Hellooooooooo? Is anybody out there? I am missing all the discourse that went on last year. I'm sure many "hopefuls" are communicating on Facebook, and you have abandoned those of use who do not partake of that technology. By this time last year, answers were being shared and second-guessed. I did not join in much of the banter last year (I was planning and getting ready to leave for the 2014 Food & Wine Festival), but I was looking forward to do more of it this year - earning my ears, as they say.
Maybe I should get more tech-savvy. My lack of it led to a sad, sad story - kind of "Walt Disney-ish". It was a dark and stormy night... No, seriously, it was September 2, 2014 and I was energized to enter the 2015 Disney Parks Moms Panel search. Since entries closed on September 5th, I quickly and carefully answered the questions. I had entered five times before, and made it to the Second Round twice. Each year, I became more confident in my answers and what "they" were looking for. During the 2014 search, I was also wearing my "tour guide" hat (more on that later), finalizing travel plans for my daughter, her husband, and myself to go to Epcot's Food and Wine Festival. It was the first time for us at the festival. An experience not to be missed! I still drool thinking about all the great food we sampled. I also got tickets for the 3 of us to attend Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Being a Halloween aficionado since my daughters were small, I made costumes for us to wear to
MNSSHP. My daughter and son-in-law became Toy Story's "Woody" and "Jessie", and I was "Tour Guide Barbie" (not the one in the leotard, but the one wearing the cute pillbox hat). We felt we were a part of the Disney magic.
Here is the "sad, sad part". We left for WDW on October 24th at
4PM. The three of us have cell phones, but none are smart phones. I thought I hadn't made it to Round 2, it
was six weeks after entering! We enjoyed our 10 day WDW vacation, and returned home on November 3rd. The next day, while catching up on my emails, I found a "Congratulations!", I had made it to Round 2 of the 2015 search. Aaaaaghhhhhhhh! The email was sent on October 24th - at
4:39PM - thirty-nine minutes after we left for our vacation. Had I had availability to my email, I might have been able to advance to Round 3. The Round 2 applications ended at noon on October 27th - probably around the same time I was enjoying my first day at the F&W Festival.
Not a happy ending, but a story with a moral. The moral isn't 'join Facebook' or 'keep checking your email on your smart phone while you are on vacation' to see if you advance to the next Round. The moral is to keep trying until you accomplish your goal. Don't give up. Stay confident.
