I have been hosting the weekly Mouse House Memories Monday Disney linky for about 2 years here at TheMomMaven. Each year we have tweaked the format a bit to meet the needs of both my readers and the other bloggers who link up. Today I would love YOUR feedback. As we move into the new year I’d love to know what you want from Mouse House Memories. To accomplish this I have created a brief survey that I would love for you to complete. It will take less than 5 minutes of your time and the input will help me decide how to move forward with Mouse House Memories in 2014.

Thanks for your input! Please share this page with your friends so that we can get a good cross section of the online community involved in the survey.

Happy New Year!!

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Disney Social Media Moms 2012 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration is a highlight of every year. This year was extra special because we got to bring Summer with us on her first ever Disney vacation.

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Dining at Be Our Guest Restaurant

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Making History in the Magic Kingdom To know I am forever a part of Magic Kingdom history is just…magical!

I can’t wait to make new Disney memories in 2013!

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As a deluxe resort, the rooms here are more spacious and you pay a pretty penny for that space. Depending on the type of room and time of year the room rates at the Grand Floridian range from $460-$3,210 a night. Personally, I can’t justify that kind of money on a hotel room but maybe you can.

There are some great table service and buffet dining available at the Grand Floridian including Walt Disney World’s ultimate fine dining establishment, Victoria & Albert’s. Citrico’s serves dinner with a Mediterranean flare while Narcoosssess serves up your seafood favorites. 1900 Park Fare is your destination for character buffet dining including the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast with Mary Poppins, Mat Hatter and Alice in Wonderland. Afternoons feature the Wonderland Tea Party for guests ages 4-12. Cinderella’s Happily Ever After Dinner is a wonderful way to spend time with everyone’s favorite princess.

The Grand Floridian also boasts a beachside pool with waterslide and a marina where you can rent watercraft for some fun on Bay Lake.

We enjoyed our stay at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa and I’m sure you will too.

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After our magical breakfast we headed to our breakout sessions. My choice was Cruising Disney Style since we love to cruise and we dream of going on a Disney Cruise some day. Unfortunately, I guess I’ve done great research on the Disney Cruise Line because I didn’t learn anything in this session-it just made me wish even harder for a Disney Cruise.

The kids were spending the morning at Blizzard Beach and hubby had hopped over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to catch another ride on Rock ‘n Roller Coaster while I was in my session. He and I met up in our room and headed to the Magic Kingdom to check out the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game. We each played one round and I still haven’t decided if I like it or not…I need to do more research before I can really share my feelings on this addition to the park. We met the kids back at the room and we spent the afternoon relaxing and getting ready for that evening’s party.

The party was at the Art of Animation resort, a full month before opening day! We were greeted by cast members clapping and cheering for us-it was very overwhelming. The Finding Nemo section of the resort opened on May 31, Cars opens on June 18, The Lion King opens August 10 and The Little Mermaid opens September 15. Finding Nemo, Cars and Lion King are family suites that sleep up to 6 people and Little Mermaid will be standard rooms.

Our dinner was held outside around the Finding Nemo pool and it is just a beautiful resort inside and out. Our photos don’t do it justice at all, but we did the best we could so that we could share some of the magic with you.

Play Area

Water Play Area

Master Bedroom

Living Area with Convertible Sofa and Kitchenette

Dining Table/Murphy Bed

Murphy Bed open

This entire resort is visually stunning. You truly feel like you are in the movie! At the Art of Animation Resort Disney has taken everything they know about theming and made it even better. Everywhere you look there is another detail that catches your eye. The waves on the carpet in the hallways, the bubble lights on the ceiling, the words etched onto the bathroom mirror or the “escape” on the bathroom light fixture-every little detail is amazing.

The Nemo pool at night

We hope to stay at the Art of Animation in December, in the Cars section…I hope! Which area of the Art of Animation do you think your family would like to stay in? If you want to book a stay, just fill out my travel quote form and we will start planning your magical trip.

Disclosure: I paid to attend the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. In exchange for my registration fee, I received deeply discounted rates on hotel, park tickets, free events, meals, and swag. I am not required nor was I asked to write about the events by Disney or any other brands, celebrities, or speakers affiliated with the event. All opinions are my own.

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Everest at Night

After a busy conference day I met the family in our room to freshen up, then we headed over to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Our evening party was at this park but we wanted to make sure Summer had a chance to experience the Kilimanjaro Safari since this was her first trip to Animal Kingdom. After the safari we wandered the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail checking out all of the cool animals. Next the kids wanted to head to Expedition Everest and I was getting tired to they went to ride the ride and Ron and I found a bench and relaxed. When the kids had ridden Everest twice they joined us and we headed out to the front of the park to meet our group as they arrived on the buses.

Rildey Pearson and Jordan

When the buses arrived, we were escorted back to Dinoland USA which is where our party was being held! For the next few hours we would dine, ride and dance throughout Dinoland! There were buffet stations and dining tables set up along the winding pathways of Dinoland, we chose a table on the path between TriceraTop Spin and Dinosaur. Just as we were sitting down Jordan grabbed my arm all excited because he had spotted Ridley Pearson, author of his favorite series of books, The Kingdom Keepers, walking straight towards us. We spoke with Mr Pearson for a brief moment and Jordan had his picture taken with him. We ate a delicious dinner of carved roast beef with all the trimmings and the kids chose meatball subs. After dinner it was time for some rides! During the party we had free run of Dinoland USA including Expedition Everest, Primeval Whirl, TriceraTop Spin and Dinosaur. Making it even more exciting was the fact that guests are seldom in Animal Kingdom after dark and the fun carnival lights of Dinoland USA just added to the magic of the evening.

First we headed over to Primeval Whirl (though we weren’t sure if this was the best decision right after eating!). After two rides on that roller coaster the kids headed over to ride Expedition Everest in the dark a few times. I headed back to the buffet for some make-your-own strawberry shortcake dessert. When the kids returned they grabbed Ron and headed to Dinosaur, which scared Summer out of her skin Then the kids took a dessert break with cotton candy as their food of choice before we headed over by the DJ to join in on the Cha-Cha Slide and some Hand Jive. Then we took a spin on TriceraTop Spin before snagging a few more rides on Primeval Whirl before the magical evening ended.

TriceraTop Spinning

My boys have been raised at Walt Disney World and this night in Dinoland USA is one of their favorite Disney experiences EVER! To see my 19 year old son as giddy as a 5 year old running around Dinoland snapping photos (most of the photos in this post are his), eating great food and riding rides with no wait-made me a happy mom. I don’t know if the Disney Social Media Moms team is going to be able to top this one…but I can’t wait to see them try!

Primeval Whirl

Disclosure: I paid to attend the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. In exchange for my registration fee, I received deeply discounted rates on hotel, park tickets, free events, meals, and swag. I am not required nor was I asked to write about the events by Disney or any other brands, celebrities, or speakers affiliated with the event. All opinions are my own.

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Day 2 of Disney Social media Moms was such a whirlwind I know I’m not going to be able to do it justice in tis post. The day started off with a delicious breakfast at Citricos, where I had the pleasure of dining with Jackie Gailey and 2 of the most handsome men at the conference…Chris Brogan and Lou Mongello.

After a delicious breakfast and great conversation we headed to the Grand Floridian Conference Center, where we would spend most of the day. I was blessed to find a seat front and center with my friends Molly Gold, Amy Lupold Bair, Shannan Powell, Fiona Bryan and Shellie Ross. The conference enter was beautifully decorated and the attention to detail really helped build the excitement for what lay ahead.

First up was Meg Crofton, President of Walt Disney World. She welcomed us to the conference and shared some fun facts about what it takes to run Walt Disney World. Did you know that, resort laundry processes 300,000 pounds of linens and towels daily?  It would take you 27 years and 2 loads every day at home to finish what they do in one day!

Next, Matt Jacobsen, Head of Market Development for Facebook shared some different ways for us to utilize Facebook to get our message out. We need to look at Facebook as one way to distribute our message. There was a very insightful question  and answer time after his talk and Matt seemed very interested in the concerns we, mom bloggers, have about how to separate our personal and professional pages as well as security.

The highlight of the day for me was our next speaker, Rene Syler aka Good Enough Mother. Rene was my favorite because she is “every woman”. Rene was real, honest and transparent. Rene had us crying and laughing during her talk about authenticity and re-inventing yourself. Rene has been through a lot since her days anchoring the Early Show on CBS, but she hasn’t let her problems get her down, she has powered through and she is coming back on top. Though most of us in that room haven’t been fired from a high profile job or had breast cancer we could all relate to Rene on one level or another to her heartfelt message. I’ll admit it…I have a bit of a girl crush on Rene (grin). We have actually conversed a lot lately on Twitter partly because of our campaign to get her on Dancing with the Stars. If you haven’t signed our linky/petition please take a second to do that now.

Lunch was back at Citricos and again it was delicious! Then we had a little break before our afternoon session which kicked off with a visit from Duffy Bear! Then Chris Brogan spoke about developing a community and working together instead of tearing each other down. Then 2 ladies I had honestly never hear of took the stage, Georgia Stitt on piano and Susan Egan on vocals. I may not have recognized their names but as soon as Susan began singing I recognized her voice. I am a huge fan of Disney music and Susan was both the voice of Megera in Disney’s Hercules and she was Belle in the original Broadway cast of Beauty and the Beast. The Disney fan in me loved the Disney songs they performed but the musician in me loved the original pieces, most written by Georgia, that were true slice of life songs that touched my heart.

I headed back to the room to meet up with my family. They had spent the day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and their goal for the day was to break their record of riding Rock ‘n Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. Their record, set in December 2010 was 10 times. I am proud to say that on March 18, 2011 they both rode it 12 times in one day! Congratulations boys!

Hidden Mickey in the Motorcycle Shop window

After freshening up, we boarded buses to take us back to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for our dinner and Disney Junior Dance Party on the set of Lights, Motor, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. It was very exciting to be down on the set and get to see the buildings. My friend Steve Barrett aka Hidden Mickey Guy was giddy being on the set because it meant he was close to a hidden Mickey he had never really seen well before. What was even cooler is, he couldn’t wait to show it to my kids! I hope you enjoy my video of the fun we had at the party.

 

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I’ve linked to these Wordless Wednesday Linkys:
ResourcefulMommy
BrainFoggles
MyThoughtsandRamblings

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We left the house at about 8am for the very familiar drive to Walt Disney World…but something was different. We make this drive regularly, we are passholders and have been on and off for years, but something was different. My teenage boys were almost giddy with excitement, I was giddy with excitement…even hubby was excited for the weekend ahead (I’ve never seen him giddy in the 21 years I’ve known him). We were going to a familiar place but we expected to experience new things…and we did.

We arrived at the Grand Floridian by 10am and as I got out of the van I saw Jackie Gailey, who started my weekend off with a smile and a big hug, I knew this was going to be a great trip! Bell services whisked our 11 pieces of luggage away to be stored while hubby parked the van and the boys and I checked us in. Since we were so early our room wasn’t ready so we went outside to wait for hubby to make the trek from self-parking. While waiting we saw Shannan Powell and her lovely family, another big hug…my boys were counting but even the college student stopped after a while because there were too many hugs to count on this magical weekend! Hubby arrived and we headed to the Grand Floridian Conference Center to check in for the conference and get our credentials and amazing gifts! We checked the 2 large gift bags with bell services and headed on the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.

Arriving at the Magic Kingdom we came upon the largest crowds I think we have ever seen. We never travel to WDW during peak season so this was new and kind of stressful for us. We spent about 3 and a half hours in the park, rode a few rides and ate lunch at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe before heading back to the resort.

At 3pm hubby called bell services to deliver our bags to our room. I had a 4pm reception to be at and I needed to clean up and change. Bell services said 10-15 minutes, no problem…right? Well my bags finally arrived to the room at 4:20pm! I have never dressed and done my make up so fast in my life. I quickly walked to Disney’s Wedding Pavilion but, because I was so late, I missed the yummy candy buffet and the beginning of the presentation.

I was whisked to an open seat in the back of the pavilion where Michael Shettel, Vice President of Design for Alfred Angelo was introducing the Cinderella Platinum Anniversary Gown. A model enetered wearing the dress to a chorus of “Ooos” and “Aahhs”. We also heard from Carley Roney, Co-founder and Editor-In-Chief of TheKnot.com. She spoke about community and how TheKnot grew from its humble beginnings on AOL to the mega-site it is today, because of the community it built. Next was David Tutera of My Fair Wedding on WE TV. He spoke about setting your own trends not following what is already out there. Our event concluded as we witnessed a wedding vow renewal by a couple who had been married at Disney 2 years earlier. I wished I had my video recorder running because I loved what the officiant said about renewing your vows, his words were wonderful! This September hubby and I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary, what a dream it would be to renew our vows at Disney’s Wedding Pavilion.

Next we headed to the lawn between the Grand Floridian and the Wedding Pavilion where we met up with our families and enjoyed a delicious dinner buffet, great music from Main St USA, lots of catching up with friends and even carnival games for the kids! Dinner was wonderful and it was a great time to reconnect with old friends and make some new ones. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto even stopped by for some of the fun! As the party wound down several of us had the brilliant idea to hop on over to the Magic Kingdom to catch Main Street Electrical Parade, The Magic, the Memories & You and Wishes.

This was not the wisest decision we have ever made. We arrived in the park by 9pm, a full hour before the parade started and there was no room to stand anywhere on Main Street. We finally found a spot on a walkway to the left of the hub and we claimed it. We didn’t have a great view of the parade, since it goes around the hub and never comes by where we were standing but…we had a great location for The Magic, the Memories & You! which is what I wanted my family to experience. They were entranced by the beautiful show and the technology behind it. They agreed with me that Magic Kingdom has the best overall night time experience with the 3 evening shows. Due to the humongous crowd, we decided to leave before Wishes started so that we wouldn’t have to wait forever to get back on the monorail to our resort.

Wishes from the monorail

Disclosure: Although we paid for our own trip to Disney World, we were given an incredible deal thanks to Disney. The conference fee included 3 nights at the Grand Floridian, 3 dinners for my entire family, 7 day park hoppers for everyone, conference/meals for me and some other items to take home. Also note that Disney never asked us to blog about this event. As a lifelong Disney fan it is my pleasure to share my experiences from the event.

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I am linking this to OhAmanda’s Top Ten Tuesday linky.

Disclosure:  Although we paid for our own trip to Disney World, we were given an incredible deal thanks to Disney. The conference fee included 3 nights at the Grand Floridian, 3 dinners for my entire family,  7 day park hoppers for everyone, conference/meals for me and some other items to take home. Also note that Disney never asked us to blog about this event. As a lifelong Disney fan it is my pleasure to share my experiences from the event.

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I will be tweeting all weekend with hashtag #DisneySMMoms so please come join the fun on Twitter. Also, Friday’s conference will be live streamed at MomTV.com so follow @MomTV on Twitter for updates.

You can join the fun Friday night as @ResourcefulMom hosts a Twitter party live from the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa! You can RSVP for the party here.

I’ll be taking lots of pictures and video and updating my personal Facebook page as often as I can. Have a great weekend!!

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