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The Cast Members at Walt Disney World are well trained to provide guests with quality service with a gentle smile. In addition to their normal responsibities that may vary from keeping lines organized, operating rides, escorting characters or cleaning the park, the Cast Members are often given the opportunity to “Make magic.” Making magic means that the Cast Member goes out of their way to make a special moment for a guest. It could be replacing an ice cream cone that fell to the ground, helping a guest that experiencing difficulties or giving a simple gift to a guest. My little girl once experienced this type of magic after she met 71 characters in a single day. We asked the CM if he could make her a special button and he came out with a big stuffed Pluto!
Recently, Chad Rouch’s daughter, a friend of the blog’s (FOB), got to spend the entire Character Palooza set being escorted by Belle.
Well, occasionally, I get the opportunity to make a little magic. Some people have gone out of their way to extend their support to me and this blog. They have purchased t-shirts, bought the app and shared my content on their Facebook accounts. Among these friends are Brian and Stacey. Today is Brian and Stacey’s 14th wedding anniversary and Brian had a bad car accident back in December, so I felt he could use a little Disney magic!
As I’ve mentioned previously, I work nights. I work 10 hour shifts 4 days a week, so I usually only get in the park Thursday through Saturday at best. Well, my daughter and I wanted to create a little magic, so we headed over to the Animal Kingdom theme park and asked Mickey and Minnie to wish Brian and Stacey a happy Anniversary. The park closed at 5:00pm and the Times Guide states that Mickey and Minnie close their meet at 4:30, but the Disney app says it closes at 5:00, but the Disney website says 4:30. See the conundrum? Well, the Mickey and Minnie meet did stay open until 5:00 PM today and we hoped we could just walk right in. It ended up being a 20 minute wait, but well worth it for this couple.
Have you had a chance to make magic for others at Walt Disney World?
Share the love!
Penny B
Monday 17th of February 2014
I'm a few days behind but just saw your post and thought I should share my amazing magic experience. My son's first trip at age 3.5 in 2011. After 5 long park days we had an exhausted, sugar hyped weary preschooler, so we went over to Downtown Disney for a morning off to meet friends at Wolfgang Puck's for breakfast, at least an hour before anything else opened. 5 minutes waiting to order and poor kid looked at me, asked to be picked up then threw up all over himself and me. We had no change of clothes or anything with us and everything was closed. We left WP, went outside to clean up in the rest rooms, wrapping my son in my husband's hoodie and me putting on his undershirt. We then sat on a bench waiting for a clothing store to open. A few minutes later a cast member who was sweeping the ground came over and asked what happened. He disappeared, then a few minutes later the manager of World of Disney appeared, escorted us into the store an hour before opening, let us pick out entire new outfits for both me and my son and then refused to let us pay for them. Before that we were visitors to Disney every 5-6 years. We've been back at least once a year since largely because of that moment.
meghancaprez
Sunday 9th of February 2014
I loved making magical moments both as a cast member and as a guest! One of my favorite memories was when I was in line to meet the fairies at Magic Kingdom. There were two little girls on their first trip to Disney, and they'd never heard of pin trading before. I had a few extra fairy trading pins, so I gave them each one and played a game of Disney trivia to make the wait time go faster. They were bouncing up and down and shouting out answers. It was a lot of fun!
I had some of my cast member friends write down their favorite magical moments. They have some pretty neat stories if you want to check them out: http://mouseearcareers.wordpress.com/magical-moments/
kennythepirate
Sunday 9th of February 2014
Thx Meghan. I'll check that out
ARRGGG
Friday 7th of February 2014
Me and my Family have experienced Disney Magic at its best. On our honeymoon we received a few free bottles of water (this may not seem like magic until I say it was JULY and we had used all of our snack passes by the 3rd day of a 6 day trip) A cast member also allowed us to use our fastpass (the old ones) 10 mins early so we wouldn't have to just sit and wait on our honeymoon (I still wish I had gotten the cast members name it really made my day) And when we went a couple of years ago for my daughter first trip she lost her just bought tinkerbell sunglasses. Walked up to lost and found they didn't have them so they gave use a pass to go buy another pair. My husband lost his hat on this trip too at fireworks in the magic kingdom. SOMEONE out there found it and took it to the main lost and found at the transportation area. So if it was you either a cast member or guest We never got the chance to say thank you. So let me say now to the mystery helper Thank YOU! I also saw a family with 4 kids celebrating a birthday and they only had the one dessert. So sent our Dining Plan Dessert over to them so each kid could have their own dessert (totally anonymously and let the cast member take the credit).
Angie
Wednesday 5th of February 2014
Walt would be proud of his Cast Members. :)
Heather M
Wednesday 5th of February 2014
Disney World is one of the most magical places on earth for me because of the incredible cast members. I could list example after example of the Disney Magic they have given my family, but one of my favorite memories took place in Magic Kingdom in a shop on Main St the day our week long trip was ending. I had purchased a beautiful silver Mickey Mouse watch at the Animal Kingdom Lodge when my family visited in Aug 2011. When we returned to Florida in Aug 2012, I snapped a link and broke the watch while in Universal Studios. In tears, since it was very special to me and would be expensive to replace, I called the Animal Kingdom Lodge for info to fix it but unfortunately got nowhere. Our last day while I shopped in a small store on Main St (I can't remember the name, but it carried mostly Dooney & Burke bags and had a watch case), I noticed my watch in the case and asked the young girl behind the counter if she knew where I could get mine fixed. She asked to see my broken one (which I was carrying around in my purse, fortunately), took out a new one, and compared the two. My poor year old watch was scratched from my wearing it everyday everywhere, and I assumed she was trying to figure out if she could fix it. She asked if I had taken a link out so it would fit, which I had, and after adjusting the links, handed me the brand new one. I didn't actually understand that she was giving me a new one until she said with a smile, 'I would be heartbroken if my Mickey Mouse watch ever broke.' No receipt, the watch was clearly well worn and not recently purchased, and yet she realized how important it was to me and made a lasting impression on me with regards to Disney. I was already a Disney fan, that small action on her part confirmed that the Disney Magic is alive and well for adults too. :-) I work in retail, and I try to keep that cast member's example in mind when dealing with my customers. How can I make their day? Kudos to all those cast members out there for setting the example for what customer service (and Disney Magic) can and should be!