Mickey's Magical Trip Tips

I moved my blog!

2011-03-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

My blog has a different location now, I decided to move over to Wordpress. Please check it out at http://www.jackiesmagicalmoments.com

Thanks and see you over there!

Breyers Sundae Scoop-Off Contest!

2010-09-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

Breyers® is in search of the next great sundae with the Sundae Scoop-Off Contest and you have a chance to win! From now through September 13, 2010, the Sundae Scoop-Off Contest is challenging America to create original, family-friendly ice cream sundae recipes including 10 or fewer ingredients. View complete contest requirements and enter the recipes at www.breyers.com for a chance to win $10,000, a trip to Chicago featuring a private cooking lesson with renowned pasty Chef Gale Gand and one year of FREE Breyers® ice cream. The sundae recipe entries will be judged on taste, creativity, use of Breyers® ice cream and presentation.

This posting is on behalf of Breyers & I may receive a product as a result of this post.

Wouldn't it be magical...

2010-05-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

...if you had your very own magic wand?

Watch the video above about how one little girl makes her dreams come true!

Be sure to go to http://rayovac.com/disneyvacation to enter the sweepstakes where you could win a trip for four to your choice of the Disneyland or Walt Disney World Resort!

2010-03-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

When we arrived at World Showplace, I was in awe! I couldn't believe we were fortunate enough to be involved with such an amazing event. There were lots of people already seated & we followed the signs to the media section. A woman holding the Disney Social Media Moms sign said "follow me", so Lynne & I followed her over to the other side of the room where we were seated along with Kristen right in the very front row!!

The entire stage was surrounded with white balloons & a colored Mickey balloon every so often:

The Jammitors came out & did a performance for us:

Tom Staggs, Chairman of Walt Disney World Parks & Resorts, came out & spoke to us & also had a little chat with special guest, Kermit the Frog!

Then Ty Pennington from ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition came out & spoke to us about volunteering:

It was awesome because he took out his megaphone & asked us all to help him say "move those balloons" & when we did, they all raised up to the ceiling

& revealed an unbelievable structure made up of more than 115,000 cans! I wasn't able to get a fabulous shot of the structure with my camera because of everything going on in front of us, but if you check out the Disney Parks Blog, you can watch the video of it being assembled!

It was such a treat to be present for the unveiling of this structure! I found the props around the park to be a big treat as well, Disney always does things BIG!

2010-02-16T17:12:00.000-08:00

Our 2nd day was an early one! We needed to be down at the front of the Polynesian Resort by 7:30am for our special bus transportation to EPCOT. Thank goodness for Jennifer being an early-riser because she went & filled mine & Debbie's coffee mugs for us so we'd have it as soon as we opened our eyes! Those of you who know me, know that I need my coffee first thing! :) Thanks, Jen!

So, with coffee in our tummies, we headed down to the lobby, boarded our bus, & off to EPCOT we went. I had absolutely no idea that we would be entering the park through a back 'secret' entrance. It was so cool to see behind all of the countries from our bus!

We ended up entering the park right alongside of the American Adventure Pavillion where a wonderful breakfast buffet was set up for us in the Rotunda. There was quiche, roasted potatoes, fresh fruit, pastries, yogurt with granola, & the list goes on. Everything was amazing, well, except for the coffee, it was lukewarm! I think they filled the pots a little too early! LOL! We only got our first cup poured for us until I decided to grab a pot off the waiter's tray & pass it around our table! It was so funny because Melissa even tweeted that I was her hero for doing that! :)

Our speaker for that morning was Guy Kawasaki. He is the co-founder of Alltop.com, & also a founding partner of Garage Technology Ventures. Guy was very fun to listen to because he shared his thoughts on Twitter & shared how he uses it as a marketing weapon. He, like me, didn't understand the purpose of twitter at first, like why would anyone care that someone is standing in a long line at Starbucks? He showed us how to do searches so you can see what everyone is saying about anything you are interested in. It's truly amazing!

After breakfast, we all walked together to World Showplace, a huge room for special events, located between the United Kingdom & Canada Pavillions.

I'll talk about what we did there in my next post! :)

2010-02-15T11:51:00.000-08:00

When I think back on all of the wonderful experiences I had during the last week, it warms my heart to know that people I interact with using various forms of social media co-hosted the events with Walt Disney World! I am honored to be in touch with these wonderful moms & would like to thank them for their help in putting on such an amazing event!

Thank you Janice & Susan from 5 Minutes for Mom because without you ladies, I would not have been invited to attend!

Thank you also to Amy Lupold Blair with Resourceful Mommy Media, I'm so glad that you & your family made it down despite all the weather issues! Thanks to Jennifer James with Mom Bloggers Club, & Maria Bailey with Mom Select too.

It was truly an honor to meet & interact with all of you ladies!

2010-02-14T21:36:00.000-08:00

I'm going to veer off of my personal Disney story to tell you about the most fabulous event I just attended. I was lucky enough to be invited to Disney's very first Social Media Moms Celebration at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL.

Social Media has recently become a very important & successful way of communicating for businesses all around the world. I had the opportunity to hear some very influential people speak about their social media experiences, both personal & professional. I'll talk about each one in future posts.

The first event of the 3-day celebration was a tailgate party at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. I had heard of this but had no idea that it was so big! It was a real treat to see it. We got to learn about what was up & coming for the complex. Very exciting! Here is a video covering the relaunch! We also learned more about the upcoming Fantasyland expansion including the Electric Light Parade move! I'm so very excited about it!

We had a great dinner of hamburgers & hot dogs & all the trimmings. We played & interacted with fellow mommy-bloggers & their families as well as with several Disney characters all dressed up in their sports attire.

We met & chatted with Leanne Jakubowski, Director of Social Media at the Walt Disney World Resort. Below is a picture of me, Minnie, Traci, Leanne, Debbie, & Jennifer down in front!

We also were able to meet one of my personal idols, Laura Spencer, another Social Media Manager at the Walt Disney World Resort. I asked Laura my very first question way back at the beginning of 2008 when the Walt Disney World Mom's Panel made its debut & find it fascinating that she is now in charge of the panel! Here is a picture of Lynne, Debbie, Traci, JL, Laura, me & Jennifer.

This was just the beginning of what was in store for us! Leanne & Laura did such an amazing job of planning this spectacular event for us! Thank you! :)

2010-01-25T19:54:00.001-08:00

I did a little bit more digging & found a pic of Molly inside of It's a Small World & she was just mesmorized by the whole thing. Look at her face:

And I found one more princess picture, this time, our little princess was awake for it but she wasn't too sure what to think, so I had to jump into the picture with them. This was her first character interaction! It was really fun & this Snow White was just beautiful!

It's such a treat to find these old pics! Having these wonderful experiences & seeing them through the eyes of my children is what has made Disney such a special vacation for our family every single time we go!

People often ask me why I'm not tired of Disney vacations yet & I just laugh...I could never get tired of something so wonderful! How about you? What keeps your family returning to Disney year after year?

2010-01-23T23:02:00.001-08:00

This first trip to Disneyland was such a treasure & the start of many wonderful Disney vacations to come.

I'm going to give you a little bit of history here to start. My mom used to fly down with my brother [who is 13 years younger than me] to California every so often to visit my Grandma. They would go to Disneyland & play after dinner sometimes. Their routine was that they always rode It's A Small World first thing. My mom absolutely LOVES that ride! It is her very favorite! Here is a picture that I absolutely treasure:

This is my mom, holding Molly looking at It's A Small World for the very first time! You can just see the wonder & amazement in Molly's eyes as she watches what is happening...she didn't know what to think! Look at the wonderful smile on my mom's face too! She was so excited to see this & sharing it with her grandchildren was awesome & just such a sweet moment!

Zach was such a prince on this trip too! Molly, being only 2, napped quite a bit during our park-touring time & it just so happened that when the princesses were all out in their places around the Sleeping Beauty Castle, she was napping! So, Zach very modestly said that since it was so important to me that we got autographs & pics of them all, he would step in & take the pictures...FOR ME! What a great sport! :)

First with Cinderella

Then with Belle

Then with Sleeping Beauty

And finally with Ariel in her Grotto

It was very fun & we just loved how much attention each princess gave to him & were so excited to see him! It was cute because every one of them told him how cool it was that he was doing this for his sister & his mom! :)

My first Wordless Wednesday!

2009-12-29T23:32:00.000-08:00

2009-12-29T14:53:00.000-08:00

I was organizing some pictures from one of the old computers & found a couple of cute ones of the kids getting ready to go on their very first trip to Disneyland! Very fun! Zach's cheesy grin says it all & Molly just wanted to get in the suitcase & go ~ some things still haven't changed, LOL!

2009-12-28T10:12:00.000-08:00

Sometime during the spring of 2003, we were sitting with the family discussing how my husband & I & our 2 kids (ages 1 & 5 at that time) were going to go to NYC for a couple weeks that summer for my half-sister Staci's sweet sixteen party. Now, let me first tell you that I am not an airplane person at all...never really have been. So, when my mom heard me say that we were going to New York, she said, "you're getting on an airplane?" I told her that my step-mom, Mindy, (may she rest in peace) convinced me to bring the kids out because we'd get to see everyone & Staci really would love us to be at her party. My mom right away said that we needed to go to Disneyland with the kids if I was willing to get on an airplane, to which I totally agreed! :)

So, she called her travel agent the very next day & booked a trip for us all to go down for President's Week. The travel agent booked everything for us. I wasn't involved in any of the planning at all, which is unbelievable to me now! There were 7 of us total. It was me, my husband, our 5 year old son, our 2 year old daughter, my mom, my step-dad, & my brother. We didn't have any dining reservations at all. All we knew was that we were staying at the Disneyland Hotel in connecting rooms that had a kitchenette & living room in between the bedrooms. We were flying into the John Wayne airport & had the Super Shuttle arranged to take us from the airport to the resort & back to the airport at the end of our trip.

We really didn't know much of anything about the resort or the park itself except for what we'd seen on the Disneyland website, which was nothing like it is today. We had a few questions for the travel agent here & there but she was not very helpful at all. It was rather interesting because she acted like she couldn't be bothered most of the time when we called. I was not really sure why this was the case but we were still excited nonetheless & pretty much had no idea of what to expect.

We had a rather interesting experience in dining without any reservations. It was practically impossible to get in to any sit down restaurant. Everywhere we went had a sign up that they were not taking walk-in diners. So, needless to say, we just did the best we could & ate whatever we could find until we stumbled upon Granville's Steak House (which is now Steakhouse 55) near the lobby of the Disneyland Hotel. We decided, on our 3rd day, that we needed to have breakfast at a restaurant instead of instant oatmeal in our room. Boy, are we glad we did that! Our server's name was Ashley & she was awesome. Not only was she a great server, but she gave us all sorts of tips about how to tour the parks. As soon as she figured out that we didn't have a clue about what we should be doing, she started telling us about fascinating things that you would never know about or even think to ask. It was so cool & we just loved it! We actually wanted her to just leave work & come spend the rest of our vacation with us. I could tell that she had a passion about her workplace like no one I'd ever known. We enjoyed a couple more meals there just so we could hang out with Ashley more & pick her brain! Oh yah, the food was amazing too & very reasonably priced! We really thought it would be cool to eat next door at Goofy's Kitchen so she helped us get a reservation for the following morning. We were very excited & the kids had a fabulous time!

2009-11-07T22:52:00.000-08:00

I would like to apologize for the delay in posting as I have been very busy trying to figure out where to start. After several weeks of pondering, I decided a great place to start my Magical Trip Tips would be at the beginning of my so-called Obsessive Compulsive Disney Disorder (OCDD)!

It is sort of funny that I have developed such an extreme obsession for Disney in the last 5 years or so. I didn't grow up going to Disney on a regular basis, in fact, I only went to Disneyland for an afternoon once as a child when I was about 12. The only memory that stands out in my mind from that trip was that I rode Pirates of the Caribbean with my grandma to "test it out" for my parents & my then 6 month old baby brother. I can remember being so excited about the ride when I came out of it because I had never experienced anything like it in my life. I had been on rides before at Coney Island but never anything like Pirates. I was in complete awe...the sights...the smells...it was all truly amazing! I remember coming out of the ride & telling my parents, it was amazing...you'll absolutely love it. All 4 of us got in the line & boarded our boat. They absolutely loved it until we went down the first drop. I seriously thought my mom was going to lose it because she screamed that she almost dropped my brother! Then came the second drop...oh, the horror! Next, we had a wonderful, mellow, enjoyable ride on It's A Small World so it was all good in the end. Anyway, I guess you could say that I was never in a huge hurry to go back any time soon.

I very distinctly remember the feeling of euphoria I had within me when I exited Pirates for the very first time. I was so mesmerized by that ride & tucked that memory away only to be taken out at a later time in my life when I could see the joy it brought to my own children.

Introduction

2009-10-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, my name is Jackie. I am wife to my pirate & mom to two fabulous children. We truly enjoy vacationing together as a family, especially to Disneyland & Walt Disney World! It's so funny because everyone who knows me, knows that I can help them with their trip to Disneyland or Walt Disney World. I have studied the parks on many different blogs and websites for years learning all about what Disney has to offer, from resorts to dining to park touring. My number one tip for first time visitors is to take things slow and let the magic happen. There are so many wonderful things to see everywhere and you cannot possibly see it all in one trip. Take it easy & enjoy every single little thing! You may find something you didn't know existed at all!

I decided to create this blog because I've read about so many families who have spent a whole bunch of money on their Disney vacation & felt like they didn't get everything out of it that they had hoped for. We were veteran Disneyland visitors way back when & I was completely overwhelmed when I first started to research our first trip to Walt Disney World. There are so many choices & options with four different theme parks, resorts, dining, & park tickets that it can be overwhelming at first. My goal is to help you understand the planning & how it is such a very important part of your vacation ~ even for all of you who like to fly by the seat of your pants!

I hope you enjoy my blog & if there is anything in particular you're curious about, please feel free to let me know!