Lewisburg mom is a teacher and now a Disney Parks planning specialist
LEWISBURG — Ashley Papson, after several years of trying, finally feels like she has found her people.
A Disney fanatic for as long as she can remember, the Lewisburg mom and second-grade teacher at Kelly Elementary was recently named to the 2018 Disney Parks Moms Panel, one of just 40 people who offer planning advice for anything Disney.
“I’ve been going to Walt Disney World at every phase of my life. Some of my fondest memories are at Disney World Resort with my mother and brothers,” Papson said. “It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to be part of the Disney family.”
Papson’s dream became a reality at the beginning of the year when her one-year term on the Moms Panel started. It was the culmination of a three-year process.
Disney annually receives thousands of applicants to join the panel. They are whittled down through a three-phase process. Two years ago, Papson, who lives in Lewisburg with her husband, Brent, sons Caden, age 7, Colin, 5, and newborn daughter Emersyn, 5 months, made it to the second phase. Last year she reached the third phase and this year made it all the way to the panel.
The Disney Parks Moms Panel is an online resource to help families or individuals plan a Disney vacation, whether it’s at Walt Disney World in Florida, Disneyland in California, a cruise or with its vacation club. The panel has 40 members this year and Papson was one of just 11 new members selected for 2018. To apply, Papson said you must be 18 years old and have visited the park you want to be an expert in over the past 12 months.
“It’s really an awesome process and you put your heart into it,” she said.
“Papson was carefully selected from thousands of applicants to provide honest and relatable vacation tips,” Disney wrote in a release announcing her selection. “She, along with her fellow panelists are committed to making the planning process easier by offering personalized guidance to help turn dream Disney vacations into a reality.”
Papson estimates she’s been to Disney World 18 times, most recently over Thanksgiving. As a mother of three, she said her entire family has similar feelings about the Orlando-based theme park.
Additionally, she now understands the emotions her own mother, a single mom of three, felt during their trips.
“My mom was a big parade fanatic, so we’d be the family on the curb two hours before a parade. If we were lucky we’d sneak across the street to Casey’s Corner for a hot dog,” she said. “The lights would dim and the parade would start and she’d be crying. I’d look at her as a kid and wonder what’s wrong with her? Now, we took our sons for the first time, we got hot dogs at Casey’s Corner and the same thing happened. I’m sitting there bawling. My sons’ faces were lit up.”
According to disneyparksmomspanel.com, the 40 members of this year’s panel have combined for 1,250 Disney Vacations – 2,204 rides on “it’s a small world” — and “know how to travel with kids with more than 80 kids between them” and can answer questions in four languages: English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
“I’ve made a lot of incredible friends that I will have for a lifetime with the panel,” Papson said. “I feel like I have found my people.”
