I am sorry. The special events appear to be getting tougher to get. Particularly when they involve the "hot" property. I was tracking the MM availability earlier this year and EPCOT and MK did not seem to "sellout" until they went available to non resort guests (two weeks later), but were gone early on those days. However, it looked like AK and TL were both gone at the 3-4 hours mark of the resort guest offering time. The DHS AP tickets was a "quiet offering" (email sent to AP members during the middle of a work day, who have all the right communication settings) and they were gone around 2 hours after the first emails were received. Some AP holders got the email after they were gone. I did not notice the email while I was working and missed that opportunity. (and was upset)
I was lucky enough to get MM reservations this time. I was online before 9:00 and had several windows open. One finally got in at 9:30 and I got the just the tickets I needed. From online chatter the days started to fill around 9:40, so I barely got in.
I can think of 3 "rules" to help availability.
1. Increase capacity. This will be my first visit, but I understand it to be a "very light" crowd for the park. If they upped the number of spots to a "light" crowd, it would be a little less magical, but available to more people.
2. Set the limit to the number of guests on your reservation. Right now it is 6 per member account or up to the number of guests on the reservation, whichever is bigger (2BR full capacity could be 8-10). This comes down to what is Disney's motivation. Is it a reward for members/an indirect recruiting tool or is it a direct recruiting tool and they want members to bring guests so they can become convinced to become owners?
3. Set up a wait list. Next require members with "tickets" to cancel by noon on the day of the event. If they fail to cancel and do have every guest show-up charge them like they do on a dinner reservation no-show. Or if you no-show, you go on a "not available for MM for the next 12 months list". As people cancel/reduce their reservations by noon on the day of the event, the members on the waitlist can get an email while they are on site letting them know they now have a "ticket". I do not know how big of an issue "no-shows" is, but Disney does. They can compare how many tickets they gave out to how many people scanned in at the event. If the gap is large and fairly consistent (10-15%), either enact a policy like this or artificially raise the capacity. (we are inviting 225 to our DD's wedding planning on only 200
) I do not know if this is actually "popular", but I saw speculation on a related thread that people get 6 spots whenever they a chance. They either find someone (a local or "new friend" at the pool and invite them) or get 6 spots with no intention of ever using them, just making the crowd smaller and more "magical" by having unfilled spots.
Added number 4..
4. Charge a modest fee. $20 per person. This is way less than the $70-$100 they charge for similar events, but this might stop or reduce the games people play.
Just my thoughts while at sat there watching the wheels spin for 30 minutes.