The Year of a Million Disappointments

[PragmaticIdealist]

Service businesses of any sort depend on customers having their expectations either met or exceeded.

I've been advocating for quite a while that Disney build surprises into the theme park experience in order to ensure that the expectations of guests are exceeded, but this ill-conceived promotion does exactly the opposite because the advertising is telling people to expect "magical moments".

The value of the Magical Moments program was in its ability to both surprise the guest as well as to create genuine human interactions between the host or hostess and the guest. The Year of a Million Dreams advertising establishes a new set and new levels of expectations that undercut the ability for the parks to impress the guests, so, through this promotion, Disney may create the circumstances, which could lead to its own failure in the future.

[lazyboy97O]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

My favorite is the so-called "Cast Member" empowerment when in fact they really can't give you much. I mean nothing says magical like ringing up your own merchandise like the the Wal-Mart self checkout.

[demento57]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

And really, if someone's idea of a "dream" is having a waiter at an otherwise counter service restaurant... then my have standards dropped.

Remember the FULL HOUSE when they were in WDW and Michelle got 3 wishes granted because of an Aladdin promotion?

NOW THAT IS WHAT A DREAM SHOULD BE!

[chadb14]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

Well, the other side of the coin is that it's nice that they do anything. They obviously don't have to do anything, and it's not like they can say take the controls and run BTMR for an hour or something like that.

I think the idea is more about making the day more enjoyable with a little touch of "something" so that you remember it and tell your friends about it.

[InnerSpace]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

I hope whenever you guys go to Disneyland and you don't win any "dream," you won't come to MiceChat and complain about it.

[minnietoo]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

but this ill-conceived promotion does exactly the opposite because the advertising is telling people to expect "magical moments". . . . The Year of a Million Dreams advertising establishes a new set and new levels of expectations that undercut the ability for the parks to impress the guests, so, through this promotion, Disney may create the circumstances, which could lead to its own failure in the future.

And really, if someone's idea of a "dream" is having a waiter at an otherwise counter service restaurant... then my have standards dropped.

OMG this promo isn't even one month into the delivery and you are complaining! Give it a chance! And don't forget there are many substantial prizes yet to be won.

Well, the other side of the coin is that it's nice that they do anything. They obviously don't have to do anything, and it's not like they can say take the controls and run BTMR for an hour or something like that. I think the idea is more about making the day more enjoyable with a little touch of "something" so that you remember it and tell your friends about it.

ITA - well said

I hope whenever you guys go to Disneyland and you don't win any "dream," you won't come to MiceChat and complain about it.

Me too - but you can bet when I win I will be singing Disney's priases online!

[dchun2007]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

I do agree with a lot of your statements, but at the same time I think this does promotion does have some GOOD effects. Why wouldn't onetimers at Disneyland love this promotion? Sure a prize of tableservice doesn't sound that great to us, but I mean for someone who's here on a vacation, anything that's free at all and anything that makes you feel special is pretty cool. Last Friday I went to Disneyland to celebrate my birthday and I got the very cool new Birthday pin, but the best part was when I ate at Cafe Orleans, they got me a dessert AND all the servers working that night signed a card for me! That was just AWESOME and introduces a new level of personality to the castmembers. I really do believe this promotion makes cast members more involved in the dream making process.

[minnietoo]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

I do agree with a lot of your statements, but at the same time I think this does promotion does have some GOOD effects. Why wouldn't onetimers at Disneyland love this promotion? Sure a prize of tableservice doesn't sound that great to us, but I mean for someone who's here on a vacation, anything that's free at all and anything that makes you feel special is pretty cool. Last Friday I went to Disneyland to celebrate my birthday and I got the very cool new Birthday pin, but the best part was when I ate at Cafe Orleans, they got me a dessert AND all the servers working that night signed a card for me! That was just AWESOME and introduces a new level of personality to the castmembers. I really do believe this promotion makes cast members more involved in the dream making process.

Happy Birthday - and nice post. It is so much fun when we can do something simple to give someone a moment of pleasure AND it is also so much fun when we slow down enough to recieve these gestures of good will and take the time to enjoy them. Thanks for sharing the positive side to this campaign.

[Malcon10t]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

OMG this promo isn't even one month into the delivery and you are complaining! Give it a chance! And don't forget there are many substantial prizes yet to be won.

Too many are coming across with the "Its not a big enough item for me to feel good about". There are a lot of big prizes. But I think the little things are just as good. You walk into a buffeteria, where you plan on eating and they say "Let me serve you today!" and people say thats not good enough, its below their standards. I've had a CM get me a cup of water at Splash Mountain. She made my day that day. Why? She took time to see a need, handle the need, and made me feel good. (This was a long story.) I've had CMs do numerous little things, which to people here are saying "Thats not good enough." Its sad what we have come to that only monetary value items are good enough.

Yesterday, a group we are involved with had a huge picnic. We had a ton of left over food. We noticed a homeless couple across the park, so we loaded up several extra hotdogs, a bunch of salad, lots of desserts, and a six pack of sodas, and even zip lock bags so they could store the left overs, and had the kids (14-20yos) take it to them. They were so grateful. The kids felt so good inside helping them out and doing something for someone else. I can't imagine how the kids would have felt if they had said "Sorry, hot dogs aren't good enough, we want steak and wine." They probably would have thought "Why should we do anything, they don't appreciate the little things in life."

[minnietoo]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

Too many are coming across with the "Its not a big enough item for me to feel good about". There are a lot of big prizes. But I think the little things are just as good. You walk into a buffeteria, where you plan on eating and they say "Let me serve you today!" and people say thats not good enough, its below their standards. I've had a CM get me a cup of water at Splash Mountain. She made my day that day. Why? She took time to see a need, handle the need, and made me feel good. (This was a long story.) I've had CMs do numerous little things, which to people here are saying "Thats not good enough." Its sad what we have come to that only monetary value items are good enough.

Yesterday, a group we are involved with had a huge picnic. We had a ton of left over food. We noticed a homeless couple across the park, so we loaded up several extra hotdogs, a bunch of salad, lots of desserts, and a six pack of sodas, and even zip lock bags so they could store the left overs, and had the kids (14-20yos) take it to them. They were so grateful. The kids felt so good inside helping them out and doing something for someone else. I can't imagine how the kids would have felt if they had said "Sorry, hot dogs aren't good enough, we want steak and wine." They probably would have thought "Why should we do anything, they don't appreciate the little things in life."

Sad state of society when a kind gesture is no long considered to be good enough because it has no monetary value.

[aerinpegadrak]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

I'm actually pretty impressed with this promotion so far.

No, seriously.

Guests seem to love it. Certainly everyone I've seen walking around with the Dream Ears or Dream Fastpasses (I haven't seen any of the Dream Lanyards yet) has been having a great time, and the new array of buttons is very popular. Yeah, some people are going to have unreasonable expectations about what can happen at their day at Disneyland, but when is that anything new? Look at the line outside City Hall on a night when the fireworks have been canceled. I mean, Disneyland obviously controls the weather, so why shouldn't every single person who enters Disneyland get one of the major prizes?

Someone pegged your chances of winning a prize in this promotion as 1 in 60. I don't know about you, but that's pretty freaking good odds for a sweepstakes, and that doesn't even count all the special little things that Cast Members are being given resources and permission to do.

I've seen a great deal of the print ad campaign for this promotion (it's all freaking over backstage) and most of it simply shows guests enjoying the park. There's a family on Splash Mountain, a mom and her kid in a teacup, a little girl in a Cinderella costume dancing in the castle courtyard. I can only think of a couple with characters, and those are meet and greet situations. Those aren't unreasonable expectations.

Look, I know I sound like a corporate shill, but honestly, I wasn't expecting much out of this. It seemed too hasty, too out of touch, and not really well thought out. Could it be better? Almost certainly. What couldn't? But it works. I certainly haven't heard any complaints in the parks about how the prizes aren't good enough; it's all happening here. The people who get something, whether an ultra super grand prize or a little bit of extra attention on a ride, are all pretty happy.

[GetBruno]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

This promo is just getting started, right? Maybe something a little more 'magical' is coming in time.

[demento57]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

Minnietoo:

I'm just saying that maybe Year of a Million DREAMS isn't the perfect name.

[FLtoCali]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

It would be just as easy for Disney to launch a generic ad campaign with no special perks or prizes at all. Remember, this really is an AD campaign to drive up attendance. Ad campaigns are not directed at message board addicts and AP's (like me). They are directed at the general public. There are some VERY cool prizes and some little nice prizes. But it's really all just something to sell tickets and hotel rooms in print and on radio and TV. And thats not being cynical, it's simply what the campaign is, and I think as ad campaigns go, it's pretty clever in that it does give something back.

[minnietoo]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

Minnietoo:

I'm just saying that maybe Year of a Million DREAMS isn't the perfect name.

I apologize for misunderstanding your perspective. However - some folks said that this type of "moment" would be a DREAM for them - tired, holding hands of small children, juggling trays, kids, strollers, drinks - they see this as a God send. So again - all is relevent I guess.

[EpcotServo]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

I agree. It creates another to have-and have not ideal amongst guests. And the funny part is that Cast Members now have to do at least one Magical Moment an hour. They used to do it all the time, but now they don't have two! Kind of a break for the Cast Members. So really, the average guest is less likely to have one of those guest-to-cast Magical Moments than ever before. And if they do, it will be upstaged by that other average family over there who won something much better. "Sure that free soda I got from that nice Cast Member over there was nice, but it was nothing compared to what they got! Why didn't we get something better! We paid Alot of money to get here, and we deserve a dream!" I've seen it already, and I'll see it again and again until this whole thing is over. After all, why would a Cast Member bother giving something so meager, when they really want to win big? Let the Disney Secret Police, I mean, Dream squad take care of it.

[scorsese]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

Doesn't anybody wait until something is further along before judging it completely? It's like you assume you know everything that's going to happen throughout the entire year before we've barely begun to scratch the surface. It's nice that they give out anything at all. Sometimes it only takes something small to make a big difference in somebody's day. You expect them to give out a million cruises or something?

I guess it's true that they set the expectations higher than they should for the most common prizes... but it's a business, and they have to get you excited to visit the parks hoping you'll win something.

[lazyboy97O]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

Too many are coming across with the "Its not a big enough item for me to feel good about". There are a lot of big prizes. But I think the little things are just as good. You walk into a buffeteria, where you plan on eating and they say "Let me serve you today!" and people say thats not good enough, its below their standards. I've had a CM get me a cup of water at Splash Mountain. She made my day that day. Why? She took time to see a need, handle the need, and made me feel good. (This was a long story.) I've had CMs do numerous little things, which to people here are saying "Thats not good enough." Its sad what we have come to that only monetary value items are good enough.

I don't think your cup of water from the CM is quite the same. If you look at the details these prizes aren't spontanious like the campaign is driving that they are, but instead are the result of some big algorith.

I also think the campaign is one big bold hypocratic statement. The campaign pushes the "the grand, glorious, wonder, magical, and ever important" Cast Member while they continue to pay less than In 'N Out Burger and refuse to work around an eager college student's class schedule.

[minnietoo]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

I also think the campaign is one big bold hypocratic statement. The campaign pushes the "the grand, glorious, wonder, magical, and ever important" Cast Member while they continue to pay less than In 'N Out Burger and refuse to work around an eager college student's class schedule.

Well actually the campaign is a promo campaign designed to get folks to come to Disney parks and to spend their money. It was a way to offer the expectation of a special experience for all - and the delivery of a special experience for many. It is a money making advertisement promotional campaign - that's all. And some of the budget is being used to give the guests some prizes. And I am OK with it all.

[TDLFAN]

Re: The Year of a Million Disappointments

Service businesses of any sort depend on customers having their expectations either met or exceeded.

I've been advocating for quite a while that Disney build surprises into the theme park experience in order to ensure that the expectations of guests are exceeded, but this ill-conceived promotion does exactly the opposite because the advertising is telling people to expect "magical moments".

The value of the Magical Moments program was in its ability to both surprise the guest as well as to create genuine human interactions between the host or hostess and the guest. The Year of a Million Dreams advertising establishes a new set and new levels of expectations that undercut the ability for the parks to impress the guests, so, through this promotion, Disney may create the circumstances, which could lead to its own failure in the future.

Bravo!:bow: That is exactly what this little BS campaing is all about....
All they see is how much :greedy: they can get out of guests. Magic and dreams be dammed. The only dream being realized is WDC's.