The Surviving Deployment Trip Report, Updated 10/18 COMPLETE!! - Page 32 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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What a wonderful evening so far at MK and MNSSHP! I love that a CM thought Victoria was truly Alice! Proof again that she looks the part and you did a great job on the costume. I can't wait to get our picture made with SW and all the dwarfs.
How funny that the Cm thought Victoria was the real Alice. You did a great job on her costume. I loved the little interaction she had with the Cm...."I'm late!"
Just getting caught up. Sounds like a wonderful trip so far! I love how well the character sketches and Michael the Bear are going over. I just knew they would get some great interaction! Can't wait to read more.
How funny that the Cm thought Victoria was the real Alice. You did a great job on her costume. I loved the little interaction she had with the Cm...."I'm late!"
Me, too! I wish I could have heard it myself. That poor CM. He had to have been so confused.
Love, love, LOVE this TR!
Thank you for sharing your amazing adventure with us!
__________________
Tina
2009 Feb Disneyland - offsite
2007 Aug WDW - offsite
2005 June DCL West Coast/DL & DCA
2002 April Disneyland - offsite
2000 September WDW/DCL - CBR/Wonder
Oooh - how did you score a Photopass with SW & D?!?! (Jealous, jealous!) No PP when we met them and I think you were there a bit after we were.
I don't know? Now you have me wondering if one was there or not??? I'll have to ask Victoria. That was the beginning of our trip. Hmmmm.....I'll ask her in the morning. It's a little late now.
What a wonderful evening so far at MK and MNSSHP! I love that a CM thought Victoria was truly Alice! Proof again that she looks the part and you did a great job on the costume. I can't wait to get our picture made with SW and all the dwarfs.
I know! SW and the dwarves are so worth it. If you don't want to wait in a huge line, my tip is to find out when they are going on break and come back during that break. The line went down significantly when we did that. We still had to wait in a line, but at least we were at the front of the line. Thankfully, the line moves pretty quickly. (The tip worked for us, anyway.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by christiejay
Just getting caught up. Sounds like a wonderful trip so far! I love how well the character sketches and Michael the Bear are going over. I just knew they would get some great interaction! Can't wait to read more.
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dsnytina
Love, love, LOVE this TR!
Thank you for sharing your amazing adventure with us!
Gawrsh! Thanks a lot. I'm glad you are enjoying it.
Day 2, Part 5
After we left Snow White, we knew we had to see the Queen of Hearts who was meeting and greeting next to the Tea Cups. We lined up, and the CM came up to me and talked about my hat. He said the Queen was going to love me. When we got up there, Victoria curtsied and said, "Hello, your majesty."
And the Queen did the "off with your head" hand motion beneath her chin. Hilarious! Then she saw me. Sure enough. She loved me. She hugged me and kept pushing Victoria away. She saw herself on my shirt and loved me even more. She graciously signed Victoria's drawing.
Then we posed for a picture. She lifted her skirt, thus separating herself from Victoria. It was so funny.
She even posed with Michael.
Once we left the Queen, I asked the CM about the other characters. He said they'd be out really soon so we got back in line. Sure enough, the White Rabbit, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee quickly came out, and we were one of the first in line. Victoria walked up to the White Rabbit and said, "I've searched all over for you!"
The White Rabbit gave Victoria the biggest hug. It was so sweet. He loved his picture Victoria drew. The CMs did, too, and came over to look at the book. It was so funny.
This is one of my favorite pictures. Victoria gave the White Rabbit a big kiss after their hug. So sweet. He kept kissing her hand, too.
The Tweedles were so cute. One of them took Victoria's hands and twirled her around and around. They loved their picture and went on and on about it. She hadn't labeled them in her picture and told them they had to decide who was whom. They did!
As you can see, we had a really fun time with these guys. They were a lot of fun.
It was very close to our PP meet. We were meeting at 9:15 in the Rose Garden, so we headed over that way. Decorations along the way...
I saw one group of people and asked if they were PassPorters, and they looked at me like I had two heads. Well, I guess I did if you count my mallet. So, we walked down to the covered area, and I still wasn't sure and didn't want to ask again and look like a bigger fool than I am. So, I walked back up towards the castle. I called Cathy (Nimros), and she told me where they were, and I told her I was the lady with the flamingo on her head. We got down there about 9:15 and met Cathy and her family, Anne (a_bernard) and her DD Amanda, and the bride-to-be Stephanie (momplus3) and her family. We posed for some pictures, and Cathy and Victoria started looking over Victoria's sketchbook. Cathy thought her DH made a funny face in her picture. Well, take a look at this one.
Very soon, Hallowishes started, and I hardly took any pictures. I simply enjoyed the fireworks.
Michael enjoyed the fireworks, too.
The fireworks ended too quickly, and our PP meet dispersed. We said goodbye to Cathy and her family and Stephanie and her family. I wished Stephanie luck for her wedding the next day! It was so nice to meet everyone.
Victoria and Amanda were sitting together talking and looking at Vic's sketchbook.
I was tickled that they hit it off so well. We decided to hang out together. Victoria and I hadn't trick-or-treated, so we wanted to hit some trails and some rides. Anne and Amanda had bags FULL of candy. They had really racked up.
We went into Frontierland and decided to ride BTMRR. It's always fun at night. I rode with Anne, and the girls rode together. Anne told us we needed to walk down Alice's Trick-or-Treat Trail, so that's where we went next. (My notes are rather shoddy here, so I don't think I'm remembering everything. Sorry.)
We walked down the trail and encountered the Mad Hatter. We got in line to see him. He was so cute! He was absolutely fabulous. I videoed the encounter, and I'm so glad I did. He saw his picture and raved about it. He held it up to everyone in line and said, "This is me!! Say oooooohhhh!"
And the people said, "Ooooooooh."
The Mad Hatter said, "Say aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"
They said, "Aaaaaaaaahhhhh."
The MH said, "Say, I wish I had that."
They said, "I wish I had that."
The MH said, "But you don't! A hahahahahahaha!!"
He was hilarious. He signed his picture with his tongue out. I said, "It helps when you stick your tongue out, huh?"
He said, "Why, yes! It does....hey! Don't judge me!"
We loved our time with him.
He loved Michael the Bear and wanted a special pose with him.
Bravo, Mad Hatter! Bravo!
Sadly, we left the Mad Hatter and continued on our candy journey down the trail.
Of course, we loved the Alice in Wonderland decorations.
After the trail, we were all hot and needing some water. We wound our way through Tomorrowland and decided to find a place to watch the parade that was going to be starting in about 15 minutes. But first, we went into the ice cream parlor for a snack. Victoria ordered two scoops of chocolate ice cream in a cone, and I ordered a coke float. Yum! We used snack credits. Nice. I got my coke float, and then a CM approached us with a special ice cream cone for Victoria. She said, "Mickey placed a special order just for you, Alice, and wanted you to have this." How cool! It was a waffle cone with chocolate ice cream and little ears and nose. Victoria's smile says it all. Have I mentioned how hot and humid it was? Victoria's just made ice cream shows how quickly it was melting.
We staked out places for the parade as we enjoyed our ice cream. Lucky for us, there was a group of adults sitting on the sidewalk, and we could stand behind them and see without anyone blocking our view. Score! I was very pleased with these positions.
Anne went into Casey's and got each of us a large cup of water. I really needed some water. I was really thirsty. Very soon, we heard that the Headless Horseman would be headed our way very soon. I decided to video the parade with my camera, so I got great video of the horseman. Once Michael comes home, I'll figure out how to capture pictures from the videos I took.
We loved the parade, but we had a CM next to us who kept pointing out all of the characters that are only out during Halloween. I realized this, but didn't have the heart to be rude and tell him to quit telling me. So, I have all of his narration on my video. Also, I had a battery fiasco. My camera was telling me I had a low battery, so I told Victoria to get the new batteries out of the backpack. Then, we struggled to get the package open. When I got them in the camera, it said they were low. What? So, I took them out and made do with the old ones. During this fiasco, we missed the HM part of the parade. Victoria and I were so sad, but I secretly knew we would be coming back, so I didn't let it bother me too much. She doesn't know it though.
We loved the parade, and I can't wait to see it again! Who knows? Maybe we'll see both of them!
We wanted to see more characters, so we went to Adventureland where Amanda had said they saw Jane. Well we have never seen Jane before and had to go there. The lines weren't long at all.
Poor Victoria got flustered and couldn't find Timon's picture, so poor Timon was just standing there waiting on Victoria. She found it soon enough, and he signed it, but there was very little interaction. I guess he got tired of waiting for her.
Baloo was next. He was so sweet. He saw his picture and gestured, "Is this me?" It was so cute. He showed off his picture to everyone.
Anne and Amanda had gotten in the longest line - the line to see Jane and Terk. We were glad they did. We hopped in line with them and were the next to see them. Jane was precious. Victoria just loved her. Jane couldn't believe Victoria's drawings and showed them to Terk. Jane said Victoria was an excellent artist. I said, "You draw well, too, Jane." Terk agreed, and I said that Terk was quite the musician. She loved that. Terk came up to me and asked about Michael. I told her about him, and she gave me the biggest hug, and Jane said to thank him for them.
We left Adventureland and decided to ride the Haunted Mansion. We hit some Trick-or-Treat stations along the way. When we got to the HM, we were greeted outside by Alex the Ghost Host. He was awesome! We had fun talking to him and to his friend and trying to get them to smile. It didn't happen. I hate that I didn't get the other CM's name. But, we did get some pictures. Alex is the one on the right.
Victoria's face cracks me up! I don't know what she was doing!
I was making a point not to smile and ended up looking stupid.
We said goodbye and went to the mansion. They were taking pictures at the hearse, but I figured we could get a picture when we came out.
We were the only people in line. We were quickly ushered inside. At first, we thought we would be the only four on the ride. Alas, two more unlucky souls ran in, so there were six of us. Once in the stretching room, our Ghost Host suggested we lie down on the floor and look up. How cool is that? When everyone was lying down, I snapped a quick picture and then was scolded for use of flash photography. Oops! It was an accident.
It was very neat to be lying on the stretching room floor and watching it stretch and then seeing the body hanging above us. Creepy! Victoria and Amanda shared a doombuggy, and I rode with Anne. We enjoyed our tour of the castle. We went outside, and I saw the PP photographer packing up his camera. It was midnight, and we didn't get our picture with the hearse. Nor did we get our picture with Cinderella's coach. But, on the bright side, I knew we'd be coming back with Michael.
We were walking towards Fantasyland when a cotton candy vendor came up to us and gave each of us a free bag of cotton candy. Two CMs walking behind us said that was a first and that they had never seen that before.
This picture was after the HM and cotton candy. I can't for the life of me place this position, but it is one of my favorites. I love the color.
The buildings had an eerie glow, didn't they?
The party was over. I didn't want it to be over, but my feet did. We said goodbye to the MK and to Anne and Amanda. It had been a wonderful evening.
Victoria and I went to the bus stop. The line was HUGE, and we were in the back of it. We started talking to another couple about the party. The bus there filled up and left. Thankfully, another bus came, but there were several handicapped passengers that had to be loaded first. We weren't sure if we'd make it on this bus either. All of a sudden, Victoria said, "Look! That bus says it's going to Pop." There was a bus that pulled up right behind our bus that said Pop Century. Without missing a beat, the couple we'd been talking to, Victoria and I ducked under the chains and ran to the other bus, hopped on it, and we were off to the Pop before the other bus had loaded the first passenger. Granted, we had to stand, but at least we'd get to the Pop quicker. Victoria struck up a conversation with a little girl on the bus. She talked about her costume and her birthday pin and then wished the little girl a happy birthday and gave her the cotton candy. I love my daughter!
Once we slowly meandered our way back to our room, I filled the tub with hot water, and we both soaked our feet in the tub for a while. It felt so good. I took an Aleve, too, just to be on the safe side.
I made sure to charge the batteries, and we were in bed by 2:15 a.m. Tomorrow we'd be sleeping in!
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I love that a CM thought Victoria was truly Alice! Proof again that she looks the part and you did a great job on the costume. I can't wait to get our picture made with SW and all the dwarfs.
PassPorter Guide Author
She saw herself on my shirt and loved me even more. She graciously signed Victoria's drawing. 
They had really racked up.
I decided to video the parade with my camera, so I got great video of the horseman. Once Michael comes home, I'll figure out how to capture pictures from the videos I took. 
Victoria and I were so sad, but I secretly knew we would be coming back, so I didn't let it bother me too much. She doesn't know it though. 
Nor did we get our picture with Cinderella's coach. 
We said goodbye to the MK and to Anne and Amanda. It had been a wonderful evening. 
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