2018 #DSMMC Day One Recap: Pixar Dinners and Princess Dreams

Want to know what happens at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration? Join me for the 2018 #DSMMC Day One Recap where I shared a dance floor (sort of) with Pixar characters and ALMOST spent the night in Cinderella’s castle!

 I was invited to attend the 2018 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration at a discounted media rate. All opinions (and my love for all things Disney) are completely my own!

Nothing gets your day off to an amazing start like opening your e-mail box to find this…

This is the kind of e-mail that makes it a dance around the house and sing Disney songs at the top of your lungs kind of day. If you’re not a blogger, or friends with a blogger, you may not have heard of the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. However, in my world, this is one of the most sought after invitations there is and it’s a gigantic honor to be invited! For me, it completely validates all my hard work and tells me that I must be doing something right. In a business that’s full of ups and downs, this is about as good as it gets!

I’d been lucky enough to attend the 2017 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration but just because you’re invited one year, doesn’t mean you’re automatically invited the following year. Since this is the kind of invite you don’t turn down, I accepted IMMEDIATELY and started planning!

This year was going to be another Land & Sea Celebration, meaning that we’d spend half our time in Orlando and half on the Disney Dream cruise ship! Since my hubby wasn’t able to go (that pesky job sometimes gets in the way), I wouldn’t be able to bring the girls along either. They would have loved it but I’d have had nobody to watch them during the conference sessions. Luckily, my friend Kristie is always up for a getaway, especially if it involves Disney.

Before we even left, the goodies started coming in (this event comes with a lot of swag). American Tourister sent me this cool suitcase and I was ready to start packing!

Chewy tried to stow away but it was him or the shoes. Guess which won out?

We arrived a day early so that we could have extra time in the parks. We started out at Hollywood Studios where we rode the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster five times in a row (yes, FIVE times). Then we took a break to meet Chewbacca. I can’t go to Disney World without getting at least one picture with my favorite Star Wars character!

I’d been told that Pandora at night was a must-see so that was next on our agenda. We made our way to Animal Kingdom and discovered that everything I’d heard was true! Pandora is already breathtaking during the day but at night it’s truly spectacular!

Much more about Pandora to come! Disney had a very special event planned for us and it was one that I was beyond excited about (you won’t want to miss the Day Two recap)!

Before we left Animal Kingdom, we stopped to check out the Tree Of Life’s Awakenings. If you’ve never seen this, you have got to check it out. You’ll completely forget that you’re even looking at a tree!

Another reason I love Animal Kingdom at night is because it’s the very best time to ride Everest. The lines are always short and we pretty much walked right on (several times in a row!).

I didn’t even notice this until after I got back home and was looking through my pictures. Apparently we aren’t the only ones who like to pose for the coaster photos (my 10 year old has taught me where all the cameras are)! This had me cracking up!

The next morning we got up early and hit the parks again. Check-in for the event wasn’t until later that evening so we wanted to squeeze in as much in as much Disney time as we could before the celebration began.

2018 #DSMMC Day One

Finally it was time for the 2018 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration Day to begin…I couldn’t wait!!! I saw this pictures wall near the registration desk so of course I had to snap a couple pictures. It’s hard to describe how exciting it is to be here but if you’re a blogger, this really is a HUGE deal! 

One of the hightlights of atending the DSMMC is all the swag! I had been planning to search the parks for the elusive Rose Gold Minnie Ears but when I peeked into the giant backpack full of goodies, I found these special edition Minnie ears (even better, the bow is interchangeable). Who needs Rose Gold ears when you’ve got these?!

I couldn’t wait to reconnect with some of my favorite blogging friends, including Valerie from Inner Child Fun, who I’d bonded with at last year’s event. We found a table, then the night kicked off with Leanne O’Regan and Mark Daniel welcoming a room full of super excited influencers to what we knew would be an amazing week!

Our first speaker was none other than George A. Kalogridis, President of the Walt Disney World Resort! He talked about some of the awesome things that are coming to Disney, including the ones I’m most excited about, the opening of Toy Story Land this summer and Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge next year (it’s going to be so EPIC!).

I thought that hearing from the president of WDW was a pretty cool start but then Leanne and Mark announced a giveaway unlike any other! One lucky person was going to win a night in Cinderella’s castle!!!

Seriously, other than winning the lottery, what better prize could there possibly be??? I held my breath as they pulled out a name. Leanne started reading it and I almost lost it when I heard her say “Lisa”! Had I actually won? I was SO excited until I realized that my last name was NOT Perez. It looked like I wouldn’t be princess for a night after all.

I was happy for the other Lisa though and she was sweet enough to let us take pictures with the giant key to the castle. I thought about running off with the key but I ultimately decided that wouldn’t be very princess-like behavior.

Disney Pixar Themed Dinner

Next it was time for friends and family to join us for dinner. This wasn’t just any dinner though…it was a Disney Pixar dinner! Everything around us was Pixar themed, including a car from the new Slinky Dog Dash Roller Coaster.

We also grabbed some Babybel cheese to take back to the room later! It was delish and made a perfect midnight snack!

Before I could hit the buffet, we were treated to a parade of our favorite Disney Pixar characters. I’m such a little kid when it comes to Disney characters and I got so caught up in the moment that I didn’t even realize that I was standing in the middle of their “dance floor”. (You can see me hightailing it out of the way after Mike Wazowski passes by…oops)

Dinner was delish but dessert was the highlight! While I went for the fancier desserts, the cotton candy bar was by far the most popular. It was surrounded by kids all night.

I love that even though Disney is all about fun, they are really big on philanthropy too. There were postcards on each table so that we could send messages to our troops overseas. I thought it was such a thoughtful gesture and love that there were just as many kids as adults filling them out.

Making New Friends

After dinner, it was time for some pictures. Have I mentioned that I LOVE getting my picture taken with Disney characters? It was so much fun and I didn’t stop until I’d met every single one.

I started with the Toy Soldiers.

Then of course, I had to meet Woody and Buzz!

Next I made some new friends from Inside Out.

I LOVE The Incredibles and had so much fun with this picture. Only a few more months until Incredibles 2 comes out…can’t wait!

I even got to hang out with Mike and Sulley!

We stayed until the end and I definitely wasn’t ready to call it a night. However, we needed to get some sleep because we had an early morning (and it was one of the events I was MOST excited about)!

As we walked back to our room at The Coronado, Disney had one last surprise for us. Okay, I don’t think it was JUST for us, but it was pretty cool to catch the fireworks before we called it a night.

Even though I’m NOT a morning person, I set my alarm to get up at the crack of dawn the next day. What Disney had planned for us was beyond amazing! Check back next week for the day two recap!

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