign up for shopping virtual queues. It also contains an interactive convention map so you can take a look at it throughout the day to find the booths you’re looking for. The booth details also give info on what discounts or offers were available at each booth for D23 Gold members or Disney+ subscribers.
   Also, leading up to the event, they continued to update the programming schedule even up to Friday.

2. Get a virtual queue early on the first day

   On the first day, everyone is excited and anxious to get into the convention. Getting a virtual queue boarding group, especially an early one, will give you peace of mind and a guaranteed spot to enter the convention, since the standby queue gets long pretty early in the morning.

3. Prioritize your top experiences

   There’s so much going on and you definitely won’t be able to get to everything. Panels are quite time-consuming because of how early you have to start lining up and they’re all at least around an hour long, so if panels are your priority you’ll have less time to visit show floor booths. There are also lots of different experiences, and the popular ones often have long lines and fairly long waits.
   This year there was also an event ongoing called the Great Pin Pursuit where certain booths would give special pins for visiting the experience. Partaking in that and other activities with freebies also take quite a bit of time! Basically, everything you may want to do will be a long time commitment, so if you prioritize your top things, hopefully you won’t feel too bad about the things you’ll have to miss!

4. Be patient

   Everything is chaos and everything is hectic all day all weekend. Everyone in the convention is trying to get the things they want and there’s just so many people. Many people are running on little sleep and may also be hangry, so the best way for you to have a good experience amongst all of this is to be patient. I came across many people who were upset over one thing or another and taking it out on staff members. It’s important to bear in mind that the event staff are not all Disney parks cast members, some of them come from third party vendors, some of them are new employees; there are a mix of different company employees working the floor, and they may all have different information at any given time. Trust that they’re trying their best!

5. When in doubt, ask several staff members the same question

   Another helpful tip if you’re trying to ask about something that seems unclear. Ask several staff members! There were many times during the convention that we would get an answer from one person and then the answer would change if we asked another person. If you find yourself in a similar situation, don’t be afraid to ask the same question to different staff members and see what they say. It could just be that they have different information or that the situation has changed. It never hurts to ask!

6. Leave extra snacks in the car (if you’re driving)

   This year we weren’t allowed to bring snacks into the Anaheim Convention Center, which was new this year. If you’re trying to save some money and you’re parked nearby, I’d leave some extra snacks in the car to get some quick and easy access to something to eat as soon as you’re out of the convention center.

Weekend Schedule

Here’s a little recap of how my weekend went - another way to give you a bit of an impression of what things might be like at the next convention!

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Overall Impressions

I had an awesome time at D23!

I feel like I got to experience a little bit of everything and that was a lot of fun! I definitely missed A LOT, but since it was my first convention and I was still getting the hang of it, I think I did pretty good!

The panels that I was able to attend were truly amazing and they all gave me a newfound appreciation for Disney storytellers. And seeing all the attendees who were so excited to be there and showing that in different ways gave me so much more respect and appreciation for Disney fans as well!

Processes were changing literally day by day, so we really had to go with the flow each day. I didn’t mind it too much, but it does add just a bit of stress to someone who likes to know what to expect.

As fun as it was, it was definitely overwhelming as well. There’s so many people cramped into one place and so many competing experiences, it can be pretty hard to keep your head on straight if you’re trying to fit in too many things at once, but once you kind of let that go, it’s much easier to enjoy everything!

I’ll definitely be back at D23 in the future. It’s an exhausting ride, but it’s so much fun, and I really had some experiences here that I’m so grateful for and will never forget!