I am a long time lurker and finally have a question! We will be down 8/6-8/14. My youngest turns 12 while we are there and I wanted to surprise him with tickets to the NBA experience to go with my husband for his birthday. (Me and my oldest could care less and will do the parks). It opens the 12th, so I was thinking of getting 2 tickets for the 13th. When I went to buy tickets, there is no option to choose a date. My fear is it is insanely crowded that they spend hours getting in and waste their last day there.
What would you do? Treat it like a rope drop and get there an hour before? Just skip it because it will be too crowded? He wouldn’t know it was opening unless we told him. BUT he is a huge NBA fan. Any advice?
Wish I could help, but I cannot think of something that could open at WDW in which I would have LESS interest.
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I have a similar opinion to @bswan26, so I have to think that this won’t be a situation where there will be a line out the door. I don’t know… I could be totally wrong and maybe the NBA is a huge draw for people. It’s such a niche interest, with limited appeal that I have a hard time picturing this as something anyone needs to queue up for.
I hope you get in and that your son loves it. Maybe the tickets are more of a general purchase rather than something that requires you to pick a specific date. That would be similar to how the water park tickets are or how Disney Quest was.
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First, welcome to the world of the non-lurker!!
Second, I think it’ll definitely be popular for the first few days because it’ll be “new” and so the bloggers are going to be all over it. Not to mention the normal interested people. But Disney hasn’t done a whole lot of promotion for it so that might work in your favor and I don’t think you have crowds like that of FOP or TSL to worry about. Whatever crowd is there I feel will be very manageable.
Additionally, if you have tickets, I can’t imagine the wait will be that long. How much are the tickets? They might spend …2 hours(?) in line but that’d likely be it. And if your son is a big nba fan, the payoff might very well be worth it.
I would go with your idea and show up an hour early. If there doesn’t appear to be a line at all, maybe slip in some shopping or get something to eat, and then jaunt back over. However, If the tickets aren’t too expensive, and if the line is absolutely redonkulous, maybe just bail and chalk it up to a price of willing to get their time back?
wow. unless you are a fan, there is zero draw. I’m happy to say that I won’t be clogging up the line for this and folks that want to experience this can enjoy it.
Being in DS, I’m assuming that they are hoping to draw in the local crowd. Orlando has a pro basketball team, so I know there’s a fan base.
@sharig5576 - did you end up getting tickets? Can I ask how long your son and husband spent there? Our oldest would love it.
I’m reviving this post so we can all enjoy the NBA Experience time line…
Permits have now be filed to demolish the NBA Experience…
https://or.occompt.com/recorder/eagleweb/downloads/20240095153.pdf?parent=DOC3657S34995&guest=true
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