The Prince Charming has met his match trip report - 8/23 - 9/1 at Pop - UPDATED 9/21 - Final installment - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
The Prince Charming has met his match trip report 8/23 - 9/1 UPDATED 9/9
Monday August 25,
Slept a little late after a couple early mornings, had breakfast in the room except for Brendan who made optimal use of the free dining plan by getting himself some Mickey waffles, Little side note here, thanks to Smilechaser to convincing me to go through the hassle to get the dining plan free, It is a wonderful benefit which my family truly enjoyed and made very good use of. Smilechaser, you were right! Whew I’m glad that’s over. She’ll get a big head now, you just watch!
A quick dip in the bowling pin pool at the other end of the resort then we all piled in the van and headed off to Blizzard Beach. It was the usual fun fare there and not long lines until later towards noon. The family raft ride was our favorite again as my son tends to end up rolling around all over the raft. Smilechaser impressed me again: many of you know she is a nurse and while in line for our favorite raft ride a woman had succumbed to the heat. Smilechaser went immediately to her aid and helped keep the lady comfortable and reassured until medical personnel could get there. She was amazing! As soon as she heard someone was down it was like a switch flipped on in her and she was off. Very impressive Smilechaser! Kudos! Also the ride attendant was very attentive also, as soon as he heard someone was down he made sure she was receiving proper attention. I had the feeling he was genuinely concerned about this lady. Just one more thing to feel good about at Disney. After we were done at BB we tromped back to the van and headed back to the resort for another quick dip then my kids and myself headed to Epcot for an Akershus Princess Lunch. Smilechaser and family also were Epcot bound but for reservations at the San Angel Inn I do believe. Though not a cloud was in the sky, I had been to Disney in September before, so I stuffed our rain ponchos in the Bagellini (Wonderful product by they way. I will NOT do Disney again without this bag! So cool!!)
Our experience at Akershus was overall very nice. The princesses were fantastic as usual and we all found something good to eat. One minor complaint though: Our waiter was a bit of a dud. I’ll admit we were spoiled last year by a wonderful waitress. My kids were so enamored with our waitress last year they insisted on pictures with her and had to have her autograph just like the princesses. This year we got some guy who we hardly saw until the bill came. He wasn’t bad, but he did nothing to make the experience memorable either. We got very lucky with the Princesses! Ariel, my daughter Jordan’s favorite princess was there, and my beloved Cinderella was also there. Ok, for those of you who don’t know me, I am a 41-year old Single father and I absolutely love Cinderella and I get butterflies in my stomach whenever I meet her and I’m not ashamed to admit it! I may have issues, but she is my favorite princess, always has. (More on that later!!) I wore a Cinderella necklace to dinner. Cinderella saw it, smiled at me and told me “ Oh look at that! Now you can take me everywhere!” Sighhhh!! Have you ever seen a 41-year old man melt? Well you would have that night in the Royal Akershus Banquet Hall! Brendan, my son 9, handles the whole princess thing very well. He enjoys it too! Whenever Cinderella comes up to us he grabs the camera and says to me “Get up there, big guy!” Love that boy! Belle was the princess for the free photo, and my son actually went up to her in the middle of our dinner when she wasn’t busy and told her something. To this day he will not tell us what he told her but he grins from ear to ear. Hmmm is he possibly already following in his Dad’s footsteps? Here are a few pictures of dinner.
Me and my lady right after she told me I could take her everywhere:
My daughter with Ariel:
Now what did my son tell Belle?
Me and Jordan waiting for dinner:
Brendan is HUNGRY!!
After dinner we headed for a ride on the three Amigos boat ride at Mexico hoping we would get lucky and see Smilechaser and the kids dining. No such luck so we headed for Mission Space. I noticed clouds gathering but we pressed on without breaking the ponchos out. We got into the ride dry as a bone and got on the ride. It is still one of our favorites. We all love the feeling of G forces you get and working together as a team to complete the mission. After the ride we looked outside and I swear it was raining sideways coming down in sheets!!! So we put our ponchos on and pressed on. It was actually getting late and so we started making our way to the exit, maybe hopping on another ride or two on our way out. Here is my son in his Poncho:
We didn’t get far and my son figured the rain would be much more fun without the Poncho. Since it was vacation and it was kind of late anyway I just let him go have fun and enjoy his vacation! He got several times wetter than a trout, but the grin on his face stretched ear to ear. But since he was now cold and wet we headed for the bus stop. While waiting for the bus, who should we meet but Smilechaser and her girls!! What luck! They were NOT wearing ponchos though and they were wetter than my son!! I asked her very innocently why they didn’t have ponchos and she replied they loved being caught in the rain! It was fun and made the day more memorable. At least that’s what her words said. The pained look on her face and her shivering kind of told a different story. I asked how dinner was. She replied fine until it was over and it was pouring down rain and she grumbled something about Germany looking nice in the rain. I thought wait a minute Germany is NOT the way to the exit from Mexico. It’s almost halfway around the lagoon. My they MUST love walking in the rain to go that far out of their way because not even Smilechaser has sense of direction that bad to go the bus stop at Epcot from Mexico by way of Germany, right?? (This was before I knew she forgot the ponchos back in Michigan, and was too stubborn errr proud, scuse me! To admit defeat and buy ponchos at Disney World).
Anyway, the bus finally came and off we were back to Pop. My daughter and I were nice and dry! But we were the only ones. My son was soaking wet, but at least he was wet by choice. Here he is back at the hotel soaking wet:
Coming soon! We finally get to see my beloved Cinderella’s Castle, a magical kiss from a mermaid, and hula hoops on Main Street!
Brent
__________________
Last edited by Disdadnmi; 09-09-2008 at 06:36 PM..
Location: Physically stuck in Michigan while my heart and soul reside in Disney.....
Posts: 2,680
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 16
Likes (Received): 11
Thanks (Given): 14
Thanks (Received): 0
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 0
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disdadnmi
thanks to Smilechaser to convincing me to go through the hassle to get the dining plan free, She’ll get a big head now, you just watch! Thanks! If anybody knows food its me and MY BIG HEAD!!!! Speaking of food, do I smell burning toast??
Very impressive Smilechaser! Kudos!
I do love what I do.
Bagellini (Wonderful product by they way. I will NOT do Disney again without this bag! So cool!!)
Oh I know...OMG, love it, love it, love it! It even made you look good carrying a purse.....um, back pack! LOL
Have you ever seen a 41-year old man melt? Well you would have that night in the Royal Akershus Banquet Hall! Brendan, my son 9, handles the whole princess thing very well. He enjoys it too! Whenever Cinderella comes up to us he grabs the camera and says to me “Get up there, big guy!” Love that boy!
Maybe, the poor darling is embarassed as heck by your melting all over Cinderellas feet and looking for something to hide behind, he grabs the camera in hopes that no one will see him!! hee hee. All kidding aside, I can see why you do, she is perfect.....something you won't find in any of us women so enjoy it while you can!! LOL
hoping we would get lucky and see Smilechaser and the kids dining.
Oh you probably didn't see us cause we were sitting at the table way in the corner behind the stairs......ya know next to the bathrooms and janitors closet. Suppose there was a reason they put us there??
While waiting for the bus, who should we meet but Smilechaser and her girls!! What luck! They were NOT wearing ponchos though and they were wetter than my son!! I asked her very innocently why they didn’t have ponchos and she replied they loved being caught in the rain! It was fun and made the day more memorable. At least that’s what her words said. The pained look on her face and her shivering kind of told a different story. My they MUST love walking in the rain to go that far out of their way because not even Smilechaser has sense of direction that bad to go the bus stop at Epcot from Mexico by way of Germany, right?? It did make it memorable....you certainly have not forget about it....lol. And yes Smilechaser does in fact have that bad a sence of direction...
Gosh, this was sooo fun! I wish we could go back! Now!!! I can't wait to read the rest of you TR...its like reliveing the whole trip....you make it so fun, all over again!
__________________
Last edited by smilechaser; 09-09-2008 at 07:06 PM..
Sounds like a wonderful time at Epcot depsite the rain (and as I remember, it was really pouring that day). It's wonderful that you got to meet your princess. More please.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Great update! Sounds like you had a wonderful day! Brendan's soaking wet outfit is hysterical! He looks like he just won the lottery or something! Can't wait to hear more
Smilechaser wrote "Thanks! If anybody knows food its me and MY BIG HEAD!!!! Speaking of food, do I smell burning toast?? "
Did you say Smell? Oh yeah! something with 'smell' does play a part in this trip as well, doesn't it? But we'll have to wait for a few more installments, won't we, Smilechaser????
Location: Physically stuck in Michigan while my heart and soul reside in Disney.....
Posts: 2,680
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 16
Likes (Received): 11
Thanks (Given): 14
Thanks (Received): 0
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 0
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disdadnmi
Smilechaser wrote "Thanks! If anybody knows food its me and MY BIG HEAD!!!! Speaking of food, do I smell burning toast?? "
Did you say Smell? Oh yeah! something with 'smell' does play a part in this trip as well, doesn't it? But we'll have to wait for a few more installments, won't we, Smilechaser????
Brent
OMG.....You are soooo the dawg! Don't you dare.......LOL
__________________
Last edited by smilechaser; 09-10-2008 at 01:15 AM..
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
What a fun update. It sounds like a great time. I wish we hadn't had to leave on the 23rd, I would have loved to meet you all!! Can't wait to hear more!
You guys had such a good time...loving the TR! Glad you made the best of it despite Fay. And your princess shirt is priceless! Can't wait to read more...the "smell" suspense is starting to get to me!
Just a little entry for now, wanted to clear up the 'SMELL' bit I spoke of a few days ago. It is actually quite innocent. A few weeks before our WDW trip I caught a skunk in a live trap in my backyard, trying to catch a ground hog. So Smilechaser was getting MANY chuckles as I pondered my plan of action on how to deal with this little issue. It was quite funny in retrospect, and I managed to get out of that situation unscathed.
So my daughter comes up with the idea: Let's gut a little stuffed animal skunk, She'll sleep over in their room one night of our trip, and put the little stinker in bed with her so she'll wake up screaming. Errr ummm Laughing, yeah! Anyway it went off wonderfully and I swear my son and I heard the scream,err laughter, clear over in the 80's section. (Her room was on the 50's side of the 60's section! Very far away ) But my daughter thought of it, planned it, and executed it to perfection. It was honestly all her, so my hands are clean in this!
What Smilechaser was worried I was going to tell you all about was this little gastro inestinal, flatulating incident which came upon her while she was stuck inside one of those red phone booths halfway through World Showcase in Epcot. How she got herself into that I have no clue. I mean she has a cell phone which she uses to perfection in aiding her to distraction, thus empowering her to walk right by one Photopass photographer after another, so why she needed to be inside a phone booth, I'll never know. How she became stuck is another issue I have no enlightenement on, as is why at that precise moment she had the ummm gastro intestinal flatulating incident. Anyway that is what she was afraid I was going to tell you all about. You all know me well enough to know I would never do that. She just doesn't give me enough credit.
Here is her darling daugher trying to get her unstuck. At least I think that's what she's doing. . .. . ? HmmmIs it just me or does it look like she's trying to keep the door closed? Nah! Couldn't be!
Besides, like I told her, the fact we saw some people painting those very phone booths a few days later is pure coincidence!!!!!
Look for an updated TR installment this weekend.
Brent
__________________
Last edited by Disdadnmi; 09-12-2008 at 05:09 PM..
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Love your pictures!! Hurry back with more 
![[SIGPIC]](signaturepics/sigpic27594_7.gif)
Wait a minute..
.....you mean that blonde girl with the blue dress, tall, beautiful????? Oh yeah, her too.....
Can't wait to hear more
But we'll have to wait for a few more installments, won't we, Smilechaser???? 
PassPorter Guide Author
Just as well you took those ponchos, even if your son wasn't keen on wearing his! 
Linear Mode
