This is the Time to Remember......: All dressed up with nowhere to go!

What can I say? To say that I am disappointed would be an understatement. To say that I could care less, would be a lie. To say that I don't wonder about the selection process would also be a total lie.

So as you can probably guess, I am not one of the lucky Disney Social Media Moms attendees. Not for 2011 anyway.

Let me explain how it all played out. First of all, I was at Disney World this week. I had canceled my Keys to the Kingdom tour scheduled for Thursday, just to be guaranteed Internet access for registration since it was first come, first served..The tour was scheduled to end at 2PM. Registration was set to open at 2:00 PM. I logged in at 1:50PM and was met by what is now known as the orange circle of death. After several refreshes, I finally got the registration page. My fingers were flying, hoping for no typos, yet still thinking that it was first come first served. At 2:20PM, I printed off my confirmation and received an email immediately after. I was feeling pretty good about it considering that I got it in shortly after registration opened. I even stuck around and offered to register others when I was able to open another registration page.

So today, while at Animal Kingdom, I receive the Thanks but no Thanks email. I literally felt my heart sink. I had such high hopes, that I guess it just hit a bit harder. I know, it's just a conference but a conference at one of my favorite places on earth. It wasn't even about the trip. We are AP holders and we go to Disney a lot! Yes, I did choose the full celebration option, simply because I would have to book a place to stay regardless, but I would have been content with just the conference portion. Don't get me wrong, a stay at the Grand Floridian would be AMAZING! I have only stayed there once and only for one night. But the whole point of this is the conference. I remember wishing that there would have been more actual conference sessions when I attended in February.

Yes, I am upset. Yes, I am disappointed & sad. I am even a bit confused about the actual process. But no, I am not angry and no, I am not devastated. I still will wake up tomorrow, hopefully, and Thank God for a new day and find something that is meant for me. There's something hiding behind every corner! Think about it, how many boyfriends did you break up with and feel like it was the end of the world? Only to turn around and find your soul mate. I know it happened to me.

Now, to address what is going on in Twitterville. I did tweet as soon as I got the email:

Then my battery died on my crappy iPhone and I couldn't follow the stream. When I got plugged in in the car, I was appalled by a lot of what I was seeing. I just sat back and flinched. Like I said, I was and am disappointed. I still would have loved to know that it was basically an application and not a registration. I would have also liked to know what the requirements were before registering/ applying. I normally don't apply if I don't feel qualified. I definitely would not have canceled my tour if I had known that it really was not first come, first served. BUT, I would never engage in some of the behavior that I have seen on Twitter. It's all fine and dandy to voice your feelings... heck, I am.... but not at the expense of others. Personal attacks are never an option in my book. I am happy for those that I personally know that got in. How could they not want to celebrate that victory? Let them rejoice in peace. Put yourself in their shoes.

I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to attend the very first Disney Social Media Moms Conference. I'm sure that it was sort of a Beta Test for Disney. Obviously, it worked. As the years go by, if they choose to do it annually, they will learn from any mistakes made. When I registered for 2010, there was not as much information given in regards to accommodations and park tickets. This time everything was announced up front, including the agenda! So here's to 2012. I hope that they choose to continue hosting the conference and I hope to one day be able to attend again.

So for those of you that are going in 2011, ENJOY! Be sure to keep us posted so that we can live vicariously through you!

2 comments:

Ellen Gerstein said...: Great post. Part of me thinks that it's Mickey's sandbox and they can do what they want. They are making this incredibly generous offer to attendees PLUS throwing in a great social media contest. You're complaining and bashing Disney because you didn't make the cut?

On the flip side, it's hard to swallow when WDW was intentionally vague about what criteria there was for attendees. So I can understand why people are getting upset. The ones who seem the most upset are the ones who counted their chickens before they were hatched and worse, told family members (children) too.; 8:46 AM
Mary said...: Yes, Disney can do what they like. Just like any organized body, they can set the criteria for their attendees.

I don't think there were many individuals who were bashing. I think one or two person's comments were blown out of proportion, making it seem like there was a large group of "them vs. us."

I didn't apply for the free trip. Like Lissette, we are AP holders and travel to WDW several time each year.

For me, it's about the conference. The networking and learning opportunities would be invaluable.

However, as Lissette said, it would have been a more streamlined process had Disney just stated the pre-requisites up front. Then those of us who didn't qualify wouldn't have bothered taking the time to register...ahem...apply. I, too, was on vacation on Thurs. I made time to be in my resort room on the internet. If I didn't qualify, my family and I could have gone on with the rest of our day.

I'm not angry about it, just puzzled that Disney would go about this in what was truly an "epic fail" way, as my teenagers would say.; 1:30 PM