The Blonde Diaries

Disney Planning: Important Dates to Know

When planning your Disney vacation, there are some important dates you should know about. Many first timers do not know this and well it could lead to a very disappointing trip because not all guide books will tell you how important they are. If you aren’t a first timer but have not visited in the past 5 years or so these dates will help you as well since Disney frequently changes things. So lets break them down into Parks and Other.

Parks:
Disney has added many themed weekends and themed “private” parties throughout the year that are fun to attend such as Pirate and Princess Parties, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, ESPN Weekend, Soap Opera Weekend, and Star Wars Weekend. Knowing the approximate times of year these parties happen can help you plan your trip around these weekends or avoiding them if they are not your up of tea!  One thing to note is that the parks get “themed” to match the event and the characters wear special costumes and as a bonus some really rare characters come out to play.

• Pirates and Princess Parties - this year they are occurring Jan - June in prior year it was August so you just have to watch this one.
• Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party - mid-September until Halloween night.  Tickets go on sale May 1st each year for the selected dates
• Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party  - mid-November through Christmas.  Tickets go on sale May 1st each year for the selected dates
• ESPN Weekend - no special tickets required!  All you need is park admission to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  This is typically one weekend in February.  There are many sports related activities and stars that show up for this event.  Check with Disney for the exact date.
• Soap Opera Weekend - same as ESPN weekend but with Soap Opera stars!  Occurs in one weekend November each year.  Check with Disney for the exact date.
• Star Wars Weekends - Yes this event is so big and popular it is every weekend in June.  No additional admission is required other than your park tickets to the Disney Hollywood Studios.  I’m not a huge fan but this is one I’d love to try and attend one year.

Other Dates you should know:

These are not so much plan your trip to Disney around them but they are important while planning your trip.

• Dining -> Dining at Disney has become a huge deal even during non-free dining periods.  To make sure to get the reservations you want call at the exact 180 day before your trip to book.  If you book online just check the Disney website and they will tell you how many days you have until your trip.  When it hits 180 call WDW Dining!  This is extremely important when you go in peak times because most restaurants will not allow walk ups.  So if you want to avoid burgers at every meal, make some reservations!
• Free Dining -> you are probably wondering what that is in my previous bullet point.  Basically during peak hurricane season (late Aug - Sept) Disney offers the basic dining plan to guests booking their trips and you basically eat for free the entire trip.  Free dining promotions are announced in early April each year for the dates in August and September and book up fast so keep an eye out if you want to catch this special.
• 45 days -> 45 days out your trip package must be paid for in full if you booked a Magic Your Way Package.  It is also when you should be getting your package details in the mail including your Magical Express luggage tags and information on how to use the Magical Express service.  Make sure to read carefully to ensure they have your reservation information (both Disney stay and your airline information) correct.

I hope this installment of Disney trip planning helps you.  If you have any other dates to share please leave a comment.

Budgeters & Bloggers: Have you checked out SocialSpark??

Calling all budgeters and bloggers! Have you checked out SocialSpark as a new way to get paid for blogging and earn a little bit of extra money doing what you love? After seeing gas prices go up yet again today I thought maybe I should look into it myself as a good way to help offset the price increase.

SocialSpark is similar to PayPerPost in that you and advertisers meet via SocialSpark to help promote blogs, websites, products, and advertise all while you get paid. SocialSpark allows you to create a blogger profile that both other bloggers and advertisers can see which helps you earn more money. You see advertisers can read your profile and see if you match an opportunity they have and then put in a request for you to write it. Other bloggers see your interests and you build a social network and gain readership. It’s a win-win situation. SocialSpark also helps out bloggers who have been around for a while and do not want to lose their google pagerank, which is very important in the blog world, by allowing no-follow tags on every opportunity you take. I think that’s pretty cool especially since it took me almost 6 months on my other blog to finally get a page rank.

Check out SocialSpark today and create a profile. It’s completely free and the first step to finding new blog friends and earning a little extra money. Not sure how to do it? Check out my profile over there via this link. I’ll make sure to add you as a friend.

What’s on your iPod?

I love posting this on the message boards I visit every few months. While I listen to the local radio station daily on my drive to and from work, I only live 2 miles away so I listen to all of 10 minutes each way and of course in the mornings they are playing the morning show and not any current music.

Well now I need songs more than ever! I have got to get motivated to go to the gym at least 5 days a week and do an hour each day. I need some songs to pump me up on the Monday I’m not listening to my WDW Radio Info podcast. So far I picked up some Aerosmith and Gwen Stefani this past week to add to my mix of mainly Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilara, and old school Britney but I could really use some old school 80s or 90s pump me up music.

Got any good gym suggestions?

Thank goodness for the internet sometimes

I will gladly admit that I do not know everything. There are many things that I don’t know much about and am slightly embarrassed to ask questions about them. The topics aren’t embarrassing but I feel these are things I should know about. Things like car insurance coverages, medical insurance coverages, IRAs, and life insurance. All I can say is thank goodness for the internet. With the internet I can sit at home and search these topics and find basic information to clear my questions so that I can sound intelligent when I ask professionals about them. I also am happy that I can pull quotes for things like life insurance quotes or auto insurance quotes without actually having to talk to an agent and being hard sold. I hate hard sells so it is comforting that I can research on my own easily and obtain quotes and get a general idea before making the call. Anyone else experience happiness like this.

Disney Dining: Cold Strawberry Soup

One of the most popular and longest threads you will find on any Disney related message board is the “food photos” thread. These threads are basically show and tell pictures of everything people ate on their trip. Now if you are not a die-hard Disney fan this concept may sound odd to you. Believe me, it took me a while to understand as well. But after reading an 82 page post I now get why it is a helpful planning tool. If you don’t know anything about the restaurants and the food they serve looking at pictures will help you decide on your reservations.

In those 82 pages I found a picture of 1900 Park Fare which is a character meal at the Grand Floridian. This restaurant apparently has a very tasty and very popular Strawberry Soup which is sold cold. I am super excited to give it a try as I have never really tried a cold soup and I love strawberries. I thought it might be wise to go ahead and post the recipe for it as well in case I come back loving the soup I can easily find the recipe! Normally I would make this first before posting but I don’t want to make this at home before trying the real thing. So if you happen to make this or have made it before please post and let me know how it turned out for you.

1900 Park Fare: Cold Strawberry Soup

Note: Takes all of 10 min to make. Store it in a pitcher in the fridge and eat it for about a week.

• 2.5 pounds frozen strawberries, thawed w/juice
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tablespoon sugar, optional
• fresh strawberries, for garnish.

1. Mix strawberries, cream, sour cream, and yogurt in blender until smooth
2. Add sugar, if desired
3. Chill. Stir well before serving
4. Garnish with fresh strawberries

Another Note: There was discussion on whether or not you could sub in low-fat/non-fat ingredients and the consensus was no because the soup would not thicken and blend together since it is not cooked.