This Got Me Thinkin'

Yes! I might have recounted it before, but I'll do it again. During the Year of a Million Memories, a Guest Services CM outfitted my daughter top to bottom with Cinderella finery when I went in to ask for a birthday button! It was more than just giving us "goodies" - at the time, I NEVER could have afforded even part of what they did for us. I was in tears leaving the gift shop.

Who else has a special CM story? I know there are lots, because we all say that CMs make the difference.

Im going to be lazy and not re-type this but ill copy and paste it and I encourage everyone to read the original thread because this CM made a HUGE memory for my Father and my Son and some images were included: http://www.wdwforgrownups.com/forum/tom-sawyer-island-paintbrushes

Wow... its been almost a year since my wife started that thread... lol

That's one of my favorite things about WDW. While I definitely won't say that every CM has been magical, I've had more that made my trip better than made it worse.

I've never met a CM that has not made me feel special! YAY!

My favorite of all time so far, though, was Art the Greeter at the Beach Club. He saw my Birthday pin and always had a special birthday comment ready for me! He. Was. Awesome!

Here's a story on him from 2009:

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2009/10/walt-disney-world-greeter-inspires-guests/

He also had/has a Facebook Fan Page.

Announced he was retiring... wow... sounds like a cool guy. Good find Jeff!

I have to say, I am a big fan of the CMs too. On our last trip our mousekeeping CM hunted us down just to say thank you for her mousekeeping envelopes. We have had so many over the years go out of their way to make us feel special.

I had a concierge go FAR and ABOVE simple assistance with a birthday surprise and quadruple it. Was just going to be a birthday card and stuffed Eyeore, but ended up being a treasure hoard of Eyeore and Poo items. Amazing!!

I know i've told this story like 100x on here.

Our first full day at WDW on our honeymoon we went to MK. It was Halloween which is my absolute favorite holiday and it was POURING RAIN!! DH and I were making our way down main st. We spotted a CM handing out maps so went to grab one. We started chatting to him and he asked us to be the Grand Marshalls of the Celebration Parade. My heart skipped like 100 beats. I didn't care about the rain or cold anymore. I couldn't stop smiling. at 3p.m. we met him by the fire station to start the parade. there we got mousekears with our names on them, bride/groom mickey ears with out names on them. Just married pins (not just the happily ever after...pins.) An official certificate, professional pictures, and our names announced over the loud speaker at the MK. We rode in the parade and CM and guests alike just kept congratulating us. I think i cried about 5 times on the parade route. When it ended we got to watch the parade from a VIP viewing area and every CM in the parade dancers, face characters, and even mickey and the gang came by to congratulate us. My favorite moment was when the Red Queen tried flirting with DH and then gave me the off with your head motion! Then Captain Hook and I shared a moment! Snow White told me she was happy I found my prince and Woody and Jesse came and danced with me and DH. That hour was about as magical as my actual walk down the aisle.

The CM's were so unbelievable. They had a vested interest in our wedding, wanting to know my colors, pictures of my dress, where we from etc. I have an employee that used to work at disney and when I told her that story she teared up and said it was moments like those that made her never want to leave that place.

I have had many magical moments happen with cms but I think the best one was when they didn't even know they made my son happy. It was our first visit to Disney World and it had been a very rough year. My children's father had been killed in a rode side bombing in Afghanistan and both the kids were devastated. I thought a trip to Disney would make them feel better but my son was suffering from depression and grief. He ended up sleeping in the room most of the day and missing all the fun.That is until we went to the Hoop de doo revue. Saying he loved it was an understatement. The food, the comedy, who knew a 13 year old boy would really enjoy that. The best part of the night though was when the tarzan yell happened and the spot light shone on him. He laughed and laughed and laughed and I hadn't seen him do that in quite a while. I think it is the best memory of have of how cast members touch peoples lives. I was so moved that I wrote Disney and an executive called me personally. I was assured that the cast members would be made aware of the magic they created.

Both of these stories made me tear up ( What an amazing experience for the both of you!!

DH and I really wanted a good view of Wishes on our last night. So we found there's a smoking spot on the stairs leading to the seating area by the yellow umbrellas at the end of Main Street (sorry, I can't remember if there's a real name for that area). So we hunkered down there on the stairs (we smoke, so we don't mind) about an hour before the parade and prepared to wait it out.
2 CM's then come in and start clearing out people who were sitting in the chairs there as it was being used as a VIP area for the fireworks. When everyone was out, they began roping off the area. We made sure we were OK to stay where we were, behind the rope, and the CM's told us we could stay there as long as we wanted, and we all began chatting as the one guy sat there and tried to figure out how to tie the rope across the walkway.
Now, DH is a 4th generation stage hand in NYC. His family has a long history of working in some of the most famous sets in the world. I've seen him and his brothers have knot-tying contests, eyes closed, behind their backs. He just couldn't stand to watch this CM struggle with tying this rope... So he takes it, and in 20 seconds, had it strung up across the walkway - you could have used it as a tight rope. The CM's were impressed and we all started talking about his work, and how things at WDW compared to a set for TV or Broadway. It also turns out one of them was from NY and he went to the Electrical Parade in NYC the last time it was shown out side of Disney - which is one of my first Disney-esque memories too. Then the CM's have to go off for a while, so we continue to wait on the stairs.
One of them them comes back and lets us know our last name is now "Smith" and as a thanks you for securing the rope, that if we walk around to the other entrance our names were now on the list and we could watch from the VIP area!
It was AMAZING! I've never had that good of a view, and we got to see the Magic Memories and You show up close, and Tinkerbell was right above us. I was in tears, I admit, and it made a perfect ending to our trip. I really wish we had gotten their names so we could thank them more personally.

For my son's first trip to WDW, he broke his leg a few days before. They put a cast on him and told us to still go. He was only 2 but the cast members there went above and beyond when they saw him. They gave him stickers everytime they saw him, one cast member went and got us a HUGE pen to keep so the characters could sign his cast. We were walking to meet Mickey and Minnie in ToonTown but they had just taken a break but when they saw my son they let us go back for some private time! Totally unexpected!

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That is so awesome, Melissa! Did you keep that signed cast after he was healed? That would be a cool momento!

I just want you guys to know that all of these are making me cry! I want to be a CM again so bad! keep your fingers crossed for May!

and you guys should know that as a CM, there were alot of moments when guests made my day!

Yes! We got to keep it and I have it in a box in his closet! I just went and looked at it, it's so little!

I know, these stories are just too sweet! My fingers are crossed for you!

These are great! I really enjoy hearing about everyone's magical moments with CMs. These are are the reasons that we all think WDW is one of the best places in the world.

While my husband and I have had good experiances I have to say we had a fairly bad one and it unfortunately sticks out in my mind. We were on our honeymoon, had our Happily Ever After pins on, and had noted the honeymoon celebration in our ADR for Tony's. Our waitress never said a word to either of us, we did not get any special recognition, nothing. All the while the table next to us had confetti, dessert etc and we didn't see them wearing any buttons. This having been the first dining experiance while on our honeymoon really mad me quite sad. It was a very disappointing experiance for us on a very special trip. Now we realize this isn't typical behavior but the specialness of that particular trip made it sting more than usual.

We've not had a CM go out of their way for us in particular but just their general niceness is marked.

The CMs at Disney are all great - I've never met a bad one! I love how they're all happy to be working there and you can tell they really love their job. I really can't wait to hopefully be on in a couple yrs!
One story I have is when I was waiting in line to meet Rapunzel, her character host spent the whole time talking to me and my friend! He was so funny and sweet and even gave me a rose! He was just one of those people you mess around with and that make your day.
Also, when I was at Port Orleans the other day, a lifeguard named Levi was hilarious. I was calling for my sister and he was like "you're too quiet - you have to yell!" And he did like a Peter Pan crow haha! He walked by an hr or so later, and I yelled "Levi!" He acted so shocked and creeped out that I knew his name, it was funny. Then when he walked by a few mins later, he covered his name tag and kept his head down like he didn't know me lol. And when I was leaving, I yelled "Bye Levi!" to him really loud, and he said "I don't know you, stalker!" and winked. He was awesome and so funny to mess with!
another great experience was with Rapunzel. She had a lot of people waiting for her, but she could tell I was sooo excited to meet her and took her time. We literally spent almost 10 mins with her! She was telling us about Pascal and how she's scared of rabbits and stuff. I can't wait to see her again!

I have had bad experiences with some cast members, however I've also had some real heroes.

On the last day of our March 2009 trip we were eating dinner in Turf Club before getting on magical express to head home. Just after ordering the airline called and told us that our flight had been cancelled and we would not be leaving for another 24 hours. I was panicking and on the phone trying to come up with a plan. Our waitress asked my husband what was going on, and she then set the magical wheels turning. Before dinner was over the Cast Members had not only gotten us another room at a sold out resort, but they covered the extra DVC points that we didn't have to pay for it. They were on point trying to get our luggage back from the airport (it had gone ahead of us). Also the kitchen staff felt bad they they personally couldn't do anything for us, they sent us a giant plate of all their desserts and two glasses of Fairytale Cuvee. This was the moment that my husband became a Disney fan. The fantastic cast members at Turf Club mobilized a veritable army of others to take this really upsetting moment and make everything work like magic.

This Cast Member interaction is just one of the reasons that Turf Club is my favorite.

Thats what I think the true Disney Magic is all about. Not that it is expected that they do something for you, but rather that all that happened without being expected of them. It's the people that always think they deserve something from Disney or it's expected of Disney to Upgrade them or comp them something that usually do all the complaining about Disney. The true meaning of the magic is when it's done and it's never "expected" to be done. I hope that makes sense!

Very cool! You won't find service like that anywhere else.

That's awesome

I would like to do a big "Shout out" and say thank you to a very special Cast Member, "Jessi".

She went above and beyond what she would have had to do just because an old man & one of his friends in PA. wanted a 30 year anniversary hat from Epcot and I wasn't sure if they would sell out or not, or even if they would have them when I got there in November.

We have never met in person & she took time out of her personal time off to go to Epcot and get me these hats, when she could have said she was too busy, or come up with any number of excuses. She also threw in a few Food & Wine Festival Pamphlet's and 2 Passports which also made my day just to be able to look threw them since I can't be there this year for it. It was Magical enough just to get the hats the other day, but the extras made it that much more "Magical"!

Thank you again Jessi, I think Disney went up one more notch on the "Magic scale" when they hired you! Your the best, and I'm happy to call you our friend. Can't wait to meet you face to face.

Hoorah for Jessi! What a thoughtful way for you to share the Magic!

I am such a sap! I am once again sitting here at my desk teary eyed.

I will share my own Disney magic story....My BF and I went minature golfing last year at Fantasia Gardens. We were staying a Corondo Springs and were relaying solely on Disney transportation to get around. After we were done with the course, we inquired about the best way to get back to Corondo. We knew that it was within walking distance but on a major highway, we were basically taking our life in our hands if we were to walk. We had also been walking all day, and the last thing I wanted to do was hike home. Our only option was to walk over to the Swan, get a bus to DTD and then the bus to our hotel. Ugh, what a process!...Well, the genleman working that night told us to wait a second....he walked off and came back a few minutes later with car keys in his hand...he said "I'll drive you guys back, it'll just take a few minutes"..... He piled us into the Fantaisia Gold Pickup truck and drove us back to Coronod Springs. Even offered to tak us directly to our hotel room door!!! I was stunned. I'm from Long Island, NY, people barely hold the door open for you here! (Seriously!)...And the worst part, we didn;t have any cash left on us, as we had "tasted" our way around the world at F&W. I felt awful that we couldn't give him a tip, but at the same time, I didn't want to insult him by tipping him...LOL...the next day in DTD I went to Guest Relations and wrote a thank you to him!

I love the magic CM at Disney!!

Thank to all of you!

Yeah, Jessi!

I guess I have two
This one is from the other thread.
My friend had not been to Disney in over 20 years and the entire time we planned our trip she wanted to see Thumper. She runs a rabbit rescue here in town and seeing thumper was the "thing" she wanted to do. I told her I met Thumper in AK the year before, so thats where we went. We went to camp Mickey Minnie and asked about thumper. The CM suggested we go to guest relations and ask what time he would be out. The looked at the schedule, made a call or two and told us he was not on the schedule. They suggested we go to see Lion King because it was about to start. When we are walking up the path Thumper and Miss Bunny were coming out to say HI with everyone at Camp Mickey Minnie. The handler told our husbands that they had a special request for Thumper and the CM's changed out of what they had on last minute to make the request happen.

She was so happy she was in tears.

The other one I haven't told is.I was talking to a CM one day after breakfast at Ohana. She and I were talking how we both had been stationed at Hawaii and being Navy wives. She took a tinker bell pin off of her lanyard and said from one Navy wife to another please take this pin. It was given to me on the condition that I would never trade it. I was telling ppl on another forum about my pin and most of the tinker bell lovers had never seen the pin. It was a rare pin I was told. I put it away and it is safe for now. Not sure what I am going to do with it because I am too afraid to wear it on my bag ( I have a sling bag I use only for the parks) and I never trade or sell my stitch pins. I just cherish the memory of her giving it to me. The pin is actually from the a Million Dreams time period but she gave it to me in 2010. She said it was given to her from Disney because she had received some sort CM reward, I am not sure how she worded it but it was given to her because some one had given her a compliment through corporate. I don't know I just know she was sad and proud to see it go.