WDW Tweets Meet & Greet

For any of you Disney folk on Twitter, you may have seen the term "spotted" or hashtag "#disneydork". These tweets are the brain child of Ali, aka @WDWTweets. Ali spends her twitter time browsing thru her loyal following, looking for any & all references to Disney. Once finding some, she reconstructs others' tweets into witty, 140 character scenarios. For example, I have been spotted once.(Yes, only once!) I was bound & determined to be recognized by this person. I carefully tweeted almost every move I made at the Magic Kingdom that night. Finally, as I sat & waited for Wishes to start, I tweeted something to the effect of "I guess @wdwtweets doesn't see me cuz I am too short". Soon after, I was "SPOTTED:@heavensent30 among the dwarves in Fantasyland". A Disney Dork is a member of the Disney Community that cannot function thru everyday life without infusing some part of Disney into it. Personally, I think we are all a little like that(well, at least those of you reading this..lol).

Taking time out of her family vacation this year, Ali set up the first ever "WDWTweets Meet & Greet" at the Tambu Lounge in the beautiful Polynesian Resort. Since no one had ever seen Ali (her avatar is Sorcerer Mickey), she had posted that her family would be wearing matching Mickey Mouse Ears. After my super exciting day at Epcot with the Disney Social Media Moms, we hopped in our car & drove over to the Poly for a night of fun & friends!

The meeting at the Tambu was great. I found Ali almost immediately, although it was her adorable baby (with classic Mickey Ears) that caught my attention first! As we sat down & started chatting, Shannon(@Nellabeaner2 from Twitter) & her sister Stacey joined us. They were on vacation all the way from Michigan! We chatted about all sorts of things...Disney related of course ;) Wanting to see Wishes from the beach of the Poly, we headed out to see the fireworks. Once outside, we met up with Lynne & her family( @duckyislost from twitter)from Boston as well. Its always nice to meet new people!

fireworks from the Magic Kingdom as seen from the Polynesian Resort

Lynne & family, Shannon, Me & Princess Peanut, Stacey, Ali & family, The Boy 

Wordless Wednesday - The Disney SM Moms Version

Yes, I crashed the party.

Yes, I lived to tell about it.

And now, my first ever Wordless Wednesday post is dedicated to...

**The Disney Social Media Moms Celebration**

Do captions count in Wordless Wednesday? Cuz I don't think I can go "totally" wordless.

A most beautiful day.. & view!

Carter Oosterhouse & others. My 1st celeb spotting of the day!

I *wish* I knew what to say!

So in love with the water! A fabulous Disney PhotoPass Photog, Lisa, gave her a nickle to throw into the fountain! Made her day!!

Great parade! Who doesn't love Sweetums, Kermit & Miss Piggy!

The crowds & trucks of food.

A close up of the above picture shows Amanda Tinney, Lou Mongello & JL Knopp (NDM #1) before we met. We were standing that close! :)

Leave some love ;)

til next time ~

make it magical :)

The "Meet" - pt 2 of Crashing the Disney SM Moms Celebration

Where were we..Ty Pennington?? lol

I met up with Aurora first. She & Amanda were having fun with the volunteer event & chasing after Joe Jonas. I went off with Princess Peanut & gang while the rest were involved with conference events. At 2:40ish, I got the text from Aurora : "Get back to the volunteer area NOW".

Running thru the countries, we finally made it back to the Volunteer Area (Millennium Village) just in time. The Volunteer Parade with Kermit, Miss Piggy & Sweetums from the Magic Kingdom had just started. This was so amazing for a few reasons :

1. Epcot does not generally have "parades"

2. I never seem to be over at the Magic Kingdom at the right time to see this parade

3. It was the Muppets!

This parade was just a short little pre-parade, but it was cute. The costumes were colorful & music catchy. But the most amazing thing was the 10 big box trucks that followed Miss Piggy & Kermit. These box trucks were full of the canned goods that were used to create the structure built earlier. All the food was donated to local food banks in the central Florida area.

After the parade, I finally met up with everyone! It was a big hug fest ;) It was so exciting! And, to make it even better, Lou Mongello was with them! We decided to find a quiet spot & do a podcast(ßlisten) with Lou. What better of a place than a quiet cafe table in France?

We rode Test Track together & it felt like I had been with them from the start. They were that wonderful. Soon, it came for us to part ways..they had a dinner cooked by Chef Robert Irvine & concert with Demi Lovato & Joe Jonas & we had a tweet-up at the Polynesian Tambu Lounge & Wishes from the beach.

You know, I could write a blog about each of these ladies (& Lou, too!). They are the sweetest people you will ever meet. I do suggest you follow them on Twitter & read their blogs, too.

I was part of Lou's Harem for the day ;)

Lynne, Aurora, Amanda, Jen, Traci, Lou, Jackie, JL, Debbie, Me & Debbie's DS

Check these fabulous people out!

Follow Jen - @Dizneydreamer on Twitter. Read her blog Always Running Behind

Follow Lynne - @Lynne_from_texa on Twitter. Read her blog Wondering What’s Next

Follow Aurora - @RoraBorieAlice on Twitter. Read her blog Tales of a Frumpy Mocha Princess

Follow Amanda - @amandatinney on Twitter. Check out her website Disney Every Day with Amanda Tinney

Follow Traci - @TraciLeigh on Twitter. Read her blog The View From My Fishbowl

Follow Lou - @loumongello on Twitter. Check out his website WDW Radio

Follow Jackie - @jjzmgailey on Twitter. Read her blog Mickey’s Magical Trip Tips

Follow JL - @NDM_1 on Twitter. Check out her website The Disney Driven Life

Follow Debbie - @dcanoli on Twitter. Check out her blog Debbie’s A Day Late & A Dollar Short

**Read Pt 1 of this story here**

Crashing the Disney SM Moms Celebration

Lets just start this off with "I *so* should have been there".

Disney hosted a first ever Social Media Moms Celebration (SMMC). And for reasons that make me the mommy that I am, I did not sign up to go. With that being said, I watched the Twitter-verse in envy the weeks & days leading up to the conference. A lot of mommy-bloggers that I have grown fond of...yes, shameless shout outs will be posted at the end ;)...Jen, Debbie, Lynne, Jackie, JL, Traci, Amanda..all were going to be there. How could I *not* have signed up to go & meet these fabulous people??

*cue "light bulb going on" type music*

I have an annual pass. These mommas were going to be in the parks enjoying some down time. I can go to the parks whenever I want....so, maybe, just maybe, I'll go on one of the days they are there..SCORE!!

*Ok, so it didn't take rocket science to figure that deduction out. Maybe a little of it (ok, maybe most of it) was slightly embellished for the purpose of interesting reading..but you get my point ;)*

In a completely unrelated coincidence, another Twitter friend of mine, Ali, was having a “tweet-up” Thursday night at the Polynesian. The SMMC itinerary had listed most of Thursday afternoon free. Perfection-Thursday it was! As the day grew closer, I realized just how important Thursday was. Disney was gearing up for a major press event for this conference & Thursday was the main event day. Yay me!

Just a few days before, I found out that another Twitter/blogger friend, Aurora, was also going to "crash the party". How exciting!! Now, I wasn't the *only* one to not be attending the conference!! I was so excited, but nervous too. I mean, online everyone got along fabulously, but what if we didn't "click". What if they had all bonded so much over the course of the first day of the conference, I was just an outsider? What if they thought I was an over-zealous nut just showing up & crashing the party? Oh, the things I put myself thru!! Still, it felt good to know that I wasn't the only one just "showing up".

We set out Thursday morning. I followed the Press Releases (ßDisney Blog Posts) all the way up. Things like

• 600,000 people already signed up/volunteered hours thru Hands On Network
• Ty Pennington was there
• He said "Move those balloons"
• The picture of the largest can sculpture does not nearly look as majestic on your cell phone as it does here
• Demi Lovato & Joe Jonas were at the park
• Did I mention Ty Pennington was there?

I think I am still floored that 600,000 people have volunteered already..and the program had only been in effect for 6 weeks. That is an incredible amount of man-power & community fellowship. But, we'll save that for another blog post.

Super Family Fun Weekend 2010 pt 3

Princess Peanut playing "drums" at EPCOT. In front of Innovations

Talk about a whirlwind weekend....

Part 3 of our adventure found us at Epcot...and what a beautiful day it was. Not too hot, not too cold...not too windy. Just plain beautiful ;)  Mini-Me went off to take pictures...The Boy & Future Headache  went off to do Sum Of All Thrills & Princess Peanut & I went off to the Character Spot.

This was our first time in the Character Spot. The wait was not bad..maybe 20 minutes. And she was all excited about seeing her favorite Disney characters...Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto & Goofy! Thank goodness for Photopass...or so I thought....

Mickey's picture was great, but in moving to Pluto, the photographer had to do something with the scanner (sorry for lack of proper terms). So we were pushed thru & I had to take a picture with my video camera..*not* the best quality :( Can you say disappointed?? Moving on to the next character.Minnie..her favorite, and guess what?? It happened again!! This time I was not a happy camper about it. I told the CM I was very disappointed & this was the 2nd time this had happened. She let Princess Peanut finish her visit & pulled me to the side. She apologized & told me that I could wait to the side. As soon as the photographer was done, they would put us in front of the line. Sweet :) I was now a happy camper! Only waited about 5 minutes.

The photographers must be on the same sort of a schedule, because it was a chain reaction. As I approached each Photopass person, they had to do whatever it was they had to do with their scanners. *UGH* Um, hellllooooo...I have a 2 yo here, people!!

Luckily, I was allowed to wait for each to finish, but only because I asked. I feel bad for others this has happened to that didn't ask & possibly missed out. I woudl think that if the photographers had to stop to do whatever it is they had to do, shouldn't there be a back-up photographer? This is not the first time this has happened to us. We have missed several character shots because the Photopass CM had to do something with the scanner, one actually had his batteries DIE (they don't carry spares?) & another had to "take a break". Yikes!!

Bottom line, I got my pictures...and I am still buying the Photopass CD. Still happy (for the most part) with Photopass. I just don't understand how this kind of issue hasn't been corrected.

We finished up with pictures & waited in front of Innoventions for everyone to finish whatever they did. We all met up & were serenaded by Princess Peanut's Drum Solo (see picture above). Group picture & to the car for Superbowl!!

The weekend was great! It was a very busy 48 hours, but they were exciting!!! Can't wait til next year!!

Super Family Fun Weekend 2010 pt 2

The view from our hotel room...Orange Co Jail ;)

Let's see...the recap...

Great football game

Great Fireworks (x2!!)

Found a penny..heads up...

And then we found our hotel...lol

I really cannot complain about this place. It was clean...didn't smell like "cheap hotel room". Even the bathroom floor was clean. Of course, though, we were on the 4th floor & didn't see the elevator til AFTER we were already upstairs. And we had such a lovely view of the jail...lol

Needless to say, I think we all slept in our clothes. I had friends that were also headed to see the Shuttle take off, so we were meeting up with everyone. I figured we could sleep til they made it to Lakeland. My wake up call was at 1:47am....

With everyone super-excited...we left about 2:15ish. Driving thru Downtown Orlando was neat. Would have loved to have found a 24-hr Starbucks! We drove thru Christmas, Fl...and boy did they capitalize on the name. The Ft Christmas Museum had lights & decorations up (& ON at 3am!!). They even had Rudolph's Restaurant! About an hour into the trip, I get a text from my Disney-Sis telling me that the launch is only a 30% GO. *Ugh* Only 30% is not good. I followed @NASA on Twitter the whole way. They really provided very timely updates...which was very helpful when driving across the state on the road to nowhere.

We finally got to Titusville....can you say LOTS of people?? We met up with our friends in a parking lot and waited!! At 4:10am, NASA gave the GREEN/GO for weather...only 20 minutes left. We were kept busy getting cameras ready, tripods, blankets (it was VERY cold that night)...and in about 10 minutes it went RED again. Within a few minutes, they were GREEN again. And then it was RED....

We were on pins & needles waiting for this. It was the first launch of the year..the last night launch of the shuttles. It was one to be remembered. And at T-9 minutes, it was scrubbed. :( We looked out across the water & saw the launch pad. The lights. The beams of light that stretched from the launch pad to the sky. I wanted them to at least see something.

Oh...and I gave Disney Sis one of the pennies I found. They say if you find a penny heads up, you must pass it along to someone else within 24 hours to keep the good luck going!! A friend of mine made a great observation, so I will quote her..

"Shuttle launches aren't like Disney shows. Disney shows always go on time"

Super Family Fun Weekend 2010 pt 1

What a whirlwind weekend!

Itinerary:

Saturday - Future Headache's Football Game, Magic Kingdom, Hotel

Sunday - Space Shuttle Launch, Epcot, Superbowl

If you could define a perfect weekend, this would have been the one. For one thing, my house was clean & everyone was packed (including the car) by Friday night!! That itself is an extreme rarity! (you can read about past OCD issues here).

After Future Headache's phenomenal game(read here), we were off to Magic Kingdom. Granted, after all the trips I make there, a normal person may not be as excited as I was. There was another photo lesson to be taught..this time ACTION! So, after the standard & customary Move It Shake It, the rest of the group & I headed off. It was cold & windy...so we hit Pirates of the Caribbean. For once, we were thankful there was a LINE! After PotC, we met up with the rest of the gang over by the Crystal Palace. Thanks to the refurbs being done at that time, most of the area was blocked off. So, that beautiful little area that overlooks the castle was pretty much dead(think..great spot for fireworks!) We love finding new angles to watch the fireworks from.

So while we held our seats, we just had fun. Princess Peanut ran around the circle area there & sang songs. Patriotic music played in the background with twinkling lights surrounding us.  Later on(we waited for about an hour), I did send some of the troops over for a Waffle Bowl Ice Cream Sundae from the The Plaza Ice Cream Shop. Can you say excited children?? Watching them sit around this one dish of ice cream... and before you can say " 1 bowl?", there was a reason for that....seeing the sharing... laughing... talking... was priceless.

Just before fireworks started, I got a text from a friend, Michelle (<---follow her on twitter!) that I have not seen since 8th grade. Thanks to Facebook, I have reconnected with most of my gradeschool friends. She was in the park, too. She & her family made their way over to where we were & watched fireworks with us. It was so neat to reconnect during such a magical moment!! Luckily, they are local (& passholders!) so we will meet up again -next time to ride Cinderella's Golden Carousel. Disney is such a great place ;)

We decided to leave after fireworks, since we were driving over to the Space Coast st 2am. Originally, we were at Epcot, so we had to take the monorail back there for our car. As luck would have it, we boarded at just the right time. By the time the monorail was pulling into Epcot, we rode thru the park on the monorail during Illuminations. I have been wanting to try that for a while! While missing the music, it was still a great sight!

What a great night!

OH! & I found a penny...heads UP!