Dreaming of a Disney spring break - part three COMPLETED - Page 56 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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!
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Just catching up again. Lots and lots of great pics. I love the look of the new lego store- how cute are the duck models!
I would have asked to move tables at the restaurant too, its not a pleasant experience when you are trying to enjoy a meal. Speaking of rude families, i was at the beach on sat and this lady let her little boy(about 3?) pee right beside where we were sitting on the sand!!!! I was totally horrified, especially as there were bathrooms nearby. I had to move after that. Some people just don't have good manners.
I would have moved away from "it" as well. I don't know how it is in other countries, but I know the population in the States have just gotten lazy and self centered. I embarrass my kids because I am not "shy" about making comments loudly for rude behavior. Sorry, but if no one says anything then people will just keep pushing you aside or run over you literally!! My kids don't act like that, they know what would happen to them if they did.
Great pictures from the Lego store! Sorry about the horrible kid. I think I would have been tempted to compliment the family with the well-behaved child, making sure that the family with the demon-child overheard me and got the hint.
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Friday 22 April – part five: a new lease of life for an old favourite
We headed back to Animal Kingdom Lodge to check into our room. It was a savannah view room, as promised when I checked in this morning and thankfully it wasn’t the one that Heather and Brandon had, next door to the concierge lounge, as they had commented that it was loud and I could believe that.
The room was lovely and a different layout to the one we’d just come from. I preferred this one, as it gave us more space.
There were also some lovely additional touches, that we didn’t have in the last studio room.
There was nothing to be seen out on the savannah when we checked in....
We didn’t have long to spend in the room, as we had to be out for La Nouba again. I did have a shower, but the shower was spewing water everywhere. You know it’s bad when the ceiling is covered in water, so Mark went and reported it to concierge.
We left later than planned, as Mark’s memory stick decided that it was going to download for about the first time in three days and I wanted to wait for that to be done. As a result, we didn’t set off until about 5.30 for the 6.00 show. On the way down in the elevator, I met Angie, who Mark had seen earlier about the shower, and she promised me that “Niagara Falls” would be sorted by the time we got back from the show.
We made it to Downtown Disney by about 5.45 and parked up. I was amazed at how many people were still waiting to get into the show and of course, we ended up in the line behind the Chinese family who had a problem with their tickets.
We finally got in and saw the boxes that the clowns use in front of us, although thankfully they were already persecuting another family, so we escaped their attention and took our seats.
Oh my goodness, I cannot begin to tell you how much this show has changed. The first act is now a skipping act, although they’re dressed the same as the previous act, so even we were wondering if it was the same set of people, although we realised it wasn’t.
The chair balancing act has gone as well, although to be honest, and no disrespect to him, you barely even remember him, as the juggler they replaced him with is amazing. He also balances things on his head and that makes for a very different act indeed. I love the way that Cirque can find traditional acts, like jugglers, but they manage to discover the people who are very, very different and make for a superb show.
As always, the little Chinese girls with the diabolos dazzled everyone and they’ve added some new bits into their act. They weren’t the only ones, as we noticed new elements in most of the existing acts. There also seemed to be much more use of the acrobats in the final scene who do the trampoline work. We noticed them throughout the show, which we hadn’t seen before.
There’s also a new singer in the show. They have two – one’s the operatic one and there’s another, and that’s who’s been replaced. Obviously, she doesn’t want to be part of the show, as we didn’t see her anywhere, which was a shame.
Overall, it’s really given a new lease of life to an old favourite of ours, while keeping all the elements we know and love. We were very impressed with what we saw.
When we came out, and we weren’t the first people out of the show, we were practically the first ones into the shop. Mark got three new tops, while I got one. Let’s just say a serious bit of money was dropped in there...
After getting some photos....
... we headed back to the car and back to the resort. Look what was waiting for us:
We checked out the concierge selections and Mark got some Kahlua, while I got some Amurala to take back to the room. There were only desserts out, so we had a couple each, but didn’t feel that was enough.
We decided to go down to the Mara to get something savoury, but bumped into Ryan on the way. We commented how quiet it was and there was literally no-one else around and he told us, that as we were his only customers, he had some desserts out back that we could have – it was like an English trifle, with custard and strawberries and it was lovely. I think we each had three or four to help him out, as they would be thrown out come 10pm. I’d asked him if he’d got any cheese left from earlier in the day and he told me : because it all had to be thrown out whenever that service ends, which is such a waste. We also got some savoury snacks from him and, content, we headed back to the room to stuff ourselves, while watching Fringe.
The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the high 80s. The best thing today was One Ocean. The worst thing today was the line to get into SeaWorld.
[b]The funniest thing today was the people getting soaked by Shamu. Today we tried going to the world premiere of One Ocean And the result was it was just amazing. The most magical moment today was hearing the introduction to One Ocean.
i love all the extra little things that you get from staying concierge level- the towel mouse is very cute. It's these things which make Disney special.
I hope they got your shower fixed. I understand why they have to toss all that food at the end of the day, health department reasons and all, but like you said, it seems like such a waste. It's like on cruises, all the food that the passengers don't eat has to be thrown out. All I can think about are all of those starving people in Somalia right now that could definitely make good use out of it, and here they are throwing it out because of health regulations...such a shame.
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Wow, you and Mark really get a lot done in a day's time! I am really loving your TR, especially right now as I just booked a mother-daughter trip for October and am really getting some good ideas from you about adult-only things to do! As a matter of fact, I made a ressie for Fulton's this morning for us to do a late lunch on a 1st day (yeah free dining!) based on your description of the food.
The show looked really cool. Sorry about the kid during dinner. I agree everyone has an off night but to let him get up and roam around - no way! Just last night I had to take Evan out of a restaurant for a talking to. First time in about 2 years I had to do that.
Wow, you and Mark really get a lot done in a day's time! I am really loving your TR, especially right now as I just booked a mother-daughter trip for October and am really getting some good ideas from you about adult-only things to do! As a matter of fact, I made a ressie for Fulton's this morning for us to do a late lunch on a 1st day (yeah free dining!) based on your description of the food.
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I was totally horrified, especially as there were bathrooms nearby. I had to move after that. Some people just don't have good manners.
: that is just so wrong! 
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