2025 Moonlight magic

[DonMacGregor]

Man I would’ve been less upset if I had a lot more time left. A minute is rough

Earlier, when AK sold out, I was down to 1 minute, then it went back up to 3 minutes, then down to 2, then it paused. When it opened again, I was going back and forth between 1 and 2 minutes, then it sat at less than a minute forever then paused again before letting me in.

 

[DisTravels]

Man I would’ve been less upset if I had a lot more time left. A minute is rough

Cutoff has to be somewhere. At close all that was left was DCA.

When they had numerical countdowns, I once was cut off while a tween number in front of me - which is probably equivalent to 1 minute left.

 

[KrzyAsian]

Missed out for the first time for any DL/DCA events I’ve tried for. Hard to believe there were that many eligible members with stays for pre-registration! Have fun everyone!

I think, like me, there's a lot of new members from VDH where DLR is our home resort, so more people are trying for DCA than ever before.

I missed out last year's MM, but luckily snagged a spot this year. But man, what a stressful morning.


Hope everyone has fun at their parties and good luck next time for those who missed out!

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

Cutoff has to be somewhere. At close all that was left was DCA.

When they had numerical countdowns, I once was cut off while a tween number in front of me - which is probably equivalent to 1 minute left.

lol I understand just saying I personally would’ve been less gutted if I had 20 or 30 mins left since there was actually no chance. Being behind a few people feels worse even if it amounts to the same thing. Anyway this was the only MM we’d be able to go for this year (and actually the first we’ve been able to try for!) Hopefully another year will be better luck I guess

Hope everyone has a great time who got in!

 

[hjgaus]

1st time in 8 years we will miss a California Moonlight Madness event!!!
I have always been able to get tixs online and sometimes without room reservations cuz we are locals. OH WELL!!

 

[Bruno33]

I thought I had read somewhere that at 11 you would be assign a random spot, those entering after 11 would be in numerical order.

I haven’t done Moonlight Magic before, but that’s how it used to work for Oogie Boogie Bash and stuff like that…

 

[DonMacGregor]

Missed out for the first time for any DL/DCA events I’ve tried for. Hard to believe there were that many eligible members with stays for pre-registration! Have fun everyone!

There couldn't have been. I mean they've only declared what, 150-175 villas maybe at VDH. Everything else there is being sold for cash stays. Sure, a cash stay made through your eligible membership counts, but how many of those could there be, realistically? The Anaheim hotels maintain pretty high occupancy rates year-round, so it's not like 1,000 DVC members just randomly popped over and grabbed cash stays for February 3 (see below). And again, they'd all have to be eligible members.

DCA has a little lower capacity at around 52,000, versus AK or HS at +/- 60,000 each, but there are what, 200 DVC rooms in total declared in Anaheim that can be reserved on points (VGC plus VDH) versus something like 4,500 in Florida (not to mention the other 30,000 rooms in WDW that could be rented for cash through MS, versus 2,400 non-DVC rooms in Anaheim).

14% lower capacity, but 96% fewer DVC villas, and 92% fewer rooms in general. Odd.

 

[DisTravels]

lol I understand just saying I personally would’ve been less gutted if I had 20 or 30 mins left since there was actually no chance. Being behind a few people feels worse even if it amounts to the same thing. Anyway this was the only MM we’d be able to go for this year (and actually the first we’ve been able to try for!) Hopefully another year will be better luck I guess

Hope everyone has a great time who got in!

Have they added a second DCA in the past? The Orlando parks typically have two dates (although in 2024 DHS had just 1 and currently DAK has one in 2025)

 

[miksicnarf]

Have they added a second DCA in the past? The Orlando parks typically have two dates (although in 2024 DHS had just 1 and currently DAK has one in 2025)

No. And they used to alternate between DL and DCA...past few years it's only been DCA. As with a few others, this is the first time I failed to get tickets. We also used to always be able to get a reservation at VGC for the event--that's history. Oh well.

 

[MerlinandtheMouse]

Have they added a second DCA in the past? The Orlando parks typically have two dates (although in 2024 DHS had just 1 and currently DAK has one in 2025)

Not sure, it’s my first time trying so never paid much attention before. Though I know they added a few extra dates at the end of last year at WDW but I don’t know if they did for DLR.

 

[supercarrie]

We managed to get DCA. This is our second year of DVC membership and the first year I've tried to register.

I'm excited to give it a try. The Tuesday morning at work the next day will be rough.

 

[Genie+]

(not to mention the other 30,000 rooms in WDW that could be rented for cash through MS, versus 2,400 non-DVC rooms in Anaheim).

I think you can only book villas through Member Services. We tried to book a cash room for one of the MMs last year, and Member Services told us villas only. They didn’t have any of the other resort inventory, like Coronado, POP, or the BW Inn, YC, etc.

 

[eticketplease]

I for one, wish for spring they don't lump all of the dates together and just register for the event you can attend like in the past.

I think this made the process take much longer with all of the pauses and then the countdown timers reseting.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I think you can only book villas through Member Services. We tried to book a cash room for one of the MMs last year, and Member Services told us villas only. They didn’t have any of the other resort inventory, like Coronado, POP, or the BW Inn, YC, etc.

Which means 400 total villas in Anaheim, including all declared (for points) and undeclared (for cash) DVC rooms in both hotels, versus 4,500 in Florida, for a park that has 80% of the capacity of the other parks. Makes no sense. It DOES make sense that it (DCA) was the last park to sell out today, given the ratio of villas to capacity, but you would think there would be WAY more rooms available today than at the other 2 parks and that reservations would have gone on considerably longer than they did.

 

[DisTravels]

I for one, wish for spring they don't lump all of the dates together and just register for the event you can attend like in the past.

I think this made the process take much longer with all of the pauses and then the countdown timers reseting.

Not a fan of the countdown vs the number in the queue, but prefer having the registrations together. If you want a later event event, but would take the first event as a consolidation prize, the group registration works. DHS was sold out, can book DAK.

If you wanted DAK, but DHS registration is first, do you try to register for DHS and then can't register for DAK, or do you skip DHS and gamble you'll get a spot for DAK?

 

[eticketplease]

Not a fan of the countdown vs the number in the queue, but prefer having the registrations together. If you want a later event event, but would take the first event as a consolidation prize, the group registration works. DHS was sold out, can book DAK.

If you wanted DAK, but DHS registration is first, do you try to register for DHS and then can't register for DAK, or do you skip DHS and gamble you'll get a spot for DAK?

Yes but for those of us that are not local we are looking at what we have already booked for the most part. We can't really change on the fly if DHS is sold out and switch to DAK as it won't work for our dates.

If the event sells out that is fine but I would rather not have the line keep getting paused for Disney to update the que that Event 1 is sold out but 2 and 3 are still available followed by another pause stating 1 & 3 were sold out and now only 2 is available.

With the old system I don't remember it pausing and it was just over when it was sold out. This way if I didn't get the one event I was going after I didn't have to stare at a screen for the next who knows how long.

 

[tjkraz]

The queue line did pause in the past.

When availability gets limited, they allow a few people into the registration page and give them their 5 minutes to register. Then re-assess and allow a few more in.

 

[Liquidice]

I thought I had read somewhere that at 11 you would be assign a random spot, those entering after 11 would be in numerical order.

In the past with the old queue system where it told you how many people were in front of you - I think this was mostly true. I say mostly because there were some people who said when they jumped on right at 11am, they got a better spot in line than a different device they had which was in the waiting room before 11am. That mostly made sense, if you consider what is happening is thousands of computers are all requesting a spot in the queue at the same time and the system can only process so many of them. If it is truly randomly handing out spots in line, someone who joined at 11am could easily be handed a random spot that occurs before the person that was in the waiting room.

What is interesting with this new system is that it seems like when your time says "More than an hour" - it almost acts like you are in an unorganized group of people waiting to join the queue and then you're randomly assigned a spot once it gives you a time remaining. This might explain how someone joining the queue at 11:08am is assigned a spot while someone who was in the waiting room before 11am is still waiting.

Either that or the system is behaving erratically because it can't handle the volume of people all joining at exactly 11am and it gets "stuck" and someone coming in a little bit later is processed immediately rather than being stuck.

Regardless, I don't like how this new queue works at all, I much prefer the old system that gave you a defined place in line.

 

[lilpooh108]

We've been members for a long long time and this was the first year that it's been this ridiculously stressful. On my device that showed "54 minutes left" right around 11:05am, that was the only one that got in in time. Rcv'd conf email at 11:48am and it looks like the DCA tix were gone by 11:56am. I guess I was one of the last batch to be admitted given the 5 minute time allotment. SUPER thankful but wish they didn't lump the DCA lines w the WDW parks. Seems like 2 diff groups of people.

ETA: Does anyone know what the free snack situation is this year? Last year it was 3(?) snack vouchers under $10 which was a big downgrade from prior years of being able to combine them for a meal. Plus hardly any ice cream carts and lines for even waters were long.

 

[Nabas]

ETA: Does anyone know what the free snack situation is this year? Last year it was 3(?) snack vouchers under $10 which was a big downgrade from prior years of being able to combine them for a meal. Plus hardly any ice cream carts and lines for even waters were long.

It's been 3 snack vouchers for a while.

IIRC, the last time they offered a meal was 2019.