Carter Gaddis, Writer & Editor

We’ll take our family’s Year of Disney to a new level Sunday when we report to the Boardwalk Inn for the start of a three-day media event connected with the ongoing Disney Sports Festival at Walt Disney World. Specifically, the event is designed to shed light on activities, amenities and services available at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

It really is more than just Atlanta Braves spring training and a few AAU events scattered throughout the year. My preliminary research – which has just scratched the surface compared to what I anticipate I’ll learn on Monday and Tuesday – revealed that the Disney Sports team plans and executes more than 200 events a year at the complex, and the athletic facilities are absolutely world class in every way. It’s pretty much sports non-stop over there, and that’s not even including the distance races and fun runs they offer and other off-site events they hold all year long.

I’m looking forward to taking a tour of the Disney Sports Solutions Complex, as well as getting an inside look at the “ESPN Wide World of Sports Live Show” broadcast experience. We’ll also have a chance to check out one of the newest showcase resorts at Walt Disney World, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.

This event actually is a very cool intersection of my former career as a sportswriter and my current pastime as a parent blogger. In my capacity as sports media columnist for the Tampa Tribune in the mid-1990s, I was a guest of ESPN for the grand opening of the Boardwalk Inn. I also was fortunate enough to have covered the very first spring training game played at Champion Stadium between the Braves and the Reds (I still have the credential commemorating that historic ballgame). I covered the 2006 World Baseball Classic there, and I worked the regular-season games between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers there in 2007, and the Rays and Blue Jays in 2008.

Our family’s Year of Disney, then, has come full circle for me. Starting Sunday, check back here and on my accounts at Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest for updates about what is sure to be an incredible experience working alongside my fellow bloggers from all over the country as we learn about everything the Wide World of Sports Complex has to offer.

To catch updates from other bloggers and the Disney Sports team, check the Twitter hash tag #DisneySportsFestival and follow Wide World of Sports at @DisneySports.

Disclosure:  The invitation to attend the upcoming media event includes a resort room stay, theme park tickets, meals and various promotional items. All editorial decisions and opinions are mine.