Guests spreading Disney Magic

[HSMndLKfan92]

I was reading MamaOfTwoPrincesses' thread about Cast Members spreading Disney Magic; making a vacation more memorable. This got me thinking.

Have you ever made another guest's vacation more magical, or has another guest made your vacation more magical and memorable?

Feel free to share any stories. :)

[Arielfn93]

I remember when one guest next door was a little loud one night, not really that loud though and they went to our door the next morning saying sorry very nicely.

It made my day :)

[valandemmy]

My little princess on our first visit to the world was scared to see fantasmic, so my wife and her stayed at the bottom of the hill waiting for me to get done watching the show. We had purchased about 50-60 glow sticks from a dollar store prior to leaving for the trip. anyway, my wife said emily wanted to get every little kid she saw a glow stick, so for the hour or so that fantasmic lasted she handed out glow sticks/necklaces to little kids that were walking past. it was one of the highlights of the trip for her. she still talks about how much fun it was to see the kids happy with the glow sticks. :yay:

[dundeehunter]

Just returned from the Pop. We also brought along some glow necklaces from Wisconsin to use while we were on vacation for the 6 nights, but forgot to use them every day. SO.... my daughter and I decided that since we were on the 4th floor of the 70's building that we would try to throw them down to kids walking past us at 9:00pm. Only 1 family stopped to pick them up. We then went down to the bubbly Goofy fountains to just hand them out to families. Well, I couldn't believe how hard it was to give out 50 free necklaces. I encountered so many people saying no thanks or just walking by my DD7 trying to pass out some Magic....:confused3 Another woman even commented that we should have been on a 20/20 undercover assignment about how people are afraid to take free things, even at Disney. I tried and I hope that I made some childrens night a bit more Magical and fun!:wizard:

[GretchenLovesMickey]

I just wanted to say that I had a cast member leave a note on something of mine at the park- everyone with us smiled. Good idea just sort of doing random acts of kindness- guest to guest- sadly that's not how everyone is :confused3 ... Good idea though... I like it.

[LukenDC]

On the final day of my trip last October, I went to MGM to pass the time until I had to board Magical Express. I went to the information kiosk to make a lunch reservation and when the CM discovered that I was on a solo trip, she handed me a fistful of fast passes that could be used for any attraction at any time.

I was thrilled by her kind gesture and since I knew that I did not have enough time to use all of the passes, I decided that I would have fun doling them out to other guests. I searched for the most haggard looking family I could find, presented them with the fast passes, and wished them a happy day. In return I received a lukewarm thanks (I would have been a bit more effusive if a guest spontaneously gave me something), but I still had fun and left the park with a warm feeling.

[Paisleyjane]

There is this wonderful place called Mouse Surplus that sells all kinds of things that Disney wants to get rid of. We were shopping there one day when we came upon these buttons with Tinkerbell on them that say Magical Moment. We keep some in our backpacks and whenever we share a "magical moment" or encounter with someone, we reach in and give them a button and thank them for sharing a magical moment with us. These can be as simple as just sitting and talking to someone while waiting for the parade. We also have given fast passes we have decided not to use away.

[MeMom]

We've given FastPasses away and helped lost kids and let people get in front of us and such, just the usual stuff, but we're going to try to do better next time. I watched a little girl stand on a very crowded bus last summer as we headed back to All-Star Sports late one night. She was about six years old, and she stood there bravely holding on at every turn. She never whimpered or complained. She just held her own, and she was about to fall asleep standing straight up. I wished I had some treat to give her to reward her good behavior. Not food, because you never know about that, but just some little something. My daughter and I plan to look for some nice, but still cheap, little goodies to give away on our trip this summer. When/If we see something that we think could brighten a day and add to the magic, we'll ask the parent's permission and then give if it is okay. (Maybe say Mickey had noticed and asked us to give it to them.)

[rabx5]

Last June just me and hubby went. I had won one of those free pics for playing the Expedition Everest game. We got 2 fast passes, but hubby decided he didnt want to ride. Well, I went on it twice in a row and I didn't really want the picture with just me and some strangers, so when I got off the ride, I saw a family of 4 looking at their picture from the ride and I handed them my certificate for it. They look dumb founded then got all excited and said thanks :goodvibes

Years ago we had fast passes for RNR at MGM and we decided not to use them (already went on that day) so I walked to the line and handed the 2 tickets to 2 guys and my gosh you would have thought I gave them a milllion dollars.:goodvibes They were last in line with a 90 minute wait.

I like doing that stuff- makes you all warm and fuzzy inside :wizard:

[njdisneyfreak]

I had forgotten all about the time that I did this, and was so glad your thread reminded me and made me smile. :goodvibes It was during our July 2002 trip, and my DH and I were in one of the counter services, eating our meal. We had purchased our meal with our DP, so I had way too much to eat and couldn't eat the dessert I had gotten with my meal, a Mickey Mouse ice cream bar. I asked my DH what should I do with it, and he said, that I guess I would have to throw it out. I found that such a shame and waste, and began to glance around the room. I noticed a table away, what looked like a mom, grandmother and a little boy. So, I asked the two ladies if it would be okay for me to give this to their little boy, since I was way too stuffed to finish my meal. The little boy's face lit up so big as his mother gave her permission and I felt so good to be able to bring a smile like that to a child's face while at WDW.

[Dalpal]

I have been to WDW a no. of times...

One of the things my DH and I enjoy doing the most is, buying a big Mickey/Minnie balloon...and finding a child who looks like they would really LOVE it...and giving it to them....with parents permission of course...Its so great to see the face light up over the unexpected surprise....Worth every bit of that $6.

[timandlesley]

We do the length of stay stroller rentals every year and they never give an incentive for returning them to the counter. Each day as we exit the morning park for our afternoon break we seek out a family to give the stroller too, they are always SO excited, makes us feel good every time!
Lesley

[Donnainnj]

We have done the FP thing, gotten up in busses, and such. The biggest thing I think we did was also the hardest. We purchased an umbrella stroller for our then 5 or 6 year old just for the parks, (with basket and shade covering) and when we were done with the visit we gave it away. Took us about 10 minutes walking around the resort to find someone who wanted it. Found a few groups that were leaving, a couple who just said no, and even the one who took it, at first thought we wanted money for it. They seemed a little in shock. But I'm sure they enjoyed it later.

[pigletforever]

I gave away a shirt. I had ordered matching shirts for us on our last trip. Disney messed up and sent an extra in a wrong size. I called offering to send it back. they said it wasn't worth it and to keep it. Now DH and I are pooh size and can't wear a medium shirt. I tucked in my bag. Some one asked where we had gotten the shirts and I told them online. DH reminded me about the one in my bag. I pulled it out and handed it to her. She was shocked. It was fun. Then on our last day we had several stroller rental days left. I saw this HUGE line while at MGM waiting to rent strollers it has to be 20 minutes. I walked up to the last couple people in line and handed each of them a day rental. The looks were priceless. Isnt' that what it is about spreading a little magic where you go?:wizard:

[ppiew]

With kindness and efforts like these, the YOaMD would be several million dreams/surprises for people at the parks! It teaches kids a lot about sharing, being kind to others, and bringing a smile and gratitude to peoples faces. I think it restores some faith in humanity by the generosity of strangers. It sure beats whining about 'i didn't win anything' that is so prevalent these days. Kudos to everyone who is willing to 'pay it forward' to bring a little magic into a strangers day! I have rarely left the parks that I haven't picked up FP's and handed them to someone just entering. So easy to do and how dumbfounded people are when receiving them.

I have a 4 yr old GD who is NOT big on sharing at all! This year we will make it a point to integrate giving/sharing into our trip. Don't know exactly what it will be but we WILL do something - consistently. As we leave the parks early, I will pass on our stroller (never thought of that one before but it is excellent) I know it will make our trip more magical just bring smiles to someones face.

[delmar411]

when we took my then 4yr old DD to Disney for her b-day. We stayed off site and the shuttle bus went on one LONG loop to different hotels. Well it was later hours because of spring break and she was so tired she was hitting that tantrum point, not the best when on a PACKED last bus of the night at like midnight. Anyway someone was awesome and gave us a seat and she was having a fit about not getting her own seat, on and on. I could have died I was so embarassed. But there was a boy about 9 or so standing right next to us(the bus was way over packed) and he just started talking to her and telling her about the parades he saw that day and showing her that he lost 3 teeth while watching a parade and he was so excited that he swallowed one. He just chatted on and on to her the whole ride and kept her so happy. This was 5yrs ago and still stands out as one of our Disney memories. So not as magical as some might think but for us it WAS magic! :goodvibes :goodvibes

[Meriweather]

We just got back from a 2 week birthday girlfriends trip and gave away about 20 pins from our state. Mostly to CM, but also to a couple other people.
they all seemed to really like them.
DH makes Disney earrings....Tink and Mickey. He gave away about 8 pair while we were there in Oct. It was great fun.
I think these will be traditions from now on with us. ::yes::

[twinmum]

When we went to WDW in Nov with our twin DS8's, we brought along some magnets with Canadian "jokes" (like "Canada is cool" with pictures of lots of snow and ice etc.). We gave them away to CM's who helped us - and we could have given away many as there were so many CM's who helped us , especially with our son who has cerebral palsy and was in his wheelchair.

My favourite moment was on Test Track, though. As our group of 4 boarded, the CM's told us they would have us ride twice (transferring DS from w/c was especially tough on TT and they had us ride twice the first time we went on TT also.) This time, the ride was busier, so they filled the "car" with a nice young couple - I wondered if they were honeymooning. We quickly introduced ourselves (they had been watching the transfer with interest). As we entered the station at the end of the ride, I wondered if they'd be allowed to ride again with us. The CM asked us ALL if we'd like to ride again, our boys yelled "YES!" and this couple were so stunned they were silent. Then "you mean we can just ride again?" "We don't have to go out and around and stand in line?" (it had been a 60 minute wait - Jersey Week).

They decided that it had been their lucky day to meet up with us. After the ride, they spent a few minutes talking with all of us. It was so nice to share our special 2:1 ride with people who wre so appreciative.

[TaraPA]

Ok this may seem dumb - and has nothing to do with Disney exactly - but one night in the laundry room at AKL another mom was done with her laundry for the trip & gave me the rest of her Tide detergent & Downy fabric softener. I was about to pay $4 for it in the machine. Made my night!

[ppiew]

Yes, TaraPa, you just WON a dream!!!! Wouldn't it be great to take some of that kind of generous magic home with us??

[DisneyBrat]

We just got home yesterday from Disney and my DS spread some pixiedust: .... His magical moment started by boarding the SOG bus at AK. There was a lady in a wheelchair whom we learned had had a brain anyurism. While waiting for the bus to leave it broke down and wouldn't start. We were waiting and my middle son Justin took off his YOAMD hat he won and gave it to her. Her eyes lit up like a little girl getting her first set of Mickey ears... I got all teary eyed seeing how he gave something special away to help make her day a little more magical...


Next thing I give KUDOS to is to my Hubby and all my sons. We had just entered AK and a man was trying to get on a wheelchair. He fainted and my kids and husband ran over to help him. He was rather a large man but they worked together and got him in his wheelchair.



Lew

[girlieeee]

I tried to give away fast passes one time but had no takers!! I ended up leaving them on te fast pass machine!
I have about 12 plush Lion King animals that I got from Toys R Us on clearance. I am bringing them with us on our trip and going to carry around 2 or 3 a day to give out to kids. Hubby actually thought we may be better off giving them to a dream team member and sit back and watch... What do you think??

[njdisneyfreak]

I tried to give away fast passes one time but had no takers!! I ended up leaving them on te fast pass machine!
I have about 12 plush Lion King animals that I got from Toys R Us on clearance. I am bringing them with us on our trip and going to carry around 2 or 3 a day to give out to kids. Hubby actually thought we may be better off giving them to a dream team member and sit back and watch... What do you think??

You may be better off giving them to a Dream Team. You don't want to get bombarded by children or questioned by parents as to why you're doing it. They'll take them more in the spirit of Disney, I think, from the Dream Team. popcorn:: I think watching would be fun.

[AimKo]

We are going in a couple of weeks and have bought a dozen glow necklaces and retainers that light up in rainbow lights!! I'm goin to let DD4 hand them out the night we stay late for the parade. Hoping to get in on the magic! Heck, maybe even some characters will be enticed to come over to a group of a dozen kids with rainbow flashing teeth!

Aimee

[jocie]

We also buy the 50 pack of glow sticks! My DD's love to give them away to other kids! Also have given fast passes. I like the idea of giving canada pins to deserving cms!! We are going agin this May and will be bringing the glow sticks again!

Great thread:thumbsup2

[proudmomof4]

I have also given away FP when we decided not to use them, but my DS really made someone's day recently:

We were staying at Fort Wilderness in December and each day there are activities at the pool, on this one day there was BINGO. This really nice lady came in with her 2 teenage sons, one of them was blind with multiple disabilities and couldn't play bingo so she laid him down on one of the pool lounge chairs to take a nap. Well this happened to be a very breezy day and the sky was overcast so it was kind of chilly outside, the boy was just curled up in a little ball trying to get warm, my DS14 just kept looking at him and saying how cold he looked. Next thing I knew, DS asked me to watch his bingo cards and left, he came back 5 minutes later with one of the blankets from our camper and covered the boy up with it. The boy's mother was so grateful, she looked at us with tears in her eyes and said that my DS was an angel and he deserved to win at bingo, and wouldn't you know, he WON that game!

[ppiew]

That shows 'it is more blessed to give than receive.' Obviously you are certainly raising your kids right! It is amazing how small things can bring so much light into a persons day, and it doesn't take $$$ or stuff, just human kindness. Your son has a good heart!

[Atchley]

I am so touched by all your stories! I had tears welling up in my eyes.
Will try to do something great this time around!:wizard:

[Ladybugsy]

Last trip on our last dinner at Boma, two of our party had stayed at the hotel. Well, that left us with 2 TS credits left. I had a hard time finding 2 people who were NOT on the DDP. I finally found a couple and it happened to be their first trip EVER to WDW. The lady was so overwhelmed, she kept hugging me, and thanking me and saying, "I just can't believe this!" I'm hoping the rest of her stay was as happy as she was at that moment. What a way to end a wonderful vacation. pixiedust:

[dfsc]

My daughter gave away two of her trading pins to a brother and sister during our December trip. They had shown interest after seeing her exchange with a cast member. A few days later I saw the little girl walking through Epcot looking at her lanyard with a few extra pins. I'm sure we made the child's day but what about the parent having to fork out $$ for the pin trading addiction!!

[edcrbnsoul]

On our most recent trip we stayed at AKL and went down to the Mara to get something to eat, it was Me my DW and two boys so we bought quite a bit a young couple was leaving that night and paid for our meals with the Dining meals they had left over from their plan. :thumbsup2

We also purchased about 50 green and 50 Red glow bracelets and handed them out to kids passing by while waiting for MVMCP parade.

[irishbosoxfan]

For our trip in July we had bought a carriage at a second hand store to use for my DD4--It was a decent carriage and I had cleaned it up to use and on our last day i seen a woman walking with a little one and offered her the carriage,she accepted it and was very happy.

For this trip we bought another carriage at the second hand store(it ended up being the same exact one) I cleaned it up and we used it for our entire trip--The last day we were waiting for the ME bus at ASMO and I walked around all the lines of people waiting for buses to each park and I couldn't give it away!! No one wanted it!! I finally grabbed one of the girls coloring pages from a suitcase and a pen and made up a sign that said ""free"" stuck it on the carriage and left it up against the wall---A family that had mom,dad,gmom,gpop and a few kids came out and seen it and gmom grabbed it and everyone was looking because they weren't sure if it was right or not but they took it and I was glad someone could use it!!

[calgarygary]

We have used TS credits to buy other people dinner, have given away our Kilimanjaro fast passes after a Sunrise Safari and last year while staying at Universal (transferred some Disney Magic) we had 2 free Children passes while on an adult only trip - so we walked up to a large family going to the ticket window and gave them our passes.

[Microcell]

I cannot even tell you how many times I held someone's baby on the bus back to the resort! When DS was 1 and 2 people gave up seats for me and then inevitably there would be a woman trying to hold her baby swaying back and forth standing. I usually offered to switch and usually got a "no" so I would offer to take the baby, which they would greatfully give over.

One time I held two babies and DD held DS!

[DVC Jen]

A few years ago we were fortunate enough to be able to ride in the front of the monorail on our very first day. This was the first time my 2 DDs got a monorail "pilots" license and they loved it.

A few days later we were again getting on the monorail and asked if anyone was riding up front yet - the CM said no and put us in line for it.

Moments later a small family (mom, dad and son - about 10) came up and asked if they could ride. They were told we had asked first. The look on theirs sons face broke my heart. So I looked at my DDs and my husband and asked them if it would be OK to let them go instead of us. Everyone agreed and off I went to get them.

They were so happy. It turns out it was their last day at WDW and they had been trying since they arrived to ride in the front with no luck. The best part about it - it was their sons birthday.

We have had so many magical moments at Disney. It was really a great feeling to make a little magic happen for someone else.

[lmountford]

I love this thread. On our first visit to WDW in 2005 we stayed VWL , BCV and OKW . At each new location feralpeg had gone to an immense amount of trouble over some gifts I had ordered for DD6 ( you need to understand that I believed this to be a once in a life time, blow out deal, how was I to know Disney is addictive?!) Each gift was accompanied by a cluster of helium balloons and a note from Tinkerbell instructing DD that when she moved on to the next hotel she needed to pass on the balloons , because " princesses share you know!". She loved doing this and the other kids seemed happy to receive them.
We gave away Winnie The Pooh fast passes to the last trio in a long line, they were thrilled but the cast member didn't look happy and I wondered if I'd broken a rule !
Finally DH was really tired and decided not to attend MNSSHP . I didn't think a refund was likely so I gave the ticket away near the ticket window at MK. The lady I gave it seemed pretty suspicious , she kept saying "what's wrong with it ?" I was wickedly tempted to give a Maleficent cackle and tell her it was a dreaded poison ticket of doom or some such nonsense. She took it in the end but still seemed frightened it would bite her ! It didn't put me off though. I think we need to keep going until every day kindnesses are so common that we don't find them embarassing to give or receive :goodvibes

[MicroMouse]

We just got back last Friday from a 12 day stay at WDW. We used the dining plan option for the first time and in our last couple days it became apparent we had an extra table service meal we weren't going to use.

So on our last day while having breakfast at Crystal Palace we asked our server to find a family of 4 and told her we would like to buy them breakfast. It made for a really special start to one family's day! :yay:

[MKWishesLo]

That is so great that ya'll have given out moments to people, I definately saw a lot of them while I worked there between guests and whanot.. strollers was definately a good one.. and glowsticks too! Keep up the awesome work, you all are definately a big part of making Disney what it is, and little dreams as well as big ones even by random everyday acts of kindness are absolutely awesome!! Keep up the amazing work!!!

[WDW1st-timers]

Just reading some of the nicest things people have done.

[Subrbnmommy]

we had a few nive things happen to us curtesy of other guests.

1. My DH was given a fast pass for Soaring while he was in the MS play area with our DD3. We have been on the giving end of spare fastpasses but 1st time on the receiving end. My DH was really happy!

2. Everytime I rode the bus or boat, some nice person always gave up their seats so that my dd3 and I could sit.

3. The nicest was on the plane coming home. My dd and I had the aisle and middle seat so, I gave my dd the middle seat, then the lady who has window seat comes up. She was wearing a really nice all white pant suit. I was stressed out that my dd3 would spill something or touch the lady with dirty hands... Ends up the lady was so nice. She offered my dd the window seat, helped me get her toys out, lifted the arm rest so she'd have more room and when my dd fell asleep, I noticed that her feet were on the lady, she didn't let me move them! insisting that the important thing was that my dd was comfortable! Having somebody extra nice made such a diference for me!!

[Caboosey]

I love this thread - I wish that everyone were as nice as y'all are!

[GoofyBaseballMom26]

We've just given away fastpasses, seats on buses but last time we had a Fantasmic package but my DH didn't feel well so we gave away our certificate.

[mvazul]

We were in MK last Wednesday. It was such an awesome, perfect day. Our DD5 had won the TinkerBell pins from the Blue Fairy at Pinocchio's restaurant, but that was not the highlight of our day.

My DH had worn his Chicago Bears NFC Championship shirt. Everywhere we went, random people would shout out, "Go Bears!!" :cheer2: It was the coolest thing. Even several of the CM's told us how they were cheering for the Bears. My kids loved it and would call back to anyone who shouted at us.

We happened upon "Storytime With Belle" just a couple minutes before it started. The place was completely full except along the wall on the right hand side. DH, DS12 and DD5 sat on the wall and I sat on the bench along the walkway. There was one mom with two little girls sitting in the front row. They saw DD (who happened to be wearing her Belle dress) and the mom asked if she would like to sit with them. DD said yes and had a great time sitting with them. Just before the show started, one of the CM's asked DD to be one of the characters. DD didn't want to so she asked one of the little girls DD was sitting with. The little girl was thrilled!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/mamalion2cubs/Florida%202007/DSC_0096.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/mamalion2cubs/Florida%202007/DSC_0118.jpg

Also, one CM came up to us and asked for DD's autograph. DH thought he may have been part of the "Dream Team". It really didn't occur to me if he was or not. I just thought it was pretty cool he wanted DD's autograph!! Plus, every CM that saw DD in her Belle dress would bow to her and say how honored they were to be in the presence of a princess. princess: DD ate it up! It was just an extra special touch that made our day there even more enjoyable and memorable.

I absolutely LOVE Disney and I think I'm becoming addicted!! :goodvibes

[MarieS]

My story is a small thing compared to what others have written about, but whenever I think of this I get tears in my eyes.
We were at a gift shop at MGM on the first day of our trip. DS was wearing a buzz lightyear lanyard with a couple pins from the starter set we had purchased this morning. ( had no idea he would get into the whole pin thing so much! LOL) DS uses a wheelchair, has cerebral palsy and is nonverbal. A boy about 10 years old comes up to him and asks him if he has any pins to trade. I explain that he can't talk but would love to trade! DS had a huge smile on his face. You may wonder why this seemingly ordinary moment is so magical to me. It's because people are often hesitant around DS, don't say hi, etc. But this boy just seemed to be able to overlook DS's disability and concentrate on the pin trading! LOL He wasn't even fazed when I said DS can't talk. He just pointed at the pins on DS's lanyard to show which ones he liked.
Anyway I just wanted to share how a small thing to one person can make a big difference to someone else.:wizard:

[stargrazer]

Great thread...inspiring, actually. I thought of this thread when I went to Epcot and MGM yesterday.

I gave pixie dust twice...and recieved HUGE pixie dust once - isn't it amazing how you get back what you give?

My first pixiedust was stopping to offer to be the picture taker for a family trying to get some shots in the Soarin' queue. (I also saw the Castle Suite winners of the day go to someone on my ride but that's another story :goodvibes )

My second one was giving away two unused fastpasses for the Little Mermaid show.

We did other small things...pick up a napkin here and there...offer directions or information if we could...little things mean a lot.

In return, DD and I were loaned a towel and a blanket to cover up with while we waited an hour for Fanstasmic! to start. We had forgotten our jackets in the car and were cold and tired and the folks in front of us got in their backpacks and gave us something to cover up with (THANK YOU!! :grouphug: )

So now my thing is...look for small ways to be nice while you're there, and you will have a better experience for it.

pixiedust:

[SueM in MN]

My story is a small thing compared to what others have written about, but whenever I think of this I get tears in my eyes.
We were at a gift shop at MGM on the first day of our trip. DS was wearing a buzz lightyear lanyard with a couple pins from the starter set we had purchased this morning. ( had no idea he would get into the whole pin thing so much! LOL) DS uses a wheelchair, has cerebral palsy and is nonverbal. A boy about 10 years old comes up to him and asks him if he has any pins to trade. I explain that he can't talk but would love to trade! DS had a huge smile on his face. You may wonder why this seemingly ordinary moment is so magical to me. It's because people are often hesitant around DS, don't say hi, etc. But this boy just seemed to be able to overlook DS's disability and concentrate on the pin trading! LOL He wasn't even fazed when I said DS can't talk. He just pointed at the pins on DS's lanyard to show which ones he liked.
Anyway I just wanted to share how a small thing to one person can make a big difference to someone else.:wizard:
I can totally understand.
Your DS and my Dd are very much alike. Your story is pure magic to me.

[mmiller711]

I work in a class room with children in wheelchairs so I guess I just don't even notice them anymore. I remember one trip we were sitting in the wheelchair section with my mother and there was a little boy sitting next to me. I started talking to him, just the normal stuff, like was he having a good time, what was his favorite ride etc...His mother actually got tears in her eyes and thanked me because so many people will ignore him or talk about him but never to him. He ended up holding my hand while we watched Fantasmic. Sometimes such a little thing can make a difference!

Another time we met a woman from England who was there with her two children. They were about the age of our kids and so we ended up spending the day together at the park. We mentioned we were going to PI that evening to watch the fireworks and she said she'd love to go but the bus for her hotel didn't run that late and it was expensive to take a cab. We invited her to come with us and then DH gave them a ride back to their hotel.

It does make your trip more enjoyable if you know you did something nice:grouphug:

[CanadianGuy]

When I was in high school -- 1987 - :scared1: - our school was one of the first in North America to put all students together.. So in my biology class for example was a highly functioning student who also happened to have Down's Syndrome.. Kevin.

Kevin was an amazing addition to our class and nobody gave him anything but support and encouragement. It was awesome to see even the jocks and the 'too cool' types .. high fiving Kevin.. having him on their lab team etc. I would add that this was years before the show "Life Goes On" with Corky...

A TV crew filming a documentary about it all came to our school and I was selected to be interviewed. They asked me about the whole process...

I still remember to this day what I said, "Kevin adds so much to our classroom. And you know it's funny.. Nobody in that classroom, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, walks out of the room at the end of the day learning the exact same thing. We all take different things away from the classroom every day.. Kevin takes some different things away maybe on certain days than some of his classmates, but we're all learning.. And THAT is why I think this works."

---

On another note.. I read elsewhere about someone in line buying balloons and they bought a balloon for the person behind them. I thought that was simple an amazing thing. I would love to do that on my trip coming up.

My only question is this -- Should I ask the parent for permission first beforehand? (I don't have kids.. so I have no idea what the protocol is on this..)

Thanks,

John

[calgarygary]

Definitely ask the parents first. There are a number of reasons for this - the least of which if they are staying at AKL, having the balloon taken away at the resort could cause a scene with a young child.

[CanadianGuy]

And I'm going to share this story.. cause I love it so much.. I think it should be a commercial

The first time I EVER went to WDW, I was 24 years old. I flew down from Canada and met a friend from Miami and we drove up and spent three or four days at Disney.

At the end of our first day in the Magic Kingdom.. it was very late.. and we were on the monorail. The crowd had emptied a while earlier so in this monorail car were me, my friend, and two parents of a very excited 10 year old boy.

He was still very energized and excited and talking rapidly to his Dad about all he had seen that day. "Dad you remember in the parade where they... and remember on Splash Mountain with the big SPLASH?? .. "

I looked over at his mom and smiled and I said.. "First time at the parks..?"

She said.."Oh no, Josh comes here all the time.. he's been coming here since he was three."

And Josh says to me, "Did you get to ride Pirates?" and I said yes.. and he and I started talking about all the cool stuff we saw that day..

Just then, Josh's mom turned my friend from Miami and looking in my direction said, "First time in the parks?"

We ALL had a great laugh over that one.. and I tear up to this day thinking about it...

John

[mvazul]

On another note.. I read elsewhere about someone in line buying balloons and they bought a balloon for the person behind them. I thought that was simple an amazing thing. I would love to do that on my trip coming up.

My only question is this -- Should I ask the parent for permission first beforehand? (I don't have kids.. so I have no idea what the protocol is on this..)

Thanks,

John

As a mother of two, I would say, yes, ask permission first. It's too bad we have to be so cautious at such a wonderful place, but I know I would feel much more comfortable with someone asking first. I can never be too careful when it comes to my children!! BTW - I think it is wonderful of you to even think to do that for someone else's child. Good for you!!

[CanadianGuy]

I sorta figured asking would make the best sense. I've read over and over on these boards that a 6$ balloon can bring so much joy.. Why not!??

[ Ok.. actually my plan is sllightly more sinister.. I'm going to walk around with the balloon for a few minutes to embarrass my adult travelling companions.. THEN give it away ... so technically it may be a slightly used balloon.. but 15 minutes at the most! ] :)

Thanks!

J

[MicheinMA]

This goes back quite sometime, but I was around 10 years old, on our first visit to Epcot. We were heading up the ramp to the monorail and there was a couple in front of us with an enormous bundle of the metallic Mickey balloons. I was just in awe. The man turned around and handed me the whole bunch and said have a nice vacation. That was around 25 years ago and I still haven't forgotten a detail. :goodvibes

We are heading down for our first family trip this April. Hope I can spread a little of that magic in return!

[Mickey76]

::MickeyMo

I kind of feel like I'm tooting my horn, but I love telling this story. I was in WDW in 2002 and visited MK on a particularly busy day at the end of May. I was crossing the bridge from Main Street, USA to Adventureland and saw a man trying to take a picture of his family. Now, I've seen many people try to get a picture on this bridge with the castle in the background, and have much success. This man, however, despite his pleas to all that passed to stop for a moment, could not have his wish granted. The man and his family were African-American, and while I know the majority of the people walking by were just in a rush to get where they were going, I suspect a few were ignoring him simply because they have not realized the Civil War ended almost two centuries ago.

Those who know me know that I have a voice that naturally carries. The look on the man's face was sadness that he couldn't get a picture. So I stepped in and from the middle of the bridge asked everyone to stop for a moment, stepping in front of a few people to make sure they understood me. I said that this man just wanted to take a quick picture of his family. I received a few angry stares, but I didn't bother me. The man was about to take the picture when I told him that I would take it for him. He did not say anything because I he was so surprised that someone would do this for him. I took the picture and handed him his camera and began to alk away. He then said in a great southern drawl, "Wait! Hold on a minute!" I turned around, seeing a man drawn to tears. "Thank you for doing that. That was awesome. What's youre name?" I told him my name was Brian and he says, "Brian, you alright." His family then comes over and gives me a big group hug. They were crying and it made me cry happy tears and they said they would never forget this moment. I hope they don't. I never will.

[Dizneydaz]

On our last trip in September we spread the "magic" by using some of our DDP credits that we couldn't use. We treated a very nice family from Georgia to a meal (using 3 QS credits) at Flametree BBQ; and the mom was so grateful that after I gave her her tray of food and she started to leave she turned back and said "I have to give you a hug" and she did. :goodvibes She had tears in her eyes (me too). I felt wonderful. Then we treated a couple of grandparents and their 5 yr. old twin granddaughters at Restaurantosaurus (2 QS). The grandpa tried to hand me $5 and I said, "no, that's no why I'm doing it. Spend the money on souvenirs!" :goodvibes

On our last day, buying food for the plane ride home we used 4 of our last 6 QS credits. I was just going to let the last 2 go to waste when the grandparents in front of us were trying to buy 3 meals and only had 1 DDP credit left. I offered them our last 2 and had to reassure them that we were on our way out to the airport and they wouldn't be used. They were also very happy.

On two previous trips we had treated a few people to ice creams to use up some SC and it's very interesting the responses you get from people. OF course, first off, they don't beleive you. Second, they think there's a catch, and then third, they just get a big smile on their face and accept the "magic". :grouphug: :cloud9:

The feeling I get from this must be similar to how the Dream Makers feel! :wizard:

[Evil Genius]

I all ways carry a little kit that has screws, nose guards and a little screwdriver to fix glasses. We were standing in line one day with the kids waiting for Eeyore's autograph. Sure enough, the lady in front of me's sunglasses fall apart. She's not happy and told her dh that she really didn't want to spend $25.00 on a new pair. I dig in my bag, find my kit and we fix her glasses. I could not believe how appreciative she was.She wanted to buy the kids something, but I wouldn't hear of it. Everyone got autographs and we went our seperate ways. We saw them throughout the week at different parks and she would allways make it a point to catch my eye and wave or point at her glasses. I never knew a $1.99 kit was going to make someone's day.

My dh has diabetes and sometimes just needs to sit down for a minute. We usually find him bench in the shade, and I might do a little shopping or grab a snack, whatever. He has met the most interesting people while resting. It's really nice to come back to him to see him chatting with someone or sharing a story. I think this trip I might start taking pictures of him and his new friends as he remembers most if not all of the folks he's met. Thank you to those folks for keeping him company, you don't know how much it's appreciated.


Sorry I thought of one more. Dh and I like to play those goofy games at Chester and Hester's. We have brought home more stuffed dinosaurs than I really want to admit to. The last two trips, dh has given them away to kids in the area. The last time he saw a little girl and her brother watching big brother and sister ride Triceratops Twirl. Dad was with them, and after much discussion (Dad thought we wanted something) dh gave away two dinosaurs. You would have thought he gave them gold. It's such a little thing and it makes everyone smile.

[3boyzmom]

Last year we gave away our the Fantasmic part of our Fantasmic Dinner Package. We overheard the family at the table next to us talking about getting in line to wait, and since our child was too tired to stay for the show, we decided to give them our "tickets" ... they were really sweet and gracious in accepting the tickets.

On our first trip to AKL, a very nice lady gave us the remainder of her cs snd snack credits for out last day - we were suprised at her generocity - very special. :hippie:

[happy2go2wdwmom]

I planned a June '06 WDW trip for a pal who has no arms (!), and only a few "fingers" on his left side. He was able to get on the buses ahead of the lines b/c of his disabilities. Before his trip, I told him to for once enjoy all of the "envious" looks from the others waiting in those long lines as he would hop right on the buses. Well, in following up w/ him after his trip, I asked how the bus rides went, and he said, "You know, I ended up gaving up my seat every time I was on those buses to a woman, or a child or a mom w/ a baby." Honestly, I am not sure how he stood up on those bus trips---it couldn't have been easy in the least-----BUT, what a gentleman, huh?!

[WDW1st-timers]

I planned a June '06 WDW trip for a pal who has no arms (!), and only a few "fingers" on his left side. He was able to get on the buses ahead of the lines b/c of his disabilities. Before his trip, I told him to for once enjoy all of the "envious" looks from the others waiting in those long lines as he would hop right on the buses. Well, in following up w/ him after his trip, I asked how the bus rides went, and he said, "You know, I ended up gaving up my seat every time I was on those buses to a woman, or a child or a mom w/ a baby." Honestly, I am not sure how he stood up on those bus trips---it couldn't have been easy in the least-----BUT, what a gentleman, huh?!

WOW....amazing. I wish the whole world was filled with people like this.

[happy2go2wdwmom]

It was humbling (my friend w/o the arms who gave up his resort bus seats)! He said he was esp. amazed to see that people would make little children stand up in the aisles...when my fam goes this May, I am going to make a point of giving up my seats in his honor!

[WDW1st-timers]

It was humbling (my friend w/o the arms who gave up his resort bus seats)! He said he was esp. amazed to see that people would make little children stand up in the aisles...when my fam goes this May, I am going to make a point of giving up my seats in his honor!

Last time we gave up our seats quite a bit. This time we will too unless the baby is in our arms and we can't at the moment. But i'm sure that one of us will be able to offer. Your friend is a good man, I'm glad that you are willing to do that too.:hug:

[tippy77]

I just returned from a week-long stay at POP and was suprised at how many people did not offer seats to children or adults holding children. BF and I did all the time--someday we'll be the ones holding sleeping children and will be grateful to those who give up their seats for us! Everyone we gave seats to was very grateful and thanked us profusely.

And I guess what goes around comes around--when I was complaining about a 40 minute wait for Expedition Everest, a woman overheard me and gave us her fastpasses that she wasn't going to use! It was the end of a long afternoon and it was just the nicest thing.

[Vickie46]

wow.. that was so nice of you!!!! I know when my little one is a sleep I am ever so thankful to anyone who will let us have a seat... my husband will always stand if he needs too.. he will always give his seat up too. We also will wait on a bus if we see its standing room only.

[Dis-Wiz]

Wow, these stories are wonderful! It makes you think; half the magic that Disney offers comes from the guests!


During our trip last summer, we went to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. Since we were on the Platnium we had a dessert included with our meal, but then we joined this membership with the Rainforest Cafe chains, (not too sure what exactly it was), and by doing that, we got a free dessert. So there we were, with two desserts. We decided to send one of our desserts to another family seated next to us. Of course, the waiter asked the family first if they wanted the free dessert (they looked VERY surprised), and I guess they said yes, because right as we were leaving, we saw a volcano being delivered to their table. :goodvibes

Thanks to all of you for making the Disney Parks a place like no other! :thumbsup2

[em-o-so'smom]

We just returned from a 5 day visit to WDW. We shared glow necklaces and bracelets at all the parades and light shows...my girls got to make new "friends" by doing so, we gave one of our first visit pins to a little girl and she gave my oldest DD a wishing star, we gave our YOMAD fastpasses to a family who waited with my DH for 45 min at the umbrella restaurant (the manager let 2 cheerleading groups cut in line, so 99 burgers later my DH and the man we gave the FP to really had a long chat!), just being nice and helping brighten other people's days made ours so much better.

I've got a bit more magic to spread...I have 14 Re-Entry tickets...just like FP but not ride or time specific...good until 3/18/07...for MK only...if anyone wants them let me know and i will be happy to mail them to you!

[njdisneyfreak]

Wow, these stories are wonderful! It makes you think; half the magic that Disney offers comes from the guests!


During our trip last summer, we went to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. Since we were on the Platnium we had a dessert included with our meal, but then we joined this membership with the Rainforest Cafe chains, (not too sure what exactly it was), and by doing that, we got a free dessert. So there we were, with two desserts. We decided to send one of our desserts to another family seated next to us. Of course, the waiter asked the family first if they wanted the free dessert (they looked VERY surprised), and I guess they said yes, because right as we were leaving, we saw a volcano being delivered to their table. :goodvibes

Thanks to all of you for making the Disney Parks a place like no other! :thumbsup2


So, the Rainforest Cafe is on the dining plan? We didn't notice it and would love to eat there on our next trip if it is.

[Dis-Wiz]

So, the Rainforest Cafe is on the dining plan? We didn't notice it and would love to eat there on our next trip if it is.

It may depend on what dining plan you are on. I get confused with all the different "Plans" they have at Disney, but I know the one we got was called the "Platnium Plan" and yeah, the Rainforest was included. We hadn't been to the Rainforest Cafe in a long time (for some reason we thought we remembered not liking it :confused3 ), but we tried it again this summer, and we really enjoyed it!

Sorry for the off-topic post :upsidedow .

Back on topic :thumbsup2 .

[eacatwork]

Good gravy...y'all have made me cry and cry and cry. Tears of joy and happiness, of course (and I cry at the drop of hat anyway)!!!

DH and I are going to WDW in October; I'll have to discuss with him how we're going to spread the magic.

[happy2go2wdwmom]

Good gravy...y'all have made me cry and cry and cry. Tears of joy and happiness, of course (and I cry at the drop of hat anyway)!!!

DH and I are going to WDW in October; I'll have to discuss with him how we're going to spread the magic.

I am w/ you on the happiness crying! Have cried happy tears every day since making our May '07 ressies--just thinking about wdw and browsing through these forums makes me verklempt a la SNL's Linda Redmon, "Talk amongst yourselves." To add to this, I just listened to "Part of Your World" and boo hooed until my DH told me to get a hold of myself.

Sorry so off topic!:hug:

[neshanicguy]

We just returned from our trip 2/11 - 2/16 and while we didn't see even 1 Dream Team member, we did experience alot of CM and guests spreading magic. Some examples were:
- guests handing out arcade passes with points remaining on them
- monorail driver escorting my kids up to the front to view Wishes from the front car and giving them their licenses
- bus driver (upon learning my son had a monorail license) giving my sons an official Disney bus license
- guests giving us fast passes to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- CMs giving us a coupon for a free drink / popcorn in Epcot
- CM giving my 4yr son a magic moment card after watching him spend 10 minutes searching for the right ring to buy his mommy.
- We were celebrating birthdays for 3 out of the 4 of us while there. My DS (age 9) was obviously making the best of it despite being the one without a birthday. He was laughing about it being his 1/2 birthday while we were at Boma. Lo and behold, our waitress comes over to our table and presents him with a "Happy 9 1/2 Birthday" cupcake. I will never forget his face. He saw the magic and believed!
- During the P&P night, my son wanted some mickey ear icecream. The CM at the stand asked him to name his top 5 Disney characters. He did and the CM gave him the ears for free.

We played our part with handing out fast passes to Soarin, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain. We also passed along a card with arcade credits to someone on our last day at AKL.

I'm hooked. We are certain to continue this on our next vacation - even if its not at Disney.

[ilovefh]

On our first day to the MK last week we were waiting in line for Space Mt. The wait was about 45 mins. We had waited about 10 mins when a family walked by in the fast pass line and handed us four fast passes. It was great to not have to wait! And even though this wasn't in Disney, it was still fun: We ate at Margaritaville at City Walk and had two balloon hats made. As we were walking to the car two cute little kids came up to us and said "Excuse me, where did you get those?" We couldn't resist, so we gave them our hats. The kids had the BIGGEST smiles on their faces! It was way too fun!

[GrandFloridianGirl]

DH and I just returned last weekend. I really wanted to do something special for some fellow guests (inspired by this thread!):hug: , so I made up 3 Disney gift baskets before we left home and dropped them off during the week to suprise guests. One went to AKL, one to POP and one to Saratoga. I just asked to leave the baskets in the room for guests checking in as a suprise. It made me feel good to pass the magic along.

During our stay, guests handed us unused fastpasses (dream and regular) and we witnessed guests handing out glo- necklaces to each other for the spectromagic parade!!!!

[Trixie15]

This is a great thread! I can't wait to spread some magic!

[mickeysaver]

We have always enjoyed being able to spread a little magic at WDW. Sometimes, it's just the little things, like taking a full family photo for someone or handing off a couple of FP's. We have always tried to be nice to our fellow guests.

There are a couple of situations that come to mind that went beyond. One was back in December of 2005. We had parked ourselves in rockers on the porch of Exposition Hall waiting on the MVMCP parade. There was a lady that came up with a few kids in tow and one of them was a teenager with some sort of CP like disability. He loved to rock in the rockers during every stay, so he made himself at home in the chair beside me. His mom, dad, and siblings went in and out of the building leaving him there. I chatted with him, but he had a limited vocabulary, but one big smile when I asked if he was having a good time. His mom came back outside to check on him and adjust his blanket. I told her that we had been chatting and asked her about their obvious pin trading addiction, which we share too. When I told her in the course of conversation where we were from, she said that she had a friend named Ashley that lived in a town close to ours that she was doing a pixie dust favor for. Now, I know an Ashley from that town, so I said are you talking about Ashley Mc****? She said yes, so I offered to help her out, since I knew that I would be able to bring home the toy that Ashley had asked Donna to pick up for her at WDW for her DS's Christmas. Donna was going to be so kind as to FEDEX the gift to Ashley's home and was going to leave WDW property to do it, so that it would be at Ashley's for Christmas morning! Donna called Ashley and Ashley of course was thrilled to not have to pay the shipping fee that Donna was going to incur in helping spread a little pixie dust. We got home on 12/23 and met up with Ashley that night to hand over the monorail toy. It was really nice to be able to help out. It certainly was one of those "Small World" moments too.

During our last trip, it was only a 3 night stay, we flew down for a quick dose of Anniversary inspired pixie dust. We went to our first MNSSHP. We dressed as silly witches and I had a lime green bag that had a cat face on the front and it said Scary. Well, we loaded up the bag with Woody character keychains, pirate "gold" coins, and some Tootsie Roll candy shaped magnets. We handed out the goodies to strangers all through the park that night. The kids all loved it, some of the CM's got quite a kick out of it too. We gave out stuff to everyone waiting in line for the MNSSHP pin of the night over at the Frontierland Trading Post too. It was kinda neat making all of those folks smile. Considering the amount of stuff that we had, I would say that we generated about 500 smiles that night. :)

I haven't decided what exactly we are going to do special for our fellow guest on this trip, but I am working on ideas as I :surfweb: . Maggie

[Jrabbit910]

I think this is a great thread....
I think one of the nicest things to do at any of the parks is acknowledging the people that wear the birthday/anniversary buttons and special ears... It doesnt hurt to say Happy birthday or congrats... I dont think that it just has to be said by the cast members so I make a point always to say Happy Birthday. :hug: princess:

One of the nicest things that was done for me had to be a birthday card signed by a bunch of people I didnt even know. Thier wishes were great. I still have the card to this day and love to look at it. :wizard: :cheer2: :cheer2:

[kg66]

You know the stickers that the CM's give the kids all over the world? Well when we saw little ones having a melt down at the end of the day when the parents are doing some shopping, I'd take 2 stickers out from my fanny pack to trade with the little one for their tears! Worked like a charm!
My BF handed off her stroller to couples when we were leaving the park on early days! A few dollars saved and it made her feel good!

[AlyssinWonderland]

These is the neatest thread ever! Everyone is so sweet spreading pixie dust! This is what makes me love Disney and going to WDW! It seems that there are so many nice people that all converge at this one place! Magical! I'm going to make sure to spread soem dust next time I visit! I love the balloon idea! And the light sticks too! :flower3:

[tmonferdini]

On our honeymoon trip 15 years ago, my DH and I had one week's worth of park passes (w/hopper) and went to the beach for a couple of days, so had a couple days left over when we got ready to leave. As we walked out of our last park before we left town, we still had 2 days w/hopper left. We found a couple walking up to the ticket counter and asked them if they had their tickets yet. Once they said no, we gave them ours. The look on their face was priceless. They weren't the non-expiring tickets, so we really had no use for them. It felt good to make a young couple so happy.

Tracy

[rlyrehc]

I was waiting in tomorrow land for the rest of my group to use the bathrooms and I spotted a little girl around 4yo sitting with her mother. The girl had on a beautiful white gown so I walked over and said "I can tell you are a princess. Which one are you?" She gave me a big grin and said "Cinderella Bride." I gave a huge gasp and said "I have never seen Cinderella Bride here before! Would you sign my map?" She looked at her mom and gave her a private smile like they were really putting one over on me and then signed my map in her cute, crooked writing. As I thanked her, her mother mouthed the words "Thank you." over her head. All of a sudden I realized that I had accidentally created a little magic. Yeah me!:yay:

[minmate]

We got married at Disneyland ten years ago. After our wedding we were heading to Hawaii for our honeymoon, having already spent time at Disney. It was the day before Easter so we took our reception flowers and walked through the Disneyland Hotel and gave away the flowers to anyone who wanted them.

Also, we always give away any Fastpasses we aren't going to use.

[pennylynn]

I went to WDW with my 10yr old nephew last Nov. We were at MVMCP and he was in line waiting to get Beauty and Beast's autograph. There was a little girl in line right behind him who was all dressed like Belle and she was really excited to be getting an autograph. Then the CM's started telling the line that Belle would be leaving soon and Snow White would be coming out. This little girl was real upset because she might not get to see Belle. Then the CM came over and said that my nephew would be the last person to see Belle. When his turn came he stepped aside and let the little girl go. Her Mom and Dad came back to us several times and thanked him. He didn't really care whose autograph he got and he really made her day. I was very proud of him.

[JiminyGuyMaine]

When I wear my pin lanyard to the parks, I always keep my eyes peeled for children that are being exceptionally well behaved, or kind. When I notice one, I'll ask their parents if it's ok to give them a pin, and if it is, I let them pick one off my lanyard. I always let them know that it's because I think they were being so "good" or "kind".....gotta reward that good behavior! They are always so excited, and the parents are always so proud that someone noticed their little one displaying some commendable trait! :goodvibes

[treeshaker]

When ever I see a little one dressed up I like to tell them how beautiful they look. Then they just beam!! Makes me feel good too.

I like the sharing a pin - I'll have to get some extra.

[ILoveJack]

My daughter age 7 had a young lady who was about 12 or so give her a pretty ring when we were at Disneyland this past March. We were waiting in line to pick up some packages at the front of the park and she was behind us in line with her mother. It really made my daughter's day.:goodvibes

[mickeymouse1017]

My family now thinks that I am crazy. I am sitting in front of the computer crying. Of course, they are happy Mickey tears. We went to Disney this past February and I had intended to get a few surprises to give out while we were there. I got busy and never made it to the store. The morning we went to the princess breakfast in Norway we were leaving and this lady stopped me to ask how we had liked it. She was with her elderly father and her daughter. I told her that we had loved it and would definitely do it again. She started telling me that she was a single mother who had saved for five years to take this trip. (I am also a single mother that left an abusive alcoholic/drug addict ex-husband so this hit close to home) She said that the only thing that her daughter wanted was to have breakfast with the princesses so she worked hard to make it happen. To make the story even better, that particular day was her daughters birthday. All that I could do was stand there and cry wishing her a good time and her daughter a happy birthday. I regret that I didn't take those few extra minutes to go get those surprises that I had intended to get. After seeing this thread again last night I went to the store and got many surprises to pass out during our next trip. (We are going again in June, thanks again to the worlds best grandparents!) I will never forget that lady and still think about her wishing that I had a surprise to give her daughter and also wishing that she had a wonderful trip. Mickey people are special people!

[jdb0822]

well, I just stocked up today on some glow sticks for the night parades, etc. I got some disney stickers, anyone have any other ideas? we leave in a few days :)

[Laren]

I went to WDW with my 10yr old nephew last Nov. We were at MVMCP and he was in line waiting to get Beauty and Beast's autograph. There was a little girl in line right behind him who was all dressed like Belle and she was really excited to be getting an autograph. Then the CM's started telling the line that Belle would be leaving soon and Snow White would be coming out. This little girl was real upset because she might not get to see Belle. Then the CM came over and said that my nephew would be the last person to see Belle. When his turn came he stepped aside and let the little girl go. Her Mom and Dad came back to us several times and thanked him. He didn't really care whose autograph he got and he really made her day. I was very proud of him.

Okay, I was crying already over the SSE rehab and then I see this thread. I'm bawling over here LOL

What a wonderful, wonderful boy. It just seems like all you ever hear about are the bad kids. To hear this kind of story makes my heart soar.

It'll come back to him someday, I always tell my own daughter that and she's given and received surprises- it's an amazing thing, and my favorite thing, to give them!!!! Thanks all for helping me get started thinking about things I can do for our upcoming trip hmmmmm

[mickeymouse1017]

We went to the Dollar Tree and got Disney sidewalk chalk, yo-yos, frisbees, erasers and jump ropes. They only cost $1 each and hopefully will make some childs day a little brighter. If you don't have a Dollar Tree where you live, you can also try the $1 bins at Target. We have found some Disney things there also.

[Luv4Disney]

On our honeymoon trip 15 years ago, my DH and I had one week's worth of park passes (w/hopper) and went to the beach for a couple of days, so had a couple days left over when we got ready to leave. As we walked out of our last park before we left town, we still had 2 days w/hopper left. We found a couple walking up to the ticket counter and asked them if they had their tickets yet. Once they said no, we gave them ours. The look on their face was priceless. They weren't the non-expiring tickets, so we really had no use for them. It felt good to make a young couple so happy.

Tracy

We have done this a few times as well. The most recent was in November when we saw a father going to buy tickets for him and his daughter since they ran out of days and wanted to go to AK. He asked DF "how much?" and DF said Nothing, have fun in the parks. He was shocked. It felt great to make someone's day brighter. We did this at MGM too. :goodvibes

[rngrblu9]

last december, we had 4 tickets to mvmcp but 2 of us couldn't go so my dad handed two tickets to two people waiting in line to buy tickets and wished them a merry christmas!

[Mean Queen]

When we went for DD's first bday a few weeks ago, the staff at SSR had balloons delivered to the room with a card signed to DD from Snow White. They had asked when we arrived who her favorite character was and our older DD said Snow White, because that's the bath toy she chews on the most. They also sent us a card signed by Mickey and the gang. It really made it special for all of us (though the baby just loved the balloons.)

To help make a special trip for others, we give out our fast passes to people waiting in line or at the fast pass area when we decide to leave before using them. Some people are very surprised and suspicious of us trying to hand them a simple fast pass.

[mabenoab]

There is this wonderful place called Mouse Surplus that sells all kinds of things that Disney wants to get rid of. We were shopping there one day when we came upon these buttons with Tinkerbell on them that say Magical Moment. We keep some in our backpacks and whenever we share a "magical moment" or encounter with someone, we reach in and give them a button and thank them for sharing a magical moment with us. These can be as simple as just sitting and talking to someone while waiting for the parade. We also have given fast passes we have decided not to use away.

That is awesome!!

[mabenoab]

Beautiful thread! I have a story to add that didn't happen to me, but that I saw. It was years ago when the Hunchback of Notre Dame show was on at MGM, and it was around the 4th of July. Super Hot! In the theatre there was an elderly lady sitting down the row from me, and she fainted from the heat. Well, this teenage boy sitting behind her must have noticed the slump, because before her head went down, he jumped over the bench to be beside her, caught her before she fell over, and began spraying her down with his water fan thingy. His brother ran to get a CM to help. What a beautiful young man to think so fast (and be able to move so fast). This was years ago, and I can still see his face.

I love all your stories!

[wuv tigger]

Beautiful thread! I have a story to add that didn't happen to me, but that I saw. It was years ago when the Hunchback of Notre Dame show was on at MGM, and it was around the 4th of July. Super Hot! In the theatre there was an elderly lady sitting down the row from me, and she fainted from the heat. Well, this teenage boy sitting behind her must have noticed the slump, because before her head went down, he jumped over the bench to be beside her, caught her before she fell over, and began spraying her down with his water fan thingy. His brother ran to get a CM to help. What a beautiful young man to think so fast (and be able to move so fast). This was years ago, and I can still see his face.

I love all your stories!

WOW ~ what a great young man and his brother too!!!:yay:

[mabenoab]

no posts in two days to this heartwarming thread...I'm hoping a bump will continue the magic.

[4 4 the World]

This is a really great thread!:thumbsup2 We are going down in 55 days:yay: and I can't wait to keep the dreams going! We love spreading random acts of kindness and can't wait to spread magical memories in June!:love:

Last June we had reservations at Cape May Cafe. We checked in and waited 4EVER!!!:mad: We had made several reservations over past trips and never had to wait long. Waiting people were piling up in the lobby. We had been waiting over and hour. Finally, I went up to the hostess desk when I noticed people being seated who had arrived after us. I was told that they had a glitch with the new computer system and ALL reservations were lost. Nothing was left in hard copy!! :sad2:
I went through 3 hostesses who would/could not answer my questions or get me the manager (who looked a little stressed and running around the restaurant with paper and pencil in hand:eek: ). Numerous tables were empty therefore I could not understand why we could not be seated, especially since I had my confirmation information in my hand.:headache:

Finally...(this is where it gets better):love: :love: a server who was probably thinking why am I standing around here with no one to serve when there are 30+ hungry people in the lobby :confused3 came to our rescue. She seated the whole family immediately and treated us with hospitality and top-notch service!:thanks:

At the end of our meal, I was in need of a band-aid. She had returned to our table a few times and had forgotten to bring one (like she needed to anyway it was a restaurant not the emergency room). I shamefully asked her again and she emerged from the kitchen with a whole emergency first-aid kit with bandages of all sizes and shapes, alcohol wipes and even smelling salts! :rotfl2: We tapped into that kit throughout our trip.

Friendly service and surprises such as these are what we love best about Disney!

[MomWith2Cinderellas]

I was reading MamaOfTwoPrincesses' thread about Cast Members spreading Disney Magic; making a vacation more memorable. This got me thinking.

Have you ever made another guest's vacation more magical, or has another guest made your vacation more magical and memorable?

Feel free to share any stories. :)

I have given an FP to someone who could not get one. I have also used my extra CS or snack credit to buy someone lunch or a snack who was not on the dining plan. I figure why let the credit go to waste? :confused3

[silverarrowknits]

These stories are so lovely. I am going to have to pick up some "little dreams" at the dollar store before I go back to WDW in May. :cloud9:

[DCA_MillionaireFreak]

I was offered magic, but unfortuantally, I had to refuse it.

I had found a FP for Big Thunder in Main Street and it was in the window already. So, I went over, and I went up to the FASTPASS return line. There was a couple ahead of me, and someone rudely cut in front of them. The CM said "Here, just for that..." and gave them a pass to come back again. We started talking in line, and then we got on the ride. Afterwards, they asked me if I would like to join them on the ride again, but I said "I'm sorry, I really would love to, but I have a FASTPASS at Indy that my parent is waiting for me at". They then planned to give it to someone else.

[TMB1203]

On our last trip, I ordered water through Staples.com. There were 7 of us so I ordered 2 cases of 48 8 oz bottles. At the end of our trip, we had a package of 24 bottles left. We checked out and went to Roaring Forks to finish the last of our credits. When we walked in my husband noticed a family that were checking in. He gave them the case of water. We also had one counter service credit left and we used that to buy a breakfast for another guest.

If we have fast passes that we decide not to use we also give those to somebody.

[Disney8704]

I just :love: this thread. I hope that when DH and I go to Disney in December we can spread some magic to. My only thing, is how do you all do it? :rotfl: Do you just walk up and say hi, here is some fastpasses for such and such or something or let me buy that meal or item for you. :lmao: Sorry, I just dont wanna look like a complete idiot doing it :rotfl: I remember one time during one of my past trips (cant remember which one) that I gave my seat up a couple times, but thats it. Maybe I can buy 2 extra MVMCP tickets and hand them out the same night I go or something, lol. Im really stuck on want to do and need ideas! ;)

[ppiew]

That is exactly what I have done! Don't be surprised if you get a look of disbelief though! I had an extra FP for EE, but only one. I went up to the people standing in line for FP's and offered it, but no takers because it was only one pass. I 'very loudly' then said 'I have ONE FP to give away - anyone want it?' No takers so we began to walk away when a woman came running up to me and said she would like it. I gave it to her and she said 'I can't believe this'! You would think I gave her the crown jewels! We also had 2 FP for Kali Rapids to give away and I just looked for 2 people together and walked up to them and gave them away. This is one thing that NEVER goes unappreciated! Also brings a nice smile to faces too!

[usandthem]

We were in WDW 4/13-4/18 DH, DD & DS's first trip. We were able to share a little magic while there. I made sure to stock up on glow sticks- while waiting for the light show @ Epcot I started opening them for dd & ds, also giving some to the children around us... the best part was when dd & ds gave theirs away. DD has always been the giving type, but watching DS who is only 3 bend down to kids smaller than himself to share his glo bracelette was too much. DD also got to share some extra magic... she received a pin set from a CM with instructions to keep one and the other was to give away. Of course she wanted to give it to the first person she saw, but I told her to wait she would know the person when she saw them. On our last day we were having lunch @Pizza Planet and there was this little girl sitting quietly with her dad. DD said, "mom, I found her" she walked over and explained the pin and then gave to the girl who simply looked stunned. Gave me goose bumps. Anyway, enjoy sharing any magic you can!!:goodvibes

[mkycrzy1971]

We have made a trip to the dollar tree and stocked up with 150 glow bracelets...I plan to let my daughters (14 & 9) give them away to other children in the evenings...this is always so much fun!!! I am keeping my eye out for other small things (stickers, etc.) to give out to children who I notice are having a bad day or very well behaved. Cannot wait...who knows what other ways we will find to "spread the magic" also.

[Vickie46]

wow.. neat stories.. we had bought a buzz light year spinning toy before we went last time.. we said we would save it till we found the perfect child that would want it.. well.. when we were behind the castle.. we saw a little boy dressed up as BUZZ! How perfect.. his family was so surprised.. and so was the child. I love making disney magic!

[castleri]

While standing in the stand by line for Space Mountain with my granddaughter NYE a woman came up and asked if anyone could use 1 fastpass - no one around us said yes so I gladly took it for my granddaughter(20) and got to go sit and relax while she rode the ride again. It made both of us happy and we passed on some fastpasses that we couldn't use the next day.

[GreatLakes5]

:yay: INSPIRING!

I received a bit of magic :wizard: courtesy of WDW itself when I went as a youngster with my parents. It was one of the years they celebrated Mickey's BDay and as we walked through the gates a CM pulled us aside and handed me a free one-day admission ticket (back when they were really tickets). :cloud9: We were flabbergasted! And, do you know, I still have that ticket. It is in the safe in my parents' home. And though I know I can turn it in, it has become such a memento that none of us has ever had the heart to do so.

Our last visit we received what felt like magic from a server at Boatwright's. He was from Brazil & the most delightful CM we encountered during our trip. His service, his personality, the stories he shared....:wizard: WONDERFUL!

We're back in August and thanks to you folks :grouphug: I'm buying extra glowsticks and hoping that our family can make a small memory for another family.

[stacy347]

Wow, so many wonderful stories on this thread! :love:

Last year before we went to WDW, we downloaded the Yeti game and played for the free 5x7 picture on Expedition Everest which my girls were going to use.
Turned out we had a couple people get sick that day and ended up not staying at AK as planned but I didn't want to throw out the free picture coupon.
I told the girls we'd go over to EE really quickly and find someone to give it to. They were wondering how I would pick but as we walked up to the line, we spotted a newlywed couple in bride and groom Mickey ears ~ I said, "That's who gets it!". I'm sure it was a great picture and if the girls make it on EE this year, I'll buy the pic for them, LOL. ;)

This year I'll be sure to pack glow sticks from the dollar store ~ the kids will have such a blast passing them out! :thumbsup2

[psupple]

Stacey347...

I saw your tag and it made me laugh. I just watched that movie this morning... it never gets old :banana:

Sorry for the OT post... this thread is wonderful and has made me tear up a couple times!

[MommySiobhan]

What an awesome post:cutie: :love: :cutie:

Some of these stories have brought tears to my eyes. It's so great to see all of the small things that can make someone else's day. :wizard:

When dh and I traveled last year we had a 3 month old, 1.5 year old, 3 year old & 5 year old, a double and single stroller. We were offered help on and off of buses, an offer of lifting on a baby or offering a hand to one of the toddlers.
While it may seem like such a small action, it is such a huge and appreciated help.
I made sure to return this favor whenever possible. Dh gave up his seat lots of times and we also had the same offering when we'd have 3 sleeping kids. What a nice gesture.

I love the glow stick idea.
We only saw the nighttime show once last year (our first visit) and we saw it starting just as we were leaving dinner so we scrambled for a spot and dh desperately tried to reach one of the stands selling the spinners. It took about 15 minutes but the kids were ecstatic. I think it would be wonderful to spread some of that magic. I have about 20 pictures of the looks on their faces when they got those. :rotfl: It's one of their best memories I think. :hug:

[Skroops]

It is always a magical moment when people are nice to us, but especially to my DS(3).

At AK, while waiting for the train to return from Rafikis', a young couple gave our DS a little matchbox type car. He loved it! That was so sweet.

At Olivias at OKW, a server other than the one serving our table, noticed that our DS wasn't feeling very well. He was lethargic and looked over heated. (He seemed fine in the a.m., and we had been to the parks and were returning to the resort for lunch and nap time. He was getting progressively worse and refused to take childrens tylenol, so we placed a lunch order to go and we were sitting at a table waiting for it). This server (I think her name was Amy), just started talking with us, and tried to make our DS smile. He did, but you could just tell he was coming down with something. I told Amy that he wouldn't take the tylenol, and I was worried. With a wink, she took the tylenol and a few minutes later she came back to our table with a chocolate milkshake complete with whip cream and a cherry. Although I would have gladly paid for it, had I even thought of that, she gave it to us complimentary. It touched me so much that she even noticed our DS to begin with, and then to stop and help us; just meant so much to me. That is what is at the heart of WDW; people who genuinely care. I wrote a letter to the GM of Olivias, and then to WDW customer service. I recieved a phone call thanking me for my time to write the letter.

My BGF and I take an annual trip to WDW (girls only) (over 30 too!) and we wear tiarras the whole time. We buy them from the Disney store and bring them. When folks ask us what the celebration is about for wearing the tiarras, we reply that we truly are princesses that we can take this vacation while our DHs' watch over the little ones at home! (Seriously, where else in the world can grown women do this with little more than a glance? It is toooo fun!) Well our little give back, is that we find little girls at the end of our trip to pass them on to. It is funny that we've done that 3 trips now, and all of them have been very hesistant and thought we were crazy ladies. Ah well, it sure is fun!!!

[ascardino]

We just returned from an 8 night stay at BCV. Last Monday morning my family was walking from BCV to Epcot when a woman came up to us and generously gave all three of my children the special lanyards with the pins. She had two small children with her and said that she noticed that both of my older kids had their regular lanyards with their pins and said she would rather see them given to someone who actually collects/trades pins. I thanked her very much and asked her if she was sure that she didn't want to save them for her children for "someday" and she said no. My kids were very excited.

It was truly a wonderful thing to do and made our day!

[stemikger]

By nature I like to see people happy. A few times I got a fast pass I didn't need, I made sure to pay it forward to someone else. That one always gets a big thank you and smile.

My daughter goes to the arcade at Pop and gets tons of tickets, she usually gets something for herself and gives the rest of the tickets to a younger child.

[DisDarling]

Here are a few suggestions for those of you who are looking to spread some pixie dust on your next trip:

*Offer to take family's pics, we all know SOMEONE gets left out!
*Always offer your seat on the bus to someone else who needs it.
*Offer your help to anyone who needs assitance- disabled or not.
*Give away food, passes and such you aren't going to be able to use.
*Tell Cast Members how magical they have made your trip, carry thank you notes to surprise them! (Maybe postcards from your state!)
*Have your child make something for their favorite character-we did this with Jessie and the tears they were aflowing when my Emily gave a famred picture of herself in her costume to Jessie- PRECIOUS!!
*Buy the person behind you in line at a food cart a snack!
*Be willing to make room for others at parades and shows

Just a few I thought were always good too follow:)

[DisneyDreamerShu]

We paid it forward while on our trip last week. We had arranged priority seating at Fantasmic but decided not to use it since we had been able to see it earlier in the week so we passed the seating certificate onto a young newly married couple. We also had a fastpass for Expedition Everest that was available for 4 guests since our friends were with us the first part of the week and went home. We found 2 more guests to use those fastpasses with. We received a family's fastpasses from Splash mountain because they weren't able to use them, so it was a wonderful treat to take those and pay it forward. Thanks!

[ppiew]

You know, in reading all of the wonderful things folks have done for each other while on their vacations, I am certain that it encourages others to also 'pay it forward.' Bringing a smile to someone's face is truly wonderful. On our last trip in March, i can attest to seeing people doing happy things for strangers. I know it made the trip better for both givers and receivers. Magic creates magic - I hope more and more people continue to do these nice things and be considerate of others. It sure makes the world a happier place - and I am not just talking about Disney World!!!

[girlieeee]

I brought lots of Lion King stuffed animals (clearanced out at Toys R Us a while back) and gave them out. I asked all parents before offering them to their children. Most were thrilled, some were skeptical and one kid just plain out refused the doll. I also gave three teenagers fast passes that we werent going to use. They were excited.

[mystic_path]

I tried twice to share a bit of magic. Both seemed extremely successful.

I was taking supershuttle to the land when this family and this little boy who was about 6 or 7 years of age got on and sat beside my mom and I. The little boy was kind of in a grumpy mood, and since I adore kids I figured I would try and get him out of his little funk and spread a little disney magic.

I happened to be wearing a pirate Tshirt and pirate mickey ears and so I turned to the little boy who was clinging to his mum, and I started asking him if it was his first day at the land and if he had seen the pirates before. I told him hes gonna have to go meet Jack Sparrow and his crew down in New Orleans Square. I started pretending to be a pirate and making pirate noises and making pirate faces and comments. This little boy started to get right into it that he started singing Yo Ho a pirates life for me.

By the time we got to the park his parents were so thrilled I got him out of his mood. I felt good that I was able to spread a little bit of disney magic.


Another time was there was a young girl who was about 5 or 6 dressed in a sleeping beauty costume while standing infront o the castle while her parents were taking a picture of her, and she was so cute trying to pose like a princess I nearly melted. While I walked passed I gasped and bowed down to her and cried out "Oh Look at the beautiful Princess". LOL she was glowing and her parents laughed. OH How I wish I could work for disney. Kids amuse me so much. No wonder I work in an elementary school.

[diddldonna]

Wow what lovely stories, i have some plan to spread some magic for my holiday in November. Going to buy some pins etc. Oh another idea that comes to mind is carry some baby wipes around, you will be surprised at the amount of people we helped with by giving wipes to so they could clean up there little ones.

DONNA

[mkycrzy1971]

We just returned from WDW Tuesday night (May 15th)...my two girls (9 & 14) passed out glow sticks (approx 150 over the 7 nights)....we gave away the fastpasses that we decided not to use, I ended up getting two AAA diamond cards (discount cards) and gave one away to a very nice lady I sat beside on the bus (interesting conversation...she and her family live in Mexico!)...they thanked me over and over, had my nine year old set on my lap several times so mothers/fathers with babies, pregnate women, elderly, could have a seat, my husband & 14 year old gave up her seat in these situations also, finally, we received one complementary one-day adult pass as a "sorry" (neighbors had a MAJOR knock-down-drag out at 2am...my kids were woke up and crying hysterically...we had to call security...long story) since we could not stay an extra day, we decided to give it away to someone in the ticket line...found a nice family with a small child getting ready to purchase two adult and one child tickets....gave it to them...they were very shocked and appreciative! We had a great time....only wish POR bus service was a good as it used to be...not many buses running in comparison to other resorts.

[zippyhannah]

omg this thred go me so excited for my 1st ever trip i cant w8 to make disney magic of my own

[mkycrzy1971]

omg this thred go me so excited for my 1st ever trip i cant w8 to make disney magic of my own

I will be wishing for some pixie dust to be spread your way!! Have fun!

[cuppycake]

We always find someone at the pool the night before we are leaving to give all our extra unopened snacks (and beers and soda) to! It's fun chatting with people and then offering it all up. Makes ya feel good :goodvibes

[mkycrzy1971]

We always find someone at the pool the night before we are leaving to give all our extra unopened snacks (and beers and soda) to! It's fun chatting with people and then offering it all up. Makes ya feel good :goodvibes

What a great idea!! We left our unopened breakfast foods (muffins and such) in the room on the table figuring the maid may want them....a little extra mousekeeping tip I guess. But I never thought of giving them to someone you meet at the resort...Duhhh!! :confused3

[Piglets Mommy]

I love the glowstick ideas! I'll have to get some for our next trip. Not only can you spread some Pixie Dust, but the kids will be entertained while waiting for the show to start! We picked up a bunch of pins for $.99 one year at the Disney Store (back when they were still owned by Disney) and DS loved giving them out to kids he met.

[edcrbnsoul]

Someone was asking about nice things seen or done at the parks just giving it a bump.

[ILoveJack]

We are going to be bringing friendship bracelets and glow bracelets for my 2 DD's to pass out to other kids when we are there next month.

[LisaInNc]

I have bought a multiopack of bubbles and customized them with a different label and Disney stickers. My DD had one for waiting for parades and we gave the rest out to kids near us. They were so excited.

I also take little celo bags and put in some chocolates and make up a little note of thanks and hand them to CMs that are especially helpful.

I play VMK and I always bring extra quests, expecially the ones you have to print out at home and I hand them out to the people that didn't have them. I never know who is more excited, the kids getting the quest cards or the parents that they don't have to run around trying to figure out Quest answers any more.

The moment I am most proud of was my DDs idea. She made a friend in the princess line and was showing this girl her pins and lanyard and explained pin trading. A few minutes later she whispered to me may she give one of her pins away. I said they are her pins to do what she wants with. My 4 1/2 year old gave away one of her new Princess pins.

The Mom of the little girl seemed shocked and asked me if that was really ok. I responded that they are Grace's pins and she can do what she wants with them.

I was so proud of her.

[Piglets Mommy]

The moment I am most proud of was my DDs idea. She made a friend in the princess line and was showing this girl her pins and lanyard and explained pin trading. A few minutes later she whispered to me may she give one of her pins away. I said they are her pins to do what she wants with. My 4 1/2 year old gave away one of her new Princess pins.

The Mom of the little girl seemed shocked and asked me if that was really ok. I responded that they are Grace's pins and she can do what she wants with them.

I was so proud of her.

I think it's moments like that that let us know that we have done a good job as parents.:cloud9:

[quadroplet]

Last fall, we took a surprise weekend trip to WDW right around Halloween. We had done NO planning-- just happened to find cheap flights and a hotel and decided what the heck. My daughter was 2 and it was her first time at the parks that she could remember (she also went as an infant). I brought her Halloween costume (a princess dress, naturally) and let her wear it around.

On the day we left, we did the character breakfast at the Cape May Cafe, and while we were waiting to be seated, a very nice British woman came up to us and asked if my daughter would like a wand to go with her princess dress. She had bought a light-up Cinderella wand, but it had some sort of liquid in it and couldn't take it on their plane home. My daughter couldn't believe a stranger was giving her a nice present. She still remembers when the "nice lady gave me my princess wand" and plays with it often. It was a great lesson for her. :flower3:

[TheLastPrincess]

We were waiting for SpectroMagic to start. We had "front row" seats by the curb. It was crowded and dark, and a young family got squeezed in behind us. The parade started and I KNEW the little ones couldn't see. So after asking Mom if it was OK, I let them stand in front of me and even lifted one up so he could see better. They were delighted and ecstatic. It was their first trip. I had seen it before...it was more important to me that they see it the way it SHOULD be seen! :goodvibes

[MotoXPrincess99]

There's this "Grapper Machine" in Laughlin that has Fab 5 stuffed toys in it. They look just like the ones you can buy at Disneyland. Last time we where there I must have "grabbed" like 8 of them. Well we went to Disneyland on June 6th (my birthday) and broughtthe toys to hand out to little kids. I was amazed...First we had a hard time finding kids that looked deserving of one. Most of the little kids were bratty! We always asked the parents first and alot of them didn't want to take the toy. :confused: The ones that did, you could tell it made the kids day.

[Mad Tea Party]

all these nice gestures have really made me want to "spread the magic". I have lots of those Mickey stickers and i'm thinking of bringing them with me and rewarding well behaved and polite children :goodvibes

[Beep]

I've bought loads of small Disney Beanies to decorate our villa at the Boardwalk in September. It is my DBF birthday and I plan to give them out to kids afterwards in the parks.

I carry some small printed slips with me for the CM's and if someone does soemthing really nice I give them one of the slips. They say things like "You're a Star" with a cartoon star on it and thank you from us from England.

We've had FP's given to us in the past for Soarin' which was really nice. The wait time was horrendous and the FP's were for a time that we had a meal booked so we wouldn't have got to ride it.

The nicest thing was waiting in line for something at MK. Two kids were sitting on the floor drawing and colouring and heard us speaking to each other. One of the kids turns round and asks if we are English. We got chatting to him and his family about the differences between England and Michigan etc and had a great time. When the line started to move the kid gave me his drawing and said it was so I didn;t forget him.

That was years ago and I haven't forgotten him. And I still have the drawing.

I love it when people start chatting to us, it really makes my day.

[Belle1111]

I'll add my dd (13) to the list! We were at the DTD pin trading store and a little boy about 9 saw she has a specific pin on her lanyard and told her how awesome and it would finish his collection. He said he had tried to buy it from the pin traders outside but they wouldn't sell theirs. A few minutes later my dd said she wanted to find the little boy and she offered to trade it to him. He was so excited!!!! A few more minutes later his older sister found my dd and had been give a set of the pins where you keep one/give one and she gave it to my daughter to thank her for being nice to her brother.

We all had a warm fuzzy Disney moment! :goodvibes

[liz9132]

My husband and i and our daughter (4) went to disney in June we stayed for 8 days. We also purchased the dinning plan for those days. We stayed at POP. well lets just say at the end of our stay we still had some meals left over. so i picked out a family and the dad got a dinner on us and the child got a meal on us. it was so great, to give those people dinner instead of wasting what we had already paid for. The cashier even said, WOW a guest giving a guest a DREAM. Well we were already outside waiting to get onto our bus to come come and here comes out running the cashier looking for me, to give us Year of a Million Dream Tinkerbell pin for giving a guest a dream. that was so nice of them. It was great. it made out trip.:grouphug: :love:

[LittleLebowski]

I try to buy 20 pins on Ebay for tradingbefore our semi annual trips, and if I do not see any pins to trade, I start giving them out to kids, it is great fun!

[fumipappa]

It is not about what we did to others. Actually one old couple from NC made our day.

We were waiting for illumination start at the very front line at showcase plaza from 45min before the show start. I have two DDs(4&2 at that time) in sitting between my DW. Suddenly, 10-11yrs big boy came right in front of us and started waiting for the start of the show. Apparently, his parent did not care where he was. My DDs started to tell me that the boy was sometimes stomping their foot and blocking their sight. I was leaving the boy for a while because I could not tell him to move away at least until the show start.
Suddenly, the old couple next to us started talking to the boy. The gentleman told him kindly that he was stomping my DDs and ask him nicely to move back to his parents area because he was going to block my DDs' view.
The boy was whining a bit but the old couple convinced him to stay away from the area. I tried to say thank you but the how started immidiately afte the boy moved out, I cound not say thank you.

After the show, I told the couple that we really appreciate the action they took for us, especially for my DDs'. We found out that both of them were long time elementaly school teachers so they knew how to handle kids without offending. Also the lady told us that she could not help to say something to the boy because my DDs were so well behaved for a long time without showing any whine at all.(My DDs know the consequences of whining;) ) They hugged my DDs and said good bye. More than anything, the way gentleman convinced the boy, the complement from the lady really made our day.

[reginaastralis]

The best thing didn't happen to me, but to my friend and her husband. As they were leaving Pop, a man came up to them with a soft sided cooler. He asked my friend "Can you guys take this for me, we don't have room for it in the car." They said sure, and the guy winked, inside were 23 beers. My friend's husband thanked the man again and again, and the guy got into his car laughing his head off.

I always go out of my weigh at Disney to complement children, either for their princess dressed or costumes. We pass out glowsticks and lots of other things.

This didn't happen at Disney, but the time I spread the magic was at work. The little boy at a table was dressed in an astronaut costume. I walked up to him and asked him for his autograph. He was four, so he didn't know what that was. LOL. I asked him to sign my book, b/c I had never met a real life astronaut before. I had him then. We talked about him going to the moon, and I made sure to tell him that if he wants to go to space someday he needed to make sure to listen to his parents, eat his veggies and go to bed on time. His parents LOVED the attention, and so did he. He was the cutest little guy ever.

[snoopywoodstockus]

My DH and I purchased several Disney pins off of ebay before our trip. We purchased some that we wouldn't mind trading. While we were in the park, there was a family on the bus that asked what our lanyards were and where we got them from.

We spent a few minutes explaining the pin trading concept and the kids were facinated. They looked at us like we were gods :worship:

My DH and I asked each girl to pick a pin off our lanyards and they could have them. But we made them promise to be good and told them about the kid only trading cast members.

We saw them several times throughout our trip and each time they would wave :wave: and say to their mom "There are our North Carolina friends" :goodvibes

We have won several of the Year of a Million Dream Lanyards and pin sets via the postcard entries. We are going to take the extra ones on our DisneyWorld trip in December and see about giving them to people in the parks.

I hope these both count as Guests Spreading Disney Magic. Makes me feel good to brighten someone's day.

[kikiq]

We just got back from our trip and a wondeful CM started the magic by wishing us a magical trip and 32 more years of magic in our marriage. From that first day, it was like she had infused us to spend the magic. I gave away my pins to children in line, on the bus/boats, my dh gave away his bottle of water to a family that had just run out and looking for more,
and gave away fast passes in Epcot. I had the most fun taking pictures of families so that everyone could be in the pictures...remembering all the old pictures we have that only one of us is in the pictures with our kids at wdw.

[debbiet1]

I hope when we get to Disney if the Disney magic doesnt hit us we meet people like Snoopywoodstockus. And if the Disney magic does hit us I hope we can spread it too.

[Tink6666]

When we were in Disney in 2004, we met a family of 4 on the bus who had just bought a DVC membership, which came with a 2 day fast pass at all parks...well they were done for the day and were leaving the next morning and asked if we would be able to use them...of course we could we still had 3 more days of our trip left so, we were able to use the fast passes for about a day and a half since they had an exact 48 hour to expiration. It was great to be able to go up to a fast pass line, put the card in and have the currrent time come up and just walk onto the ride. We have since put these in our scrapbook as a memory of the kindness of others.

When we go in 10 days we will be sending postcard to 4 little kids that will be coming to WDW in September. Look at the paying it forward thread if you would like to do this also.:banana: :banana:

[debbiet1]

where abouts is the paying it forward thread?

[inkkognito]

I decided to wear my pin lanyard to the parks today for the first time in ages. In the drawer I also found a bunch of Castaway Club lanyards/pins. I sail Disney Cruise Line so much that I have several. I brought them with me to Epcot today and gave them to various CMs with trading lanyards. I asked them to give 'em to kids who might want to trade but who don't have a lanyard and pins. Hopefully that will help to spread a little magic to some young 'uns.

[zacharybsmom]

Hands down, our favorite magic moments occurred on the bus to and from the parks in August, thanks to "Steve the bus driver". His friendly personality and especially his "Disney Trivia" kept the whole bus happy. My son insisted on going wherever "Steve's" bus was going. If I knew who to get a hold of I would write the best letter to his boss.

[Mad Tea Party]

where abouts is the paying it forward thread?Here you go! :)
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=21173718#post21173718

[kimnkel]

This thread is wonderful! What a relief from the whining "I didn't get anything free from Disney" and the other threads complaining about "other" guests rude behavior.

I was beginning to wonder if there was any kindness left---this thread restores some faith.

We are going to be at WDW in December and I will be doing whatever I can to spread a little magic.

Thanks, all!

[brodyjen]

My DD's are still fairly young to get to be "helpers" much but we are always trying to find things that they can do on their own to make someone else feel better.

On this last trip, we spent the last two days letting each girl hand out some "pixie dust" for about an hour or so. I told them they could give it to anyone they wanted, as long as they asked the person first.

My older DD and I were waiting in line at the Stand-Up Comedy, and she noticed two sisters with their mom, one of whom was in a wheelchair and the other who had a birthday pin on. DD7 told me that she wanted to give pixie dust to the sister who's birthday it was, since "she probably doesn't get much attention, because her sister is in a wheelchair". She gave the birthday girl some pixie dust, and then we went right in to the show. Apparently, the girl was so pleased that as we left the show, she found us and gave DD7 a pin for her lanyard! DD7 was *so* pleased.

The next day, I had DD3 with me - and she decided that the people who needed pixie dust the most were the CM's who were emptying the trash and generally cleaning (I agree!). The maintenance workers were so kind to her, and treated the pixie dust like it was gold. Some handed her stickers, some had some pixie dust/confetti of their own to hand to her. She found 2 Dream Team members, and got Tink pins in return. The only CM who said no was at the Mark Twain, and he had on the dark blue suit - that stuff would have been a killer to get off, so I told DD3 not to worry about it.

The girls had more fun doing that than they did getting a Tink pin in return... we'll definitely do the same here at home (DLR).

[charity]

I had my DS3 pass out glow sticks at night! He loved giving things to other kids.
This time of year is a great time to get cheap glow sticks.

[SilverMickey]

To start our vacation a million years ago:

We were standing in line at the airport. A dad was taking his son (about 6) on vacation to WDW. My fresh hubby and I were headed out to WDW for our honeymoon. The dad and son didn't have seats together... The airline said they couldn't do anything the cabin was full.

My husband and I couldn't stand the thought of this small child flying with out his dad next to him. We gave up our seats even though it was our honey moon flights.

Well this made the family happy and the little guy couldn''t thank us enough. the flight attendant was so pleased. She held us aside util everyone else had been seated and she introduced us to the plane and then sat us in 1st class!

Talk about pixie dust!

[Mermaid_Ariel]

Felt the need to revive this thread! :banana:

At MVMCP on 12/11, while we were waiting for the first parade on Main Street - DF and I were trying to get a picture of us together. So, I'm trying to do the holding the camera out with an extended arm with us squished together. :hug:

When all of a sudden, a really nice guy walked up to us and offered to take our picture together. :banana: We thought that was so cool and thanked him!! Ever since he did that, I offered to take pictures for people the rest of the trip. It was so nice to see people's faces light up the way ours probably did! Love to spread magic! :woohoo:

[JoyMouse]

Taking pictures for people is nice. We've done it too, and had it done for us. It is good to have some vacation pics with us all in it for a change. On one trip, a family of four (just like us) was leaving for home and still had several meal vouchers left. They just gave them to us. It was so nice and kind of them. We surely did enjoy all of the food, there was tons of it from each meal! All of the kindnesses that you see there, wouldn't it be great to see them all over instead of just in the parks? What difference that would make in our world! Merry Christmas!

[Joie]

It was our last night 1/3/08 at the MK and we had 6 fastpasses for big thunder mountain for 615p-715p we had dinne reservations at tony's for 625 so we could not use them so i gave them to 3 guys randomly at tommorrowland they only had 15 mins to wait to ride and they could ride it 2 times in a row...they were truly excited they were like "wow!!!dreams do come true here" and calling me an angel... pretty funny but it was a good feeling i could do that now i guess that this is how the dream team feels every time they give away a prize

[distherapy]

These are great! Thanks for sharing - it really helps get me (even more) excited for our trip.

[cassmat]

Today we were made happy, lol!!
Standing in front of Test Track, no fast passes, 90 minute wait. A man came over, 5 passes and said they couldn't use them, would we like them? Oh yes, we thanked him profusely!

[PrincessKsMom]

Last trip was a mother/daughter trip w/DD10. We lined up very early for the parade in MK so we would have a good spot. Right as the parade started a very rude :mad: :mad: woman pushed her way from the back and pushed my DD out of the way. I said "excuse me" and she started ranting about how much money she paid and was not about to miss the parade. I told her we too had paid good money and had had the forethought to line up early. With that her equally nasty husband pushed through and began cursing me. The crowd around me started to notice and came to my defense. (There's a happy part -- and it's coming, I promise). Standing to our right was a young couple, probably late teens/early 20's. Anyway, the girl took my daughter by the shoulders and placed my DD directly in front of herself telling her she had been patient and deserved to see the parade. She also apologized for the other couples' rude behavior (even though she didn't know then). That kind gesture more than made up for the rude couple and also reaffirmed my faith in the younger generation.

One other magic moment on a different trip -- Cinderella dinner at Grand Floridian. We chatted with our server, Tony, who we found out happened to originally be from our area. It was nice to meet someone from home and when we asked for his autograph and picture with our daughter, he was shocked we'd want him in her autograph book. He's the only "person" in our daughter's book and we still think fondly of him to this day. Thanks Tony from Jersey City!

[john2u]

On Friday we were the lucky family to receive Dream Fast Passes coming off Its a Small World Attraction for all the major attractions in MK. My DW, DD, and myself were very excited to recieve this Dream.:thumbsup2 My daughter and myself used all of our fastpasses on the Dream ticket. Anyway when we were on the monorail going back to the resort, my DW was talking to a 10 yer old girl about the DREAMS we received that day in the park. Yes, we had 3 Dreams that day. The little girl said, "I see you won the magical dream mickey ears and fastpass." Anyway to make a long story short, the little girl was almost in tears that my wife gave her her dream fastpass. The mother was speakless at first and then said thank you soooo much and the little girl gave my wife a BIG huge.:cloud9: This made our vacation and there vacation very special. :)

thanks john

[toocherie]

Well, I couldn't believe how hard it was to give out 50 free necklaces. I encountered so many people saying no thanks or just walking by my DD7 trying to pass out some Magic....:confused3 Another woman even commented that we should have been on a 20/20 undercover assignment about how people are afraid to take free things, even at Disney. I tried and I hope that I made some childrens night a bit more Magical and fun!:wizard:

A couple of years ago a friend of mine gave me his box seats for the Hollywood Bowl--his only requirement was that we had to give out glow sticks at intermission--he bought a huge lot of them at the beginning of every season and it was his tradition to give 100 or so of them out to kids at intermission. Well, we did it--and also couldn't believe how hard it was to give them away! People are just so darned suspicious . . . . usually when I explained to the parent that it was really 'free' and that we didn't want anything in return other than the smile on their kid's face they would relent.

:confused3

[toocherie]

Two questions . . . . I noticed many people giving away unused DDP credits . . . I thought that the credits were non-transferable? I can see how you could get away with it for CS meals but do you have trouble with unused TS credits?

Second--has anyone ever encountered issues bringing in a bunch of glowsticks or other treats to the park? I would like to do this when I go to WDW in November.

Thanks!

[MotoXPrincess99]

A couple of years ago a friend of mine gave me his box seats for the Hollywood Bowl--his only requirement was that we had to give out glow sticks at intermission--he bought a huge lot of them at the beginning of every season and it was his tradition to give 100 or so of them out to kids at intermission. Well, we did it--and also couldn't believe how hard it was to give them away! People are just so darned suspicious . . . . usually when I explained to the parent that it was really 'free' and that we didn't want anything in return other than the smile on their kid's face they would relent.

:confused3

DBF and I once took a bunch of Disney stuffed animal (small ones, like beanine baby size) to DL. There's a grabber machine at the Edgewater in Laughlin that I win everytime. I have so many little Disney stuffed toys that DBF said I had to get rid of some. I didn't want to throw them out so we decided to give them away at DL. We always asked the parents first but most of the people said yes but they did kinda look at us funny. Maybe if we had had a kid with us and he/she was the one giving them out it would have been different? I don't know. We only had one person say no. It was nice to see how happy the kids were and you know how expensive stuffed animal are at DL.

[Melissa_E]

We had a guest spread some real magic to us. She gave DD4 her Dream Ears!!!
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/captain_hug99/Disney/katiedreamears.jpg

We were able to spread some magic by giving away a few extra fastpasses that we had and some of the extra light sticks we had.

[LVSWL]

Two questions . . . . I noticed many people giving away unused DDP credits . . . I thought that the credits were non-transferable? I can see how you could get away with it for CS meals but do you have trouble with unused TS credits?

Second--has anyone ever encountered issues bringing in a bunch of glowsticks or other treats to the park? I would like to do this when I go to WDW in November.


Thanks!
We took LOTS of glow bracelets to WDW one Christmas and passed them out. We always asked the parents before asking the children if they wanted one, then would let the child chose a color. Our kids had several on each wrist so they would see kids in line "eyeing" them and then would ask the parent and if they got the ok go from there. Almost everybody was thrilled to get one or more. One person asked how much $ we wanted :lmao:. We loved doing that. This year we would like to do it again. Also want to get some "mickey" playing cards and pass them out. We love to play cards while waiting in line and waiting for meals.

[#1 Stitchfan]

One time we stayed at the river side we got a Micky washcloth oragomi one a bed.:woohoo:

[frecklefacegirl]

We always take ponchos from the dollar store with us to stay dry on Kali River Rapids at AK...then look for people to give them to as we exit.

[Alex&Evan'sMom]

On our last night in MK we were dining at Crystal Palace. At the table next to us a very sweet little girl and her mother were celebrating the little girl's birthday. We were very tired and ready to go and we had 5 fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear. I decided to see if they wanted them. The mother was very appreciative and told me that's the only thing her daughter would ride so I was very glad I could help them. Also on the way out my mother saw a fellow grandmother that could barely walk and had a cane. My mother offered her the ecv rental with the promise she would return it when done. It felt so good to be helping out fellow disney world visitors!

[bennythepug]

when we arrived in Orlando we bought an umbrella stroller at Walmart. We didn't want to bring it back with us. When we arrived at the airport I saw a family that was getting their car rental as we were returning ours. They had a son about the same age as mine and we offered them our stroller. They were so grateful, they were going to rent one everyday at the parks. It felt good :lovestruc

[wdwtheplacetobe]

Two questions . . . . I noticed many people giving away unused DDP credits . . . I thought that the credits were non-transferable? I can see how you could get away with it for CS meals but do you have trouble with unused TS credits?

Second--has anyone ever encountered issues bringing in a bunch of glowsticks or other treats to the park? I would like to do this when I go to WDW in November.

Thanks!

We brought 50 glowsticks (transformed to necklaces) to MK in Dec 2006. We were meeting a group, so handed them out to them, and the rest to random people...the kids LOVE it, but ALWAYS asked permission and (of course) made sure every sibling got one!!! It is the Disney Way!!! It was FUN!!!

:dance3: :grouphug: :dance3:

We give out FastPasses on a regular basis....some people are skeptical, but all appreciative in the end.

My now Hubby says I should be a CM, because I am constantly giving directions and advice to guests that look "lost". It's fun to help.

[sharon_wv]

My story is a small thing compared to what others have written about, but whenever I think of this I get tears in my eyes.
We were at a gift shop at MGM on the first day of our trip. DS was wearing a buzz lightyear lanyard with a couple pins from the starter set we had purchased this morning. ( had no idea he would get into the whole pin thing so much! LOL) DS uses a wheelchair, has cerebral palsy and is nonverbal. A boy about 10 years old comes up to him and asks him if he has any pins to trade. I explain that he can't talk but would love to trade! DS had a huge smile on his face. You may wonder why this seemingly ordinary moment is so magical to me. It's because people are often hesitant around DS, don't say hi, etc. But this boy just seemed to be able to overlook DS's disability and concentrate on the pin trading! LOL He wasn't even fazed when I said DS can't talk. He just pointed at the pins on DS's lanyard to show which ones he liked.
Anyway I just wanted to share how a small thing to one person can make a big difference to someone else.:wizard:

What a beautiful story... it gave me the chills and brought tears to my eyes thinking how magical Disney makes everyone feel. Thanks for sharing it!

[sharon_wv]

::MickeyMo

I kind of feel like I'm tooting my horn, but I love telling this story. I was in WDW in 2002 and visited MK on a particularly busy day at the end of May. I was crossing the bridge from Main Street, USA to Adventureland and saw a man trying to take a picture of his family. Now, I've seen many people try to get a picture on this bridge with the castle in the background, and have much success. This man, however, despite his pleas to all that passed to stop for a moment, could not have his wish granted. The man and his family were African-American, and while I know the majority of the people walking by were just in a rush to get where they were going, I suspect a few were ignoring him simply because they have not realized the Civil War ended almost two centuries ago.

Those who know me know that I have a voice that naturally carries. The look on the man's face was sadness that he couldn't get a picture. So I stepped in and from the middle of the bridge asked everyone to stop for a moment, stepping in front of a few people to make sure they understood me. I said that this man just wanted to take a quick picture of his family. I received a few angry stares, but I didn't bother me. The man was about to take the picture when I told him that I would take it for him. He did not say anything because I he was so surprised that someone would do this for him. I took the picture and handed him his camera and began to alk away. He then said in a great southern drawl, "Wait! Hold on a minute!" I turned around, seeing a man drawn to tears. "Thank you for doing that. That was awesome. What's youre name?" I told him my name was Brian and he says, "Brian, you alright." His family then comes over and gives me a big group hug. They were crying and it made me cry happy tears and they said they would never forget this moment. I hope they don't. I never will.

ahhh... that's such a nice story... another one that brought a tear to my eye...

[drnlhome]

Now I don't normally "toot my horn" but this was a great teachable moment for my kids. Random acts of kindness you know!!

We went during Easter week last year. We were staying at POP and so you all know where the line for the bus is - feels like 20 miles away. We left EPCOT and were standing in line for the bus. There was a family with a stroller. The poor little girl was sleeping and the mom was trying to wake her up so she could collapse it. I honestly don't remember where her DH was so I offered to hold the little girl. Her mom looked so relieved. I got on the bus with her and held her the whole way back. My DS and DD were 9 and 7 at the time and so my arms were not really used to the carrying thing but the look on the mom's face was so worth it. The little girl even woke up at one point, looked at me and fell right back to sleep. So cute!!

[A's Princess]

The day before we were checking out 4 y/o DD insisted on getting a big Cars balloon as a souvenir for her friend Luke back home. We tried to explain we couldn't bring it on the plane but she had to have it - it was the only souvenir she wanted. So I bought it ($9! for a balloon!!!) and the rest of the day she beamed about Luke's balloon. Our plan was to deflate it and bring it back but then DD decided while we were checking out to give it away. We asked the concierge to give it to a boy who was checking in that day. So we snapped a picture of the balloon for Luke and hopefully made another boy happy.

Needless to say I was beyond proud of DD and will always smile when I think of that $9 balloon.

[jjctfields]

Typically, we would buy a weeks worth of Stroller rental. Without fail, we have a day or two left at the end of our time. We always look for someone lugging around thier bundle of joy, in addition to all the necessities of a toddler=multiple packs. Nothing is so sweet than to see thier faces light up. One time the young mom started to cry...we did too!

We have also given away fast passes to families. At the end of our time...sometimes we would go back to the hotel for a powernap to prepare for the evening...we will find people to give our passes.
We love playing Santa!!!

I think my dream job would be to be on the Dream Team Patrol!

[lilpnutmama]

We won four dream fastpasses in epcot but since our girls were too little to go on the majority of the eligible rides, dh gave them to a dad and his daughter. he was very happy.
we gave our tinkerbell "one to give" pin to a little girl with a nice collection of pins. her parents seemed very suspicious of us though for giving something for free.:rotfl2:

[Shelly888]

We gave away the last two seats on our illuminations cruise to a mom and her 9 year old daughter. It was fabulous!

[kxmeeh]

We were visiting WDW for Christmas and had tickets to the candle light procession with kirk cameron. well, it was our first night, and we were all exhausted. We got our stickers and dragged ourselves over to the american pavillion. it was too much, so i spotted a group of adults and gave them our tickets. they were so excited they didn't have to stand in line, because by this time, all the stand by section was gone. they were all from england, visiting for the holiday and I was happy that I was able to give them a little of what is important to me. On Christmas day, we walked around all the parks handing out stickers to all the kids we could. It was a little disheartening because parents were literally dragging their own children so fast they couldn't even grab a sticker in time. Since I had gotten about 2000 stickers to give out, we gave to every CM we saw too. She rcvd a special drink with a blue glowing ice cube from the CM's at the luau who said it was hers because she was so nice to share her stickers. It was a great last night before coming home.

[pjbeagle]

On our last trip we were lucky enough to get Dream Fast Passes as we got off BTMRR. We only had 2 hours left in MK before we had to catch our ride back to the airport. We did our best to use all the passes but had 3 left on each of the passes. I told my kids to look for a family on Main Street that we could give them away to. My son found one and we made their day. You would have thought we gave their daughter a million dollars. It made our already good trip even better.

Hope we can get some magic when we go back in August.

[LisaInNc]

.

[thomasclan85]

My little princess on our first visit to the world was scared to see fantasmic, so my wife and her stayed at the bottom of the hill waiting for me to get done watching the show. We had purchased about 50-60 glow sticks from a dollar store prior to leaving for the trip. anyway, my wife said emily wanted to get every little kid she saw a glow stick, so for the hour or so that fantasmic lasted she handed out glow sticks/necklaces to little kids that were walking past. it was one of the highlights of the trip for her. she still talks about how much fun it was to see the kids happy with the glow sticks. :yay:

Ahhhhhhhhhhh she sounds like such a sweetie pie.:hug:

[thomasclan85]

I was waiting in tomorrow land for the rest of my group to use the bathrooms and I spotted a little girl around 4yo sitting with her mother. The girl had on a beautiful white gown so I walked over and said "I can tell you are a princess. Which one are you?" She gave me a big grin and said "Cinderella Bride." I gave a huge gasp and said "I have never seen Cinderella Bride here before! Would you sign my map?" She looked at her mom and gave her a private smile like they were really putting one over on me and then signed my map in her cute, crooked writing. As I thanked her, her mother mouthed the words "Thank you." over her head. All of a sudden I realized that I had accidentally created a little magic. Yeah me!:yay:

What a wonderful thing to do. :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2

[Tink_Or_Belle]

when we were at WDW on the silver dining plan (it has been a few years do they even still offer that plan?) we were at Crystal Palace our last morning and had 18 extra meals or wishes or whatever they called them on that plan so we "bought" breakfast for 5 families around us (2 families of 5,1 family of 4 and 2 families of 2 I think our server had as much fun telling people they got free breakfast as we had giving it to people (we asked her to tell them it was from Pooh) as we were leaving the manager gave us a certificate about creating Magic Moments for others and gave us fast passes for any one ride!

[DisneyTones913]

2 Stories -

We were on our way back to the AKL from the parks in the bus and saw a mother with a son, husband, sleeping little girl, and a stroller. The son and husband were up front in the bus and the wife and her sleeping baby and her stroller were in the back by us. Anticipating a problem, my mom over to hold the little little girl. the mom was SO appreciative. The bus stopped and the mom got out with the stroller and my mom got out with the little girl. We walked up the path with them and the mother looked like she finally had a break! We got to the door of the hotel and everyone was really thankful for that little bit we did and we parted. Very nice to help out.

On my last trip, we were bus hopping at Saratoga Springs and I dropped my wallet. I realized it and since there was no one else on the bus, the bus driver SPED back to Saratoga springs and we searched everywhere. Feeling defeated, we got back on the bus and went back to the AKL. We got into our room and the little red light on the phone was blinking...who could it be? I called voicemail and it was the person with my wallet! Someone had found it, tracked me down, and called my room! We set up to meet at the entrance of AK the next day. We got there and waited...and waited...I was becoming skeptical. Then, a group of about 5 people came over and they had my wallet. I was so unbelievably appreciative! It was only the second day of our vacation and it would have really put a damper on things! They were a very incredible Southern family. We offered them a reward but they didnt take it and told me to give it to my favorite charity (i ran in a race for cancer since so i used it there!) I was just beaming and the guys shook my hand and the women became overwhelmed with the situation and gave me hugs and teared up. I too started to tear up. If i had been on vacation anywhere else, I would have never heard of that wallet again. But, Disney is different. If you are out there, I still thank you SO much!

[MontanaZoo]

We bought packs of glow bracelets at the dollar store (30 in a cylinder) and my DNiece 11 and I both took two bracelets and then handed out the rest of them to families at the P&PP. My DNiece thought I was crazy to do that but the families we gave them to were so appreciative, she was really impressed and really got into giving them away.

[sl_underwood]

Some things we did were giving up our seat on the bus for someone who appeared to need it more than us. Handing out glowsticks, took photos for people, shared a few snacks in line, gave away a few fast passes we neglected to use, dd missed alice because the little girl behind her was so excited to see Alice and cm stated dd was last so she let the little girl go instead. my older dd played with a toddler who was tired of waiting in line, she made silly faces and made her laugh. Some disney magic we received from others- a disney light up toy- a nice couple came over and gave one to dd, several people took photos for us, one gave up her seat on the bus for dd (poor kid was all over the place, she was just to tired to stand), I fell and scraped my leg up and several people were there with first aid kits ready to help. This trip, dd is giving away her princess costume, hopefully it will make another little girls trip magical.

[maizy1972]

OH, This thread makes me smile! It brings tears to my eyes thinking about this and what one family did for us.
On our first trip last march, We were entering Epcot at about lunch time and a family of 4 were just leaving. 2 wonderful ladies and 2 small children in strollers. They asked my MIL,D/S,D/H and I if we wanted their YOMD tickets. YES the ones that had all the magic fast passes on it!!
There was only a few gone off each one. I can't belive how thoughtful that was!! I mean she could have kept them as souviners <SPELT WRONG> but she thought nothing of it and asked if we would like them as we were a party of 4 as well!
I put them in my scrapbook and even wrote up in it about the random act of kindness from a complete stranger!
That is something I will never forget and I plan on paying the kindness forward on our next trip, although it wont be until mar 09.

[Laney1]

We leave in a week for WDW and I have been stocking up to spread some magic. We hit the Dollar store and got Disney yo-yos and glow sticks. Also, went to Disney Character Outlet and got some goodies to give away. My boys are so excited to be able to give something to someone else. We can't wait. Thanks for sharing all the magic that you have spread. We can't wait to share our stories when we get back. Shannon

[roxy83]

My family is visiting the world in December of this year. I am already planning on bringing some extra surprises with me for the trip. probably glow sticks, lolipops, etc. I can't tell you how many times I have pulled a lolipop out of my purse and gave it to a kid on the verge of a meltdown (asking the parents of course). Lolipops have magic in them....:rotfl:

I may try to find some other cool things to give out during the Christmas party. That is one of our favorite things to do at Disney and it would be cool to have some extra fun while there.

[anewvance]

I took my oldest daughter(8) to Disney last weekend for a mommy and me trip. We usually go to the Contemporary for lunch and to play in the game room once a trip. So we headed over there, played games and with her tickets she picked 3 tiaras that are silver and say Princess across them.

Later in the park we were sitting to watch Belles Storytime and we made room for a little girl and her grandmother to sit on the bench with us. My daughter asked me if she could give the little girl one of the tiaras and I said of course. The little girl loved it!

When we were on the monorail we started talking to a little girl who was with her grandparents visiting from England. We walked into the park together and went our seperate ways. We got on one of the motorcoaches that go from main street to the castle and the same family hops on. They tell us they are going to have tea with Cinderella in the castle. My daughter pulls out another tiara and gives it to her. The little girl was thrilled.

So my daughter had just her tiara left and needed to get another one for her sister so she begged me to go back to the Contemporary and she would use her money to play games to win more tiaras to hand out.

So the next day we went back, I got her $5 worth of tokens and she was playing when a teenage girl came up to us and told us they were leaving and would we like her card with credits on it. We thanked her and found out there was still over $20 worth of credits on the card. So we played a bunch of games and got another 8 tiaras.

My daughter had SO much fun handing out tiaras this trip... my younger daughter can't wait until her mommy and me trip in May so she can do the same thing.

By the way, these were REALLY nice tiaras for only 65 tickets... a pretty good deal for being Disney World!

[otisandmaggie]

Maybe I live in my own naive little dream world, but it kind of makes me sad that so many people are sceptical of someone doing something nice for them! I guess it's an indication of how rare a truely unselfish good deed is! I'm glad there are so many people here who go out of their way to turn that trend around a little bit. Hopefully some of those hesitant to accept a kindness will have their hearts soften a little so that some trust can grow there!:hug:

[ortholablady]

I've only read through a few pages of this thread so far, but I so love these stories.
I have a couple too. We always find someone to take fast passes if we can't use them.
Last year after DS15 was done spending some time in one of the arcades he must have had at least 100 tickets. Being a teenager he still likes to play the arcade games but isn't really interested in most of the prizes so he went up to a boy about 7 or 8 years old at the prize counter and gave him his tickets.
Another time we were on our last day at the Yacht Club and were sitting on the porch by the pool after our last swim. We had bought pool noodles for SAB while we were there and certainly wouldn't be trying to fly home with them. As we were getting up a lady asked if we were done with our chairs and we said yes. I asked her if she had any use for 2 noodles and she said really? my sons would love that! Turns out she was waiting for her husband and 2 sons and it was their first day. She was very appreciative.

[disneydad78]

We had fast passes that they gave us for touring Disney vacation club. We had 7 credit card fast passes that had 5 board now fast passes on them. It was our last day at disney, we did not get to use all of them , so we looked around for a family to give them to. When we stopped them to talk, they looked surprised,and almost like why are you stopping me. When we explanned what we had and that we where giving the fast passes to them.They didnt get all emotional, just said thank you and walked off.O well it still a magical moment for us!:)

[marciemouse]

Thanks to the person that started this thread! All the stories are inspiring and so fun to read!


http://www.mickeypath.com/id/1207848428.jpg
('http://www.mickeypath.com/')

[Grendalynn]

:surfweb: Not sure if this has been mentioned or not, and it really isnt anything huge or super moving... We just got back from WDW yesterday. I made a point to offer to take pictures for people so that they could have a nice family picture with both mom or dad or all family members included. And its free - no photo pass needed! I have many great pictures of my kids and only myself or DH in the shot - someone has to take a picture! I always appreciate it when people offer to take our picture, rather than asking someone near by awkwardly if they wouldnt mind taking ours, so I was sure to offer at leat 2x a day while we were there. Nothing out of the way, just folks near by that might appreciate the gesture - and they did! :goodvibes

[Figment's Friend]

:lovestruc
Reading all of these positive, selfless acts make me really happy! What a great thread.

It really is the happiest place on earth....

[eyeore]

a very kind lady let my ds7,ds7(in wheelchair),ds12 stand in her front row place for the mgm parade. she then disappeared only to reappear at the end of the parade bearing year of a million dreams hats for each of my sons! i was blown away by her kindness.

[robinc71]

This is a wonderful thread. Needed tissues to read the whole thing. It is so comforting to see how the small things can make a big difference. Can't wait to go back in September. We shared glow sticks the last time. Going to do it again. My DD7 will want to share the magic.

[Weluvdisny]

We gave away some FP that we weren't going to use and the people we gave them to acted like they just won the lottery. They were so appreciative!! It made me feel so good.

[Wendy5055]

I had an extra days Stroller Rental and gave it to a couple with a child. They were shocked, but accepted the ticket and thanked me!!!

It is such a nice feeling giving others a little something...my DD6 says she feels "like my heart wants to have a party".:lovestruc

[SunnieRN]

When I go to disneyland I always bring extra ponchos from the $ store, light sticks to give to the kids who wait patiently for fantasmic or parades and sedesma pins for the kids who want to trade with me but don't have anything I need...I just tell them "here you go, I'm not trading tonight but you can have this pin"...usually makes them happy!!
I did have an experience though where I was sitting on a bench. A little girl about 4 started looking at my pins and asked me questions about them. She didn't have pins of her own and didn't know about pin trading. I gave her a couple of pins that I use as traders and told her she could trade them with cast members, especially the ones wearing the green lanyards. Can you believe her mom wouldn't allow her to take the pins?
She was fine with us talking...even asked me to watch her daughter while she went to the restroom (which I would never have asked a stranger), but then she wouldn't allow her to accept the pins...

[liv4pixiedust]

Last Nov I was at WDW with my mom, my grandmother, and my aunt - 4 grown women walking around in tiaras I made as a surprise for everyone! Inspired by this thread, I took lots of little things to hand out to kids during the trip. I found free clip art images of princesses and characters, crammed as many onto a page as I could, and printed them onto temporary tattoo paper. I also raided the Dollar store for little trinkets and put them into bags of 'pixie dust' (glittery confetti). Whenever we saw brothers and sisters being nice to each other or being REALLY patient or just plain being cute, we gave out trinkets that the Fairy Godmother or Tinkerbell had asked us to give away. We always asked their parents first and has some great conversations. We even gave away our tiaras on the last morning at breakfast.

Occasionally parents seemed to think we were scary people plotting to steal their kiddies, but most people thought it was great. We had a ball giving everything away and I can't wait to do it on our next trip!

[unknownname]

I got to do a couple "magical" things. So that was fun..
Than on the drive way home wasn't very magical but this persons gas cap was hanging by a thread on there car and I told my mom to honk at them so I could get there attention to tell them. And it worked. <3

[canadianmom2three]

Our kids did the glow stick give a way too, and I was surprised by the number of kids that wouldn't take them, or whose parents said no.....It wasn't like it was DH or I that was trying to give them, it was mostly DD8 and DS 10, and still a lot of times they were turned down. They were a little discouraged at first, but the kids who were delighted and really appreciative made up for it. I remember one of the kids who had said no at first, coming back over to where my kids were sitting after a bit, and her dad explaining that they don't speak english well, and the little girl just hadn't understood, and then she was really happy when the kids gave her a bracelet, and necklace too, so that was kind of neat.

Also DH almost killed me for this one, but we were in line (REALLY LONG checkout line at breakfast at the resort food court) and we had finally made it almost to the front. The woman in front of us went to cash out, and when she started looking in her pockets for the cash, she couldn't find it. She was panicked, and her kids were all with her, and she was getting upset and starting to cry a bit, cause we had all waited sooooo long, I just couldn't stand to watch, so I said to the cashier to just charge it all to my room. It wasn't a fortune or anything, but it wasn't cheap either, and DH was totally giving me the eye, but I said to him after, if it was me in her place, with our three kids who had just waited in line for 20 minutes for our breakfast, and I had lost my money, or whatever, I would hope someone might do the same for us. Anyway, it turned out that when we came back to our room that night, there was a message on our machine from the woman, thanking us very much and saying how she had managed to get the CM to help her figure out how to get the money credited back to my room for me, which I was actually really amazed by, as was DH.

[toocherie]

Also DH almost killed me for this one, but we were in line (REALLY LONG checkout line at breakfast at the resort food court) and we had finally made it almost to the front. The woman in front of us went to cash out, and when she started looking in her pockets for the cash, she couldn't find it. She was panicked, and her kids were all with her, and she was getting upset and starting to cry a bit, cause we had all waited sooooo long, I just couldn't stand to watch, so I said to the cashier to just charge it all to my room. It wasn't a fortune or anything, but it wasn't cheap either, and DH was totally giving me the eye, but I said to him after, if it was me in her place, with our three kids who had just waited in line for 20 minutes for our breakfast, and I had lost my money, or whatever, I would hope someone might do the same for us. Anyway, it turned out that when we came back to our room that night, there was a message on our machine from the woman, thanking us very much and saying how she had managed to get the CM to help her figure out how to get the money credited back to my room for me, which I was actually really amazed by, as was DH.

What a GREAT story! :thumbsup2

[marvali]

Our kids did the glow stick give a way too, and I was surprised by the number of kids that wouldn't take them, or whose parents said no.....It wasn't like it was DH or I that was trying to give them, it was mostly DD8 and DS 10, and still a lot of times they were turned down. They were a little discouraged at first, but the kids who were delighted and really appreciative made up for it. I remember one of the kids who had said no at first, coming back over to where my kids were sitting after a bit, and her dad explaining that they don't speak english well, and the little girl just hadn't understood, and then she was really happy when the kids gave her a bracelet, and necklace too, so that was kind of neat.

Also DH almost killed me for this one, but we were in line (REALLY LONG checkout line at breakfast at the resort food court) and we had finally made it almost to the front. The woman in front of us went to cash out, and when she started looking in her pockets for the cash, she couldn't find it. She was panicked, and her kids were all with her, and she was getting upset and starting to cry a bit, cause we had all waited sooooo long, I just couldn't stand to watch, so I said to the cashier to just charge it all to my room. It wasn't a fortune or anything, but it wasn't cheap either, and DH was totally giving me the eye, but I said to him after, if it was me in her place, with our three kids who had just waited in line for 20 minutes for our breakfast, and I had lost my money, or whatever, I would hope someone might do the same for us. Anyway, it turned out that when we came back to our room that night, there was a message on our machine from the woman, thanking us very much and saying how she had managed to get the CM to help her figure out how to get the money credited back to my room for me, which I was actually really amazed by, as was DH.
That is really a wonderful story! I have on occasion done something similar (not big, but a little something) with the very thought in my head that it would be nice if my family was in that situation and somebody did something to help.

After hearing your story I will try to actually look (instead of my normal oblivious) for more opportunities to help out when I can. Going to make for a much different and interesting trip to WDW this summer.

[wannabePRINCESS]

An older couple gave my son and friend what was left of their dream fastpasses at AK last Saturday. Everest was still on it! We had regular Fastpasses so my 10 year old went on twice in a row. :woohoo:
And we were at Fantasmic our last night on Monday and got to talking to the people behind us....it was their first visit and the little girl was so thrilled to be there. I noticed she was dressed in Minnie Mouse stuff so I gave her a Minnie pin off my lanyard. She gave me such a huge SMILE and a THANK YOU!Also gave 2 princess pins on my lanyard to 2 little girls I noticed with birthday buttons on. They were thrilled too!:banana:
It's so fun to spread the magic!

[MiMi2Three]

We went in Feb. and DGD4 was upset to be missing her Valentine party at pre-school, so we let her take Valentines and give them out in the park. She gave them to other children, a few CMs, some of the characters, and some senior adults. She gave them out each day during the week of Valentines Day, probably about 100 of them. At first she was a little timid, but later on she would scan the crowd and see who "needed" a Valentine. It was a great lesson in better to give than to receive.

[SunnieRN]

We went in Feb. and DGD4 was upset to be missing her Valentine party at pre-school, so we let her take Valentines and give them out in the park. She gave them to other children, a few CMs, some of the characters, and some senior adults. She gave them out each day during the week of Valentines Day, probably about 100 of them. At first she was a little timid, but later on she would scan the crowd and see who "needed" a Valentine. It was a great lesson in better to give than to receive.

That is so sweet!! What a great idea!

[musicmama]

Last year, on our last day, we "finally" got found by the Dream Squad at the end of Peter Pan's Flight. Lanyards and pins. DD was happy because we'd seen people with lanyards and with the FPs but never the Dream Squad.

When we got back home, we went to one of the local fairs with friends of hers from elementary school - they had all graduated 8th grade and were about to start high school. One of her friends had gone with his mom on a Disney Cruise / WDW vacation and had just gotten back before we went to the fair. They never saw the Dream Squad in their 3 days, and he'd told DD how lucky she was. He's a big pin collector, so, the night we met at the fair, I gave him my unopened lanyard and pins. You should have seen the boy's face - he was so surprised - and his mom kept asking me why I didn't keep it for myself.

[Mrs Doubtfire]

I love this thread :)

We have given away FP and received them from other kind guests - my DD went on TT twice as one young boy gave her a couple of FP when she was going on the ride.

[PiperMickey]

I have been to WDW a no. of times...

One of the things my DH and I enjoy doing the most is, buying a big Mickey/Minnie balloon...and finding a child who looks like they would really LOVE it...and giving it to them....with parents permission of course...Its so great to see the face light up over the unexpected surprise....Worth every bit of that $6.

We did that on our way home one time. We were in the lobby waiting for the Magical Express feeling low about having to go home. Both of my kids had those balloons and were worried about having to leave it at the airport. After reading these boards, I asked them if they wanted to find kids who looked liek they could use some magic to give it to.

They were both so happy after they did that.

This trip (just got back yesterday) half our group decided to go back to the hotel rather than wait for our JC fastpasses. I found a haggard looking father on the back of the regular line and gave them to him. He looked confused until I pointed out that he could go on right away.

The magic always comes back one way or another as we had an outstanding Bus driver who helped us out. But that is another story for another thread.:wizard:

[mommycrawford]

Last summer my daughter and I brought princess, pirate, and tinkerbell stickers to the parks, so anytime we saw a child getting cranky on line we would try to distract them by offering them their choice of stickers....:lovestruc

My daughter is 9 and sized out of Disney costumes at 8, :laundy: so this year we are bringing a bunch of crowns and tiaras to give away. We know all too well what it's like to be short of pocket money, so if we can give a smile with something inexpensive or out grown,...well isn't that why we're all here? :angel:

[scarlet_ibis]

We had CRT reservations one morning and were waiting with my two princesses to take a picture with the Walt & Mickey statue in front of the castle. A CM was wiping the dew off of it and drying it down, so I snapped a picture. He came over and gave my girls each a YoMD Tinkerbell pin set, "One for you, one to give."

When we got to the line for CRT, there was a family with 3 girls in front of us, and the littlest girl was BBB'ed up as Tink. I asked her grandma if it would be okay to share the pin with her and, with her approval, my DDs gave her the "share" pin. Her mom and grandma were almost in tears. They said that so often their little Tink gets overlooked with two big sisters and they were just delighted that she had gotten that special treat.

So Disney had a hand in that one, but we got some of the thrill.

I also like the glow stick idea. I got a TON on clearance at le Mart de Wal after Halloween last year and will have to try to remember to bring them. (They are also great for power outages at home, by the way!)

[squirrel]

When I took my niece in Sept. 2007 to Disneyland I had made up extra "I Spy" bottles so that she could give them out.

She gave one to a little boy who was waiting beside us for the parade to start. The mother thought we wanted it back after the parade.

She gave another one to a mother at a table near us one evening who was waiting with her children for her husband to bring the food. She hadn't seen anything like it and thought they were a good idea.

I gave a princess candy bracelet to a mother with a little girl (around 2yr). The little girl had fun eating it while the Storybook Aladdin was going on. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how messy they are for a young child and the mom had to go and get wet wipe to clean her up! If your on the Dis Boards-I'm sorry.

I also had balloons at the airport that we blew up and left behind for some children.

I'm planning on giving away more little things this year. We can only fly with one bag and a carry on each this time. Probably some lollipops, glow sticks, etc.

PS- If you haven't heard of the I Spy bottle this is what you do:
Get an empty water/pop bottle and put some rice inside, add some small things (button, confetti, penny, foam shapes, mini toy, candle, etc), add more rice and keep alternating until it is almost full. You need to leave some room for the items to move around so you can find them. Crazy glue or hot glue the lid to the bottle. Then you can find items or play other games like how many green things can you find?

[Steven41782]

Guys listen up: Send your wife a dozen roses on the first day of your vacation. On the last night let your wife/ daughters give the roses away to twelve little princesses.

That is how you score major points.

Your Welcome,
Steven

[robinc71]

Guys listen up: Send your wife a dozen roses on the first day of your vacation. On the last night let your wife/ daughters give the roses away to twelve little princesses.

That is how you score major points.

Your Welcome,
Steven

Awwwww. Do you have an available brother just like you? What a wonderful idea to pay it forward before going home

[PammyJJane]

I'm only on page two so far - it's such a big thread and I'm new here, so I won't get to read it all tonight - but I think it's the best thread I've ever read. Definitely getting a little teary. :)

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

What :goodvibesa perfect thread.:goodvibes

I tried to make a Year of a Million Dreams come true for a very special family in our lives.
They went to WDW for the first time that the kids can remember so I wanted to do something special for them & show them how much we appreciate them.

I made a "surprise" envelope filled with confetti & clues for their special suprise day from us.
I bought them tickets to the P&PP........made them a treasure map & their adventure started with the first clue (photos & addresses) was to be at WCC at 4:45 for dinner....then the map took them to the dock for the MK boat. I had "fun facts" about the lakes & CR also on the map and then when they passed the CR the map instructed them to open the last envelope & there were the tickets for the party, they had an unbelievable "Year of a Million Dreams" suprise!:dance3:

The stories they told with so much excitement was overwhelming!!!!! They bought us home a "Year of a Million Dreams" Suprise!

[phisigprincess]

This was actually in Disneyland a few weeks ago. It was our first (and probably only - due to location, not enjoyment factor) trip to DL and we decided to try to get on some rides while the parade was going on in hopes that the lines would be shorter. As we were walking in, a girl stopped me and told me that she and her friend had won the extra hour in the parks in the YOAMD and they couldn't use them. She gave them to us and told us to have a great time.

It turned out to be the most magical part of our vacation. DH was beyond thrilled, as he had never been to WDW during E-Ticket nights (how I miss them!) and never experienced a park that empty. So we didn't really "win" from the dream team, but we definitely won during the YOAMD thanks to those people.

[octoberprincess]

While waiting for fantasmic to start on our Oct '07 trip to Disney to celebrate my b-day a guest who was sitting next to us noticed I was wearing a b-day button and bought me a light up mickey mouse =)

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Not at WDW - but a few years ago we were visiting the town of Celebration. My DD was buying a bookmark for her Great Gran (only a few $) from one of the stores. The lady in front had made a large purchase and the sales lady said she was entitiled to one of the 'Celebration snow globes' - to which she replied she already had one & could she think of someone to give it to - perhaps this young girl behind her in the queue? Well, what a lovely gesture :) To this day the snow globe has pride of place on my DD's shelf in her bedroom.

Thank you:thumbsup2

[tyniknate]

In Nov. 2006 my DH and I went to WDW for our 10 yr anniv. We were spending the day in Epcot and decided to have dinner at the Rose & Crown. We couldn't get inside to eat so we went to the walk up window instead. Place was pretty crowded so I went to look for a seat while my husband ordered. I found a place and put our stuff down, then went to get condiments for our dinner. While there an older gentleman (late 80s-early 90s) was wandering around looking lost and tired. I struck up a conversation by asking what was good to eat on the fish. Well, did he have the answer. I stood and talked to him until my husband came around the corner with our meals and then I said goodbye. When I reached my seat the man was still wandering around looking for a seat. I had to ask him to have dinner with us. Turns out it was my favorite part of the trip. He has been to Disney twice a year for the past twenty years with his wife, children and grandchildren. His wife had passed away that spring and he decided to continue the tradition by himself. We had the most wonderful conversation about his life, his wife and our children. An evening well spent! Makes me teary just thinking about it. I often think of him.

[mrs_hower726]

Last Friday afternoon when my DH and I entered MGM at approx. 3pm, a lady came up to us and asked us if we wanted the dream Fastpasses that her family wasn't going to use! They only one they rode with the passes was Star Tours! It definetely made our evening!

[toocherie]

PS- If you haven't heard of the I Spy bottle this is what you do:
Get an empty water/pop bottle and put some rice inside, add some small things (button, confetti, penny, foam shapes, mini toy, candle, etc), add more rice and keep alternating until it is almost full. You need to leave some room for the items to move around so you can find them. Crazy glue or hot glue the lid to the bottle. Then you can find items or play other games like how many green things can you find?

What a cute idea! LOL--although with the price of rice lately this could get spendy! Might have to think of another "filler" to use! But I love the thought!

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

What a cute idea! LOL--although with the price of rice lately this could get spendy! Might have to think of another "filler" to use! But I love the thought!

Very cute idea! I was thinking about the shipping peanuts, I wonder if that would work.

[toocherie]

Very cute idea! I was thinking about the shipping peanuts, I wonder if that would work.

I thought of that too--but they may not be fine enough to get the effect that I think the rice would give you--hmmm. will have to think on this one. or just go to Costco and buy rice!

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

I thought of that too--but they may not be fine enough to get the effect that I think the rice would give you--hmmm. will have to think on this one. or just go to Costco and buy rice!

Confetti could really be cute! Maybe I'll try that, they also make Mickey head confetti so I could mix that in with regular paper confetti.

[stitchywoman]

My sisters and I always try to do something little when we go to disneyland. I don't know what it is, but Disney brings out the best in people. I hope my husband and I get the chance to do something while we are on our honeymoon in August. I think it would be a wonderful thing for us to remember our honeymoon for. I'd like to be able to get something to bring home too, to give to the rest of the soldiers in his unit when he gets back from leave. They let him on leave because he asked over a year in advance, but since the whole unit got stop lossed, no one has been able to take leave unless a family member is dying. Does anyone have any ideas of little things we could get them that would be a good boost?

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

My sisters and I always try to do something little when we go to disneyland. I don't know what it is, but Disney brings out the best in people. I hope my husband and I get the chance to do something while we are on our honeymoon in August. I think it would be a wonderful thing for us to remember our honeymoon for. I'd like to be able to get something to bring home too, to give to the rest of the soldiers in his unit when he gets back from leave. They let him on leave because he asked over a year in advance, but since the whole unit got stop lossed, no one has been able to take leave unless a family member is dying. Does anyone have any ideas of little things we could get them that would be a good boost?

I don't know what price point you are looking for or how many soldiers but I would think very small Mickey's sent on their behalf to their children, spouse, parents & Grandparents might be something to think about.

If you want something more general maybe Mickey pens & pads to write to loved one at home.
You could put a little photo book together with all Americana spots at Disney at that might be a nice way for people to pass a little bit of happiness & home around.

[AussieDad123]

I can't wait to be part of this magic

[mikkiwikki]

In Nov. 2006 my DH and I went to WDW for our 10 yr anniv. We were spending the day in Epcot and decided to have dinner at the Rose & Crown. We couldn't get inside to eat so we went to the walk up window instead. Place was pretty crowded so I went to look for a seat while my husband ordered. I found a place and put our stuff down, then went to get condiments for our dinner. While there an older gentleman (late 80s-early 90s) was wandering around looking lost and tired. I struck up a conversation by asking what was good to eat on the fish. Well, did he have the answer. I stood and talked to him until my husband came around the corner with our meals and then I said goodbye. When I reached my seat the man was still wandering around looking for a seat. I had to ask him to have dinner with us. Turns out it was my favorite part of the trip. He has been to Disney twice a year for the past twenty years with his wife, children and grandchildren. His wife had passed away that spring and he decided to continue the tradition by himself. We had the most wonderful conversation about his life, his wife and our children. An evening well spent! Makes me teary just thinking about it. I often think of him.

KUDOS for you. Too often we disregard our senior citizenry. I love this story. I wish we all could be this kindhearted and accepting in general society. Imagine the affect!:goodvibes

[princessdisneybelle]

My sisters and I always try to do something little when we go to disneyland. I don't know what it is, but Disney brings out the best in people. I hope my husband and I get the chance to do something while we are on our honeymoon in August. I think it would be a wonderful thing for us to remember our honeymoon for. I'd like to be able to get something to bring home too, to give to the rest of the soldiers in his unit when he gets back from leave. They let him on leave because he asked over a year in advance, but since the whole unit got stop lossed, no one has been able to take leave unless a family member is dying. Does anyone have any ideas of little things we could get them that would be a good boost?

My Dad leaves for Iraq early next week and I can tell you eventhough I am not little anymore it is really hard. I would definately say something small for their kids or spouses. I am sure that would bring more happiness for the soldiers. Hmm... how about going to guest relations when you are there and see if they have any suggestions? They might be able to think of some Magic that wouldn't cost you a fortune.

I hope you have a wonderful honeymoon and your husband and his unit stays safe.

Oh one more idea. Do they have bricks at Disneyland? or something like that. You could do it in the unit's honor and take a pic and have it framed for them maybe.

[stitchywoman]

My Dad leaves for Iraq early next week and I can tell you eventhough I am not little anymore it is really hard. I would definately say something small for their kids or spouses. I am sure that would bring more happiness for the soldiers. Hmm... how about going to guest relations when you are there and see if they have any suggestions? They might be able to think of some Magic that wouldn't cost you a fortune.

I hope you have a wonderful honeymoon and your husband and his unit stays safe.

Oh one more idea. Do they have bricks at Disneyland? or something like that. You could do it in the unit's honor and take a pic and have it framed for them maybe.


I'm sorry about your dad....it never does seem to get easier....

I love the brick idea....I think things for the families back home would be really nice too.

Thank everyone for the wonderful ideas. You guys are already spreading the disney cheer my way!

[fall08CP]

Today I was at AK with a roommate and a family gave us their necklaces of dream fastpasses! We were soooooo excited! They were leaving for the day and too scared to ride EE so we ran into line and bypassed the 40 min wait :) It was so nice of them.

[hvandiver]

On our first day at the Magic Kingdom during our latest trip (May 22-31), a family bought our breakfast at Crystal Palace with their unused meal tickets from their DDP. We were just amazed! My dh and I, without even talking about it, decided we would have to do something cool for a family sometime during our trip.

Just as our "dream family" bestowed that wonderful gift during their last day at the park, we also gave a little gift our last day. We got fastpasses for a ride for a family of 4, and the fastpasses were for a time long after we had to leave. So, when a lady came up to me and asked if "Toy Story Mania" was worth the wait--it was opening day, afterall, so the lines were 90 minutes--I asked if she had ever ridden it. She said no, and when she told me she had 2 boys and herself and dh, I was very happy to hand over our fastpasses. I told her to definitely come back that night to ride TSM, and that it was Definitely worth it. Then, our family stood in that 90 minute line and rode TSM--for the ninth time that week. I think we were MUCH happier to have given her the fastpasses than she was--though she had a huge smile on her face when we parted.

[proudmomof4]

bumping to hear about more Disney magic

[NWOhioAngela]

We've given our glow necklaces away too.

This past October, we were standing in line for the Hoop dee do review and there was a cute little princess dressed as Cinderella. I fawned over her and asked if she was the REAL Cinderella. She was very shy, but signed her name when I asked for her autograph. When she wasnt looking, I tore it out of my book and passed it to her mom. I hope the took it home for their scrapbook.

[kkmickey]

I am going to have to sit down and read the whole thing when I have more time.

Some things we have done are to buy Disney stickers and snacks (sometimes at the grocery store you can find princess fruit snacks, etc.) and give them to kids waiting in line. It is SO hard to wait in line. Whenever we order tickets with AAA, we always give those pins away. One year we went on a tour at DL and a WDW cast member was on the tour with us. She had come to California with a friend, but her friend had an emergency and had to leave. It was our last day, but we invited the CM to hang out with us the rest of the day, and then I gave her my DL guide books to enjoy for the rest of her trip.

For my upcoming trip (in TWO weeks) :santa: I have little stockings with Mickey Mouse dum dum flavored candy canes (like the dum dum suckers) and little flashing Christmas pins with notes to extra helpful cast members, but I think I will make enough to give out here and there in the park as well.

Also, when I am standing in line before rope drop, I usually end up talking to guests who have never been to Disney before, and I try to give them my best tips - how to use fp, what to see, what to avoid, etc

[TroyE]

That was pretty cool. I hope these stories continue.

We've given our glow necklaces away too.

This past October, we were standing in line for the Hoop dee do review and there was a cute little princess dressed as Cinderella. I fawned over her and asked if she was the REAL Cinderella. She was very shy, but signed her name when I asked for her autograph. When she wasnt looking, I tore it out of my book and passed it to her mom. I hope the took it home for their scrapbook.

[scarlet_ibis]

We gave away our Toy Story Mania fast passes to a family just entering the park in the afternoon. The fast passes for the day were long gone and we had to leave for our ADRs before we could use them, but these folks could take a leisurely walk back and walk right on.

[scotas]

I had a very wonderful woman help me at DTD. DH and I were waiting in line for a bus back to POP. We were near the front of the line. Somehow a second line started, going in the opposite direction. I'm not one to stress and naively assumed that we would still be able to get on the bus. As I started to climb in a woman actually grabbed me by the back of my shirt and pulled me off the bus. I twisted my ankle something awful and could not get back up. Nobody seemed to care as they all started walking around me to board.

Finally a very nice woman from Australia stopped and help dh get me over to the bench. We waited there for the next bus. The woman waited at the front and when the next bus arrived, she explained what happened so I was able to hobble on before the crowd. When we got off at the resort, she went and got a wheelchair while Dh helped me off the bus.

[koolaidmoms]

I had a very wonderful woman help me at DTD. DH and I were waiting in line for a bus back to POP. We were near the front of the line. Somehow a second line started, going in the opposite direction. I'm not one to stress and naively assumed that we would still be able to get on the bus. As I started to climb in a woman actually grabbed me by the back of my shirt and pulled me off the bus. I twisted my ankle something awful and could not get back up. Nobody seemed to care as they all started walking around me to board.

Finally a very nice woman from Australia stopped and help dh get me over to the bench. We waited there for the next bus. The woman waited at the front and when the next bus arrived, she explained what happened so I was able to hobble on before the crowd. When we got off at the resort, she went and got a wheelchair while Dh helped me off the bus.

I am so sorry to hear of behaviour such as this! What even astounds me more is that the others walked around you without even stopping to see if you were okay, if they could help or stop that bus.

We have been both the givers and recievers of WDW magic. We now make sure that we make this part of our trips. We have received fast passes, an extra time to ride on certain rides and had people pay for our snacks. We try to make sure we do the same thing for someone else - given away glow necklaces and princess wands, give up our table during a crowded time at a counter service restaurant, given up a seat on a bus to a weary mom at the end of the day or pass on our fast passes. My kids like to try and come up with creative new things each time to surprise someone. I love my kids! :cloud9:

[KennesawNemo]

Last year, we were trying to get a fast pass to Jungle Cruise one afternoon at MK. It was either gone or for a very late time. We were kind of disappointed, then one guest gave us two fast passes, which got us on right away. He said he just didn't want to ride anymore. We thanked him a lot.

In 03, we were in Disney Land. We had a very good spot for viewing the evening parade. When it was starting, I noticed a little girl was standing behind us with the crowd. We scooped over and asked her to sit besides us. After the parade, her parents told her to thank us and we said goodbye to each other. They were already walking away, then the little girl ran back by herself and gave me a big big hug. It was a very sweet moment. I still cherish it to this day.

[Cap'nJack'sMum]

On our first day at the Magic Kingdom during our latest trip (May 22-31), a family bought our breakfast at Crystal Palace with their unused meal tickets from their DDP. We were just amazed! My dh and I, without even talking about it, decided we would have to do something cool for a family sometime during our trip.

Just as our "dream family" bestowed that wonderful gift during their last day at the park, we also gave a little gift our last day. We got fastpasses for a ride for a family of 4, and the fastpasses were for a time long after we had to leave. So, when a lady came up to me and asked if "Toy Story Mania" was worth the wait--it was opening day, afterall, so the lines were 90 minutes--I asked if she had ever ridden it. She said no, and when she told me she had 2 boys and herself and dh, I was very happy to hand over our fastpasses. I told her to definitely come back that night to ride TSM, and that it was Definitely worth it. Then, our family stood in that 90 minute line and rode TSM--for the ninth time that week. I think we were MUCH happier to have given her the fastpasses than she was--though she had a huge smile on her face when we parted.

That is so cool. We've given away fast passes for Thunder Mtn before. A woman came up and the fast passes were gone. We'd just come off our 4th ride of the day (my kids are obsessed), and we saw this womans bummed expression. We gave her our 4 FPs, she and her husband and kids were so excited. It made us happy to see them so happy.

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Having never been to Disney before, I have nothing to add....I just wanted to say that some of these stories are so wonderful, and the ideas so fantastic, our family will be actively seeking ways to spread a little magic when we're at the World in January. :goodvibes

Thanks for sharing everyone!!! :flower3:

[Lou256]

When my son and I were getting off ToT, and we had 2 extra FP's I asked him to find somebody to give them too. He was 10 at the time, and he waited until he found another father and son walking to the ride. After giving them the passes, he came back to me and said that was a good feeling. I told him you were "spreading the magic" and he replied that is what Disney is all about.....WOW! my 10yr old understands, we now always get extra FP's just for that purpose.

[PirateMel]

This Sunday (December 7th) is one of my favorite events to be a part of. Not in Disney Directly, but Disney none the less.

My BIL and S belong to a Mini club (mini coopers). Being the Non-Disney people they are this is the closest they get to the Mouse.

I first joined them in 2006 in the Mini's Make a Wish Toy Run - (Part of the make a wish foundation). Each year it grows and this year there will be over 60 Mini coopers making the ride to the Make a Wish Foundation in RI. It is a sight to behold to see these little cars stuffed with toys for the run.

This year I have decided to empashise my LOVE of Disney and donate Disney Gift cards with a stuffed Mickey instead of toys.

Since I have been blessed to have visited the Mouse so much this year, I wanted to share that with someone who might not ever have the chance.

[aurorae]

We decided to park hop one afternoon, and leave DHS.

We had ridden TSM and also got fast passes, which we didn't use. As we approached the front gate, we found a young couple that was just coming in (so we knew they didn't already have FP, and also knew they weren't going to get them that day) and gave our FP to them explaining that we couldn't use them.

I don't think they totally understood the FP concept, so we also explained it to them a little. I hope we made their day.

[azcater]

A CM had given us 9 (yes 9) fastpasses to TSM and we already had 2, so after we rode twice, we found 2 (4 person) families who had just walked up to TSM only to find the wait time at 100 minutes and no more FP available. The looks on their faces were priceless, such a great way to end the day. We also gave away an extra FP to EE at AK.

[bayleebugs_mom]

DD and I were in WDW back in October and we had several of these little magic moments happen to us too!

We were waiting for Spectro one night and a family next to us gave DD a Mickey bar.

At Animal Kingdom we sat next to a man and woman (who I know are on here somewhere) and were just enjoying talking with them. She and I talked about all the magic and we were both crying. The man with her works for DVC and he got into his bad and got DD out a DVC pin for her lanyard.

While waiting to get into DHS the cm at the gate gave DD a Tink pin.

And my absolute most magical moment came from a cm at Exposition Hall. The photographer for my DDs BBB session was finished taking photos and I was in line to see her pictures. That is when the parade started coming through. DD was standing at the window watching and begging to go see it again. I kept explaining to her she couldn't go outside without me. The cm approached me and asked if it would be ok if he stood on the porch with her so she could see. I said it would be fine as long as he was sure he did not mind. When I turned to check on her, she was holding his hand and he was pointing out all of the characters to her on the floats. It wasn't anything anyone gave to us, but the fact that this man was kind enough to take the time to let my baby watch the parade with him made our first trip extremely memorable. She still talks about him!

Another moment didn't happen to us but it will be forever in my memory. We were in Epcot waiting to meet Dopey and a child in front of us was in a wheelchair and it was obvious she was blind as well. When she went up to meet him he hugged her and then her took her little hands in his and slowly moved them all over his face so she could touch him. He took a very long time with her and he never let go of her hands. There was not a dry eye in that line. I know that it was a simple gesture but to witness it firsthand was the most magical moment of all!!!

[roxy83]

This past week we were lucky enough to be in Disney World. We brought tons of glow in the dark bracelets to share with the kids. It was fun to hand them out to the kids waiting for the parades. I always asked the parents permission first and was very surprised at how skeptical they were. It was as if I was offering their children an open candy bar or something. Regardless...I had FUN!! We always tried to offer the Disney magic to others whenever we could and received some bus seats, etc. along the way.