Disney World – The Next Kid Thing

Family Fun: Disney Social Media Moms 2017

February 7, 2017February 7, 2017 by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

After the holidays, I found myself tired and overwhelmed with picking up the remnants of Christmas and trying to look ahead to the new year. Foggy and fragmented, I promised myself a more organized year with more adventures. When the much-coveted invited for Disney Social Media Moms landed in my inbox on the last wave of invitations, the husband and I wavered, but decided that our boys—our family—needed a break from reality. Since our invite came just a month out, we decide to surprise the boys with the trip. It was fun hiding all of the details until this morning when we drive to the airport! And by fun, I mean totally complicated!

So, here we are back at Disney for another Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. Because I’ve been around for about 9 years, I’ve had the great fortune of being invited to this incredible event several times. Just as our family has grown and evolved, we’ve seen DisneySMMC grow from a small intimate affair to this grand production that’s become a highlight in my kids’ childhood. I love interacting with the great sponsors, learning about the Parks firsthand and experiencing unique opps. I don’t take these opportunities for granted one bit. We savor every single second, and I’m so grateful my kids get to experience these special events.

I stayed up until 3am last night finishing projects and woke up at 6am this morning. After traveling all day, I made the family head to the parks so we could take advantage of the small window of downtime I had for the day. Verdict? Totally worth the exhaustion.

But of course, a little bit of Starbucks on Main Street helped with my delirium.

The events staff had a beautiful welcome dinner for us in Animal Kingdom. The food was a delicious array of savory and sweet treats, with plenty of exotic influence. The food never disappoints! After dinner, the group watched a River of Lights, but unfortunately, we were way too tired and left after dinner.

We’re headed out to Epcot tomorrow, Disney Springs and then Hollywood Studios for some fun!

Combining the best of the Parks and Disney Cruiseline, this year is the first ever Disney Social Media Land and Sea Celebration. We’re spending Tuesday and Wednesday at the parks getting the latest information on new additions, shows and more. On Thursday – Sunday, we’ll be setting sail aboard the Disney Wonder for a 3-day Bahamian Cruise.

When Josh was sick a few years ago, brighter days and dream trips kept us afloat. A Disney Cruise has always been one of our bucket list trips, simply because it combines everything we love as a family. I can’t wait to share this experience with my guys and to see this dream trip come to fruition.

Be sure to catch me on Instagram, where I hope to share stories of our #DisneySMMC adventure!

Enjoy the Magic: Attending the 2016 DisneySMMC

May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

It’s hard to believe that it’s time for the 2016 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. In March, a magical invitation landed in my inbox at just the right time. Naturally.

Chaos and hardships always seem to pop up at the most inopportune times. This year, though I truly shocked and honored to receive another invitation to DisneySMMC. Because it wasn’t our first time, I had to really think about it. We weren’t financially prepared to take a vacation to Disney World, just weeks away. And truly, with all the chaos happening at home, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take a vacation, never mind be with anyone outside of my daily bubble.

And that’s when it hit me: in light of the crazy, I needed to seek joy. So, we pinched our pennies, and the stars aligned, and here we are…

Because joy always balances the crazy, right?

For my non-social media friends and family, DisneySMMC is an invite-only event hosted by Disney Parks where we, as influencers, are given an inside look at what makes this place so magical. It’s one of the few elite celebrations where families are included and encouraged to join the festivities. Disney hosts meticulously-planned parties and social media strategy lectures and more over the 4-day event.

One of my absolute favorite speakers was from the 2015 event. Eva Smith, Head of Marketing Insights for Pinterest shared a lot of valuable information. In fact, I’ve gone on to use a lot of that info when I freelance as a social media consultant and train small businesses. The lessons and insight I gained from that talk alone was worth all the effort and investment in attending.

Sponsors such as Hanes, Kimberly Clark, Alamo, GoGo SqueeZ, Joffrey’s and American Tourister contribute to the magic. But it’s the Disney Parks Team that goes above and beyond to provide such incredible experiences for the 150+ influencers and their families in attendance.

It goes without saying that, contrary to popular belief, DisneySMMC is NOT a “free trip.” I’ve had friends and family members assume that we get to come here for free. Not the case. In fact, we had to scrape to be able to afford this trip. (We’re eating PB&J on the days that Disney doesn’t feed us!) While we pay our way to take part in the Celebration, we do receive some complimentary items (swag), discounts and other cool perks. One of our favorite perks was meeting Olaf last year!

If you follow me on social media, then you may already know that my family has been in Florida for a few days. With the crazy weather on the East Coast, I’m glad we got the painful traveling out of the way so we can hopefully enjoy the sunshine for the rest of the week.

Today, May, 4, 2016, my guys and I spent the day at Hollywood Studios in honor of Star Wars Day. May the Fourth Be With You! It was cold, wet and rainy, but we had so much fun checking out our favorite attractions and interacting with Storm Troopers and more.

Now that we’re all settled into the Beach Club, I will be sharing a lot of info on my social channels. I plan to snap more off the cuff, behind the scenes stuff on Snapchat. Fun visuals over on Instagram. Limited updates and maybe a Facebook Live post from some parts of the conference on Friday, 5/6. And definitely videos over on YouTube. I’ll link up my channels below, so be sure to follow for more fun updates!

Twitter: @jenrab
Instagram: @jenrab
Snapchat: jen_rab
Facebook: The Next Kid Thing
YouTube: The Next Kid Thing

Full disclosure: At DisneySMMC, we receive some complimentary items and discounts, however all opinions on NKT are my own.

NYC Vlogger Challenge Week 8

March 30, 2016 by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

It’s my turn once again to host the NYC Vlogger Challenge. We’re at week 8 and my prompts were inspired by Disney Social Media Moms Celebration on the Road, as well as Spring activities coming into play!

My prompts are pretty easy and straight forward. I’m hoping you share some of your favorite Disney World hacks or theme park essentials. If outdoor play is more your speed, tell us about it, we’d love to hear all about it!

1. Do you have any favorite Disney World or Land attractions or secret spots?

2. What are your theme park essentials? Is there something you always bring to a theme park?

3. What are your favorite Spring toys?

4. What are you favorite outdoor games?

5. Does your family like to swim?

How can you join the conversation?

Each week, one of us will host the challenge and we ask you to join us on Youtube, Vine, Instagram or your blog with a response video. That’s it!

Can’t wait to hear your video response to one of the prompts above!

We’re going to #DSMM in May

March 7, 2016March 7, 2016 by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Blogging has afforded my family and me the most wonderful experiences over the years. But, among all the cool experiences, some of the highlights have been being invited to Disney Social Media Moms Celebration (DSMM) multiple times.

I’ll be the first to tell you: I don’t have the “biggest” blog, I don’t have numbers inflated by giveaways, and I’m almost always overwhelmed by life and how much work needs to get done. Nevertheless, I believe in staying true to myself and to this site I created 8 years ago. I’m proud of having the platform to keep my journalism background at work while creating a site that reaches such a diverse audience. NKT has ebbed and it’s flowed, but through it all, I’m so glad I’ve had an outlet to share all of the cool things for kids that make us happy.

When my littler guy was extremely sick 2/3 years ago, and we had nothing but visits to specialists and procedures on our calendar, I shared a lot of my life on social media as a way to cope. My community rallied and helped me stay sane. Sure, I use social media daily to promote the site and whatever’s the topic du jour, but in the end, it’s truly changed my life.

At Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, I’ve learned how to hone my craft and how to better understand analytics for platforms such as Pinterest. Speakers have inspired us in storybook ways, just as one would expect Disney to showcase. But most importantly, Disney has brought my family together in the toughest times,—when we’ve been financially drained by medical bills, overcome by worries and consumed by what ifs. As my older son is quickly racing to become a teen and my younger son gets stronger every day, it’s the happy times that elevate us as a family.

Our life is far from storybook, but we’ll always have our Disney memories to lift us up when we need them most. I’m forever grateful for Disney Parks and BSM Media for making those memories that much more magical.

I’m finishing up some video from last year’s Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, but for now, I wanted to share this recap video of last year’s event that was created for Disney.

I can’t wait to share our experiences at DSMM again in May. Until then, I’m sure my Pinterest boards and blog posts will be flooded with Disney crafts and ideas inspired by The Mouse.