CMs, you have my sympathy

[rayelias]

CM's ALREADY provide "millions of dreams" for WDW guests. Sure, it might not be spending the night in the castle, but it may be giving away a pin to your little princess who just started trading, or the towel animal in your room, or letting you "sneak" in a little before your Fast Pass official time, riding up front in the Monorail, etc, etc, etc. I could go on and on.

And, you already have some people who complain that they didn't get this or that. Nothing's going to change. Even if you stopped ALL the incentives and every single person was treated exactly 100% the same (impossible), there would still be some people who whine. It's human nature. Let the sad sacks woe. These same people, if they DID win the night in the castle would probably complain that they had to get up early because of all the noise that the other guests make when they drop the rope at 9AM.

As far as I'm concerned, a big THANK YOU to the CM's for ALREADY providing us with countless magical moments that we didn't pay for nor did we expect that made our WDW vacations special.

So long as Disney continues the same level of service, I will be more than thrilled. The fact that they're going above and beyond (already being above and beyond) is an additional bonus.

 

[momandseandodisney]

in regards to the new "Year of a Million Dreams" campaign.

As for me, I will happily vacation in WDW, and politely cheer when those around me get the extra magic.

What is the "year of a million dreams" campaign?

 

[sjreed]

Every trip I've ever made to WDW has been magical and special. Not because of a CM or a room upgrade or a towel animal. My trips were special because I was there with people I love....my family. Isn't that what a vacation is all about?

 

[tonyolily]

CM's ALREADY provide "millions of dreams" for WDW guests. Sure, it might not be spending the night in the castle, but it may be giving away a pin to your little princess who just started trading, or the towel animal in your room, or letting you "sneak" in a little before your Fast Pass official time, riding up front in the Monorail, etc, etc, etc. I could go on and on.

And, you already have some people who complain that they didn't get this or that. Nothing's going to change. Even if you stopped ALL the incentives and every single person was treated exactly 100% the same (impossible), there would still be some people who whine. It's human nature. Let the sad sacks woe. These same people, if they DID win the night in the castle would probably complain that they had to get up early because of all the noise that the other guests make when they drop the rope at 9AM.

As far as I'm concerned, a big THANK YOU to the CM's for ALREADY providing us with countless magical moments that we didn't pay for nor did we expect that made our WDW vacations special.

So long as Disney continues the same level of service, I will be more than thrilled. The fact that they're going above and beyond (already being above and beyond) is an additional bonus.

Well Said!!

 

[myprinceandprincess]

I wonder if they'll use the cast deployment system for this. . . it's something they already do on a smaller scale. We didn't use it in my area when I did the college program because our shops were so small it was easy to keep track of who was covering what, but my roommate that worked Buzz complex used it and would talk about random things it would do. Brief overview of the system, you log in and it tells you where to go and for how long, then you come back log in again, over and over til your shift is over. Basically just keeps CMs moving around, at the same time making sure all "jobs" are covered. Randomly throughout the day, it'll send a CM that logs in to go do a "magical moment" - some examples from my roommate: Find a family to ride Buzz with, getting them on right away. Go find a family and offer to take their picture. Just these little things that most CMs do anyway, but Disney has it built into the system to make sure the CMs are spreading that "pixie dust" . . . so it makes me wonder. Will CMs be logging into the system and given random "dreams" to go give away?

This was very interesting....And I bet your right, it probably will be something like this system. Totally makes sense and will be random. By using this system it can be anywhere on Disney property, as has been mentioned before. Thanks for the info!!

 

[ptrbryant]

Not necessarily to "kiss up" to the CMs, but the release does make it sound as though the CMs will be rewarding random guests with some pixie dust. Maybe that in itself will make people think before they a. yell demeaningly at their spouse or b. smack and scream at their children or c. leave trash around...you get the idea. We've all seen it there, those incidents that Disney has no control over because it's due to guest behavior. I'd be happy if it brought some self-control back to a few people!

Karla B.

 

[MyGoofy26]

The reason I doubt they will use turnstiles (at least entirely) is that today in the Sentinel an article said people could win in Downtown Disney where guests can "just walk around for free" (words to that effect, don't have the article in front of me). As Steph said, they are making it sound like CMs will pick people, even if that is not actually the case. Carrie's idea definitely has potential, but aren't there still opportunities for fraud (albeit on a more limited scale)?

More questions than answers until the official rules come out, I'm afraid.

Unfortunately people will always fnd a way to scam. I can't imagine them giving away the "big dreams" in this fashion - I would think a higher level manager will be out and about to find that one lucky family. But I think *most* of these dreams will be relatively small and something that an ordinary CM can take care of. The system (we did use it a couple times, but it ended up more of a hassle with such a small "area") is set up so that each CM logs in only a handful of times each shift (sidenote - it also tells CMs when to go on break) - so for a CM to try and get their friends or family to win, they'd pretty much have to hang out by their buddies work location all day every day in the offchance that THAT CM just happens to be the first to lo in at the exact right time.

 

[oldcrow]

I know I wouldn't be upset if I didn't win something, I'm happy enough just to be in the World. And I certainly wouldn't take it out on a CM if I didn't win. In fact, I would probably be extra nice to every CM I saw, just in case my niceness has any pull in my chances of winning something. Not that I wouldn't be nice to them anyway, I appreciate the job they do and would never be angry with one of them.

And while I don't believe that the individual CM's will actually be picking guests themselves to win the bigger prizes, they may be doing that for some smaller prizes that they haven't really talked about in their press releases yet. If I get a free Mickey key chain, I'll be happy.

 

[brerrabbit]

One of the articles posted either here or on the CB says that Disney is working with a Marketing/Consulting group to come up with the exact methodology for picking the winners. I am sure that a lot of the comments made here concerning guests expectations are being discussed by those very same people who are deciding the contest rules. Hopefully when the annouce their system for selecting winners they will publish them and everyone will read them so there is no doubt about how the contest works.

 

[Feralpeg]

Here's something I'm wondering about...the CMs themselves. CMs go play in the parks too. Will they be completely ineligible for any of the dreams? Will they do a special program just for the CMs or do only the real guests get to have all the fun?

I'm VERY curious about this whole thing!

According to the rules for the Sweepstakes, CMs and their immediate family are ineligible. I would imagine that will be true of all of the prizes.

 

[FOV]

Just a thought...

I am wondering if this promotion will change, ever so slightly, the feeling in the parks. Spending the night in the castle is only one family per day so most people will calculate the odds and dismiss it as something wonderful but highly unlikely for *them* to win. Not a big deal IMO.

With regards to the "Million Dreams" more people (*please note: I am not insinuating ALL people ) will, after calculating the odds, think they have a decent chance of "getting something." Will this subconciously alter people's expectations - even if minimally? When checking into the POR will I get that little glimmer that I may be upgraded to water view? When at the back of a 45 minute line will I fantasize about getting a free pass to the beginning of the line? Mind you - I have *never* thought this way in the parks but WDW has never told me they were giving away 1 million dreams before either! I don't expect to walk into a park thinking this but I can't tell you what my subconcious will be saying.

There have been a lot of studies on this sort of thing. If I find a good one I will post it. Have you ever been someplace having a great time and then it was announced that a prize was going to be handed out? It is not necessarily good or bad but there is no denying that it changes the crowd dynamic.

I think I liked the other promotions that emphasized a new attraction or a decorated castle or a new larger-than-life show like Illuminations.

 

[orljustin]

According to the rules for the Sweepstakes, CMs and their immediate family are ineligible. I would imagine that will be true of all of the prizes.

I would imagine, that unless it was based on something like the turnstile or fastpass machine theory, that any CM handing out anything randomly would have no way of knowing who they are dealing with. This also makes it unlikely that your regular CM will be handing anything out.

 

[Tinkerbell_Tiffany]

well I don't care if I won or not I would go to disney anyways, I was so excited when a child won the keys to the kingdon about a month ago and I hope all the kids win the prizes, that would be so magical for them.

 

[2Princes2Princesses]

FOV-

I DO think you are on to something. Now, for me and my DS11 and my DH, we are excited. We know that the odds of us winning are small, if they give out one million prizes.....I don't know how many people visit DL and WDW on any given day.....but regardless, the odds are small.

But just the thought that "it could be us" is very exciting!!!

Although we are of the mindset that although it "could be us" we will not be sad if it isn't. I know I would be excited if the woman in front of me won a night in the castle...or the lady next to me. Even my DS11 said- "maybe we'll be standing there when someone wins.....we can ask them to email us pictures of the apartment!!"

So not winning won't ruin our fun, we love WDW and hanging out with the kids for 2 weeks. Plus, we bought DVC and it will be our first trip as new members!!!

I will admit, though, the possibility of winning something cool is pretty exciting!!! Also, it is exciting to think we could be there when someone else wins something huge.

PS-Yes, we are the people who win a $2 keychain and feel like it is a million bucks!!

And we always feel like we get the best CM's everytime we go.

 

[MyZoeJane]

This can be a GOOD thing for the CM's.
Maybe people will start being NICER to the CM's! People may 'kiss up' a bit if they think the CM's have some 'pull'.

This is EXACTLY what my first thought was! It's kind of sad... but some grouchy people might just feel a bit more motivated to be KIND to people if they believe there's a chance that they might get something out of it!!!

 

[msgrimm23]

god help them and keep them strong. we new yorkers can be pushie i hope everyone behaves themselves

 

[pafer]

We have experienced Pixie dust on a few of our trips. It was nice to think this is how Disney treats it's guests. We got free dessert on our honeymoon when the CM's thought they made us wait too long for our chicken burgers. We had only been waiting about 5-10 minutes which really is not that long. We got seated at Cindy's when they realized we were honeymooning and they gave us two champagne glasses as a gift.

We have had the experience of towel animals and once a towel doll. Which makes me ask do you take them home with you or leave them there?? We left them when we checked out thinking that it would be stealing towels to take them home. Instead we took photos of them. We had our room upgraded to a water view once without asking and did not even realize it had happened until we got to the room.

We also met someone once who was working for a consulting firm for Disney. He sat with us while we waited for the parade and played with our daughter. He gave us some 100 year magic pins and several stickers for dd. I like the little things that Disney does to make you feel special. I am not lucky enough to win the big things mentioned and will not alter my trip plans just for this promotion but I hope that those that win appreciate what they are getting.

 

[exwdwcm]

I VERY SERIOUSLY doubt that a perk like this is going to left up the discretion of an individual cast member. This sounds like it will be done in a computer generated random manor. I would think it would be something in the turnstyle when you enter your ticket and it will very randomly pick one person per day. Or it will be randomly done when you check into the resort. Disney keeps everything very tightly controlled and letting one human make such a big decision would be asking for "corruption".

disney does pride itself on empowering its cast members. That ideal was definitely pushed on us when I worked there (1996 college program, MGM, H&V). We were allowed to give away stuff without having to ask a manager. It could be small or large. A kid spills his ice cream, give him another. No getting permission.

At the 25th anniversary press event, I was working and a media person spilled champagne on their shirt. I went over to the shop next door and got them a nice embroidered sweatshirt to wear instead. (they were soaked- and a fellow CM had spilled it on her). I didn't have to ask permission and the CM at the store didn't either. They allowed us to cut through red tape like that to make guests happy. It was a nice perk to working there that I really enjoyed. It allowed us to make magic on our own. So i wouldn't put it past them to empower cast members to pick people at random, they do that already.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

I've been away for a couple of days, but it was interesting to catch back up on this thread and read about some of the things CMs already do. I am among those who, while I can't really think of 'extra magic' at WDW, have always been treated exceptionally well by CMs. I sure do appreciate them, and hope they hold up well in the face of what may be an increased number of rude encounters.