Philadelphia Freedom: 8 days south of the cold Northeast (Jan '07 / OKW) - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Philadelphia Freedom: 8 days south of the cold Northeast (Jan '07 / OKW) PRETRIP REPORT
My goal is to make this the first report I actually finish--- I swear I WILL finish this one (2 previous attempts, and I failed miserably—sorry, I still feel badly about that).
Cast of Characters: Me (Dina), 33 – 12th trip
Joe (DH), 32 – 6th trip
Aidan (DS), 6 – 4th trip
Danny (DS), 3- 4th trip
Fran (DMom), 59 – 7th trip
Steve (DDad), 58 – 7th Trip
Our Journey: Flying out of Philly International 7am , Friday 1/19, and returning
Saturday 1/27
Lodging: Old Key West (our first DVC trip)
Pre-trip report
Long story---This trip started spring ’06 when my aunt and uncle called to tell me they wanted to go to Disney in November, with my cousins and my cousin’s fiance, and they wanted to go over the quote the TA gave them, to see if I thought it sounded right. They were a little upset because the TV advertisements kept mentioning that a family of 4 could go to Disney for $1500. I tried to explain that was for a family of 4 (not 5) at a value (they were staying at POR with two rooms), and they were including the dining plan and airfare—the advertisement was not including those. Anywho--- I went over the numbers and deals out there, and since they really wanted the dining plan, it was pretty cut and dried—the number sounded right to me (though I thought they could get better airfare).
After we hung up, my aunt called back , and asked if we would want to go too. I called Joe, he said sure, but I should ask my parents as well. So, I called my parents, they said yes—but if we were all going together, we’d have to ask my grandmother as well : (she's my mom’s mom--- really her step-mom, but nobody talks about that--- weird family secret). When you think of my grandmother, think Marie on Everybody Loves Raymond, but worse—really really worse she’s like a dark side of Marie(except to me, she never ever bothers me—maybe because I’m her step-granddaughter, I don’t know—but she never bothers me,my dad, or Joe—she’s actually quite entertaining-- but everyone else forget it). So, I called my cousin and talked to her about asking my grandmother. She said, no way, would any of them go if my grandmother was going. That was kind of a deal breaker for me. I don’t usually ask my grandmother to go with us, because she is really tough, but she loves Disney, and we can’t possibly ALL go to Disney without her--- both her kids and all of her grandkids and great grandkids -- that would just be wrong. So, we said that we couldn’t go if we couldn’t ask my grandmother. And, then my aunt and uncle cancelled anyway because my cousins really didn't want to go, and they didn't want to go by themselves.
My parents still wanted to go. My grandmother couldn’t go anyway, she said she just couldn’t handle Disney anymore. So it was just my parents, Joe and I and the kids. My dad really wanted to go in the winter because he didn’t want to miss any of his fishing season, and Joe wanted to run the marathon--- so everyone agreed on January. In the mean- time Free dining came along for August, and we asked my parents if they wanted to go in August (since that would save my dad a lot of money, since he has a hard time letting Joe and I pay for anything--- I had a feeling he’d be paying the bill for many of our dinners, and my dad doesn’t eat counter service, but he only eats one meal a day--- odd, I know). My dad said “no way” about August--- he was looking forward to January (my parents always took me in July or August, so he’s never gotten to experience cooler temps or low crowds). Fine by us, but Joe and I did decide to take advantage of that free dining anyway (Aidan’s birthday gave us an excuse). So we booked a trip at ASMo for August, and Joe’s mom asked if she could come with us on our August trip as well. So that was a-go as well.
Anyway, back to the January trip. Some time in July we booked our trip--- 2 rooms at Pop Century. And we were all going to drive down (separately, my parents live 2.5 hours away), and meet down there. My dad also told me the restaurants he wanted to eat in—all in Epcot (Alfredo’s, San Angel Inn and Le Cellier), and he told us to pick the rest, but he wanted one table service per day. I tried to sell him on the dining plan, but my dad didn’t want it.. Joe and I also picked Chef Mickey dinner, Crystal Palace, Whispering Canyon, ‘Ohana and ‘50s Prime Time (nothing new on this trip--- actually Alfredo’s was new for Joe and the kids), and Lilo and Stitch Breakfast. So, I made all of the ADRs. Everything was set.
Sort of related--- Joe and the kids and I went on our August trip with DMIL. On our last day, we were facing an impending thunder storm so decided to pass the time with a DVC Tour, and we ended up buying 150 points that day. It’s something we had been thinking about for a long time.
The day after we returned from ASMo I called Member services to see if I could book a 2br for our January trip--- SSR was available--- and even though we had to borrow almost all of our points for the next year, we were able to book it--- I called my mom and dad and told my parents the good news! They were pretty excited. I cancelled the rooms at Pop. Bought APs with DVC discount, and then bought the DDE Card--- which would help save a little money on all of those ADRs.
We ended up having a really bad month in November. Joe was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and was told he needed to stop running, and my mom was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. My mom needed surgery 3 days before we were supposed to leave, plus we thought it would be too hard on Joe to be around all of the marathoners. He was really really looking forward to it, and he trained so hard for 10 months. So, my mom and I called MS, and changed our reservation from marathon week, to a few weeks later. The good news was OKW was available--- which was what we were originally hoping for, since OKW required less points than Saratoga. The new really worked out well since it gave my mom a few weeks to heal from surgery, plus it was 2 weeks before starting chemo.
Though we were planning to drive, I kept checking airfare just in case something really great turned up. Airtran had a sale for our dates--- $49 each way. So, it came to just a little over $500 for all of us--- we couldn’t pass that up, since gas alone would probably cost $300. Literally, the day before our trip, we booked Quicksilver to meet us at the airport (we're gonna go with DME again, but decided to do Quicksilver at the last minute, last time we arrived on a Sat. the line for DME was really long and I was figuring it would take a few hours before we'd get to OKW-- as the trip got closer this became less appealing)—we needed a van so they could provide a car seat (they always have boosters, but can only provide carseats in the bigger vehicles)—the van really wasn’t much more than a towncar though, so no problem.
So, I think that’s it. Oh one last thing, the first week of January, Joe had an appointment with a rheumatologist--- and he said the rheumatoid diagnosis was incorrect (great news). Though the RA level in his blood was elevated--- it was at 20 rather than 12 (which is the normal number). This doctor said he doesn’t feel that someone truly has RA unless their blood count is 60 or higher. He truly believed Joe had been suffering from a virus-- which made sense since Joe had really been feeling fine for the past 3 weeks. So, that was a bit of good news. I believe it was all of those pixies you wonderful people sent! Joe's now back to running every other morning, with no problems or pain whatsoever.
Coming up:
Heading out before sunrise!
__________________
Dina
Last edited by Happymommy; 05-15-2007 at 05:27 PM..
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World Its hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Wow, your family really has been through a lot. Glad you were able to go; can't wait to read about your adventure. You left the day we got there! And yes, the line for DME was huge when we arrived on a Saturday. To their credit, however, they did have about 20 CMs working the line, so we didn't wait as long as I'd anticipated.
I was really excited to hear that Joe didn't have RA! I remember you asking questions about his initial diagnosis, but I completely missed any update saying that the diagnosis had been wrong. It had to be the amazing power of !
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
About This Page: 
, and asked if we would want to go too. 
I called Joe, he said sure,
but I should ask my parents as well. So, I called my parents, they said yes—but if we were all going together, we’d have to ask my grandmother as well 
: (she's my mom’s mom--- really her step-mom, but nobody talks about that--- weird family secret). When you think of my grandmother, think Marie on Everybody Loves Raymond, but worse—really really worse she’s like a dark side of Marie(except to me, she never ever bothers me—maybe because I’m her step-granddaughter, I don’t know—but she never bothers me,my dad, or Joe—she’s actually quite entertaining-- but everyone else forget it). So, I called my cousin and talked to her about asking my grandmother. She said, no way, would any of them go if my grandmother was going. 
That was kind of a deal breaker for me. I don’t usually ask my grandmother to go with us, because she is really tough, but she loves Disney, and we can’t possibly ALL go to Disney without her--- both her kids and all of her grandkids and great grandkids -- that would just be wrong. So, we said that we couldn’t go if we couldn’t ask my grandmother. And, then my aunt and uncle cancelled anyway because my cousins really didn't want to go, and they didn't want to go by themselves.
Everything was set. 
and even though we had to borrow almost all of our points for the next year, we were able to book it--- I called my mom and dad and told my parents the good news! They were pretty excited. I cancelled the rooms at Pop. Bought APs with DVC discount, and then bought the DDE Card--- which would help save a little money on all of those ADRs.
Joe's now back to running every other morning, with no problems or pain whatsoever.
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Suzie
I'm so glad you're writing this report 
!
Hybrid Mode
