Have Pen, Will Travel: A Solo Trip Report--Includes Dining and CSR Reviews and Photos! - Page 23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Yes, some very good lessons learned. I am with you on the dining plan. Most of the time my DD and I split a meal and maybe just order an extra side. Costs less and we don't feel like we have to waste anything. I will definately be sharing meals with her when we go. I also tend to bring travel packets of sugar-free drink mixes like Crystal Light to save costs on drinks.
Sake bar is in the very far reaches (in the back) of the Mitsukoshi store. There is quite a selection of sake (hot and cold) and usually a daily special. They even offer a little plastic sake cup and it can be personalized. IMO, it's not worth it. I think it's $6 and the cup is not attractive, looks like something Mrs. Nesbitt from Toy Story would drink out of!!
NOTE: I have learned (the hard way) that sake should be saved for the end of the day. It kinda messes me up if I enjoy it too early in the day! Just sayin'! of course, I am usually drinking my way around the world anyway, I just have to skip Japan and return later on.
the last two guesses are the closest! if you've read the entire TR, you'll be surprised to know that the document is...
44 pages long!
to answer the questions about font, that's 12 point font, single spaced paragraphs with double spaces between paragraphs. so, when i say 'thanks for reading'--seriously, THANKS!!!
WOW, really? 44? It didn't seem that long! Now I'm wondering how long some of the more epic Chezp or Princess Sharon ones are?!?! Ladies? (If you're reading)
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Enjoying all of your updates! We did three parks in one day last year. Yep 13 hours in park time and with a 3 year old. When we got back to the resort I couldn't believe we had been gone for 13 hours!
We used that bathroom many times on our last trip and while we never found it that empty, it was never full of people and never had a line.
You should have gotten the nachos! We shared them on our last trip and really enjoyed them. It was kind of an accident that we even stopped for something to eat but boy were we glad that we did. Oh well, try them next time!
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Check out my Pre-Trip Report for our 9/18-9/23/12 trip here:
I absolutely LOVED reading your TR! And I am anxiously looking forward to your PTR!
I too have been crunching the numbers on the dining plan. Our last trip we went with the Quick Service DP because we are not the "sit down" type people. It worked well for our family. However, I didn't know anything about what it cost when we selected it. Now, I am looking at the numbers and thinking, "how in the heck could an adult eat $34.99 worth of CS and S credits???" If we upgraded to the DDP, it would be cost effective only if we went to the types of restaurants we wouldn't want to bring our children to (they will be 4 and 2.5 at trip time). My fiancee wants one of the DP, but I want to consider paying OOP. Decisions, decisions....
As this was a research trip, of course I was going in thinking I’d be learning a lot. However, I ended up coming away from the trip with many non-research related lessons. Ahem....
Great trip report, thanks! I love your list of pointers at the end, more people should add this to their reports!