Pirates DVD Event

So Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End came out today on DVD and Blu-ray and Walt Disney World decided to make a little event out of it. A month ago, I got the passholder newsletter telling me about a special pirates promotions. On December 4th at the World of Disney store in Downtown Disney, Disney would be giving away free gifts to the first 700 people to buy the movie. The gifts were a pirates watch, a pirates stein, and a limited edition lithograph with an actual piece of the sailcloth from the Empress Ship. There would also be some limited edition pirates pins on sale. The store would open at 6:30 am.

I made a horrible assumption. I had thought that only passholders knew about the promotion. And because of that, I couldn't imagine that many people in line for this event. I mean, how many passholders will be in the area and willing to get up that early for this? I was mistaken. Passholders weren't the only ones who knew about it, cast members did as well. That changes everything. There's an unlimited supply of cast members in the area and a lot of them are crazy enough to wait for this. I had gotten to the World of Disney store just before 6:00 am not expecting a crowd, only to see about 200 people already waiting in line. Some were there since last night. By the time the store opened, that number more than doubled. But you know what? It was fun! Disney actually had a band of pirates come and sing pirate songs and Christmas carols to the people in line. They were really good! There were even some people dressed as pirates in line. Some cast members were selling hot chocolate to people. I actually got bumped to the front of the line because I was a passholder. Nice! The store actually had Jack Sparrow do meet and greets inside. I bought the Blu-ray version of the movie, got all the free gifts, and got one of the pins. After my purchase, I went and met Captain Jack. I posed with the Blu-ray. It was so funny! All and all, I spent about 2 hours waiting to get the movie but the experience was a blast and I would love to do another event like this.