You may have already seen this, but...
The
Orlando Sentinel carried a story today about the new Moms Panel.
OrlandoSentinel.com: "Need Disney travel tips? Ask these moms"
Tourism & Travel
Need Disney travel tips? Ask these moms
By Jason Garcia, Sara K. Clarke and Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writers
December 15, 2008
The Walt Disney World 2009 'Moms Panel' of amateur Internet-based Disney
vacation-plan advisers joins Mickey Mouse at Disney World earlier this month.
Back row: Doug Ingersoll (from left), Diane Luba, Amber Vaughan, Joanne McCabe,
Jennifer Wilkes, Jackie Stevens, Margaret Fries and Cathy Schikowski.
Front row: Diane Campagna (from left), Jodi Grundig, Kay Belin, Jo Young, Tanya McNally,
Whitney Pickering, Anna Skamarakas and Karen Prince.
(WALT DISNEY WORLD / December 11, 2008)
Seeking more help and a broader range of ideas, Walt Disney World has selected a new and larger panel of officially sanctioned yet unofficial Internet advisers for the resort's 2009 "Moms Panel."
As with the 12 members who served on Disney World's inaugural Moms Panel, the 16 new panelists are parents who volunteered to work from their homes offering advice to people who submit sometimes very-personalized vacation questions to Disney World's Moms Panel Internet forum. The 2008 panel answered more than 12,000 such inquiries.
This year's panel, selected from thousands of applicants, includes a grandmother, Kay Belin of Valparaiso, Ind.; a father, Doug Ingersoll of Carmel, Ind.; a Canadian, Joanne McCabe of Ottawa, Ontario; and a British subject, Jo Young of West Malling, England.
And as with the 2008 panelists, all are unabashed fans of Disney and have made themselves into Disney World experts, at least in some specialty areas. Ingersoll is author of the book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Walt Disney World, 2009 Edition. Whitney Pickering of Laurel, Miss., said she has eaten in more than 50 Disney World restaurants during various vacations. Anna Skamarakas of Bellmawr, N.J., said she has planned more than 200 trips to Disney World and stayed in every Disney World resort.
"The main reason we all applied to be on the panel was our passion for the brand," said Laura Spencer, a Boston-based member of the 2008 panel who has since gotten a paid job with Disney World public relations and moved to Orlando.