People who won, how did you do it?

[june@imsarc.com]

What I mean is, did you just happen to walk into a CM who said "you won!" Or did you all wear the same color shirts to stick out, make your kids have sad puppy dog faces when you went by a CM? I want to win--how did you do it?

:cool1:

[BroadwayGirl]

What I mean is, did you just happen to walk into a CM who said "you won!" Or did you all wear the same color shirts to stick out, make your kids have sad puppy dog faces when you went by a CM? I want to win--how did you do it?

:cool1:
If you are talking about Dreams prizes there is no way to predict who will be a winner. The system is COMPLETELY RANDOM so as to prevent any charges of partiality or unfairness. Even Dream Squad members are kept in the dark until it is actually time to award a prize.

[T-i-double-g-err]

My understanding is that the official dreams are completely blind. A computer randomly generates the prize, the place and time and whoever is there wins. We, as well as everyone else in our simulator, won dream fastpasses one morning at Star Tours. I read a news article that pretty much said one of the Cinderella Castle Suite winners won becuase he was in a particular seat, in a particular simulator at Star Tours, at a particular time.

[PaulaMurf]

DS and I were walking up the line (the covered part that you cant see from outside of the ride) and the Dream Team CM's were standing in the queue.

Very cool. They also let the other members of our party who had not been in line get the Dream Fastpasses once we got off the ride and brought them back up so we could all stay together!

Good Luck!!

[Brise Nannie]

My understanding is that the official dreams are completely blind. A computer randomly generates the prize, the place and time and whoever is there wins.

That's my understanding also and I tend to believe it's true. We won Fastpasses from the Dream Team while my DGSs were playing a virtual robot game. Everyone (players and spectators) won passes and we never saw it coming until the CM made a special announcement. All of a sudden a 'vested' Dream Team member appeared out of nowhere telling us we'd won a special prize! :yay:

[june@imsarc.com]

Cool stories! Leave it to Disney to be absolutely fair about this--Kudos to them!

[Debs Hill]

Are wishes granted only in the parks or are they also given out at the Disney resorts, water parks, downtown etc. I'm trying not to get my hopes up for a win in July, but we're there for 3 weeks, so if I don't even see the dream team I'll be gutted!!!
Debsx

[kaytieeldr]

There's a difference between "YoaMD" Prizes, and Wishes. Surprise Wishes are granted randomly by numerous CMs all over the property; prizes are awarded by the Dream Team in a contest run by an independent agency.

eta: So, while the contest prizes are awarded 'only' at the four major parks, Downtown Disney, DisneyLand Resort, and by postcard drawing... anyone, anywhere could be given something unexpected by a Cast Member!

[starbox]

There's a difference between "YoaMD" Prizes, and Wishes. Surprise Wishes are granted randomly by numerous CMs all over the property; prizes are awarded by the Dream Team in a contest run by an independent agency.


"Wishes" are the sorts of things that CMs have done forever - a free trading pin off a lanyard, a ride in the front of the monorail, etc.

The YOMD prizes are totally random. I don't think there is anything anyone can do to "get picked". For example, when we were there in January, we saw a child recieve a shopping spree with Princess Aurora in Tinkerbell's Treasures. I am sure that the instructions were to pick the fifth child that entered or something like that - but it just so happened to be in the midst of a downpour so the place was filled with people who don't normally hang out in Tinkerbell's dress shop. The "Dream" was given to a three/four year old boy that was clearly having trouble finding anything he wanted.

IMHO, I think if you try to do something to get picked, it won't help you win a random prize and it may even hurt your chance of getting a "wish", since it seems like CM's try to pick people that don't expect it.

[littleelvis]

It is completley random. We arrived at the CR yesterday and headed straight to MK. We won 3 magical moments yesterday. So far today--zero. But what a way to start off our vacation.

Thought I would pop in while the kids are napping. Tonight is EMH at MK.

And we didn't do anything special either. Just right time right place.

[Gonz Of Lancashire]

We were all on Living With The Land at EPCOT when a CM came up to our boat as we were getting off and everyone we sailed with got a YOAMD lanyard with a couple of YOAMD pins attached.

[F1Julie]

We were in the right place at the right time. We got Dream FastPasses while in line for Triceratop Spin. It's completely random.

[Kristi DeLorenzo]

Sometimes they are waiting when you exit a ride(won pins getting off Space Mountain) Or try doing an activity(the recycling race @ Epcot)Good Luck!

[vsimeone]

Well, maybe we cheated! It was NYE morning - early - 8amish or so - at the MK and we were in a practically deserted park! We were walking through Fantasyland and saw Mary Poppins riding the carousel. I said that I wanted to ride with Mary and ran and got in line. Well, while we were in line, a Dream Team crew came in behind us. We thought "yippee! it's our last day of 10 days and we are FINALLY going to WIN something!" Well, when our turn came, Mary got off the carousel (DARN) but we were hoping for a prize so we weren't TOO disappointed. UNTIL... my family got on and after our ride started, the Dream Team started handing out ears to the people waiting to get on the NEXT ride :scared1: We couldn't believe it! How could we miss Mary AND ears?!?!?

When we got off the ride, the Dream Team was STILL handing out ears to people getting in line so we ran and got in line again, got our ears and rode the carousel again!

Not sure if that's cheating but we had a great laugh, and a great time.

After we got off the ride for the SECOND time, we were walking through a deserted Frontierland and ran into another CM with the Dream Team uniform on. We were sort of whispering and pointing - as we had done every day for 10 days when we saw them - and he congratulated us for winning the ears. He then struck up a conversation with us and told us we could be Honorary Citizens of WDW if we could answer some trivia. We all scored perfect except my DH who couldn't answer a question right! We all coached him along. DS had to act like Goofy and we all had to sing Zippidy Doo Dah and we got our badges. It was really fun.

Hard to imagine just a few hours later when the MK was WALL TO WALL people that it had been so deserted early and that we had gotten so much personal attention!

I love reading all the stories of the prizes. What a great promotion!

[jaysbabe]

We won Fastpasses from the Dream Team while my DGSs were playing a virtual robot game. Everyone (players and spectators) won passes and we never saw it coming until the CM made a special announcement. All of a sudden a 'vested' Dream Team member appeared out of nowhere telling us we'd won a special prize! :yay:

My DS and I were in Innoventions last week playing the robot game and the same thing happened to us. We each got a lanyard with 2 YOMD pins. The dream team kind of hung around for a while and even awarded the group that was waiting in line behind us!! (I guess they like the robot game) -- HEE HEE

[Piglet4Ever]

DH and I were exiting HM and a CM was there handing out Dream Fast Passes. It was our last day at WDW so needless to say we were very excited!!:cool1:

[dancemomnj]

In November we were getting off the Peter Pan rider and they called a bunch of us to the side and awarded us our Dream Fast Passes. We were so happy. It was so crowded, a Thursday during Jersey Week at the Magic Kingdom. People were asking how they could get them, can you buy them.... It turned out to be a truly amazing day!:banana:

[Dreams-are-4-real]

My understanding is that the official dreams are completely blind. A computer randomly generates the prize, the place and time and whoever is there wins. We, as well as everyone else in our simulator, won dream fastpasses one morning at Star Tours. I read a news article that pretty much said one of the Cinderella Castle Suite winners won becuase he was in a particular seat, in a particular simulator at Star Tours, at a particular time.

What i keep hearing that Star Tours is the place to be to win it seems that every story has Stars Tours in it!! i would check it out if i were you!!!

[sticker231]

We walked off Rio del Tiempo and won. I guess I we had jumped off we wouldn't have won.:rotfl: They were giving the pin lanyards to everyone as they were exiting the boats, just lucky timing.

[KrazyKowboy]

There's a difference between "YoaMD" Prizes, and Wishes. Surprise Wishes are granted randomly by numerous CMs all over the property; prizes are awarded by the Dream Team in a contest run by an independent agency.

eta: So, while the contest prizes are awarded 'only' at the four major parks, Downtown Disney, DisneyLand Resort, and by postcard drawing... anyone, anywhere could be given something unexpected by a Cast Member!

I think maybe we had a taste of both last week at the Magic Kingdom.

When exiting the BTMRR we were greeted by a Dream Team Squad and given YOAMD lanyards and pins. Each member of our group of 7 got one.

Later as we were in the que line to SM my daughter had to step out of line for a restroom break. The rest of us were about to the building entrance and my grand daughter was crying because she thought we'd have to ride with out her mom. We stood to the side letting others by as we waited for her to return and when she did the CM at the entrance gave us fast passes to continue on without the wait in the standby line. It was very thoughful and added a bit of magic to our day.

[tarazandra]

My family has won twice at Disneyland. The first time we just happened to be walking in a certain area and everyone that passed the two CMs standing there were given the Year of a Million Dreams Mickey ear hats until the CMs ran out. This was great for us because we collect ear hats.

The second time (on a completely different day) my husband and one daughter were again just walking and were stopped by the CMs and were each handed vouchers for a free 5x7 photopass picture.

Two small prizes, yet both completely made our day :goodvibes

[Buzz Litebeer]

There's a difference between "YoaMD" Prizes, and Wishes.
Absoultely. For one thing, Wishes is a fireworks show over the Magic Kingdom. :lmao:

You may be thinking of "Take Fives" or "Magical Moments", both of which are different than YoaMD Prizes.

A "Take Five" is when a CM does something spontaneous and unexpected for a guest (examples include walking out in front of a busy attraction and taking a random family through the VIP entrance... or even just handing out stickers to smaller guests who happen to be walking by). CMs usually enjoy great leeway in handing these out.

A "Magical Moment" is a planned, scripted event that occurs at a certain time daily (a great example is giving something special to the first riders of a particular attraction each morning). These are designed to seem random and unplanned; they are not.

The YoaMD prizes are randomly distributed and depend on your party being in the right place at the right time. Don't bother asking a Dream Squad member when these will be; they have no idea where they'll be giving out prizes until minutes beforehand. The most common prizes are Dream FastPasses, Dream Ears, and Dream Pin Lanyards -- Disney hands out literally thousands of these each day. The "big prizes" are distributed slightly differently, but it's still random.

Wearing matching shirts that beg for prizes is, in my humble opinion, kinda tacky. :rolleyes:

[Buzz Litebeer]

What i keep hearing that Star Tours is the place to be to win it seems that every story has Stars Tours in it!! i would check it out if i were you!!!
I'd call that coincidence... anyone on property can win at any time (well... between the hours of 9:00am and 5:00pm).

[ADP]

What i keep hearing that Star Tours is the place to be to win it seems that every story has Stars Tours in it!! i would check it out if i were you!!!

There are certain attractions that are more appealing to the Dream Squad because of the "behind the scenes" entrances and exits. The Dream Squad does not want to be seen when they are about to hand out prizes because everyone would be running up to them creating a chaotic situation.

Star Tours is one of those attractions that has a hidden entrance/exit for Dream Squad members to duck in and out. That's why you hear a lot of dream stories from that attraction.

Also, if you want to really increase your chances of winning a prize, get to the parks early and ride attractions as often as possible. As the day progresses you really see a decrease in prizes being awarded.

[MissDisneyTeach]

On our first full day at the parks we went to AK first. We had already ridden EE, so later in the day we were walking over to check out the wait time in the single rider line. I noticed that Mark stopped to pick something up off the ground. He found 2 FP to EE. I said are they for today? He said yes! They were for earlier in the day, so we walked over and got right on!:yay:
Then we decided to head over to MK. We stopped in the hub and as I was buying us some water Mark looked down again. Yep, you guessed it! This time he found 3 FP's to BTMRR. We started laughing that maybe we were on some kind of hidden video show. So we head that way after a stop at POC. We rode BTMRR and then looked for someone to share our pixie dust with. After searching, he decided to leave the extra FP on top of a trash can near the FP machines. So we left hoping someone would find it! This is where my memory gets foggy. After BTMRR we head toward Fantasyland. We detoured through the HM. Somewhere through there, I can't remember--(I am 36 now!:confused3) we found 2 more FP's to Peter Pan. :cheer2: We were amazed at our good luck so far. For the rest of our trip we would continue to look for lost fastpasses! We didn't find anymore, but we did get an extra fastpass each for watching the Monster's Inc. Laughing Floor show over in Tomorrowland and staying after it and answering some questions about what we thought.
Then, I won a dream on my birthday!:yay: We went to MK and waited for the first rope drop. Then we waited at the Adventure Land rope drop. Most of the crowd went to POC. We decided to do Splash Mountain first since we already had ponchos on because of the light rain. Next we headed to BTMRR. We rode once and almost asked if we could stay on because there was no line yet. But Mark said let's just get off and walk around and ride it again. I am sure glad we did. As we were exiting, one of the CM's said, "see Kristen on your way out." I was confused and said "who?" He repeated himself and pointed toward the exit. So we walked that way and there she was with Dream Fastpasses. I was so excited. What a great birthday present! We got lots of stares and questions all day long about them!

[Buzz Litebeer]

There are certain attractions that are more appealing to the Dream Squad because of the "behind the scenes" entrances and exits. The Dream Squad does not want to be seen when they are about to hand out prizes because everyone would be running up to them creating a chaotic situation.

Star Tours is one of those attractions that has a hidden entrance/exit for Dream Squad members to duck in and out. That's why you hear a lot of dream stories from that attraction.
As stated earlier, all prizes are randomly awarded. The Dream Squad CMs have absolutely no control over what they are told to award, when to award it, or where.

[ADP]

As stated earlier, all prizes are randomly awarded. The Dream Squad CMs have absolutely no control over what they are told to award, when to award it, or where.


Agree...However, the company hired to make sure the process is random know what attractions are more appealing to Dream Squad member's safety. As the previous poster stated some attractions are getting more dreams. My point is that since these attractions have back entrances and exists Disney and the 3rd party company are targeting these attractions more since they provide a safe in and out for Dream Squad members.

[epfootballcutie04]

My friend and I won by taking the easy way out:)

We were at MK and it was a HOT october day. (I'm talkin 98* with 95% humidity, kind of hot).

Anyway, we wanted to ride big thunder, so we walk over and realize it's a 70 minute wait and fast pass it was an hour, so we grab a fastpass, something to drink, and took a seat right infront of the ride under some trees that provided a warm breeze and shade.

We just relaxed there for an hour, when it was time to use our fastpass we walked right past a ton of people... very grumpy, hot looking people, got right on after waiting about 2 minutes, and when we got off, the dream squad was there giving our train MICKEY YOAMD EARS!!!


It was soooooooooooooooooo cool!!!!

And totally unexpected!!!

[kbkids]

Sometimes they are waiting when you exit a ride(won pins getting off Space Mountain) Or try doing an activity(the recycling race @ Epcot)Good Luck!

We won fastpasses getting off Space Mountain too. First day of the trip, first ride of the day - what a way to start a vacation!!:thumbsup2

[Dopey420]

Absoultely. For one thing, Wishes is a fireworks show over the Magic Kingdom. :lmao:

You may be thinking of "Take Fives" or "Magical Moments", both of which are different than YoaMD Prizes.

A "Take Five" is when a CM does something spontaneous and unexpected for a guest (examples include walking out in front of a busy attraction and taking a random family through the VIP entrance... or even just handing out stickers to smaller guests who happen to be walking by). CMs usually enjoy great leeway in handing these out.

A "Magical Moment" is a planned, scripted event that occurs at a certain time daily (a great example is giving something special to the first riders of a particular attraction each morning). These are designed to seem random and unplanned; they are not.

The YoaMD prizes are randomly distributed and depend on your party being in the right place at the right time. Don't bother asking a Dream Squad member when these will be; they have no idea where they'll be giving out prizes until minutes beforehand. The most common prizes are Dream FastPasses, Dream Ears, and Dream Pin Lanyards -- Disney hands out literally thousands of these each day. The "big prizes" are distributed slightly differently, but it's still random.

Wearing matching shirts that beg for prizes is, in my humble opinion, kinda tacky. :rolleyes:

This is the best post of the thread. We got to be the first family on 3 different rides last time we went and each of those times we got a certificate that said "Magical Moment", not YOAMD. I think the CMs do have latitude on who to pick for Magical Moments because each time I saw the CM scan the crowds and then zero in on my kids and then walk over to us and pick us out. YOAMD may be completely scripted.

[sticker231]

We were awarded "Dream Lanyards" again this trip. My father is a fireman and my three year old son just loves firetrucks, so we were checking out the firetruck in Epcot. I think it is Liberty Mutual who has the house where you put out/identify fire hazards. I entered with both my sons because the wanted to put out fires. As we entered the house to learn the rules of the exhibit, we were awarded lanyards from the Dream Squad. As the CM was explaining what to do, he said he had a surpride for us and a member from the DReam Squad took over and announced who they were, what they were doing, and they handed out the lanyards. It can happen anywhere. Just enjoy the parks.

[Marmstrong]

My DS (11) was "in the dream place at the dream time" when he got off of POTC on Mar 2 a little after 10 am. We'd chosen the shorter right hand line because CMs called out "all lines are open" as we approached.

The Dream Squad caught him as he got off and waved our whole group off to one side. We won one of two ESPN the weekend packages at MGM that afternoon. We met them at MGM at 1:30 and had semi-private meet and greet with several BIG NAME athletes (Herschel Walker, Mike Singletary...) and had our pictures taken with each and behind the ESPN Sportsdesk under the big blue hat!

I asked one of the Dream Squad members how they chose DS and the other winner. They'd been told to be at POTC at a particular time on that day and pick the person in xxx seat in yyy row of zzz boat. The other child was chosen because he was in the Pink Dumbo at a particular time.

[makinorlando]

That's my understanding also and I tend to believe it's true. We won Fastpasses from the Dream Team while my DGSs were playing a virtual robot game. Everyone (players and spectators) won passes and we never saw it coming until the CM made a special announcement. All of a sudden a 'vested' Dream Team member appeared out of nowhere telling us we'd won a special prize! :yay:

Us too! Later the same day we won the lanyards, DD was one group away from winning dream ears on Test Track!

It is totally random, so there reallly is nothing you can do to win. Like someone else said - just go and enjoy!

[DisneyBride'03]

Its really being in the right place at the right time. However, Saturday is a good day at AK..I think. We were there at opening, got off Expedition, and were wondering what to do before Nemo...I saw the white vest people :), she actually said Happy Bday to DD10 (wearing button) and told us to go to the Jungle Trek..nice walk thru seeing animals, never did that before. So when we got there the CM offered us something if DD came out with 2 facts abt kimodo dragons. SHe got a special Magical Moment certificate with her name..perfect for this trips scrapbook.
Then while waiting for Festival of Lion King, the CM there advised us to go get autographs by the trail...ok...sure enough , white vested people waiting with silver mickey ears after meeting Goofy:0
My advice, get to parks early, keep an eagle eye out, but not to obvious. I think the more folks concentrate on "Finding" the WVP..lol...the less fun your adventure will be:)
I can't wait to see what Disney has planned for next year! Isn't someone turning 80???????

[adabob]

IT is random
Adabob