Christmas Is Comin' Early Dec 11- 19th 09 PTR~~Updated 12/06 - Page 2 - 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.

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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.

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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!

Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!

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Old 10-08-2009, 02:55 PM   #16
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Great Start!!! Congrats on getting DH to let you book another trip! And I think DS homecoming is something wonderful to celebrate!
We think so too! He needs to feel special all by himself some days!
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Old 10-08-2009, 03:07 PM   #17
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Great start! Maybe we'll see you there, as your trip coincides with the PassPorter gathering at WDW.
What great reasons to celebrate too!
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Old 10-08-2009, 03:09 PM   #18
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OK.... where to eat. It is tough to get a ressie this time! Also, this time I am letting our TA get the ressies based on my recommendations since I just don't have time to schedule them what with taking the kids back and forth to school, swim, pom and dance... you know how it goes. But, I have to admit (and I KNOW all of you will understand!) I am having a tough time letting go of the control! It's making me a little I gave our TA what days I wanted based on what park we wanted to go on what days and given our trip is kinda last minute we have to go with the flow. OK, breathe, breathe!

So what ADRs do I REALLY want?
Donald's breakfast at Tusker House
A princess meal (anywhere)
Boma or Jiko
Garden grill or some equally good restaurant in Epcot
CP (our family's fave)
Tony's Town Square

And other than that I am pretty flexible. So, here is what we have so far:

Sat. Dec. 12 Tony’s Town Square 7:05pm
Sun. Dec. 13 Crystal Palace 3:25pm

Mon. Dec. 14 Garden Grill 3:55pm
Fri. Dec. 18 1900 Park Fare with Cinderella 7:35pm


The meals are all at off times so I'm not thrilled about it...but I am trying to keep an open mind! If I have to eat at 4:00 for our parents, then they'll have to eat at 7 or 7:30 for us, right?! And, we have to go with what's available. *sigh* So, we'll see how it all shakes out.


Oh, and we are doing MVMCP and CP! Thanks to everyone's suggestions on this board! Garden Grill is the CP meal. I am happy about that one. Now we need to plan something special for Alex's homecoming day and hope the ADR gods will smile on us!

Up next: finalizing our ADRs and pre packing purchases!
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Old 10-08-2009, 03:53 PM   #19
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Great dining choices! And tell me about how hard it is to get ADRs for that time - I know that only too well!
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Old 10-08-2009, 04:40 PM   #20
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Great dining choices! You'll love the CP!
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Old 10-08-2009, 06:19 PM   #21
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Your choices look great! We love CP and Garden Grill! And on our last trip we did MVMCP which was a lot of fun!
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Old 10-08-2009, 08:41 PM   #22
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more please
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Old 10-12-2009, 04:18 PM   #23
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Your Dining choices look great!
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Old 10-16-2009, 02:39 PM   #24
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Great dining choices! And tell me about how hard it is to get ADRs for that time - I know that only too well!
Thanks. I'm anxiously STILL awaiting to wrap up the rest of them.
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Old 10-16-2009, 02:41 PM   #25
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Your choices look great! We love CP and Garden Grill! And on our last trip we did MVMCP which was a lot of fun!
We were a little disappointed by the MNSSHP but the resort lost our costumes and we went on our first night and weren't accustomed to the park in the dark yet... so this year we are waiting for a few nights into our trip to go. The pictures I've seen have me really excited!!!

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Your Dining choices look great!
Thanks! GG is new to us but I have read good reviews here!
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Old 10-16-2009, 02:50 PM   #26
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The ADR waiting game and the secret is out of the bag

OK, I confess. We told the kids! We just could not wait! We had such a great weekend with them and were all snuggled in last Saturday eating pizza and watching a movie (can't recall which one) we told them. Alex was just kinda shocked and like but Abby was jumping up and down. They are excited! Ken really didn;t want to wait as he wanted the kiddos to have something to look forward to. What can I say?! It will by fun to dream along with the kids and count down now!

One good note is we will be back in time for the school's holiday concert which will be nice. One less thing to miss.

As fasr as the ADRs go... still in the works which is driving a controlling mad planner like me NUTS! I hope they can be nailed down ASAP. I'm feeling like I am not liking not being in the driver's seat on this on and keep telling myself she is a Disney planner and all will be fine!

As for our purchases...grandpa is giving the kids (and Ken!) a bunch of pins (will show you when we get them from him!) and I bought a couple of fleece jackets for me and the kids (need to take pictures of!). Otherwise, we live in a 4 season state so we should be prepared!

I'm sure the time will fly by!
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Old 10-16-2009, 04:00 PM   #27
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I totally understand letting the kids know. I've never been good at keeping our trips a secret from Stefanie. Great dining choices, too! You've got quite a few our family favorites.!
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Old 10-16-2009, 05:57 PM   #28
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How exciting that you let the kids in on the secret!
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Old 10-16-2009, 09:57 PM   #29
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I would have caved as well!
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Old 10-17-2009, 09:43 AM   #30
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Dining Dilemma... solved?

OK, so I could not let the ADR thing go. I didn't feel settled and like I had a SOLID plan. Something was not quite right.

My TA emailed me with the following ADRS.


Fri., Dec 11th - arrive at airport at 1:15 - day open
- thinking maybe DHS to see the Osborne lights since MK closes at 7

Sat., Dec 12 - Gotta be MK!
- ADR at CP for 1:15 (MK closes at 11)

Sun., Dec 13 - OPEN

Mon., Dec 14 - Epcot (we are usually one day Epcot goers)
ADR GG and CP at 6:45

Tues., Dec 15 - ???
- ADR 9:05 Lilo and Stitch
*** now this is our son's special day - his homecoming day in adoption terminology so I'm not sure where he would want to go .... loves the safari at AK and is excited about Star Wars at DHS which we have no plans for as of yet in this itinerary

Wed., Dec 16- park open
ADR 6:40 WCC (want to see the decorations)

Thurs., Dec 17 -
ADR 4:45 San Angel Inn

Fri., Dec 18 - open
ADR 7:35 Park Fare with Cindy

Sat., Dec 19 - 6:30 departure time so will head to MK probably


After several unsuccessful attempts at booking ADRs online and having CMs tell me they could not find my resse and I wouldn't be able to book ADRs online because I had gone through a TA ... guess what? I WAS able to book online last night! What the heck?

So here are my changes:

Sun., Dec 13 - head back to MK
- ADR at Tony's for 12:30

Tues, Dec 15 - thinking of making this a DHS 1/2 day with CS there for lunch and dinner
**suggestions of CS at DHS please!****


Wed., Dec 16- AK
ADR 12:20 Tusker House
** what time do we need to leave AK for Wilderness Lodge?***

Thurs., Dec 17 - DHS now instead of Epcot
figuring we probably would not do Epcot 2 days, I made an ADR for Sci Fi at 4:40 since I could not book any other restaurant at DHS and I figured the kids would probably want to do DHS again due to Star Wars, Beauty and the Beast show, Little Mermaid, HISTK - all things we have never done before!

Fri, Dec 18th - park open!

now the last question is what day to do MVMCP? I'm leaning toward Sunday since that is our 2nd full MK day - then we can hit the other parks and hit MK either the last full day of our trip or the morning of our departure. Or should we go on the Tues, the 15th since that is Alex's homecoming day and we'll be right at the Poly??

Decisions, decisions!
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