Has anyone ever heard of someone actually winning a sweepstakes?

[ladybshaw]

I've entered several, but I always wonder if anyone actually wins these things. My son saw me enter a Disney sponsored one and he is beside himself with hope that we win.

 

[Dot2Vegas]

I've read a few stories about people winning on this board. And I won a sneak peek to ride the new Star Tours when it reopened a few years ago. We got into the park very early in the morning and rode the ride. The prize included park hoppers for the day. It was fun! I took my daughter and according to a few CMs she was the youngest one there. She is still proud of that!

 

[TNDisneyNut]

I've won a couple...not huge but pretty good! Trip to myrtle beach and a weekend hotel, flights and concert of my choice! We chose The Who!

 

[mom2rtk]

I don't win. But then I don't play.

OP, I've seen a number of posts from people who won trips or special experiences post on the DIS. That said, the odds are astronomical against you winning, so you need to let your son know it's not likely.

 

[sheetz]

Bach when Cars Land opened park hoppers and a sneak preview of the land.

 

[Dot2Vegas]

I don't win. But then I don't play.

OP, I've seen a number of posts from people who won trips or special experiences post on the DIS. That said, the odds are astronomical against you winning, so you need to let your son know it's not likely.

Yes! I forgot to add that. The odds are terrible that you will win. But, some one has to win, why not, right?!
When I won the Star Tours contest I refused to believe it and nearly deleted the email thinking it was spam. I ended up calling Disney to confirm that I wasn't being scammed! My DH didn't believe me until he dropped us at the park that morning and saw us check in!

 

[Spacepest]

My sister in law years ago entered a Disney contest for "free annual passes for your family for a year" and she won. (Seriously, her hobby is entering free contests and this is the ONLY time she's ever won anything). She was ecstatic because money was really tight at the time for her family and she hadn't taken her kids in years. However, she didn't pay attention to the small print: the contest considered "family" to be a four person limit...and her family consisted of five people (mother, father, three children) and didn't discover this until she went to claim the prize.

Yeah, I know free is free...but in order for the entire family to attend for that year together they would have had to pay for another pass out of their pocket. They did claim the prize, but my brother in law was so incensed that he refused to buy the additional pass (or even a single day ticket) and never stepped into Disneyland again. (The family was really low income at the time and they couldn't afford single day tickets, much less the expense of an annual pass). The rest of the family did go for a year without him, and he did laugh about it later.

I myself occasionally enter them and my husband enters all the time but we've never won anything. I always tell my husband if one of us wins the prize probably won't include the other person given our family's track record. But hey, free is free...I guess.

 

[DharmaLou]

A friend won a DLR trip on the radio. I have another friend who is very active in sweeps and wins lots of trips (not necessarily DLR ones)

 

[SPOERLX3]

I won at DLR resort trip on a local Christian Radio Station, KLTY out of the DFW area.
All expenses paid for 4; 4 days/3 nights at the Disneyland Hotel, park passes, airfair and a GC.
Our trip is scheduled for November 20-24th.
Soooo excited.
My daughter won the exact trip last year!
But like the one of the other posts, she is a constant contest junkie.
She has won several trips, a cruise, an XBOX 360 and several other things.
She enters alot but she is lucky too

 

[loveshak22]

In January 2013 and January 2014 Disney has done a sweepstakes where they gave away a free trip every day for the month. There are always a few threads to see how many Disboard folks win. There were a few (maybe 5-6 or more) each year that have said they won on here. They give pretty specific details so they seem legit. I was PM'ing one woman whose aunt won and she gave me all the details about what the won as a part of the trip so I believe she was sincere. I hope they do the contest again!

I've been trying to do enter every Disney/travel sweepstakes I can find for about a year now, just to see how many I may win over the course of a year. And I've won none Although I did win a runner-up prize for an Ocean Spray contest where the grand prize was a trip to Disney. My prize was a $50 Disney gift card. I won't complain!!

Also, there's a thread I've seen on here with a woman who won the Delta Vacations trip to Disney last year which included a stay in the Cinderella Suite. Her thread is a lot of fun to read and the pics from the Cinderella Suite are amazing!!

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

I've never won anything from Disney, but I did win tickets to see Glee in concert the first year it toured from a local tv station, a Nintendo GameCube from a drawing at an event, and multiple contests from various blogs and retailers for clothing and jewelry. It's worth trying, requires minimal effort. *shrug*

 

[Kristina4109]

I have this really funny tendency to win 7th or 8th prize when I really want the grand prize. Observe:

I entered to win a trip to the Walt Disney World marathon and won a pair of shoes.

I entered to win a trip to Disneyland and won a Cars coloring book.

I entered to win a Disney Cruise and won the soundtrack to Tangled.

And my absolute favorite:

I entered to win a trip to Aulani and won a hulu dancing Olaf figurine.

 

[loveshak22]

I have this really funny tendency to win 7th or 8th prize when I really want the grand prize. Observe:

I entered to win a trip to the Walt Disney World marathon and won a pair of shoes.

I entered to win a trip to Disneyland and won a Cars coloring book.

I entered to win a Disney Cruise and won the soundtrack to Tangled.

And my absolute favorite:

I entered to win a trip to Aulani and won a hulu dancing Olaf figurine.

It's nice to win anything I suppose but how frustrating to not get the grand prize yet! Maybe your luck is all building up for some really amazing grand prize!

Now I don't feel as bad when I entered the Ocean Spray contest to win a trip to WDW and got a $50 gift card and sample size of craisins. If your experience was like mine the worst part was the email with the subject line that made me think I had won the big prize and then the quick disappointment when I opened the email

Again, I'll take $50 without complaining but it's still disappointing compared to an all-expense paid trip.

I've been entering all sorts of travel sweepstakes (mainly Disney) for the last year and I hope Disney does the contest in January 2015 where they give away a trip a day for the month...I feel like at some point I've got to win the grand prize, right

 

[PinkBudgie]

A few years ago I entered a Disney sweeps and won a pin of the characters that says "What Will You Celebrate?". And that's it. I do like the pin though. I always try to enter the ones for WDW because that one is so much more expensive for us to visit than DLR. So far, no trip. But I keep hoping!

 

[loveshak22]

Funny story but I've entered a few sweepstakes recently where the grand prize is a trip to WDW and where the winner should be chosen any time soon. I'm sitting at my office today and get a call from a 407# and even though I've heard most of the companies who run these sweeps are in NYC I still thought "maybe this is it!"

I answered and this woman asked for me using first and last name and I thought for sure I had won something...N-O-P-E!! Just an offer for a timeshare vacation offer.

Lucky me

 

[mmjones1021]

My husband and I won the Family Time Resolution sweepstakes last year. It was a trip for 4 people for 5 days/4 nights and it covered airfare, hotel, park tickets (with park hopper), and a $500 Disney gift card. We got to pick any resort on Disney property to stay at, so of course we chose the GF! Since it was just the 2 of us, we were allowed to make our trip for 8 nights instead of 4! Disney was wonderful to deal with! Now I enter a ton of contest since I know it's possible to win!!

 

[loveshak22]

My husband and I won the Family Time Resolution sweepstakes last year. It was a trip for 4 people for 5 days/4 nights and it covered airfare, hotel, park tickets (with park hopper), and a $500 Disney gift card. We got to pick any resort on Disney property to stay at, so of course we chose the GF! Since it was just the 2 of us, we were allowed to make our trip for 8 nights instead of 4! Disney was wonderful to deal with! Now I enter a ton of contest since I know it's possible to win!!

I hope they do the sweepstakes again this year!! I so want to win that one this year (along with millions of others LOL)!! It would just be my DH and me as well so I'd love the 8 nights - that is so awesome that they extend the trip when it's just two people!

Congrats on wining!

 

[lorijohnhill]

Where do you find these contests to enter? The only one I've seen turned out to be the GoldRush Getaways scam.

 

[queenbetsey]

Where do you find these contests to enter? The only one I've seen turned out to be the GoldRush Getaways scam.

about.com has a sweepstake page and I also like sweepstakestoday.com, they have lots of sweeps listed

 

[queenbetsey]

back in 09 America's funniest home videos had a sweepstakes (no video just a sweepstakes) and I entered. I had been sweeping for a few years and my husband would just roll his eyes at me for the most part. (I had won quite a few small prizes) but nothing huge. well a few weeks later I got a call from work saying that I had won the grand prize. it was a three year "samplEAR for DVC that had 235 dvc points a year for three years. I was thrilled sent back the paperwork asap. thinking that was pretty cool I was really surprised to hear from Disney a couple of days after that saying they wanted to talk to me about the rest of the prize. I found out that the p0rize also included cash to help with the taxes so the prize total was just at 20k and the cash portion not only covered the taxes we had enough left over to head to wdw for a week. we went out there a few times and also used the points out here at dl resort man it was really cool. I still do sweeps and have won lots of stuff, tickets to movies other theme parks, gift cards to all kinds of places including Disney gcs,
it doesn't cost me anything to enter, I have fun and have gotten lots of fun things for free. sure there are a lot of sorry try agains but what the heck, in it to win it right