Don't Stop! PRE-TRIP AND LIVE TRIP REPORT COMPLETED - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Thanks for sharing your story & plans with us! I've always loved that song, & will think of you now whenever I hear it! Can't wait to hear your ADR plans. Not long now!!!
You are the ultimate planner. And my mother has chronic fatigue...you are quite the trooper with all you've got planned. But, I imagine being in Disney can work a little "magic" for you.
The Key West drive is just AWESOME! Glad you are feeling better. I don't know you well, but from all your travels I imagine you are not a slow down kind of person. That had to be really tough. You seem to have the right spirit to work through it and recover.
I'm glad to hear Rhe Flagler Museum, The Breakers Hotel, Worth Avenue, and Mizner Park when you're in the Palm Beach Area. You'll love them all. As beautiful as the Grand Floridian is, your jaw will drop seeing the Breakers Hotel! I am a wee bit envious you'll be in my hometown. I hopeyou're feeling better and recovering from your ME! I can completely empathize with you on how unbearable it is. The Hayatt is great if your flight is really early in the morning(which was why we stayed there for a night). At least you'll have the convenience of gettin to Security and to your gate in no time at all I hope you and Mark enjoy sitting in First Class! United and Southwest aren't bad airlines at all. Southwest is great since they don't charge you luggage fees and Pixies for you and Mark that you get he A Boarding Group and seats together. Since I know you leave soon and not sure if you'll be on again before your trip, I hope you have a Very Magical Birthday, And wishing you and Mark both a Very Merry Christmas & New Years in addition to very safe and healthy travels for you both and a Magical Trip
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.
Great plans!!! You seem to always get everything planned out perfectly!!
The lyrics really hit home for me...I had forgotten the words and when I started reading them, I started "singing" them. Thanks so much for sharing!
Great plans, Cheryl! Can't wait to see you again and to finally meet Mark.
It's funny you mention Key West. It's a place I really want to go. I have made it as far as Big Pine Key, and I'll echo what was said previously--be on the lookout for the Key deer. They are quite small.
Safe travels and I can't wait to hear about Upper Class!
Cheryl - I can't wait to see you and Mark again in less than a week! I'm so glad you're feeling better. I know that slowing down is very hard for you, but just being at Disney will probably do you a world of good. Your plans look great so far! I've always wanted to do the Key West drive, so I'm looking forward to those pictures.
Oh wow thanks for your title explanation! That made me tear up a bit but has given me some perspective on my drowing-in-debt situation - to stop thinking of all the things we can't do now, but to think of all the things we'll be able to do Tomorrow
I've done the Key West drive and is one of my favorite memories, ever. You'll be in heaven!
Glad I was able to help - and it's great to hear from so many people just how awesome the drive to Key West is.
The Key West drive is just AWESOME! Glad you are feeling better. I don't know you well, but from all your travels I imagine you are not a slow down kind of person. That had to be really tough. You seem to have the right spirit to work through it and recover.
I think you do know me very well - that's exactly how I am, so yes, slowing down has been hard for me.
Pre-trip report – part four: am I ever going to be able to get these ADRs?!
At this point, it’s also worth saying that PassPorter’s Open Mouse guide became my best friend, while thinking about how on earth we were going to do this trip with me suffering from chronic fatigue. I was delighted to find specific references to it and I picked up so many useful pointers from it. I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone with special needs, as it’s very in depth. There were so many silly little things I hadn’t thought of, like requesting a room near the lobby, which will be especially important at Kidani Village. I remember from my May trip just how huge and sprawling that resort is!
It was hard knowing how I’d be, as every day and every week I did grow in strength and became capable of doing more. By early September, I was back at work five days a week, working 25 hours a week. OK, so it wasn’t a full working week, which for me would be 37 hours, but my goodness, it was better than the 12 hours a week I managed on my first week’s return to work in early August.
September was also ADR booking time and my first chance to try out the online booking system. I have to say I had mixed fortunes with it and made some interesting discoveries. Some days, my 12 December booking, which was only for two nights, would let me book the full 10 days past our check-in date, some days it wouldn’t. Some days I could book beyond 90 days, even without entering our reservation details, before the quoted 6am EST, some days I couldn’t. There were certainly interesting issues with the system!
I got most of what I wanted, with two major exceptions. I couldn’t get breakfast (or for that matter dinner!) at Chef Mickey’s on our first couple of days and I couldn’t get dinner at ‘Ohana for either of our first two days, although I managed to snag breakfast, as did Barb (Grammy Grumpy), who did much better than me, getting a table for six. Both were real disappointments for me, but I guess that’s what happens when you’re going during free dining and at a time when lots of Disney fans are heading for the World, as we all know to try for ADRs at 90 days – and indeed 10 days extra, depending when they were checking in. It didn’t fill me with much confidence about being there during free dining. It’s something we’ve always tried to avoid, having heard horror stories from friends, but we didn’t have a choice this time around.
However, things did get better and I pretty much got everything else I wanted. My concern was Christmas Day, but I polished off those ADRs online easily enough. It was the night of Christmas Eve that proved to be the problem, with messages saying that the system was too busy to cope with my request. Yet it had managed with Christmas Day? A bit odd. I called DVC Member Services and, after a bit of hunting around, the Cast Member I spoke to was able to snag the Flying Fish Cafe for me for a bit earlier than I wanted, but at that point, I’d take anything!
My first experience with the online ADR system had certainly been an interesting one, but despite its odd little faults, like not being able to get Christmas Eve evening and ‘Ohana and Chef Mickey’s being booked out, generally I liked it. It makes such a difference for those of us who have to make international calls and being able to go online from 6am EST was great for me, as my days making ADRs helpfully fell on days that I was working from home, which panned out nicely.
We booked our final hotel of our stay not long after that, the Crowne Plaza at the King of Prussia mall for the night of 26 December, when we’d be meeting up with Sue and Steve and heading to Longwood Gardens to see their display again. It’s amazing to think that it’s already five years since we were last there for that – where on earth does the time go?
Having read various people’s trip reports from their Disney cruises (thanks to all those who posted those! ), I realised that seeing the sunset from Key West was going to be something of a bunfight. The photos of Mallory Square from the Magic really highlighted that to me, so I decided that maybe I should look to see if there were any other ways of seeing it. I quickly found a sunset champagne cruise, complete with buffet, which sounded absolutely perfect – no fighting the crowds, and from my point of view, I wouldn’t have to be standing for ages, so I went ahead and booked that.
In the meantime, I kept trying and trying for ‘Ohana and Chef Mickey’s and had no luck.... until one wet and miserable night in November that was! Finally, I was able to get a 5.30pm opening for Chef Mickey’s on the Friday night before the Christmas Party – you see, persistence does pay off! I’m not exaggerating to say that I’d been dreaming of this moment for a long, long time and honestly thought it would never come. When it did, I was delighted!
I also booked the Hilton at Gatwick Airport for the night before we were due to fly out, as I was able to get a great deal on dinner and one night’s stay there. We didn’t have to worry about parking, as we would be flying out of Gatwick, but returning to Heathrow and had enlisted the help of family members ( to them) to drive us to and from both airports.
By now, it was into late October and, as far as my health went, I was back at work five days a week, although three of those were from home, as I have a long drive into work, which had become an exhausting part of my day, whenever I commuted in.
About This Page: 
Susan
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Deb
I hope you and Mark enjoy sitting in First Class! United and Southwest aren't bad airlines at all. Southwest is great since they don't charge you luggage fees and Pixies for you and Mark that you get he A Boarding Group and seats together
PassPorter Guide Author
I'm so glad you're feeling better. I know that slowing down is very hard for you, but just being at Disney will probably do you a world of good. Your plans look great so far! I've always wanted to do the Key West drive, so I'm looking forward to those pictures.
but has given me some perspective on my drowing-in-debt situation - to stop thinking of all the things we can't do now, but to think of all the things we'll be able to do Tomorrow 
It didn’t fill me with much confidence about being there during free dining. It’s something we’ve always tried to avoid, having heard horror stories from friends, but we didn’t have a choice this time around. 
I called DVC Member Services and, after a bit of hunting around, the Cast Member I spoke to was able to snag the Flying Fish Cafe for me for a bit earlier than I wanted, but at that point, I’d take anything! 
and heading to Longwood Gardens to see their display again. It’s amazing to think that it’s already five years since we were last there for that – where on earth does the time go? 
to them) to drive us to and from both airports. 
Linear Mode
