NEED TO KNOW
- In 2009, an 11-year-old entered Disney’s Deck Out Your Room Sweepstakes without telling his parents — and won
- Max Abrams was flown to Los Angeles, rode in a limo, toured the set, and met the entire cast of The Sweet Life on Deck
- Now, over a decade later, he’s sharing the full story of what it was like to live every Disney kid’s dream
Every few years, early 2000s kids start to wonder who actually won the sweepstakes advertised on Disney Channel — or if they were even real. It was the kind of childhood dream that sounded too good to be true.
Now, more than a decade later, the 2009 winner of the Deck Out Your Room Sweepstakes tells PEOPLE all about his star-studded experience.
“You would watch Disney Channel, and during the commercial breaks, they would be like, oh, you know, we’re announcing this new sweepstakes, and with your parents’ permission, go online and sign up,” Max Abrams tells PEOPLE exclusively. “And if you win, you and three friends will get so on and so forth.”
But Abrams reveals he didn’t even ask for permission – just filled out the form and moved on. Like most kids, he didn’t actually expect to win. However, he was in for a surprise when he randomly decided to check the family voicemail box several months later.
“I came home from school and I checked the voicemail machine for some godforsaken reason, like, I have no clue why I was this curious in the voicemail box that day,” Abrams recalls. “I remember it like it was yesterday. And they said, ‘You won.’ ”
Understandably, his dad didn’t believe it. As a stay-at-home parent from an older generation, he had no clue what the sweepstakes was – or why someone from Disney would be calling his house. “He didn’t know what Suite Life on Deck was – what is a sweepstakes? Like, how did these people get our phone number?” Abrams says.
Eventually, after lots of back and forth with the network, it all started to feel real when a flight to Los Angeles was booked for him, his parents and his aunt and uncle.
Max Abrams
They landed at Los Angeles International Airport to find a man in a tuxedo holding a sign with Abrams’ name on it. They were then ushered into a limo stocked with unlimited cans of Coca-Cola. “We’re driving through the streets of L.A.,” he says. “So everyone thinks that you’re something and like, inside is this 11-year-old boy with a Coke having the time of his life.”
Although the sweepstakes had promised a “decked out” room, that part turned out to be more metaphorical. “When I checked into the hotel, it was under my name… they handed me a skateboard with a gift box on top of it, and it was all Disney or Disney XD merchandise that theoretically I could have brought home to New York to deck out my room with,” he explains. “They didn’t come and, like, renovate my room.”
Max Abrams
The situation became even more surreal once they pulled into the studio lot. “It was like all these pre-teen girls crowded around the limo, like, who’s gonna come out of it? And it was me, disappointingly for all of them,” Abrams laughs.
The trip itself was packed with Disney magic, including a set visit to The Suite Life on Deck. “I got to walk around the main deck of the cruise ship,” Abrams shares. “So I remember the hot tub was a real hot tub. I thought that was very cool…my parents were trying to get me to swim in it.”
He even got to play with props and try on wardrobe items, making him feel like a VIP member. Abrams especially remembers wearing Mr. Moseby’s suit jacket.
Max Abrams
During his visit, Abrams got to meet several Disney stars, who were all very warm and welcoming. “I was most excited to meet Brenda Song… I think even at 11 I understood that she was an icon,” he says. “And I will literally never forget her coming in with hair rollers in her hair, and just being like the most gracious, sweetest person ever.”
However, meeting Dylan and Cole Sprouse was more nerve-wracking than exciting for the fifth grader who didn’t have many male friends.
“It’s Dylan and Cole Sprouse of all people, right? It’s like, how am I gonna? I want them to think I’m cool,” he remembers. “Meanwhile, I’m wearing this Disney XD shirt that I got in a gift box the morning of. I was so uncool. But I remember them being very sweet.”
Max Abrams
Disney let the family keep the limo and chauffeur for nearly the whole week, which, luckily enough, coincided with Abrams’ birthday. During their free time, he and his parents toured celebrity homes in Hollywood. The whole experience, he says, was unreal.
Before heading home, Disney handed him a thick stack of autographs – real signatures from nearly every major Disney star of the time, such as Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato.
“To think that I got autographs from Suite Life on Deck, Jonas Brothers, Wizards of Waverly Place, Hannah Montana and Sunny With A Chance, all at the same time? We’re talking about …that era of Disney, like it was peak,” Abrams emphasizes.
Max Abrams
The 11-year-old returned to school feeling like a “celebrity,” passing out autographs and enjoying a brief burst of popularity.
“I went from having like a few friends to having like a few more friends,” Abrams reveals. “I had a moment in the spotlight for like, maybe one month, and then it was summer break, and then you go to middle school… I was back to being on the ground floor, but for a moment there, I was the coolest kid in school.”
Years later, the 26-year-old content creator still remembers the whole thing vividly. “I just remember being so overwhelmed. It just didn’t stop…the gift box and then the limo, and then you meet the cast, and then you’re at the set, and then the autographs, and it just didn’t end.”
Credit: dotdashmeredith.com
