Three Resorts, Two Friends, One Great Trip: February 2012 PTR - Page 4 - 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
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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Thanks, Heather!! If we end up at Casey’s, I will try the pulled pork dog for sure!!
And of course I have a garbage plate joint! I live in the capital of garbage plate central! I actually am friendly with the couple who owns it. It’s an awesome little place. Tracy, I will take you one day. <3
it hasn't helped that i've been on what i'm calling a 'healthy eating plan' (NOT a diet!) for the last few weeks. let me tell you, when you're having steamed tilapia for dinner, a pulled pork hot dog sounds REALLY REALLY good!
and melissa sue--i'll take you up on that offer! i actually google image searched 'garbage plate' last night to see if it was what i thought it was--yep.
My mom came over tonight and we basically planned the entire 'us' portion of the trip whilst my dinner cooked (it only got a little crispy around the edges... ) here are the things she wanted to do...
-see her new 'home' resort
-possibly tour other DVC properties she's not yet experienced
-go to DTD
-spend an evening in epcot for illuminations
-do a behind the scenes tour
-see fantasmic for the first time
-have a laid-back, relaxing trip
you should note that the 'mom' portion of the trip is only thursday afternoon through sunday morning...so that last item is pretty challenging given the first six items. however, we managed to fit in all but number two (which is still possible, just not planned)
here are our official plans. i've put the 'highlight of the day' in bold.
Thursday--
-I arrive at AKL at 11 am. I go to AK solely to ride EE via single rider line.
-Mom arrives at AKL at 1:30 pm. I meet her there after EE.
-We check in.
-Dinner/Lunch at Brown Derby at 3:45 for Fantasmic Package. Yes, that's right--I said 3:45. We will both have skipped lunch and need to eat early...plus that was the only ADR available!
-Fantasmic at 7:00
Friday--
-Keys to the Kingdom at 8:30
-Afternoon free--likely spent at the resort watching the animals
-Early evening--shopping at DTD
-Dinner--(this is crazy, because I've never heard of anyone eating here) Turf Club at SSR. (this fulfills my mom's desire to spend some time at her DVC home resort)
EDIT: I have since cancelled the above reservation after reading several positively awful blogs about Turf Club. I'm going to make a reservation at Raglan Road instead; we can check out SSR but eat in DTD!
Saturday--
-we give our bags to the concierge at AKL
-AK for the morning/early afternoon
-lunch somewhere
-arrive at BWI late afternoon, check in
-walk to epcot
-Dinner--Rose and Crown at 7:35 for Illuminations
Sunday--
-check out of BWI; give my bags to concierge again
-walk to epcot; ride Soarin at least twice
-mom leaves by noon for airport
-I meet Melissa Sue somewhere; begin next stage of trip
so...what do you think? did we do a good job of fitting everything in without doing too much? or have we gone overboard yet again? please note--we realize that we will be there during a very busy time (the crowd levels don't drop until the day my mom leaves) so we've tried to plan non-ride-dependent activities.
Just got caught up. Your plans sound great(except maybe eating at The Wave). We just got back and we ate at the Wave for breakfast. Not impressed. I have had better food and service at a Cracker Barrel. And I don't think that you are doing too much with your mom. It sounds like you have planned it out nicely. Hope dinner was still ok. ;-)
Looks like you've struck a nice balance of relaxing and checking off things on your list!
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Tanya
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1. Thanks everyone for convincing me that we're NOT trying to do too much. As you may well know, I can go a bit overboard sometimes.
2. LOOK AT MY COUNTDOWN! Double digits, baby! Oh yeah!
3. I realize at this point that this would be just a random guess, but what do you all consider 'early 2012'? Because phase 1 of the new Fantasyland is supposed to open in 'early 2012'. Now, I'd consider the end of February to definitely be EARLY 2012. Is there any hope of me getting to see that? Because I don't think I could accurately describe how happy that would make me...
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