DitP Recap: The DLR Network January (DLRJAN) Tweet-Up

A little background might be in order for some of this (mainly the why?) to make sense, so bear with us for a moment.

Back in mid-December, Chad was approached by Jason from OHatDL.com and Rosemary from FindingMickey.com about creating a "network" of sorts of Park-related websites.  One of the main reasons we were interested in joining up (aside from Chad having the distinctive honor of being one of the founders of the network) was because we love meeting new people and helping out wherever we can.  By this point, we had been hanging out with Jason and Rosemary in The Park for quite some time, and had become fast friends, so it just made sense to join up with them.  A few clicks (and dollars later) and we had our domain and have since spent the time working on building up a small (but good we think) list of sites which we think provide excellent information about many different aspects of The Parks from many different angles; we've added five more sites since we started it up, all with a lot to offer.  If you haven't already, you can check us out at DLRNetwork.com.  If you'd still like to know more about how it all came about, you can check out our interview with Al & Joyce from Tales From The Mouse for more information on that.

Not only was it important for us to gather together quality websites with quality information so we could help each other out and promote each others' sites, but we also wanted it to be a medium by which were able to communicate better with everyone who reads our sites and get to know you guys a lot better.  We figured what better way to do so than to hit the ground running and have a "tweet-up" in The Park so we could hang with you guys and get to know you better.

So near the end of December, that's exactly what we decided to do.  We started promoting our "tweet-up" on Twitter (of course!) and on the Network website.  Jason, Rosemary and Chad began tweeting about it several times a day each (you guys who saw it were probably ready to shoot us in the first few days) and we even did our best to get you involved beforehand with several polls on the website asking you to pick a date that would be best, attractions you'd like to do, and the most important question of all, where you'd most like to eat!  I think that we would all agree, considering we had no idea what we were doing, that we were all pretty pleased with the response.  We got a lot of interest on the Network website (and on Twitter) and quite a few responses on our polls.  You can still check them out on the website if you'd like.

Ultimately, we picked January 23rd as "The Day" and decided to meet up in The Hub near the Partners Statue with those who would be attending at 3:00pm.

The DLRJAN crowd gathers in The Hub

We were very pleased with the turnout for our first ever event.  If memory serves us right, at our highest we had 32 people who attended over the course of the afternoon/evening.  And we were able to do quite a few things together!  After meeting up in The Hub, it was decided that we would ride Pirates of the Caribbean as our first attraction (since it had officially won in our poll), so we headed on over to New Orleans Square to do just that.

The DLRJAN gang waits in line for Pirates Of The Caribbean

It may well have been the most eventful ride of our lives.  We began our trek belting out a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" to Jason which led to tumultuous applause from the patrons dining at The Blue Bayou (or so we like to tell ourselves), and then we proceeded to get soaked.  We later estimated that there were roughly 22 of us in the boat at one time (the boat bottoming out after leaving the dock should have been our first indication we were in for a bumpy ride), and it definitely showed in the way we weighted the boat down.  Water was constantly sloshing over the sides and by the time all was said and done, there was a puddle of water in our seats roughly 4 inches deep.  We almost felt sorry for the family who was going to be riding behind us.  Almost.

We decided afterward that it would be a good time to get our DLRJAN group picture taken care of, so we all lined up in front of Rivers of America for a record of the historic event.

The DLRJAN tweet-up

Although every ride after was surely going to pale in comparison to our trip on Pirates, we nonetheless pressed on with follow-ups on The Jungle Cruise and into Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room where, of course, we all sang like ze birdies sang.

Jungle Cruisin'...

Original D and Tiki Maynard

By this point, we were beginning to lose a soul here or there, but we still had a pretty sizable core together and were beginning to show signs of hunger, so we all trooped over to Village Haus (another Poll Winner) for a dinner of their new menu items; word to the wise, the Pastrami-Burger is awesome!  We spent some more time in there just chatting and getting to know one another, but felt we needed to press on and do a few kiddie rides for the children in attendance.  

A few more people dropped off after dinner, but those who were left went on to ride Pinocchio's Daring Journey and the Casey Jr. Circus Train.  Lest you think it was boring, I assure you, the sight of four grown men riding riding Pinocchio together and a rave on Casey Jr. are well worth the price of admission.  And to end the evening, those of us remaining rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, one final "big kiddie" ride, to end the night.

Four grown men...

Mark 'bombs Chad on Casey Jr.

Five hours, six attractions and one dinner later, we went our separate ways looking forward to next time we'll all get together again.

And we really are looking forward to our next "tweet-up".  We've already begun discussing (early, but discussion nonetheless) what we need to do better, how we can better advertise and what we want our theme to be.  We're looking at having our next in early April, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled at the DLRNetwork site (or any of our other sites) for more information.  We'll post it as soon as we know something.

We want to thank everyone who took time out of their afternoons and busy schedules to come hang out with us.  We really enjoyed getting to meet everyone and can't wait to see you at the next one!

**All photos here that are not ours (watermarked as such) were courtesy of Jason over at OHatDL.com.  You can find him on Flickr here.  Thanks, Jason!

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