For many, the Disney parks are where dreams come true! A happy place, if you will, for the young and young at heart. Where magical moments are bound to happen!

In 2006 for Walt Disney World’s 35th anniversary, the Disney parks took “dreams come true” to a whole new level with their Year of a Million Dreams celebration. Guests who were lucky enough to experience this promotion while on their Disney vacation have fond memories from this occasion that will live on in their hearts forever. There’s just something about the idea of potential magic happening at any second!

From Dream Fastpasses to Dream Disney Trips and more, the Year of a Million Dreams celebration wasn’t something to be missed! As someone who was able to visit Walt Disney a few times during this (well over a year) celebration, I’m excited to take this trip down memory lane! Feel free to check out my other Disney Throwback posts here.

Did you know Walt Disney World originally had some pretty big plans for its 30th anniversary? The Disney company was gearing up for the start of their 30th anniversary celebration in Fall of 2001, but when tragedy struck with the 9/11 attacks in September things were put on hold. Although there was still a small 30th anniversary celebration that took place that December, the travel industry and our nation were still recovering from the attacks.

As Walt Disney World’s 35th Anniversary continued to approach, Disney Parks got to work on an exciting promotion with hopes of getting guests into the parks! The Year of a Million Dreams celebration was announced in June of 2006, promising to make millions of guests’ dreams come true over the span of the celebration. These dreams included special event experiences that could not be bought! How cool is that?

The Year of a Million Dreams began on October 1, 2006 at both Walt Disney World resort in Orlando and Disneyland resort in Anaheim. Disney Parks guests were selected at random in the parks to receive “Disney Dream Giveaway” prizes — most of which were priceless! Basically if you saw Cast Members wearing a light blue shirt and a white vest, you knew they were part of the Dream Squad and something magical was about to happen.

Image: Ohanablog.com

Prizes and guests were selected at random thanks to a computer. From what I’ve heard, the computer informed the Dream Squad of the prize, time, and location for the random winners. For example everyone exiting Big Thunder Mountain Railroad from 11:00 AM to 11:15 AM received a Dream Fastpass for Magic Kingdom for the day. And with so many prizes to giveaway, that computer must have been working nonstop through the whole event!

One major prize that everyone was wishing upon a star to win was a one night stay in the Cinderella Castle Suite. This suite opened in January of 2007 and was built just for this celebration! A winner and up to five guests were given the once in a lifetime opportunity to wake up right in Magic Kingdom. Over 10 years later, a stay in the Cinderella Castle Suite is still extremely rare. Most will only have the opportunity through Disney sweepstakes if they are the lucky winner!

Year of a Million Dreams Prizes

Image: D23

This celebration has some very unique prizes and the Disney Parks gave alot away! Here’s an idea of some of the prizes that were available for guests to potentially win! (Thanks for wdwinfo.com for so much of the prize information!)

• Three lucky guests were selected for a Grand Marshal World Tour. This 15 day and 14 night trip was for the winner and up to three guests to visit Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney MGM Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disneyland, Disney’s California Adventure, Disneyland Paris, Walt Disney Studios Park, Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea, and Hong Kong Disneyland. The prize was all expense paid — including airline tickets, hotel stays, $75 Disney gift cards per person per day for food, park admission to all parks, and a VIP tour in each park location! Can you say DISNEY DREAM?! This experience obviously couldn’t be purchased, but was estimated at over $36,000 in cost! Disney even chipped in another $8,500 for the winners to help with the income tax on the prize.
• Three winners received a Disney Vacation Club memberships at Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa or another Disney Vacation Club Resort as chosen by the Disney Parks. The prize included 220 points per year — said to be enough to stay 8 nights in a one bedroom villa during Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival every year until the membership expires in 2057. (AND still some points left over!) Winners of this prize were covered as far as annual fees and taxes were concerned. The prize was estimated at a cost of $88,000!
• Six winners were awarded vacations by Adventure by Disney. Each winner and up to 3 guests got to experience a once in a lifetime vacation with Adventure by Disney in one of four destinations. One winner received a “Viva Italia” vacation. Two winners received a “Cities of Knights and Lights” vacation. One winner received a “Path of Pura Vida” vacation. Two winners received a “Quest for the West” vacation. 
• Eighteen lucky guests found themselves prized with vacations on a Disney Cruise Line. Three winners recieved Disney Cruise Line 10 night Mediterranean cruise. Three guests received a Disney Cruise Line 3 night Bahamian cruise and got to stay in the Disney Suite while on board. Six guests won a Disney Cruise Line 14 night Transatlantic Cruise from Barcelona to Port Canaveral. Six Disney Cruise Line 14 night Transatlantic Cruises from Port Canaveral to Barcelona
• Fifteen lucky winners were offered a vacation at Walt Disney World for 4 days and 3 night including admission and $75 per day per guest to be used for dining.
• Fifteen lucky winners were offered a vacation at Disneyland Resort for 4 days and 3 night including admission and $75 per day per guest to be used for dining.
• 367 guests received a priceless, One Night Stay at the Mickey Mouse Penthouse in the Disneyland Hotel. 
• 307 winners got the chance to stay One Night in Magic Kingdom park at the then brand new Cinderella Castle Suite. This experience is still something that can’t be purchased by guests, only won through special contests!
  

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• 39 guests won Party for the Senses admissions for winner and up to 1 guest. This event took place during Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival and was valued at $199 per person for reserved seating.
• 130 winners received $500 shopping sprees at the World of Disney store.
• 130 guests won special dinners at a Walt Disney World restaurant.
• 5 special winners received a dinner on the balcony of the Disney Gallery in Disneyland’s New Orleans Square.
• 30 guests were awarded VIP tours of the Walt Disney’s Main Street apartment in Disneyland.
• 50 winners received a Holiday dinner at Walt Disney World.
• 34 guests received free admission to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.
• 3 special guests won VIP seats at the premiere of Finding Nemo: The Musical, which had opened on January 2, 2007.
• 7 winners received Access Passes to a special Disney Press Event.
• 13 guests got free admission into the Pirate & Princess Party.
• 24 lucky winners received Star Wars Weekend Meet and Greet opportunities.
• 3  Disneyland guests were invited to the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage press event.
• 8 guests won an ABC Super Soap Weekend event opportunity. Guests were able to have their photo taken with the celebrities and won a Super Soap prize pack.
• 6 winners received an ESPN the Weekend event opportunity. Winners had the chance to have their photo taken with the athletes and personalities at the event and also received a prize pack.
• 60 lucky guests were awarded VIP tours of Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival complete with VIP seating at a Flower Power Concert and a special prize pack.
• 3200 guests won access to After Hour Admission to Epcot.
• 4200 guests won access to After Hour Admission to Disney MGM Studios.
• 5800 guests won access to After Hour Admission to Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
• 3200 guests won access to After Hour Admission to Typhoon Lagoon.
• 3200 guests won access to After Hour Admission to Blizzard Beach.
• 156,300 winners received Dream Fast Passes to Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure for the day. These fast passes gave guests a tab for each Fast Pass attraction in the parks which allowed the winner to ride each attraction once that day whenever they chose to do so.
• 95,970 lucky guests received Dream Fast Passes to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom for the day. These fast passes gave guests a tab for each Fast Pass attraction in the parks which allowed the winner to ride each attraction once that day whenever they chose to do so.
• 57,125 lucky guests received Dream Fast Passes to Epcot for the day. These fast passes gave guests a tab for each Fast Pass attraction in the parks which allowed the winner to ride each attraction once that day whenever they chose to do so.
• 95,970 lucky guests received Dream Fast Passes to Disney MGM Studios for the day. These fast passes gave guests a tab for each Fast Pass attraction in the parks which allowed the winner to ride each attraction once that day whenever they chose to do so.
  

  Image: wdwthemeparks.com

• 95,970 lucky guests received Dream Fast Passes to Disney’s Animal Kingdom for the day. These fast passes gave guests a tab for each Fast Pass attraction in the parks which allowed the winner to ride each attraction once that day whenever they chose to do so.
• 418,789 guests were surprised with specialty Pin and Lanyard sets to commemorate the Year of a Million Dreams celebration.
• 250,000 winners received special Dream Mouse Ears in honor of the Year of a Million Dreams celebration.
• 50,000 guests won a Where Dreams Come True Photo voucher to commemorate this magical celebration.

As you can see, when it came to prizes Disney definitely lived up to the “million dreams” promise! (Awarding guests with 1,235,000 dreams to be exact.) While some prizes were extravagant and once in a lifetime opportunities and others were just souvenirs to commemorate the event, guests were still excited as ever to win any magical prize from Disney!

The Year of a Million Dreams was originally planned to end on December 31, 2007, but due to popularity ended up extending for a whole additional year. This unique celebration finally came to an end on December 31, 2008, making this “year-long” celebration actually last for 27 months.

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As someone who got to experience this magical celebration, I’m thankful that Disney put on such a unique and exciting event! The company was trying to build up park attendance after a slow few years in the theme park industry, and I think this event did just the trick. Not only did it remind families of why Disney truly is the place where anything can happen, but it gave families a reason to visit and make memories to last a lifetime!

In just a few short years Walt Disney World will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. I’m very excited to see what will be in store for this iconic theme park milestone! Fingers crossed more unique and magical experiences like those of the Year of a Million Dreams celebration will resurface in 2021.

Did You Get To Experience Year of A Million Dreams?