2019 is a year of big changes happening around Walt Disney World, and we are counting down the days until the arrival of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Photo Courtesy: Disney Parks
Galaxy's Edge will represent a remote trading port at the edge of the galaxy that brings together many familiar Star Wars faces. This all new area will completely transform the theme park, in my opinion - and draw visitors from around the world. Disney has spent a lot of time thinking through the details and we have some serious Star Wars fans in our family that are anxiously awaiting this part of Disney's Hollywood Studios to be complete!
The new land will feature fan favorites, like the Millennium Falcon and on one of the attractions guests will actually have the opportunity to "pilot" the ship! Another attraction takes place on a Star Destroyer inside a hanger. The new land will also have new merchandise stores and food options as well.
Photo Courtesy: Disney Parks
One of the most unique things about the new area at Disney's Hollywood Studios, is the integration of a Disney Resort right into the theme park atmosphere. Guests will have the option to stay in a Star Wars themed resort that completely immerses you in the experience and seamlessly flows into Galaxy's Edge at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Guests can dress up the part of being a member of the community and can earn points for "good deeds" done around the theme park.
Photo Courtesy: Disney Parks
This interactive experience will be one of a kind, and I'm really looking forward to the timing of this experience because Isabella is a huge Star War fan and she will be in the 9 year old age range at this time, which I think will be the perfect age to take part in an immersive experience!
The rooms will even have "windows" that look out into space!
Photo Courtesy: Disney Parks
We will continue to await more specific information on developments at Disney's Hollywood Studios, but we were able to get a glimpse at the construction as we drove along roads that run near the back of the new Star Wars Land, and it looks like they are making great progress towards getting it completed quickly.
** Disclosure: We attended Disney Social Media Moms Celebration 2018 and receive complimentary experiences as a part of the experience. All opinions are my own.
We received a box of fun goodies from Walt Disney World to host our own #DisneyKids Preschool Playdate to celebrate Natalie's preschool class graduating from Pre-K4 this year and heading to kindergarten next school year! We had a great time celebrating with her friends and we had lots of endless magical fun!
Check out our unboxing of the box that Disney sent us!
On party day, Natalie was so excited to host her friends, she wore one of her favorite Disney customs - that we routinely wear on our Walt Disney World vacations - and picked one that had multiple princesses on it, because she just couldn't chose one! I wore one of my favorite princess shirts that also had multiple princesses on it, so we had a more the merrier theme for characters this year!
I kept things simple with food this year, and served light snack and finger foods. We've been cutting down on sugar for our own girls, so I did serve cookies but cut out serving cupcakes this year. There were chicken and swiss rolls from Costco, Mickey inspired fruit, pretzels, and cheese!
At the party, the kids were able to dress up as their favorite Disney character, we had plenty of Disney toys for them to play with, and we also played fun games like Disney Character Charades, Disney Fab Fortune Teller, and find the Hidden Mickeys! I had 8 Hidden Mickeys around the house it was adorable watching the kids run around trying to find them all!
We also made a few fun crafts - a Solo cup Enchanted Rose, inspired by Disney's Beauty and the Beast - and some Michael's foam character crafts!
Watch our #DisneyKids Preschool Playdate on YouTube!
All in all, it was a wonderful time spent with friends and we thank Disney for the extra magic they provided us for the playdate! Disney magic is truly endless even when it is inspiring fun at home!
If you're looking for more party planning ideas, check out our Disney Playdates from previous years as well!!
2016 #DisneyKids Playdate - Princess Theme!
2015 Disney Side @Home Celebration - Princess & Pals Theme!
** We were sent complimentary items from Walt Disney World for purposes of hosting a Disney Kids playdate. All opinions are my own.
As a part of our Beauty and the Beast week, we recreated some of the sweet and yummy concoction typically found at Gaston's Tavern inside Magic Kingdom called LeFou's Brew! This sweet treat is a frosted apple juice with toasted marshmellow flavoring added to it with a fruit cream topping!
This is easy to make and we put our own spin on the recipe by just adding some ready made apple juice and ice cubes. Check out how we made it at home!
What You'll Need
There are a number of items that you'll need to make this drink, but it does make a number of servings. I would recommend picking up at least two frozen canisters of apple juice, however depending on the size of your blender - you will probably have to do them in multiple batches.
To make the apple juice, we used a frozen concentrate apple juice from Kroger, and added in some ready made apple juice as well which can be optional. We picked up the Torani Toasted Marshmellow flavoring in the coffee aisle.
The fruit cream topping has a few ingredients you'll need and it actually makes quite a bit - so check in next week as I'll be sharing a Moana viewing party we'll be doing as well, and I'm planning on reusing the same cream topping for a party drink for that as well! So there can be a bit of reusing of ingredients and they don't go to waste!
Shopping List:
- 1-2 Frozen Concentrate Apple Juice Cans
- 1 Apple Juice bottle, adding in 1-2 cups
- 2-3 tbsp Torani Toasted Marshmellow flavoring
- 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 4 tbsp Mango Juice
- 4 tbsp Passionfruit Juice
- 3 tbsp Sugar
How to Make LeFou's Brew
I made the cream topping first and then let it set in the refrigerator while I was making the apple drink. In the blender, I added in the 1 cup of the heavy whipping cream, 4 tbsp mango juice, 4 tbsp passionfruit juice, and 3 tbsp of sugar.
Blend these together and I poured them in a separate dish to set, so that I was able to clean out the blender to mix together the apple juice.
To make the apple juice, I added in 1 container of frozen apple juice concentrate, 1 can of water, 3 tbsp Torani Toasted Marshmellow syrup and blend. Then I add in a few ice cubs and 1-2 cups of the ready made apple juice because we prefer the taste of that over the frozen concentrate versions.
Then you just pour the apple juice in and put some cream topping on top! It naturally floats on top, which makes a cool effect!
Check out my video on how to make this fun drink!
It's a great addition to a Beauty and the Beast party! Make sure to check out our other party videos and posts from our Beauty and the Beast movie viewing party!
** This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.
"Try the Grey Stuff, it's delicious! Don't believe us..." Well you know who to ask!!
We of course couldn't have a Beauty & the Beast dinner without making some of the "Grey Stuff" for dessert!! This yummy treat is available at Be Our Guest restaurant inside Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, but you can also duplicate it at home with this simple to make recipe! I've made it a few different ways, so I will share what has worked the best for me and I like the color to be a rich silvery color.
Pin this image to easily find again!
What You'll Need
This is such a simple recipe! Bake cupcakes and use it as a frosting or serve it on it's own (what I call "plated") to be a perfectly thematic dessert!
You'll need to have a container of Oreos, 14-18 Oreos for a large batch mix, and 6-10 Oreos for a smaller batch. Container of whipped topping, one full container for a large batch mix, or half a container for the smaller batch. Box of chocolate instant pudding or other chocolate powder. And for the larger batch, it makes sense to use a instant vanilla pudding box and you'll make the entire thing. If you need only 4-6 servings, you can make the grey stuff out of the ready made pudding cups, which I'll share that recipe down below!
I used a blender to pulse the Oreos, and you can use a food processor or other item to get them chopped into a fine cookie powder.
How to Put it Together
There are a few ways to make it, the vanilla instant pudding box way has been shared in a number of times in the Disney Facebook groups over the years, and I put my own spin on how many Oreos I use - the ingredients remain fairly simple, so there's no way you can mess this one up! This is truly one of the quickest desserts you can make!
Large Batch Grey Stuff
This recipe makes a larger batch of the grey stuff that you can use to serve on top of cupcakes or on individual plates. It can stay refrigerated for a few days if you don't use it all at your party, and makes a great snack if I say so myself!
- 1 package vanilla instant pudding mix blended together with 1.5 cups of cold milk
- Chill the pudding in the fridge while you blend the cookies
- Crush 15-18 Oreos into pieces to put into the blender and pulse them to get a fine cookie powder. I like to do only about 5 cookies at a time in my blender.
- Mix together the cookie pieces and vanilla pudding.
- Add in 1 full container of whipped topping
- Add 4-6 tbsp of chocolate pudding mix powder (just powder) to get a silver grey color
From here I chill in the refrigerator for 15-30 minutes, I place the mixture into Wilson's decorating bags and used a star tip to spread the Grey Stuff on top of cupcakes or onto plates!
Smaller Serving Ready Made Pudding Grey Stuff
This is the alternate way of putting it together using smaller single serving pudding cups! You'll need 2-4 of these cups and you mix the ingredients together the same way, it just saves a bit of time, makes a smaller amount, and tastes just as delicious!
- 2 ready made vanilla pudding cups
- Pulse 5 Oreos in blender
- 2/3 cup whipped cream topping
- 1 tbsp chocolate pudding instant mix (just the powder)
Mix the ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
Chill for 10 minutes, and you're ready to serve! Quick, easy, and perfect for a small family!
Small batch Grey Stuff is just as yummy!
Check out my video below showing the quick and easy process to make the Grey Stuff!
Have you had the Grey Stuff at Be Our Guest restaurant at Walt Disney World?? It's one of my favorite desserts there and I love that I can make it at home anytime I want now!
Check out all of our other Beauty and the Beast party prep posts!
** This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.
2017 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration Land and Sea! Photo credit: Disney Parks
Disney Social Media Moms Celebration vlogs are currently running on my YouTube channel, and I've finally gotten some time to sit down and reflect on our experience at the 2017 Land and Sea Celebration! I'll be doing the regular trip recaps, talking about some of our favorite experiences and dining on the trip, what we thought about the different resorts we stayed at, and also a look at our souvenir haul of items we purchased on the trip. In today's blog post, I wanted to sum up the experience and share some of the takeaways I brought home with me from the conference...
I was a Disney Social Media Mom Celebration FIRST TIMER in 2017! These were some thoughts I thought might be useful if you are also thinking of attending in the future as a first timer, if you are a YouTuber like myself, or even if you're just curious what the celebration is entails! It currently is invitation only, and I have a FAQ video on YouTube that explains a bit more what this conference is, if you're unfamiliar with it.
What was in store for us?
Since this was my first time ever at a Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, I was really excited to be invited and didn't know quite what we would be in for exactly! This was an all new experience for everyone at the celebration though, with it being Land and Sea for the first time. However with me in particular coming primarily from the "World of YouTube" and knowing that there would be a lot of primarily written bloggers there, I wasn't quite sure where I would fit in to the whole scheme of things! Luckily, I was very quickly put at ease after arriving as everyone, bloggers and folks from Disney alike, were incredibly kind and welcoming. Bloggers went out of their way to introduce themselves, invite me to sit at their tables for meals, and I made good friends along the way that I'm looking forward to keeping up with as time goes by on social media!
We were one of about four vlogging families that attended and I'll be sure to share those vlogger links at the end of this post so you can check out all of their experiences as well!
Everything was very well run and coordinated, and when Disney runs an event, they do it right! We had lots of great knowledge sharing sessions, fantastic meals, and behind the scenes Disney experiences that were one of a kind. We experienced Disney magic both on land at Walt Disney World, and at sea aboard the Disney Wonder! It was a once in a lifetime trip for our family, having never experienced both land and sea in single trip!
One quote kept coming back to me the whole time throughout the experience, whether it be on land or sea. Coincidentally, I had purchased an Alex and Ani bracelet with this quote a few months ago, but hadn't taken it out of the package yet. I tend to do this with items, sometimes an item will speak to me but I almost feel like the timing isn't right to start using it, so I'll save it up for a special occasion - and this Alex and Ani bracelet felt like a perfect fit with the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration event! So I pulled it out before we left for the trip and this quote followed me around wherever we went!
Believing is just the beginning
"Believing is just the beginning..." I purchased this bracelet because of it's purple color, the power of the word "believe" in my life, and also because I thought the saying was a great sentiment - and it turned out to be the perfect accompaniment to this experience.
They say that every journey starts with a single step, and that is what stepping into Disney Social Media Moms Celebration felt like, believing in myself to take that single step to go on this amazing journey and come out anew on the other side. I met so many wonderful people along the way, I felt like I expanded my horizons by being able to talk to so many bloggers in person and in turn share my insight about YouTube, hear how Disney creates things with imagination at Disney theme parks and on Disney Parks Blog, and meet with companies that were interested in what we had to say as influencers. The entire experienced really opened up ideas about what I want to do in the future, and reinforced that this passion that we have to be storytellers as YouTubers and bloggers is valuable to our viewers and readers.
On the other side of the experience, I want to take some time to collect my thoughts and figure out how to structure expanding my social media posts moving forward - but this is what I love to do and this experience just reinforced that I need to pursue my passion for being a social media influencer. I've loved being on YouTube the past four years and I'm enjoying starting to share new things on the blog as a component of that. It was great to meet with people that encourage this as an actual profession and where it felt like an understanding place to "talk shop" about this outlet that we are all passionate about!
Where do we go from here
After all of the amazing experiences at Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, I'm of course still enamored with Disney and the wonderful magic that they create for families. I've had a long-standing personal journey with Disney Parks, and Walt Disney World in particular - taking my first trip to Walt Disney World when I was only a year old and typically returning once or twice each year afterwards. Disney is my prime vacation destination for our family and it will continue to be, I think I knew we would experience lots of Disney magic on the trip... I just didn't realize how invigorated I would be to develop my social media outlets in general after the trip and further my "career", if you will, in social media! That truly caught me by surprise!
My word for the year is "Explore" - inspired by Moana, and I feel like Disney has created the stepping stone with Disney Social Media Moms Celebration to go out and explore new things over the rest of the year - new types of posts, new companies to work with, new video structures. Just to think of things differently, possibly how Disney might do things? One of the first things I did when we got back was use this new inspiration and completed a video idea I'd had pop up when we went on the Disney Dream cruise and I was proud of finishing this video, and felt like it brought the sentiment of the sea portion of the conference to viewers!
Believing is just the beginning, and after you believe - you take the first step, to go explore.
What would I say to someone considering going to Disney SMMC in the future?
As someone that was new to the conference myself this year and being very in tune with what to expect from Disney but not quite knowing what to expect from the conference aspect, I did want to share my thoughts on what I would say to someone considering their first trip to Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.
In a word... if you receive that magical invite - GO.
Whatever it takes, try to make it happen. It is a lot of re-arranging schedules, moving vacation days around, and adding in travel where you otherwise wouldn't have been planning to travel - but it is OH SO worth it!! I had an amazingly refreshing experience that has invigorated me to keep expanding my social media platforms, and I got to bring my family along with me! Win, win! They had an awesome time exploring the Disney theme parks and the Disney Wonder, and we experienced a ton of new things (like riding Soarin' at EPCOT, staying at new to us resorts, screening Born in China, and going to a Disney waterpark for the first time!) together as a family!!
It was an incredible family time together, incredible personal growth time, and I feel like it's helped me make connections to move forward in the future and have a better understanding of what I should be working towards with my social media platforms.
Whether you are a YouTuber or even if you are a blogger just trying to decide whether to attend - I would say GO... the experience will be amazing, both professionally and personally. Also, if you can take your family, I would most definitely recommend it. I've been to conferences previously at Walt Disney World (2015 Maker All Star Creators Conference specifically for YouTubers) where I did not bring my family along, and the schedule was not as family friendly as the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration had... Disney SMMC is designed for you to have time to spend with your family and enjoy the magic together. It was a great experience for us all!
My advice would be, go. Take that step. Believing IS just the beginning....
Videos on YouTube
Check out the "Day in the Life" style vlogs running on YouTube right now, where you can catch up up with all of the fun of Disney Social Media Moms Celebration day by day - I will also be doing reviews of the different things we experienced!
I hope you enjoy watching our experience as much as I've enjoyed sharing it with you!!
** I am a 2017 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration attendee and have received complimentary items and hosted experiences as a part of the event. All opinions are my own.
Check out the links to a few other 2017 Disney Social Media Mom Celebration Attendees that I met while I was there:
