Adventures of the "Moms" Panel

[I believe]

WOW! These birthday wishes are awesome! Thanks so much; it was so much fun to see them! You guys are the best!

Hey Kristen/I believe...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!



-Bret

A birthday celebration?! Yeah! Happy Birthday!!

For real?!? Woo-Hoo!

('Hope it has been a good one!)

 

[lori1043]

Julie, I wish you and everyone in the huricane area safety and for that hurricane to fizzle down to a tropical storm or at least a 1 by landfall. Being from the New Orleans area(for which there is some grief on aother threads about the amount of attention the media gives this place since Katrina!), I wish no one any rotten ole hurricanes. Esp. anything that can be so destructive. Like my DD's pray, "I pray for a bubble around you to protect ...." your family and everyone to be smart and safe.

For Gustav, we evacuated to Tallahassee and when we found out we had no power till the next Saturday, we decided to make a trip on down to see Mickey!
Well, our last minute trip ended just as quickly as it started when we found out we had power on Thursday and wanted to get home(away from home!). We feel very blessed that we were able to enjoy Typhoon Lagoon and MK for the 2 days we got to go. Part of the reason we went was that I had an AP from an extended trip in Feb and $208 reward points on my Disney CC.

Just please be safe and I have enjoyed this thread in the past couple days!

Lori

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

For Gustav, we evacuated to Tallahassee and when we found out we had no power till the next Saturday, we decided to make a trip on down to see Mickey!

Hmmmm... I guess you could call that a classic case of turning lemons into lemonade! ('Cuz if you've gotta evacuate, you may as well do it in style... )

 

[5/4Disney]

Thanks for all the well wishes guys. Ike just keeps creeping closer to Galveston (25mi from my house). We actually live in Clear Lake which is surrounded by small lakes and water ways..... We have thought about staying since we left for Rita and it was CRAZY. We ended up going back home and we flew to WDW where we had a blast.

Anyway we have not decided it we are leaving yet, I guess time will tell. A police officer knocked on my friends door earlier and told her she had until 8am to leave. Our house is boarded up and our stuff is packed (as much as you can put in a mini-van with a family of 5 and a mini schnauzer). When you must leave like this it really makes you think about what is important to you and how much STUFF you really need. Right now we have clothes for everyone and all my kids pictures since you can't replace those things. If we do head out there is a question of where to go TONS have already left for Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. So if we do leave maybe we'll go east and hope the storm does not follow. I must go get some sleep now because I don't know what the next few days will be like.
Take care, and thanks again for the thoughts and prayers.
Julie

 

[lori1043]

Hmmmm... I guess you could call that a classic case of turning lemons into lemonade! ('Cuz if you've gotta evacuate, you may as well do it in style... )

Yeah, after Katrina, we decided that going east was a good way to go for the next hurricane big enough to evacuate for(for us, a 3 or higher)!! We decided IF we had to pay for a hotel anyway, why not pay for a hotel in Disney, right?! PLus, it was less pricey than the one we were at, even with boarding our dachsunds at the EPCOT kennels! We stayed at ASMovies.
My kids were SO thrilled-enough that it made me think of NOT telling them until the day before we leave for the next time we plan a WDW vacation-to have had gone to sleep thinking we were going home, just to wake up hearing we were going to Disney World! DD10 was beside herself with joy!! I think DD8 would have been more thrilled if she was feeling better. She had fever for the 3 previous nights(not that particular night as that was a deciding factor). She was INSISTENT that she would NOT have fever again-and ironic thing, but no suprise to us as we have had 'healing' happen in Disney before(!), was that she did not!!

I just really pray that Ike shrivels away to nothing or hardly nuthin'!

Lori

 

[lori1043]

Thanks for all the well wishes guys. Ike just keeps creeping closer to Galveston (25mi from my house). We actually live in Clear Lake which is surrounded by small lakes and water ways..... We have thought about staying since we left for Rita and it was CRAZY. We ended up going back home and we flew to WDW where we had a blast.

Anyway we have not decided it we are leaving yet, I guess time will tell. A police officer knocked on my friends door earlier and told her she had until 8am to leave. Our house is boarded up and our stuff is packed (as much as you can put in a mini-van with a family of 5 and a mini schnauzer). When you must leave like this it really makes you think about what is important to you and how much STUFF you really need. Right now we have clothes for everyone and all my kids pictures since you can't replace those things. If we do head out there is a question of where to go TONS have already left for Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. So if we do leave maybe we'll go east and hope the storm does not follow. I must go get some sleep now because I don't know what the next few days will be like.
Take care, and thanks again for the thoughts and prayers.
Julie

I know what you mean. I must admit that after packing it all up after K hit, I did not have the heart to do it this time and knowing all my pics were in plastic bins and I brought the basics-my wedding pics, my kids baby books and my DD10's Make a Wish trip family pics that are from a old film camera(no digital for us yet back in 02!) and THAT was irreplacable!

My prayers and hugs are with you!

Lori

 

[MommyPoppins]

Thanks for all the well wishes guys. Ike just keeps creeping closer to Galveston (25mi from my house). We actually live in Clear Lake which is surrounded by small lakes and water ways..... We have thought about staying since we left for Rita and it was CRAZY. We ended up going back home and we flew to WDW where we had a blast.

Anyway we have not decided it we are leaving yet, I guess time will tell. A police officer knocked on my friends door earlier and told her she had until 8am to leave. Our house is boarded up and our stuff is packed (as much as you can put in a mini-van with a family of 5 and a mini schnauzer). When you must leave like this it really makes you think about what is important to you and how much STUFF you really need. Right now we have clothes for everyone and all my kids pictures since you can't replace those things. If we do head out there is a question of where to go TONS have already left for Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. So if we do leave maybe we'll go east and hope the storm does not follow. I must go get some sleep now because I don't know what the next few days will be like.
Take care, and thanks again for the thoughts and prayers.
Julie

How scary! Every hurricane season is a sit on the edge of your seat for all of us in the gulf coast. Oddly though people here don't take it seriously enough, even after Charlie. We always said we would get the heck out of here if a 3+ was coming our way. Of course in Fl there is only one way to go.

We haven't had to leave yet, but we've had to run around like a chicken with our heads cut off quickly packing up important things because of brush fires. It stinks!

Stay safe!

 

[5/4Disney]

Thanks guys, we are leaving they just told us we must. Gotta go back up the car while the kids are still sleeping.
Julie

Hopefully I'll see you guys at the EE Challenge

 

[dollhouse]

Julie,

Be safe. I can't even imagine. In Western PA, we don't have to worry about hurricanes. All you can do is take the precautions for your family to be safe. It will be okay. As long as you and your family are together and safe, really nothing else matters!

Keep us posted and you are in our prayers. It really puts things in perspective.

Leslie

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

Thanks guys, we are leaving they just told us we must. Gotta go back up the car while the kids are still sleeping.
Julie

Hopefully I'll see you guys at the EE Challenge

Thinking of you... Stay safe!

 

[PolynesianPixie]

All those on the Gulf.....it's much better to be safe than sorry! I heard the Texas Governor say he wants people out of there in cars and busses instead of body bags. That sounds like some serious business! So get your butts to safety, you hear?!

 

[PartyOf5]

Hmmm..... I wonder what the numbers are at this point!?!

Again, I'd love to be a fly on the wall....

I just checked...they are still accepting apps...I wonder how many they've received? I wonder how many they've read so far?

 

[WishesQueen]

Your making me nervous!!!!

Keep safe Everyone!!!

 

[cdotla]

I just checked...they are still accepting apps...I wonder how many they've received? I wonder how many they've read so far?

As I recall, I am sure I received an email direct from WDW inviting me to apply to be on last year's panel when the contest was first announced.

Obviously at that point, there was no Mom's Club, so the receipients of the email were likely generated from Disney's client/guest email databases.

As with everyone on the Moms Club, I received a copy of the email from WDW announcing this year's contest. However, I don't recall receiving another email from Disney separate and apart from the Mom's Club one.

Like many others active in the online Disney community, I have also heard the contest announced from a number of sources from the online communities. However, if you were not part of the Mom's Club for the past year, or active in the Disney online community, would you have received notice of this contest?

If no general public announcements have been made, is that perhaps why we haven't yet reached 20,000?

Admittedly, even without the general public announcement, I am somewhat surprised the limit has not already been reached, particularly given that it has now been opened up this year worldwide, whereas last year it was just open to US and Canadian residents.

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

Hi, Trish! ('Just noticed your green light is on...)

I have to admit, I'm 'sorta surprised, too, that the contest hasn't yet reached 20,000 applicants.

 

[RatBoy]

I'm definitely not betting, since my first guess was just a bit off.

Perhaps there are many people who can't get to something like this until the weekend?

Certainly would have been fun if there were some kind of counter on the Moms Panel site showing how many applications have been submitted. Could help get even more traffic to the site as well.

 

[lori1043]

I found out about this on the Dis.

Ironically, I have the announcement of the Moms panel podcast still on my zen from last year. It won't come off and I cannot figure out how to delete it. So, for now, you are forever on my zen! I went to California last year and was downloading Dis podcasts and other Disney podcasts to listen to on the way over there. Prolly from some cameras following you around . But I had no idea how you were picked until that and then when I saw it here.

Lori

 

[np4gp]

Has anyone had their husbands apply in addition to themselves??

 

[lori1043]

Bret- I loved the article, I just finished the whole thing! Awesome! I bet you all are sad it is ending.

np4gp-my hubby would laugh. He knows a lot, but due to my research working on our trips!!! He is the happily designated fast pass guy on all of our trips and he doesn't even ever have to be reminded or asked. he likes knowing this info for busy rides. My DB, on our last trip, thought he was nuts to keep asking them for thier passes to go get them FP's. They had NO idea! They regretted it in EPCOT, not lettting him get the FP's for them for Soarin'!!

Lori

 

[np4gp]

my husband isn't applying either. I have to be completely honest, until 2 years ago when we started taking our son - he was a Disney "hater"...GASP!! My parents got us annual passes for Xmas last year and I got my DH into pin trading. He is still a Busch Gardens and Universal/IOA kind of guy (he loves real rollers coasters!) but he absolutely loves the joy it brings our son and I to be at the parks. He is a good sport and loves his family... His job is basically being my arm candy and posing for adorable pictures...LOL, oh and finding pins.