travel Archives - Over The Top Mommy

The day I got an email in my inbox inviting me to attend the Disney Social Media Moms on the Road Conference in Arizona was a Magical One!

I’d connected with so many other Disney-loving moms online who are also in the social media world and this was finally going to be my chance to connect with many of them in person! I was also excited about the location of the conference, The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Resort! The property looked like it had so much to offer when I checked out the website. Emi was excited for the pools and Sonoran Splash, which are the watersides. I just couldn’t wait for all of it!

As the conference date neared, I started to plan out which necessities I’d need. I made a list of road trip necessities, in-room necessities, and conference necessities! Since Emi was going to be traveling with me to Arizona, although she wouldn’t be attending the actual conference, I wanted to get some extra special things for our trip to maximize our dual Disney Side.

First of all, let’s talk EARS! I love wearing ears. I wear ears when I’m in the parks. I sometimes wear ears when I’m teaching. I wear ears when I’m cleaning the house, unless I’m already wearing a tiara to clean! I will find any excuse to wear ears. Emi and I both already have black and red ears but I was in search of new ones for this special occasion. I came across an adorable local (to me) shop on Facebook called Popsikle Shop. She makes custom ears, so I decided to order a pair for both emi and I, matching of course!

Next we went shopping for warm weather necessities. Wait, I didn’t mean warm weather, I meant HOT weather! (Have you ever been to Arizona at the end of June?) Emi wanted to find some items that were matching and Disney-ish. We really lucked at Walmart! Their Juniors section had a ton of really cute bathing suits and swim shorts. Hot pink with white polka dots was VERY “Minnie”

So adorable, don’t you agree?

Do you like our hot pink visors, too?

We also found matching polka dotted coverups at Walmart that we wore as sundresses!

Walmart had everything we needed for our trip. We found sunglasses, water shoes, some other summer clothes, sunblock, and even snacks for the road trip! Not only did they have everything we needed, but it was also very affordable!

We also packed the personalized t-shirts we had made for Disney24 to wear in the room as part of our pajamas. I think this was the first trip we’d gone on where we had almost exact matching wardrobes. It was pretty cute!

I knew I needed to find something special to bring to this conference and hand out with my business cards. I racked my brain for something that I could make, but I truly had no extra time to really make anything by hand. Then I came across a post from a friend of mine, Xenia, who had recently hosted a Disney Junior Familia Party. It was on that post that I discovered alfajores! I KNEW immediately that they where what I needed to bring to the conference. Melo made me some AMAZING Mickey-shaped alfajores in both pink and white animal-cookie flavor and churro flavor! She was sweet enough to wrap them individually for me to pass out to friends. Needless to say, they were a hit!

Emi and I picked out a road trippin’ buddy to take with us. It only seemed appropriate that we chose Minnie Mouse. She sure loved to take pictures with us on our trip.

We even went to Michael’s to buy some chalk paint pens and the night before we left, we wrote on our car windows! We had to be the most prepared car driving through the desert! Emi even wrote “Honk if you love Disney” on my rear window!

I DO think it’s weird that not one person honked though!

Oh well, more Disney for us, right?

This is a guest post by Over the Top Kid! (aka Emily, age 9)

I love summer! I love not having homework, I love getting to sleep in later, and I LOVE getting to go on little vacations! Last week I got to go to Arizona with my mom. She was going for The Disney Social Media Moms on the Road conference and I got to travel with her. When my mom told me she made our reservations at The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess , I looked online to see what kind of things they had for kids like me to do. That’s when I got even more excited about the trip! Wow, it looked cool! After staying there for 2 nights and 3 days I was not ready to go back home. Let me tell you about just a few of the things I liked most about this hotel and my stay there.

1. It’s actually on Princess Drive I thought it was really cool that the resort was located on Princess Drive! Obviously that’s why it’s called the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, right? My mom and I LOVE princesses, especially Disney princesses!

2. A cowboy helps you with your luggage

When my mom pulled up in the valet area, a cowboy came up to the car to help us! He was wearing a cowboy hat and real cowboy boots and was super polite. He unloaded all of our things onto the bell cart. We had kind of a lot of stuff and he didn’t even laugh at us!

3. They have golf carts to take you everywhere After my mom checked in and got our room (which was actually a casita), we got to take a golf cart to our room! It wasn’t just a regular golf cart, it was a super long one with a ton of seats. Our driver told us that we could call any time that we needed a ride someplace at the resort. I think I drove my mom nuts when I kept asking her if we could take lots of extra golf cart rides!

4. You can order s’mores in a cup One of the many restaurants at the Fairmont Scottsdale is called The Ironwood American Kitchen. I think my mom would want me to write about how great the food was there, but I honestly can’t stop thinking about the s’mores in a cup that I got there! I really want to go back and have another one. This restaurant is really yummy though. They also have cool things for kids to play with while they’re waiting and not just a kids menu.

5. Our casita was awesome! When we first went into our casita I was so excited! It had 2 beds, a living room, a desk and a TV, all in one room! There was also a fireplace inside and a patio outside the door. In the bathroom there were 2 sinks, a giant tub, a shower and a cool walk-in closet! I always like to organize my things in a hotel closet, as soon as I get there. There were also robes for both of us and some great bath products that I took home for souvenirs. I told my mom that I could live in the casita forever. It was so nice. Also, there was a Keurig in the room and I got to make my own hot chocolate since my mom brought some hot chocolate K-cups with us.

6. *****Sonoran Splash *******my favorite thing about the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess This was the BEST part of the resort for kids! Sonoran Splash has 2 different waterslides that you can go down. You have to climb up the stairs and pick what side you want to go down. They move you pretty fast and it dumps you into a pool at the bottom! It seemed like I rode each of them about 100 times. I even got my mom to go with me a ton of times. I think this was definitely my favorite part of the whole trip! The Fairmont Princess Scottsdale has a lot more activities for kids to do, we just didn’t get a chance to do them. I saw a kids club online, called the Trailblazers Club, that looked really fun. On the weekends they have zip lining, fishing, fireworks and even Dive In movies that you can watch while you’re in the pool. I am begging my mom to take me back really soon so I can do all of the other things that I didn’t get a chance to do. If you were wondering if YOU should take YOUR kid(s) to the Fairmont Princess in Scottsdale, I’d say “YES you should!” Follow the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess on Facebook here, on Twitter here, and on Instagram here.