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.

Reflections on Disney Maker All Star Creators Conference - Day 3

The third day of the All Star Creators Conference, I knew to expect great things. I awoke at 4:30am (after going to bed at 1 am, mind you) to get ready to be at breakfast at 6am. We picked up a "grab and go" breakfast to eat on the bus and were heading to Magic Kingdom before the theme park was open. As many times as I have been to Walt Disney World in my lifetime, I had NEVER been into the parks before they were open or after they were closed. The experiences at Hollywood Studios after close and on this morning were definitely two highlights of the trip.

We arrived at Magic Kingdom through a side gate and were confined to the new Fantasyland area. My Disney Rep, Melissa, and I headed straight to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train  to get in line for the ride mount. I ended up being the first person in line and we waited a few minutes for the sun to come up completely. The Seven Dwards Mine Train was fantastic, definitely a lot of fun and I loved the ride mount footage I ended up with from it. This will be a "must see" on our next visit to Walt Disney World with the girls, as I think my preschoolers will LOVE this ride. It has just the right amount of speed and hills without going too fast for them, and there are lots of fun things to see inside of the mountain in the Seven Dwarfs mining area. Snow White may become a favorite princess for them after riding this ride.

We then headed to Dumbo for ride mount footage and that was also quick as I was the first one in line over there as well. I of course have been on Dumbo MANY a times, so this one was a little bitter sweet for me, as it just isn't the same without a squealing preschooler sitting next to you. I knew I wouldn't be using the ride mount footage in my final video submission to Disney either for this reason. It was a fun ride though and I loved being able to look at their camera mount equipment on this ride since I had a little bit more time to check it out. (And wasn't being slung up and down in the air like Tower of Terror.)

After that ride we had some free time and a meet and greet that turned out being ADORABLE with Snow White and Dopey. While Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has honestly never really been my favorite Disney movie for some reason, I have to admit - Snow White earned some MAJOR bonus points with me that day and Dopey was just adorable as well. We had a fun dancing time, they were both very sweet to chat with, and... well, come to think of it - maybe I should watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs again to give it another chance.

When the ride mount portion of the morning was over (all still prior to the theme park being "officially" open) we headed to stand in front of the castle for a group photo! This was a good time and I ended up directly behind someone's head, but at least you can "kind of" see me there. From there, we headed back to the buses for another conference session morning.

Photo Credit: Walt Disney World

The conference session that morning started with an opening discussion with Vin Di Bona, the creator of the hit TV series, America's Funniest Home Videos. He gave great insight into persistence, believing in your ideas, and also to how things have changed over the years in the film industry. YouTuber CharismaStar, also spoke about her journey with Youtube and was a great inspiration.

From there... probably what I will look back on as one of my favorite parts of the event began... James Ford Murphy, the director of the new short film by Pixar, Lava, spoke and was incredibly inspirational. This is what got my wheels turning and I really started to get excited as I began have realizations. We also had the producer of the Pixar short, Paperman speak to us as well - and after watching all three films, Lava, Feast, and Paperman... I realized. This is what (in a much smaller scale) we DO on YouTube. How had this never occured to me? We are short film markers AND story tellers. We can share a story with the world... and my inspiration went from there. This time with Pixar Studios was fantastic and the audience was definitely moved to tears a few times during the shows.

After the morning conference session was over, it was time for lunch and to head into the parks again! This time, we only had a few short hours before we needed to head to Hollywood Studios for a group dinner, so I tried to make a list of items I still needed to film and which parks we should plan to go to. We went back to Magic Kingdom - it's a classic - to look at a few snacks, and then headed over to Hollywood Studios for the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular Dinner!

We made it in to the park a little early and had time to ride Rockin' Roller Coaster, but on the way into the park I was able to meet up with yet another mommy YouTuber - Jessica from as3rd23 was at the park that night with her husband and we got a chance to say "hello" as she was heading out & I was heading in!! She was a sweetheart and I'm excited that will be collaborating together on the new Moms with Mouse Ears collaborative Disney channel! We also had time to ride Star Tours before heading to dinner.

I've seen the Indiana Jones Stunt Show a number of times... but one thing I'd never done before this, was eat dinner on the floor of the show area! After the show, they pulled back the stage and had tables set up, and we had dinner catered right there in the show area! The food was great and I was especially excited about a brownie that had glitter "sparkles" all over the top of it - because 2015 IS the year to sparkle after all! It was another fantastic meal and after things finished up, it was time to head back to the hotel for our last night at Walt Disney World!

Check out my third day of videos from the All Star Creators Conference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_CHBoz5HH8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idWaJ21Kd9M

** FTC Disclaimer: I received an all expenses paid trip to attend the All Star Creators Conference after winning a video contest showing my Disney Side! I was not paid to blog or vlog the conference. All opinions are my own.

Reflections on Disney Maker All Star Creators Conference - Day 2

As I awoke the on the morning of the first full day at the All Star Creators Conference, I tried to mentally prepare for everything that was about to happen that day, even though I didn't know exactly what it was going to be yet... I knew it was going to be BIG. I headed down to breakfast and found some familiar faces. I was happy to hear I wasn't the only one that decided to call it an early evening.

The food was great and I loved the "movie & film" details around the room as decoration. At the end of the designated breakfast period, we started hearing chimes to indicate we should start going... somewhere. And headed out to find the conference room.

WOW. That is really the only word that sums it up. The photo backdrop from the evening prior was outside the doors along with banners along the hall way with the All Star Creators Conference logo on them. We walked into a large banquet hall type of room... it was expansive, well decorated, and I instantly noticed the added technology in the room. Large monitors that would later be used for social media resources lined the room. Disney & Maker logos bounced across the screens, fun music was blaring... THIS... this was going to be a once in a lifetime experience.

We had sessions in the morning after an introduction from George Kalogridis, President of Walt Disney World - who shared brilliant statistics of how long it would take to stay in all of the hotel rooms on property and eat at each single restaurant for a different meal each day... Niether of course I got on film, so I won't repeat what I *think* they are in case I am remembering them wrong... but it was amazing. Then we got right into sessions with chats from different YouTubers. Sam Macaroni and Mark Daniels were the hosts and did a great job of being entertaining and giving information at the same time. Shay Carl from the ShayTards, Stampycat from StampyLongNose, the Epic Rap Battles of History guys, and two directors from Disney's Creative Inc. all stopped by to talk to us about creative ideas and YouTube.

After the sessions were over for the morning, we had a chance to have lunch and meet with our Disney Representatives. (From this point, shall hence be called the "Disney Reps".) My Disney Rep was brilliant, they did a great job matching us up. She had a little one around Natalie's age, so she understood preschoolers and unspoken... I think she sensed the moments that I was missing the girls and helped to move those moments along. She also let me drag her around all four theme parks and log over 12 miles walked in 2 days... so for that, at the end I felt like thanking her and apologizing to her at the same time, ha! The Disney Reps accompanied us throughout the theme parks over two main conference days, to make sure we knew the rules of filming in the parks, but also to give us information along the way, help with navigation, and my Disney Rep, Melissa, even jumped in to hold the camera to film as well!

I, of course being me, was ambitious in the beginning and wanted to do as.much.as.possible. Feet be darned. I was doing everything! There were a number of challenges presented by Maker that we could do on that Friday, so I decided to give it a go on all of those. (Spoiler alert: I didn't win any of them.) They had amazing prizes like annual passes to Walt Disney World and a visit to the Cinderella Suite at CINDERELLA CASTLE... That's a life long dream, I had to least try, right? The three challenges were a Disneybounding challenge (dressing in clothing as your favorite character - no costumes allowed!), Vinylmation challenge (taking pictures of the cute little characters "roaming" the parks), and a Selfie Challenge.

Hollywood Studios was our first stop, I was Disneybounding as Sully from Monster's Inc. and wanted to get a picture with him. From there we headed to Character Palooza and I got some great footage that I've since used for my new Disney collaborative channel, Moms with Mouse Ears.. and took some vinylmation pictures along the way as well for the third challenge. Riding Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom was one of my big personal goals for the weekend, since this normally wasn't a ride I could go on with the girls along... so we headed to Animal Kingdom to ride that and stop by to say "hello" to Mickey & Minnie while were there. Animal Kingdom is definitely growing on me and I see us spending a good day or two there on our next family vacation to Walt Disney World.

After completing everything I set out to do at Animal Kingdom just as the park was closing, we headed to Magic Kingdom to have dinner and ride a few rides. Deciding what to ride was a tough choice, I normally have everything pre-planned based on our Fast Passes and the girls' schedule... so I was a unique experience just being to "come and go" as I pleased. We eventually decided upon riding Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain, and tried the dinner at Columbia Harbor House.

It was my first time eating at Columbia Harbor House and I thought the food was really interesting, maybe not some place I will attempt to eat at each time we visit Magic Kingdom, but definitely some place to keep in mind if people in our party were wanting seafood.

After finishing up at Magic Kingdom, it was time to head back to the hotel to change clothes to go to the Hollywood Studios "after close" party! This was an amazing experience, to be able to go into the theme park after it had closed for the evening. We arrived via a back gate and used a back entrance to go into the theme park. Earlier in the day, we had signed up for character meet and greets - and I was particularly excited about an Olaf meet and greet. (It was not to be...) We entered right new Toy Story Midway Mania, and decided to wait in line to ride that first.

This was probably my only and/or biggest mistake of the weekend... thinking, "Oh the parks are closed, we won't have to wait long to ride things" I got into line at Toy Story Midway Mania with about 45 minutes to spare before my Olaf meet and greet time. What I hadn't calculated, is that there were not ride mounts (to film the YouTubers riding) on each car, so we had to wait for the ride mount cars to come back around and be available again. 45 minutes later... it was up to next in line and had to make the decision of whether to try to get out of line after standing there so long and trying to run to the Olaf greet (which was across the park), or just go ahead and ride since I'd already missed it anyhow. I ended up riding and we ran (literally, ran folks... and if you know how much I dislike running, you know how much I wanted to try to see Olaf!) to try to get to the meet and greet area... but alas, Olaf was gone and I had been the last Olaf time slot for the night. I met with Anna and Elsa after only having to wait a few minutes and we headed to the Tower of Terror area.

Then I had to make another decision of whether going to ride Tower of Terror or Rockin' Roller Coaster to get ride mount footage, and I chose to go to Tower of Terror. IF I could do it all over again, I would have skipped Toy Story Midway Mania, knowing I hadn't planned on using that footage anyways, and rode the two roller coasters for better ride mount footage. I blame my bad judgement on being tired from all of the walking. I had a fun time riding Tower of Terror and by that time, it was time to head back to the hotels and get a few hours of sleep before being up early the next morning!

Check out my vlogs from the first full day of the All Star Creators Conference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiudVIQDVgY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUpdXL8UQWE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SRTNCTM_C4

** FTC Disclaimer: I received an all expenses paid trip to attend the All Star Creators Conference after winning a video contest showing my Disney Side! I was not paid to blog or vlog the conference. All opinions are my own.