eliza61nyc
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have an awesome experience, learn a lot and take lots of pictures
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News Disney Dreamers Academy 2025
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Arrived at Norfolk International and am through security. Flight leaves soon.
TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Just had the dreamers parade, which was amazingly fun. We got to prepare for it and wait backstage. Tons of fun.
Sadly not this year.
TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Ok so WOW I just got home and it's been insane. I haven't been posting as much as I thought I would due to time but I'll give a very detailed description of each day over the next few posts
Day 1 - Arrival day
We got to Norfolk International around 4 am and left for Orlando at 6 am. After arriving at 11, we rode the Mears bus to Coronado and got checked in with the DDA team. After that, we had a free day. We headed first to Animal Kingdom, spent a few hours there exploring construction and the parts of the park we haven't seen before (namely, Pandora), said goodbye to Dinosaur, and then park hopped to Hollywood. In Hollywood we rode Rise single-rider and ate at Woody's Lunchbox. Hoped to do more but the wait for food was nearly an hour... park hopped to Epcot via the Skyliner (my first time riding it) for Luminous. Lost my MagicBand there... then we monorailed to Magic Kingdom to close out the night with a ride on Tiana's. We finally did a bit of shopping and headed back to the resort.
Rating - 8.5/10, it was a truly fantastic day, especially with doing all four parks in only 9 hours.
Day 1 - Arrival day
We got to Norfolk International around 4 am and left for Orlando at 6 am. After arriving at 11, we rode the Mears bus to Coronado and got checked in with the DDA team. After that, we had a free day. We headed first to Animal Kingdom, spent a few hours there exploring construction and the parts of the park we haven't seen before (namely, Pandora), said goodbye to Dinosaur, and then park hopped to Hollywood. In Hollywood we rode Rise single-rider and ate at Woody's Lunchbox. Hoped to do more but the wait for food was nearly an hour... park hopped to Epcot via the Skyliner (my first time riding it) for Luminous. Lost my MagicBand there... then we monorailed to Magic Kingdom to close out the night with a ride on Tiana's. We finally did a bit of shopping and headed back to the resort.
Rating - 8.5/10, it was a truly fantastic day, especially with doing all four parks in only 9 hours.
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TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Day 2
We woke up around 6 and headed to meet our reps. Mine was James, a food services cast member from The Land at Epcot. If you're ever at The Land and you see him, probably at Garden Grill, please tell him Michael says hi. He was fantastic.
We then headed to the Contemporary to kick off the events. We started with a delicious breakfast of Mickey waffles, eggs, and fruit and met our hosts, Princeton Parker and Shannon Smith Conrad. We did some icebreaker activities and then our daily Morning Affirmations. We also learned the DDA Rally Cry (I'll put that in a separate post at the bottom of the thread).
After this, we headed to the welcome rally. I'll add more details about that in an edit in a bit. We then headed to a talk with Martha Blanding, after which we got lunch and a safety briefing for the parade. During lunch, we met Moon Girl in what's believed to be her first-ever WDW appearance.
We went to the parade staging area behind Tiana's, and while, of course, I don't have photos, it was awesome to hang out backstage. We got to see a float from Starlight, the floats from Boo to You and MOUACP, the America float from Electrical Water Pageant, and the process of loading floats and staging a parade.
We did the parade, which was of course amazing, and then proceeded to have a day of fun at Magic Kingdom. Pirates, Tron, Country Bears (which we saw with @Drew the Disney Dude), PeopleMover, Space, and then fireworks with the dessert party. We had a great time. The rest of the crew headed back to the hotel, but with permission from my rep, I met up with my dad and closed out the night at the park with another showing of the Bears and a ride on 7DMT.
We also started to get to know our camera crews, whom we'd know very intimately through the next week - every time we showed even the slightest bit of emotion or happiness, there'd be two cameras, a selfie stick, and a boom mic in our faces.
Rating - 10/10 absolutely amazing day.
We woke up around 6 and headed to meet our reps. Mine was James, a food services cast member from The Land at Epcot. If you're ever at The Land and you see him, probably at Garden Grill, please tell him Michael says hi. He was fantastic.
We then headed to the Contemporary to kick off the events. We started with a delicious breakfast of Mickey waffles, eggs, and fruit and met our hosts, Princeton Parker and Shannon Smith Conrad. We did some icebreaker activities and then our daily Morning Affirmations. We also learned the DDA Rally Cry (I'll put that in a separate post at the bottom of the thread).
After this, we headed to the welcome rally. I'll add more details about that in an edit in a bit. We then headed to a talk with Martha Blanding, after which we got lunch and a safety briefing for the parade. During lunch, we met Moon Girl in what's believed to be her first-ever WDW appearance.
We went to the parade staging area behind Tiana's, and while, of course, I don't have photos, it was awesome to hang out backstage. We got to see a float from Starlight, the floats from Boo to You and MOUACP, the America float from Electrical Water Pageant, and the process of loading floats and staging a parade.
We did the parade, which was of course amazing, and then proceeded to have a day of fun at Magic Kingdom. Pirates, Tron, Country Bears (which we saw with @Drew the Disney Dude), PeopleMover, Space, and then fireworks with the dessert party. We had a great time. The rest of the crew headed back to the hotel, but with permission from my rep, I met up with my dad and closed out the night at the park with another showing of the Bears and a ride on 7DMT.
We also started to get to know our camera crews, whom we'd know very intimately through the next week - every time we showed even the slightest bit of emotion or happiness, there'd be two cameras, a selfie stick, and a boom mic in our faces.
Rating - 10/10 absolutely amazing day.
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TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Day 3
We started off this Friday morning by heading to Contemporary for breakfast with an alumni panel. This was followed by the "Pitch your Power" and "Pitch your Pride" sessions. These panels, hosted by the judges who selected us (including Straw Hat Goofy, Ty Allan Jackson, and more), were teaching us how to be more confident and proud, and how to dress/brand ourselves to be more true to yourself. Then, we had a drawing session where we drew superheros with former Disney Imagineer and concept artist Nikkolas Smith. We headed to lunch, then had CareerQuests, a long session in which we split into groups to do things based on our interests. My group worked with Disney Live Entertainment, Tyler James Williams, and Adrian Lyles to make 60 second short films. Mine can be viewed at the link at the bottom of the post. I was the cinematographer. After this, we headed to Epcot. We spent a few hours there. I had my first time on Guardians, then we headed to Soarin', rode Journey into Imagination, and then went to Remy. After Remy, we wandered over to Regal Eagle and had jackfruit sandwiches. Ended the night with Luminous from the mexico dessert party, which was amazing. Exited the park via the backstage gate behind England/World Showplace. Buses took us backstage behind WS, and under the Test Track track of which the track was unfortunately not testing. Went back to Coronado and took a walk around the resort for a while.
Rating - 9/10. Wish we could have had more time at the park, and wish the cameras we had access to for the CareerQuest were something better than iPads, but it was an overall very fun day.
We started off this Friday morning by heading to Contemporary for breakfast with an alumni panel. This was followed by the "Pitch your Power" and "Pitch your Pride" sessions. These panels, hosted by the judges who selected us (including Straw Hat Goofy, Ty Allan Jackson, and more), were teaching us how to be more confident and proud, and how to dress/brand ourselves to be more true to yourself. Then, we had a drawing session where we drew superheros with former Disney Imagineer and concept artist Nikkolas Smith. We headed to lunch, then had CareerQuests, a long session in which we split into groups to do things based on our interests. My group worked with Disney Live Entertainment, Tyler James Williams, and Adrian Lyles to make 60 second short films. Mine can be viewed at the link at the bottom of the post. I was the cinematographer. After this, we headed to Epcot. We spent a few hours there. I had my first time on Guardians, then we headed to Soarin', rode Journey into Imagination, and then went to Remy. After Remy, we wandered over to Regal Eagle and had jackfruit sandwiches. Ended the night with Luminous from the mexico dessert party, which was amazing. Exited the park via the backstage gate behind England/World Showplace. Buses took us backstage behind WS, and under the Test Track track of which the track was unfortunately not testing. Went back to Coronado and took a walk around the resort for a while.
Rating - 9/10. Wish we could have had more time at the park, and wish the cameras we had access to for the CareerQuest were something better than iPads, but it was an overall very fun day.
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TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Day 4
The day started off with the presentations by each group from the day before. Highlights included the Imagineering group making a case for unionizing - "Why don't the Imagineers imagine a union?"
Then we headed to lunch, did a few more activities, and headed to Hollywood Studios. I got a media filming on Runaway Railway, which involved a different track layout, a different load station which skipped the preshow, a private ride, and a man in the front row turned around facing us with a camera. It was very interesting. We also did Rise, which was VERY broken (Kylo b-mode, sitting in the escape pod post-drop for a minute, sitting in the dark hallway for a few minutes, and no audio for Beck at the end), and then we rode Slinky, ate dinner at Woody's Lunchbox, rode RNRC, and headed back to the contemporary. That night was DaJam, the rave sponsored by Sprite. There was a huge light-up dance floor, a DJ with crazy light shows, smoke machines, bubble machines, and more, a performance by Infinity Song, and a dancing Mickey on stage. Food included "double-dipped mickey bars," which were Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bars that they dipped in a second layer of green or white melted chocolate, and then topped with a few different toppings of your choice, then solidified using liquid nitrogen. They were delicious.
Rating - 8.5/10. Amazing day, for sure, and DaJam was great, but I would have loved to see Fantasmic.
The day started off with the presentations by each group from the day before. Highlights included the Imagineering group making a case for unionizing - "Why don't the Imagineers imagine a union?"
Then we headed to lunch, did a few more activities, and headed to Hollywood Studios. I got a media filming on Runaway Railway, which involved a different track layout, a different load station which skipped the preshow, a private ride, and a man in the front row turned around facing us with a camera. It was very interesting. We also did Rise, which was VERY broken (Kylo b-mode, sitting in the escape pod post-drop for a minute, sitting in the dark hallway for a few minutes, and no audio for Beck at the end), and then we rode Slinky, ate dinner at Woody's Lunchbox, rode RNRC, and headed back to the contemporary. That night was DaJam, the rave sponsored by Sprite. There was a huge light-up dance floor, a DJ with crazy light shows, smoke machines, bubble machines, and more, a performance by Infinity Song, and a dancing Mickey on stage. Food included "double-dipped mickey bars," which were Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bars that they dipped in a second layer of green or white melted chocolate, and then topped with a few different toppings of your choice, then solidified using liquid nitrogen. They were delicious.
Rating - 8.5/10. Amazing day, for sure, and DaJam was great, but I would have loved to see Fantasmic.
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TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Day 5 - Commencement Day
On the final day, we had a business casual dress code, so we got dressed up nice, headed to the Contemporary, and arrived at the ballroom. We had a wonderful catered breakfast. Highlights included mickey-shaped watermelon that was supposedly grown on LwtL! During breakfast was the beautiful commencement ceremony including a performance by "Keepers of a Dream," a performance by Adrian Lyles, a performance by Tamela Mann, the "DDA Pledge" set to I Believe, and a finale performance of A Million Dreams. There was also the awards ceremonies, which announced students receiving free secondary trips from Dolby, Nat Geo, Zero-G, and more, and then announced best dreamers from each of the 3 career academies, and Dreamer Of The Year, who won a land and sea vacation at WDW and on DCL.
After the commencement was an alumni-only panel. This was a "decompression session" where we got to just ask questions about what the future looks like post-DDA. It was very emotional, there was not a dry eye in the room at the end. Then was the official crossing over ceremony, where we formed a spirit tunnel and the alum called each career academy down with a shout of "WELCOME TO THE ALUMNI FAMILY!" making us officially a part of the now-1700 alumni.
We made our way via monorail to Magic Kingdom, where we saw Country Bears and then headed out. Our flights then got delayed until the next day, so luckily we hadn't gotten on our Mears bus yet, unlike most of my friends who weren't as lucky and had to sleep in MCO. We ended up extending our stay at Coronado and heading back to the park for fireworks and yet another showing of Country Bears. Can you tell I like Country Bears?
We flew out at around 11 am on Monday. We landed in Raleigh and ended up driving back to Virginia Beach from there as we'd missed our connecting flights.
Rating - 10/10. Even with the flight issues, this was the most fun and most emotional day of them all. It was amazing and I'd absolutely do it again if I could.
On the final day, we had a business casual dress code, so we got dressed up nice, headed to the Contemporary, and arrived at the ballroom. We had a wonderful catered breakfast. Highlights included mickey-shaped watermelon that was supposedly grown on LwtL! During breakfast was the beautiful commencement ceremony including a performance by "Keepers of a Dream," a performance by Adrian Lyles, a performance by Tamela Mann, the "DDA Pledge" set to I Believe, and a finale performance of A Million Dreams. There was also the awards ceremonies, which announced students receiving free secondary trips from Dolby, Nat Geo, Zero-G, and more, and then announced best dreamers from each of the 3 career academies, and Dreamer Of The Year, who won a land and sea vacation at WDW and on DCL.
After the commencement was an alumni-only panel. This was a "decompression session" where we got to just ask questions about what the future looks like post-DDA. It was very emotional, there was not a dry eye in the room at the end. Then was the official crossing over ceremony, where we formed a spirit tunnel and the alum called each career academy down with a shout of "WELCOME TO THE ALUMNI FAMILY!" making us officially a part of the now-1700 alumni.
We made our way via monorail to Magic Kingdom, where we saw Country Bears and then headed out. Our flights then got delayed until the next day, so luckily we hadn't gotten on our Mears bus yet, unlike most of my friends who weren't as lucky and had to sleep in MCO. We ended up extending our stay at Coronado and heading back to the park for fireworks and yet another showing of Country Bears. Can you tell I like Country Bears?
We flew out at around 11 am on Monday. We landed in Raleigh and ended up driving back to Virginia Beach from there as we'd missed our connecting flights.
Rating - 10/10. Even with the flight issues, this was the most fun and most emotional day of them all. It was amazing and I'd absolutely do it again if I could.
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TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
DDA Rally Cry
Note - regular text is said by Princeton or whoever is running the rally cry, bold is everyone. Basically call/response
"DDA vibe check" "Let's go let's go let's go!!"
"Dreaming is not what we do," "it's who we are!"
"The smartest person in the room is the most" "curious!"
"A leader makes every move with compassion and" "courage!"
"Always protect the voice within because what you say to yourself about yourself is your source of" "confidence!"
"By yourself you are" "amazing" "but with the right squad you are" "unstoppable!"
"Be grateful, be strong, be you, but in all things," "BE 100!!! (cheering and clapping)"
Note - regular text is said by Princeton or whoever is running the rally cry, bold is everyone. Basically call/response
"DDA vibe check" "Let's go let's go let's go!!"
"Dreaming is not what we do," "it's who we are!"
"The smartest person in the room is the most" "curious!"
"A leader makes every move with compassion and" "courage!"
"Always protect the voice within because what you say to yourself about yourself is your source of" "confidence!"
"By yourself you are" "amazing" "but with the right squad you are" "unstoppable!"
"Be grateful, be strong, be you, but in all things," "BE 100!!! (cheering and clapping)"
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TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Photos/videos
Pre-trip planning/prep vlog
Welcome Rally
Interview with Disney Legend Martha Blanding
Disney Dreamers Academy Parade
Career Quest video - Orange Team - Dreaming is Who We Are
Luminous Dessert Party
Commencement Ceremony
Pre-trip planning/prep vlog
Welcome Rally
Interview with Disney Legend Martha Blanding
Disney Dreamers Academy Parade
Career Quest video - Orange Team - Dreaming is Who We Are
Luminous Dessert Party
Commencement Ceremony
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TheCoasterNerd
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Update - all posts have been filled in.
For now, this concludes my use of this thread. Thank you guys so much for the support through this trip. I'll continue to update the post above with photos/videos, and I'll use this thread in the future if anything else noteworthy happens in my life that's DDA related. Thank you guys!!
For now, this concludes my use of this thread. Thank you guys so much for the support through this trip. I'll continue to update the post above with photos/videos, and I'll use this thread in the future if anything else noteworthy happens in my life that's DDA related. Thank you guys!!