showing my disney side

disney has been promoting something they're calling "share your disney side" - where you use social media to basically give disney lots and lots of free advertisement, heh.  they invite you to post pictures and videos via twitter/instagram/vine using the hashtag "disneyside," and when you go to their website, if you're lucky you'll spot yourself in whatever you happened to upload.

my friend delovely details alerted me to a tweet that was offering free tickets to disneyland to attend an event celebrating the launch of the "disney side" promotion.  a handful of folks on twitter had been given 50 tickets each to give away, and she'd managed to get in on the action - as did i:

although each confirmation allowed a guest, i decided to see if i could get the teen in on it too.  i figured she could bring a friend or two, and they could have fun in the parks all day long.  she doesn't get to ride the "fun" rides very often because the bean is a big ol' scaredy cat, so i thought it would be cool for her to be able to have a day to play her way.  i couldn't stay very long since it was on a tuesday and i'd have to pick up the bean from school.

we got to disneyland nice and early - the instructions told us that check-in was from 8:00-9:30, and because we were there for the special event, we got to skip the giant line for bag check.  we sashayed right through and waved our confirmation printouts at the cast member standing there.

there were quite a few people who were checking in, and i knew that DD was already inside and at the front of sleeping beauty's castle.  

swag!

i love feeling like a VIP.  heh.

the parks weren't actually scheduled to open for another hour, but early entrance is available to hotel guests.  they went one way, and we headed straight to the castle with a flash of our hot pink wristbands.

a disclaimer, in case you didn't want to be forever captured on disney film.

apparently, this was a big. deal.  tons of camera equipment and disney officials milling about.

the event was going to feature a handful of what they called "social media all-stars" - and they were all introduced with plenty of fanfare and applause.  because we'd arrived so late, our view wasn't the best.

i tried to get a better look via the camera i was standing next to.  not so much.

then it was time for "the world's biggest selfie."  now i'm no genius, but i was a little confused at this.  we were all asked to turn around and pose for a giant group pic, but also to snap one at the same time.  huh?  but hey, whatever.  i'm always down for a selfie.

the next part of the disney side festivities was at the fantasyland theater to highlight the newest projects by those social media all-stars.  DD and mama DD managed to find me in front of the castle, and we walked over together.

while we stood in line, we got a peek at the area in front of "it's a small world" where we'd get a meet & greet with all of the "all-stars" after the show.

as i perused the program, i saw something that i knew the teen would love:

cameron mathison, formerly of "all my children" and "dancing with the stars," was the host of the show.  he did a great job of cheesing it up.

tiffany alvord was the first "all-star" who came onstage right after her disney side video was shown on the giant screen.

we also got to see the reality changers - a 6-year old and her dad who've gained quite a following via youtube and an appearance on the ellen show.  they sang "you've got a friend in me" from the toy story series and were joined onstage by woody and jessie.

i love grumpy cat.

and then there's trotter pup, who models hats, wigs, and other silly ensembles on instagram.  she was captivated by the sight of herself on the big screen.

mike tompkins, the dude who opened for the jonas brothers at the last concert we attended (sob), was there too.

mickey came out to help cameron close out the show.

DD and mama DD and i decided to walk over and see if we could get a picture with our favorite social media all-star. but first...

of course, out of all the folks available for the meet & greet, it was grumpy cat who stole the show with the longest line of all.

yes, i sure did stand in that line out in the sun.  duh.

also, i ran into erin glover, the disney parks social media director.  she writes a lot of the entries on the disney park blog, and is super sweet.  i'd also like to have her job.

remember the "ridiculously photogenic guy" from this picture that went viral awhile ago?  yeah, i had to.

but by the time i got to the other guy on my list, the meet & greet was over.  wah waaaaaah.

with the teen off with her friends and an hour to myself before i had to leave to pick up the bean from school, i decided to enjoy a lovely leisurely lunch.  i headed here first for something cool and refreshing to drink:

and then i stopped to grab some food from a place the girls would've had zero interest in:

hello, lobster roll!

i found a nice spot to sit and eat at the hungry bear restaurant, and i had company:

a couple of days later, my friend nanette asked me if i'd looked at the disney side website that day. we were actually at disneyland again (more on that another day), so i clicked through on my phone and saw this:

man, i love seeing myself on websites. heh. and when i got home, i looked at the site again and found this a little further down. 

oh, disney. many thanks for feeding into my rampant narcissism.