First, hype it for a while.
Next, get your most loyal customers excited about it by giving them an exclusive peek at your newest project.
Then limit the free preview events to only four small windows…
And have a small window to sign up for them.
Next, delay that sign-up for a week because of “technical issues.”
Finally, announce and open the online signups to members…
…and have your servers crash, your systems state that your most loyal customers don’t exist, nd block out most of them from even making it to the event.
Such is the Epic Fail the Walt Disney Company is currently experiencing online right now. They are holding a special Passholder Preview of their new Fantasyland expansion at the Magic Kingdom theme park prior to the official opening in mid November, and were supposed to open it for sign-ups at noon. But the whole process has been a disaster.
My own concern is simple – according to the website, when I have made it through, ti has asked me to re=register my annual pass, but when I have done so, it states that the number is already on my account… and then loops back.
At this point, I am resigned to failure, and to waiting. I am curious, though, how an organization like Disney, which does not often acknowledge failure, will deal with this.
D. G. Speirs - Storyteller and Dreamer 
A pair of follow-ups:
– There was a separate event – the D23 Official Disney Fan Club put tickets on sale for their Magic and Merriment event in December an hour later. That went off with no issues whatsoever. Curious that the expensive event went off perfectly and the free event was a total, unmitigated disaster.
– AND it turns out the free exclusive preview for Passholders is apparently “No Big Deal” after all. Reports are that the Magic Kingdom opened the new Fantasyland to the general public this past weekend as an early soft opening – well in advance of the previews. So if you happened to be there, unannounced, you were lucky enough to see things up front.
As for me? I’ll wait.