Post #388905 by tiki-a-fair on Mon, Jun 23, 2008 2:04 PM

yes it was crazy all right, I thought I was doing quite well, got to the park before the parking attendants were even there(6:30 Am, got first row parking, 1st tram, 8th person in line from the gate. Then came the magic mornings people who they let in at 7AM while the rest of us waited till 8am to come, Instead of giving out wrist bands with numbers on then by the order of which you were waiting at the gate, it was like a horse race once the gates opened, everyone ran but us that couldn't because of knee problems. My 8th person in line at the gate got me 110th in line for merchandise, some guy in front of us counted. They did give rules though, you had to let the person in front of you take a break and let them back in line, no line holding, so that was nice. But you would think they would of had someone walking around selling drinks to us or something. Lucky for me my mom was with me & we took turns sitting down or walking. And the sun never hit that side of the street while we were in line, don't get me wrong it was plenty hot, so 10:44 I got in, got all my goodies, but they ran out of the tiki gods box set and told me to pay for it and come back in 2 hours, but would not have to wait in line again. so I went to check in packages, again a wait, I am on the wait list for the fountain, which is okay. But geez, that was horrible!

The merchandise is nice but the lucite bracelet clearly on the side very visible says made in china and there is no way to take it off! They glazed over it! Also the eyes are barely there, poor blind bird. The T-shirts ran small very. But the bowl is amazing, The tiki Babies awesome, The Button up shirt to die for, The pillow was a pleasant surprise, the tiki gods a joy, The prints very nice too. So all in all it was A + merchandise. They even let me use my annual pass discount coupon you get when you renew, so an added bonus. but lets face it on a hot day like yesterday, it wasn't a good idea, no amount could make me sell mine on ebay for the suffering I went through to get them.

They should of done it like they did at the shag party at Disneyland they did years ago, you pay $75 to attend the party, you get drinks, appetizers, a party with entertainment, a free souvenir photo, a free collector tile, and you got to pre-order your goodies as well as prepay and before you left you got in a small line, told them your name they had all my merchandise in a bag all ready to go. Simple fun and easy and no heat and no super outlandish lines. And you left with a happy feeling too! PS if you do call deliver ears it's about a hour wait. I had to call as they forgot to put some of the ceritificates that come with the merchandise in my products, so check yours they may not be there. All limited editions should have come with them, all of them, so double check.
oh one more thing, I think we all deserve a t-shirt that says "I survived the 45th tiki room aniversary product line and all I got was hot sweaty"