Gaylord Palm’s Shrek Feast Breakfast

I received an all expenses paid trip to Florida to attend the Decade of Memories Event from Experience Kissimmee. No monetary compensation has been received and all thoughts expressed are my own.y

When you are vacation, every extra little bonus can make memories that last forever. How about a character breakfast with Shrek and Princess Fiona? I may be a mom but I am definitely a fan of this ogre and princess.
Shrek Feast at Gaylord PalmsI didn’t have a chance yet to stay at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee, FL but I did get a chance to visit the resort eat breakfast there just a few days ago. Not just any breakfast either, a breakfast fit to feed an ogre.

There was a TON of food to choose from. This is just some of the food that I was able to grab photos off, there was more. There was an entire filled with all sorts of yummy breakfast options.

Shrek Feast Buffet at Gaylord Palms

While you are eating, you have the option to wash your meal down with some yummy ogre juice or soda!

Shrek Feast Ogre Juice

It isn”t a character breakfast without getting to see and take pictures with the Dreamwork’s characters Shrek and Fiona. Being the blogger I am, I just had to get a picture with Shrek.

Shrek & Stefani Tolson

I wasn’t going to leave without a picture or two with my favorite Princess Fiona.

Shrek Feast Fiona Gaylord Palms

We also got a surprise visit at breakfast from Puss In Boots.

Puss In Boots at Shrek Feast

I think this might have been my favorite part of the buffet. A Shrek inspired fountain that you can dip cake or marshmallows into.

Shref Feast FountainThe food that I had was delicious and the parts of this resort that I was able to see during my time there was beautiful. The Gaylord Palms includes four-and-a-half acres of indoor gardens and three distinct Florida environments. I loved the pond with some very pretty Koi fish too!

Gaylord Palms Kissimmee

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Become an honorary Ogre and join Shrek and friends for a fairytale feast fit for a king. Discover a magic fountain bubbling over with intoxicating chocolate potions. Plus, Shrek and friends will visit you tableside for hugs and photos!

Location: Villa de Flora
Availability: Every Saturday and Sunday (8:00 AM – 10:30 AM)
Open to the public.
Price: $29.95* Adult (ages 13+) | $19.95* Child (ages 4 – 12)
To Book: Call 407-586-1114 or book online now
*Prices are exclusive of tax and service charge. Dates are subject to change.

Decade Of Memories Winner Announcement #Kiss10

I received an all expenses paid trip to Florida to attend the Decade of Memories Event from Experience Kissimmee. No monetary compensation has been received and all thoughts expressed are my own.y

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Decade Of Memories Luncheon at the Westgate Resorts where the winner of the Decade of Memories contest from Experience was announce. There were 5 finalists and the lucky family that won 10 years of vacations was the Shuff Family.

Decade of Memories winner

I was able to meet, spend time and also ask each of the five lucky finalists questions.  Brooke Shuff, the Grand Prize winner says that she will probably take the kids to Disney World for their first vacation of the ten. What was neat about this was each of the families got a trip to Florida to attend this event and we got to do some pretty fun things.

For those that want to watch the winner’s be announced, watch my video I took at the luncheon below.

You will want to watch the video to see a little surprise that the other contest finalists received.

Stay tuned for more details of my trip to Florida to Experience Kissimmee!

Decade Of Memories – Vote Now For A Chance To WIN A $500 Visa Gift Card

Have you ever been to Kissimmee?. I got a chance to go there last year for a few days and have been wanting to go back ever since. There is so much to see and you definitely need at least a week there to get to see some of the Kissimmee beauty!

Kissimmee Logo

For the last few months families have been creating fun and unique videos in hopes of winning the Decade of Kissimmee Memories contest. For those that like to travel and vacation, the GRAND PRIZE of this contest consists of 10 vacations with a retail value (“ARV”) of  $87,940. Over 1,500 video submissions were received and the 5 FINALISTS have been chosen. Right now on Facebook, fans can view each of the 5 videos and cast their vote on who they think should win.Decase of Memories

Why should you vote? When you VOTE you get one sweepstakes entry towards a chance to WIN a $500 Visa Gift Card (USD). Voting can be done daily through June 10th and the winner of the Decade of Memories contest will be announced on June 11th. I know that I sure could use an extra $500 to spend this summer…

Vote Decade of Memories

I am excited to announce that I will personally be attending the winner’s announcement event in Florida on Monday where the lucky winner will be chosen. I also will also be taking a tour of Kissimmee and seeing some of the amazing sites with these FIVE lucky finalists. Be sure to stay tuned for more details of my trip.

You can view the Top 5 videos submissions on Decade of Kissimmee Memories.

 

Vacation Ideas You Might Have Not Thought Of

I usually have a summer vacation planned by now but I don’t. This year I can’t decide on where I want to go. For me, I usually go to Southern California because there are so many options. In the last few years our family vacations have included Disneyland, Universal Studios, Hollywood, The San Diego Zoo. If you have never been to Southern California, I definitely recommend seeing all of those I just mentioned.

Boggy Creek Airboat Rides

Today I went on Facebook to get some ideas of places that my friends and fans recommend going to or want to see. I thought I would share with you their ideas in case you happen to be wanting some vacation ideas or you can maybe get lucky and bet on Kentucky derby. I remember thinking it was fun to watch my mom bet on the horse races when I was young.

Here are some vacation ideas that you might not have thought of:

  1. Boggy Creek Airboat Rides - Take a trip on an airboat ride where you will see real live gators! If you are really brave you might get a chance to hold a baby gator or maybe eat some fried gator. I was brave and have done them all.
  2. Seattle, WA – A place for those who enjoy museums. I want to visit Seattle to see the Space Needle that I seen from afar when I was on an a trip with my grandparents back in the 5th grade. I also want to see the Seattle Great Wheel.
  3. African Safari – If you love animals and love going to the zoo, you will definitely want to take part on an African safari. You can either do the real thing and go on a real tour somewhere in Africa or maybe just take the Animal Trek at Animal Kingdom in Florida.
  4. Cambodia – A place to visit for temples, undeveloped tropical islands and lots of white sandy beaches.
  5. Alaskan cruise - Go in style and get to view Authentic Alaska in a fancy cruise ship. This is something I have wanted to do for years!
  6. Italy – I definitely want to see Italy one day. Not only see all the historic sites but try all the Italian food too!
  7. Australia - You might want to check out these popular landmarks: Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbor Bridge, the Great Barrier Reef and Kangaroo Island. They sound amazing.
  8. Virginia Beach – I haven’t been here yet, but there is a TON to see like The Cape Henry Lighthouse, Ocean Breeze Water Park, The Boardwalk and more!
  9. Disney – If you have never been to Disney Land or Disney World and you have little ones, these two magical places are a must see. I would even go to Disney without the kids. If you are near Florida, get a park hopper pass and see multiple Disney parks in one day. I did 3 Disney parks last year in 12 hours!

What are some places that you might suggest for a vacation?

 

My Trip To The Walt Disney Family Museum – #MonstersUEvent

Disclosure – I received an invite to the #MonstersUEvent. All expenses were paid for and covered by Disney. This post is not a paid post and the opinions stated herein are 100% my own.

The Walt Disney Family Museum

I have been to plenty of museums in my time, but not any museum has been as interesting as The Walt Disney Museum in the Presidio of San Francisco. Being the Disney fan I am, I was excited when I had the opportunity to take a press trip this month with 24 of my fellow bloggers to the museum  to see just what was inside.

Walt Disney Family Museum

I have to admit that I have passed this beautiful building a few times while driving through the Presidio and was always curious as to what was inside.  It was definitely something on my list of places to see in the bay area.

Diane Disney Miller“My father has one of the most well-known names around the world, but as the Disney ‘brand’ has grown, the man has become lost”, said Diane Disney Miller.

Wanting her father’s legend to live on, Diane Disney Miller, the daughter of Walt Disney founded The Walt Disney Museum as a way to tell the story of the man behind the Disney name. A place to showcase some of Walt’s Academy Awards, personal photos, original drawings and so much more. When the Museum originally opened, no photos were allowed but since, the policy has changed and I was able to snap over 200 photos inside.

WDFM-sign

The Museum is located in a historic 40,000 square foot brick building that is currently owned and operated by the Walt Disney Family Foundation, a non-profit foundation. You can’t tell from the outside, but this beautiful building houses 10 interactive galleries that are amazing to see.

Walt Disney Awards

While walking through each of these galleries, I was honestly amazed with all that Walt Disney has accomplished.  There was also things I learned that were pretty interesting. I bet you didn’t know that Walt Disney went to France at 16 years old to drive an ambulance in the war. Or maybe you did.  :)

war-ambulance

While taking the tour you will find exhibits that feature state-of-the-art technology, listening stations and more than 200 video screens to keep you entertained. I think some of the things at the museum that I found most interesting to see were the original drawings from Walt’s movies like Pinocchio.

pinocchio-drawings

Although I enjoyed the whole experience, I really liked the 14 foot model of Disneyland that you can find on the tour.

Model of Disneyland at WDFM

In addition to learning about the good times that Walt Disney experienced and the awards and nominations he received, you will also learn of the not so good times.

Disney Studio On Strike

Don’t let me forget to mention that this Museum also features a glass-walled back exterior that frames an amazing view of the Golden Gate Bridge!

Walt Disney  Musuem view of the bridge

I could go on forever talking about Walt Disney and the information I learned while on my trip. I am glad that I got to see it for myself and want to go back with my family so that my kids can learn about the man behind some of their favorite childhood movies

If you are a fan of the Disney brand and in the San Francisco area, I encourage you to check the Museum out for yourself. After the tour you will have truly a more appreciation of all this man’s hard work and accomplishments and maybe gain some motivation to try something you thought you could never do too.

I loved this picture I found at the end of my tour that I found so true.

a-mark-of-happiness

The Walt Disney Family Museum is open from 10am to 6pm on Wednesday through Monday. Admission can be purchased at the door, or by visiting www.waltdisney.org. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors & students and $12 for children 6 to 17. Admission is FREE for those that are 6 and under.

If you are unable to visit the Museum, but want to see more of what is inside, feel free to check out my Walt Disney Family Museum Photo Album on Google+.

 

It’s Time To Plan Our Summer Vacations! #spon

vacation

Now that we are half way through April I have travel on my mind. My college courses end next month and my kid’s go on summer vacation in June. Every year we take a family vacation and I am excited to plan on our trip for this summer. I have been thinking of doing a Disney trip this summer, but I might be able to find a better travel idea online.

CarryOn Logo

For those that like to travel like I do, that also like to find and book your vacations online, you definitely want to check out the site CarryOn. Have you ever went online and pretended to purchase a trip or vacation just so you can see what the cost would be? With CarryOn you can go through the purchase path of your initial travel search and instead of purchasing your trip at the end, you can “get bids”. With this system your search is saved and CarryOn will hunt for the best deals for you.

You can find deals on:

  1. Hotels
  2. Flights
  3. Cruises
  4. Car rentals

Once your search is saved, you will get notices in your inbox if they see a price drop or price increase for the trip that you are interested in. For those with limited time online, let CarryOn do the bargain hunting for your trip to help save you time.

Carryon Rewards

The CarryOn travel website gets even better, they have a REWARDS program too! Members can earn points for a variety of different actions. Here are some of the ways to earn points with CarryOn:

  • Creating an account (1,000 points)
  • Completing your profile (4,000 points)
  • Watching a trip (25 points)
  • Opening up an email from Carryon (25 points)
  • Visiting the site (25 points)
  • Referring a friend (25 points)
  • and more ways…

Got friends that travel too? You can also earn 1 point for every dollar your friends and friends of their friends spend on travel. These points that you accumulate can be redeemed towards dollars off a trip booked on the CarryOn website. Once you reach the 10,000 point mark, you can start redeeming your points.

I joined and am already earning points on doing some of the things I mentioned above.For more info or to join for FREE, visit: www.Carryon.com

Thinking Vacation, Beaches & Cruise Ships Oh My!

There are so many different places that I wish I could visit one day. For one, I want to be able to visit each state in the United States before I get too old. Since there are 50 states and I have only seen 8 (not counting the states I have flown over), I would have to say I have a lot of states left to see. My goal is to buy on one of those fancy motorhomes when the kids are grown and take trips as often as possible!

the-beach

In addition to seeing all the states in the US, I would love to be able to travel to some of the countries that I have only got to see on tv shows and movies like Germany, France and Italy. When it comes to countries, this girl has only seen Canada when I was about 10 and Mexico when I want on one of those cheap 3 day cruises about 10 years ago. I definitely want to take another cruise, but one that goes to the Caribbean or maybe even Australia. I am a girl that LOVES the ocean, so taking a cruise to some exotic place is something I would really enjoy!

When I think of vacation and relaxing, I think about pretty beach with white sand and pretty blue water. Don’t forget about the yummy drink with the umbrella too!

What is your dream vacation consist of?