Adventures of the "Moms" Panel

[PartyOf5]

Me either...in fact, this is the first time I'm seeing the updated rules:

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Let's face it: With more than 20 Resort hotels, four Theme Parks, two Water Parks, shopping, dining, entertainment and more, Walt Disney World® Resort can leave some visitors feeling a bit overwhelmed.

That's why we've created the Walt Disney World Moms Panel, an online forum of vacation advisors
made up of everyday people who will answer questions, offer advice and address specific concerns
of families in the process of planning a trip to Walt Disney World® Resort.

And that's where you come in.
Whether it's when to visit Walt Disney World® Resort or what Resort to stay at or what to see once you
get here, we know you make most of the vacation decisions for your family. You do it all and stay on top of
your family's daily "to do's" to boot! Currently, we're recruiting 16 individuals for the new 2009 panel of vacation advisors. If you would like to be considered for this special online opportunity, we'd love to hear from you.

We will begin accepting applications on September 8, 2008.Participants must:

Be 18 years of age or older.

Have access to a computer and an Internet connection.

Be familiar with Walt Disney World® Resort and have visited at least once in the last 12 months.

Be fluent in the English language.

Complete at least fifteen written responses per week.

Provide your opinions and feedback.

Submit an autobiography and personal photo to be posted online.

Be available to travel to Walt Disney World® Resort from December 5-9, 2008.

Be willing to participate for a minimum of 12 months.

Not be current employees/Cast Members of The Walt Disney Company or any of its subsidiaries, must not be immediate family members of a current employee/Cast Member of The Walt Disney Company or any of its subsidiaries, and must not currently reside with a current employee/Cast Member of The Walt Disney Company or any of its subsidiaries. In addition, participants must not be employees, contractors, advisors or consultants for, must not hold more than a de minimis ownership interest in, and must not serve on the Board of Directors of, any entity (other than The Walt Disney Company or any of its subsidiaries) which owns or operates any hotel, resort or theme park located in Orange, Osceola, Lake or Seminole Counties, Florida.

Persons who are selected as panelists will receive a complimentary trip to Walt Disney World® Resort in preparation for this exciting program.


It is our policy to provide equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, covered veteran status, mental or physical disability, pregnancy, or any other basis prohibited by state or federal law.


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I noticed these additional differences:

- service time increased to a minimum of 12 months (was 6 last time but as we know, the panel was extended)
- minimum number of responses was increased from 8 to 15 per week (not a big deal).
- pre-trip is included for the finalists...but no mention of a trip upon completion of service.
- must submit a photo and autobiography to be posted online (they must be doing away with the video autobiography...which would be fine by me)!

***Not complaining about the above...just noticed a few differences***

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

Regarding the increase to 20K applicants, did you also notice that they are looking for 16 (not 12) panelists?!

-Bret

Nope, that one slipped right by me!!

Oh, cool! (I 'sorta missed that detail, too! ) Thanks, Bret, for pointing it out to us!

The odds may be slim, but at least they've improved from what I originally thought... [Sigh!]

 

[bless7ings]

I was looking at the 15 posts a day instead of 8. I guess their a lot busier then they expected! Course we know it sounded like or panelists were willingly doing more then 8 per day!

 

[Dcanoli]

Welcome back! Where are your photos from the trip?

Regarding the increase to 20K applicants, did you also notice that they are looking for 16 (not 12) panelists?!

-Bret

Hey Bret,

All pics are still in my camera! We just blew in late last night! Whew!

Then, school started for us here in North Georgia today, so no pictures yet. (We only did outside the Parks stuff this time...big trip is in September...)

...and these posts remind me. I cannot believe I did not get the Mom's Club e-mail! Why do you think that is? Did I just get slipped by?

I've gotten all the other ones.....very strange....

And, I'll have to chime in here and say that no, I didn't know they were increasing the amount to 16. I wonder why. Did they feel the number was so large they wanted to give more people a chance or did they think they didn't have enough this go 'round?

I'd be interested in finding out.

Thanks for the note Bret! Great to be home!

 

[dollhouse]

Hey everyone!

Just got in from Florida last night. It killed me not to go to Disney while we were there. We hit the beach and Sea World which was so much fun, but it was hard passing all those Disney signs! Well, I guess it it officially out. I got my email. Wow, 20k apps! That is a ton! 16 positions, very tough odds but I am sure it will work out and I am SURE some of the DIS'ers will be a part, how could they not? I feel very fortunate that I made it in to the semi round last time and got to share with you all what was happening on the panel. My certif. is still on the fridge. You guys should be so proud of yourselves! Why am I already nervous? Is that strange or what?

I was wondering, the 8th is the first day, does it start at 1201AM? I am concerned that it is going to get filled very quickly. Does anyone have any thoughts on that one, time, etc? I am just concerned I am not going to get my response in..in time. Is anyone else concerned? I am also afraid I will do something not so bright again! I have a little OCD, I think????? I hope the questions aren't as confusing as the second round. I know a few of us got confused on that last question. Well, got to make it through the first round FIRST..yikes! It just seems like yesterday, doesn't it?

EVERYONE...good luck with your app. process and school starting!

AGAIN...great job panelists! I can't say enough about you all!

I can't believe summer is almost over. The kids start school the 25th. I start the 21st again...yikes! I don't think the questions are too much to answer per week. We all know we could answer a lot more than 15 per week. HA HA..just for fun!

I will be checking in periodically!

Take care everyone!

Leslie..semi finalist Mom's panel!

 

[lacy1101]

Another Mickey Moms Club member here. I received the August newsletter, but don't see any reference in there about 16 applicants. Where is it hiding? I'm wondering if there is another email sent out that I didn't get (re Partyof5's post)?

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

Another Mickey Moms Club member here. I received the August newsletter, but don't see any reference in there about 16 applicants. Where is it hiding? I'm wondering if there is another email sent out that I didn't get (re Partyof5's post)?

Actually, it's not in the newsletter. (So, the good news is ... You're not going crazy! )

The details can be found in the updated language for the latest contest (found on Disney's web site):

"Walt Disney World Moms Panel - What's It All About?"

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

Hey, Lisa/lacy1101: I failed to mention that I really dig your Chef Mickey-style "Free Dining" ticker. Very cute!

 

[lacy1101]

Hey, Lisa/lacy1101: I failed to mention that I really dig your Chef Mickey-style "Free Dining" ticker. Very cute!

Thanks! I posted yesterday that I am feeling a little bittersweet about this trip because its going to be so short. Today, for some reason, I'm just extra excited about it and can't wait to get there!

Thanks for the info on the Moms Panel.

 

[PartyOf5]

Hello everyone...just checking in to let you all know I'll be offline for a couple weeks (so Snoopy - if you see my green light on; that feature does not work! LOL). I am off to Sunny FL which will include a week at our happy place!

Here's hoping we don't meet up with Fay or Gustav!

Enjoy the rest of August!

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

Hello everyone...just checking in to let you all know I'll be offline for a couple weeks (so Snoopy - if you see my green light on; that feature does not work! LOL). I am off to Sunny FL which will include a week at our happy place!

Here's hoping we don't meet up with Fay or Gustav!

Enjoy the rest of August!

Wishing you safe -- and happy -- travels!

 

[cdotla]

Well, after I announced to everyone about the fact that Lou Mongello's podcast with 7 of our esteemed "Moms" was up on August 4, can you believe I only got around to listening to it today!!?

I hate listening when I am distracted so I usually save them for when I am travelling for work.

You guys did a great job!!! And Kim, you so eloquently put into words a sentiment and story that I agree with 100% -that it is never too early to bring your kids to Disney. And if you miss the chance when they are young, you never get it back! (Just this week, a friend of mine mentioned that she doesn't plan on taking her DD5 and DS3 until they are "old enough". I don't get it!!!)

I also can't tell you how excited I am to hear that ELEVEN of the Moms are in for the Expedition Everest Challenge! I knew a bunch of you were going, but had no idea it would be that many!

I am now officially in myself. My girlfriends and I are doing a girls' weekend at the Poly for EEC, Food & Wine and will for sure be visiting Pleasure Island and the Adventurer's Club before they close down that weekend.

And now I hear Lou is running Everest too! And planning a meet beforehand!

As he said, this is going to be "the" weekend to be at WDW! I am getting sooo excited!!!

Scoopy, what about you? Have you decided yet?

Trish

 

[EEFOSTER]

I was looking at the 15 posts a day instead of 8. I guess their a lot busier then they expected! Course we know it sounded like or panelists were willingly doing more then 8 per day!

Hi folks,

I just wanted to point out that they're looking for people to 15+ posts per WEEK, not per day. I post on the Panel a lot and I don't do nearly 15 per day. Sometimes (rarely) my posts take me five minutes to do, most of the time they take 10-30 minutes to do, and with some regularity they take as long as 40-60 minutes if it's something that I have to research or make verification calls for.

Just wanted to make sure that everyone knew what they were getting themselves into

Not long now till application time.

Erin

 

[DVCsince02]

Can't wait to apply, but with my luck, I'll be stuck in the hospital delivering a baby.

 

[EEFOSTER]

**************
I noticed these additional differences:

- must submit a photo and autobiography to be posted online (they must be doing away with the video autobiography...which would be fine by me)!

I may not be remembering correctly, but I don't think they mentioned the video thing in the first round last time. I have NO inside scoop on this at all, but I would be shocked if the new panelists didn't have to do at least some video. Especially since they've added the "how to" video portion of the site. Again, I know absolutely nothing about this other than my own take on the situation.

Erin

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

I also can't tell you how excited I am to hear that ELEVEN of the Moms are in for the Expedition Everest Challenge! I knew a bunch of you were going, but had no idea it would be that many!

I am now officially in myself. My girlfriends and I are doing a girls' weekend at the Poly for EEC, Food & Wine and will for sure be visiting Pleasure Island and the Adventurer's Club before they close down that weekend.

And now I hear Lou is running Everest too! And planning a meet beforehand!

As he said, this is going to be "the" weekend to be at WDW! I am getting sooo excited!!!

Scoopy, what about you? Have you decided yet?

Trish

I’m in! (...And not a moment too soon, considering -- last I looked – the race had reached 99% capacity. )

My plans have changed a bit, too. On a whim, I asked my sister if she wanted to join me. Of course, I figured she’d simply laugh in my face, since...
-She’s busy with two-year-old twin boys.
-It’s her birthday weekend, so I was certain she’d already made oodles of plans.
-She’s not really a runner.

To my pleasant surprise, she really liked the idea, so…. Late next month, WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD! We’re going to leave the kids with our husbands and jet off to my Happy Place! (Admittedly, I ‘sorta feel like I’ll be cheating on my children, but I’m sure I’ll manage… )

I have no idea what our running pace will be, but – as long as we don’t get swept from the course (or eaten by the Yeti) – we should be golden!

“Yeti or Not…” [That’s our team name, btw.] Here we come!

Soooo, anyone up for a DISmeet? Trish, I noticed on the DisneyWorldTrivia.com forums that you plan to catch Lou Mongello’s gang at the Flame Tree Barbeque. ‘Still firming up my sked, but that certainly sounds cool!

Gettin' Ready for the Yeti!!

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

I ‘dunno how much you folks follow wacky, incidental news items, but there has been recent buzz about an alleged Bigfoot sighting in northern Georgia. In fact, the creature’s corpse apparently is preserved in a freezer at an undisclosed location for further genetic testing.

Hmmm… I’m thinking the story either signifies an extremely fascinating scientific discovery or an extraordinarily clever marketing gimmick.

Reuters Article: “’Bigfoot’ fails DNA test”’


"Bigfoot" fails DNA test
Fri Aug 15, 6:48 PM ET

PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - Bigfoot remains as elusive as ever.

Results from tests on genetic material from alleged remains of one of the mythical half-ape and half-human creatures, made public at a news conference on Friday held after the claimed discovery swept the Internet, failed to prove its existence.

Its spread was fueled by a photograph of a hairy heap, bearing a close resemblance to a shaggy full-body gorilla costume, stuffed into a container resembling a refrigerator.

One of the two samples of DNA said to prove the existence of the Bigfoot came from a human and the other was 96 percent from an opossum, according to Curt Nelson, a scientist at the University of Minnesota who performed the DNA analysis.

Bigfoot creatures are said to live in the forests of the U.S. Pacific Northwest. An opossum is a marsupial about the size of a house cat.

Results of the DNA tests were revealed in an e-mail from Nelson and distributed at the Palo Alto, California, news conference held by Tom Biscardi, host of a weekly online radio show about the Bigfoot.

Also present were Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, the two who say they discovered the Bigfoot corpse while hiking in the woods of northern Georgia. They also are co-owners of a company that offers Bigfoot merchandise.

Despite the dubious photo and the commercial interests of the alleged discoverers, the Bigfoot claim drew interest from Australia to Europe and even The New York Times.

Biscardi said the DNA samples may not have been taken correctly and may have been contaminated, and that he would proceed with an autopsy of the alleged Bigfoot remains, currently in a freezer at an undisclosed location.

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin in Palo Alto; writing by Jim Christie; editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Henderson)

******​

Oh, and these little “goodies” -- highlighted in a CNN news story -- gave me a chuckle, especially the part about the unusually dressed person at the press conference:

CNN Article: Georgia men defend Bigfoot body claims

August 15, 2008 -- Updated 0139 GMT (0939 HKT)

Georgia men defend Bigfoot body claims

(CNN) -- A pair of Georgia men faced more than a half-hour of skeptical questions from reporters Friday as they defended their claim that they stumbled upon the body of Bigfoot while hiking in a remote North Georgia forest.

Introduced by a publicist and beside a man who promoted what turned out to be a fake Bigfoot discovery in 1995, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer repeatedly said that their claim is not a hoax and that scientific analysis will prove it.

"We were not looking for Bigfoot. ... We wouldn't know what we were doing if we did," said Whitton, a police officer on leave after being shot in the hand while making an arrest. "I didn't believe in Bigfoot at the time. ... But you've got to come to terms with it and realize you've got something special. And that's what it was."

The men say they were hiking in early June when they discovered the body of a 7-foot-7, 500-pound half-ape, half-human creature near a stream. They also claim to have spotted about three similar living creatures -- and showed reporters video stills of what they say is one of those creatures shadowing them through the woods.

The announcement, which the men first made on the Internet radio show "Squatch Detective" several weeks ago, has been greeted with healthy skepticism, even among some Bigfoot enthusiasts.

Scientists, including the head of North Georgia College and State University's biology department, have said it's unlikely a tribe of 7-foot-tall creatures would have avoided discovery in a region popular among hikers, hunters and vacationers.

Several Web sites have popped up questioning the claim and comparing a photo that the men say is the creature's body inside a freezer to a widely available Bigfoot costume.

On Friday, Whitton acknowledged creating a pair of videos posted on the Internet video site YouTube, one in which his brother poses as a scientist and another in which Whitton briefly seems to admit that the body is a fake.

"It seems that the stalkers have busted us in a hoax," he says in the video. But then adds, "we still have a corpse. We just wanted to give you something to do for the weekend."

At Friday's news conference, Whitton first said that no video existed in which he calls the discovery a hoax.

But after speaking to Tom Biscardi, the self-described "Real Bigfoot Hunter" who has been searching for the creature of legend since 1971, he said the video was made "to have a little fun with it" and was originally intended to throw off the "psychos" who had stalked him and his family since the men first made their claim.

The two also promoted a Web site registered to Whitton on June 16 and said they plan to write a book about their experience.

Friday's news conference was held in Palo Alto, California, near the home of Biscardi. About 100 reporters and onlookers attended the event, in a hotel banquet room, including a man who shouted questions while wearing a gorilla suit.

Dyer and Whitton said they were carrying a video camera during their hike to film wildlife.

They said they handed the body over to Biscardi, who is keeping it at an undisclosed location until a team of scientists can examine it.

One of the two photographs the men gave to reporters Friday showed what appears to be the creature's mouth, an effort to disprove allegations that what's in the photo is a costume.

"I want to get to the bottom of it," Biscardi said. "I'll tell you what I've seen and what I've touched and what I've felt, what I've prodded was not a mask sewed onto a bear hide, OK?"

Biscardi acknowledged that he promoted a fake Bigfoot discovery in 1995, saying the woman who claimed to have the body convinced his staff members before he visited her and discovered that she was mentally ill.
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Alleged Bigfoot sightings have surfaced from time to time for years, dating to at least the 1800s. The most famous was the so-called Patterson film from 1967, which is purported to show a tall, furry, apelike creature walking along, at one point looking over its shoulder at the videographer.

Most scientists who have studied the film say there's no way to authenticate it, and many say the creature appears to be a man in a costume.

******​

Uh-huh!!

 

[cdotla]

Scoopy I love your team name! I was far less original...we're the Happy Mommies!

Yes, I noticed that the both of us just signed up on the WDW Radio forum. I did so to get more info once I heard Lou annouce the EEC meet.

Are any of the Moms Panel planning on doing the meet before the EEC?

 

[bless7ings]

Hi everyone,

This post is ot, but what better place to ask a question then to the mom's panel?

We are leaving for Disney Beach Club in 4 days!!!!

Someone posted choc/coconut Mickey treat, but they didn't know what it was called and where you can get them. Does anyone know? They said it was like a mounds w/cocount filling but they did say it was shaped like a Mickey head.

I figured if anyone could help, you guys could!

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

Hi everyone,

This post is ot, but what better place to ask a question then to the mom's panel?

We are leaving for Disney Beach Club in 4 days!!!!

Someone posted choc/coconut Mickey treat, but they didn't know what it was called and where you can get them. Does anyone know? They said it was like a mounds w/cocount filling but they did say it was shaped like a Mickey head.

I figured if anyone could help, you guys could!

'Sounds like you might be looking for the Mickey Mouse Creamy Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Patties. (Admittedly, I've never tried them before, but they sound really good! )

You should be able to find them at the Main Street Confectionery (MK). The Polynesian Resort's BouTiki gift shop also has been known to carry them.

Just for kicks...

*A year-old post about "Disney Branded Chocolate Candies" pulled from the "Candy Blog" site:
(The featured items were purchased in Disneyland.)

*Another interesting post: "Disneyland for Candy Bloggers"


*****

Incidentally, sometimes it helps to check with Walt Disney World Merchandise - Guest Services, Phone: (407) 363-6200 x2

Their tagline: "Where We Deliver the Magic of the Walt Disney World Resort to You." The service allows you to purchase items that you may have forgotten to pick up in the Parks or didn't have time to find. There is a shipping fee, of course.

I just learned from a CM, though, that Disney doesn't ship certain food items. (Hard candy = yes; Chocolate = no.) Fortunately, you'll be at WDW in person, so you can pick up plenty of the chocolatey confections on-site!

Enjoy!