Shout to to Nick Jonas and Camp Rock 2 for the title idea. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about you probably weren’t tuning into Disney Channel in the early 2000s.

Hi! I’m Ashley! My instagram bio describes me as a wife, dog mom, Butler alumni (Go Dawgs) and a vacation planner! That pretty much covers the basics, but  I feel like there is so much more to me than can be said in a few short lines on a social media page. My goal for this particular blog post is to introduce myself and help you get to know me as more than just a vacation planner.  While my days of writing 20 page papers and publishing an undergraduate thesis may be over, I am so excited to flex my writing muscle through these blogs and hope it brings some magic, joy, and love of travel to your days!

I was born and raised in Indiana and after college and a move to Philadelphia for my husband’s job we are settled in North Carolina and loving it! While I will always consider Indiana my home North Carolina offers us warm weather, tons of new places to explore, and a much shorter drive to Disney World. Many of my first memories come from “The Most Magical Place on Earth”. My parents became Vacation Club members when we were kids and this allowed us to create tons of “core memories” as a family. Before them, my grandparents also shared a love of Disney and accompanied us on many trips, including 4 trips to cheer my sister on in the National Dance Team Championships at the ESPN Wide World of Sports.

While my love of Disney was sparked by the animated movies and the trips we took there, I think it grew into a more sincere appreciation for all that the Disney company encompasses when I began to dive deeper into their history. One of my greatest mentors in my college career and beyond, Dr. Jason Lantzer, really grew my interest in Disney through his books Dis-History: Uses of the Past at Walt Disney’s Worlds and One Last Ride: A Journey into Dis-History in a Time of Uncertainty. Before reading these and getting to witness part of their creation, I prided myself on knowing TONS of Disney trivia. What I didn’t know was all of the heartache, struggle, and perseverance it took to bring the joy of Disney to the world and how the unique twist on history (Dis-history, if you will) offered a picturesque look of early 1900s America through Walt’s eyes. Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and the other parks around the world are so much more than theme parks, and I think if you order copies of these books (available on Amazon), you’ll be just as amazed as I was. The storytelling in the early cartoons, movies, and in the parks is incredibly intricate and everything is done with the goal of completely immersing guests in the story of the moment they are standing in. With the release of Disney+ and lots of time spent at home due to the COVID pandemic in 2020, much of my time was spent revisiting my favorite Disney movies and learning even more Dis-history through watching shows like “The Imagineering Story” and “Waking Sleeping Beauty” which both tell the story of some of the humans behind Disney greatness. I cannot recommend them enough.

I have to give credit to my love of Disney and the parks for my desire for “Adventure in the great wide somewhere” (Do you know what Disney movie that’s from? Hint: It’s my all time favorite). Travel became a big part of my life when we travelled to the parks, on numerous family vacations, and on college road trips with my dance team cheering on our beloved Bulldogs. I even included the quote above on my graduation cap to remind me that “Adventure is Out There!” (not sorry for the reference to another of my Disney favorites). My love of travel and adventure has taken me to England, France, Ireland, Greece, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, and countless destinations in the US. I think I’ll forever be chasing the next great sunset over some mountains or a beautiful body of water.

Adventure is something that I used to think of as this great unknown, like there was something out there that I was missing. While I still plan to travel and search for that great adventure, I also believe that there are adventures in the everyday. You can find a new adventure in a book, a movie, or just a walk around your neighborhood. Adventure is the word I use most often when talking with my clients about vacation planning. I usually start by asking where their next adventure will take them, and what their dream adventure would look like. For some, the next great adventure is a weekend getaway to a place close to home, for others it is a cruise around the Mediterranean or travelling the World Showcase at EPCOT. Whatever your next great adventure is, I’d love to be a small part in helping you get there.

Until next time, Adventure is out there!
-Ashley C.