A DREAM is a wish your heart makes...Halloween on the High Seas edition - updated 09/14/2014 - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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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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Ok this post has me so excited to stay at AKV! My mom has been showing Cameron videos of the pool at AKV and talks about it non stop. I think he's going to have a good time. Did you bring your own life vests or do they have them there? How cool about your view! We're booked in a standard view studio. Was it just an option on online check in then? A checkbox that said "near savannah"? Cause I'd take that! And the zebra domes are at the top of my list.
just checking in to save this thread -- can't wait to hear all about your trip and catch up on what you've already written. Your PTR was fantastic
Thank you so much! I hope this can live up to that hype!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a lovely relaxing day - love all your shots from around Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Thanks Cheryl! I take that as a huge compliment from you! I've put a DSLR on my wish list and hope I can save enough $ to get one before our next trip!
Quote:
Originally Posted by stardust190
Ok this post has me so excited to stay at AKV! My mom has been showing Cameron videos of the pool at AKV and talks about it non stop. I think he's going to have a good time. Did you bring your own life vests or do they have them there? How cool about your view! We're booked in a standard view studio. Was it just an option on online check in then? A checkbox that said "near savannah"? Cause I'd take that! And the zebra domes are at the top of my list.
He'll have a blast there! We did a few more bead activities which I'll get to later. It was an option for online checkin which I did about 2 weeks before we left - not the 60 days that you can do. Those zebra domes are yummy!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Looks like a great time enjoying the pool and exploring the resort. Dinner looked delicious
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You guys did have a good room for seeing all the animals! That Sangria looks yummy. I have to get my butt over to Kidani one of these times. Don't know why I have a hard time leaving Jambo House.
We really did! DH has said that he could spend a whole week there and not go to the parks. I think he's right, but that's hard to do knowing the parks are so close!
That's what I keep telling DH, if we leave a few day ealry when we go down for the boys 2nd birthday we can explore the resort more. I think he is beginning to cave. Plus I tell him a longer vacation in warmer weather compared to the cold Chicago weather hmmmm which would you chose.
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The pool looks great and your dinner at Sanaa looks amazing!
We love Sanaa!
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeybee723
You guys did have a good room for seeing all the animals! That Sangria looks yummy. I have to get my butt over to Kidani one of these times. Don't know why I have a hard time leaving Jambo House.
This is the first time we stayed there and figured since we wouldn't be going to the parks it was the perfect time to do so. We planned on staying at Jambo in June but our waitlist came through so we're moving to BW. We will go back though as it was really nice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jackid2
That's what I keep telling DH, if we leave a few day ealry when we go down for the boys 2nd birthday we can explore the resort more. I think he is beginning to cave. Plus I tell him a longer vacation in warmer weather compared to the cold Chicago weather hmmmm which would you chose.
What a great view from your room - sounds like you had a fun and relaxing day at Kidani, I just love all the activities they have at Animal Kingdom Lodge, so much to do and you can spend a full day there and never get bored.
What a great view from your room - sounds like you had a fun and relaxing day at Kidani, I just love all the activities they have at Animal Kingdom Lodge, so much to do and you can spend a full day there and never get bored.
Dinner at Sanaa looks delicious.
And there were plenty of things we didn't even get around to doing. Good thing there will be a next time!
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I think I set the alarm for 7am and once it went off I got up and got ready. I’m sure the little boys were awake by the time I was out of the shower and they probably watched cartoons and had breakfast while Mike & I finished getting ready. About 8:30am we headed to the car as we were headed off property today! I know, we were leaving the Disney bubble and going to another theme park! Today we were headed to Legoland! I had gotten us tickets before we left and got a good deal – buy one adult get a child free, which helped with the cost immensely as a child ticket is almost as much as an adult. It’s about a 45 minute drive from AKL to Legoland and that’s about the time it took us to get there. I thought the park opened at 9 and we were parked at 9:15am. There wasn’t too many cars so the outlook was good for a non-crowded park today. Once we reached the turnstiles I saw a line and then saw a sign that the park actually opened at 9:30am so we got to see the opening ceremony and was excited as we hadn’t missed anything yet! Buddy, a mini fig, had help opening the park and they taught us how to wave to lego characters. You basically make a “C” with your hand and rotate – since that’s how Lego characters hands are. It was cute.
Greeted by more animals this morning!
Thought this was neat on our drive.
We're here!
I tried to take lots of photos here since I didn't know much about the park and hope I could capture what it's like.
ticket counter
entrance/turnstiles - the line to the left was really long - not sure why all those people were waiting there. We went right/middle as it was the shortest.
Laval (who’s name I just googled), from Chima, was greeting just inside the entrance and as we were on that side we had a short wait and the boys had their first character greet at Legoland. Here they did have a photographer, similar to Photopass but I never did get a chance to look at the photos and I think you had to do it at the park. Oh well! I got most of them with my camera instead. I had read that Legoland also had buttons for special occasions so we went into Guest Services and got a Happy Birthday button and 1st Visit buttons. Then we wandered around the front for a bit, stopped at the restroom and finally got on our first ride – the carousel. My boys love to ride a carosuel. We had a short wait and soon we were on Lego horses. I loved that pretty much all the queues had a section that the kids go to to play with legos while the parents held the spot in line. While we rarely waited for anything over 5-10 minutes it was nice to have that option available. After the carousel, Buddy was greeting so we went to visit him.
A little seating/movie area inside one of the gift shops. It was playing Lego Star Wars.
This display reminded me of Cam & Luke and their Halloween legos.
After the carousel we headed towards Lego Kingdoms. The first ride we came to here was Merlin’s Challenge which I would describe as a very kiddie roller coaster. You got into a train and it went around in a circle going up and down a little. The boys thought it was fun and was Lukas’ first big boy ride as he had to be 36” to ride. Next up was the Royal Joust but it said you needed to be 4 to ride this, but only 36” and Lukas was not happy about that! So while Dylan took a spin on the horse I took Lukas to have his face painted. I had an interesting discussion with the girl that painted his face. She was very upfront that some days Legoland was crazy busy and other days it was very dead – kind of like today. She said tomorrow would be busy with the Halloween themed activities they’d have but also mentioned it was dumb. I’m glad we came today then! She did a nice job on Lukas and now he was a skeleton!
pretending to eat the pizza - it was cool that somany things were made of legos - & this guy talked!
Lukas had to do it too!
even the ride looked like it was made from legos!
arms up!
We met back up with Mike & Dylan and while we figured out what to do next the boys played on the playground and I used the restroom. We had to coax them from the playground and headed into Land of Adventure. The first ride we saw was called Beetle Bounce and reminded me of a kiddie Tower of Terror in a way. It brought you up and then dropped you randomly; while not as high as ToT it was still up and only had a height requirement of 36”. Lukas was game and I was shocked when Dylan was too (he hates ToT and still remembers his one and only ride on it). It had 2 different sides, but they went at the same time. The thing was though – they only had one seat on each side for an adult. So I rode with Lukas and Mike rode with Dylan. Lukas again loved it! I love that he’s so adventurous and puts his hands up on rides. Next door was the Lost Kingdom Adventure which is similar to Buzz Lightyear at MK – ride through and shoot at things. Now this Lukas did not like, but Dylan loved! I guess Lukas doesn’t like the scary stuff and Dylan doesn’t like to go fast.
this pic I took from google images so you could see what it looked like better
view on the ride
Up next…Lukas’ first real coaster and the 1st attempt to totally ruin my day!
I haven't looked into Legoland as I have a hard time wanting to leave the bubble. Your pics look great and it sounds like its a good park to visit while the boys are still small.
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