Our 5 Favorite Rides for Preschoolers at Disney World!

As we begin to plan our next trip to Walt Disney World, I've taken time to reflect on our past trip in April 2014, to evaluate any "must do" or "must see" items based on what the girls gravitated towards previously. Our next trip will be a bit longer and also include two additional parks, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios - which will be all new for them! So I'm excited to introduce these two parks to the girls and see what new favorites we may come home with!

At Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, the girls had a few definitive favorites and I thought I would share those in one fun video! Video clips from each ride are included!

Top 5 Rides for Preschoolers at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT:

(As chosen by the "Style girls"!) Isabella was 3 years old at the time of this trip and Natalie was 2 years old.

Check out more about our Disney vacations at www.youtube.com/beingmommywithstyle

Disney Highlights!

We had a wonderful time at Disney World! Here were some highlights! We took on Disney World with a 2 year old and a 3 year old!

Magic Kingdom was of course... magical, and the girls had a wonderful time exploring. They were all new to the theme park "thing", so I felt like it took us the first day to catch our stride. We spent most of our day in Fantasyland and the adults enjoyed seeing the new addition to the park as well. (Which included Beast's Castle, Gaston's Tavern, the new Ariel ride, and the Snow White mine train ride which was still under construction at the time we were there.)

EPCOT was our second full day at Florida, and admittedly - turned out to be our favorite! We found plenty to do for preschoolers there, they had art stations and a number of rides that were preschool friendly. (Living Seas & the Nemo ride was one of our favorites!) The girls also loved seeing the World Showcase. The highlight that day was the Princess Lunch at Akershus, which also could be said to be the highlight of the entire TRIP! It was wonderful, and will be a must do on our next WDW vacation as well!

Our next day was spent at the beach, and we again had a fantastic time. It was the girls' first time seeing the ocean for them both, and they were definitely awestruck by it!

On our final day, it turned out to be a bit of a rain day, so we took to Downtown Disney and tried to get some last minute shopping in!

We had a wonderful time at Walt Disney World and cannot wait to go back! In fact, we started talking about our next trip the minute we got home and decided we needed to squeeze in one more trip at the end of the year! I'm excited to begin preparations for our next WDW trip in 2014!!

A bit of nostalgia - Disney World style!

I'm a bit nostalgic writing this post… over 2 years ago, I started this blog to capture our adventures at Walt Disney World when Bella (my little Cupcake, for those that only read the blog and don't follow our YouTube Channel, beingmommywithstyle) was only 9 months old! It was her first trip to WDW and I was excited to share it with her. At the time, I was not on YouTube full-time yet, and only took limited video of the trip. Oh how I wish now I had the camera out more during that time, and caught all those precious moments on film… but alas, at least I have pictures and a few videos.

And I'm back now, after a short blog hiatus - to share a Disney trip once again. This time with BOTH girls (Natalie, "aka Peanut" was "on" the last trip… but no one knew it yet, ha!), Natalie's first visit to Walt Disney World and the first vacation there that Bella would remember. I knew this would be an exciting time, and I was so thankful that I would now have more extensive videos to look back on in years to come.

We ventured to Disney World in Orlando the first week in April 2014, and the trip went marvelous… I will be sharing a separate blog recap post for each of the "Day in the Life" YouTube videos. These will be videos that I will look back and treasure for some time, and I'm excited to be able to share them with you. I will also be doing a blog recap of my YouTube Travel Prep series and traveling with toddlers. It was an adventure, but an extremely fun one at that!

Product Review: Planet Explorers EPCOT 2012 Guide for Kids

I was given the opportunity to review the newest Planet Explorers e-guidebook, EPCOT 2012. Planet Explorers is a set of travel e-guidebooks for children aged 8-12. The guidebooks can be viewed on Kindles, Nooks, iPads, and smart phones, and are available for a variety of destinations including Orlando, Las Vegas, London, New York City, and more! They can easily be purchased on Amazon.com, and used immediately after downloading the guide to your device.

The guidebooks offer a concise overview of what children may expect to see at their destination and also offer helpful tips to make their trip more enjoyable.

EPCOT 2012 is one of Planet Explorers' newest titles and gives children 8-12 a glimpse at what they can expect when visiting the park. I've visited EPCOT a number of times in the past, so I'm familiar with the layout and exhibits that are in the theme park. The guide starts with a brief history of the theme park and then starts with a brief description of each of the exhibits starting at the front of the park, with Spaceship Earth and working its way through the different exhibits.

It is written in an easy to follow format that is appealing to upper grade school children and also has quick facts about each of the areas as you go through the guide. It is entertaining and is sure to capture the interest of a grade school children, as they use the guide to anticipate what to expect on their trip, or to plan what attractions they would like to see the most. There are a number of vivid images of each of the areas that also give a visual representation to give a great feel of what to expect in the theme park.

Current price of the Planet Explorers' EPCOT 2012 e-guidebook on Amazon.com is $2.99, delivered straight to your e-reader device!

My verdict: I think that the Planet Explorers e-guidebook on EPCOT is a thoughtfully written travel guide that is perfect for the child aged 8-12. It is entertaining and gives a great glimpse at what to expect during their trip, and would also be handy to reference while at the location to look up details or fun facts along the way. You can't beat the reasonable price either - at an average price of $2.99-$3.99 for the e-guidebooks, I think they would make great airplane reading material, attraction planning guides, and fun fact references while on the trip.

The Planet Explorers EPCOT 2012 guidebook can be purchased:

The Walt Disney World 2012 e-guidebook can be purchased here:



View all the rest of the Planet Explorer titles:
Planet Explorers

Learn more about Planet Explorers: www.planet-explorers.net
And visit their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/PlanetExplorers

* Please note the products in this review were sent to the reviewer by the company to perform an independent review. I've given my honest opinions on the products mentioned.

Cupcake's First Tea Party

The second portion of our vacation was spent in Illinois where we were able to visit Cupcake's other two grandparents, my mom and hubby's dad. We were all able to meet at my mom's house which was kind of in a central location for the boys to go dirt bike riding, and the girls were able to do girly things - like have a tea party!

Cupcake enjoyed being able to see everyone and play with new toys...

However, she was a little unsure of the bath time duck that her Nana wanted her to use...

On the day of the tea party, she put on her party dress and anxiously waited to see what was going to happen next! The table was set with all sorts of shiny things of interest to her...

She played shy at first when all of the ladies arrive, hiding behind a table leg in the living room.

After a few minutes she got acclimated to the room full of ladies there to see her, and decided to come out and play with some toys! She even brought her Fisher Price tea set from home to have some "tea" with the rest of the ladies! (Sorry, no other pictures of her playing with her tea set in the middle of the room... all of mine came out blurry! Hopefully my mom has some good ones!) Nana was very happy to be able to have Cupcake meet some of Nana's friends!

The Grandparent Tour 2011 was quite a success with all of the grandparents being able to come see Cupcake! We were excited to be able to see everyone in such a short period of time, but happy to get home to our own beds and back into a routine!

Florida Fun! - Part 1

Well, I'm still in catch up mode after getting back from our trip and just now getting around to blogging about the trip itself! Suitcases are still yet to be unpacked... my house is a wreck... but it was a fun week and worth all of the disorganization going on around here right now!

The first part of our trip was in Orlando, Florida, and of course you cannot go to Orlando without heading over to Disney World!

Personal picture taken from the Ferry Boat dock

Personal picture of Mickey & Minnie in front of Cinderella's Castle

Cupcake was excited (albeit tired) going into the park on the tram, because she could tell that something special was going on today!

Mommy & Cupcake on the tram into Walt Disney World

Watching Cupcake take in all of the new sights and sounds at Disney World was an absolute joy! I have to say, I think that going to Disney World with a child, may be even more fun then what it was like to go as a child. (Maybe.) In either case, watching her reactions and seeing what rides she liked the best was good fun! Two of her grandparents that live in Florida (my dad and hubby's mom) were also able to go into the theme park with us and take part in seeing their granddaughter's first Disney World experience!

Cupcake's first Disney ride! The Tomorrowland People Mover

Unfortunately, we did go during Spring Break season and there were quite a few long lines in the park... so we opted to go on just a few "Cupcake friendly" rides this trip, and save standing in the longer lines for the rides that were more for the "big kids" (i.e. us). Luckily the grandparents on hand were more than happy to go find a shady spot and hang out with Cupcake for 45 minutes, while the big kids rode Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and so on.

We also took in a few shows while we were there... we went in 'Carousel of Progress' during Cupcake's first nap time and it put her to sleep!

Cupcake asleep on Daddy after the 'Carousel of Progress' Disney show

The highlight of the day though, was Cupcake on 'It's a Small World', without a doubt - it was her favorite ride in Walt Disney World. She giggled and danced her way though it.

Cupcake bouncing her way though 'It's a Small World'

All in all, it was a great day at Disney and we all came out exhausted.... Cupcake crashed on the monorail on the way back to the parking lot.

After a long and exciting day, Cupcake was ready to call it an evening!

The next day we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure... primarily to see the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter! In tomorrow's blog post I'll share the experiences we had there!

Giveaway ends today!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway, which will close for entries tonight at 6pm ET! The winner will be notified via the email they submitted on the entry form and will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen. I will announce the winner here on the blog and giveaway page also!

Enter by visiting the giveaway post HERE.

In other news, I'm back from vacation and exhausted! It was so fun though, definitely worth doing again... here are the highlights from the trip - I'll be sure to share some pictures from our trip later in the week...

- Cupcake is a great airplane traveler! She slept on every single flight and was lulled to sleep by the sound of the engines. Whew! What a relief!

- We had an absolute blast at Disney World and of course will be going back... Cupcake's favorite ride was 'It's a Small World' and she danced all of the way through it!

- Cupcake also had her first tea party at her Nana's house while we were away... too cute! She even brought along her Fisher Price tea set to use while the adults had their own tea!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and I'm excited to be announcing the winner of the first giveaway very soon! I'm off to go unpack a suitcase or something...