Will Million Dreams winner prevent entry to parks???

[Jlampley]

My first day in the parks will be Oct 1st - the 1st day the winner of the new Disney promotion will have the parks to themselves for a time. I'm wondering if this will be done before normal park hours so as not to take away time from the rest of their guests. I will be very unhappy if I bust it to get to the parks for rope drop and then have to spend time watching the winning family enjoy the park thereby removing any benefit of my getting their early.

Is there anyone in the "know" who can shed light on the details of this promotion?

Thanks

 

[Pixiedust34]

I'm not in the know, but I was wondering the same thing. I wonder if they'll get in 30--45 minutes before opening? Then, they'd get a head start. I think I read that each Land will open after that family is finished touring it. I can't imagine that WDW will make hundreds of people to wait to get into the park much past opening time.

I'm not going to be there in October, but I'm looking forward to reading trip reports and hearing about 10/1 in the MK. I hope that some Dis'ers have a chance to make their dreams come true!

 

[all4disney98]

I read on either the Disney website or the "news" section of one of the boards a list of rides that will be open to the lucky winner. Then as they finish each land, it will be open to the rest of the public. So I don't think it is like you would dream of - the whole park to yourself and being able to dash from one end to the other with it empty. It was not every ride on the list either. I am going to look now for that list.

 

[kidd_freeper]

Even people "in the know", don't know too much at this point.
Few-to-none details have been released since the initial announcement.

Also there is a bit of controvery with the October date.
Yom Kippur is at sunset on October 1.

 

[all4disney98]

There is a list of the rides that will be open to the person that wins in the sweepstakes rules:

[4] VIP park early admission to a selection of the following major rides in the Magic Kingdom® Park: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Cinderella's Golden Carrousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, The Haunted Mansion, 'it's a small world", The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey's PhilharMagic, Peter Pan's Flight, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Stitch's Great Escape™, Tomorrowland Indy Speedway;

It looks like you get to be in the park early in the morning so it shouldn't impact the rest of the resort guests too much.

 

[Sammie]

As stated final details are not at this point known. I would not worry yet. If you see later that this is going to be a major press situation, then change to another park on that and avoid all of the excitement.

 

[Tinker*Shell*Bell]

One of the write-ups said there would be one land at a time opening "following the vip winner around the park" So if they started in tomorrowland it would open when they moved to fantasy land. Fantasyland would open when they moved to liberty square which would open when they moved to frontierland which left only adventureland closed until they finished. It did sound like they wanted the hype and press to watch the whole thing, leaving hundreds of would be guests watching while one family enjoyed the win.
There are not a lot of rides available to the winner and it does not say they will get to ride all of those available. Maybe it is only 1 or 2 per land, delaying opening some but not significantly. It will be fast and easy for them to ride and move on without any lines to worry about.
I guess I would not plan to be there that day, at least not in the morning. I would expect delays and extra waiting from this event.

 

[ktglads]

I was telling someone about this and we thought that sure, it would be great for the people who won, but the general public would have quite a wait to get to certain lands. Even off this one list, the amount of time to get through a land would be pretty high. Average ride would be 5 minutes to include loading and unloading and getting to the entrance and from one ride to another

Tomorrowland:
Space Mountain - 5 minutes
Stich - with the first preshow, this would run about 10 minutes
Buzz Lightyear - 5 minutes
Indy Speedway - 5 minutes

So total time here would be 25 minutes

Fantasyland:
Carrousel - 3 minutes
Dumbo - 3 minutes
its a small world - 17 painful minutes
Pooh - 5 minutes
Philharmagic - 10 minutes
Pan - 5 minutes

total time 43 minutes

Adventureland:
Aladdin - 5 minutes

not too much time taken here, 5 minutes since most of that time would be walking to the ride

Frontierland:
Big Thunder - 5 minutes
Splash - 10 minutes
Haunted Mansion - 10 minutes with preshows

So total time is 25 minutes

Add these all together and you have about an hour and 45 minutes worth of time that the park would not be 100% open. That is also saying that there are no breaks for bathrooms or photo ops for the press (which would be definite). I would think that the head family would have to do some odd criss-crossing of the park to assist in park flow and not to have thousands of people stuck in one land with only 3 rides to do. But if they started early in Fantasyland, the effect would be the same but some of the longer rides (Philharmagic and small world) could be done before majority of the crowds are there.

 

[Jlampley]

Very interesting - maybe someone from Disney will recognize that it would be best if the winner could be at the part at 7:00 am or something to enjoy a couple of hours and still allow all their paying guests to fully enjoy their trip. I know Disney values each guest and can only hope this will be the case.

I am assuming that at this time no one know which parks the winner will hit when. I'm there Oct 1- 7, so I will need to avoid this situation all four days.

 

[Sammie]

From the Contest Rules. I don't think you will have anything to worry about, personally I think it would be fun to be there while it is happening.

VIP park early admission to a selection of the following major rides in the Magic Kingdom® Park: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Cinderella's Golden Carrousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, The Haunted Mansion, 'it's a small world", The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey's PhilharMagic, Peter Pan's Flight, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Stitch's Great Escape™, Tomorrowland Indy Speedway

It will only be in the Magic Kingdom Park on October 1. You might want to plan on avoiding that, I am sure there will be large crowds wanting to watch.

 

[Jlampley]

From the Contest Rules. I don't think you will have anything to worry about, personally I think it would be fun to be there while it is happening.

VIP park early admission to a selection of the following major rides in the Magic Kingdom® Park: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Cinderella's Golden Carrousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, The Haunted Mansion, 'it's a small world", The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey's PhilharMagic, Peter Pan's Flight, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Stitch's Great Escape™, Tomorrowland Indy Speedway

It will only be in the Magic Kingdom Park on October 1. You might want to plan on avoiding that, I am sure there will be large crowds wanting to watch.

That sounds good. I'm in AK on Oct 1st, Epcot - 2nd, Studios - 3rd, MK - 4th. Maybe it will work out that the winner (assuming its not me of course) will be in another park each day.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Sammie]

That sounds good. I'm in AK on Oct 1st, Epcot - 2nd, Studios - 3rd, MK - 4th. Maybe it will work out that the winner (assuming its not me of course) will be in another park each day.

Thanks for the info.

The only official celebration with the winner is on October 1 in the Magic Kingdom. I am sure the winner and family will simply be enjoying their trip the rest of the days. No one should be affected except very early on Oct. 1 in the Magic Kingdom.

 

[slp87]

I wouldn't be surprised if they offerred early entry at at least 2 of the other parks on that day.

 

[huey578]

If I were to win, I would ask WDW to allow everyone into the park. Just let me get to front of line for every ride...that's only fair. LOL

 

[TDC Nala]

I'm going to epcot.

 

[notnothin]

I've heard that the furnishing of the room within the castle isn't going to be ready by October, and that that opportunity has been pushed back until early next year (2007). Guess we will have to wait and see for sure.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Hmmmm... we have Crystal Palaces ADRs for 8 am on October 1st.

Pick us pick us!!!!

 

[gabbyrosebud]

Hmmmm... we have Crystal Palaces ADRs for 8 am on October 1st.

Pick us pick us!!!!

We're right there with you! Pick us! We have Cinderella's Royal Table Breakfast for 8:05AM! I've had my plan set to be in MK since April 1 when I made my ADR. I am so excited about the new promotion! But I have to admit, I became a little nervous after reading this thread. I can be a bit of a nervous Nellie at times! On the other hand, it will probably be really exciting to be there that morning! Maybe our dreams will come true!

 

[disneyfan551]

We just happen to have MK as our last park day on the 1st! I hope it isn't too crowded...