That Time I Booked Two More Trips: Holidays, Birthdays, Mom and More - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
That Time I Booked Two More Trips: Holidays, Birthdays, Mom and More
yeah. so hi. you may remember me from my super recent trip report 'The Official #$@% Cancer Trip' where i shared the story of me and my mom and our super-magical trip celebrating the end of her chemo. because i *just* finished that trip report.
and then we booked two more trips.
well, really, *we* booked one more trip. and then i booked another. because reasons. which i will be sharing.
oh, and i should probably mention--the first trip is in two weeks. and the second trip is in six weeks. because that's normal, right? right.
thus, i'm beginning a double trip report--the story of my super short, insanely-budget-friendly holiday trip and our welcome-2016-trip.
so--for those of you who want to follow along, would you prefer i start with:
a. the trip which was booked first but is happening second?
or
b. the trip which was booked second but is happening first?
ok--trip-in-two-weeks it is! and that's an easy one, because it is super short.
how it happened:
as it turns out, for a rather boring sort-of-work-related reason, i just found out that i will be traveling to tallahassee for a few days the second week of december. i need to get myself there, which means i need to use air miles. and even though i have SO MANY AIR MILES, i'm still really cheap about using them (which is part of HOW i have so many air miles). i also prefer direct flights and love to drive.
and so it came to pass that to get to tallahassee, i'm flying into orlando--and driving there and back.
and then i was like: but it's the holiday season! and i'm going to be SO CLOSE to WDW. it would be just plain wrong to not extend my trip a tiny little bit, right?
right.
so i asked here on PP. and determined that my best use of a very, very short holiday visit would be to 'just' do MVMCP. because i've never done it, it is relatively budget-friendly (i don't have an AP, so it is less expensive than a one day park pass) and, you know--it looks awesome. so my plan was: leave tallhassee early on a thursday morning and make it to MK by 4pm to enjoy three hours of park time before the party starts at 7. close out the party at midnight, drive to the airport, and have a little nap near baggage claim before my 6am flight.
and then i thought about that plan. and while i could definitely do it, i realized that knowing i was off to sleep in baggage claim would definitely effect my enjoyment of the party. so i thought some more. and i looked at flights. and i made two calls to american airlines. and i remembered that i had some hilton points saved from when i was being miserable working in chicago last winter (i basically lived in a hampton inn). and i extended my stay by one full day. so here's the plan:
-arrive WDW area sometime around maybe 1pm on thursday. have lunch somewhere (TBD).
-MK by 4pm on the dot. MVMCP until midnight.
-retire to my near-seaworld hilton for the evening.
-sleep in a bit.
-spend friday doing non-park festive things. i will definitely get to as many resort lobbies as possible (taking recommendations) to take pictures of trees and gingerbread houses and whatnot. i'm also planning for a good chunk of time in disney springs, likely christmas shopping for my mom.
-possibly meet up with my favorite disney friend friday evening.
-retire to same near-seaworld hilton to sleep for, like, two hours before heading out for my 6am saturday flight home.
I AM SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THIS PLAN. and here's why:
1. my mom wanted to do a disney holiday trip but could not (more on this in the second part of this report). so i'm going to be texting her pics-of-me everywhere, so she can enjoy disney at the holidays virtually. she is also very excited about this.
2. i never thought i'd do any of the MK parties. they just never seem to make sense to me--why spend extra money when you are already there and have a park ticket? but in this case, it actually makes sense.
3. i will be solo, so if i want, i can spend eight hours just taking photos. and that's likely what i will do. (i have to take my real camera on this trip anyway, because of what i'm doing in tallahassee.)
4. i get to spend a non-park day in WDW, doing all of the things that typically get squeezed out of a trip.
5. I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME. seriously. i love it to an almost Elf-degree (you know, elf the movie? the best way to spread christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!) so this is combining two of my favorite things.
6. this may sound silly but: i'm really proud that i managed to do this on an extreme budget. additionally, i'm really, really happy that i am using my hilton points for this trip. i almost managed to block out their existence from my memory, because i associate them with a very, very dark time in my life. this is the best way i can possibly imagine to turn a bad memory into a happy one.
so that's trip one. happening in...19 days!
up next: dining decisions for trip one (which i have not made yet) and the story of trip 2!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s 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.
Good for you! It sounds like a lot of fun and I know you'll make me super jealous, as we haven't been at WDW for the holiday season since 2013 and we're not going to make it back there until 2017 either. If I was able to, I'd take a similar short trip, but we're a bit far away for that....
Good for you! It sounds like a lot of fun and I know you'll make me super jealous, as we haven't been at WDW for the holiday season since 2013 and we're not going to make it back there until 2017 either. If I was able to, I'd take a similar short trip, but we're a bit far away for that....
yes, i'd say you are a bit far away for that. ha! (disneyland paris? maybe?)
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Suggested resorts for seeing decorations, the three on the monorail and a relaxing boat ride over to WL which has those distinctive American Indian tree ornaments. Since all are so near the MK, if you need a wee break from the party (because 8 hours in that electric atmosphere can get wearing), the boat over to WL and back would be a nice one. You can also catch the boat to WL from the CR dock.
__________________
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
It sounds like a lot of fun and I know you'll make me super jealous, as we haven't been at WDW for the holiday season since 2013 and we're not going to make it back there until 2017 either. 
If I was able to, I'd take a similar short trip, but we're a bit far away for that....
Hybrid Mode
