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’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.

After our first flight we stopped and had breakfast. The whole breakfast had a Pandora theme to it down to the icing on the cinnamon rolls and blue sugar on the blueberry muffins. It was all really tasty and a great start to a day of fun in the parks.

After our second flight Eva and I caught up with Andrew and Allison. They had done the river ride, the Na’vi River Journey. This was just what Andrew needed after his experience on Flight of Passage. This is a slow moving river ride through the bio-luminescent rainforest. They joined with us and we went to ride that ride with them. However, at this time the park was open and the massive lines for the rides were forming. We did not use a fastpass for this ride and the overall wait wasn’t too bad. It was a nice change of pace compared to Flight of Passage. We were able to breathe easy and just enjoy the leisurely ride. After our Pandora adventure we went to the gift shop and Andrew bought his own Banshee even though the ride terrified him. Apparently the stuffed animal called to him.

Andrew making a Na’vi necklace.

We then went to explore the rest of Animal Kingdom and that included the Festival of the Lion King, Kali River Rapids, Kilimanjaro Safari and It’s Tough to Be a Bug. Eva was not a big fan of that one. While we walked around we learned about the Wilderness Explorers. Andrew was excited about this and picked up a few badges. One of the people who was giving the badges was from Thailand and he taught us Andrew’s nickname in Thai. We call Andrew Bug and bug in Thai is Mang. He got a kick out of that.

The kids with a special Mickey. I am sure that someone knows what that says, but I don’t.

Later in the afternoon we left Animal Kingdom for Hollywood Studios. Not before having some Mickey shaped treats like the Mickey Ice Cream Bar and the Mickey Pretzel, with cheese!

All food tastes better Mickey shaped!

We also rode one more ride in Animal Kingdom and it wasn’t the Primeval whirl because Andrew was 2 inches too short for that one. Instead he and I rode the TriceraTop Spin. He enjoyed that very much.

Then it was time to head to Hollywood Studios.

When we arrived at Hollywood studios there were many characters at the entrance so we waited in a few short lines to meet them. We met Pinocchio, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck. The kids had some autograph books with them and were getting many signatures and photos to remember their trip. I don’t mind waiting in line for these autographs because the kids love meeting the characters.

Happy meeting Minnie Mouse.

While we were there at the entrance Captain Phasma and a group of Stormtroopers came marching out. I got a relly good photo of them as they passed.

We met with some imagineers who talked with us about Toy Story Land which is opening on June 30th. It looks to be a great addition to the park. We also saw the model for Star Wars Galaxies Edge. In that same building we got to meet Star-Lord and Baby Groot. We also got some photos with them.

It was along day but the kids handled it very well. We hit up some of our favorites in the park including the Muppets 3D and Star Tours. We also got to finally go on the one ride we’ve never had a chance to get on and that is the Toy Story Mania ride. Allison and Eva vs Andrew and Me. I got the high score.

That night we were treated to dinner by one of the sponsors, GoGo squeeZ. They make some very tasty applesauce in pouches. They provided us with a bunch of samples to try and put on dinner at PizzeRizzo. I wasn’t that impressed with the dinner choices. I honestly was looking forward to pizza. The desserts, however, they were a different story. The desserts were awesome!

After dinner the kids met the children of my friends. We all walked over to a special area to wait for the fireworks and video show that was Star Wars themed. Unfortunately it did not come. The wind was a little too strong that night and the fireworks were cancelled. We high tailed it to the buses and headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow is all about the work of this work vacation.