Look out Disney! Here we come! TR - UPDATED 12/14 - COMPLETE!! - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Just a quick recap on our cast of characters…
Me (Donna) 56 years young and a Disney lover since my family’s first visit in 1976. I helped to plan the trip and took copious notes – my first TR I guess! I still have my notebook.
DH (Jeff) 57. Jeff’s first visit was in 1978 when we flew to Florida to visit his brother for a week. We spent one day, from morning till night, at the Magic Kingdom. We both enjoyed it, but once we got married and had kids, a Disney trip was definitely not in our budget.
DS (Tom) 27. Tom’s first trip to Disney was in 1991, when he was 4. We saved for a couple years to be able to take the kids to Disney. We thought it would be a once in a lifetime trip, but 3 years later, in 1994, we were able to go again.
Jeff and I went, 10 years later for our 25th anniversary. And then, in 2008, we were able to make another trip with our kids, all adults by then. That was a LOT of fun! By then, the Disney bug had bit! Jeff and I were back in 2009, for our 30th anniversary, then again in 2010. In 2011, I went with our two DDs, and then Jeff and I again in 2012 and 2013. We skipped last year, because life got a little complicated, but we knew we had to make it back this year and Tom was going to join us! So…Look out Disney, here we come!!
September 16 – part 1
We set the alarm for 5:30 AM and were up, showered and ready to go by 6:30. We had planned on Dad picking us up in his van but the "check engine" light had come on yesterday and he didn't want to chance taking us to the airport and having it breakdown. So my mom drove us to the airport in her car. Luckily we didn't have more than large three bags and everything fit well in her trunk. We arrived at Buffalo airport 20 minutes later. There was no line at all at the Southwest baggage check and we were through there in a matter of minutes. We already had our boarding passes but she printed us up new ones, saying these are better. I had done the earlybird check-in and we had A 25, 26, and 27. We were through security and to the gate by 7:10 AM. There was no room to sit at our gate, so we waited a bit for the gate next to us to empty out and found three seats together over there. The usual posts with the numbers on them were not in place and the Southwest rep at the gate announced that he didn’t think we really needed them, just line up according to your number. Really? We’re supposed to be asking those in front and behind us what number they have? Sounds like an ice-breaker you play on your first day of high school. When they called the A group, we figured out where we should be standing and got into place, though it would have been much easier if someone had bothered to put out the markers. We boarded at 7:30 and took off on time at 8:00. The gluten free zucchini bread I’d made was a great breakfast snack for the plane. Southwest now has wifi available on their flights. If you want to actually be able to get on the internet you have to pay $8.00. But they have free wifi for live TV viewing and a selection of other television episodes. Unfortunately, you need an app for viewing those television episodes and I hadn’t downloaded the app before the flight, so I skipped that. I watched the Today show for a while, read the morning paper, did the crossword puzzle, and then played a few games on my ipad. Before I knew it we were preparing to land. We touched down in Orlando at 10:15, disembarked, rode the monorail to the main terminal, made a bathroom stop and were in the DME area by 10:40. Only one picture at the airport. Someone was taking a picture in front of the Disney Store and I didn’t want to wait for them to be done because Tom and Jeff weren’t going to slow down!
We were one of the last ones on the bus, and were on our way to Disney’s Boardwalk Villas by 10:45. On our way to the Boardwalk, I got a text that Garden Grocer had delivered our order. Yay! I also got a text from the desk at Boardwalk Villas saying our room was not quite ready but they would text us with our room number when it was ready. Since we were in the back of the bus I didn't get a picture of the usual sign, but managed to get this view as we entered WDW property.
We made one stop at Caribbean Beach Resort
and then on to Boardwalk Inn and Villas. We arrived at Boardwalk and walked around like tourists for a few minutes getting the lay of the land. We had never stayed at Boardwalk before so it was a little confusing at first.
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I am so glad you finally got photobucket figured out!! I was also very frustrated when using it in the beginning!! Great start, Donna!! Glad you made it safely. I am very much looking forward to reading about your adventures!!
Great start to your TR. I can't wait to read more.
Thanks Darlene! Glad to have you along!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mojjo
Great start! Love early flights and getting to the bubble early enough for lunch and a full afternoon.
Can't wait to read more.
Oh yeah. Early morning flights are the best!
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Great start! Boardwalk is definitely a little confusing at first
I think many of the resorts are at first. It just takes some time to find your way around.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Great start, Donna! I agree that the different levels at BW can be a bit confusing at first.
Yes, especially since the lobby is on level 2. The first time I hit level 1, walked out of the elevator and was completely lost, wondering what happened to the lobby!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tara O'Hara
I am so glad you finally got photobucket figured out!! I was also very frustrated when using it in the beginning!! Great start, Donna!! Glad you made it safely. I am very much looking forward to reading about your adventures!!
The crazy thing is I've used photobucket for a few years now, but have always resized my photos first. So, I was puzzled until finally figuring out how to do that with our new computer and Windows 8.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great start Donna! Glad you figured out the pictures!
September 16 – part 2
Lunchtime!
We walked outside to the Boardwalk and headed for Big River Grille for an early lunch.
It was just 11:30. We were seated inside, not in the area where you could see the brewing vats, but we had a nice view of the Boardwalk. Jeff had the California chicken sandwich and a Red Ale, Tom had the blackened Mahi Mahi sandwich and an IPA, and I had the mushroom Swiss burger without a roll and a club soda.
All the sandwiches came with the kettle chips which were yummy! The whole meal was delicious and everyone enjoyed it. Before we ordered, we checked with Cathleen, our server, about whether they give a 10% DVC discount because we hadn't gotten our Tables in Wonderland card yet. And she confirmed that they did. We were surprised when she brought our check because she said she gave us the 20% TiW discount anyway since we told her we were headed to the parks to get our card! What a nice gesture! The bill came to $56.76 which took into account the $11 TiW discount. Off to a great start!
Just as we were finishing our meal I got a text from the Boardwalk front desk saying that our room was ready! We had room number 4121. Before going to the room we headed to Bell services to pick up our Garden Grocer order. It consisted of two bags and a 12 pack of beer so we decided to carry it to the room ourselves. I had ordered a 12 pack of sparkling water, some orange juice, English muffins, blackberry jam, 10 cups of Greek yogurt, a gallon of milk, a 12 pack of beer and quite a few bananas. The only problem was the beer was Bud Light and I had ordered Bud Light Lime. The packing slip even said Bud Light Lime. I would have to make a phone call to resolve that issue.
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I had done the earlybird check-in and we had A 25, 26, and 27. We were through security and to the gate by 7:10 AM. There was no room to sit at our gate, so we waited a bit for the gate next to us to empty out and found three seats together over there. The usual posts with the numbers on them were not in place and the Southwest rep at the gate announced that he didn’t think we really needed them, just line up according to your number. Really? We’re supposed to be asking those in front and behind us what number they have? Sounds like an ice-breaker you play on your first day of high school. When they called the A group, we figured out where we should be standing and got into place, though it would have been much easier if someone had bothered to put out the markers. We boarded at 7:30 and took off on time at 8:00. The gluten free zucchini bread I’d made was a great breakfast snack for the plane. Southwest now has wifi available on their flights. If you want to actually be able to get on the internet you have to pay $8.00. But they have free wifi for live TV viewing and a selection of other television episodes. Unfortunately, you need an app for viewing those television episodes and I hadn’t downloaded the app before the flight, so I skipped that. I watched the Today show for a while, read the morning paper, did the crossword puzzle, and then played a few games on my ipad. Before I knew it we were preparing to land. We touched down in Orlando at 10:15, disembarked, rode the monorail to the main terminal, made a bathroom stop and were in the DME area by 10:40. Only one picture at the airport. Someone was taking a picture in front of the Disney Store and I didn’t want to wait for them to be done because Tom and Jeff weren’t going to slow down! 
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I was also very frustrated when using it in the beginning!! Great start, Donna!! Glad you made it safely. I am very much looking forward to reading about your adventures!!
*Melissa
Early morning flights are the best! 
Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
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