Mom gone wild

Don't get too excited, in my social circle a mom-gone-wild is is a woman that will don a hot pink jacket, carry around pictures of her kids and spout of to anyone and everyone that she's a DISNEY MOM.

It may not seem wild to anyone else, but honestly I'm actually a rather shy person. I'm not a big talker to those that I don't know. I don't typically interject my opinions into others conversations, I simply prefer to be an observer. So when there is"something" out there that can make me do the polar opposite of all those things, there is no other way to describe it than wild. Disney is that "something", it turns me to a Mom Gone Wild. I have the pink coat to prove it.

My latest adventure started with a phone call from Orlando. It was sometime in January, and it was an offer to come back down to Orlando to represent the Moms Panel during the Walt Disney World Resort Showcase. I didn't give it a seconds thought before I eagerly accepted. Still no clue what the "resort showcase" is, or how I'm specifically supposed to "represent" the Moms Panel, or when I'm supposed to be there...but I'm in, I'll be there...pink coat and all.

If you know me, you'll probably laugh at my eagerness to jet off on a whim. Spontaneity is not my forte. I am a girl that can't run down to Target if I hadn't scheduled it out four days in advance. So when I committed to going it must have been my inner confidence in my supportive husband, my amazing kids, and understanding co-workers.

Before I knew it I was headed back down to Orlando. We were booked at Saratoga Springs Resort, and I had just been there a little over a week prior with my family. I think this made it much easier to leave the kids this time, simply because we had just been there on vacation.

My flight arrive almost 1/2 hour early! I swear I didn't mention to the pilot that I had made a pedicure appointment for that afternoon at Saratoga Springs Spa and that if the plane was one minute late I wouldn't make it on time and have to cancel . Honest.

I called up fellow Mom Jennifer W. she would be my partner in crime this week as we kicked off the 2009 Moms Panel PR tour. She was not that far ahead of me in here travels, and in no time we were both checked in and lounging at the hospitality suite. Here we received our "media" credentials, itinerary and a bag full of goodies. For the record, I did make my pedicure appointment and it was wonderful!

So did you catch that, we had"media" credentials. It might help if I explain a bit what it was that we were doing there. I'll be honest, I didn't fully understand the role until we actually got to be there and was able to experience it. The Resort Showcase is a PR event that Disney Parks sponsors where they invite radio media from all over the world to come and broadcast from Walt Disney World. Disney offers them access to different Disney executives and representatives as interview subjects. They also provide tours and perks to the members of the media so they can really experience all that Disney has to offer. So our purpose for being there was really two fold. We were there to represent the Moms Panel, and were hoping to have opportunities to talk to any media that would listen about who us "Moms" are and what it is that we actually do. Secondly we were there as media, this enabled us to participate in all of the tours and events which gave us access to various Disney representatives. This was an excellent opportunity for us to gain more useful information to use when answering questions for the Moms Panel.

That evening Jennifer and I met up with our Moms Panel leaders, Leanne and Laura. We had dinner at the Flying Fish Cafe' which was a first for me. The food was excellent and the company was even better. I was a wonderfully relaxed meal and in the whole era of social media and the technology it's built on, it really felt great to get to connect "live" with Leanne and Laura again.

Our next day was wonderfully full and perfectly planned. It started with repeat tours of the Caribbean Beach Resort and All Star Suites. We had done this back in December, but honestly this time the tour was much more valuable because we knew what questions to ask. We now had the advantage having actually viewed and answer the questions on the panel, so we could hunt for the answers that we knew the guests are asking. One thing we hadn't done is toured the new Tree House Villas at Saratoga Spring. Let me just say WOW. They are nearing completion, and although they were not furnished at the time I can tell they are going to be a hot commodity as soon as they open. Each villa has it's own barbecue grill From the nice deck looking at the entrance

I think this was the master bedroom.

Master Bath - the shower/tub area was very cool!

Main kitchen areas. Notice all the beautiful sunlight!

We returned to Saratoga Springs to try our hand at giving radio interviews. We were scheduled with WMJX out of Boston and WALK out of Long Island, NY. This is a lot of just waiting, watching and being prepared as soon as they are ready for you. I loved just seeing the whole radio process, I found it fascinating. The interviews went extremely well (in our minds) and were amazingly FUN. The radio hosts were so easy going and really just helped us through the whole process. Still no word if anyone actually heard us...but we are out there in radioland, somewhere.

One of the radio booths.

Next we moved on to he Hanes Design-A-Tee media opportunity at their new location at Downtown Disney. This was simply a great way for us to get to experience the product and what the guests can and will expect when they come here. We made cute little shirts to commemorate our trip.The design kiosk

Up close shot of the screen - that is our shirt!

Once you submit your shirt, it is displayed in order of production status on the monitors.The final step is taking your mini-t and putting it in this machine to be zoomed off to production land!

After that we were escorted to the.... FREEZE.

It just dawned on me that I'm talking about going here and there, and doing this and that....but I haven't even mentioned our MVP of the week, Jennifer Mason. Jennifer works for Disney and was assigned to be our "handler" for the week. She was responsible for keeping us on track and shuttling us to each and every place/event we were to attend. I will not lie when I say that I think Jennifer W. and I got the absolute best of the bunch. Jennifer was so kind, funny, and easy going. She has two young children of her own, so she really seemed to get us "Moms" and what it was like for us to be here.... UNFREEZE

...Goofy's Candy Co. shop where we got to view the birthday party room and all of the things that the parties include. We were treated to a goofy glacier (like a slushy), in a make your own cup.

Jennifer and I displaying the princess party favors Display of the princess table setting
Pin the cherry on the sundae.

It was getting to be about the time we needed to head over to Disney's Animal Kingdom to meet up with another fellow Mom, Margaret. Margaret was in Orlando celebrating her husbands birthday so the three of us got together and offered our services to film a "how to" video for the website. I won't lie and say that it was much easier this time. It was still hard to really put yourself out there...but thankfully we got some great advice and pointers and I hope we were able to coherently get our message across. We haven't seen the video but when you do you'll clearly see that: it really lights up, there are chicken fritters available, and you can even hear the Dinosaurs. Job well done ladies, it's a wrap!

Are you still with me? I know this post is getting painfully long and I'm trying my best to wrap it up...but truth be told it's not gonna happen with one entry. Aside from the fact that this has gone on way longer than I anticipated....I have kids to tend to. I've already let them get away with far to much as I sit here and pluck at the keys. So in an attempt to not completely lose my mind when I acknowledge that my house is a disaster, kids are still up and I still have to prepare for tomorrow and I'm going to wrap this up for the day...soon. So bear with me just a little while longer and I'll give you a well deserved rest.

Okay, so on to the next phase of our day - dinner. Our meal this evening was planned at Mickey's Backyard BBQ over at Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground. This was also a first for me and I was super excited about getting to tour the cabins. They are very nice, and again we knew enough to catch the managers ear so we could relay some panel questions and jot down the detailed answers. I can't tell you how helpful it is when you can actually talk to a person....a person that is not sitting in a cubicle jungle no where even close to Orlando.

Anyhow the dinner experience wasn't quite what I expected, but then again I didn't know what to expect because (shhhhhhhh) I have never even researched or considered this venue before. The food was excellent, and the entertainment was good...although the music and acoustics were very loud. I most enjoyed seeing the children have a blast dancing with the characters. It certainly made me miss my own even more.

It was a fairly early evening by "Moms Panel at Disney World" standards. From our prior experience we had learned that if you got to be before midnight you should consider yourself lucky! We had another well planned day ahead of us and I was happy to catch some sleep.

Now I will pause so I can take care of all the things I mentioned a few paragraphs above. Stay tuned!