Spontaneous Magical Moments - Share your stories of Disney Magic

[PurpleKomodo]

I just have to tell this story because it is one of the best memories I have from Disney. My now husband (then fiancé) went to Disney just us the summer before we got married. We love pin trading and had been trading and trying to complete a specific Hidden Mickey set of villain pins the whole trip. By the time we got to the last day of our trip we were still missing one pin (the hardest to get). We were at EPCOT that day and we stopped to talk to many cast members throughout the day looking for this pin. Late in the afternoon, we encountered a cast member near the fountains and starting talking with him about how we were looking for this pin. It was 2008 and Disney was still doing their magical moments promotion where people were randomly selected for a wide variety of surprises. As we talked with him, he revealed to us that his job was to provide magical moments. He said that one of things he likes to do is help people complete pin sets so he keeps a lot of completer pins in his office. He invited us to walk with him to go check and see if he had the pin he was looking for. We followed him and as we walked he told us really interesting information about how the randomized works for giving away nights in Cinderella Castle and unlimited Fastpasses. He was fascinating to chat with! When we got to the building where his office was, he left us in a lobby and went to check for the pin. When he returned he said that he unfortunately did not have it, but gave us a magical moments certificate anyway. We left his office and continued our day. As we were leaving the park that evening, we still had not found the pin. We stopped in one last shop before we left to see if any cast members working the shop happened to have the pin on their lanyard. They did not and we were getting ready to leave, when I a cast member walked out of the back room with the pin on his lanyard! We were able to trade with him and complete our set. My husband and I still wonder if that was truly random or if it was a piece of Disney magic orchestrated by that cast member we had met earlier in the day. Either way, we fondly remember this moment.

Now it is your turn. Talk about the Disney Magic that just happened to occur.

 

[jthornton94]

We were dining in the castle. We were in line waiting to have our picture taken and our daughter asked us if we thought Cinderella would remember us from meeting her earlier in the day. Her footman overheard us. We watched him slyly walk by and whisper in Cindy's ear. As we walked up for our picture Cindy looks at our daughter and says, "It's so nice to see you again Ms. Sydney", without missing a beat. I saw the magic in my daughter's eyes. That is why we spend our time and money at Disney. There is truly magic to be found.

 

[AngiTN]

DGD got one on her first trip but it was a more random thing than something someone orchestrated.
She was 3 at the time. We were in line to meet up with Aladdin and Jasmine in Epcot. At that time their meet location was along the waterfront. Just as her turn came it started to sprinkle.
Jasmine, in a panic said, "Oh my hair, we must go inside"
At that point Aladdin looked down at Melody and said "Are you ready for an adventure little one"
He took her hand and off they ran through the Morocco pavilion. At some point Jasmine took her hand too and they lifted her up and swung her over the fountain and ran through the shops, just like when Aladdin and Jasmine ran through the bazaar in the movie. DH manged to get in front of them and snapped some great shots. The PP photographer tried but they took off before she was ready.

 

[amandals2007]

We were dining in the castle. We were in line waiting to have our picture taken and our daughter asked us if we thought Cinderella would remember us from meeting her earlier in the day. Her footman overheard us. We watched him slyly walk by and whisper in Cindy's ear. As we walked up for our picture Cindy looks at our daughter and says, "It's so nice to see you again Ms. Sydney", without missing a beat. I saw the magic in my daughter's eyes. That is why we spend our time and money at Disney. There is truly magic to be found.

this gave me goose bumps reading this!! =)

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

I am literally crying reading these.

Great thread!

For me, I always made a wish at Cinderella's fountain ever since I was a small girl. And it was usually for the same thing.

Years later, I hold those wishes in my arms (my DH and baby girl) when I visit the fountain. That is magic to me.

 

[PurpleKomodo]

I love the story about Jasmine and Aladdin! How amazing! Cinderella is amazing too! I love when characters do things that help feed the magic for kids. Children looking at those characters believing the characters are so real is truly magic.

 

[Crystal824]

When DD was two, we were heading out the Magic Kingdom on our last day of that trip. She loves characters and wanted to see Mickey again before we left so we planed to stop there on our way out. When we got to MM, the line for MM and princesses were both very short. This was when both MM and the princesses were at the front of the park. I think MM was posted for 5 min. and the princesses was 10 min. I told DD we might have time to do both. Well, the line for Mickey took more like 20 min. When we finished, the posted line for the princesses was 30 min. I told DD that unfortunately we didn't have time to see the princesses, and we would see the princesses on the next trip in November. This was May. A CM overheard me talking to DD and came over. She said do you really want to wait until November to see the princesses? DD, of course, said no. She took DD through the back to see the princesses. The CM also asked who her favorite princess was. DD said Rapunzel. Rapunzel spent a little extra time with her dancing and gave her a kiss.

 

[CatKel1202]

Several years ago we took a big family trip to DLR, and it was my SIL and step-niece and nephew's first trip. First day, standing just inside the gates trying to make a plan (ah the good old days!) and Alice, Queen of Hearts, Mad Hatter, and White Rabbit come out of nowhere and started up a rousing game of Duck, Duck, Goose, right in front of the flower beds. Soon Goofy, Pluto, Cinderella, and a couple of others came and joined in. It was so sweet to watch about 30 children playing a simple childhood game with about 10 characters. One of those things you can't plan for, but will always remember.

 

[tlmadden73]

Love this thread ...

One of mine came last trip ..
It was a last minute trip, but we were able to get a very late "lunch" reservation at Tusker House for our AK day (character meal). (So late some would consider it dinner).
My son (2 years old) was a little hesitant about the characters coming to the table, but after a while he warmed up. Since we had a big group and it was late we were basically closing the place down and after a while we had our little room all to ourselves. Even though the restaurant was essentially closing down Donald still came in .. armed with a bunch of shakers .. handed them to the kids and had a very intimate dance party around the room .. just my son .. and the other 4-5 boys in our group.
Despite being a little skittish around the characters he showed no hesitation at the opportunity to shake something and dance around the room. I know the dance party is often done at character meals (it was at Crystal Palace the next night), but the fact it was so intimate at the end of a busy meal was Magical to us.

I'll admit I was tearing up a bit at seeing the huge smile on his face.

 

[calismic]

My story did not take place in Disney World, but none the less was the most magical Disney moment I've had. We were on a Dream Cruise in 2013. My daughter, near 3 at the time, was absolutely obsessed with Ariel. To our great disappointment Ariel was not scheduled for any events or greets on the cruise. We delicately explained to my daughter that Ariel was away visiting her father and hopefully we could see her on our next trip. She was heart broken but accepted that she wouldn't get to see her favorite princess.

The final day of our cruise we were visiting one of the gift shops when my MIL came flying around the corner yelling that we had to follow her NOW. I got scared thinking someone in the family had been hurt. We round the bend and who do we see standing in her green ballgown but Ariel! My daughter went flying over to her and I just lost it, full on ugly cry. =P The actress who portrayed Ariel could not have been nicer. She spent several minutes talking to my daughter, asking her about her cruise, and explaining her earlier absence. (Oddly enough she used a very similar story to my husband and I) My daughters one wish was to dance with Ariel and she happily twirled her around and around. After a few minutes I looked up from my camera and noticed a crowd circling around us. Not a single person interrupted the moment. Some of the onlookers even began snapping their own photos and I noticed some other mothers with tears in their eyes as well. When we thought it was Ariel's time to depart, she held my daughters hand and asked if she would like to ride the elevator with her. They stopped at each floor waving and chatting with anyone waiting. I'd say she had a good 15/20 minute personal meet and greet with no interruptions. We finally departed on the 11th floor waving our goodbyes. My daughter now nearly 5, still has the photos of her time with Ariel framed around her room.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Mine was at the Magic Kingdom on Christmas Eve/Day. We had stayed until midnight to see the time pass to Christmas Day and we started to walk out of the park. We had just walked out of the tunnel under the railway station when a young man of about 15 (on the train) stood up and shouted, "Merry Christmas everyone!" and everyone turned around and shouted back, Merry Christmas! A spontaneous and magical moment.

 

[Donna Watson]

I have two. The first was in 2006, my niece(8 yr old) was obsessed with Jasmine and we met her at least 6-7 times. We saw her at breakfast in Epcot one morning and the parade in HS that afternoon. Jasmine looked into the crowd, spotted us and waived and yelled it was good to see us again!

2nd one in 2007, (different niece, 5 yr old) in HS Donald and Daisy were just coming to meet and grabbed her by the hand and walked her to the greeting spot. The smiles in that picture make me grin even now.

 

[ruthies12]

These are so sweet!

BTW they are still doing those random magical moments, not sure how often it happens but it just recently happened to my sil on her spring break trip. They were randomly chosen by a cast member to be taken on a backstage tour of POC and then got to ride it without waiting. my sil said it was really neat.

 

[jhaig]

Last year my family and I had just ridden Everest. It was my wife's first time riding, and definitely her last. She was looking a little green around the gills and I felt like a horrible husband for pushing her to ride it (backstory: our first date was 25 years ago and she rode a coaster with loops to impress me, so she thought it would be nice to do Everest in commemoration of that historic event).

So she and our daughter shuffled away to sit in the shade while I grudgingly went to ride in the single rider line. Suddenly I hear "Hey, Syracuse man!" It was the CM working the Everest line referencing my Syracuse basketball t-shirt I had on at the time. She was heading toward the ride and started a conversation about her hometown which, by her name badge, happened to be Syracuse NY. I explained what a rotten person I was and about the whole Everest situation then she asked if I was going to ride again. I said "Maybe, I may have to get my girls into the air conditioning soon". She said "Follow me" and brought me around to the front of the line, past all of the other sweaty guests waiting their turn, and then proceded to put me right in the front row of the next train! She smiled, gave me a high-five and shouted "Go 'Cuse!". It was perfect timing and made my day. So to Courtney at Expedition Everest, thanks for the pixie dust.

Good thing I didn't wear any Miami Dolphin gear that day...

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

My story did not take place in Disney World, but none the less was the most magical Disney moment I've had. We were on a Dream Cruise in 2013. My daughter, near 3 at the time, was absolutely obsessed with Ariel. To our great disappointment Ariel was not scheduled for any events or greets on the cruise. We delicately explained to my daughter that Ariel was away visiting her father and hopefully we could see her on our next trip. She was heart broken but accepted that she wouldn't get to see her favorite princess.

The final day of our cruise we were visiting one of the gift shops when my MIL came flying around the corner yelling that we had to follow her NOW. I got scared thinking someone in the family had been hurt. We round the bend and who do we see standing in her green ballgown but Ariel! My daughter went flying over to her and I just lost it, full on ugly cry. =P The actress who portrayed Ariel could not have been nicer. She spent several minutes talking to my daughter, asking her about her cruise, and explaining her earlier absence. (Oddly enough she used a very similar story to my husband and I) My daughters one wish was to dance with Ariel and she happily twirled her around and around. After a few minutes I looked up from my camera and noticed a crowd circling around us. Not a single person interrupted the moment. Some of the onlookers even began snapping their own photos and I noticed some other mothers with tears in their eyes as well. When we thought it was Ariel's time to depart, she held my daughters hand and asked if she would like to ride the elevator with her. They stopped at each floor waving and chatting with anyone waiting. I'd say she had a good 15/20 minute personal meet and greet with no interruptions. We finally departed on the 11th floor waving our goodbyes. My daughter now nearly 5, still has the photos of her time with Ariel framed around her room.

I am full on ugly crying this

 

[Mikie]

I've told it here before, but here goes:

This past October we took a very special multi-generation extended family trip. My dad called it his "I'm glad I'm still alive" trip. He hadn't been to Disney in over 20 years, and others on our trip had never been.

We've never been rope-droppers before, so we were unaware that some characters do interactions on their way to their official meet & greet locations. The first morning of that trip, the first thing we headed to (after pictures on Main Street) was Aladdins Magic carpets - of all things! It's the first ride you get to going left! As we fill our carpets and wait to start, we saw Aladdin and Jasmine come into the ride area and walk the circle waving to everyone. We thought that was cool enough, then they stop beside two of our family,s carpets and ask if they can ride along with us! Aladdin got in with my son and DH, and Jasmine got in with my niece, daughter and myself.

We got a ton of photopass pictures of the whole thing, they chatted with the kids throughout the entire ride, and at they end, they led the kids by the hand to the meet and greet area for posed photos of our whole family. Unbelievable!! We were afraid that was a bit too much of a high note and our whole trip would have to be downhill from there, but it was all wonderful

 

[Jeannie in NJ]

On our first trip with our children, my son was 7 or 8 at the time. He is special ed.(learning delays and just quirky). Anyway all the cm's were the best with him but one stood out. My loved the Indiana Jones show and he went down front after the show to meet the actors (ds was the only one to do that). It was Indy, Miriam and the bald bad guy. My son thought that it was the actual , real Indy from the movies. The actor played along great, he was so patient and answered so many questions from ds. We were there forever and never felt that we were taking up too much of the actors time. They were amazing with my son.

 

[PurpleKomodo]

These are all so wonderful! Keep them coming!

 

[RachaelA]

My favorite story is when Snow White, Doc and Grumpy ended up behind in MSEP because they were too distracted by my 11 month old. All 3 needed to run to catch up with the parade. Grumpy had gone to the other side of the street to get Snow White to bring her over to see my youngest. And Snow White remembered us from dinner earlier in the night.

Someone directly behind us got a bunch of pictures of it (I was recording it, but couldn't take pictures at the same time) and the man was nice enough to text us the pictures.

 

[kymom99]

I've told it here before, but here goes:

This past October we took a very special multi-generation extended family trip. My dad called it his "I'm glad I'm still alive" trip. He hadn't been to Disney in over 20 years, and others on our trip had never been.

We've never been rope-droppers before, so we were unaware that some characters do interactions on their way to their official meet & greet locations. The first morning of that trip, the first thing we headed to (after pictures on Main Street) was Aladdins Magic carpets - of all things! It's the first ride you get to going left! As we fill our carpets and wait to start, we saw Aladdin and Jasmine come into the ride area and walk the circle waving to everyone. We thought that was cool enough, then they stop beside two of our family,s carpets and ask if they can ride along with us! Aladdin got in with my son and DH, and Jasmine got in with my niece, daughter and myself.

We got a ton of photopass pictures of the whole thing, they chatted with the kids throughout the entire ride, and at they end, they led the kids by the hand to the meet and greet area for posed photos of our whole family. Unbelievable!! We were afraid that was a bit too much of a high note and our whole trip would have to be downhill from there, but it was all wonderful

On our very first family trip, when my son was 4, he rode the teacups with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum! His very first ride! It was the neatest thing!

On a later trip, my son and I got dream fastpasses after riding BTMRR first thing in the morning. My son said he was "proud of himself" when we got them! How sweet is that? It made our day!