Don't Stop - part one of Disney trip COMPLETED - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
After having the pleasure of spending more time with you and Mark during this trip, I can hear your accent as I read your report which just makes it even more delightful. Looking forward to more.
And here I thought I was the only one! After having met them in '05, I have read her reports hearing her accent ever since!
Great start! I always enjoy a good Chez and Mark report!
And, yeah . . . I didn't notice by the pics that you guys had downed a bottle. Not. At. All.
Thursday 10 December – part one: don’t we look like we should be in Upper Class?
On the plus side, the bed that we had was very comfortable and when we did sleep, it was a good night’s sleep. The minus side was that neither of us slept very well. Sadly, it wasn’t excitement about flying out, much as I’d love to say that. Instead it was a combination of me not taking my pain killers (under instructions from my doctor to try and tackle the issue of jet lag) and the family outside shouting at each other at about 11pm. Mark was awake from the early hours and tells me that someone ordered room service at 3am. I think you can tell how good the sound proofing was, as we were able to hear all that.
We got dressed and that turned into a saga for me. I wasn’t happy with what I was originally going to wear on the plane, which was a pair of leggings. Although very comfortable, much more so than jeans, which to me, weren’t really an option, they just didn’t do me any favours. It was Mark who came up with the idea of me wearing a dress, but initially I was horrified by the prospect of having to wear my trainers (tennis shoes to you guys! ) and slipper socks with them, but he pointed out that lots of people in cities do just that and he was right. It didn’t look too bad in the end and much better than what I’d originally been planning to wear.
We re-packed our cases, putting both our winter coats into the cases, as we still had both enough space and weight in them to do that, which was a definite bonus. It meant we’d have to carry less and I wasn’t relishing the thought of lugging those around when we got to Orlando. :
We walked through to the airport and headed for the Virgin area. At first glance, it was absolute carnage, probably the worst I’ve ever seen it. There were people everywhere and I’d guess there must’ve been about 300 or maybe 400 people in line to check-in. Fortunately, after a momentary panic, we saw the check-in area for Premium Economy and Upper Class and headed there. After seeing one guy just push in line in front of the woman in front of us, we managed to deal with the woman who was on her cell phone and tried to do that to us (nice try, try harder next time! ) and were quickly seen to. The member of staff said “flying Premium Economy today?” and we took great delight in saying “no, Upper Class”. Her face was a picture and she apologised very profusely at that.
We were immediately seen to and quickly dropped our bags off, although we were told that our flight had been an hour late arriving, so it was now an hour behind schedule. I wasn’t too worried, as at least we had the lounge to enjoy between now and then.
Then it was off to security, which we had Fasttrack to, as one of our Upper Class privileges. Obviously we don’t look like traditional Upper Class passengers, which I did take offence at, as I thought we were both quite well dressed, especially after the debacle over what I was going to wear this morning. Why do I say this? Because we had to show our tickets to the guy at security, as he closed off Fasttrack right in front of us, despite his colleague telling him that we did qualify.
This is the way to travel! We were through the whole thing very smoothly in just five minutes. We then went to pick up Mark’s travellers’ cheques and, from there, we headed off to a nearby electrical store. Mark thought that we were looking for a new shaver for mine, as mine had given up the ghost just two days earlier and was refusing to draw charge. We couldn’t fathom what was wrong with it, so it was clear that a new one was required. Well, yes, that’s partially what I was looking for, but I was also after Mark’s Christmas present – an iPod. I had told him that he could have my old one when he bought me a new one a couple of years ago, but the darned thing died on cue a few days later, so he never got one, so I figured that would be a perfect present – and it was. The look on his face was priceless.
From there, we went shopping for my shaver and fortunately found something in the end, as leaving without a new one really was not an option. :
We then headed upstairs to find the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse. The woman who checked us in had told us where it was, but to be honest, neither of us could understand what she’d said and we figured it would be easy enough to find. Wrong! We wandered round for a few minutes, before seeing something red at the end of a corridor between two shops and that was it. And the signpost for it? “Emergency exit only”. Yes, that’s why it was so hard to find.
As soon as we arrived, I felt at home here. They really had thought of everything they could. There was a formal dining room as you entered, then more informal seating areas scattered around, where you could order meals and drinks. There was a children’s area towards the back, along with an area for teenagers and even a Wii and some computers, where I was able to get online later on. Of course, there was also the highlight for me – a Cowshed beauty salon, where you could either get complimentary treatments or ones that you could pay for.
That was the first thing we did, both booking the complimentary 15 minute back, neck and shoulder massage, while I opted to add on the 30 minute hot stone treatment for my legs and feet, as that sounded heavenly to me. Mark offered to pay for it for my birthday, which made it even better.
That done, we settled down into one set of chairs, but didn’t last long there, because the couple next to us were just all over each other. Honestly, they seriously needed to get a room – they were hugging each other and he was on top of her. Next time, get a room guys! So we moved a little further down, then realised that Mark’s camera battery was dying and we couldn’t see any powerpoints anywhere. Surely there had to be some? Then we spotted them at a table nearby, so we moved again.
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There were people everywhere and I’d guess there must’ve been about 300 or maybe 400 people in line to check-in. Fortunately, after a momentary panic, we saw the check-in area for Premium Economy and Upper Class and headed there. After seeing one guy just push in line in front of the woman in front of us, we managed to deal with the woman who was on her cell phone and tried to do that to us (nice try, try harder next time! 
Her face was a picture and she apologised very profusely at that. 
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