Show Notes Episode 34

DDP, ITM & us Girls

Arggh Kimmie hates acronyms, so I titled the show especially for her!

Welcome to our official show notes for episode 34. It is crammed full with a review of how both us Minxes have used the Disney Dining Plan and we also chat to Mr Inside the Magic, Ricky Brigante.

We start the show with a mouth-watering chat about the Disney Dining Plan. Both myself and Kim have used the dining plan and we have put together some of our stories and tips in a twenty-five minute segment - but boy it was incredibly difficult but I think we covered the main points! Though there are more details on the previous blog post, so please scroll down to read that too! If after all that you have anymore questions, please do not hesitate to email us.

Then our interview! A week ago I had the pleasure of being joined by Becky Manion to chat with Ricky Brigante about his life, starting Inside the Magic and then we moved on to talking about the wonderful theme parks in Orlando. Look out for more from Ricky as we have also recorded a feature about his favourite Magic Kingdom attraction.

Plus three facts from Ciarán, themed around Star Wars Weekends it sure is a bumper episode which we hope you will enjoy!

Minnie Kisses

Kim and Michelle xx

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Paying for the dining plan

So it isn’t offered free and you want to buy it. 
Should you? Lets start with the current prices.

Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan


$37.58/£24.99 p/n ages 10 & up
 
$14.32/£9.99 p/n age 3 to 9 

Disney Dining Plan
 (Value and Regular Season)


$55.59 to $56.94/£39.99 p/n ages 10 & up

$17.16 to $18.16/£11.99 p/n age 3 to 9

Using Disney Quick Service Dining Plan (DQSDP)

A counter service entrée usually costs between 

$8 and $14, add average drink cost of $3

then add a dessert of around $4.

Leaving a counter service value to a maximum of $21.  

So two lots of that, plus a snack of around $4 and the

ability to fill your mug in resort means you spend $37.58 on buying the

DQSDP but you get value of $46 plus those drinks!

Using Disney Dining Plan (DDP) a table service entrée can range between $18 and $30, add a drink of around $4, then add dessert $6 could be worth a maximum of $40. Add in the counter service value of $21 + snack $5 = $66 plus those drinks!

Where you could have paid up to $56.99 so a pre-tip saving could be made but not as good value as the DQSDP

My summary

·      The maths can add up if you order the most expensive option

·      It helps with budgets

·      Teens can be left to sort their own food without having charging privileges
    on their key to the world card or being given cash.

·      If you are spending all your time in the parks and you can plan it can be worth it

·     Please visit the Disney Food Blog website - wealth of information
·    You may get fed up of all the food


Let me know your thoughts!

Show Notes For Show 33

Hello and welcome to the latest episode of The Minnie Minxes. With using live audio from the birthday celebrations and the usual facts by our resident Disney guru this is a fun filled action packed show.

In This Episode Kimmy and Michelle are joined by Safari Mike for a belated Animal Kingdom 15^th birthday special where we talk all things Animal Kingdom.

We discuss Mike's experiences on Animal Kingdom safaris and hear his top tips for this once in a lifetime experience.

We investigate all things edible in the next segment and breakdown all the places to grab some food in the park. Hope you hungry as we delve through the ice cream cookie sandwich, which as big as a baby's head, and educate Mike in what true naan bread is!

Finally we quickly revisit a much-heated discussion on Avatar land. We discuss Mike's thoughts and then create our own lands so don’t forget to let us know what you think as well.

Kimmy and Michelle

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Four Months To WDW

As the countdown number is decreasing, the excitement is increasing; I truly can’t believe in four months I will be going to Walt Disney World! So I thought I would write an update on how my plans for this trip are going.

Originally we were doing a six-night stay at Old Key West, a seven-night cruise on the Disney Fantasy and finishing with a one-night stay at Art of Animation. However, the cruise is now not going to happen. As much as I really wanted to experience a Disney cruise I found my to do list for the parks growing to the point I felt a little cheated that I wouldn’t get everything done I wanted to.

Then came the dilemma. Where to stay? We had seven nights to find accommodation for. Old Key West was unable to offer a further seven nights so to avoid having to change resorts three times we rung Disney and added the further nights to our existing reservation. It was quite easy to be honest. So our new break sees us go from deluxe with table service dining to value with added Pixarness!

Back at 180 days out I made some ADR’s for the six table service credits for the OKW portion of the holiday. Though I was faced with the challenge of reducing my shortlist of twelve restaurants to six! To ensure I got the maximum value, I poured over menus and wrote out the most likely food options and priced up what the spend would be. Then I simply chose the six most expensive! These, for us, worked out to be Be Our Guest, Ohana, Whispering Canyon, Garden Grill, Liberty Tree Tavern and Mama Melrose. I am really excited, as I have only eaten at one of them before.

Next blog will cover how I choose where to spend each day and key attractions.

Show 32 Review & Tour Girls

Hello and welcome Minxsters to the show notes for episode 32 of The Minnie Minxes Disney Podcast.

In this episode we joined by Jeff Dixon, Orlando resident, Pastor, budding Disney historian but more importantly for this episode, the author of Unlocking the Kingdom. This book is the second in the mystery thriller series Jeff has written and catches up with Grayson Hawkes and his quest to protect the kingdom. If you are pondering over whether to buy a copy - DO! However by popping over to our blog and clicking the affiliate link it will take you straight to Amazon and help us girls out at the same time.

Then prepare to be whisked over to Adventure Land in Walt Disney Word to explore the attractions, the eateries and find out precisely where we would put our wrecking ball for a revamp Minx style.

Plus three facts from Ciarán and two listeners questions it sure is a bumper episode, which we hope you will enjoy!

If you wish to sponsor Lucy for her Race for Life, here is the link

http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/lucyburgesscardiff

Minnie Kisses

Kim and Michelle xx

Email contact@theminnieminxes.co.uk

Twitter @theminnieminxes

Blog http://theminnieminxes.blogspot.co.uk

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Mickey Pancakes

The other day I got wrapped up in a series of tweets featuring Mickey waffles. As I began to drool I had a sudden urge for Mickey shaped food hence I began to scour the internet for my options. The best I could come up with were Mickey pancakes and together with my handy metal Mickey cookie I began my endeavour.

After a few receipe tweaks I managed to produce 16 delicious fluffy pancakes. So if you fancy a go, here is the receipe I used.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 pinch of salt

3 teaspoons white sugar

2 large eggs

30 grams of melted butter

300-350ml milk

225 grams plain flour

sunflower oil for frying

Equipment

Frying pan

Mickey cookie cutter – must be metal

Mixing bowl

Hand blender/whisk

Ladle or measuring jug (to pour batter into cookie cutter)

Two forks

Spatula

Method

I put all the ingredients in the mixing bowl and mixed, using my blender, till lumpless. The batter was quite thick, using just 300ml of milk, so I added a more until it was the consistency of thick custard.
I then put just under a tablespoon of the sunflower oil in the pan (quantity will depend on size of pan) and put the frying pan on top of the stove on a medium light. I popped the cookie cutter in the pan and filled it 1/3 of the way up with some of the batter mix. 
After 45 seconds or so the batter mix in the pan began to make ‘bubbles’ up the side of the cutter and once they made it to the middle, using a fork on each side, I carefully removed the cutter and flipped the pancake over. A further 30 seconds later the pancake was done and I put in the over to keep warm whilst I cooked the remaining batter mix. 
These timings will all depend on the temperature of the pan so I always view the first one as a ‘tester’ for the cook ;-). 
Hope you enjoy!

Jenni's Going To Disneyland!

A Disney free year? Never! 2013 was supposed to be a Disney free year and in fact it was one of my New Years resolutions! Matt and I had been to Disneyland Paris four times and Disneyworld once last year so it seemed a good idea to have twelve months off and go on a beach holiday instead. The problem is I don’t like lying around on beaches or by the pool or being hot so I wasn’t overly enthusiastic. But I did try; I collected brochures, did lots of googling and went on all the discount holiday sites. But nothing felt right. Which was why I couldn't resist running some figures for a trip to Anahiem. Who was I kidding thinking I could have a Disney free year? So following a quick text to Matt with my workings out the decision was made, we were going to Disneyland California!!

We set a budget of £3500 to include flights, eight nights in a hotel, five days in the park, a day in Hollywood and a day at the beach. I'm not great at sticking to budgets so I'm hoping to win the lottery very soon!

The first thing to decide was when to go. We had visited Disneyworld during the Christmas season and loved the decorations and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party but I wanted to experience something a bit different. Halloween season seemed to be a good choice as the parks would be decorated and we would be able to spend an evening filling a bag with sweets at the Halloween party! That gave us a date range of 13th September to 31st October but how would I decide on the final dates? This turned out to be much easier than expected as after checking the refurb list on www.touringplans.com I found that Big Thunder Mountain was down until 30th October!! I love BTM and there was no way I was flying for 12 hours to not be able to ride it. So it was decided; we would fly out on the 29th October, go to the Halloween Party on the 31st October and return home on 6th November.

With the dates sorted it was time to make a major dint in the budget and book flights. I was hoping to find a bargain but decided after checking reviews of several cut-price flight sites that I didn't trust them! It's not worth saving £200 if the flights don't exist so I focused on Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. Both came out as £600 return price each but as Virgin had slightly cheaper extra leg-room seats and better flight times it was another easy decision.

So with the flights booked there's no turning back, I now have eight glorious months of planning ahead of me so I hope the lovely readers of the Minnie Minxes Blog will enjoy reading all about it.

Next month - blog part 2 The Hotel Conundrum