Disney Social Media Moms Celebration - Day 1

So, after telling the kids the exciting news the night before...we were headed to Walt Disney World bright and early the next day! We caught an early flight that arrived 30 minutes early (which meant that much more time in the parks).

We took the Magical Express to our resort for this trip, Disney's Polynesian Resort. We have never stayed there and I was super excited to stay at a hotel that was on the monorail line...another first for me!

After checking in, we received leis from the front desk and were instructed on where to find the hospitality suite for the conference. Once we found it, I checked in for the event, received my credentials, and a whole lotta swag (more about that in another post). The credentials were very important...they were our ticket into all of the special events and conference sessions. I felt very important, let me tell you!

Our room was not ready, so we checked some of our bags with the bell stand and headed over to the Magic Kingdom to play for several hours until we needed to be back for our first event that night.

We saw Mickey and Minnie, rode Goofy's Barnstormer (Max's favorite) and the Teacups (Cate's favorite). Cate got to meet Ariel while Max rode Big Thunder Mountain with Matt (Cate was not tall enough, and in my condition, I couldn't).

Once we had done all of that, we headed back to the hotel to see our room, freshen up and relax a bit before catching the bus to the ESPN Wide World of Sports for a Media Press conference of some new and exciting things coming to WDW and Tailgate Party.

It was rather surreal to be considered "press" for the press conference. I just flashed the aforementioned credentials and walked right in! Very cool! While I attended the press conference, the kids and Matt got to play various sports at the complex with the rest of the families!

After the press conference ended, we met back up with our families and headed to one of the field houses there on the complex for a "tailgate party". They had buffets full of food like hot dogs, burgers, wings, peanuts, cotton candy, etc. Once the party got started and we had eaten our fill of good food, I got a text from one of my virtual Disney Peeps telling me where a bunch of them were seated.

With butterflies in my stomach, I headed down among the crowd to find this group of ladies that I only knew from their twitter profile pics...hoping I would find them. This would be my first time to meet them in real life! I soon recognized one of them and hesitantly pointed to her with a look on my face that might say, "Are you Traci?" She immediately saw me and recognized me and we hugged and then the introductions began.


Traci - @TraciLeigh on Twitter
Jennifer - @DizneyDreamer on Twitter
Amanda - @AmandaTinney on Twitter
Debbie - @dcanoli on Twitter
J.L. - @NDM_1 on Twitter
Jackie - @jjzmgailey on Twitter
Lynne - @Lynne_from_texa on Twitter
Cathy - @MomMaven on Twitter

click on their names to go to their blogs

After several pics and laughs and exchange of stories from the day, I texted Matt and told him where to join us. Their table was right by the dance stage and all the kids were having a blast. Ours quickly joined in with Max doing the "air guitar" and Cate shaking her little rump! They also got to meet some characters all dressed in sports gear.

After an exhausting evening, we headed back to the Polynesian to get some much needed rest. Day 2 was promising to be a full one!