Have I mentioned I love celebrations? I really do. It’s part of why I love December so much, it has my birthday AND Christmas 2 weeks after that. I’d celebrate something every day if it meant balloons and decorations and lots of pixie dust too of course. (I did briefly consider becoming a wedding planner just for the joy excitement of planning amazing parties…then I watched Bridezillas. )

Anyway, my friend and fellow Walt Disney World Moms Panelist Doug Ingersoll has been generous enough to donate not one but TWO codes to download his all new Walt Disney World Complete Travel Guide app for the iPhone or iPod Touch!

But wait, there’s more! (Sorry, no steak knives) The incomparable Lou Mongello of WDW Radio and Celebrations magazine fame (as if he needs an introduction?) has graciously given me a prize pack featuring some of his amazing theme park Audio Guides, issues of Celebrations Magazine AND his Walt Disney World Trivia Book. How cool is THAT??

How do you get a chance to win these fabulous prizes you ask?

Quite simply, just comment below and you’re entered to win!

Additional entries may be earned by:

• RT’ing about the contest on twitter (be sure to use @zannaland in your tweet so I can see it)
  
• Sharing on facebook or anywhere else – message boards, email groups, the possibilities are endless! Just link me to it here
  
• “Liking” the  ZannaLand facebook group
  
• Joining Networked Blogs on facebook
  
• Joining Google Friend Connect (join in the box to the bottom right of the main site)
  
• Subscribing to our RSS feed or via email (box on the right of the main site)
  

If you’re already a member or subscriber, just let me know in a comment and I’ll count that too.

I only ask that you leave a separate comment for each entry, because that’s really the only way I can track entries and give you credit for each item. I apologize to my Canadian and International readers but this giveaway is only open to US mailing addresses.

I will be giving away 2 codes for the Walt Disney World Complete Travel Guide app, 1 set of all 3 Lou Mongello Audio Guides, 1 set of two Celebrations magazines, and 1 Walt Disney World Trivia Guide, for a total of FIVE prizes to win.

Giveaway ends July 9, 2010 at 11:59pm.

Thank you again for all your support and readership this past year, and special thanks to Doug and Lou for providing the prizes you are hoping to win!

Exactly one year ago today, I made my very first post regarding Walt Disney World after deciding to theme the blog to discuss all things Disney. A lot has happened in that year. A LOT. I will admit more often than not I’ve thought about giving up the blog – not because I don’t want to write, but I either can’t find the time to write the things I need and want to say, and then worry no one wants to read them anyway, and then fear by not writing I’ll lose what few people I do have reading my updates (thanks, Mom). It’s quite the vicious cycle. Remember when I talked about not being a professional journalist? Now would be one of those times. Most people wouldn’t be discussing this sort of thing, but I guess that’s what makes this a personal blog and not a news and information site. I do tend to wear my heart on my sleeve, both on and offline. For those that have stuck with me despite that trait, thank you. In honor of today’s anniversary, I thought I’d take a stroll down ZannaLand’s memory lane…

It’s no secret that ZannaLand has changed since its inception. In fact, when it first started there was nary a mention of Mickey and his Florida home. Originally this was a place where I sold a zine I wrote, entitled, “Zanna, Do!” all about my life as a slacker and how I was still searching for my dream job. That was in 2004, right after the sudden death of my father, after I had just turned 30 a couple of months prior. It had been my dream to be a writer since I could first put sentences together. I still have some very funny stories I wrote in grade school, summer camp, and high school which, while embarrassing to read now, bring me back to a time when I wasn’t afraid of failure or rejection. I just wrote. Then I got to college and decided to major in Creative Writing for Children and was suddenly hit with this daunting fear of “What if I fail?”. For a long time, that’s all I thought about, and decided if I didn’t try, I couldn’t fail. I then moved on to Travel & Tourism Management and living in Florida: briefly working for Disney and moving up from travel agent to manager of an Orlando area agency. I got married, had two of my children, and my dream of writing faded even further into the distance. Suddenly I was a mom first and any other ambitions went out with the diaper genie trash.

As I mentioned above, I turned 30, and two months later, my father was gone. Suddenly the little voice I’d tried to silence for so long in the back of my head was screaming at me – “Do something!”. So I wrote that zine. It seemed like a failure-free way to start out. I was publishing it myself, mailing it out to people online that wanted to read it, and even getting some independent book store distributors to sell it. It led to me writing an essay for a book that was published in 2005 entitled “If Women Ruled the World.” My piece was very fluffy and tongue-in-cheek and published alongside serious commentary on women in the world. It was exciting nonetheless. Anyway, life took over and I once again left my writing behind to carry on as a mom first and foremost. A few years passed and we relocated to Tampa, I had our third child, and as you most likely are aware, discovered twitter.

My story from that point on is well known; embracing my dreams of writing and being involved with Disney has been the best risk I ever took. Truly, I could not have been as ambitious as I was without the almost-instant support of everyone I came in contact with online. Rather than hearing “Don’t bother, there are a million and one Disney blogs out there…” I heard “Go for it, you can do it!”. Rather than hearing “The odds are against you getting on the WDW Moms Panel…” I heard, “You’d be perfect! Good luck!” And yes, my application experience was a little different because I thought I didn’t make it to the 2nd round but then I did – but sometimes technology is unreliable. Even Laura Spencer herself thought she didn’t make it to the phone interviews until right before they happened.

There will always be those that say I was picked because I was so vocal about my dreams on twitter and my blog – and yes, I was obsessed. I don’t recommend it to anyone because it truly was a 1 in 20,000 chance that I would get chosen and the odds were against me. I thought I hadn’t  made it and yes, I was crushed. I learned during those few days that it’s great to have goals, but you have to be able to adjust them if they aren’t within your power to achieve. I couldn’t *make* Disney pick me, no matter how bad I “wanted it”. I had done my best and had just gotten to the point where I was able to move on (great thanks to everyone that I leaned upon during that time, I will never forget how you all tried to lift my spirits), when I got the 2nd email telling me there was a mistake. It wasn’t a 2nd chance – it was a mistake. Obviously, my emotions were all over the place at that point and I truly can’t say how I wouldn’t handled it if I made I then didn’t make it to round 3 or the finals. But fate had different plans and I did make it to round 3, on to the phone interviews and (obviously) the panel.

As thankful and grateful as I was after getting off that phone call, a part of me never really stopped to realize what an accomplishment it actually was and to soak that in. Part of me always had my own sense of self-doubt that I had ‘bugged’ my way onto the panel. Logically though, even I can see how ridiculous that is. Why would a multi-billion dollar company choose me out of tens of thousands of entries just to ‘shut me up’? The simple answer is, they wouldn’t. The team behind the Walt Disney World Moms Panel application process doesn’t enter lightly into their choices. And while I’m never going to be the one to say, “yeah, I’m pretty awesome” the fact that Disney thought I was worthy enough to be welcomed onto this panel, is an honor to be celebrated. It has, in fact, been an amazing journey and the friends I’ve made along the way have made it all the sweeter.

Now lets get back to the blog! Once I made the panel, I was kind of in a place of limbo with the blog. Will writing it interfere with my role on the Moms Panel? Should I step away from Disney topics and attempt to be a “mom blogger”? I chose the latter and soon found out it wasn’t for me. I have great respect for mom bloggers and the real-life topics they share with all of us trying to be successful parents. I have even greater respect for those that can be completely real, dirty laundry and all, all with amazing wit and wisdom thrown in. I tried to be involved in networks and ‘get myself out there’ as much as I could. However, I soon found that blogging the same giveaways 100 other moms were posting was not for me. I had built my community of readers up by sharing my experiences and love of Disney, and now I was trying to tell them about this exciting new product. I felt like I wasn’t being true to myself. So I again returned to Disney-centric posting.

Then a funny thing happened, my adorable little baby that was crawling around suddenly started walking and talking and running and wanting to get into everything all.the.time. My older kids had a lot going on at school too and my time to blog was suddenly reduced to maybe two hours a day…and in those same two hours I had to take a shower, keep up with laundry, clean the house and once April came around, answer questions on the Moms Panel. I know thousands of women do all this and more daily, but I just couldn’t keep up and actually get any writing done. There were (and are) multiple days in a row when I just can’t update the site. Then, of course, I get anxious. “OMG everyone’s going to delete my site from their feed, stop reading, move on, and forget about me!” And yes, I am admitting that I fear that. I am not making any money from this site and I’m not in it for ‘fame’ or ‘celebrity’ in fact it makes me cringe when I see pictures or video of myself, even though I love the opportunities that take place to hang out with the other people in those pictures and videos. What I was and am in it for is to fulfill my dream of writing. I’ve made some strides there and have been incredibly grateful for the breaks I’ve been given to be a guest author and now a contributing author at Whoa, Momma! Being on the Moms Panel has also been amazing and every time I log on to answer questions, I get a smile on my face.

So, where does that leave me? Well, I’ve never been an “information only” blog. I will share news or reviews but 99% of the time I still throw my personal spin on it. The thing about blogging is you want to share your stories with others. You want people to read and connect and interact. And once you get a little of that, it does become a little addictive. It’s hard not to think, how can I reach more people? How can I get more readers? And as noted, I do have down days where I want to give it all up. This blog will always be a personal blog for better or for worse. There are 100′s or even 1000′s of blogs and sites that will tell you the latest and greatest Disney news – and they are wonderful. ZannaLand will never be one of those sites.

What I will do is tell you how walking down Main Street, USA looking up at Cinderella Castle at night still gives me chills. I’ll tell you about my interactions with Dreamfinder in 1983 and how he and Figment wanted to connect the dots on my freckles. I’ll tell you about my when my two oldest children were little and their faces lit up at the ‘snow’ and lights at the Studios or how my youngest ran to the window of Animal Kingdom Lodge and yelled out “RAFFE!” as he saw his first live giraffe through the windows. In between, I’ll share some tips and other experiences that may make your vacation more enjoyable. Maybe I’ll give some things away. Maybe I’ll share some other bloggers with you, or other travel destinations I think you may enjoy. My point is, you’ll get me, my personal experiences and then some. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Hopefully, you’ll find something you can identify with and share back with me, because we’re just getting started.

Thank you for reading.

First things first, I must announce the winner of the “Great Family Food” by Chef  Kevin Dundon giveaway. After inputting the number of entries into random.org, #14 was chosen – Jennifer P. Congratulations, Jennifer! I’ll be emailing you for your info to send the book your way. I wish you many happy hours of delicious cooking with it! Thank you so much to everyone that entered, tweeted, re-tweeted and spread the word about the giveaway and ZannaLand.

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Some other news – I am now an official contributing author at TampaBay.com’s Whoa, Momma! blog. I know I mentioned I was writing articles for them before, but now I’m all permanent-like and my name’s on the header and my author bio’s on the side. Yee haw! Pretty darn cool and I am extremely grateful and honored that the fine ladies over at Whoa, Momma! for taking a chance on me. You can read my latest post on Activities Off the Beaten Path at Disney there now, with more to come in the coming weeks. Some pieces may even be picked up by the St. Petersburg Times and in turn their news wire and show up in your local paper.

I’ve mentioned on twitter but I know not everyone is there – I have also written a couple of guest posts for Mr. Hidden Mickey Guy himself, Steven Barrett. Again, the honor was mine and if you told me a year ago I’d be doing either of these things, I’d have laughed and said “yeah, right!” I’m so very grateful. You can read my post on Disney After Dark and Staying Cool in the Summer at Disney over on his site.

And of course, you can find me over at DisneyWorldMoms.com where I’ll be answering questions for a few more weeks. I’d love to get a question from a reader to answer on the panel! Just click on the “ask Suzannah a question” link on my WDW Moms Panel bio page.

If you are looking for other ways to stay connected, you can find me on twitter @zannaland, or the facebook page for the site: facebook.com/zannaland (close to 500 members now!) over there you can post comments or questions on the wall, interact with other Disney fans, add pictures to the group photo album and keep up with all the blog entries as well. I’d love to see more of you!

Thank you so much for reading!

Those of you regular readers here at ZannaLand know that I’m not exactly the pinnacle of proper journalistic procedure and format. I did not come to this blog by way of a former career in the media, any official training, or degrees to back me up (unless you want to count writing for the high school newspaper and those two semesters of public relations in college). This is, I’m sure, more than evident in the casual way that I share my thoughts and views here with you. I do this to connect with readers and hopefully speak to them on the same level. So it is in that same vein that I share the following pre-amble to the amazing interview I’m about to post –

If you’ve met me in real life, you also know that shy and socially awkward are probably the first two impressions that come to mind. There’s a reason I write! However, after several meetings or perhaps an adult beverage, I do mellow out and relax. That said, hanging around my fellow bloggers and media mavens, I finally get that concept of:  “What’s the worse they can say? No? Then you move on!“

So it was channeling one of those very bloggers that gave me the confidence to approach Chef Dundon after meeting him at the Raglan Road Signature Dinner and ask for an interview. As soon as I had the thought, the confidence was there and I knew I could do it. Even if he blew me off and said he was too busy, or was polite and said yes but later blew me off, I was going to DO it. So I did. And guess what? (not hard to guess reading the title of this post!) He said “That would be wonderful!” I spent the rest of the night on cloud 9, if for no other reason than I had made that next step in my new life as a purveyor of fine social media. (Like that title? I just made it up.)

Anyway, now you know the story behind the story and it is with great pleasure and honor that I present the following interview to you, my readers, and hope you enjoy it. Here’s a little more about Kevin Dundon’s background:

Kevin Dundon is the Chef/Proprietor of Dunbrody Country House Hotel & Restaurant, located in Ireland’s sunny South East. Dunbrody was established in 1997 by Kevin and his wife Catherine and has very quickly become a must-see for all foodies. It is now considered to be one of Ireland’s Premier Hotels & Restaurant. Kevin’s runs a cookery school at the hotel as well which already recognised as one of the most respected in the country. (source: KevinDundon.com)

In addition Kevin is the Chef/Patron of Raglan Road which has two locations, Downtown Disney in Orlando and Kansas City, MO. Given that Chef Dundon has cooked for none other than Her Majesty, The Queen and Bono, I think it goes without saying that Raglan Road will not disappoint. He is also author of two cookbooks: Full on Irish: Creative Contemporary Cooking and Great Family Food. Is there another in the works? Read on…

Read the rest of this entry

Just adding a quick update that I am now LIVE at DisneyWorldMoms.com along with my other 2nd quarter friends, Amanda W. and Joel K. If you click on our bios you can ask us questions directly! I started answering questions today and let me tell you, it is so much fun. As much as I love helping a random person out here and there on twitter, it’s great not to be limited by 140 characters. The Disney site lies somewhere between twitter constraints and being able to go on and on here, so it’s a nice, happy medium. Of course I am seeing and answering questions there from all over, from people with every possible situation looking to get help with their Disney vacation. As a former travel agent, I always loved that part, when I just got to talk to people about what they could do. It really is so exciting and I thank Disney once again for giving me this amazing opportunity.

Because of my new position taking effect now, my time is a bit limited but I’ll still be here posting as much and as often as I can. The book giveaway I mentioned on twitter will be a bit delayed, but I’ve got some other things coming up you won’t want to miss. As for the Vinylmation giveaway, I’ll be using random.org to pick the winners tonight and announce them as an edit to the original entry – so stay tuned! Thank you so much for participating and for reading ZannaLand. This certainly is one heck of a ride! Glad to have you along with me.

Those of you on my personal facebook page may have noticed my update about the milestone my little corner of the internet is about to reach. When I posted it, I thought I’d just say it there, and move on, not making a big deal about it. The more I thought about it all day, the more I realized I should be celebrating this achievement. After all, this site is devoted to Disney, and who does celebrations better than Disney, right? Also, the whole reason this milestone is happening is because of you, the readers, so I figured I should definitely be giving back to the very people that brought me here to begin with. So are you ready to celebrate??

There are 2 days left in March, including today – ZannaLand.com is really really close to getting 10,000 page views for the month of March. I’m so amazed by this – I remember when I started I was excited that the site had 10 views a day. Certainly a LOT has happened both on the site and in my life since that time, and I am so grateful for the exciting changes that have taken place.

These are just some of the Vinylmation figures out there - you could win a brand new one!

I would not be here without the wonderful community of readers about which I’m always raving, and although I may not have the budget of Disney, what I’d do in real life is take you out for a coffee and thank you. Since for most readers, I can’t do that without involving airlines and lots of miles, I thought I’d give away 3 gift cards {of various mystery amounts}  for a coffee on me {or tea or whatever else you might like to drink at Starbucks}.

In addition, I’m giving  away a couple of fun surprises – 2 unopened Vinylmation figures! So that’s 5 separate chances to win.  However,  we have to reach that goal first – which means I need your help getting the word out about this giveaway!

To enter the giveaway:

• Comment on this entry.

If you want some extra entries you can also:

• Tweet about this giveaway and comment here with the url of that tweet.
• Post on facebook or anywhere else you’d like to spread the word and let me know here!

I will then add all the entries into random.org and pick the winners there. I can’t wait to see who wins!

Disclosure: I am providing these prizes out-of-pocket and am not being sponsored by Starbucks, Walt Disney World or anyone else for this giveaway. Each comment meeting the above guidelines will be entered to win one of five prizes. Contest ends at midnight PST on March 31st and winners will be announced on April 1st. Good luck!

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UPDATE: If you did not read on twitter, we surpassed 10,000 views after midnight on March 30th, so we definitely hit our goal and then some by the 31st! Thanks so much!! The winners have been picked at random.org:

$5 Starbucks gift card goes to – Jacqueline Hudson!

$10 Starbucks gift card goes to - icitea!

$15 Starbucks gift card goes to - Stephanie (VertigoDawn)!

1st Vinylmation goes to -Vader’s Mom!!

2nd Vinylmation goes to - Jon (disneylovndad)!!

Congratulations! I will get your prizes mailed out as soon as possible!

Thank you ALL for the amazing participation, for reading, and for spreading the word about ZannaLand. I promise this will not be the last fun giveaway!!

Faithful readers may have noticed a gap in updates here in ZannaLand. Never fear – I have lots of fun stuff lined up. I’ve just been working on some behind-the-scenes (or backstage to use a Disney term) things on the site and trying to make it better organized for visitors that may be looking for specific posts or planning help. In addition (outside of running after my 3 kids), I’ve been working on another page within the site to list some other places to get your Disney fix online. Basically a blog roll, as is very common on other sites – however I really want to make this a lot more than just a listing of links. And here’s why…{you knew there had to be a story in here right?}

I know I’ve talked a bit in the past on here about the how and why of wanting to write about Disney. To go into a little more detail, it was really because of twitter and the amazing Disney community that lives there. A year ago, I was just a fan connecting with other Disney fans on twitter and discovering that there existed so many sites and blogs about Disney. When the thought occurred to me to change the focus of my blog here to one about Walt Disney World, the support was overwhelming. I never heard a “oh, don’t bother, there are 10,000+ Disney sites out there!” or “it’s already been done, what could you possibly bring to the table?” even though those were exactly the doubts I was having. Quite the contrary, I received cheers and open arms waiting to help. And trust me – I asked for help – a LOT.

Read the rest of this entry

Confession: I had a blogging identity crisis. Right in the middle of Walt Disney World.

Readers of ZannaLand may have noticed the not-so-subtle shift from Disney posts to more me/personal/generic posts. This happened both because I combined the MainStreet.Zannaland.com posts here and I really wanted to venture out into the world of Mom Blogs and hopefully get more involved with other bloggers, product reviews and blogging opportunities. I thought – “I can be a REAL blogging mom!” There was only one problem…I had no idea what to blog about. Read the rest of this entry

Those of you who have been online for a while have probably heard of NaNoWriMo before – National Novel Writing Month. The goal there is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. I tried it once about 4 or 5 years ago, and didn’t get much past a first chapter. Blogging is a little less daunting, so with a reminder from a friend’s blog, I thought I’d sign up and give NaBloPoMo a try.

Since I can’t ever make things easy, I thought I’d go a step further and make all posts related to this month about me. Yes. Me. Of course I’ve blabbed about myself before, usually in relation to Disney and my memories there, but I thought I’d use this slightly shortened month to talk about myself, either in-depth or just some fluff pieces. A lot of times you stumble across a blog or a person online and you think you know them based on their likes, their recent entries or their tweets. Sometimes what’s visible is only the tip of the iceberg that is the person behind a blog. The way I relate best to people is based on common background or interests. I know I instantly feel a kinship with someone if they say “I love David Bowie!” or “That was my favorite toy as a child!”. Why not expand on that and see just how much we all have in common?

So welcome aboard and stay tuned for some fun (and hopefully interesting) posts all about me. There will probably be additional non-me-related posts this month as well, but I’ll try to do 28 NaBloPoMo posts on their own.  That said – any questions or topic ideas about me you’d like me to touch on? I’m all ears (or eyes really).

Happy 2010 to all reading this! I took a bit of time off from writing for the holidays to enjoy some family time at home, but now it’s time to get back into full swing here at ZannaLand. I can’t tell you how excited I am for this new year and all it may bring. I thought I’d take a moment to talk about where I’ve come from and where I hope to be going in 2010.

According to my archives, I wrote my first entry on this blog on March 5, 2009. It was a pretty silly entry about working on the technical stuff and how I’d soon be updating. Then a month went by and I posted one more time. And another month and I posted a rant about annoying people leading up to Mother’s Day. Then…I decided to make the switch and talk about what I knew, Disney. In June, I started writing semi-regularly about the topic I know and love, Walt Disney World. It’s been both a long 10 months and at the same time feels like the past year flew by.

I went through many changes in a short time with the blog, wondering if I should be all newsy and informative, realizing no one can compete with the amazing Disney news sources already out there, thinking I should be more personal, starting up a sub-blog about personal things, realizing I should just combine the two, and getting to where I am today – a blog about all the things I find interesting and share-worthy about my life, family and the World (Disney World that is). I know a lot more about the world of blogging and social media than when I started, but boy do I still have a lot to learn! And I can’t wait to learn it!

Continue Reading We’ve Only Just Begun…