Living the dream and remembering the Bagman LIVE UPDATE 10/2 About This Page:

[SuperDave]

Originally Posted by chezp

To be honest, if they're shared, it's not for us. We did shared the last time we visited New York in 2008 and it took forever to get to the airport. I think we'll just stick with a cab, as they go straight there.

Even though it costs a bit more by cab, I think it's probably worth it for the convenience!

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part thirty nine: “Montreal” and “Niagara or Buffalo?”

Tuesday 23 August

I heard from Sara (yes, that would be not-so-evil travel agent ) and apparently Disney have managed to send our cruise documents to her. She asked if I wanted them sent to us here or whether I’d prefer them to be waiting for us at WDW. I opted for the latter, given I never trust international post, and it’s now approaching rapidly, so hopefully when we check into Animal Kingdom Lodge, the documents will be waiting for us.

Sadly, Sheri (skateycat) won’t be joining us for Bagman Days. I knew she’d been struggling with what to do, after discovering she didn’t have any accommodation any longer, and I know it was a tough decision for her. She will be coming over, as thankfully she lives near enough to do that, and she’ll be joining people for breakfast on the Sunday. A big group are off to Trail’s End that day, but I really wanted to do the California Grill brunch, so we opted out of that. I’m sad now, but she’s said she may come over before the event officially starts on 22 September, so hopefully we might see her then.

Denise (wdwlovers) posted in the Facebook group that the Magic Band decals are ready, and posted a couple of photos. She said that they didn’t look that great in the photos, and that they’re better in real life, but my goodness, they look amazing to me and a truly wonderful tribute to a great man. so much Denise for organizing this.



Wednesday 24 August

I woke up this morning to an email from the Disney Vacation Club, which basically told us what we already knew from the phone call we’d had previously. The air conditioning isn’t working to their satisfaction, so they’ve put an extra unit into the master bedroom. I will say Disney are doing everything to ensure you know they have problems, and kudos to them for that.

I have been having problems trying to access my Photobucket account over the last couple of days. I don’t know what they’ve done to the site, but now it’s just a case of it constantly saying that my account is under maintenance. I didn’t think that was right, so I’ve emailed them, and they sent back a list of things to do, which is basically clearing your cookies. Guess what? That did nothing, so I sent a follow-up email, and we’ll see what happens… If the worst comes to the worst, I’ll just open a new account.

When I logged into the boards, I was greeted by two wonderful messages, the first of which said “Montreal” and came from Sharon (PrincessSharon) and “Niagara or Buffalo?” from Donna (DMA). Oh wow, two messages about our upcoming vacation!

I wasn’t sure what Sharon was going to say. She’s always said she’ll be joining us, but given we’ll be in Montreal three weeks today (oh my goodness, where did the time go? ) I didn’t know if she’d need to bail on us at the last minute. Thankfully not. She’ll actually arrive in Montreal a bit before us. Her flight is due to land at around the same time we’ll be driving out of Quebec City. I’ve gone through our itinerary with her, and I think we’ll meet her at the Olympic Park that afternoon.

She’s at a hotel just down the road from us, which works, given I booked dinner that night just a couple of minutes’ walk from our hotel. I’ve added her to that dinner reservation, and the one the night after, and I had no problem with either.

She also gave me some great news – we’ll be seeing her three times on this trip, in Montreal, New York City, and now it turns out at Bagman Days too. She’s coming down on the Friday evening, although she’ll try to get there for the Thursday night, if she can, and she’ll be staying until Sunday. I am so pleased she’ll be able to join us for that.

Donna’s email was essentially asking whether we could meet in Buffalo, as opposed to Niagara, as it would be easier for them, which I have no problem with. I filled her in on our plans for that evening, and hopefully we’ll be able to work something out and see them too.

And wouldn’t you know it? I hear back from Photobucket support, confirming my account is not under maintenance and asking for more detail and a screenshot of the problem… and for the first time in 24 hours, I can log into my account! Oh well, the main thing is it’s fixed now.

Thursday 25 August

Donna’s suggested meeting when we drop the rental car off at Buffalo Airport, and when she mentioned ice cream, well that was it – sold! Of course I was sold on meeting her, but the ice cream helped too…

It’s all over Facebook today about the problems with the air conditioning at the waterfront bungalows at the Polynesian Villas, so I guess the email the Disney Vacation Club sent out has done the rounds. Everyone seems appalled by the situation, but from what I read of it, I’m still not overly worried by it. I think it’s Disney just being overly cautious. I read it as it’s not 100% and where they’d like it, so they’re ensuring the master bedroom temperature is where it should be. Should that not be the case, trust me, Disney will be hearing from me!

I went into town at lunchtime and added some more Canadian and American dollars on to the travel money card. I think I’m pretty much done with loading it up, and I’m happy with the amount I’ve got on it, so that’s good.

I also went into Body Shop to ask if they were ever going to get any more facial scrub in. I don’t know if this has made the headlines over there, but it has over here. Basically, a lot of scrubs have been discontinued, because they have small bits of plastic in, which don’t break up, and then pollute the marine environment. I completely get that, but months ago, when Body Shop first told me they were discontinuing it, they also said they’d be redesigning it, and there would be a new environmentally friendly version out soon. No sign of it. I did say I’ll just get it in the States, but apparently it’s also been stopped there… but not necessarily in Canada, I was told, and later when I checked the website, that’s right. It’s still on there. There are a couple of Body Shops in the same malls as Bath and Body Works, so hopefully I might be able to get into one or two, and see if they have any supplies left. Here’s hoping…

I then had a worse thought – does that mean my beloved body scrub from Bath and Body Works has been discontinued? I checked the ingredients, and it is sugar scrub, so maybe it’s not affected. I checked the website, and phew, it’s not. Perhaps the Body Shop need to look into sugar scrub as a substitute for their product?

There was a post this evening on the thread about Bill’s death, which really surprised me, given it’s almost a year since his death. I read it and it was from Sandra (Sandra Bostwick) and it was so well written, I’m just going to repeat it here…

I'm beginning to realize that this sad feeling whenever I think of this is just never going to go away. The same as losing our beloved Claytargetshooter and MinnieLor (Glenn and Lorie) in a TOrnado. It is such an odd sense of loss when I lose a PassPorter Pal in something so sudden. :-(

I felt I had to respond, and you’ll see why as well with my response:

I know - I was looking for an old trip report yesterday and saw so many posts from Bill, commenting on how much he liked my photos, which was high praise from him. I found it very hard to read the comments though. In less than a month, it will be a year since we lost him. Where has the time gone?

Friday 26 August

When I looked at the thread in the Family Room about Bill’s death, Marie (CRCrazy) posted this morning, and she always seems to have a way of just putting things perfectly.

After reading your pre-trip report about the Piglet debacle, I did the same, Cheryl. I went back and re-read the part of the trip that I did write p (because I never finished it.) It broke my heart - seeing pictures of both Bill and Lorie, who were both there for Mousefest 2005. Then I found the tail end of Bill's report - couldn't see any of his pictures, as the links were broken, but the text made me cry. He was talking about his day in Epcot, and how he and Jan had run into Sarah and I, and that Sarah's hug made his day, and I had gotten the great shot of the two of them.


Bagman Days is going to require a lot of tissues, I think.

I think she’s right, and I have added tissues to this week’s Tesco grocery order. The closer we get to this trip, the more meaning it has. It comes home to me again that Bill is gone, and while meeting up with so many people will be a celebration of his life, I know there will also be a lot of emotions, and plenty of them will be difficult and sad.

Talking of sad, I had real mixed emotions when I saw Jan, Bill’s widow, had posted a photo of the two of them and Abby, the granddaughter Bill thought the world of. It made me so happy for a moment to see the three of them altogether and with big grins on their faces, then I felt so sad as again as I realised, looking at the photo, that one of them was no longer with us.

I had a look on the All Ears website, and it looks as if there’ll be no night-time show at all while we’re there for Animal Kingdom. They’re reporting that the Jungle Book Alive with Magic ends on 5 September, which is what I expected, as there’s no sign of it showing up under park hours for when we’re visiting. I doubt there’ll be some amazing announcement in the next week or so that Rivers of Light is starting up to replace it, as it’s just not a busy enough time of the year to launch something like that, so I guess our dinner at Tiffin’s will be our night-time entertainment then…

Next: I can get a “birthday pig”

[Tara O'Hara]

You guys are so lucky to be meeting up with everyone!

The rest of the post made me very wistful.

[cubfancolleen]

Great that you'll be meeting up with so many PP'rs, not just at WDW, but on other legs of the trip, too!

[NanaTink]

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Tara O'Hara

You guys are so lucky to be meeting up with everyone!

We are... and that's the good side...

The rest of the post made me very wistful.

... exactly and that's the sad side of this trip...

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

Great that you'll be meeting up with so many PP'rs, not just at WDW, but on other legs of the trip, too!

I am so looking forward to seeing everyone.

[SuperDave]

What a great trip this is going to be with so many of you meeting up for different events! It will also be quite sad with all the memories of Bill!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

What a great trip this is going to be with so many of you meeting up for different events! It will also be quite sad with all the memories of Bill!

It will be.

[Lumieregirl]

Catching up again. So excited for all your plans. We've our eye on Tokyo 2020 as well! (Ok can't recall if the olympics chat was in this PTR or your Baltic TR... )

And what a great find for the NYC library Pooh collection! Sounds lovely.


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[chezp]

Originally Posted by Lumieregirl

Catching up again. So excited for all your plans. We've our eye on Tokyo 2020 as well! (Ok can't recall if the olympics chat was in this PTR or your Baltic TR... )

I'm pretty sure it was this one... cool, we may see you over there.

And what a great find for the NYC library Pooh collection! Sounds lovely.

I'm sure it will be.

[KMB733]

How exciting that you'll get to see the original Winnie the Pooh toys! Also exciting that Sharon and Donna will be able to join your for part of your trip. I agree, I think tissues are going to be required.

[CRCrazy]

Ok Cheryl, you need to stop making me cry with your pre-trip report. If I can't handle this, how am I going to make it through Bagman Days?

I'm feeling a bit emotional today - on top of the memories that are piling on with Bill, we had another tragedy very close to home this weekend.

My next door neighbor's granddaughter was killed in a tragic horse show accident Friday night. Labor Day weekend is always the Lancaster Fair weekend, and their daughter's 4 year old was showing in the horse show ring with her aunt. The horse lost its balance when it was backing up, and rolled over, she fell off, and the horse landed on her. I'm just devastated.

I'm going to try to make my random acts of kindness in Bill's memory something to bring joy to young children. When I think of Bill, I don't think of Bill the policeman, although that was an important part of his life, I think of Bill the Disney fan - bringing smiles and laughter to all, especially his beloved Abby. I think that bringing joy to children will help to ease the sadness over both of these tragic losses.

I'm so excited to hear that Sharon will be there over the weekend. I haven't seen her in years.

[Cam22]

Originally Posted by chezp

The DVD is out (over here at least) and he's done masses of similar series to this, firstly in the UK, then across Europe. If you look up Michael Portillo on Amazon, you should find a load of those DVDs, they might make a nice Christmas present for Luke.

Thanks for the suggestion as it would make an awesome Christmas gift, but unfortunately, it is not available on Amazon here in the US yet.

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[Cam22]

I have a feeling that the WDW portion of this trip will be quite poignant. and for all you who will be in attendance.