In its first foray into location-based services, Disney Parks has teamed up with mobile social network Gowalla to provide guests with a new way to explore Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts.

Visitors to these parks can engage with family and friends worldwide through the custom Disney Gowalla pages and passport stamps, and track their experiences at Disney using their mobile devices. Disney can also suggest new ways for Gowalla users to explore the parks with trip itineraries.

?We are seeking to extend our engagement with our guests and encourage their advocacy by providing an exciting program that inspires them to share their experiences and memories with their friends and families,? said Christie Volastro, director of digital marketing at Disney Parks & Resorts, Orlando, FL. ?We are seeking to engage smartphone users that are passionate about our brand and experiences.

?Disney Parks enjoys one of the most passionate fan bases of any consumer brand,? she said. ?With Gowalla, we?re giving our fans something unique to collect and a new way to share their Disney memories?as they happen.

?We?re excited about this, and believe our guests will be excited, too.??

Capturing, sharing Disney memories
Theme park visitors are able to view park happenings with custom Gowalla Disney passport pages for Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts that include maps featuring a check-in stream, a list of popular places, trips and special items.

Hundreds of locations within Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts will feature custom stamps created by Gowalla, the largest number of custom Gowalla passport stamps ever developed for a brand.

The stamps can be collected in users? Gowalla passports and kept as a virtual scrapbook by park-goers featuring their experiences at Disney.

In addition, park visitors can discover and collect pins as a reward for visiting featured spots, and virtual items will be placed around the parks.

To participate, guests are encouraged to join Gowalla via the Web or download the free application onto their smartphone.

All of the custom stamps and items guests collect will be added to their Gowalla passport and each check-in can be shared via Facebook and Twitter.

Guests can sign up by going to Gowalla.com/WaltDisneyWorld, Gowalla.com/Disneyland or Gowalla.com/Disney.

Discovering Disney
For guests looking for a creative way to explore the parks, Disney has developed Gowalla trips that bundle attractions by age or interest.

A sampling includes:

? "For the Little Ones (under 44 inches)" is a dream track fit for pint-sized park-goers to Magic Kingdom in Florida. It includes "Mickey's PhilharMagic," Dumbo the Flying Elephant and Peter Pan's Flight.

? "Characters in the Wild" treats Disney's Animal Kingdom guests to a show track that includes "Festival of the Lion King," "Finding Nemo-The Musical" and "Flights of Wonder."

? Just in time for the holidays at Disneyland, "Santa's Reindeer Roundup," "Believe...in Holiday Magic" fireworks and Sleeping Beauty Winter Castle are on the menu for the "Seasons Greetings" trip.

Throughout the year, Disney will be highlighting special events at its parks via Gowalla.

This feature lets park-goers secure unique passport stamps for checking in at custom events to record all of their Disney Parks' experiences.

?As part of Disney?s 2011 push, the big theme they?ve been working around is the idea of capturing and sharing memories,? said Andy Ellwood, director of business development at Gowalla, New York. ?Gowalla was a nature fit for what Disney was looking to do with their marketing campaign for the holiday season and 2011.

?This is the first time a campaign of this kind has taken place in the location-based space, and the first time Disney has done a campaign of this kind, so it?s pretty groundbreaking,? he said. ?For Gowalla, it transcends demographics, because it?s all about telling and sharing stories about the places you go.

?It is a perfect way for families to share their experiences they?ve had at Disney resorts.?

Final Take