Realistic Expectations for YOAMD

marmermea

Mouseketeer
Joined
Oct 15, 2006
We just got back last night from a week long trip to Disney World. We had a wonderful time! I have read many posts of disappointment that people did not see or win anything. Here is what I think. We all ready the list of fabulous prizes. But when you count those up, they are a very small percentage of 1 million. And from what I've been reading, it looks like none? of the big prizes have been awarded yet. Probably saving them for late in the year? So where does that leave our expectations, realistically?

We encountered YOAMD personally three times. Here is what we got:

1- When my daughters were stanging under a cooling mist at MK, a CM walked up and threw shiny mickey mouse confetti up in the air under the mist so it landed on their heads and stuck to the water. They thought that was a lot of fun. One guy joked beside us that that the pieces of confetti was a thousand of the dreams. Don't get mad - he said it in a funny, laughing way and I received it the same.

2- At AK, a CM walked up to my daughter and asked if she wanted to play a game. He had a poster board w/ tic tac toe marks on it and rocks to play. She and another girl played and tied. He gave them each a YOAMD certificate. My daughter was delighted.

3- At Le Cellier, we were seated at the "Table of the Day". We each had a golden crown to wear, and confetti and stickers at the table. That was it, but again, the girls loved it and wore the crowns proudly.

We were at the parks all day and night for seven days and I think I saw about five Dream Fastpasses. I did, however, see lots of people wearing the YOAMD Mickey Mouse ears.

So... if you are going with the anticipating of winning a grand wonderful prize, you will probably be disappointed. If you are hoping for a Dream Fastpass (I admit, I would have loved that!), you will probably be disappointed too. But if you go with no expectation and you DO NOT mention YOAMD to your children, then they will probably be pleasantly surprised.
 
I'm going with the mind set of if I win something, then great. If I don't, it does not matter, because I'm on vacation at my favorite place in the world. Walt Disney World!!!!!
 
marmermea said:
We just got back last night from a week long trip to Disney World. We had a wonderful time! I have read many posts of disappointment that people did not see or win anything. Here is what I think. We all ready the list of fabulous prizes. But when you count those up, they are a very small percentage of 1 million. And from what I've been reading, it looks like none? of the big prizes have been awarded yet. Probably saving them for late in the year? So where does that leave our expectations, realistically?

We encountered YOAMD personally three times. Here is what we got:

1- When my daughters were stanging under a cooling mist at MK, a CM walked up and threw shiny mickey mouse confetti up in the air under the mist so it landed on their heads and stuck to the water. They thought that was a lot of fun. One guy joked beside us that that the pieces of confetti was a thousand of the dreams. Don't get mad - he said it in a funny, laughing way and I received it the same.

2- At AK, a CM walked up to my daughter and asked if she wanted to play a game. He had a poster board w/ tic tac toe marks on it and rocks to play. She and another girl played and tied. He gave them each a YOAMD certificate. My daughter was delighted.

3- At Le Cellier, we were seated at the "Table of the Day". We each had a golden crown to wear, and confetti and stickers at the table. That was it, but again, the girls loved it and wore the crowns proudly.

We were at the parks all day and night for seven days and I think I saw about five Dream Fastpasses. I did, however, see lots of people wearing the YOAMD Mickey Mouse ears.

So... if you are going with the anticipating of winning a grand wonderful prize, you will probably be disappointed. If you are hoping for a Dream Fastpass (I admit, I would have loved that!), you will probably be disappointed too. But if you go with no expectation and you DO NOT mention YOAMD to your children, then they will probably be pleasantly surprised.

Nice post! Good points...my DH REALLY wanted the mouse cloud ears because he is a muralist who specializes in clouds, so he kept being disappointed, even though we won fast passes TWICE during our stay and had a million other great moments. Go and have fun...the magic WILL happen.
 


I totaly agree with all of you. I didn't go down looking to win anything. We got pin lanyards coming of of Rio Del Tiempo in Mexico. They were giving them to everyone as they were getting off the boats. It was cool to "win" something. I still would have had a great time if we hadn't gotten anything, we don't trade pins so they will hang in the kids room as a reminder of their trip. If you are searching around and trying to win something you will be upset, just go and have fun. If you get a dream than it is an extra bonus.
 
chigirl,

Wow, I would have given anything to have won the Dream Fastpasses once, much less twice! How lucky are you!!!!
 


Yup, do not go there thinking your going to win, and PLEASE dont tell your kids. We were there two full days, we didnt get picked nor did we see a single fast pass, set of ears or lanyard. Maybe it was a bad day :confused3 but I can say that I wish I didnt know about the YOAMD.
 
Even if you don't 'win' something - try to 'give' something and make a dream come true for someone else! It is every bit as satisfying! Give away unused Fast Passes (get them b4 leaving park), thank the restroom people who have to clean the place up ( they are truly unsung heroes). Offer to take pictures of groups, there are many many ideas to spread the magic.
 
ppiew said:
Even if you don't 'win' something - try to 'give' something and make a dream come true for someone else! It is every bit as satisfying! Give away unused Fast Passes (get them b4 leaving park), thank the restroom people who have to clean the place up ( they are truly unsung heroes). Offer to take pictures of groups, there are many many ideas to spread the magic.

Absolutely right!! I know most people get as big a thrill from giving as from receiving! We've given FPs away as we left parks before and the recipients were so excited. This time, we've bought the glow in the dark bracelets to share with kids at the night time parades or fireworks shows. Just thinking about sharing makes my heart soar!! It doesn't hurt as another aid to teach children the importance of sharing.
 
ppiew said:
Even if you don't 'win' something - try to 'give' something and make a dream come true for someone else! ...thank the restroom people who have to clean the place up ( they are truly unsung heroes).
No kidding! I once stopped at Guest Relations at MGM to compliment (in writing) a restroom CM, we were talking and she took (takes?) a lot of pride in her work, in doing a good job.
 
I totally agree. Just being in WDW is good enough for us! If we get something from YOAMD fine, and if not, fine again. We are going not expecting a thing, we feel fortunate enough to be taking our 2nd trip!
 
I totally agree with you.

We just arrived at Pop the day you originally posted this and headed for Epcot on the 26th. I had already forgotten that it was the YOAMD. I guess that came in handy and to our advantage. We had gotten our FPs for Soarin and decided to do the boat ride while waiting for our time window to open. Our boat arrives back at the front and the CM told all of us to stay there and not get off yet. So I'm wondering what's going on when he turns and gives each person on the boat Dream FPs! Of course we all screamed!

We didn't use all the tabs. The Land boat ride was one of them and that's where we received our Dream FPs, Test Track was down when we went to use it and our DS4 wasn't tall enough for MS (but DH went on it). We hit Test Track first thing the next morning and made a second go of it right after the first.

I wasn't expecting to receive any of the big prizes. The CM's did a wonderful job with the smaller things that just made our first family vacation even better! Those small little gestures were worth more to me than any of the big prizes.
 
We were there for 7 days, in the parks from opening to closing and didn't have any YOAMD experiences. We were a little disappointed since we knew about the promotion and prizes ahead of time. I totally wasn't expecting anything either, but everytime you see people walking around with the prizes you can't help to be a little envious. My DBF became a pin collector on this trip, and he really wanted that lanyard. I'm going to see if I can get one on Ebay for his christmas present.

Funny the Pop Century sent me an online survey after our trip. One of the questions was about YOAMD, and if receieved anything, knew about it prior to the trip etc...I think since this is a new program they are still gathering information about it.
 
Honestly, I keep forgetting about YOAMD. Really, I do. Of course, when I read these threads, it's like "Oh yeah, that's right". I'll have to put it in the back of my mind and if possible, stay away from here (not a chance) I'm just happy that I'll be in my magical place with DH and away from reality. :)
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!






Top