Magic Kingdom Adventures!

Over my spring break, I had the chance to visit Magic Kingdom with my roommates. While there, we were able to check out all the new areas and attractions in New Fantasyland as well as get a sneak peak into the construction of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train attraction coming in 2014. I have a lot of photos to share, so I thought I would dedicate this blog post to my adventures at Magic Kingdom!

As soon as we pulled into the parking lot (we parked in the Heroes section-Aladdin) we made our way to buy our one day tickets, and from there, we climbed aboard the Monorail to take us to the happiest place on Earth! When we first walked into the park, I went straight for the statue of Goofy on the bench next to the Town Square Theatre to take a picture (seen below).

As I was taking this picture, I noticed a small group of people standing in line next to the hat store on Main Street. When I focused in on the group of people, I realized they were waiting to meet none other than Mary Poppins and two penguins! Mary Poppins is probably one of my top ten favorite Disney characters, so I couldn't go without taking a picture with her! She was practically perfect, in every way!

After posing for a picture with Mary, we went straight back to New Fantasyland where we got in line for Enchanted Tales with Belle (we only waited about 15 minutes!). This attraction allows guests to reenact the day Belle and the Beast fell in love. Once we got into the actual room where the roles are given out, I was chosen to play the Wardrobe!

After reenacting the story of Beauty and the Beast, all of the guest actors got to take a picture with Belle! Enchanted Tales was super cute, I highly recommend this for young mouseketeers!

After meeting Belle, we went to eat at the new Be Our Guest restaurant for lunch. We got in line around 10:15am (they open at 10:30) and we made it inside to eat around 10:45. This dining experience was amazing. I felt like I was in the Beast's castle the moment I stepped inside. Disney really hit the target with Be Our Guest. We ordered our food, received our "roses," and chose to eat our lunch in the grand ballroom. Guests can also dine in the West Wing or the Rose Garden. The ballroom was simply stunning, with intricate chandeliers hanging from beautifully painted ceilings, just like in the movie. The next time you're in Magic Kingdom, make sure to go to Be Our Guest. You won't regret it!

The rest of the day was full of character meet and greets, classic attractions, and delicious snacks!  

Ariel sporting her feet :)

Dumbo!

Dole Whip-the best snack EVER!

My favorite part of the day was meeting Merida from Disney/Pixar's Brave. Her accent was great!

We ended the day with the Main Street Electrical parade and Wishes Nighttime Spectacular, making our day truly magical!

Take a peek at all the new Disney goodies I bought while there!

I LOVE the Orange Bird! :)

When was your last trip to Disney? Feel free to share your own Disney experiences or ask any questions you have about Disney by leaving a comment below! 

Thanks for reading about my Magic Kingdom adventures and have a magical day!

Star Command: Social Media Style

Social media is continually growing as a key element of successful marketing and advertising. Because of this, businesses and professionals who do use social media need a strategy to keep up with all of their profiles, posts, mentions, comments, etc. Without a strategy for your social media management, you won't get far. One way companies are managing their online presence is through social media command centers. Yes, social media command centers. Sounds pretty cool, right? If you're like me, when you heard the words command center, you probably thought of the Space Mountain Command Center (seen below) from Magic Kingdom Park. Anyways...

Companies today are continually building and using social media command centers to help monitor all of their sites at once. Social media monitoring is important for the following reasons:

• Allows you to discover conversations happening in real time. This way, you can reply to comments or questions immediately, creating a strong connection with your audience.
• Allows you to understand your audience better.
• Helps you determine what content works best and doesn't work at all with your audience.
• Helps you discover which content your audience is most engaged with.
• Makes a connection with strategies and objectives of a social media campaign.

These social media command centers are a great investment for businesses wanting to have a better way to control all of their social media sites. All a social media command center really requires is a few TV screens, computers, and the wires needed to hook them together. The American Red Cross, Dell, and even the 2012 Presidential campaigns use social media command centers to manage their social media sites and receive the benefits of having them.

So, if your business isn't quite keeping up with all of its social media, think about building a social media command center. You'll only benefit from it if you do! And, you'll be able to pretend like you're Buzz Lightyear when you talk to your coworkers by saying things like "We have a new comment, Space Ranger!" or "This is *insert your name* of Social Media Star Command, do you read me?" Or at least I would. :)

Thanks for reading and have a magical day!