Who wants to be a millionaire game at WDW?

[Betty X]

Is the Who wants to be a millionaire game still being played at WDW? Are the prizes still the same?

 

[QuickGold]

Yes, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is still at the Disney-MGM Studios. The grand prize has changed from a trip to NYC for a taping to a free cruise for 4 on Disney Cruise Line.

 

[Betty X]

Smokin' prize change! Right on.

 

[ivanova]

Love playing WWTBAM-PI at DCA and am looking forward to playing in MGM. I'm glad to hear the grand prize (Disney cruise) is the same now. I haven't been in the hotseat since April 2002 @ MGM (can't seem to quite make it back here at home in DCA).

 

[fklhou]

It is still being played at MGM. There was a rumor on the Rumor Board that they might close the DCA version of the attraction but it appears that this rumor was false. After they cancel the network version of the show, they tried a couple of different grand prizes with the DCL cruise being a good prize.

I love the attraction with or without the grand prize. There is nothing more fun that getting on to the hot seat.

 

[pstepka]

How often is the game played?

 

[fklhou]

It depends how busy the park is. The brochure with show times on it for MGM has the times for each round of this attraction. Usually the first show is at 11:00 A.M. or so and then go every 45 minuutes until early afternoon. The last show is normally around early dinner and unless the parks are busy there are no late evening shows.

 

[pstepka]

How often do they award the grand prize?

 

[ivanova]

how often the grand prize is awarded is dependent on the skill of those players that make it into the hotseat. I know at DCA for the past 8-10 weeks that they've had the new cruise prize they've already had 4 winners. So I'd guess they average 2-3 people per month.

fortunately it's not being pulled out of DCA (yet at least) because that would pretty much kill one whole "land" in the park (we'd have the animation studio, Aladdin stage show, and Muppets 3D only). Whew! I love playing Millionaire!!

 

[pstepka]

Last question (I promise!)...how exactly does it work? Do you have to wait in line for the 'show', then everyone gets a chance to play? Or are there just 10 people (or however many there are on the real show) that get to answer the questions to try to get into the hot seat?

Thanks,
Pam

 

[ivanova]

EVERYONE who gets in (roughly 650) get to play - there are touch pads at every seat. So those sitting in the 10 "ring of fire" seats have no advantage over anyone else. It's all based on points, so getting the answer right helps ... but the faster that you get it right gets you more "bonus" points.

 

[fklhou]

FastPass is available for the attraction which can be nice since you wait inside in air conditioned space. The balance of the audience comes in from standly line which waits outside to the side of the attraction. Now they have a covered waiting area and so it is much better than the uncovered days. They try to fill the attraction up and so occassionally you will not make it if you are in the standby line.
Everyone plays. There are touchpads at each seat and the attraction holds 650 people when filled. The fastest finger seats have a better view but I have never seen anyone make it to the hot seat from the fastest finger seats.
The fastest finger rounds are pure speed and accuracy. Two four years old have made it to the hot seat on fastest finger rounds by pushing the buttons randomnly.
After the first person is selected by fastest finger, you get on the hot seat by playing along and answering the questions correctly as fast as possible. Every milestone, they will show the top ten scores by seat number. If you are the top score when the person on the hot seat is eliminated, they you are called to the seat. Being on the hot seat is a blast.
I hope that this helps.

 

[pstepka]

Thanks so much! Your information was terrific.

Pam

 

[erikthewise]

From a trip report I posted last month...

"I don’t think I’ve fully explained the setup for those who haven’t been there. In front of every seat is a small panel with the letters A, B, C, and D on buttons. When the four possible answers to a question have been given, the buttons will light up, and then you press your selection. Except that you can’t possibly win that way. The “insiders” will click as rapidly as possible on their selection so that they will hit it within one or two tenths of a second after the lights come on. I seemed to be doing all right, but once in a while I would stop clicking before the lights came on, so that when they did come on it took me too long to click again. Then I knew I was doomed. It seemed that to get on the top ten list you had to have all the correct answers selected within about 0.1 seconds. I just couldn’t do it consistently. But we were all still having fun! The prizes, by the way, are
-- at 1,000 points: a Millionaire baseball cap and 5 pins
-- at 32,000 points: a Millionaire polo shirt and 10 pins
-- at 1,000,000 points: a 7-day Disney cruise with air included!
In the three shows we went to, the cruise was never in danger.

Well after the show was over, we still had our fastpasses, so we went right back in! We actually used fastpasses! But it didn’t really count, because the show still didn’t fill, so we would have gotten in anyway.

This time there was a group of hotshots sitting to my left. Very nice people, but they knew how to play. One of them got in the hotseat! And another got into the top ten list in the second round. I thought I was doing well, but just couldn’t break into the top ten. One problem was that unless the player in the hot seat was pretty sharp, it was ALL about quickness, because they didn’t last long enough for any challenging questions to come up! You could know everything and it still wouldn’t matter unless the hotseat player was good enough to get to questions that other people would miss.

In the third round there was finally such a player. I was doing pretty good, and then the questions started to get serious. One asked for a Judy Garland movie where the film ended with her calling to announce she was now Mrs. So-and-So. I selected “A Star is Born” and quick-clicked it in. I was right! This was at the 16,000 level. When the top ten list came up, I was suddenly in third place! I finally had a chance! But for what? I knew what would happen. But some battles must be fought even when there is no hope.

The 32,000 question came up. It asked for the city where the first television transmission was received and displayed. DAMN! I knew what year it was, but I didn’t know where! But when the answers came up, I selected San Francisco because the others made less sense. I was right again! And the hotseat player was wrong!! And then, as I knew would happen, the buzzer sounded signaling the end of play. But the final top ten list was displayed, and I was NUMBER ONE!! YES!!! As everyone else headed for the exit, I stood up and pumped my fists in the air! An empty victory, you say, but I say it’s the game that’s important, not the money.

You just can’t win. If the hotseat player lasts long enough to allow your superior knowledge (and luck!) to come into play, then they also last long enough that time runs out! But I had a lot of fun and it was one of the two highlights of the trip for me."

 

[cressy]

Hi flkhou
My husband and I were lucky enough to be asked to sit in the fastest finger seats; I got into the hot seat.No matter where you sit you're on equal footing with everybody else.The host also teases those sitting in those seats "thinkin' they're all cool"!

 

[fklhou]

cresey
Congratulations. I have been to quite a few shows and you are the first person that I know who has gotten onto the hot seat from the fasstest finger seats. My wife has been in one of these seats once while I was on the hot seat as a returning guest. She was too preoccupied with watching the show to make it. She of course knew that answer to the question that I lost on.