Up next in 10
The Disneyland Ambassador ceremony for the 2026-2027 Disney Ambassador at the Disneyland Resort team. Congratulations to Oralia Neria Felix and Michele Mary!
The ceremony also included current Disneyland Ambassadors Jada Young and Raul Aquino Rojas, and Disneyland Resort President Thomas Mazloum. Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse were also on hand for the special moment.
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[Music] Once again, welcome everyone. And now,
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please welcome your Disneyland Resort Ambassador team, Jada Young and Raula
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Roha. [Applause]
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[Applause]
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Good morning everyone. Good morning. Good morning. It is truly magical to see
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so many smiling faces gathered here today. We are honored to welcome you to
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the 60th anniversary of the Disney Ambassador Program.
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A legacy that had began right here at the Disneyland Resort in 1965 when Walt
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Disney himself envisioned a role that would represent the heart and spirit of our cast members.
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That vision came to life with the selection of our very first ambassador, Julie Reed Castaltto, a poised
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a poised and passionate young woman who helped usher in a new chapter of Disney history. Her legacy continues to inspire
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us all. Julie's contributions laid the foundation for what has since become a
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global tradition. Today, the Disney Ambassador program spans across Disney resorts around the world from Anaheim to
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Shanghai, connecting cast members, guests, and communities through goodwill and storytelling.
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While every Disney ambassador is called upon to promote Disney ideals, it's what each individual brings to the role that
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truly brings it to life. Their unique personalities, passions, and perspectives shape the magic they share.
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Over the past 60 years, our ambassadors have done just that. Building bridges,
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uplifting communities, and bringing joy to countless lives. This program is more than a title. It is a calling, a
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celebration of service, connection, and the enduring magic of Disney. We are incredibly honored to be joined today by
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many of our former Disney ambassadors, individuals who have not only shaped this program but have profoundly shaped
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our development.
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Your guidance, your stories, and your unbreakable belief in the magic of this
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role have inspired us more than words and express. You've shown us what it really means to
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lead with heart, to represent with purpose, and to serve with humility. So
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today, we would like to take a moment to celebrate you, our former Disney ambassadors. Thank you for paving the
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way for your mentorship and for continuing to be the heartbeat of this program. If you are in the audience, we
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would love for you to stand to be recognized when your name is called.
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from 1965. Julie Realado [Applause]
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from 1966. Connie Swanson Lee
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from 1967. Marsha Maya Phillips
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from 1968. Sasha Sherman Schindler [Applause]
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from 1969. Sherry Bess.
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from 1970. Catherine Burke from 1971.
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Margaret Dixon Thomas
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from 1972. Emily Zinder Benedict
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from 1973. Connie Jury Cook
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from 1974. Carol de Kaiser Masters
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from 1975. Kathy Smith Hall
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from 1976. Christina Shandel Walker
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from 1977. Susan Donald Edwards
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from 1978. Rain Allesco Wheeler
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from 1979. Fiona Dumbroski Graham
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from 1980. Nancy Angler Murray
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from 1981. Lily Vanderwal
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from 1982. Joanne Crawford Duner [Applause]
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from 1983. Nikki Wilson Fischer
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from 1984. Alex Coleman Marches [Applause]
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from 1985. Melissa Tyler Walker
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from 1986. Barbara Warren from 1987. Kendra Hobble
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from 1988. Carolyn Long Bagger from 1989. Wendy Freland Showman
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from 1990. Jennifer Faust from 1991. Jill O'Neal Stone
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from 1992. Suzanne Commoner Campbell
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from 1993. Kathleen Mitz Nikoli from 1994. Bonnie Deoy ugly
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from 1995. Jerry Akino, Julia Angman, and Michelle
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Tryion [Applause] from 1996. Janet Tennugarn, Gita
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Armenes, Chris Allen, and Heather Thompson Footman
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from 1997. Robin shot Zarvis, Kathleen Milerby, and
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Christina [Applause]
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from 1998. Dorothy Stratton Wilson is Austria.
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from 1999. Derel Mitter and Jennifer Simon
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from 2000 to 2001. Eddie Garcia and Dona
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[Applause] from 2002. Matt Evelyn
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from 2003. Dana Baker Bowler
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from 2004. Becky Murphy
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from 2005 to 2006. Andre Resil and Becky
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from 2007. Adonis Reeves and Garnet Skiml Morocco
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from 2008. David Gil and Liz Hel
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from 2009 and 2010. Quinn Sheran and Danielle Duval
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from 2011 to 2012. Rene Renee Toro and Joey Hails Price
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from 2013 to 2014. Megan Nam Rock and and Kach
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from 2015 to 2016. Alli Kamodon Choi and Jessica Bernard.
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From 2017 to 2018, Alexa Garcia and Mikey
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from 2019 to 2021. Rafa Varon Zarate and Justin Rap.
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And from 2022 to 2023, Mark Ever King
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Jr. and Natalie Gusan Garcia
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to our ambassador family. Your dedication and heart continue to inspire
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us every day. We also would like to take a moment to honor the leaders who have helped guide the program behind the
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scenes. These individuals contributions remain to be an essential part of our story. So for our leaders who are in the
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audience, can you please stand and be recognized?
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[Applause]
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As we look ahead to the next chapter, we know the magic will continue because it lives in the hearts of every customer
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who dares to dream, serve, and inspire. Thank you all for being a part of this celebration.
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And now, it is our great pleasure to welcome the president of Disneyland Resort, Thomas Maslo.
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[Applause]
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Thank you, Ralph. Thank you, Jada. Good morning, everyone.
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It's really terrific to be here. I can't say enough about this. What a special
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moment. And what a very, very, very special occasion. By the way, little secret, my very, very first ambassador
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announcement ceremony. I feel incredibly humbled to be here. Wow.
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Because honestly, it is such a big, big privilege to be
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part of this. And take it from me, it's been 6 months since I've joined this incredible, beautiful Disneyland Resort.
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And I can tell you I have felt I truly truly have felt Walt's Disney himself in
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every corner of this resort and his vision. It's remarkable. It's absolutely
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remarkable. And that's someone that's worked for the company and I've heard so much about it, but being here and
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experiencing it is something so special. I can't even describe it to all of you.
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And you can really feel his vision for Disneyland that we all know was to be a
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joy and inspiration to all the world. And a large part of that is precisely
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because of our ambassadors and previous ambassadors. All right. All
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of whom are with you today who have truly kept that vision alive. Thanks to
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you, Walt's ambassador program, by the way, 60 years now. 60 years old now. Wow.
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Right. It It continues to thrive and create an
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incredible impact on our cast and in our community. So, thank you very much one
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more time to all my present. Now,
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before we meet our finalists, I really would like to take a moment to
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recognize Jada and Ro.
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Yeah. Let's go.
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Come on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
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It's great. That's great. You guys really deserve this. I hope you saw this came from the heart. You know what? on
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my very first day on the job right here at the Disneyland Resort, believe it or
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not, we were literally celebrating our cast member service awards, right? And
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uh it's not a bad way to kick things off, trust me, for being on the first day of the job. But it was right there
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when I first met Jada and Ral and I saw them in action and I got to see them and
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I saw exactly what they do so very, very well.
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recognizing and celebrating our cast members. And you each, believe me when I say
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this, Jay Ed, you each do a tremendous job championing your fellow cast members
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and making them feel seen, and I can't thank you enough for that. Let's give one more round of applause.
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Well, you know, seriously, you both helped me in my role, especially as someone that arrived new to the site.
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You helped me immensely. And whether that is 70 years anniversary
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celebrations, early morning cast member celebrations, 70 happiest hours in
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Anaheim, even my salaried business update with an incredible question and answer session is unbelievable. We have
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been busy and like magic, you know, you've been
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there every step of the way with me. Everywhere I turn, you are. I actually
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don't know how you do it. You know, I really don't. I really don't.
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Jayen Rahul, you both are remarkable for what you both bring, not only to the
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Disney Ambassador program, but to the Walt Disney Company as a whole. So, I do
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want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your service because I can tell you it's been a true privilege to
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work with both of you. I can't say enough about that. So, now I'm going to ask the audience to join me. Let's enjoy
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a look back at this wonderful, terrific ambassador team together.
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The 2024 25 Disney ambassadors are Raulino
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and Gina Young.
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All set. Good to go. Ready? Go. I'm just really excited to start this
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journey. I don't know where it's going to take us, but I'm so excited and just grateful for the opportunity.
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[Music]
15:21
[Music]
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Disney Cruise Line would like invite you and your family on the all new ship Disney Treasure launching this December.
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Hey everyone, today we are doing a huge roll from Disney Company. Let's go.
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[Music] I I would say that you
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know that not only understand your stories and represent your story but that you have to
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[Music] love. We're here in Disney California
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Park for our annual dire celebration.
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[Music]
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here for the 70th anniversary. We are just so grateful that we not only get to celebrate happiness here at the Glen
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door with our cast members, but we get to continue to celebrate happiness with party outside their doors.
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It's not something you get to see every day. That's great.
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[Applause]
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And uh now I would like to invite Jana and Ral to share a tiny little bit about their own experiences
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and what the ambassador program has meant to them. Thank you Thomas. By the looks of it,
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looks like we danced a lot if you can't tell. When we began our journey together, Rol
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and I decided that our anchoring word would be community. We hoped that we
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could use our platform to not only celebrate the communities that surrounded the Disneyland Resort, but we
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wanted to especially remind our fellow cast members to take pride in the communities that they were a part of
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within the resort. So whether that be through our workforce development efforts such as becoming mentors with
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big brothers big brothers big sisters and hosting meet and greets and panels with rosing or welcoming new guests to
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Pixar Place Hotel and helping celebrate Friendship and Beyond during Pixarfest. These initiatives have supported our
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intentions from the very start. It was especially meaningful getting to celebrate and stand beside our very own
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Disneyland Resort Disney legend, Martha Blanding.
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A woman who not only reminds us of the importance of building a community, but
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has also trailblazed a path for many people sitting in the audience today. And of course, we would be remiss if we
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didn't acknowledge how honored Raul and I were to be at the opening for the grand opening of Tiana's Bio Adventure.
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Not only was this a project that required a lot of grace, grit, and innovation from our cast members and
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imagineers, but it is a story that reminds us of the power of joy, of
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community, and never losing sight of what's really important. And the magic didn't stop there. As Shada mentioned,
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this experience has been life-changing. And being a Disney ambassador has truly been the honor and privilege of a
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lifetime. From diving right in, shadowing Mark and Natalie for the D00 celebration to our very first major
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event alone with the return of Disney run Disney half marathon weekend, our time has been nothing short of
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incredible. We got to bring back inpatient room visits at Shock and got to travel the country.
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and we got to travel the country with the celebrate happiness balloon, bringing a little bit of that 70th magic
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wherever we went. We could not have done all this without the support of our families, friends, and the wonderful
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teams and partners we get to work with every single day. It is because of them that we are able to support and
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represent the over 36,000 cast members here at the happiest place on earth.
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It is almost surreal to think that these memories will not only stay with us, but
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will also be a part of the beautiful legacy of serving as a Disney ambassador.
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Well, I know one thing for sure for both of you. You are both not done making an
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impact on our company and the world. that I can tell you as you finalize your
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next role is truly an honor to both of you. Can't say enough about you. Thank
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you again. Could I ask our audience? Let's hear it one more time for Dana and
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[Applause] now
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I am thrilled to say the least to welcome our
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ambassador finalist. [Applause]
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[Applause]
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Wow. Well, let me introduce this remarkable these remarkable remarkable
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cast members to you from left to right. First from operations training, Eric
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Kvas,
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[Applause] you almost confused me here. You see,
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also from operations training, Oralia Naria Felix
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from our resorts transportation and parking. Michelle Mary
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from communications, Jamie Kate Medina
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and from entertainment, David Serati.
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[Applause] And now I'll invite all of you to take
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your seats in the audience as we share a little bit more about your journey.
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Again, one more time for our panelists. Please. Thank you.
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[Applause]
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Hi, my name is David. I'm a working lead in entertainment in Disney California Adventure Park and I've been here for 6
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years. I'm Michelle. I'm a salary leader in resort transportation and parking and I've been with the resort for almost 9
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years now. I'm Jamie Kate. I work with internal communications here at the Disneyland Resort and I've been working here for seven years.
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Hi, my name is Eric. I'm a training specialist on the operations training team and I've been with the company for almost eight years now.
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My name is Aurelia. I have been with the company it'll be 8 years in October. I'm currently a training specialist with
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operations training. So, I get to welcome all of our new cast members coming to the resort.
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[Music]
23:38
[Music]
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This weekend of life experience has been honestly not even just a highlight of my busy career, but of my life. It's been
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so amazing to see what Jada and Rahul do on a day-to-day basis and to see it
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firsthand. I've done so many things these past few days that I've never had a chance to do before.
24:08
Getting to experience at this level is so special, especially being here today is it really reminds me of why I work
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for just seeing the cast members and how they respond to us. It fills me with
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joy, inspiration, and just a little bit of magic.
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[Music]
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I would like to be a Disney ambassador to be able to represent the 36,000 cast members that come to work at the Disney
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Awards. experience and then to be a symbol of hope not only to our cast member community but also to the rest of
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the world. I want them to be able to see me and say, "Wow, like that could be me one day." Just the same way I saw Ronaldo
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and Jada and I said, "Wow, that could be me Monday. Here I am. I want to be a Disney ambassador."
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Because I want to continue highlighting, continue recognizing all those people that have inspired me for years.
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I saw the ambassadors and just how they inspired our cast members to be obsessed.
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All right. Well, wow. Wow. Seriously, uh uh I think
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everyone in the audience would agree with me this is an outstanding outstanding group of cast members.
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[Applause] I you know I have the pleasure of seeing
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them right now again right here in front of me. I just need you to know
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I was so impressed with your talent and
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the way you all carried yourselves through this could be sometimes perhaps
26:02
grueling selection process. But I need you all to know
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that this and I want that I want you as the
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finalists and everyone in the audience to know this was an incredible difficult
26:19
decision very very difficult because you are all remarkable
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remarkable cast members and I I feel the team that helped me in the
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selection process the resort. Everyone knows
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you are remarkable and it reminded me that it's an honor to have cast members
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like you as our finalists. I'm confident a bright bright future.
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Perhaps one final thought before we announce the new ambassadors. Regardless, and I think I said that to you during this uh uh final uh uh
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selection process, regardless if you are selected, trust me,
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being a finalist is a massive and huge
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huge accomplishment for every one of you, you know. And uh
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can we all just get another round of applause, please?
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And last but not least, know one thing. We are not only proud that you work
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here. We are proud of you. And I can't even imagine for one second how proud
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some of your family members that have joined you must be of you cuz they have every reason to be very very very proud
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of you. You guys are very special. All right, now time for the big
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announcement. All right, if your name is called, please join me up here on the
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stage as our new Disney ambassadors. Now, quick question. Uh, everyone ready?
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Mickey and Minnie, are you guys ready? All right, the big moment. The big moment.
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Let's see. Let's see. Let's see.
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nervous. All right.
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Our 2026 2027
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Disney ambassadors are Oralia and Michelle.
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Heat. Heat.
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[Applause]
29:04
[Applause]
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[Applause]
29:24
Heat. Heat. [Applause]
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Heat. [Applause]
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[Music] [Applause] [Music]
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Heat. [Applause]
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Congratulations
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to our new ambassador. [Applause]
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[Music] [Applause] [Music]
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Congratulations
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[Applause]
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to our new ambassadors.
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[Applause] We are so excited and honored that you
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will be continuing this legacy. And now here are a few ambassador friends from around the world to share
30:55
the congratulations with you from the 2024 2025
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team. Welcome.
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Welcome from the place where it all started. Congratulations.
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We are so excited for you. There's definitely a great big beautiful tomorrow waiting just for you
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as we celebrate 60th anniversary this year.
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and welcome to the global Disney Ambassador Okconor.
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[Music] [Applause]
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Let's hear it one more time for our new ambassadors.
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We invite everyone here to join us at a special viewing area by Small World as
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we congratulate the new ambassadors as they ride down the parade route beginning at 10:30 a.m.
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Once again, we want to thank you all for joining us today and we'll see you real soon. Have a great day, everybody.
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[Applause]