Steinbach’s frozen princess draws social media spotlight

A Steinbach hotel’s unlikely mascot has become a snowy social media sensation, creating a local and international fan base.

Cass Wieler, known to others as the Days Inn Elsa, never expected an impromptu marketing video showing off the hotel while dressed as the Disney Frozen princess would garner millions of views on Instagram.

“I think going viral in this day and age is so hit and miss. The things you think are going to go great, but don’t, and the things you think will not, all of a sudden blow up,” she told The Carillon.

Wieler, the hotel’s general manager, said she first got the idea to make the video after a friend bought the costume and asked Wieler to dress up as the princess for her daughter’s birthday. Once the birthday appearance was done and while still in costume, she decided to shoot a “silly video for the kids” at the hotel to make some quick advertising content.

The video was published on social media in June last year, and a couple days later the views quickly snowballed. Wieler’s first video has 3.5-million views and nearly 70,000 likes on Instagram.

The 46-second video shows Wieler dressed in a blonde wig and blue dress showing off the hotel’s Slurpee machine and throwing ice cubes into the hot tub and swimming pool to “cool it off.”

She said the video would’ve been a one-off, but commenters asked for more videos to keep the character alive.

“It was exciting, because nothing like this has ever happened before, especially for a small-town hotel and small-town person,” Wieler.

But the viral spotlight showed her that “society can be very mean,” she said.

On her first video, many comments were about Wieler’s appearance and the low-quality costume. She decided to stop reading the messages to preserve her mental health, she said.

“It is hard to hear when you’re putting yourself out there and just trying to be fun, and people are picking at the things just to tear you down, and they’re just doing it to be mean,” she said.

But as she made more videos after the first viral moment, Wieler said the positive comments were outweighing the negative ones.

Wieler donned the costume to walk in the Pioneer Days Parade in August 2025 and had an avalanche of strangers and friends waving and wanting selfies.

The hotel also hosted a Frozen-themed event and hired professional actors as main characters Anna and Elsa. She said people arrived looking for Wieler’s version of Elsa and walked out disappointed when she didn’t make an appearance.

“Having strangers recognize me and waving and wanting to take selfies with me makes you feel kind of famous,” she said.

A woman from Broadway in New York City reached out to Wieler and sent her two theatre-quality wigs to replace the dubbed “trailer trash wig.”

She said receiving the wigs was “jaw-dropping” because she wasn’t doing the videos for clout.

“To get recognized and receive gifts, is amazing. I don’t take it lightly. I’m very thankful and don’t deserve that,” she said.

When Wieler makes a video as the character, she said it’s also done in one take, with little editing. Some of her videos following the first going viral include appearances from Elsa’s sister Anna. She’s done birthday videos for fans and made an appearance on the ice on Jan. 11 during the Grand Slam of Curling hosted in Steinbach.

While Wieler’s new-found fame hasn’t caused a clear boost in business for the hotel, she said there’s been many commenters saying they want to visit because of the videos.

“If I’m ever in Steinbach, this account will be the number one reason I stay at the Days Inn,” said one Instagram commenter.

Wieler said she’s been able to keep her personal life separate from the Elsa persona, but the character can show up anywhere at the hotel.

“The wig is in my office all the time, so she’s always watching over me,” she said.