Three Adults & a Toddler – 6/7-13/09 - UPDATED 11/20 - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Plans look great....glad you were able to get everything you wanted. Love the idea of the Tea, what a great day that will be for Becki's birthday.
Quote:
Originally Posted by scdisneyfan
I do CRT and the Garden View Tea is amazing and one of my faves. I was actually thinking of askind DBF to let me go there this year again for my birthday while we are there
I think you ADR's look great! We are also thinking of eating at Coral Reef....
Cant wait to hear more!
I am looking forward to the tea. I took my Mom & MIL in October and enjoyed it, so I thought it would be fun for us girls to do.
That is great to know about T Rex. We didn't have any trouble getting seated, but it would be great to have reservations. I had wondered if they would do reservations or if they would start the priority seating club like Rainforest Cafe, when you have the membership card, you just go to the booth and show it and you are sent to a separate line. They have an area of the restaurant where they seat priority guests.
Also great to know about the concierge at AKL. I wonder how much it is to stay there without DVC. I am thinking that is probably a great thing to have with a toddler. I can't wait to hear all about it, 33 days are going to fly by!
How do you plan to carry milk for Dylan, will you take cups in a cold bag? Last time we were there, Sam was 8 months so he was still on formula, I just took his bottles with water in them and the powder dispenser, and his juice cup which he didn't care if that was cold or not.
How many points did you purchase for DVC, if you don't mind me asking?
__________________
Teresa
Sammy 5 years and Peyton 15 months - September 2013
That is great to know about T Rex. We didn't have any trouble getting seated, but it would be great to have reservations. I had wondered if they would do reservations or if they would start the priority seating club like Rainforest Cafe, when you have the membership card, you just go to the booth and show it and you are sent to a separate line. They have an area of the restaurant where they seat priority guests.
Also great to know about the concierge at AKL. I wonder how much it is to stay there without DVC. I am thinking that is probably a great thing to have with a toddler. I can't wait to hear all about it, 33 days are going to fly by!
How do you plan to carry milk for Dylan, will you take cups in a cold bag? Last time we were there, Sam was 8 months so he was still on formula, I just took his bottles with water in them and the powder dispenser, and his juice cup which he didn't care if that was cold or not.
How many points did you purchase for DVC, if you don't mind me asking?
I didn't know about the priority seating, but is good to know for the future.
As far as AKL concierge goes, I'm sure if we didn't use points we'd never stay that way.
In October Dylan was 1 and I brought one of those bottle coolers and kept a sippy cup with whatever in it and ususally fit in a juice box too. Otherwise he just drank at meal time and we just ordered him something then. This year I'll do the same thing pretty much, but I've found a smaller bag to take with us.
We bought 170 points - we figured we could go twice a year on those points if we stayed in a regular studio both times.
we have the playtex fridge to go bag. I think that is what its called, it is a small black bag, you put the whole bag in the freezer, the ice pack is built in, it holds two big bottles or cups. Right now Sam doesn't drink much milk during the day, its usually in the morning and before bed with the exception of maybe a cup during the day. So I am thinking that we may not have to mess with the milk in the parks, just do juice, water, better for hydration anyway. I always seem to overpack, especially when we took him on the last trip, I took so much stuff. I really want to try and not take as much this time around. Instead of the diaper bag, I may opt for the back pack instead.
See we were looking at more points because most of the time, it isn't just us going and we would want to get a 2 bedroom villa or a couple rooms. That is why we can't buy yet. Its irritating because as much as we go, it would definately pay to be dvc members. I am thinking maybe next year, fingers crossed, we will have both vehicles paid off March 1st and some other debt squared away. I should make it a goal!!
question about AKL, I see that you hvae stayed there before, do you find any negatives with being so far away from everything? I think the resort is beautiful and we always stop by to visit and shop, but haven't stayed there yet becasue of the location. We always rent a car becuase we like our freedom so I guess it wouldn't matter if we weren't relying on buses.
__________________
Teresa
Sammy 5 years and Peyton 15 months - September 2013
we have the playtex fridge to go bag. I think that is what its called, it is a small black bag, you put the whole bag in the freezer, the ice pack is built in, it holds two big bottles or cups. Right now Sam doesn't drink much milk during the day, its usually in the morning and before bed with the exception of maybe a cup during the day. So I am thinking that we may not have to mess with the milk in the parks, just do juice, water, better for hydration anyway. I always seem to overpack, especially when we took him on the last trip, I took so much stuff. I really want to try and not take as much this time around. Instead of the diaper bag, I may opt for the back pack instead.
See we were looking at more points because most of the time, it isn't just us going and we would want to get a 2 bedroom villa or a couple rooms. That is why we can't buy yet. Its irritating because as much as we go, it would definately pay to be dvc members. I am thinking maybe next year, fingers crossed, we will have both vehicles paid off March 1st and some other debt squared away. I should make it a goal!!
question about AKL, I see that you hvae stayed there before, do you find any negatives with being so far away from everything? I think the resort is beautiful and we always stop by to visit and shop, but haven't stayed there yet becasue of the location. We always rent a car becuase we like our freedom so I guess it wouldn't matter if we weren't relying on buses.
I do have something similar the the fridge on the go bag. Mine has removeable ice packs though and the new one is just an insulated bag. Last time we went I used Garden Grocer and did have to bring quite a bit back (mainly diapers).
Good Luck on joining DVC! So far it's been worth it, but this June trip will only be our 2nd DVC trip. We stayed at AKL in 2006 for our honeymoon and loved it. I guess at that time we weren't really ever in a rush to get anywhere, but I don't remember feeling like OMG! this is taking forever.
When we had originally booked our flights we were leaving STL at 5:20pm Sunday night and departing MCO at 3:18pm on Saturday to come home. Not too bad. Well I’ve heard that AirTran likes to change the schedule without notifying you so I checked back periodically and they did indeed change several times without notification (and yes I had signed up for e-mail notifications).
The first change had us leaving STL around 10:10am Sunday and then leaving MCO on Saturday now at 2:15 or so. That would let us have the afternoon/evening at Disney then on Sunday! YEAH!! Only 45 minutes earlier leaving MCO which isn’t too bad.
There were a few other changes along the way and finally on 4/10/09 I received a schedule notification e-mail from AirTran. The new flight times were leaving STL at 11:05am on Sunday and then leaving MCO at 2:13pm. Still a bit better than the original flight times – at least getting there.
Then on 4/22/09 I got another notification of a change in schedule. This is the latest and greatest change for now and we will be leaving STL at 11:05am and then leaving MCO at 2:45pm. I hope this is the last of the changes!
On Friday we’ll be 30 days out!! So I thought I’d include what our countdowns have been leading up till now and then on Friday I’ll have a countdown ‘page’ every day plus other little things I’ve done for the trip.
I started at 4 months out and the latest was 2 months out.
(Disclaimer: I searched for the countdown 'facts' on the internet and used what I found. I'm not claiming that these are in fact 100% correct, but they fit my purpose.)