My family and I recently visited Walt Disney World Resort and sailed on the Disney Dream as part of Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. As an invited participant, I paid a fee to attend and received promotional items from sponsors. This fee covered my stay at Walt Disney World Resort, theme park passes, most meals and a sailing on Disney Cruise Line. Although reporting as a Disney Partner, all opinions are my own.
Over my many years of blogging, I have grown a great deal. I know I have progressed in a positive way with the help of Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. Disney has a magical way of teaching us lessons through entertainment. The Disney Social Media Moms Celebration is an annual invite-only event. Attendees are a mixture of influencers that are huge Disney fans and influencers that know very little about Disney. All the influencers have one thing in common – family focus. The influencers are selected by Disney to help tell the world all that is happening in Mickey’s magical world. If you are ever given the opportunity to attend, don’t miss it.
Disney Social Media Moms Celebration – The Most Magical Social Media Conference of the Year was a land and sea event this year. We experienced all that Walt Disney World has to offer before heading to Port Canaveral to board the Disney Dream for a few days of cruising!
I told you a few months back that I would be attending the event this year – I’ll Be Heading to Disney Social Media Moms Celebration 2018. I was super excited. I was counting down the days. This year’s event was everything I hoped it would be and more! I’m always over-the-moon, super excited when it comes to Disney and I get totally and completely breathless when I get one of those pixie dusted email invitations to attend an event at Disney. Although I share all travel information here on An Open Suitcase, Disney is often the focus of my posts because I want everyone to love visiting Disney too! I have been visiting Walt Disney World Resort since the 1970’s – when the Magic Kingdom was all there was. That is when my love for everything Disney started. My children grew up as “Disney kids”, and my grandchildren are now growing up the same way. Disney is a huge part of our family in every way. My grandson, at age one, is getting ready for his third visit to WDW!
The magic of Disney is sometimes hard to describe. It is feeling your inner child rush right up to the surface, no matter how old you are. After all these years I still get a rush of emotion when I see Cinderella Castle at the end of Main Street or when I see my children sharing some of their favorite Disney memories with their children. Everything smells better. Everything feels happier. There is an over-whelming feeling of safety when we are in the Disney bubble.
Over the years, as WDW grew and expanded, I would sometimes feel sad. For some odd reason I want WDW to stay the way it was when I was young, or at the very least the way it was when my kids were young. It took me quite a long time to embrace the growth and the changes that seemed to be happening all the time. Now, in many ways, thanks to Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, I look forward to each new change and the growth that gives me more and more reasons to love Disney and more reasons to continue to visit as often as possible.
The Disney Social Media Moms Celebration is part learning about all the new and exciting attractions and events on the horizon, sharing that information, learning from Disney experts all about content creation and celebrating family. I have often said that no one hosts a party like Disney hosts a party and the 2018 DisneySMMC was no exception.
DisneySMMC is a conference for bloggers/social media influencers who not only learn about all that will be coming to Disney, they also get professional advice from a range of speakers from Disney’s PR and Social Media team and from national companies. The event is part press junket and part celebration that includes your family. I came away feeling as if I learned quite a bit. At the same time I felt a sense of “WOW! – I’m doing lots of things right!” What a great feeling!
Through the entire conference, on both land and sea, the focus was on family – creating and sharing special memories!
We saw parts of upcoming movies (I can’t wait for Christopher Robin and Mary Poppins Returns!) and heard updated information on the newest attractions and hotels and I will be sharing as much of this information as I can over the next few weeks.
Photo Credit: Disney Photographer Alex Mirabal
We experienced sunrise breakfast in Pandora the World of Avatar . . .
Enjoyed a Pixar Dinner Party . . .
and a Star Wars Breakfast . . .
and one of the best sail away parties ever!
The experiences and information are still a bit over-whelming!
DID YOU KNOW?
Each guest visiting the new Star Wars-inspired hotel coming to Walt Disney World Resort will board a starship alive with characters and stories that unfold during their voyage through the galaxy – and every window has a view of space. The resort will be seamlessly connected to the highly anticipated Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and will allow guests a complete Star Wars experience.
On Earth Day, April 22, 2018, Disney’s Animal Kingdom will debut “UP! A Great Bird Adventure,” a brand-new show featuring Russell and Dug from the Disney Pixar animated comedy adventure film “UP.” The show will give guests the chance to see Senior Wilderness Explorer Russell and his fuzzy friend Dug in a new adventure that includes encounters with exotic birds from around the world.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will transport guests to a remote trading port on the edge of space, where Star Wars characters and their stories come to life. The land will open at both Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California in 2019.
The opening of Toy Story Land is right around the corner! Eleven fun-filled acres, where everyone will enjoy two all-new attractions and one expanded favorite. Guests will whoosh along on a family-friendly roller coaster behind Slinky Dog, take a spin with flying saucers in toy spaceships and score high on the midway!
Through the Magic of Storytelling Campaign you can share a Shelfie! Disney will donate one book for every “shelfie” – a selfie photo with a favorite book or in front of a bookshelf—shared on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #MagicOfStorytelling.
OUR EMCEES
I have experienced several Disney events with these two individuals acting as hosts. Each time I am awed by how well they work together – how well they get everyone in the room excited – how much they make you feel welcomed. Leanne O’Regan, Director, Communications and PR, Walt Disney World Resort and Mark M. Daniel, Host (iNside Disney Parks) Comedian – all around nice guy who has a great way of making everyone laugh!
WHO WE HEARD FROM
Bob Chapek, Chairmen Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Terry Cox, Manager, Disney Search Engine Marketing
David Roark, Manager of Creative Photography at Walt Disney World Resort
Amy Stanford, Senior Editor, Babble
KRISTIN BURR, Producer “Christopher Robin“
John Breckow, Director of Corporate Citizenship for Walt Disney Parks & Resorts
Tom Warburton- Producer, “Muppet Babies”
- George Kalongridis, President, Walt Disney World Resort
- Bob Hitchcock– Disney Parks Editorial Content Director
- Alex Ruiz- Senior Manager, Digital Content Development
- Tom Smith, Editorial Content Director, Founder of the Disney Parks Blog
- Vera Sweeney (Alamo Presenter), Founder of Lady and the Blog
- Ashley Eckstein, Founder, Her Universe
- Sharon Siskie- Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy
THE SPONSORS
- Alamo – #Alamo #AlamoDriveHappy
- GoGoSqueeZ – #GoGoSqueeZ
- Fresh Express – #FreshExpress
- Joffrey Coffee – #Joffreys
- BabyBel – #BabyBel #MiniBabyBel
- American Tourister –
#AmericanTourister#ATSpinnermoves - Huggies – Huggies
- H20+ Beauty – #H20Beauty
TAKE AWAYS FROM PREVIOUS DISNEYSMMC’s I ATTENDED
Over my many years of blogging, I have grown a great deal. I know I have progressed in a positive way. Today I went back and read some of the posts I wrote after attending previous conferences. Reading those posts I realized that much of my growth as a blogger is due to my attendance at DisneySMMC.
What I Learned About MYSELF at Disney Social Media Moms Celebration 2015 – #DisneySMMC – We are never fully FREE of who we are but it’s o.k. to just be you! I am what I am and that’s all that I am!
Disney Social Media Moms Celebration – Be Inspired! #DisneySMMC – Be Inspired! No matter how confident or self-assured we are in what we do, there are always many, many others that know more, are much better at it that we can learn from. At the same time there are those less confident and less self-assured that we can help and support. There is always something to learn, to absorb, to understand better. I came away Inspired!
Disney Social Media Moms Celebration – 3 Months Later – I’m Still Inspired! – I was determined to focus on what I had learned at the conference from other bloggers and from the many wonderful speakers. I was still absorbing much of what I heard and saw but set some goals and timelines for myself. I decided to give myself 3 months to tackle 2 goals. At the end of the first 3 months I would set 2 new goals and slowly work my way through the list of things I was inspired to take on. 3 months sounds like a long time but believe me when life gets in the way, and you have set a timeline you are determined to stick to – 3 months flies by in a second! Knowing myself I knew that I could only focus on one or two things at a time. I am still – 3 months later – DETERMINED and INSPIRED!
