Mentoring Mondays - Darlene Nagi

This week I am very happy to have one of my fellow columnist from the WDW Fan Zone, Darlene Nagi.  She is absolutely one of the nicest people ever, and a good writer to boot.  Be sure to check her out there.  You can also find her cohosting the Tiara Talk Show, a great Disney podcast, from time to time. 


While Darlene is a wonderful member of the Disney Community, she does not have a blog herself.  Today we are approaching Mentoring Mondays a little differently.  I have wondered what keeps our readers interested enough to follow our blogs, or to stay and read additional posts. 

Facebook: Darlene Zalikowski Nagi
Twitter:  @Zeusywoo
Podcast:  Tiara Talk Show
WDW Fan Zone: Darlene N

1. Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your love of Disney, and how you are involved with the Disney Community.

 I am Darlene Nagi, we live in New York State. I a wife and mom of one wonderful daughter along with 2 miniature doxies Chip & Cogsworth!  Not a short drive to our favorite vacation destination, Disney.  Disney, was brought into my life by Mom back in 1980 while on a trip to Fort Meyers Florida.  On that first trip I fell in love with the Mouse!  I love It’s A Small World, I can ride it over & over.  Pirates is also another favorite attraction of mine, heck all the attractions, dining & shopping. You may ask my family they will tell you lol. The Disney Community has been a great way for me to stay connected to my Disney passion.  Some ask how did you stay connected living in NY, well of course the internet really helps.  Then my dear husband introduced me to podcasts!  My firsts were WDW Radio, Be Our Guest & Dis Unplugged.  Then I learned about blogs from Disney friends & fans.  It really does help with not living close to Walt Disney World.  Another way I am staying connected is by writing a food article once a month for the WDW Fan Zone site.  It has been my first experience writing & I am loving every minute sharing my food experiences with all our readers.  There are so many different foods in Walt Disney that you can have a different food to get you out of the same old food blahs.  I was in these blahs myself before trying to make the foods we loved while at Disney.   

2. How many blogs do you follow? 

Well I follow now around 10 blogs to 20 blogs at any given time.  Right now with beginning a new career in my life my reading is down a bit. 

3. What influences you to follow a blog?

 Great information, fun writing, pictures to go along with the blog.  Also, when my friends are writing blogs for Disney or for their hobbies. 

4. How do you find new blogs you may like to read (recommendations from friends, google search, facebook)?

I find blogs by the internet, friends websites, facebook & twitter. 

5. When visiting a blog for the first time, what is the first thing you look at (about me, labels, popular posts)?

Normally when I first go to a blog I read the most recent post.  Then I go through the most popular posts. I read about the blogger & labels when they are people I am new to reading. 

6. Considering blog design, are there any things that annoy you when visiting a blog (a busy background, lots of blog buttons, lots of ads)? Can they cause you to click off of the site?

Most of the blogs I read are not busy.  That is because the ones I fall upon that have a ton of ads that make you accidently detour to a different site, I don’t visit that site again.  Sorry to those that I have stopped reading for the error of the ads.

7. Do you ever visit blogs/websites suggested on twitter? Facebook?

Yes, I love to read my friends blogs, they normally post on both social networks that their blogs are up to date.

8. What has been your favorite post (from any blog, not necessarily Disney related)? Why?

Actually I have so many favorite blogs by my friends & family it’s so hard to pick just one!  I actually wrote a special blog that was posted on my friend’s sites, it was the story of my dear puppy’s life that was lost last year! It really helped me though a hard time.   

9. What is the your favorite Disney character? Have you got to meet them in the parks?

Oh my favorite character is Tigger!  My friends think I bounce around like TiggerJ  Yes, I have thankfully had multiple meetings with him over the years! 

10. Would you like to share any Disney Vacation tips?

I have collected a lot of knowledge of great tips I have learned for our trips.  First don’t over load your vacation on going from morning until night.  Take time to breathe & enjoy the parks, attractions, resorts.  There is so much to do but you don’t want to be so exhausted you can’t enjoy yourself.  Second, make of list of things you would like to see or try (food lol).  So you don’t miss out on something you forgot about with all the excitement, I take a ton of pictures for my memories and for future reference to see things we missed.  If you use a Visa look into the Disney card, you can earn reward points to use toward your trip.  Also, there are gift cards that you can ask for gifts from family & friends then have spending money for your trip. I hope these tips help you for your vacation!

11. Anything else you would like to add?

I have to admit through rough times in my life the one thing that always makes me smile besides my wonderful supportive husband & daughter is Disney.  The fact that you can pop a movie in the dvd player, a song on the numerous sites or iTune downloads, the YouTube videos you can watch it always is right at your finger tips when not living within a short drive. 

Thank you for taking the time to ask me Donna to write up about my love for Disney!  I hope I was not to long winded for you all.  Also, please enjoy all the tips I dropped above, they did help us save money on our trips.