YOAMD - Winner picking strategy??

[BamaTigger]

I have been wondering if it really is "random" winner selection, or is it done by strategically selection. Like if they "look" for 2 parents, and 2.5 kids, ya know, the " typical family" type.

next year, when they give away the night in Cinderella Castle suite, will it be with a family of 4 or 5 with kids, or will they give it to a couple of just 2???

How random is it???

 

[btuftee]

I would imagine that for legal reasons, the bigger prizes are going to be done fairly randomly, instead of giving the CMs any discretion in who to choose. Can you imagine how it would play out otherwise - anyone within five feet of the winners, who didn't get picked, could raise a stink on all sorts of discriminatory issues. Plus worries that CMs will secretly reward their friends. Remember the McDonalds Monopoly game scandal a few years back?

OTOH, the free turkey legs and fastpasses, those are probably up to the members of the dream squads to select. Note to self - look a little pathetic and needy when the dream squad members come around... maybe a tear or two.

 

[Remember The Magic]

the winners for all prizes are (apparently) chosen completely randomly in the following way- instead of the dream squad looking for people to give the prizes to themselves, they are told who to give them to and then they go looking for that person. For example, the team managers or whatever they're called are observing the Splash Mountain exit on a camera and they say whoever leaves the exit at 3.18pm will get such a prize, then when that person leaves the exit the dream squad is sent out to look for them. and if 2 people leave the exit at the same time, it's already been decided if it's the person on the left or right. winners of bigger prizes are taken back to Guest Relations before being told what they've won, so as not to upset people around.

 

[NewEnglandDisney]

As has been written about extensively via this, other sites, and Disney's own press releases, it is completely random, and run by an outside company and their computer.

Disney is not even running the contest.

NED

 

[HumphreytheBear]

Many people are getting "Magical Moments" confused with the Year of a Million Dreams Sweepstakes. Magical moments are those things that can happen anytime, anyplace and are done just to make your visit have a little more pixie dust. For example, riding in the front of the monorail, being given a free ice cream or turkey leg as mentioned in a previous post. Being the Opening family at a park etc. these are random acts that are given out by the cast members at the location that they are being issued. These types of things for the most part, the cast is able to pick someone out (some of the free things, like Ice Cream and such is designated to certain peramiters like the ice cream order at 25 after every hour). When these special things are going on it is not the Dream Squad (with the exception of some of the attractions in Fantasyland where the Dream Squad assists).

For the actual Prize giveaway, the sweepstakes itself is has to follow state laws for sweepstakes and is being administered by an outside company. The Dream Squad is not picking who or when, it is dictated to them and they present the prizes as such. The only thing the actual Dream Squad is in charge of are the prizes that are listed on the "Official Sweepstakes Rules" (ie" Dream Ears, Dream Fastpass, lanyards/pins, the night in the castle, trips, etc.)

So basically you will find that for a Magical moment you are probably going to find them to be more of the "family with kids" type of things, but for the prizes in the sweepstakes it is as random as it comes... Here is a write up from a Dream Squad CM that was posted just after the sweepstakes started, it might help answer some of the questions.

"I am on the Inaugural Dream Squad team.

The Dream Squad has 2 main functions. These are as follows.

Dream Greeter
Prize Fulfillment

We perform these in the following costume.
Tan pants and blue button down shirts. We wear a white vest when we are in Prize Fulfillment mode.

Dream Greeter
Most of our time is spent in this role. We are assigned areas where we walk around talking to guests and cast making sure they are having a good time and attempt to settle or make better any guest or cast issues.

Prize Fulfillment
We perform this role once a twice a week and are scheduled for the whole day. This is the area that most of the discussions are about.
We have no choice in what, when or where we do this. In order to keep this sweepstakes legal, we have an outside agency supplying this information to us. We can't open the envelope containing this information until just before the prize is to be distributed. We then go to the location, await the exact time (with syncronized time pieces) and award the prize as stated.

When we prize fulfill we only know what the Low Tier Bulk prizes are. These are the Dream Fast Passes, Dream Ears, Dream Lanyards and such. The Mid Level and High Level prizes are not even known to us until we take the potential winner back to Guest Relations.

In order to keep things fair and legal, the prize fulfillment portion is even kept secret among ourselves. When we are in this mode, we dont tell each other or even our leadership where we are going, when we are going or what we are giving.

All 4 parks, water parks and even Downtown Disney are included as prize fulfilling areas. I cannot give the actual areas that we deliver the prizes, but I can say that all guest areas are potential places for awarding within the above areas."

 

[Remember The Magic]

Many people are getting "Magical Moments" confused with the Year of a Million Dreams Sweepstakes. Magical moments are those things that can happen anytime, anyplace and are done just to make your visit have a little more pixie dust. For example, riding in the front of the monorail, being given a free ice cream or turkey leg as mentioned in a previous post. Being the Opening family at a park etc. these are random acts that are given out by the cast members at the location that they are being issued. These types of things for the most part, the cast is able to pick someone out (some of the free things, like Ice Cream and such is designated to certain peramiters like the ice cream order at 25 after every hour). When these special things are going on it is not the Dream Squad (with the exception of some of the attractions in Fantasyland where the Dream Squad assists).

For the actual Prize giveaway, the sweepstakes itself is has to follow state laws for sweepstakes and is being administered by an outside company. The Dream Squad is not picking who or when, it is dictated to them and they present the prizes as such. The only thing the actual Dream Squad is in charge of are the prizes that are listed on the "Official Sweepstakes Rules" (ie" Dream Ears, Dream Fastpass, lanyards/pins, the night in the castle, trips, etc.)

So basically you will find that for a Magical moment you are probably going to find them to be more of the "family with kids" type of things, but for the prizes in the sweepstakes it is as random as it comes... Here is a write up from a Dream Squad CM that was posted just after the sweepstakes started, it might help answer some of the questions.

"I am on the Inaugural Dream Squad team.

The Dream Squad has 2 main functions. These are as follows.

Dream Greeter
Prize Fulfillment

We perform these in the following costume.
Tan pants and blue button down shirts. We wear a white vest when we are in Prize Fulfillment mode.

Dream Greeter
Most of our time is spent in this role. We are assigned areas where we walk around talking to guests and cast making sure they are having a good time and attempt to settle or make better any guest or cast issues.

Prize Fulfillment
We perform this role once a twice a week and are scheduled for the whole day. This is the area that most of the discussions are about.
We have no choice in what, when or where we do this. In order to keep this sweepstakes legal, we have an outside agency supplying this information to us. We can't open the envelope containing this information until just before the prize is to be distributed. We then go to the location, await the exact time (with syncronized time pieces) and award the prize as stated.

When we prize fulfill we only know what the Low Tier Bulk prizes are. These are the Dream Fast Passes, Dream Ears, Dream Lanyards and such. The Mid Level and High Level prizes are not even known to us until we take the potential winner back to Guest Relations.

In order to keep things fair and legal, the prize fulfillment portion is even kept secret among ourselves. When we are in this mode, we dont tell each other or even our leadership where we are going, when we are going or what we are giving.

All 4 parks, water parks and even Downtown Disney are included as prize fulfilling areas. I cannot give the actual areas that we deliver the prizes, but I can say that all guest areas are potential places for awarding within the above areas."

this is the post i got my information from, couldn't remember where i saw it though thanks!