The Year of a Million Dreams: Making a Dream Come True for a Fellow Cast Member

On October 1^st, 2006 the Disney company started, what many would say, its most spectacular promotion ever; The Year of a Million Dreams. I began working as a full-time Disney Cast Member with the Guest Relations team at Magic Kingdom earlier that year in mid-July and I couldn’t have been more excited to be working at the Disney parks during such an exciting promotion. Not only would the group of lucky Cast Members known as the Dream Team be giving out prizes to guests but they were also doing an internal giveaway for Cast Members as well! Even with such a prestigious role as a Guest Relations Hostess, I found myself getting jealous of these Cast Members where their single purpose was to surprise unexpecting guests and Cast Members with gifts and prizes beyond their wildest imagination each and every day they worked. Don’t get me wrong, I made a lot of magic happen on a daily basis as well, but I really wished I could be part of the gift giving those Cast Members did.

Some of the Dream Giveaways I saw happen included Dream Fast Pass giveaways at Magic Kingdom (this one I saw at the exit of It’s a Small World and Pirates of the Caribbean), Year of a Million Dreams lanyard and pin sets (all over the Kingdom), the Cinderella Castle Suite giveaway and Dream Mouse Ears. I had heard of many of the other prizes being given away at the other parks as well. Each day one of the Guest Service Managers would update us on the where-and-when of the giveaways so we could be informed of which prizes were left. After every giveaway, my desire to give away a Dream Come True grew more and more.

Little did I know that I would eventually get my chance to fulfill someone’s Dream as well… but in a way that I hadn’t anticipated. One evening I was working in City Hall when my Guest Services Manager asked me to step outside with him. We walked out into the garden next to City Hall and the GSM asked me if I would be up for helping him with a little magic. Of course my answer to that was always yes and I excitedly asked him how I could help. A friend of his who was a GSM in Tomorrowland wanted to propose to his girlfriend who worked in an O&T (office and technical) role backstage. The Tomorrowland GSM wanted to do something special for the proposal so my manager had offered to help. We stood in the garden whispering back and forth as we concocted a simply magical plan.

 

After finalizing the details, my GSM gave me a firm handshake and said “Good luck! I’m counting you!” and returned to his duties backstage. Since he wasn’t able to leave City Hall as the Manager on Duty, he had passed the baton to me to take care of this magical surprise. I grabbed a few velvet ropes from City Hall and headed down Main Street USA towards the castle. As I was walking past the confectionary, I saw one of the Dream Team Cast Members that was often staged around City Hall. “Hi Kristen! Whatcha up to today?” she shouted over the crowds busy guests searching out their spots for that evening’s show of Wishes (the nightly fireworks show). I was just about to hurry past the Cast Member when an idea struck me. I squeezed through the crowds and whispered in the CM’s ear about my plan. “Oh really? That’s a great idea! I’ll definitely help out!” she had said and quickly joined me on my journey to the Castle. Along the way we recruited several other Cast Members to help out; a PhotoPass CM on Main Street USA, a Tomorrowland CM that was assisting with putting up parade rope and stations, and an Ice Cream Parlor CM that had just gone on break. We all stopped in front of the entrance to the Castle’s rose garden on the bridge heading into Tomorrowland. There was a little space where PhotoPass CMs would take pictures of families in front of the castle. The PhotoPass CM we recruited had helped us clear out the space and put up the velvet ropes from City Hall to reserve the viewing area. The GSM from Tomorrowland found us and saw all the other CM’s and looked at me and the Dream Team CM and asked what was going on. We explained that we were going to surprise his girlfriend by saying she had won a Dream Come True for the Cast Members as part of the Year of a Million Dreams. It was a special viewing of the fireworks right here at the rose garden! The GSM couldn’t believe how much thought we had put into the situation to help him make the proposal special. We quickly placed the CM’s in the viewing area with the Tomorrowland GSM at the back. The Dream Team CM headed backstage to get the girlfriend and returned with her quickly just before the fireworks began. She was so excited to have won a Dream Come True that she didn’t even notice her boyfriend until the fireworks were halfway through! I think it was when she finally saw him that she realized what was actually happening. The CMs and I cleared out of the viewing space and stood at the velvet rope and watched as he proposed to her during the grand finale of Wishes.