(Finky - I'll see if there are any more but you might as well ask him next ITMP.)

Okay here comes the bomb drop... There's a thread at Micechat that shares the feeling too.

I had the first show at 3pm, so by the time we lined up at 245 they were scrambling and still setting up and I knew we were in for it. We actually went inside Sam's around 215 which was what alarmed me first - after all, the Parks Blog post said we'd be going inside for a presentation, so what were all these people doing in here? Kelly told us that everything was going to take place outside and Sam's would remain open as usual (basically taking over the entire West side/Tangaroa Terrace side). Okay, that makes sense I guess - I found it odd that Sam's would be closed for a private event from 3-9, given that it is a hotel bar before anything else and is there to serve hotel guests. But being the first, I guess you're bound to be the lab rat experiment and following shows would adjust accordingly. Fortunately we were first in line, because we were well into our first drink + food while people were still trying to get in maybe 20 min later. There was tiki-favorite King Kukulele performing some songs as well as the usual musicians that play outside Sam's, and the staff was definitely busting their tail for the event. I'm fairly certain to say things were hectic to say the least.

Without much warning, it was presentation time. Brandon Kleyla was up at the PA and talking about who knows what - because we were only 15 feet away or so and were unable to hear a single word. I looked around and saw people disinterested/giving up. There were mostly concept art of things I'd seen already, and some newer inspiration for the Poly/Grog Grotto. After about 80% of the guests missed out on the presentation, there was some free time for chat and opportunity to take pics of the mood boards (which proved to be close to impossible given the crowd around it and the blaring sunlight at 345pm - at one point a group of us formed a wall of shade so people could take pics, but generally the mob was unable to work together). Nothing anybody could do for that, I'm not blaming the weather on the event.

So let's dissect the event gifts. When I looked down the stairs toward the pool, I saw reusable grocery bags and was instantly disappointed. Let's compare this to what all guests were informed with, as its partly why we all signed up and were excited all month long for this event:

"Jungle River Cruise Expedition Bag"
As mentioned above, maybe $5 reusable grocery type bags. On them is a poorly screen Sam's logo - okay, so add 2 more for the screen printing and make it $7. What was inside was worse

"Trader Sam Panama Hat"
A cheap ass Oriental Trading Company straw hat with zero branding whatsoever. I think the shared opinion is that this is the most insulting. Just check the price - $25 for a dozen, so that's a $2 value! Not one tie-in to the event nor location.

"A Trader Sam print on canvas"
I thought this was going to be a somewhat mounted piece like any other true art-on-canvas or like the Shag freebies from the Enchanted Tiki Room 50th annivesaryevent. I feared was going to be Jerrod Maruyama's "Hanging at Sam's" print or this dreaded thing. I like Jerrod and he's a good guy, but I feared it was going to be something pre-made and not exclusive to the event (I also don't think its a good representation of tiki nor the bar, but nevermind that). However I think the actuality was something worse: its either a photograph (I can't tell, because I've never unrolled it once I saw it on display at the merch pick up slot) or a painting of Trader Sam from DL's version of the Jungle Cruise attraction. Either that he's complete with a lazy eye and a horribly photoshopped new zombie mug in his hands - or so I assume because the angle and perspective is just off. It looks identical to the shot Tiki Farm provided the Parks Blog! Maybe I'm overly harsh on that, but I'm also a designer and can recognize good and bad art and value well-designed stuff. EDIT: I was informed that the print misspelled "Mahaloween" as "Mahalloween" sigh.

Also included are a few meh buttons that look on par with the creativity and talent of the scavenger hunt stuff - maybe a 1st year design student made them, or just MS Word clipart.

Clearly the event people and Parks Blogs people didn't really communicate well, and/or really pushed word play to sell these tickets. Minus the mugs, everything is going on eBay for dirt cheap because its absolute garbage. The saddest thing is that I'd probably do it again if there's one next year, and there very well may be given that this was labeled Mahaloween 2014. Anyway if 100 of us were gonna be crammed in Tangaroa Terrace, they should have just hosted the event in a convention room in the Fantasy Tower - its what they did for the 50th Enchanted Tiki Room event and could have looked very nice with minimal cost. But I guess not moving us inside for a presentation answered the question so many had asked - how do you bring 100 people inside Sam's when the capacity is 55?

I've thought this over since yesterday and I don't think I'm being too overly harsh - for an hour and $125, this is what I/we got in return. I consider myself to be arguably the largest Sam's supporter around (ie Big Nerd). From what I understand, Park events aren't usually run well anyway, and this certainly added to the bunch. Next time I might just skip the event and go to eBay for whatever valuable/mug I miss out on. I think I even saw an upset HB Tiki there. :D

[ Edited by: kkocka 2014-10-01 09:51 ]

On 2014-09-30 16:08, kkocka wrote:

Clearly the event people and Parks Blogs people didn't really communicate well, and/or really pushed word play to sell these tickets.

What... marketing hype was used to deceive patrons?

Yeeeeeah, that really didn't feel like it should have been $125.

I went in for the 4:30 and I really had mixed feelings on it. The first drink I had was all juice. I mean, straight up mixed poorly - or just mixed in a big batch and I ended up with the wrong end of that stick.

The food was nice, but it was getting bottle necked out the door and up until the last 15 minutes, didn't even see any crispy green beans hit the area closes to the posters. The ahi cones were good, as well as the sliders, which did eventually make their rounds in the back.

I was also a little let down by the limitation they had on the drink menu. I enjoy zombies, but you would figure that they'd have another drink on their menu that wasn't beer or wine.

I came away from the presentations with this statement; "Thanks for making Trader Sam's the success it is, but Orlando will be better in every way possible! Just check out this awesome shirt you won't be able to get! Hope it does well there and maybe Disney will kick something here"

I also really lamented the fact that the shrunken Ned mug original concept was shown. Because I would have loved that mug and while I love the zombie mug, that Ned mug would have been better.

Also a bit bummed Orlando gets some cool looking mugs.

As for the bag. Yeah, I'm in agreement that the explorer hat was something you could pick up at party city or even the 99 cent store. Would it have killed them to put on some button or even some marking?

Also, I may be alone on this, but I felt that the mug prices were a bit on the crazy side. What was it, $27 for the day of mug and $20 for the regular 2nd edition zombie? I mean... ouch. isn't it cheaper inside Trader Sam's with a drink in it if you just waited another day?

I hate to say it, but they pretty much know they could take us for all we're worth with events like these.

I really disliked the... well, not so much bait and switch, but the poorly organized and suddenly switched up nature of this event. I was expecting something else.

You actually will be able to buy any products for the Orlando location (if they aren't sold here)through their deliverears service.

What I was more referring to was the flat out "If you want to see a trader sam's California shirt, then hope that it does well over in Florida" sort of statement they made.

Seemed a little.. well, like exactly what I said; "Thanks for making Trader Sam's so successful, Orlando's Grotto is going to be a lot better!"

Like.. wait, how about us back here. Either way, It seems to be a fairly common agreement that this event didn't live up even remotely close to the expectations. It didn't help any that about 90% of the selling points to it were changed up from paper to practice. And at $125, that's a problem.

You guys are funny.....

I had a great time, but it was due to being there with friends (Chippy and his lovely wife). If not for that I would've been pretty upset about the whole thing.

They over-promised and under-delivered. Can't say I'm all that surprised, as they do it regularly to attendees of their special events in Florida. But they don't do these types of events here in California very often and I was really hoping they'd surprise me.
I really do love the mug they gave us during the event and I bought extras as well, but everything else was mostly disappointing.

The bag and hat couldn't have cost them more than a couple dollars. The canvas print is rather odd and the "Mahaloween" event name is even misspelled on it. The buttons aren't anything special, they really should have done a proper disney pin for the event at the price they charged for it.

It feels to me like we were taken advantage of with the mug prices as well. I can understand why the event mug was more expensive, but the standard mug that you can walk into Trader Sam's and buy today cost nearly twice what it should have, unless they recently raised the price significantly. For 4 mugs (2 event and 2 standard) it came to just over $80. I can't recall exactly but I believe the event mug was around $25 each and the standard was $14-15 or so, that's a lot when you've already essentially paid $125/person for the privilege of buying them in the first place. For comparison, when the new Krakatoa mug was released in August we bought 4 (without drinks) for a total of somewhere around $35. For the new mug they were charging almost what it would cost with a drink inside the bar.

And then the fact that the first official piece of merchandise that will be available (the t-shirt) is only for Florida, pretty much a "screw you" to everyone that has been wanting merchandise here and supported the place since it opened. Oh, but if it does well there then MAYBE they'll throw us a bone and do something for us here. It just felt rather insulting. How hard is it to screen-print the logo onto a shirt and sell it here?

[ Edited by: joshua_w 2014-10-01 14:39 ]

Spending time with Chippy & his lovely Mrs. is always a pleasure!

But Disney has been doing these cash grabs for some years, now
why has it taken most of you, all this time to finally realize that?

4 Krakatoa Mugs for $35, what! I think someone cut you a pretty sweet deal
and you didn't realize it, I think I got a couple for around $15 each
a while back & that was a good deal!

No way, if Tikifarm was selling these directly, could they go so cheap
it doesn't sound like Disney is making much of a profit on the Trader Sam's mugs
but that could change?

While yes, they have been doing these for quite some time, they usually at least attempt to make it feel like something worthy of the prices they're charging. On top of everything, the entire event just felt completely disorganized, unacceptable for such an expensive event. The whole thing felt rather hastily thrown-together by someone with no prior experience in event-planning. I think the fact that the special canvas print they provided has the name of the event misspelled sums up the level of effort they put into this particular event.

As for the mugs, I looked at one of my receipts from a few weeks ago and the standard price inside the bar for a mug, without drink, is $9 (and a 15% discount if you're using a premium AP, bringing it even lower). What they were charging for just one standard mug is almost what you would pay for the mug + drink in the bar. While overall not a massive increase, when you consider that we were already paying a lot just to be there, it feels like being taken advantage of. I could maybe understand if it was a pre-sale weeks in advance, paying a bit more for the privilege of getting it much earlier, but this is something that was available to everyone the next morning for cheaper. The mugs have always been $9 without the drink (and before any applicable discounts), so unless they just changed their pricing (I'll be back soon so I'll find out then, but it wouldn't surprise me), it was simply price-gouging those that were already paying them a lot for not much in return. It should also be noted that on the phone when I reserved spaces for the event, I was told that additional event mugs would be available for $20 each, when in actuality they were $25 each, so there was really just mis-communication all-around on this.

[ Edited by: joshua_w 2014-10-01 16:17 ]

Pretty much, par for the course.

Perhaps the new Uh-Oa bowl is also bound for Orlando?

Can someone humor this east coaster and let me know what rums they use in the Uh-Oa?

I haven't had the pleasure of visiting Trader Sam's yet, but I'm trying to replicate the drink here based on the ingredient list. "Light and dark rums" doesn't tell me much. And do they include cinnamon syrup, or just the dusting of cinnamon over the flame?

Mahalo!

On 2014-10-02 14:39, Hurricane Hayward wrote:
Perhaps the new Uh-Oa bowl is also bound for Orlando?

Can someone humor this east coaster and let me know what rums they use in the Uh-Oa?

I haven't had the pleasure of visiting Trader Sam's yet, but I'm trying to replicate the drink here based on the ingredient list. "Light and dark rums" doesn't tell me much. And do they include cinnamon syrup, or just the dusting of cinnamon over the flame?

They just use Bacardi Silver and Myers's Dark in the Uh Oa, along with dousing the sugar cubes in Bacardi 151 for the lighting. I believe they do use cinnamon syrup along in the drink, not to be confused with the additional cinnamon + nutmeg dusting they use for the flames. Overall its a nice show, but there are better drinks for much cheaper there (Murky Mojito, Passionate Python to mention a few).

Going back to the Mahaloween event, what Josh said above is spot on. Even for a Parks event, this was weak. You can't claim a turd is a diamond and then reveal that its not even worthy of turd-polishing. The 50th Tiki Room merch event was only a little more and the swag was much better - you could argue that you were paying specifically to get it. With Mahaloween, the costs were skewed and the payoff was very very poor. I'll be happy to get $20 for the junk. Had I been able to buy 2 additional LE mugs, that would have been cool - then I could have bought the regular zombie head mug at the standard price. And, like any event, there are plenty of leftovers so I don't know why that wasn't a possibility.

The new Uh Oa mug will probably just be in California for now - the bowl looks generic tiki as opposed to Disney-themed/branded. I wonder if this will be a fill-in specifically for the bar, much like the Kalifornia Ku mugs were for the Krakatoa or the many other Uh Oa bowls we've seen in the past. I'd really like to see a Mai Tai glass come out.

[ Edited by: kkocka 2014-10-02 15:38 ]

Mahalo for the info kkocka. Somebody gave me an Uh-Oa bowl recently, and I thought I'd try out the namesake drink since it's now confirmed to be coming east with Trader Sam's. Yeah, those are unfortunately Disney's light and dark rums of choice at Disney World too, so I kinda planned on using them or something similar (I refuse to mix with Bacardi Silver).

I'll post the recipe if it turns out well. I'm just making an educated guess based on the ingredients, the size of the bowl, and my experience with Tiki and Disney drinks. I'm assuming they use no more than 4 ounces of rum.

It's unfortunate that the event had so many snafus. It looked like a fun time based on the photos that I've seen. This site has some decent photos and coverage, though it didn't attempt to critique any issues:
http://www.disgeek.com/trader-sams-at-the-disneyland-hotel-hosts-the-inaugural-mahaloween-luau

At least the mug is pretty cool.

On 2014-09-30 20:00, tikijackskeleton wrote:
I also really lamented the fact that the shrunken Ned mug original concept was shown. Because I would have loved that mug and while I love the zombie mug, that Ned mug would have been better.

Does anyone have a picture of this?