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yasmina
06-27-2009, 12:19 PM
Does anyone else do something nice for another unknown persoon at the parks for no reason, other than to spread the magic?

On our trip last week, twice we got 4 fast passes, then at the last minute, dh & I decided not to go on the attraction. So while the kids rode (during our fp return time), we chose a twosome who were just getting their fast passes and offered our 2 fp's valid for that time. The look on their faces was incredible - like, "are you serious?". We handed them the fp's and told them to have a magical day! One couple even offered us money, which we of course declined.

Also, at POFQ, we became friends with another couple 2 doors down from us. As we were talking by the pool, the mom gave their dd's $ to buy dad some father's day gifts. I told them about a father's day pin I had found in the MK, and they were envious. That night - Sat., we went to the MK, and I made it my mission to find one for them. Of course by then they were all sold out, or so I thought. When we checked out to purchase other pins, I checked a rack near the register. Lo and behold, there was one fd pin hidden behind some others!

I bought it, put it in a bag, and hung it on their door knob. The next day - Father's Day - they were very grateful and asked how much it was. They wanted to pay me. I told them I didn't want anything in return, just to do something nice for someone else during their trip. They loved that idea!

Anyone else have stories about passing on the magic - either giving or receiving?

Sam&Alex&Josh'sMOM
06-27-2009, 12:46 PM
I think that is great!

I would love to do something like that for people at WDW.

We were leaving a small town carnival last week and we had some left over ride tickets, so i went up to a family with 3 kids and offered them to the Dad. He was so greatful! I was glad that I could help him out a little.

casey@bat
06-27-2009, 01:27 PM
We gave FP for ToT as we were leaving around 7:00 one night. The family was just entering the park and they were so excited!

dog-ears
06-27-2009, 02:34 PM
Great thread! Yep, we pay it forward whenever we can. :thumbsup:

beksy
06-27-2009, 03:58 PM
We always did things like giving up bus seats, etc. when we were younger and I didn't need the seat for physical reasons as much as the people I had been giving them too. We will do things around here during fairs like giving the kids our extra tickets as we leave or surprise a couple of hungry kids with a funnel cake. Anytime there is something that I can see to bring people a little joy I try to do it.

sassafras
06-27-2009, 04:12 PM
We've given away fast passes several times. People always seem tickled to think anyone would give up anything for nothing! We regularly let small children in front of us on parade routes. We figure we can see over their heads, besides I find it more fun to watch the kids reactions to the characters than the actual parade sometimes!

AuntKari
06-27-2009, 05:24 PM
Hi Yasmina. Yes, all that is really worth doing is what we do for others! I am actually really excited about spreading the Magic when I go on my visit to Disney! As part of Aunt Kari's planning, I have done "Disney Magcal Experiences" for the last year for my neices and nephews and one entire "Experience" was on this. I will be looking for many opportunities to show the neices and nephews how we can make someone elses day magical! I will check back with this topic and see what other ideas people have for all of us. Great to hear what you did for others! May your kindness come back to you. Aunt Kari

joanna71985
06-27-2009, 05:36 PM
I like to offer to take pictures of the whole group, if I see someone taking pictures of the others. I've had people refuse, but usually people will accept gratefully.

andreallybadeggs
06-27-2009, 05:58 PM
Does anyone else do something nice for another unknown persoon at the parks for no reason, other than to spread the magic?

Nope, you're the only one.

Kidding, of course. Fastpasses, sharing spots for parades and giving up bus seats are all things that have been done for us in the past so we pay it forward as well. I'm quite certain that the folks who are totally focused on running from ride to ride and pushing ahead of others may accomplish everything on their to-do list but they miss out on most of the fun and ALL of the magic. :mickey:

elmjimmlm
06-27-2009, 06:22 PM
We have given away fast passes many times and bus seats too...We have also let people ahead of us in line if they have a smaller child that is not enjoying standing in line...I have also let people checking out in stores to go ahead of me...It just seems like a nice thing to do...
Last year my boys were handed a dream fastpass in AK from a couple that were leaving the park and it was great to get...We were able to ride several rides with it and it was also a great keepsake...
Most people seem to be more giving and considerate at Disney World...Maybe thats why we go back so often...:mickey:

PAYROLL PRINCESS
06-27-2009, 06:32 PM
I too offer to take pictures for people, not just a WDW but anytime. Or if you see someone looking lost, I ask them if I can help them.

kemps@wdw
06-28-2009, 12:02 AM
The magic of Disney makes you WANT to do good things for others. Especially, the kids. Giving away extra/unused FP, giving up your seat for others that need it, letting small children get a spot in front of you for the parades, biting your tongue, when faced w/a rude adult or teen, or child having a complete melt-down. One thing that sticks out in my mind was duing our visit in 2001. We went some friends that had a 3 yr old, and didn't bring a stroller. While relaxing @ our resort pool @ the CBR, we were chatting w/some new friends we met, and they were leaving the next AM, and had a portable stroller that they did not want to take on the plane and asked us if we needed it. Of course we did, and come to find out they had acquired the stroller the same way as did the "donor" before them. So, naturally, when it came our time to leave, we found a couple w/ youngsters also, that needed a stroller, and passed it on to them, along w/the story, and they assured us that they would continue the "tradition". Just wondered how many times that stroller made it's way around the World w/a new family?

SBETigg
06-28-2009, 12:04 AM
We've bought drinks for newlyweds having dinner near us a few times. I plan to buy dinner for a newlywed couple in the future, but we haven't been near any "just marrieds" for a few trips now. We honeymooned at WDW and ended up low in cash toward the end of our trip, so that's why WDW newlyweds are near and dear to our hearts.

kathiep
06-28-2009, 06:43 PM
My DH & DS usually invest in an arcade card during our stay. It's become somewhat of a tradition with us to leave a decent amount of credits on it and hand it to another little boy on our last day.

SFTrny
06-28-2009, 06:54 PM
Twice on our trips during the Year of a Millions Dreams, we got the Dream FastPass cards...one for DHS and another for MK. Each time, we used only half of the ride tabs before we were ready to go. SO...we had a LOT of fun watching for the right size group and "awarding" them the remaining FastPass tabs. It was like being a cast member! We are a family of 4, and at MK we saw another family of four with two young children. PERFECT...and they were just coming out of the top end of Main Street. We made our move, but the dad wasn't paying attention and kept on walking. We "awarded" the fast passes to the wife who was very excited, and went on our way. We got to look back and see her explaining what she had just received to her husband and kids!

cal5755
06-28-2009, 08:02 PM
Fastpasses are the number one magical giveaways it seems.. we have done that several times... this last trip it was for rnr.. it shut down so we gave the fp we had away because we were heading to epcot. MY FAVORITE FAVORITE magical giveaway from us was at the end of our last September trip. We had the deluxe dining and it was way way way too much food. The last night and last day we had so many meals left that we started asking out waiter/ess to find people who were not on the dining plan and allow us to use our credits to pay for their meals. There was one elderly couple who came to us and said they have traveled to many countries and that has never happened before and they were so greatful!! There was a younger couple at boma's with 2 children and we were able to take care of their whole bill as well and they were so ecstatic. I felt like santa clause....it was so much fun. My girls have given their ballons to kids in the hotel lobby the day we leave on the magical express and things like that too. This past June trip my husband sprayed people waiting in line for the jungle cruise from our bottle fan sprayer thingies lol.

Figment78
06-29-2009, 12:45 PM
This happened a while ago, but we will never forget it. On New Years Eve, 1998, my mom, dad, sister and I had dinner at Marrakesh. The couple at the table next to us had ordered a bottle of wine and when they were finished with their meal and ready to leave, they still had a lot left in the bottle. They generously passed it on to my parents. As sis and I were too young, there was still more left in the bottle at the end of our meal. So my parents passed it on to the table next to us.

Holiday spirit + Disney spirit....can't beat it!

Disney Doll
06-29-2009, 01:34 PM
We give away fastpasses whenever we can because it's such an easy way to spread the magic. Last trip my parents came along and they are not big into rides. Anytime we stopped for fastpasses DH just scanned all our tickets and then we would give the extras away when we returned to ride. It was fun spotting people about to step into the regular line and then offering them fastpasses. Especially fun when we found kids.

For whatever reason my DS seems to accumulate an ungodly amount of Disney stickers from cast members. He's just 20 months old, but he's extra friendly and pretty cute if I don't so say so myself. We like to pass along some of our extra stickers when we see other kids who seem like they could use a pick me up.

PixieMagic
06-29-2009, 01:55 PM
We don't have kids of our own so we like to buy the main street balloons and give them to random kids.... :secret:

KAJUNKING
06-29-2009, 02:10 PM
We don't have kids of our own so we like to buy the main street balloons and give them to random kids.... :secret:

thats a great idea, will do on our next trip

Imagineer1981
06-29-2009, 05:56 PM
In addition to FP we will also give away our ADRs if we decide not to use them to someone in the park

Goofy Texan
06-29-2009, 06:57 PM
On a trip a few years ago, I was next in line at a drink stand in the Magic Kingdom. There was a guy in front of us with his girl friend. He had gotten her a bottle of soda and she had started drinking it. When he went to pay, his credit card was rejected. When he opened his wallet, I could see it was empty. I just spoke up that their drink was on me and asked for two bottles of water - gently pushing them out of the way in the process. He thanked me and kind of gave me a weird look... I guess pushy but generous strangers are not the norm.

I wish I could have figured out a way to hand him a twenty. It was still early in the day, and I had no idea how they were going to buy food.

I like to think I did something nice (my daughter still talks about it), but really - it was only $2 and I was thirsty. :D

We've also given away free tickets to Six Flags on bring-a-friend free days. Those are always a nice surprise. People always assume we want something in return.

wire0monkey
06-30-2009, 08:44 AM
WDW is much better when everyone realizes we're all in it together and if we help each other everybody has a better trip.

On the last trip, we had some helium balloons that we'd bought on Main Street from the balloon vendor. I gave them to some kids on the day that we left. They were really happy.

On another trip, we had just gotten FPs for test track, when somebody offered us FPs that were good immediately. They didn't want to use them. We used their FPs and when we got off the ride, we gave our FPs to someone who was walking up to the FP machine.

It'sWDW4me
06-30-2009, 01:48 PM
Back in 2002, we were walking toward the stroller rental area just as a family was returning theirs. They asked us if we could use a double stroller for the day - exactly what we needed! They saved us the cost of the day's rental. Very nice. :thumbsup:

jaredkari
07-01-2009, 11:36 AM
My wife and I will give away fastpasses. We have done it numerous times. Usually we are just ready to head back to the hotel so we kind of have fun looking through the crowd on the way out to find the right people. :mickey:

azcavalier
07-01-2009, 12:51 PM
During the YOMD celebration when you got those Super FP lanyards with multiple fast passes on them, we got some right before lunch, but we were leaving the park for the day so we would not be able to use them. And there was another family with us as well, so we had quite a few of them that were going to go to waste. So, on our way out (it was the Magic Kingdom), the father of the other family was looking for a family of four to bequeath his FP lanyards to, and a family with one DD, the parents and a grandma came in. So he headed towards them, and they saw him coming. (He's a really big guy.) They started speeding up to get past him, and the grandma even said, "Don't stop, just keep going!!!" He had to run them down, yelling, "Wait! Wait! I just want to give you fast passes!!!" and he had to chase them about 20 yards. When he finally caught them, they were so embarassed that they had avoided him, but were really grateful. It was hilarious.

Lakin
07-01-2009, 08:49 PM
I always give people my seat on the bus. I like standing up! I know, call me crazy.

My family, too, gives away our fastpasses if we don't use them.

Pirate Granny
07-01-2009, 09:34 PM
We give away FP's...but the one thing I remember most...is after the MNSSHP we waited over an hour for the bus back to Pop...as we finally got to the front of the line the bus was full and we were going to have to stand...so...we waited for the next bus...got on, and sat in the front seat...you know the ones, facing the aisle...the last two persons on that bus were little ole ladies about 80 yrs young...we looked at each other, and got up and gave our seats away...I really made us feel good, but we really missed having a hot tub at the hotel to soak in for our feet :mickey:
:pirate:

Laughin' place
07-01-2009, 09:59 PM
On our most recent trip (6/08), we bought multiple tubes of glow necklaces. When buying them from places like Oriental Trading Company, you can get a tube of 50 or so for very little money.
Our original plan was to throw a few in the backpack each day, and give them to kids for the parades or fireworks, or whenever we wanted to give a little magic.
While this was a lot of fun, and brought us many smiles, we found something even more fun.
On our last night at MK, during EMH (we were there til 2am), we handed a glow necklace to every castmember we encountered. Every single cast member we gave one to was THRILLED. It was a silly, cheap little gift, but our boys RAN to cast members, said something to the effect of '"thanks for giving us such a great night", and gave them a bracelet/necklace. For the rest of the night, we got big smiles and waves from all our new friends. The funniest thing was, the cast members wore them the rest of the night. We saw them EVERYWHERE.
It is one of our happiest memories of that trip, watching our 12 and 14 year old "cool" teenage boys running around bringing a magical thank you to cast members:D

disneyboundagain
07-01-2009, 11:27 PM
It was last Dec and we were spending the day at Epcot. The sun had just set, and I was in line for a frosty cold beverage :beer::thumbsup:. There was a group of college kids behind me that were obviously having a great time drinking their way around the world. I paid for my drink, and then told the CM that their round was on me. Ended up costing me about $100. Mind you I had just lost my job the day before we left for vacation, so we were trying to save every dime we could. Buying myself a drink was supposed to be my treat for the trip. I don't know why I did it, I have never done anything like that before. It just felt right, and good.

azcavalier
07-02-2009, 09:22 AM
On our most recent trip (6/08), we bought multiple tubes of glow necklaces. When buying them from places like Oriental Trading Company, you can get a tube of 50 or so for very little money.
Our original plan was to throw a few in the backpack each day, and give them to kids for the parades or fireworks, or whenever we wanted to give a little magic.
While this was a lot of fun, and brought us many smiles, we found something even more fun.
On our last night at MK, during EMH (we were there til 2am), we handed a glow necklace to every castmember we encountered. Every single cast member we gave one to was THRILLED. It was a silly, cheap little gift, but our boys RAN to cast members, said something to the effect of '"thanks for giving us such a great night", and gave them a bracelet/necklace. For the rest of the night, we got big smiles and waves from all our new friends. The funniest thing was, the cast members wore them the rest of the night. We saw them EVERYWHERE.
It is one of our happiest memories of that trip, watching our 12 and 14 year old "cool" teenage boys running around bringing a magical thank you to cast members:D

Now THAT is cool. Hope you don't mind if we steal a page from your book and do this when we're there in October!

Daddy Mouse
07-02-2009, 11:09 AM
On our most recent trip (6/08), we bought multiple tubes of glow necklaces. When buying them from places like Oriental Trading Company, you can get a tube of 50 or so for very little money.
Our original plan was to throw a few in the backpack each day, and give them to kids for the parades or fireworks, or whenever we wanted to give a little magic.
While this was a lot of fun, and brought us many smiles, we found something even more fun.
On our last night at MK, during EMH (we were there til 2am), we handed a glow necklace to every castmember we encountered. Every single cast member we gave one to was THRILLED. It was a silly, cheap little gift, but our boys RAN to cast members, said something to the effect of '"thanks for giving us such a great night", and gave them a bracelet/necklace. For the rest of the night, we got big smiles and waves from all our new friends. The funniest thing was, the cast members wore them the rest of the night. We saw them EVERYWHERE.
It is one of our happiest memories of that trip, watching our 12 and 14 year old "cool" teenage boys running around bringing a magical thank you to cast members:D

DW and I already purchased the glow necklaces before I read this post. We thought about it as away to let young ones to celebrate with us. Universal during our trip so we plan on giving it away to someone that can use it. We have also talked about doing some other things such as giving away Disney Dollars, Fast Passes etc...

Mousemates
07-02-2009, 12:53 PM
When we leave a park early in hot weather we usually have a set of fast passes that we give to someone on our way out.

Reesa Roo
07-02-2009, 01:11 PM
One thing we have done that is fun if you are diriving, is to pay for the car behind us when we pay for parking. That car then gets a nice surprise when they go to pay for parking. We've done this on road trips as well when we are paying for toll roads and bridges. All it takes is something small and unexpected like that to make someone's day.
BTW... I really love the glow necklace idea. We may try that on our next trip!

indytraveler
07-03-2009, 10:41 AM
To be truly good at paying it forward you have to be paying attention to your surroundings. Like several people have mentioned if you are tunnel vision from ride to ride you miss out on the "experience, atmosphere" or whatever you want to call it. I've given some families with small children advice on what rides to do next while waiting in line on one ride.
Usually the conversation will start by what are we doing next? And if the answer is one that might get them in trouble I'll offer suggestions. No I don't butt into their conversations but my older kids play a game in line to see who can make the most people smile. So they make faces at their younger kids to see if they can make them laugh. Good conversation starter.

wdwgirl21
07-06-2009, 01:57 PM
My son always gets a balloon at some point on Main Street.. if it is still in good shape at the end of our trip, we will give it to another child on our way out to catch Magical Express back to the airport!

Charlee
07-06-2009, 02:17 PM
I love this thread - especially as we seemed to be lucky enough to have some magic come our way last week!
We got fastpasses for Everest after an exhausting, very hot day in Animal Kingdom where I thought I was not going to get on the ride. I was really greatful to the lady who came over to us and offered them and they made our day!
We ended up taking loads of pictures of families for them and the good karma came back to us. Each time we offered or were asked, we were offered a picture together later. It seemed spreading the magic brings it back to you! I was very greatful to all those people who offered to take pictures of us this trip!

danyele128
07-06-2009, 02:21 PM
We definately do for others. It feels great! We usually have a few snack credits or a dining credit left and we give them away before we leave. Either to someone waiting in line or just ask a parent if their kid can have a treat and we get it for them! My girls love sharing their disney trip with other kids. We have also given and been given parking passes. I am sure this is frowned upon by disney but..... shhhhh! ;) Usually when we check out we see another family coming in and pass them our AAA diamond parking pass! Every little bit you know!:mickey: