ATC on Location: Disney Social Media Moms

Last week, we attended the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration at Disneyland. Boy, does Disney know how to throw a party. From the moment we stepped into registration, the surprises started coming and they didn’t stop!! We picked up our itinerary and went right over to meet Donald!

We stayed at the beautiful Disneyland Hotel, just a short walk from the parks and Downtown Disney was outside our doorstep.

The first night we were treated to a yummy dinner in the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree sponsored by the Magic of Healthy Living. My husband and I were thrilled by the healthy options we found in the restaurants of the Disneyland Resort. Kids meals came with fruit and veggies instead of fries, water instead of soda, whole grains and healthy proteins instead of fried foods. I love how Disney is committed to making healthy food fun for kids! (And, after a healthy dinner, you can indulge in dessert, right?) The dinner was not only yummy, but we had so much fun exploring and learning and catching up with some old friends….

The next day, my family headed off to the parks while I headed down to the conference. The line up of speakers was – as usual for Disney – inspiring. There were a few Disney insiders who inspired us with stories and behind the scenes looks at the magic of Disney, like Tom Staggs-Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Jay Ward-Creative Director at Pixar. But we also heard from speakers like Maxine Clark-Founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop, Doug Bowman-Creative Director of Twitter, and Donald Driver-Former NFL player for the GreenBay Packers…just to name a few! The day was packed and I left inspired and slightly jittery from too much yummy coffee. (Note to self: do not sit at the table next to the coffee next time you are at a conference.)

My family obviously missed me a ton. You can see how little fun they were having while I was at the conference.

As I joined my family that evening at Cars Land, I had so much fun sharing all of the insider information and trivia I had learned from the conference. Like how Cars Land is patterned exactly like the layout of Radiator Springs in the movie. And that – if you go there at dusk – you can see the lighting of the neon!

We spent most of that night in Cars Land and enjoying California Adventure. This was the first trip we’ve taken to a Disney Park when our whole family was tall enough for all of the rides. Colin even braved the Tower of Terror!! (His verdict: It was fun! But I don’t want to go again. 😉

Saturday morning, we had a special breakfast with Disney Junior. Colin was THRILLED to meet Jake! We got a special treat in honor of Disney Junior’s new Get a Book, Give a Book campaign – we got to have storytime with Levar Burton and David Arquette (voice of Skully on Jake and the Never Land Pirates), Ariel Winter (voice of Sofia on Sofia the First), and Tim Gunn (voice of Baileywick on Sofia the First)! How awesome is that? Shortly after that, we had a special preview of Malificant and got a special visit from Elle Fanning (who plays Aurora).

Then the entire conference was treated to a special preview of Disney Nature’s new feature film, Bears, about a year in the life of two baby bears and their mama. (Go see it this week and Disney will donate to the National Park Foundation! We’re totally going again 🙂

photo via Disney Nature

We spent the day at Disneyland, riding all of our favorite rides….

Only pausing briefly for lunch with our  GoGo squeeZ.  That evening we had another special dinner in ToonTown sponsored by  GoGo squeeZ. Lots of healthy options and yummy food. And some more old friends 🙂

Sunday morning, I had to skip the fun run with @RunDisney, as my husband left the conference early. But the kids and I went over for a special breakfast in Cars Land! After Colin practically swallowing his breakfast whole, we were on the rides! Honestly, the trip was totally worth it JUST to come to Cars Land! I’m so glad we came here while he was still in his Car-obsessed stage of childhood!

We came home exhausted with tired feet. Which is always a sign of a successful Disney trip!!

A HUGE thank you to Disneyland, Disney’s social media team, and to all of the sponsors for putting on such an incredible event. They really went above and beyond to make the event special and to give our families memories that will last a lifetime. Every time I visit, I leave a bigger Disney fan than when I came. We really had a magical time – and we’re already planning for our next trip back!!

Disclosure: We were invited to attend the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. While our conference reflected a discount, but we paid for our own trip. All opinions are my own.