Year of Million Dreams...CM Nightmare?

[2Princes2Princesses]

I happen to know the picking process for the larger prizes.

An outside company was brought in (I think it had something to do with Scholastic) and determined the picks before this even started.

The Dream Squads basically hang around the park. They will get a call to go to a location. When they get there, they will be given instructions by a higher up to go elsewhere, then given an envelope (or something along those lines). It will indicate when and where the person to recieve the prize will be.....for example:

Space Mountain, car #45, seat #2.

So, when space mountain car 45 pulls up to unload, they will grab the person in seat 2. They THEN open the envelope and award the prize. The CM's doing the awarding do not know what prize they are giving away until they open it in front of the winning guest.

Now this IS for the bigger things....DVC, cruise, Castle and Penthouse stays. As far as the Dream FPs and what not, I dont know.

My cousin is a CM and applied to be on the Dream Squad. She said for her it would be the Disney dream job!!! She had no worries about other guests feeling entitled to prizes. She was just excited about making things extra magical for guests.

And she said the fact that the prizes are a surprise for the CM's awarding them made it even more exciting.

So even if a Dream Squad CM was to try and award a prize to a friend or relative, they would have no idea what it was. I think even the smaller ones (Dream Fastpasses, etc) are done that way. There is no time for a CM on the Squad to get their friend where they need to be to win, since they only get the info immediately beforehand.

I personally was impressed with the way Disney and the outside company managed to set this up to avoid such fraud.

On the other hand, I would have loved the DVC membership!! LoL

Now the little things, like the double pins for creating magic for others, free embroidery on ears, etc, now THOSE things, yes, CM's can abuse the privilege.

While friends and family of CM's may think they should get the upper hand on things, a lot of CM's don't feel that way. I know when we went to see my cousin, I was standing behind her and she told a coworker her cousin was coming and he said "UGH Family.....I am sorry." and she laughed and introduced me. I asked "Am I that bad?" and she said "No, but usually family wants the royal treatment."

Geez, even when she worked an attraction, I stood in the regular queue line for an HOUR to go see her. Guess I have issues.

And as an aside, I was not going to jump in on this, but I felt I had to. The CMs picked for the dream squad are the ones who are totally dedicated to making magic for the guests. The ones we rave about. And they are really excited about this. I just couldn't help feeling bad that people would think every time a prize was awarded that "That is probably a friend of theirs." This is so well randomized. Anyone who walks in the gates has the same chance of winning something great, whether you know a CM, go on the DIS, or are wandering around wondering when the 3 o'clock parade starts!!!

 

[flexsmom]

Last month at the Grand CA at DLR, a CM gave my son and daughter each a balloon. My DD gave her balloon to a little girl who looked under 2, who was totally intrigued by the balloon. The CM came by later to ask where her balloon was, and DD explained that she had given it to a little girl who needed it more. The CM gave her one of the double pin sets, and gave DH a "PS Anytime, Anywhere" pass for 6 people good for the duration of our stay! DD gave her second pin to my best friend who was traveling with us, and later on in one of the parks, CMs all over were asking her what she had done to deserve the pin! It was so neat to see it dawn on DD that by doing something special for someone in a selfless way, it paid unexpected dividends for her by being complimented about it. I overheard one CM say to another on one of the attractions "see, maybe it DOES really work!" as we were walking away.

Anyhow, long story, but just those two little, special things made such a difference to our trip - I think for most people, getting to do something nice that brightens someone else's day/trip is a cool thing. So maybe I'm naive, but I'm hoping the CMs who get to be a part of handing out the Magic fall into that category and it won't be "gamed" too much.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Well, I DID get one of the smaller suprises! I had gone over to Expeditioh Everest with our young guest. When we arrived, the line was too long, and the fastpasses too late for us to attempt, so we were standing there kind of sad over the fact that he probably would NOT get to experience EE. Just then, a dream castmember showed up and asked if we had ridden. I said we decided the wait was too long since we had dinner reservations to get to. He said, "come with me", and we were off on a 'million dreams' moment! He asked what car, and I said,"first, of course"! We rode right up front right away, and when we got off, he took us to the control tower where we go to watch the cameras that track the ride, and the controller stopping trains at specific places as they slow down and speed things up. When we exited the control tower, he asked if we wanted to ride again....(dumb question!) That time we rode in the last car. GREAT fun, and something he will talk about for a long time! I do think I would never have experienced this if it was just me alone, however. I'm quite sure he thought it was a grandma and her grandson.

 

[Granny]

Diane....great story! Glad to hear that you received a little touch of the magic. And as you say, that gesture will reinforce in you your love of WDW and the experiences you've enjoyed over the years. It is doing for you exactly what the people who "dreamed" the promotion up had hoped.

 

[fishermouse]

I think the best thing to do is just forget all about it, if you get picked for something be grateful if not your still lucky enough to be able to go to WDW a couple times a year. Personally as an empty nester with the ability to enjoy Disney frequently I like seeing someone that is a little less likely to visit two or three times a year get something. Especially children, most of us don't really NEED anything free, and since we go so often we can afford to skip a long line and come back another time or just use the normal fast pass. It's magic just being there.

 

[canda]

I saw a woman and her daughter get tapped on the shoulder last week at Epcot near Nemo. They were pulled to the side and I slide over to be nosey. The woman was pretty much acting like they were trying to sell something to her and she kept saying no, I not interested in any schemes like timeshares or tickets and I not buying fastpasses. The CM was really patient and instead on moving on to someone else was really trying to give her the prize. As she was giving the prize to the little girl which was a YOMD mouse ear hat, she says "I am not paying for that" THe CM just smiled and said, no its your prize to keep for free. The woman started asking what other prizes where availible once she figured out it was a prize and the CM was just telling her of the big ones. This woman then starts complaining that they would rather have one of those prizes instead. I could not believe how patient this CM was and the smile she had the entire time.

 

[graygables]

In addition to the prize "teams", each store also has it's own thing they've come up with. When we were there last month, my DDs were in the VMK place and a CM asked 8yo if she would help find their "Hidden Pal Mickey" (he was in with some other stuffies). She did and they gave her an exclusive Pal Mickey pin/certificate. It was a little thing, but brought HUGE magic to our day.