My Four Random Magical Disney Memories
As we all know, Walt Disney World is a place where dreams really do come true; and everyone from the Imagineers to the Cast Members makes sure that that magic is all around us, every single day. Whether it’s a ground-breaking new attraction or a simple Guest interaction, that indescribable pixie dust is always there. But sometimes magic can take on different forms, and that is in the occurrence of the unexpected…those random times when things come together just right to create a little Disney magic seemingly out of nowhere. I’m sure that everyone has their favorite “unexpected Disney moments,” and I certainly have more than four stories I could share, but these are some of my favorites.
1. A Magical Cruise
It was a quiet fall evening, and Lisa and I (that’s “extraordinary Celebrations Customer Service Lisa” for those of you who know her!) were enjoying our gourmet cupcakes outside of Gasparilla Island Grill at the Grand Floridian, ready to enjoy the evening’s fireworks across Seven Seas Lagoon. From out of nowhere a Cast Member wandered by, asked us how we were doing, and told us how he was about to take one of the boats out for a test drive. “Well that’s cool!” we thought. But that wasn’t the end…he asked us if we’d like to come along. “You’ll get a great view of the fireworks!” he offered up as an enticement. Wait…you mean you’re offering to take us out for a private fireworks cruise??? “Sure!” And so we went, joined by another family, and we enjoyed a “front row” seat to a spectacular viewing of Happily Ever After, all on the quiet rippling waves of Seven Seas Lagoon. And all for simply being in the right place at the right time.
2. Paying it Forward
Many of our fondest Disney memories come when we get the chance to create our own magic…where we can play “Disney Dream Maker” and do our little bit to make another family’s vacation that much more magical. One instance I’ll never forget happened years ago…back when we got our FastPasses on little slips of paper from the attraction kiosks (remember those? Ah…the good old days!). Anyway, my daughter and I had FastPasses for Test Track…which you may recall always ran out early in the day. Earlier in the morning we had the chance to ride it without much of a wait, and we figured we’d save our FastPasses for later in the day. Well, later in the day arrived (actually mid-afternoon), and we were ready to head back to our resort to relax for a bit. But what about our FastPasses? Having ridden Test Track earlier, we realized that was good enough, a relaxed dip in the pool was much more inviting at that point. We happened to be near the Test Track FastPass kiosks at the time, and I overheard a young couple sharing a sad “oh no” between them. It seems that the FastPasses had literally just ran our for the day, just as it was their turn to get theirs. And it was clear this was a once in a lifetime trip and they had been really looking forward to Test Track. (This was back when it was the big headliner in the park – Soarin’ had not yet arrived – and the standby time was well over two hours, you can probably see where this is going…). My daughter and I wandered over to them and asked them what was wrong, and they explained how much they had looked forward to riding Test Track. Well little did they know a bit of pixie dust was about to head their way! I handed them our FastPasses and said they could use them, and best of all they were valid now…they could walk right on! They looked at us incredulously…are you serious? Yes indeed we said! Disappointment quickly turned to excitement, and the young couple gleefully ran off to experience the attraction they had so been looking forward to (profusely thanking us the whole way). And my daughter and I felt a warm glow in our hearts, we made someone’s Disney dream come true! I’ll never forget that feeling.
3. Extra Special Brownies
This is a favorite story of mine that actually happened to one of my friends. They were visiting the Magic Kingdom and were having lunch at the Crystal Palace. Being as it was a buffet, and seeing as one of their children couldn’t eat eggs, they had the opportunity to pick out just the right foods for their little one…and ask which dishes contained eggs. To their dismay, all of the desserts had eggs in them, so it looked like their son would have to go without. Now there’s nothing better than a classic Disney dessert, and as you would expect the young boy was disappointed. The Cast Member helping them out asked what his favorite dessert was, and he replied “brownies.” “Let me see what I can do.” The family then went back to their table to enjoy their lunch, and nearly forgot about dessert. It was then though that the head chef himself came over to their table with a plate full of delicious brownies. It turns out it was a special egg-free recipe that he knew, and he baked them specially for the young boy…on the house no less. The smiles on everyone’s faces were priceless, but even more so was the memory they would always have of a special dessert created for them by a special person.
4. A Little Courtesy Goes a Long Way
This next entry is about creating your own little piece of magic for a fellow Guest. A day in Disney can get hot, crowded, and let’s face it, a bit frustrating, especially when everyone wants to do something different and everyone is tired and sweltering (always a great time to take a break for a refreshing dip in the pool, but that’s another story!). And inevitably tempers may briefly flair. But even in these moments you can find a little Disney magic. All it takes is a little courtesy. To let someone go in front of you in line; to make sure they get the best seat on an attraction – or even just a seat on the bus; to let them stand in front of you during IllumiNations so they get that awesome “front row” view. Whether you’re the one passing on a little kindness, or if you see someone else reaching out to help a fellow Guest, you’ll get to experience that little bit of extra magic knowing that you or someone else went out of their way to make someone else’s day just a little bit more special. Even more heartwarming is when you or a fellow Guest or a Cast Member can turn someone’s tears into smiles, whether it’s by replacing that dropped ice cream cone, giving up your front row seat on Space Mountain, or even just listening. That’s true magic.
These are just a few examples of that random magic that can happen anytime at Walt Disney World. Do you have any memorable stories you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below!
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I’ll echo the story of helping to make magic for others. In 2003, my family was on it’s, roughly, dozenth trip to WDW. We were on a connecting flight from ATL to MCO. On a 767. Not a long flight. I struck up a conversation with an extended family of 25+ish headed to WDW for a family reunion. None..literally none, had been to Disney before. They were booked into Poly. We were doing a split stay. 4 days Poly, 4 days Beach Club. Shortly into our conversation it occurred to me that I needed to play tour guide for this group. I grabbed my notebook out of my briefcase and wrote 4 pages, front and back of notes, tips and itinerary ideas for them to save them from some of the struggles we all experienced on our first or even first few trips. I wrote my cell number on the last page telling them to call me if they had any questions. No small gesture as in those days long distance and minutes, generally, were precious commodities. I never heard from them during our stay. I thought I’d probably wasted my time or maybe overwhelmed them. A couple days after we returned home to Colorado I recieved a call from a number I did not recognize. I rarely answered those types of calls. Recall the previous mention about minutes ..This one, for whatever reason, I answered. It was the Mom I’d talked to, primarily, from the reunion family on the ATL flight. She went into great detail about how unbelievable their trip had been. And all because, she said, of my hints and notes. She talked about how they’d managed the parks so well, enjoyed the Poly so completely, ridden in the front car on the Monorail, sat in the rocking chairs on the back porch of the Boardwalk. Been able to know what time to sit on the beach with drinks and enjoy the Water Pageant floats. She went on and on with details of the trip, even telling me how they’d overstayed at Boardwalk one night and gotten a private bus ride back to Poly from a driver going off duty. (Haven’t we all had that happen at least once?) Yes, as magical as it is to live these experiences with your family, how awesome is it to help others do the same? Pretty darn….
Great story Steve, thank you!! Yep, pretty darn awesome! Whenever you have the chance to create some Disney magic for someone else…well, as you said there’s nothing quite like it. And a lesson we can all take into our day to day life…I think we’re always surprised at how far a little kindness can go. It’s so great how you reached out to them, and so generous. Walt would have been proud!!!!!
I have a similar story to the boat cruise. A cast member making an experience more magical.
A few years back, my family went to Disneyland. While at California Adventure we were waiting for the parade to start. We were across from the Pacific Wharf, above the street, and behind some bushes. Being our first time there, we did not know where to be for a better view, nor had time to get there. We decided to make the best of it. Just before the parade was to arrive, I was talking to a cast member about a tree. Being from the east coast, I had never seen the tree and I noticed that it had fruit on it. She was manning a VIP terrace for the parade. Only a few people were in that area. She offered to let us join them. We were eye level with the float characters and had a wonderful view. On top of that, my daughter got a pin to become an official Disneyland resident from the cast member.
Oh my gosh, that’s an amazing story!!! Your daughter must have been thrilled! We WILL do an “Our Favorite Cast Member Moments” list…I’m sure that will be a loooooong list. Thank you so much Chris!
We were at the Disney very merry Christmas party with our six and eight year old one year and waiting for the parade to start. We decided to sit down close by and have some hot chocolate and cookies to wait for the parade. Unfortunately he table we selected had a bad leg and tilted causing hot chocolate to topple all over our daughters pants. Cast members came over quickly to see what happened and make sure our daughter was not burned and was ok. One cleaned up the mess and wrote up the table to be fixed and the other knelt down to my daughter to talk to her because she was scared with all of the commotion. We thought our evening was over and we would need to head back to the resort without seeing the parade and those wonderful marching soldiers we all loved. However, the cast member gave me a ticket to take our daughter anywhere in the park to get new pants on the house, anything we wanted. We hurried to different shops in Main Street until we found a reasonable pair of sweat pants (we just needed to see the parade not make Disney pay for an expensive pair of pants) and quickly headed back to the parade route just in time for it to start. We were able to enjoy the parade and also spend a few extra hours that night in the park due to Disney’s help in turning a bad situation into a funny memory. I still have pics of my daughter that night in her Disney pants.
We were at Walt Disney Works with our six year old daughter and eight year old son and attending the Very Merry Christmas Party. We decided to sit down and have some hot chocolate and cookies close by and wait for the parade to start. Unfortunately, the table we selected had a wobbly leg and the table tilted causing hot chocolate to spill all over our daughters pants. Needless to say we thought our night was finished and we would have to go back to our resort and miss the rest of the evening. At that point cast members came over to investigate what happened. While one helped clean up the mess and write up the table to be fixed the other was assisting us with our daughter to ensure she had not been burned. She handed us a ticket and said to go anywhere in the park and get new pants no matter the cost and Disney would take care of it. We rushed to Main Street and laughed as we ran from store to store trying to find a reasonable pair of pants (after all we didn’t want them to have to pay a fortune for a pair of replacement pants) we just wanted to see the parade and those marching soldiers we all loved. Finally we had her dressed in new pants and were back to the parade just in time for it to start. We were also able to spend a few more hours in the park and enjoying the rides. What started as an unfortunate situation turned into a great evening thanks to some Disney Magic. I still look back at those photos of our daughter in her Disney pants with fond memories.