Amy's Fabulous Split StayTrip Report!!!! (Finally)... - Page 8 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel 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
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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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Great updates. Love the pic of you with the black wig and guitar bag. Totally cool!
I can't wait to do the DDP for my 40th bday with my lil sis. I know it sounds like a lot of food, but there are so many places I want to try and the more I read about your meals, the more it makes me want to do it sooner.
My two girls get that way with each other too and they are just 16 months apart, so I can totally understand a 15 year old pestering his little bro. Good thinking on separating.
More please!
After lunch at SciFi, we caught the Block Party Bash, right in front of the Jedi Training Stage area is actually the perfect spot! That gate there is actually where all the floats exit at the end of the Bash, and they stop there for a final "party" before exiting into the gate. I got some decent pics, we hadn't been standing there waiting for the Bash, we just walked up as it was happening, just happened to have good timing. As I said before, the Block Party Bash is my least favorite of the parades/daytime events at all the parks, and I really wish they would bring back the traditional daytime parade at DHS - the Stars and Motorcars was my favorite at DHS. I also miss the parade that they used to do at Epcot around 7:00, before Illuminations that they started to celebrate the millenium, I forgot what it was called but it had all these stilt walkers and cool puppets and stuff. Anyway, here are some pics of Block Party Bash....
__________________
~Amy~
Last edited by Buffalogirl18; 05-13-2009 at 08:03 AM..
For dinner that evening, we hopped the boat over to Beach Club and had dinner at the Cape May Clam Bake! Let me tell you, it was sooooo delicious! Now, I am not a seafood eater, at all! But, DH and DS15 were all over the muscles, and clams and crab legs - and each person had these cute little stainess steel buckets to put their shells in. (DS7 was mad at me, because he wanted to take one home to put his toys in!) They had a huge variety of food there, a really nice salad buffet, fresf fruit of every kind, tons of seafood, a few different fresh fish - broiled, fried, grilled - I do like white fish so I had a piece of fried haddock and a piece of grilled snapper and both were very good. They had the traditional accompanyments - tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, hot sauce, lemons, etc. There was corn on the cob & red potatoes. There was a hot buffet with prime rib, chicken, pork, pasta, veggies, kids selections were chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, pizza. The dessert buffet was to die for - brownies, 4 different cookies, 3 different tarts, flan, mousse, and this Oreo bon bon that rivals the Zebra Dome any day! Honest, it really does! I can't even describe it, and I wish I had taken a picture of it, it's not like any other dessert I've had on property, and it's nothing like the Mickey Dome at CM - which has an Oreo on the bottom. This Oreo Bonbon has an Oreo on the bottom, and has this very fluffy whitish cream about an inch thick on top of the Oreo - it's a cross between a cream, a mousse, and a homemade marshmallow all in one, and then the top is dusted with cocoa powder! I can't even tell you how many of those we ate! I should have asked for the recipe!!!
After dinner, we walked the Boardwalk, since we'd never actually been over there before. On our walk from Beach Club to Boardwalk, we could see the International Gateway to Epcot and parts of France, I didn't realize how close Epcot was to this area. And, after seeing Stormalong Bay first hand, we agreed that if there ever was a REALLY good deal for BC, that is the next deluxe resort we'd want to stay at for sure! We checked out the ESPN club & gift shop. They really didn't have much of a variety - DH likes to get his souvenir as an ESPN t-shirt every year, and he said he'd rather get it from the Team Mickey Store at Downtown Disney - which he did later in the evening, they had a larger variety in both selection and sizes believe it or not! We weren't too impressed with the Boardwalk, I expected more out of it, it was pretty quiet when we were there, and there isn't much to it at all. I still really want to go back though, when Cat Cora's restaurant opens up - I am a total Iron Chef junkie - we watch every week, and I'd love to try her restaurant!
After the Boardwalk, we walked over to the BW bus stop, and waited for a bus to DTD. We waited for 25 minutes. I was not very happy. Thankfully, it was just us and one other family waiting at 8pm, so we had a bench to sit on. But, we are not used to having to wait that long for a bus anywhere! Thankfully, the bus had already done it's pickup at YC&BC so we were on our way to DTD. We decided this was going to be our only visit to DTD this trip, so there was a lot to accomplish in just a couple of hours - souvenir shopping, baby! I knew I wanted some stuff at World of Disney, and DS7 had actually saved most of his Christmas money to do some damage at the Lego Store!
Well, when we walked into the Lego Shop, he was just in awe, he stood in the middle of that store, and it was like Nirvana to him, he was just speechless! He didn't know where to look first, and all the little boys his age seemed to have that same dazed look on their face. (it was kind of a good thing - because he was so overwhelmed he actually forgot to spend all of his money!) He eventually settled on some combo packs of Star Wars and Power Miners Legos that he'd never seen before, and he knew that he couldn't get online or at home, and he was so exstatic about his purchases! And yes, even the Lego Shop has one of those deals when you get to the checkout "Mrs. Leto, since you've spent more than $25, would you like to take advantage of our current offer...you can purchase our Lego Power Miners Truck set for only $10, which is normally a $40 value?" Well, how could we say no to
that?! Needless to say, Matthew was going home with a TON of Legos, and to save space in the luggage, I brought Hefty One Zip bags in quart & gallon sizes so that he could take the Legos out of the boxes, and put them in the bags, they take up a lot less space that way.
World of Disney - I still get turned around & lost in that place! I am really disappointed at how much they've reduced the "home" selection at both WofD and the Pantry shops. I sooooo desperately want a Mickey Waffle Maker! And, they don't sell them anymore. And, they don't sell as much of the linens and other things either. What I did get this year is a large clear acrylic bowl and 4 smaller acrylic bowls with the mickey heads on them, we are using them almost every day - the big one for popcorn & stuff, and the little ones for ice cream and smaller snacks. I also got the set of two black mickey head "egg formers". I am actually using them to cut our my DS7's PB&J sandwiches for school - and he loves it! I bought the red cookie cutter last year, but it's too big for the bread, these bladk ones are the perfect size, and if you're using soft bread, they cut no problem. We also went to the Christmas Shoppe and bought some stuff for our tree. We are planning on an all-Disney christmas tree! I think we finally have enough ornaments & stuff to do it now. I need to make a tree skirt, but I can just do that with some Disney fabric from the craft store. What I did buy at the DTD Christmas shoppe was a great Mickey Mouse tree topper, and two new ornaments - that was plenty, it set me back $70, just for those 3 things. We made our traditional stop at Once Upon a Toy to get more Potato Head Pieces. We have quite the collection now - we've been collecting them since the store first opened! But, it's well worth it - all 4 of us still play with it when DS7 drags the bin out to play, and last year I even used the pieces with foam craft pumpkins at Halloween to decorate inside the house! DS15 came with me to Goofy's Candy Co, while DH watched DS7 splash in those water spouts outside of Once Upon a Toy.....he was absolutely soaked - but he had so much fun and was making friends with a few other kids over there, so we just let him go. Sometimes the littler kids need that freedom to just run loose and have fun, they don't always want to go-go-go, and we recognized that on this particular evening. He had so much fun playing in the water and laughing with the kids, he really needed that release of energy! At Goofy's Candy Co, we used up about 12 snack credits to get some yummy treats to take back to the room with us, for late night snacks, and to take some stuff home later on. We used snack credits from our DxDDP- we got 2 Mickey Krispies, 2- 3 packs of custom make your own pretzel rods, a very large peanut butter cup with a dark chocolate mickey mouse on top, a very large chocolate dipped strawberry, jelly beans, soda, bulk candy by the 1/4 pound, a ginger bread cookie wearing mickey ears, a great big sugar cookie, and a muffin! Then, we got a call on my cell from DH - Matthew is soaked hurry up! So, we hopped the bus back to CBR, it was already 10:30 by that time anyway, and we were all pretty tired....another successful day at Disney.
So, today was Friday May 1st, we "slept in" until 8:00 today! We all got dressed in swim attire, and took that gorgeous leisurely walk down to Old Porte Royale. I really can't say enough about how beautiful Caribbean Beach is, and this morning was no different! "Our" family of ducks were out near Trinidad South again, near the shoreline of the lake, waiting to greet us, the dad, the mom, and their three ducklings. They actually walked on the path with us for a while this morning, and Matthew got such a kick out of it! He kept talking to them - he named the dad and mom "Donald & Daisy" - of course! (I never thought until now - there are 3 babies - they could have been Hewey, Duey, & Lewey!, although I know those were Donald's nephews )....anyhow, we just soaked up all that gorgeous morning air, it was about 75 degrees, a light wind, and no humidity, clear blue skies. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day! We got to Oold Port Royale, and you always know when you're getting close because you hear kids laughing, and little feet flip-flopping in their sandals, and the sound of that wonderful calypso music playing, the steel drums clanking, and that happy shaking beat - it just makes you want to shake your hips and dance! We walked into the food court area, and as busy as it is, it never feels crowed, it's just a happy bustle of people, everyone going about their business in an organized fashion, the tables are clean, plenty of them open and waiting for you, CM's ready with a smile to help as needed....I just really love it here! We used snack credits today to have a light continental breakfast...muffins, pastries, fruit, and juice. We brought our mugs along so we could have drinks by the pool. We finished up our breakfast, and headed out to find a spot, plenty of loungechairs ready and waiting. The pool area at CBR is just awesome. It is totally deluxe resort worthy, in fact it was much nicer than the pool at AKL - by far. ( I will compare both resorts to every last detail at the end of my trip report, for those who want a serious comparison of a mod vs a deluxe) The kiddie area at CBR has a Pirate Ship - yes, I said a Pirate Ship! It's about 20 feet long, by about 15 feet wide, and probably 30 feet high with it's mast and sails. It has 3 water slides and a dumping bucket! DS7 loved this area, but I didn't get any pics of it, because he had me in the ship with him- couldn't get the camera wet - and Tony & Michael were in one of the two hot tubs at that time! (here's one pic from Allearsnet)
There are two hot tubs, one is more for families and is kept much cooler, almost a little too cool - was the same temp as the pool but with jets! The other is tucked away in a more secluded area, and is definitely more for adults, and is much warmer. The main pool area is HUGE and awesome! It has two great big Spanish style forts facing opposite ends of the pool & each other with stairs that go up to two water slides, and there are also canons that spout water as well. THere is also a zero-entry area in the pool too. I took some pics, but they really don't do it justice, the ones on Allearsnet are much better, so I am posting one of mine, and one of theirs...
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that Hidden Mickey photo in the fountain! I've never noticed that one before. Looking forward to more
Liz 
I also miss the parade that they used to do at Epcot around 7:00, before Illuminations that they started to celebrate the millenium, I forgot what it was called but it had all these stilt walkers and cool puppets and stuff. Anyway, here are some pics of Block Party Bash....
I can't even tell you how many of those we ate! I should have asked for the recipe!!! 
I was not very happy. Thankfully, it was just us and one other family waiting at 8pm, so we had a bench to sit on. But, we are not used to having to wait that long for a bus anywhere! Thankfully, the bus had already done it's pickup at YC&BC so we were on our way to DTD. We decided this was going to be our only visit to DTD this trip, so there was a lot to accomplish in just a couple of hours - souvenir shopping, baby! I knew I wanted some stuff at World of Disney, and DS7 had actually saved most of his Christmas money to do some damage at the Lego Store! 
And, they don't sell as much of the linens and other things either. What I did get this year is a large clear acrylic bowl and 4 smaller acrylic bowls with the mickey heads on them, we are using them almost every day - the big one for popcorn & stuff, and the little ones for ice cream and smaller snacks. I also got the set of two black mickey head "egg formers". I am actually using them to cut our my DS7's PB&J sandwiches for school - and he loves it! I bought the red cookie cutter last year, but it's too big for the bread, these bladk ones are the perfect size, and if you're using soft bread, they cut no problem. We also went to the Christmas Shoppe and bought some stuff for our tree. We are planning on an all-Disney christmas tree! I think we finally have enough ornaments & stuff to do it now. I need to make a tree skirt, but I can just do that with some Disney fabric from the craft store. What I did buy at the DTD Christmas shoppe was a great Mickey Mouse tree topper, and two new ornaments - that was plenty, it set me back $70, just for those 3 things. We made our traditional stop at Once Upon a Toy to get more Potato Head Pieces. We have quite the collection now - we've been collecting them since the store first opened! But, it's well worth it - all 4 of us still play with it when DS7 drags the bin out to play, and last year I even used the pieces with foam craft pumpkins at Halloween to decorate inside the house! DS15 came with me to Goofy's Candy Co, while DH watched DS7 splash in those water spouts outside of Once Upon a Toy.....he was absolutely soaked - but he had so much fun and was making friends with a few other kids over there, so we just let him go. Sometimes the littler kids need that freedom to just run loose and have fun, they don't always want to go-go-go, and we recognized that on this particular evening. He had so much fun playing in the water and laughing with the kids, he really needed that release of energy! 
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