Living the dream and remembering the Bagman LIVE UPDATE 10/2 - Page 10 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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.
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Shaping up! I'm sure you have many options, but if the shirts are available now and you want to PM me details, I can bring them when we see you in TWO WEEKS in Southampton. Then I'd have souvenir space for the home bound journey.
All your plans sound so amazing! Glad to hear that you were able to get a flight on Southwest in the morning which will allow for almost a full day at WDW! I love the early morning flights just for that reason. Your plans are all coming together.
Just finished reading your PTR-Part 2. Yes, I am just getting started. My goodness, you are sure a patient person. I would have been pulling my hair out going thru your encounters with the airlines. As Judy says, I do not have much hair left so I should not be pulling it out (hair situation is not true.) I did get a headache trying to follow along. Glad you were able to get it all worked out.
Toronto Zoo is highly rated, I went when I was in grade school, so many moons ago. Another neat attraction is the Africain Lion Safari, you actually stay in your car and drive through the animals, it would be on your drive from Toronto to Niagara Falls.
Hmmm.... interesting, but also a bit scary sounding. I'll have a look at it.
Shaping up! I'm sure you have many options, but if the shirts are available now and you want to PM me details, I can bring them when we see you in TWO WEEKS in Southampton. Then I'd have souvenir space for the home bound journey.
Thank you so much! And can you believe it's two weeks tomorrow!? It is all sorted now, but it is a bit of a story, which we'll get to in due course...
Just finished reading your PTR-Part 2. Yes, I am just getting started. My goodness, you are sure a patient person. I would have been pulling my hair out going thru your encounters with the airlines. As Judy says, I do not have much hair left so I should not be pulling it out (hair situation is not true.) I did get a headache trying to follow along. Glad you were able to get it all worked out.
I will be honest, I was not particularly patient going through all of that and yes, I confess to a little bit of hair pulling along the way as well. I could've done without that stress, let's just put it that way.
Hmmm.... interesting, but also a bit scary sounding. I'll have a look at it.
We have done the safari drive thru in Ohio and it can be a little intense at times but so so much fun. We have done it many times since I was a child and I have lots of great memories from there. It is an unique experience to say the least.
We have done the safari drive thru in Ohio and it can be a little intense at times but so so much fun. We have done it many times since I was a child and I have lots of great memories from there. It is an unique experience to say the least.
We have a couple of safari drive-throughs over here and I'd agree that they're definitely a unique experience.
Pre-trip report – part ten: can we swap out to the Polynesian?
Sunday 21 February
Ok, so I’m writing this in our hotel in Reykjavik, as we flew out to Iceland this morning. I knew today might be the day we’d learn more about the plans for Bagman Days, and sure enough we do. We now know the events are as follows:
On Thursday 22 September, the actual anniversary of Bill’s tragic death, and the day our meet really starts, the park of the day will be Epcot, and the attraction of the day will be IllumiNations, which works for me, as I absolutely love that show. I think it will be very emotional though. I can never make it through the thing at the best of times without bawling my eyes out, and this time, it will be even more emotional than any other time we’ve seen it.
The sunset meet will be taking place beforehand, and we’ll definitely be at that as well, then after IllumiNations, we’ll head off to Animal Kingdom for the DVC Member event, as that starts at 9:30pm, and runs until midnight. Even if we’re late, and only manage an hour or so, I still want to experience it, given it’s free for Members, and such a treat to have the park to ourselves – well, all Members, but you know what I mean!
Now, our plans for that day were originally for the Magic Kingdom, but I think I will now change them around to be at Epcot, as I’d rather spend time with everyone who’s going to be there. I guess maybe some more time eating at the Food and Wine Festival booths may be on the cards for us.
On Friday 23 September, the park of the day will be the Magic Kingdom, including Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party which is perfect for us, as that’s the night we were planning on doing the party, and hopefully, if we can snag a booking at the waterfront bungalows at the Polynesian, then we’ll be staying there, which will work out really well.
They are looking to do the flag retreat to honour Bill, which hopefully we’ll also be able to make, although it will depend, to some extent, on when we can snag a dinner reservation at the Skipper Canteen for that night.
The attraction of the day will be the Boo to You parade at the Halloween Party, and they’re aiming for a meet at the second one of the night, which works for me, as usually that’s the quieter of the two.
Saturday 24 September is the Animal Kingdom day, and it’s starting with the attraction of the day, which is Kilimanjaro Safaris at 9:00am, as soon as the park opens. I personally hope then we’ll do the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, given it’s next door, and that I have some very fond memories of doing this with Bill. I always thought I was bad at stopping to take photos, and lagging behind everyone else, but he took it to a new level, and annoyingly, his photos were always better than mine.
The meet will also include the Maharajah Jungle Trek, and here, I remember Bill photographing the tigers so clearly, and again there was a little bit of jealousy from me with these. We’d walk through it with him and the tigers would be lounging around, doing nothing. Sometimes we’d then break off to do something, and meet up with him later, and he’d show me all the photos he’d got of the tigers playing, but they rarely did it for me. They must’ve known someone special was watching them, and performed accordingly.
There may be another meet for Rivers of Light in the evening, and if there is, I’m up for that, as I definitely want to see that, having seen a lot of the artists’ renderings. It looks truly spectacular! I’d like to dine beforehand at the new restaurant Tiffin’s, and if they offer a dining package for Rivers of Light, then so much the better!
On Sunday 25 September, the park of the day is the Studios, and there will be a group breakfast at Trail’s End. I don’t know that we’ll do this. It’s a real pain to get to Fort Wilderness, and I still have a hankering for trying out the brunch at the California Grill, which is only held on a Sunday, and I suspect that may win out, given it’s one of our favourite restaurants at Disney. We’ll see.
We’ll definitely head over to the Studios, but probably later on in the day, as we want to see the new Star Wars night-time show and the other new stuff there, but that’s the beauty of Fastpasses. You can now show up in the afternoon, and have Fastpasses to enjoy a couple of attractions. We’ll do dinner that night at Hollywood and Vine, as I like the idea of seeing Minnie and friends in their Halloween finery, although I’m not holding out much hope for the quality of the food from reviews I’ve read. Maybe we’ll have to do the dessert party at the Symphony in the Sky fireworks to fill us up?
Monday 22 February
Today was the seven month mark, at which point we could swap our Saratoga Springs booking for the Thursday – Saturday night stay out to the Polynesian, and hopefully snag one of those wonderful waterfront bungalows. Well, despite being in Iceland, I didn’t let that stop me. I checked before we went out in the morning, and as I expected, there was nothing showing yet for that day, as the system hadn’t rolled over, so I’d have to leave it until later on.
When we got back to the hotel in the afternoon, one of the first things I did was check on the DVC Member website. Now I could finally make the booking, but before I did, I needed to cancel our Saratoga Springs reservation for the same two nights, which was essentially just a place holder, and I also needed to cancel our Beach Club Villas stay for the final night, as we were originally planning to swap that to the BoardWalk. Now of course, we wouldn’t be, as our final night would be spent in New York.
That done, I had a fair few points banked. For those not familiar with the points system the DVC uses, this is what happens when you’ve either cancelled something, as I’d just done, or if you moved them from the previous year. You can bank points forward into the next year or borrow from the next year – which is the position we usually find ourselves in. Anyway, this time we had a fair few banked, and thankfully, Disney’s online system is smart enough to use those up before taking points from anywhere else. By the time I’d added all of those up, it accounted for a lot of what I needed, then I told the system to take it from our resale contract, as there are limits on how you can use your points if you bought them via resale, then another one.
A couple of clicks later, everything was sorted, and we were booked into a waterfront bungalow at the Polynesian for two nights! Wow, when I saw the points per night for those things, I figured it was something we’d never have the chance to do. I am so happy we’ll get to try it out. I did a quiet happy dance at my seat at the computer desk in our hotel room, as Mark wasn’t at all well and was flat out asleep in bed, and I didn’t want to wake him up. I’m sure in time, when he’s feeling better, he’ll be as happy as me.
There’s also been a lot of talk on the Facebook group about maybe another meet, this time at the Outer Rim Lounge at the Contemporary. It all stemmed from Steve (Sue’s husband) saying he sadly wouldn’t be able to join us, and then it got on to what a wonderful night we’d all enjoyed together there one night. It was ourselves, Bill and Jan, Sue and Steve, and a few others, and I remember it very fondly. Sandy, who’s one of the organisers of the whole event, has asked if I want to host a meet at the lounge, and I am thinking about it, especially given that it’s open from lunchtime, which does open up some more options for us, as our evenings are getting just a little bit busy…
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Sorry to hear about your Southwest flight - but it hardly surprises me any more. After they bought AirTran they had all these new gates in airports they hadn't served previously (Atlanta for example) and so began to take non-stop flights and make then change planes... example - JAX to Fort Lauderdale. 45 minute direct flight. Now you fly from JAX to Atlanta (1 hr in the air), 1 hr on the ground and then ATL - FLL....1:30. So what used to take 45 minutes of airtime now takes 3:30.... which is why we all now fly Jet Blue. They stepped in and started offering non-stops the day SWA changed their routes. Needless to day - I lost my SWA "A" status...
Sorry to hear about your Southwest flight - but it hardly surprises me any more. After they bought AirTran they had all these new gates in airports they hadn't served previously (Atlanta for example) and so began to take non-stop flights and make then change planes... example - JAX to Fort Lauderdale. 45 minute direct flight. Now you fly from JAX to Atlanta (1 hr in the air), 1 hr on the ground and then ATL - FLL....1:30. So what used to take 45 minutes of airtime now takes 3:30.... which is why we all now fly Jet Blue. They stepped in and started offering non-stops the day SWA changed their routes. Needless to day - I lost my SWA "A" status...
Oh my goodness, that is just crazy for that flight! I'm sorry, but anything other than non-stop makes no sense for such a short flight.
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And can you believe it's two weeks tomorrow!? 
and yes, I confess to a little bit of hair pulling along the way as well. I could've done without that stress, let's just put it that way.
I’m sure in time, when he’s feeling better, he’ll be as happy as me. 
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