Picking Family to Open Magic Kingdom

[goofydiz]

How do they go about picking the family that opens Magic Kingdom? In the past they use to pick a family from Left turnstiles and a family from the Right turnstiles before they opened. But Now, they seem to already have the family picked before that morning. We just returned and they were searching for a certain family before the park opened. It took them what seemed like 1/2 hour to locate the family and when they did - they escorted them in and they opened the park with all the characters on the train from Toontown.

 

[LiLIrishChick63]

sometimes there are actually guests in the parks before it "offically" opens. i know for some of the tours they start before the park opens, and also EMH too.


when i went on the KTTK tour they said they'd pick the people as soon as they walked in the park in the morning. they said usually they pick people who "Stand out" like if you're wearing mickey ears(espically the wedding ones) or if you're just acting like you're having a GREAT time.

 

[fgms]

We got picked to open EPCOT.

 

[maslex]

We're were also picked to open up Epcot back in 2001. I wouldn't say that we were a family that stood out of the crowd or anything. I just saw a couple employees walking around outside of the turnstiles (this was only my 2nd time at Disney so I had no idea that they picked people out to do this) Then out of the blue I had a "guy in uniform" (didn't even know they were called CM's back then) come and ask us if we'd like to be the Family of the Day and open the park.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) There are many times families are pre-selected.
2) Just like pre-selected marshals for parades.
3) These are usually
. . . friends of executives
. . . special circumstances (eg. Make-A-Wish families)
. . . families through a special service department of WDW

 

[goofydiz]

This family wasn't even at the park yet. There was a man that you could tell was in charge of the opening - kept on going to the turnstiles asking for the "Garcia" family. But they weren't there.

They kept looking for them for a long time. He then told another cast member that if she couldn't find them they would just have to to pick another family.

What exactly do they give you when you open the park? I have seen them present a certificate and other things in an envelope, but never knew exactly what they receive. Does anyone know?

 

[DisOrBust]

I will tell you I begged all over WDW to have a friends "wish" child open MK and was told repeatedly it was random. If what Rusty says is true I am very disgusted!

 

[tammyandtommy]

Well we were chosen last August to open the park. We were just walking in for an early morning breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace. They said are you going in for breakfast, and we said yes, they said would you like to change your reservations and do us a favor, we said sure, we thought it was a survey or something! We sat on a bench for about 10 minutes, and they came back and asked us if we were excited we asked why and they said you will open the park! My kids were thrilled, As other posters have said they look for families having fun, and we did have matching shirts BUT it wasnt to get noticed it was to make sure we could find each other all day! The kids hated it but it was the best thing we have ever done!
Hope that helps

 

[iwynlea]

We've never opened a park, but we were grand marshalls in the MK afternoon parade, and I can tell you that we weren't pre-selected, it was totally random. We were asking a CM to trade a pin, and chatting with them a little bit, and then they asked if we were planning to stay for the parade and would we like to be the grand marshalls. Later, when the other grand marshall family asked how they pick people to do it, they said it's random, but they look for people who appear to be having a good time. My guess would be it's the same thing for the family opening the park.

 

[maslex]

Like I said in my earlier post....We were chosen for Epcot so we might have received different things than someone opening another park. We got....

1--to open the park (basically the CM's would count down from 10 and then we wave everyone in and say, "C'mon in!!!!)

2--got to wear ribbons all day saying "family of the day.

3--got a free 5x7 picture of all of us in front of Spaceship Earth.


And usually once we got to a ride, during the pre-show....the CM would announce something along the lines of...."Ladies and Gentlemen, today we have someone special with us. Would everyone please put their hands together and give a big warm welcome to our family of the day". Then they would ask us where we were from and our names. It was so cool.