Photo: Janice Croze Photography
I was recently invited to attend the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration in Walt Disney World, Florida. I was honoured to be amongst a handful of other Canadians and about 150 American parent bloggers in attendance. The Celebration is truly that, not only a conference where Disney provides us with inspiration and educational presentations by well known authors, speakers and celebrities, but also a family-focused and FUN weekend that is all Disney. If you’d like to read about the speakers and what I learned about Social Media from the Disney Parks team, check out my posts on Entrepreneur Mom Now over the next couple of weeks.
While we learned about many Disney brands and were exposed to so much ‘behind the scenes’ at the parks over the weekend, these five things were the things that stuck out most for me:
1 | Disney Infinity
Disney is releasing a new gaming experience this August that will work across all platforms and will be controlled by actual Disney character ‘fobs’ that will drive your experience within the game. You can actually create your own worlds within the game! Everything from the environment and stories to characters. It looks and sounds like it will be fantastic and very creative. Follow Infinity Disney Infinity Facebook Community Twitter (twitter.com/disneyinfinity) Instagram (instagram.com/disneyinfinity).
Check out this game preview:
2 | Disney Story App
Download the new free iPhone App by Disney called Story. It’s the coolest way to share a collection of photos. Not only can you easily post and share to Facebook, you can also embed your Story, as below! The app intuitively gathers your photos from your photo stream on your phone by date, and puts them together for you. You can easily edit, crop, add text and more.
3 | Disney Magic of Healthy Living
“Making the default meal healthier means people have to think about the unhealthy options and ask for them.” Disney has pioneered a new standard for food advertising to kids, the first ever major media company to do anything about food marketing to minors. This means two things: a. The Disney Parks meal options for kids always offer a healthy side; and b. their licensing guidelines for what they’ll allow their logos and characters appear on have changed and are promoting healthier options with the ‘Mickey Check’. Of course in Canada we don’t see as many licensed character food products, but when you’re visiting a Disney Park for a few days it sure is nice to see something other than hot dogs offered for kids meals. All food advertised, sponsored and promoted by Disney will meet nutrition guidelines by 2015 (including TV, Toys and Radio). Visit www.disney.com/tryit for more details.
4 | Monsters University hits theaters June 21!
Check out the Monsters University movie – it releases next month! We were treated to a top secret screening of the movie and while I’m not allowed to share anything about the movie, I can say it was entertaining and a fun family movie, not to be missed! Here is the official trailer:
5 | The Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World
Photo: dleithinger on Flickr
If you’re heading to Walt Disney World, I highly recommend the Contemporary Resort Hotel. Not only is it sleek and modern, but the fact that it’s the first stop on the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom, makes it a no brainer for me. When my family heads to Disney (typically Disneyland) we like to take breaks mid-day, and be really close to the park to minimize walking as much as possible. The Contemporary has an amazing pool with water-slide, huge hot tub, a beach, lake, water sports and boats to the park. At night, you can watch a Disney Movie outside on their manicured grounds and watch the electrical water parade in the lake. Mine was a standard room but would have easily accommodated my entire family of 5 as it had two queen beds and a pull out couch! Those of you with a family of 5 will agree, it’s not always easy to find hotels that can host us all in one room, so that is a big deal for me.
A few general tips for visiting Disney parks:
- It’s huge, it can be overwhelming, especially for the kids. Don’t try to do it all in one trip – you simply can’t.
- If there is one thing I witness every time we go to Disney parks, it is many, many overtired children. Make sure your kids are still getting a full night’s rest otherwise it simply won’t be as much fun – for them or for you.