As a long time Wizard 101 player I witnessed quite a few updates over the past several years and one thing I noticed was that there was always a lot of hype and mention of the Test Realm schedule whenever it was opened. This normally came in the form of notifications on the game loading screen which indicated the days and times the TR would be available. What I've noticed with Pirate 101 is there's none of that. For a casual player the Test Realm could come and go without them even knowing it's available. Maybe this is by design and I can see the reasoning behind it if that's the case. Obviously the TR info would be more informative for the KI staffers if the feedback they receive is from "experienced" players.
For what it's worth, I've run into many players in-game that aren't even aware of the pending update. Unless a player reads these (or other) forums they would have no clue. So a question to KI... what actually is the reasoning behind the apparent "secrecy" concerning the TR and update... or is it just that you're trying a new approach?