Florida flowers and Caribbean cruising LIVE TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 3/8 - Page 12 - 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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I feel like you need to send your Tr to Disney IT, so they can see how many times one person has run into website glitches planning just one trip (albeit a longer trip with more planning than the average visitor). Just crazy for such a large and prosperous company.
So many frustrations just trying to make simple dining reservations!! It has got to be particularly annoying for you, as you don't really have the option of picking up the phone and trying to sort things out.
So many frustrations just trying to make simple dining reservations!! It has got to be particularly annoying for you, as you don't really have the option of picking up the phone and trying to sort things out.
I think it's frustrating wherever you are, as the last time I tried to call Disney, probably a couple of years ago when we were actually in WDW, I couldn't actually get through to anyone. I just caught up in the automated system and gave up and went to Guest Relations instead, as I thought that would be easier...
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Sorry you're having so many problems with the Disney website. I was helping a friend on Friday with her vacation and the website was acting up. Disney really needs to get on top of fixing it!
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I think it's frustrating wherever you are, as the last time I tried to call Disney, probably a couple of years ago when we were actually in WDW, I couldn't actually get through to anyone. I just caught up in the automated system and gave up and went to Guest Relations instead, as I thought that would be easier...
This is my main issue with leaving a credit card guarantee on reservations. I've been at WDW, sick and unable to leave my room, and unable to get through to cancel a reservation by phone or on the website. If you're going to set rules like this, you have to give people reasonable ways to follow them!
Sorry about the website and credit card frustrations. Happy to hear you got reservations for Tratoria al Forno! I think you are really going to like it there. We ate there during Marathon Weekend and loved it so much we booked again for our upcoming trip. The food and the service were both great! We stayed at BW on that trip and the restaurant was always busy.
Sorry you're having so many problems with the Disney website. I was helping a friend on Friday with her vacation and the website was acting up. Disney really needs to get on top of fixing it!
I saw someone had posted on here yesterday about how it was literally crashing on every page they went on.
This is my main issue with leaving a credit card guarantee on reservations. I've been at WDW, sick and unable to leave my room, and unable to get through to cancel a reservation by phone or on the website. If you're going to set rules like this, you have to give people reasonable ways to follow them!
Sorry about the website and credit card frustrations. Happy to hear you got reservations for Tratoria al Forno! I think you are really going to like it there. We ate there during Marathon Weekend and loved it so much we booked again for our upcoming trip. The food and the service were both great! We stayed at BW on that trip and the restaurant was always busy.
Pre-trip report – part nine: that’s a very odd set of park hours…
Monday 10 November
Today was the day I could make our bookings for our cruise on the Dream. Usually I’d get up extra early to be sure that I could be online for the time they open up – midnight EST, which is 5:00am our time, but I didn’t bother this time. All we wanted was Palo brunch and dinner. We weren’t planning on doing any excursions, as we’ll stay on board when we visit Nassau, and we may yet stay on board when we visit Castaway Cay too – I know, I know, not what most people do, but we’ll have to see how we feel on the day.
I went first for Palo brunch, as with only one sea day, I thought that might be the tougher one to get. Not a bit of it! They had appointments open from 10:30am until about 1:00pm, I think from memory. I didn’t want an early start, as I wanted the opportunity to have a lie-in. My theory is that, with no excursions, we can sleep in every day of the cruise, something we’re not necessarily going to have the opportunity to do during the rest of our vacation. I had no problem snagging what I wanted, a booking at midday.
I then went on to get our Palo dinner booked. As we’re on the main dining rotation, I went for 7:30pm, so that we could still go along and enjoy the show/atmosphere, important if we happen to be in Animator’s Palate that night, as I’d like to see that. I used my trusty PassPorter to check what night would be pirate night and it told me night three. I didn’t want to miss that, as I absolutely adore that menu, so I went for the second night, and again, I had a choice of whatever times I wanted, so that was easily sorted out as well.
When I checked my emails, as well as confirmations of those two things, I also had an email from Viator about my complaint. The hot air balloon company is refunding the money we paid, so that’s a result! Am I going to put it towards another booking with them? way. Much as I love the idea, I just don’t think it’s worth it, as I don’t want to go through the same hassle again. I’ll put the money towards booking the Deluxe Dining Plan for our stay at Bay Lake Tower, which is the final big item I haven’t paid for yet for this trip, so at least that will pay for that. It’s a good start to the week!
Wednesday 12 November
I got an email this morning from Universal, promoting reasons to visit the parks in 2015. Ok, goodie – that surely means that finally the park hours are out for at least some of the new year, I mean January as a minimum…. I checked on the website and not a sniff of 2015 park hours. Good grief, this really is getting beyond a joke now!
Thursday 13 November
A very quick entry today, as we’re off to Disneyland Paris for the weekend, but it’s time for the double digit dance!
Thursday 20 November
I had another look for park hours tonight, just for a bit of a laugh really… and guess what? Nothing whatsoever still beyond 31 December for SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Tampa, which is just crazy. For goodness sake, that’s only about another six weeks’ worth of information at this stage…
Then I found a very odd entry on the Universal website for January 2015 – first for Islands of Adventures, which only had park hours for about half of the day, but Universal Studios looked even more bizarre, as it only had park hours for five days of the month.
Nothing for February onwards… so weird!
Friday 21 November
Ok, so with no park hours for SeaWorld, I thought I’d have a look and see if we could book lunch there yet. Let’s just say their website is playing up worse than Disney’s usually does! If I could get a page to load, it was pretty much a miracle, although I did manage to establish that there was only availability for dinner for the Dine with Shamu option for the day we’re visiting. I wanted lunch, so that’s not going to work. I did try for priority seating for Shark’s Underwater Grill, but that’s only taking bookings until 4 January. Oh boy, they do make this planning lark easy, do they?
I took the opportunity to re-check the park hours at Disney, and wow, they’re obviously expecting crowds! A lot of days, hours have been added on to park openings, mainly at Magic Kingdom, and interestingly at Animal Kingdom. It’s not somewhere we usually see closing at up to 8:00pm, and certainly not at that time of the year, when there aren’t exactly light evenings. It’s always interesting to go there after dark, so maybe we’ll do that. There’s one night that, with Extra Magic Hours, the Magic Kingdom is open until 2:00am! As we’re not exactly night owls, I doubt we’ll be awake to experience that.
Why was I looking at park hours? Well, I figured I needed to check them out, as in a month’s time, it’ll be time to make those Fastpass+ bookings. Wow, where does the time go? And, let’s face it, the next month will fly by. We’re away for two weekends and we’ve got the run-up to Christmas, so it’ll be here before we know it…
After doing that, I started to go through our plans to come up with ideas for Fastpass+ selections, and it’s just as well I did, as I ended up with various questions, around viewing the half marathon and parking at the Swan, so of course I was able to ask those questions on PassPorter, and hopefully someone will be able to help me with some answers.
Saturday 22 November
I’ve probably said it before, but I’m going to say it again… PassPorters really are the best! Thanks to the question I asked last night about viewing the half marathon, I now have a programme from last year’s and I can see the route. The runners will come right past the Contemporary, so that’s where we’ll go and cheer the runners on, as I’m sure that will be a lot quieter than being in the Magic Kingdom. I also got some useful tips about the Magic Kingdom, and a) it sounds like it will be packed there, and b) it sounds like there may not be anywhere to sit there, and given I can’t stand for long periods with my chronic fatigue, so the Contemporary will definitely be my best bet!
Monday 24 November
It turns out that we will have some runners to cheer up in the half marathon, as there are a couple of PassPorters taking part – so far I know of Amy L (Amy), who we’re now trying to arrange a meet with, and Kim (kadterp). This is going to be so cool, knowing some people taking part!
I’ve also been learning more about making Fastpass+ reservations, as it struck me that I had no idea how the 60 days out business worked. Did it mean 60 days from that date or is it the length of your stay and, given we’re splitting our stay, how would that work? Well, helpful PassPorters have come through, and I’ve even got details of how to add our Annual Pass voucher on to the My Disney Experience account, something I’d never have thought of doing before.
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We've got this one for our May trip, and I can't wait to try it. 
They had appointments open from 10:30am until about 1:00pm, I think from memory. I didn’t want an early start, as I wanted the opportunity to have a lie-in. My theory is that, with no excursions, we can sleep in every day of the cruise, something we’re not necessarily going to have the opportunity to do during the rest of our vacation. I had no problem snagging what I wanted, a booking at midday. 
Am I going to put it towards another booking with them? 
I did try for priority seating for Shark’s Underwater Grill, but that’s only taking bookings until 4 January. Oh boy, they do make this planning lark easy, do they? 
A lot of days, hours have been added on to park openings, mainly at Magic Kingdom, and interestingly at Animal Kingdom. It’s not somewhere we usually see closing at up to 8:00pm, and certainly not at that time of the year, when there aren’t exactly light evenings. It’s always interesting to go there after dark, so maybe we’ll do that. There’s one night that, with Extra Magic Hours, the Magic Kingdom is open until 2:00am! 
As we’re not exactly night owls, I doubt we’ll be awake to experience that. 
And, let’s face it, the next month will fly by. We’re away for two weekends and we’ve got the run-up to Christmas, so it’ll be here before we know it… 
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