Disney Social Media Moms Blog Hop

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Cindy over at Mom Maven had this absolutely fabulous idea for those of us attending the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration March 17th - 20th. She has set up a linky so all of us can write up a post about who we are, who is going with us, whether it will be our first time at the event, etc. This way, we will all ready "know" some people when we get there and have begun our social media networking. 

My husband and I live in Celebration, Florida which is just 5 minutes outside the Disney World main gate and we go there quite often using our annual passes. We also were VERY privileged to be invited last year to the Disney Conference last year and had an outstanding, unforgettable time. Which is why we were so thrilled to be able to attend this year as well.  This year, however, we WILL be staying on property because I have always wanted to stay at the Grand Floridian - one of the MOST majestic hotels anywhere, let alone Disney World. We are hoping that our two sons who live in Connecticut will be able to come down to spend the vacation with us - if they can both get the time off from work (they are age 20 & 23) ; they love Disney World and I know they will adore the special features of the convention. 

If you'd like to see the recaps from last year's conference, just check out my posts here and here. 

We are so looking forward to meeting all of the wonderful bloggers and their families and cannot wait to learn as much, if not more from the fabulous speakers (like Chris Brogan, who Cindy just informed me is going to be there again - WooHoo!!!).  It is getting closer every minute.... and I'm getting more and more excited!

Write up your post and link up with Cindy over at Mom Maven so I can get to know you.  HUGGLES!!

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Itinerary for Brandcation... You are Gonna Be SOOOOO Jealous!!

I'm so excited to let you all know that our itinerary for Brandcation has been finalized and man are those of you not going gonna be SO jealous of me. Believe it or not, all of the places (except one) that we are going to are places that I have never been to in the five years that I have lived here which makes it even more thrilling for me. Are you ready???


I have already told you about the fantabulistic accommodations that Global Resort Homes will be providing for us and the Zip-line and Coach Safaris being provided by Florida EcoSafaris on our first day of adventure.

Next on Friday night after our safari adventure, we get back home to our beautiful Global Resort Home, clean up, rest and get ready for an incredible Sleuths Mystery Dinner show.  Then, back home for either movies or karaoke.


Saturday will be another adventurous day... first up an airboat ride through the wetlands on a beautiful wildlife tour viewing exotic birds, turtles and the Florida alligator in their own natural environment with Boggy Creek Airboat Rides.  After that we will have the privilege of visiting the Alligator Capital of the World, Gatorland! This is a place that I have always wanted to go to (it is right across the street from our veterinarian's office and I still have never been there - DUH!) and now I have the chance! I cannot wait to take photos, tweet and blog about this experience. Lunch will also be provided by the wonderful people at Gatorland, how cool is that?

After all that, we will head back to the houses to freshen up and head out to dinner for another exciting adventure at Arabian Nights. An amazing dinner show where we will "enter the magical world of Scheherazade, a young girl with a bigger-than-life dream of becoming a beautiful Princess. Two magical Genies take Scheherazade and her guests on a thrilling and romantic adventure filled with music, lights and daring acts where anything can happen, from a square dance on horseback to chariots racing and Gypsies leaping, flipping and dancing on moving horses’ backs!" {taken from their website} Believe it or not, this attraction is right across the street from the community where I live and I have never been there, you'd think I never get out of the house. HaHa

On our final day, we are lucky enough to be able to go as a group to my favorite place in the whole world... the one place on our itinerary that I have been to, multiple times: Walt Disney World... WooHoo!! 

I am so happy to be able to share all these fabulous places with these wonderful women and have this most incredible opportunity and none of this would be possible without the main sponsorship of Global Resort Homes Adventures in Kissimmee and these three absolutely spectacular women: Trisha of Momdot, Kim of What's That Smell and Nicole of Good Golly Miss Blondie.  Thank you so much to all of you!!



{Photos courtesy of their respective websites}

Orlando Look Out for My Bloggy Friends

Thanks to these spectacular ladies: Trisha of Momdot, Kim of What's That Smell and Nicole of Good Golly Miss Blondie,  the first weekend of November, 35 absolutely fabulous bloggers will be descending on the Orlando area for an adventure known as Brandcation... and I have the pleasure of being one of those women.  WooHoo!!!

This small group of women will be participating in an event arranged to be beneficial to both the sponsors and the bloggers, while there are no formal classes, we will be able to have real life conversations with each other in an environment conducive to learning and growing, and of course, tons of fun.

I would like to show you the amazingly gorgeous accommodations that are being provided to us through Global Resort Homes.  I am SO thankful to them for providing us with four fabulous houses to stay in throughout the entire time we are there.  Here is the house that I will be sharing with 8 super bloggers, including a hero of mine - Kim, all of whom I cannot wait to meet in person:

How amazing is that house??? I cannot wait to attend this event... keep your eyes on my blog for posts about what else we have planned to do and for tweets, posts and of course photos while we are attending the event.

Thank you so much, again to Global Resort Homes for your outstanding generosity! HUGS!!!

{You can also check out Global Resort Homes on Facebook, please go over and check them out.  Thanks!}



WooHoo!! First Event for Brandcation: Adventures in Orlando Announced

We are all SO excited to hear that our first event is being held at Florida EcoSafaris... and thanks to them, it will be at no cost to any of us attending - thank you very much!  They have a 4700 acre eco-ranch and wildlife conservation area preserved just as nature intended. This beautiful site boasts 9 distinct Florida ecosystems and an endless array of natural flora and fauna including alligators, black bears, nearly two hundred species of birds and the endangered Florida panther.

 

There will be the opportunity to take a Zip-line Safari  - the perfect aerial vantage point to learn about Florida’s ecosystems on a one-of-a-kind adventure. Along the two and a half hour journey, you’ll soar trough the tree tops, 55 feet off the ground, and make your way across sky-bridges while learning about Florida’s natural flora and fauna from your expert guide - all at speeds up to 25 miles per hour!

 

For those of us who are unable to do something quite that adventurous, there is the opportunity to take a Coach Safari, a trip through a picturesque Florida ranch, featuring a living museum of Spanish Colonial Cattle and Florida’s unique Cracker Horses, an endless array of natural flora and fauna including alligators, black bears, white-tail deer and nearly two hundred species of birds. An expert guide to take us up-close to everything over land and water onboard our special open-air safari coaches, elevated 5 feet off the ground for a fantastic view of everything.

You all know how much I LOVE taking nature photos, so I am really excited about this adventure and about all the pictures I might be able to take and share on my blog.  I can't wait until November for this blogging convention to meet all these fabulous women and this wonderful adventure.  I'll let you know as soon as I do what other terrific things are in store for us during our Brandcation conference.

Thank you so much to Trisha from Momdot and Florida EcoSafaris for making this possible.

Brandcation Event: Global Getaway Nov 5th-7th!

I am so excited to be going to the Brandcation Event put on by Kim and Trisha of MomDot. There are going to be no formal classes at this event, instead it will be "real life conversation in an environment conducive to learning and growing" {from the MomDot blog}. I am so looking forward to meeting all of these wonderful bloggers and learning so many new and exciting things; plus, the event is going to be here in Orlando, FL.  I think there are only a few spots left, so if you are interested, head on over and check it out soon!  For more information, contact kim@accidentalmommies.com or trisha@momdot.com.  Hope to see some of you there!!

The Best Part of Blogging Conferences

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting two of my bloggy friends at Downtown Disney for Dinner: Connie from Brain Foggles and Jennifer from The Dirty Shirt. I have been a fan of their blogs for quite some time now and met them both briefly at the Disney Social Media Moms Conference, plus we have all been Twittering away since then. We all live in Florida, but not really that close {Florida is a really BIG state} and our schedules are all so busy, that it isn't that easy for us to get together.

Bill came with me, Connie came with her husband and her daughter, Samantha and Jennifer brought her daughters Ashley and Abby plus her son and his girlfriend (I'm really sorry I don't remember their names). We all had a fabulous time laughing and talking and getting to know each other even more. It really is just like we had know each other all our lives. I am so happy to be a member of this wonderful bloggy community that has given me such fabulous friends who feel like family. Here are some photos of our fun time together.....

[left to right: Abby; Samantha & Ashley; Ashley & Connie]

[left to right: Connie, me, Jen; Abby & Jen; Ashley & Samantha]

Thanks to Jen, Connie and their families for a terrific time - can't wait until we get to do it again!!

Until next time..... Lorie

Disney Social Media Moms Conference - Recap Day Two

Day two at the Social Media Moms Conference began with a delicious breakfast at American Adventure Rotunda in EPCOT and a wonderful "off the cuff" discussion by co-fonder of Alltop.com Guy Kawasaki on how to use Twitter as a marketing weapon. One of the main thing he suggested was using TwitterFeed to have your blog posts sent to Twitter and Facebook. Also, using Tweetdeck to keep track of everything that is going on. He also suggested repeating your tweets because your followers are NOT just sitting there waiting for your tweets, believe it or not. Try retweeting every 8 or 9 hours so that people in different time zones will get them when they are on their computers. Also find interesting things on the internet for your readers by using search engines, i.e. Alltop (HaHa), Boston.com, or some other one that might be of interest to your followers. He was SO inspiring and really a lot of fun to listen to. You HAVE to follow him @GuyKawasaki... he has the greatest stuff!!

After that, we were taken over to the World ShowPlace in EPCOT for a celebration of Volunteerism where volunteers from all over the country were spotlighted along with hundreds of castmember "VoluntEars" employed by Disney. It was also noted that during the first 6 weeks of Disney's "Give A Day - Get A Day" Program, over 600,000 volunteers had already signed up and completed their day of service... How amazing is that!! What a terrific program.

We were also treated to a few special visitors... Sweetums and Kermit the Frog came out to thank all the community volunteers from all over the country and to help Ty Pennington show us the Guinness Book of World Record's largest canned food structure. Made of 115,527 cans of food, this amazing sculpture of these Disney favorites will provide over 70,000 meals to food banks in the central Florida, Atlanta and Miami areas.

After seeing this terrific outpouring of generosity, the opportunity to help breakdown this structure and separate the food was provided to the SMM and their families along with Carter Oosterhouse and some of the wonderful celebrities from The Disney Channel. I was unable to participate because it was just to darn cold and I was in too much pain at the time. You can see recaps and several pictures of the event by heading over to 5 Minutes for Mom and checking out the posts by other conference attendees... it really looks like an amazing event.

That evening, we were all back together at EPCOT Future World, after being given hand warmers (YES, it was THAT cold) and glow sticks for the most amazing dinner prepared by Robert Irvine of Dinner Impossible for broadcast on The Food Network soon. [To see a behind the scenes look at what went into the prep and some of the DELICIOUS food we had, check out The Disney Food Blog]. We ate SO much and had such a great time hanging out with Felicia, Crystal and Kate and their families, sitting near the stage under a heater - thank you SO much Crystal for finding that great table. Then we listened to a private concert by Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato - the kids went WILD!!

What a wonderful day Disney gave us all... one more day of fun and food to come!!

Until next time..... Lorie

[Disclaimer: Although tickets for the conference were purchased, we received meals, park tickets, etc. at a great discount. We also received gifts and opportunities to attend events not open to the general public from Disney. I was not asked to write about my experience or share the information.]

Ruby Tuesday: Polynesian Resort Walt Disney World

Welcome to Ruby Tuesday.....

Here are some photos of the lovely lobby at the Polynesian Resort at Walt Disney World where the Social Media Moms Conference was recently held. They had the most gorgeous foliage and waterfall including bromelaid in purple and red. I just had to take some photographs, hope you enjoy.....

Don't forget to link up your Ruby Tuesday post to Work of the Poet and visit the other participants. Have a great week.

Until next time..... Lorie

Disney Social Media Moms Conference - Recap Day 1

Sorry this took me so long to get to, but I ended up with a wicked head cold after the conference, which I am still battling. But I really wanted to let you all know what a fabulous time I had with all the terrific bloggers and speakers at Disney World.

The first thing I want to say is that Disney spared no expense making this a wonderful experience for all of us. The food and entertainment was amazing. While we did pay for the conference and our own way there Disney gave us so many things to make our stay more enjoyable - not only for ourselves, but for our families as well. So I must say thank you so much to all the cast members at Disney first and foremost... plus, being in a wheelchair, they were even more aware and helpful to me and tried to do everything to help me and make my visit even better. I'd also like to thank all the great bloggers who helped push me around the events - I couldn't have made it without you!!

On the day of our arrival, we went to the Hospitality Suite of the Polynesian Resort to get our credentials and tickets to the parks. We were given 7-day park hopper passes (including the water parks - which I'm not sure if anyone used as it was just so darn cold) and a media Fast-pass which allowed us to get in the front of the line at several of the more popular rides - WooHoo!! We were also given a huge bag of gifts from Disney that included a great long-sleeve Mickey t-shirt, a game pack, two watches (I collect Disney watches, so I was extremely thrilled with this), a picnic blanket, a huge collection of post-its, a Mickey Mouse padded laptop bag and a tote bag to carry it all in. Then we went over to the adjoining suite for snacks while we waited to go to ESPN Wide World of Sports for dinner. In the mean time, I spoke to Crystal from Simply Being Mommy on the phone and ran into Felicia from Go Graham Go.

We arrived at ESPN Wide World of Sports where the family members were able to use the facilities to burn off some energy and work up an appetite, while we were whisked away to Milk House to learn about some exciting new projects that Disney has in store for the near future.

While sitting next to Lucinda from Anonymous Mom dot Com we learned that during this summer at Disney World they will be bringing back the Electric Light Parade (WooHoo) and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror will have a special new "elevator drop" - no word on exactly what that may be, however. Also, Al Weiss from Walt Disney World Operations talked about the expansion to The Magic Kingdom's Fantasy Land including a new Princess Land where little girls can share experiences with each of the princesses in their own homelands! The Dumbo ride will also be expanded to twice the size with the queue being an interactive Big Top 3-ring circus. The Disney Cruise Line is expanding with 2 new ships, a 5 month European season, expansion of their private island Castaway Cay, and the 1st Northern European cruise and Alaskan cruise.


Sr. Vice President of Disney Sports Ken Potrock spoke about the ESPN Wide World of Sports area saying that they wanted it to be an experience for athletes of ages 6 to 86 using their sixty different sports available. They also have HD cameras all over so that no matter what you are playing you have the feeling of "making it to the big time" and being on ESPN because when you go back into the food court they have several HD TV screens where you just might see yourself.






After the presentation we were reunited with our families for an all you can eat tailgate dinner and dance party... where some really special guests showed up. Bill & I had the privilege of eating with Crystal and Ryan and their wonderful children, along with hundreds of other bloggers and their families. It was a great first day!























That wraps up Day 1 of the Disney Social Media Moms Conference... I will be back with posts for the rest of the amazing time we all had there. With more photos and information.... stay tuned for parts 2 and 3.....



Until next time..... Lorie