Category Archives: Conferences

Sweet Suite 2018 Recap

July 11, 2018 Drew

Breakfast at Cracker Barrel

For the first time since attending Sweet Suite the event was opened up to the children of attendees. This was a huge deal for us because that meant that Eva and Andrew could come and see an event that daddy has attended for years. What is more important, though, was they could meet the people that I have worked with who supply us with toys for our reviews. It is important to me that the kids know that the toys don’t just appear out of thin air, even though it may seem that way. Knowing the people behind the scenes is important to me and I wanted it to be important to them. It was also important for Allison to see how crazy things get during events and how hard it can be to try and get the most information, photos and video. I was very glad that she was there to help wrangle the kids or stay with one when they wanted to explore something further. I think we may have made it around to all of the booths. Continue reading Sweet Suite 2018 Recap →

Conferences, Movie

Free Tickets to See Show Dogs in Boston

May 5, 2018 Drew

Show Dogs

I have partnered with the upcoming movie, Show Dogs, to give away several 2 packs of tickets to see the movie in advance of the May 18th release date. You can see the trailer below.

If you would like to see this movie at the AMC Assembly Row in (Somerville, MA) on Saturday, May 12th at 10:00am then you can click the link below to reserve one of 20 ADMIT TWO passes for the screening.

http://www.gofobo.com/UPlBa39712
Seating is first come, first served and not guaranteed, so folks should arrive early.

Unleashed and undercover

Crack the case with Global Road Entertainment’s upcoming family comedy SHOW DOGS! Starring Will Arnett, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Natasha Lyonne, Jordin Sparks, Gabriel Iglesias, Shaquille O’Neal, Alan Cumming, and Stanley Tucci, SHOW DOGS is a family comedy about the unlikely pairing of a human detective (Arnett) and his canine partner (voice of Chris “Ludacris” Bridges), who has to go undercover at the world’s most exclusive dog show to solve his biggest case yet. Catch it in theaters May 18, 2018!

Official Site | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Conferences, Disney, Family, Food, Photo-A-Day, Travel

Our First Time Ever to Castaway Cay

February 25, 2018 Drew

Photo-A-Day #4701

Our family had the unique opportunity to be invited to the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration at Walt Disney World and on board the Disney Dream. This is a conference that we paid to attend. During the Celebration we received experiences and gifts that were beyond the scope of a typical Disney vacation. I will mention those as I discuss them to properly disclose any of those extras. I also have affiliate links in this post.

Out of all the days during the Disney social Media Moms Celebration I was looking most forward to our trip to Castaway Cay. This is Disney’s private island that is full of fun and exciting things to do. You can rent boats, kayaks and more. You can even get those bikes that pedal on water that they used to rent at the beach back in Falmouth when I was a kid. We did a lot while on the island and probably would have spent much longer there if we hadn’t wanted to pop back to the ship to ride the Aquaduck, but we avoided over-exposure to the sun by making it an early day. Continue reading Our First Time Ever to Castaway Cay →

Conferences, Disney, Family, Photo-A-Day, Travel

Pirates and the Universe on the Disney Dream at Disney Social Media Moms Celebration

February 24, 2018 Drew

Photo-A-Day #4700

On our second day of cruising on the Disney Dream we had another beautiful day on the ocean. The ship docked in the port of Nassau but we did not get off the ship. I was in sessions for the morning learning about more things that were coming up from Disney as well as some social media tips and tricks from the social media team at Disney. We also got another session on Disney’s Corporate Citizenship and more of what they do behind the scenes. It was even more tear-filled than the previous session. There are just so many things that Disney does to help communities. Things that are not highly publicized. These things were a complete surprise to me.

We started off the morning having a family breakfast at Cabanas. Allison and the kids went to the pool for a while and then the kids went to the Oceaneers Club while she went to a massage at the spa. I went to the theater to attend the days’ sessions. Continue reading Pirates and the Universe on the Disney Dream at Disney Social Media Moms Celebration →

Conferences, Disney, Photo-A-Day, Travel

Embarking Upon the Disney Dream for A Three Day Cruise

February 23, 2018 Drew

Photo-A-Day #4699

On this day we headed to the Disney Dream for our first cruise ever. but, before that we had a Star Wars themed breakfast at Coronado springs. These breakfasts had character meet and greets and today’s included Kylo Ren and Chewbacca. Meeting the two characters couldn’t have been more different. We met Kylo Ren first. Kylo does not do hugs nor any autographs. the kids were a bit disappointed in that but the photos with Kylo were pretty funny. Neither one of the kids wanted to get that close to him. Who could blame them, he was a bit intimidating.

Chewbacca doesn’t do autographs but he does do giant bear sized hugs and that is cool. Each of the kids had their photo with Chewy but I really like the family one that we got. I was Disney Bounding today. I was trying to do a Disney Bounding as a Steampunk Star-Lord which represented Disney Cruise Lines Marvel Day at Sea. This outfit would prove to be a bit more of a hassle then anything else. I think I overdid it with the suspenders and bag strapped to my leg. Despite that I thought it looked pretty good.

After our Star Wars themed breakfast, complete with blue milk and Bantha bacon we boarded the buses to the port. We got on the bus with our new friends Kevin and his family. He has two daughters and Andrew and Eva both became fast friends while Allison sat with Kevin’s wife Jenn. We had a nice conversation all the way to the port. Continue reading Embarking Upon the Disney Dream for A Three Day Cruise →

Conferences, Disney, Family, Food, Photo-A-Day, Travel

An Epic Day at EPCOT With More Disney Social Media Moms Celebration Surprises

February 22, 2018 Drew

Photo-A-Day #4698

Our second full day at the conference was full of some great experiences. We started with a fun breakfast that featured many characters from Disney Junior. The breakfast was sponsored by Alamo. We were in the group that met the characters first and there were four stations around the room. The kids got to meet Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Princess Sophia from Sophia the First, Doc from doc McStuffins and then Mickey and Minnie from Mickey and the Roadster Racers. We got a fun family photo with Mickey and Minnie. Continue reading An Epic Day at EPCOT With More Disney Social Media Moms Celebration Surprises →

Conferences, Disney, Family, Photo-A-Day, Travel

The Most Incredible Flight at Disney Social Media Moms Celebration

February 21, 2018 Drew

Photo-A-Day #4697

I’m writing this post over a week later because, it was a working vacation. While I was there as a conference attendee and had to be at specific events and sessions it was also a vacation and spending time with the family was the most important thing. So, writing blog posts every day went right out the window. This happened the last time I was at a conference at Disney. But for that one, it took 3 years to finally post up the posts and videos. So, while most of this is fresh in my head I will try and recap this adventure.

This morning we were up bright and early to catch buses to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park because we had the whole world of Pandora open to us for two hours before the park opened to the public. Pandora has a new ride called Flight of Passage. It is about a year old but is probably the most popular ride in all of the Disney Parks. I know this because the lines have huge wait times but once you fly on the back of a banshee you want to go back again and again. I have never experienced a ride like that before in my life. It was incredible! Eva loved it and so did Allison. Andrew did not, he cried and said that he was terrified. So, he did not opt to go on again. I took Eva for a second flight. We were joined by another father and daughter. We essentially had the whole ride to ourselves. That was crazy cool. There is also a great story to the ride and you really get the experience of being one of the avatars. You are even scanned and then matched with an Avatar. It is very cool how this is done. The seats that you sit on were built like motorcycles and felt very cool with an aggressive riding stance that made the feeling of riding the Banshee even more real. Continue reading The Most Incredible Flight at Disney Social Media Moms Celebration →

Blogging, Conferences, Disney, Photo-A-Day, Travel

Take Me To Disney Social Media Moms Celebration

February 20, 2018 Drew

An Incredible start to Disney social Media Moms Celebration

Photo-A-Day #4696

Today was the day that we’ve been waiting for ever since getting the invite for the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. We’ve been preparing, planning and filling our hearts with excitement for so long and today was the day when the time finally came for us to go.

The time came at stupid o’clock in the morning. Our flight was at 6am out of Providence which normally means a 4am to 4:30am wake up when it is just me travelling. However, with the family the ticket situation was a bit convoluted. Originally, Allison and I were going to Dad 2.0 at the beginning of February. However, when the invite came the plans changed so that we could have this family adventure. This meant that the tickets needed to be changed. Rather than change the tickets and add the kids to the reservation as well we had to do two separate but connected reservations. This put Allison and I on one and the kids on another. This also meant that we could not check in from home because the kids ticket came up as unaccompanied minors. Well, I called yesterday and straightened things out but we still had to go to the counter. It wasn’t that bad overall. I just knew that once we got on our second plane and were actually on the way to Orlando I could breathe easy.

The flights were actually very nice. Eva and I watched Moana on the first one and Andrew and I watched The Incredibles on the second flight. Moana really hit me. I got pretty emotional watching it. The Incredibles was fun and I bought everyone some Incredibles Magic Bandits and everyone had one of the characters. That was until we lost two of them almost immediately upon arrival. Oh well, good intentions.

We got to the Orlando airport and got our one checked bag that wasn’t tagged to go all the way to the hotel. We caught the Magical Express and were seated next to my friend, Mitch from Gay NYC Dad. Mitch and I have been friends for a long time. It was good to see him and finally meet his husband and son. Continue reading Take Me To Disney Social Media Moms Celebration →

Comic Book, Conferences, Disney, LEGO, Photo-A-Day, Toys, Travel

Star-Lord, My Disney Bounding Inspiration #DisneySMMC

February 11, 2018 Drew 2 Comments

Photo-A-Day #4687

A few days ago I posted up a photo of the clothes that I was bringing to Disney Social Media Moms Celebration for my Disney Bounding outfit. Disney Bounding is dressing in a way that is inspired by something Disney, a character, a ride, even a dessert. For the conference the assignment is something inspired by Disney Cruise Lines, Adventures by Disney or Disney Aulani. I have not been on any of those adventures, before but I do know that Disney Cruise Lines does a Marvel Day at Sea. So, because of that I went looking for an outfit based on one of my favorite Marvel characters, Star-Lord. I also put a Steampunk twist on the outfit. I can’t wait for everyone to see it.

Blogging, Conferences, Disney, Family, Photo-A-Day, Travel

I’m Here in the Snow With Major Case of FOMO

January 30, 2018 Drew 1 Comment

Photo-A-Day #4675

It snowed last night and it was a bit of a surprise to me this morning. There were a couple of inches on the ground but school had not been cancelled. With the way school gets cancelled these days I was surprised. When I was a kid school hardly ever closed. there used to be this rumor in high school that if one of the more elderly nuns could walk to one of the buildings without incident then school would be open. It was a silly rumor but made us laugh as we went to school in 4 to 6 inches of snow or more.

Eva was home sick from school but Allison and Andrew went in. I took care of Eva and got her settled and then went out to tackle the driveways, sidewalks and back yard. I fired up the snowblower and then took one pass down the sidewalk. I noticed that one side of the snowblower looked like it was just pushing the snow and the exhaust pipe that fired off the snow was a bit weak. Well, I guess two of the shearing pins had done as they were aptly named and sheared off. I then went about trying to get the broken pins out, I was able to dislodge one of them and I replaced the pin but the other one was stuck in so tight that I was unable to get it out at all. Even my more mechanically inclined neighbor was unable to do anything.

Continue reading I’m Here in the Snow With Major Case of FOMO →

BenSpark Family Adventures