Disney Cruise Planning: Countdown to our next cruise aboard the Disney Dream

83 days... but who's counting? Well, we are actually! We were excited to learn while we were at Walt Disney World in October 2017, that we were invited back to Disney Social Media Mom Celebration 2017. (You can check out a recap of our 2017 Disney SMMC experience HERE.) And after the initial squealing died down... the planning began!

2018 Disney Social Media Mom Celebration

The 2018 Disney Social Media Mom Celebration will again be a land and sea adventure, with three days at Walt Disney World and three days at sea, aboard the Disney Dream! Our family was especially excited to find out we would be cruising again, as we have had such a great time on our past cruises! They are a wonderful relaxing vacation for the whole family - and the kids love it because they get to feel very independent by getting to chose how much time they want to spend in the Kid's Clubs onboard and at Castaway Cay.

Cruise Prep and Planning

This will be our third Disney cruise, and our second cruise aboard the Disney Dream! The exciting thing is, they've added a number of wonderful new things, like the Beauty and the Beast stage show (our YouTube friend Allison just got a chance to get a sneak peak of the show, you can check out her review HERE), and we will also get another chance to catch things we missed on our first voyage - like the AquaDuck, believe it or not! And eating in the Enchanted Garden restaurant. (We had reservations at Palo on the night that our rotation went to that dining room.)

I'm planning on sharing a detailed Cruise Packing List, coming up soon... with some suggested items that we always like to bring along, and also what I've seen suggested that I found we could leave at home. What does planning look like at 83 days out?

Here are the things I'm focusing on right now!

Fish Extender

This will be our first time participating in a "Fish Extender" aboard a Disney Cruise. These started out as a fun  exchange between a few people aboard an early sailing, and turned into a mass organized thing that has become somewhat tradition with veteran cruisers. On our previous cruises, I didn't sign up for a Fish Extender Group (yes, I said "sign up" - there are typically Facebook groups for each sailing on a Disney Cruise which we join and within in those, they generally host or have a link to a "Fish Extender Group" that divides and then pairs people up with whom to exchange gifts) - I felt like I wanted to just focus on the cruise itself. Which was more than enough, I promise!

Now that we've been on a few cruises, I thought it would be a fun extra thing for the girls to take part in, to bring along small gifts for fellow shipmates, and in return potentially receive surprises back in our Fish Extender. The actual Fish Extender, is the hanging bag that is left outside a hook by your stateroom and can hold mail or other fun things left for you. These are completely optional of course, but a fun thing to participate in just like decorating your stateroom door.

Fish Extender Planning

At 83 days out, my plans for the next few weeks are to get our actual fabric bag, "Fish Extender", ordered from an Etsy vendor - so that it will arrive in plenty of time before our cruise. I've also already spent time researching fish extender gifts and have started narrowing down our choices with those. So I will as begin ordering those items, so that I know those things will be here in plenty of time before we leave as well.

My goal is to leave half of a suitcase available for fish extender items, although most things that we will be bringing along won't be too big or bulky. It never hurts to have extra room for souvenirs too though!

Disney Vacation Planning - What Else Will I Buy?

Since we've been on other cruises before, I don't have too many other items that I need to purchase pre-cruise. I will stock up on Bonine and Kid's Dramamine, preventative sea sickness medicine to bring along "just in case". I'll check our suntan lotion to make sure it is all well within the expiration date, and make a little travel wellness kit, with items such as bandaids, ibuprofen, sinus medicine, and other frequently used medicinal items. I'll also start taking note of what kind of travel items we may be running low on or need to replace, like special lotions or body washes that we like to have in travel size


Clothing wise, since we live in a warmer climate now - we are pretty covered for warm weather clothing. I may pick up one or two special outfits for the conference portion, and an extra Disney shirt or two for the girls. One thing we do tend to do right before a Walt Disney World trip is buy newer tennis shoes and spend a few weeks breaking those in at home before we go, so we have newer shoes with good support - but not brand new, along with a few other specific planning items to going to Walt Disney World. I'll save the rest of those tips for a Walt Disney World planning post though.

Seeing Good Friends

Planning aside... One of the best parts about getting to go to conferences like Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, is seeing the friends we know in the social media community! Our friends from Jones Family Travels will also be at Disney SMMC again this year, and we're looking forward to meet up with our fellow YouTube buddies! They are also avid cruisers and own a travel agency, so they KNOW travel! They also are easy going and love to have a fun time, so we always have fun when we get together!

Check out some of their cruising videos here:

All in all, it will be an awesome vacation, with lots of awesome people. I'm looking forward to sharing our preparation process and experience that we have while we are there! Disney Social Media Moms Celebration is truly a unique event with lots of surprises along the way, and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us this year!

** This post was sponsored. All opinions are my own.

Disney Cruise - Fun for ALL ages!

Disclosure: We sailed with Disney Cruise Line as a part of a media event. All opinions are my own.

We went on our first Disney Cruise not knowing exactly what to expect... and found out that there is something fun for ALL ages aboard the Disney Dream!

We recently had our very FIRST cruise experience on the Disney Dream and I've been excited to share all of the fun we had in our vlogs on YouTube! I wasn't quite sure what to expect since it was our first cruise experience all together, but I was pleased to find that I felt quite comfortable on the ship right away and that we quickly got our "sea legs"!

The ship was gorgeous and we made ourselves at home in the Oceanview Family Stateroom with Verandah that was located on Deck 9. The girls were ages 4 and 6 on this trip, and the bunk beds in the room worked perfectly for us to have a separate bed for each of the girls to sleep in! They were also both old enough to go to the supervised kid's activity center at the Oceaneer Club and Lab for ages 3-12. (I will be doing a full review of the Oceaneer Club and Lab in a future video and blog post!) They really enjoyed their time there, and especially Bella found it to be her favorite spot on the ship!

Disney made it easy to keep track of the schedule of events going on with the Disney Cruise Line app, that worked with our phones in airplane mode and running off the Disney Cruise Guest Wifi on the ship. The app had a schedule of events, deck plans to figure out which way to go quickly, and a great chat option that you could send messages to other people in your party on the ship through! We also had a paper "Navigator" with a schedule laid out on our bed each night for the following day, which was a quick and handy reference paper! Using these tools, we were easily able to pick out the events that suited us the most and work those in to our schedule!

Screenshot from our Dinner at Animator's Palate video, showing the app in use!

Very shortly into the cruise, I started to realize that this would be a vacation unlike any other vacation we had been on recently. There were a number of unique things about the trip that made it more of a relaxing vacation, and the girls being able to go to the Oceaneer Club was a GAME CHANGER... completely! My husband and I were able to get some quality time in together while the kids enjoyed programming specifically designed for them!

Our family especially loved Castaway Cay, exploring as a family and the girls' adored Scuttle's Cove, the on shore supervised kid's programming area. My husband and I were able to go snorkeling at the family beach while the girls played at Scuttle's Cove. It was so much fun, and I would definitely love to try snorkeling again!

Snorkel ready!

When I first arrived at the Disney Dream I didn't know exactly what to expect from our first cruise ever, but I came away from our trip with a better understanding of the wide variety of activities and entertainment on the Disney Dream Cruise, and that there really is something aboard for everyone!! I had the wonderful opportunity to film this video while on the ship the day we were docked at Castaway Cay, and I hope you come away from watching the video with a sense of the wide variety of amenities that are available on the ship!

I've had so much fun reliving all of our adventures on the Disney Dream in our daily vacation vlogs on YouTube! We had an amazing time and I'm looking forward to planning another magical Disney cruise in the future!

Check out all of our Disney Dream Vacation Vlogs on one handy playlist on YouTube!!

LINK

I met some lovely ladies on the Disney Dream that shared their thoughts about the experience on their blogs too! Check out their thoughts below!

Tessa from MamaSmiths.com has 5 Tips for Disney Cruising with Preschoolers.

Jessica from YoungatHeartMommy.com shares her 10 Reasons to Sail on the Disney Dream.

Candy from CandyPalooza.com is missing all of the fun in her Coming Home from a Disney Cruise post.

** We cruised with Disney as a part of a media event. We received complimentary airfare, cruise stateroom and activities as a part of the event. All opinions are my own.

Get ready to SET SAIL! Our DISNEY DREAM CRUISE Experience!

I'm so excited to bring you our most recent vacation video series, of our FIRST CRUISE experience - which also happened to be a Disney Cruise!! (Hooray!) We set sail on the Disney Dream during the second week of August and it was our very first cruise experience for the entire family. The girls truly had no idea what to expect since they had never seen a cruise ship in real life before, and their reaction to seeing the cruise ship for the first time was just as magical as I anticipated it would be!

Thank you to Disney Cruise Lines for inviting us to be a part of a media event aboard the ship! We received complimentary airfare, stateroom, and activities as a part of the event. All opinions are my own!

The Disney Dream on August 12, 2016 before leaving Port Canaveral.

As always with my vacation video series, I will bring you a planning and prep series on YouTube prior to our vacation vlogs, a full set of "day in the life" style videos of our trip while we are sailing, and a series of wrap up & review videos at the end talking about our favorite parts of the trip, shopping haul, cruising with preschoolers, things to do aboard the ship just for adults, and answering questions you have about the Disney cruise experience!

The girls loved helping pick out their Pirate Night outfits!

The cruise was a 4 day/3 night voyage that took us to Nassau, Bahamas and Disney's private island Castaway Cay, also in the Bahamas.

Sneak peek from our Castaway Cay day... it was just as amazing as it looks!!

It included all of the Disney magic you would expect from a Disney vacation experience, great themed dining, fun pool areas, and character interactions - as well as a number of great opportunities to relax and unwind... as a family - and for adults only! The girls loved the supervised children's activity areas on the ship, Oceaneer Club and Lab, and Scuttle's Cove on Castaway Cay! This gave my husband and I an opportunity to explore the ship, take in shows, eat dinner, and go snorkeling - while the kids enjoyed programs specifically designed for them in the secure and supervised activity centers with the Disney Youth Team! This really provided a unique element to our vacation that we hadn't had before!

After our vacation vlogs run, I will be sure to check in with a trip recap, shopping haul, and specific reviews of different areas on the ship! This post is just a little sneak peek of all of the fun that is to come on my channel! Be sure to check the playlists to watch new Disney Cruise videos as they are added!

Playlist will update as new videos are added daily!
Disney Dream Cruise Packing & Prep Videos Playlist:

COMING NEXT WEEK on Being Mommy with Style... Disney Dream Cruise Vacation Vlogs!


I'm looking forward to sharing all of the fun we had while aboard the Disney Dream Cruise! It was truly a fantastic experience like no other!

** We cruised with Disney as a part of a media event. We received complimentary airfare, cruise stateroom and activities as a part of the event. All opinions are my own.