It's going to be an "Incredible Summer" - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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.
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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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Your plans look good!
Just so you know, I read on Easywdw.com yesterday that in addition to the 7-8 EMH at DHS, they are opening TSL at 6:30. I know that’s crazy early, but seems like it might be worth it to ride Slinky Dog.
Wow!! Since it's at the start of the trip, maybe I'll be able to get Lenny up and out for that. We'll have to see though as next month they could change it too. From what I'm seeing though (I check MDE several times a day right now) it may not be too much of a problem to get on it anyway. If you don't count that first, opening day, the longest wait I've seen listed has been I think 100 minutes but early is certainly worth a shot.
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Wow!! Since it's at the start of the trip, maybe I'll be able to get Lenny up and out for that. We'll have to see though as next month they could change it too. From what I'm seeing though (I check MDE several times a day right now) it may not be too much of a problem to get on it anyway. If you don't count that first, opening day, the longest wait I've seen listed has been I think 100 minutes but early is certainly worth a shot.
And it doesn’t sound like they are publicizing the 6:30 entry. Josh said they have been doing the same at Pandora since it opened as well. Just to handle the crowds.
Check out The blog. it’s pretty interesting to see the lack of crowds that early. https://www.easywdw.com/easy/
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Love all your plans! Hope you all enjoy Teppan Edo as it's one that Luke and I really like. Congrats on tickets for the first MNSSHP! Hopefully, it won't be too crowded and you all will truly enjoy yourselves. Hallowishes is one of my favorite fireworks shows.
Great plans. If anyone reserves a vacation,it's you guys. I'd forgotten how much you'd been through the past year.
My trip is about a month after yours After reading your plans, I can't wait for it to get there. My daughter does all m planning. I used to do it and taught her how and honestly she is much more organized than I ever was,
Liz
Thanks everyone. I think we have great plans too. Let's see how well those great plans translate into a great vacation. I'm always hopeful we have a great time but we all know that things can and do happen. Anyone remember the "Great Magicband Meltdown" from two years ago? I do even though I would prefer not to and I hope we don't have a repeat of that over anything this year.
So with less than 5 weeks to go, I'm sure none of you are surprised when I say that I made some changes to our plans. Southwest sent me a reminder email about my upcoming flight to Disney and it mentioned adding Early Bird Check in. I don't need it for going to Disney. I'll be home and can get up and to my computer to check in myself. Coming home however, we'll be in the midst of getting into the MK pretty much right when I need to check in. It's going to be a busy night and being our first (and possibly only) time to MNSSHP, I really don't want to waste time trying to get on the internet to get our boarding passes. Since I had done so well saving money for this trip just from actual saving and from being able to book (and rebook) things to keep costs down, I had more than enough money to add the EBCI and for the convenience factor under the circumstances this year, I felt it was something I should do. It was also very easy too. I did actually contemplate adding it to the beginning of the trip but I quickly said no to myself and closed out the site.
I also decided to change our dining time at H&V. When I first booked this, Disney had not announced the longer hours at DHS due to Toy Story Land so the restaurant was listed as opening at 8 and I was able to get an 8:05 ADR. After it was announced the park would be open longer hours starting June 30th, I went in to see what that meant for the restaurant hours. Instead of opening at 8, it was now listed as opening at 7:45. It's sad to say but I have to admit, I changed our time from 8:05 down to 7:55 - the earliest time it offered me (I don't remember when I did this hence the reason it's not mentioned anywhere else). Then again, with 27 days to go, I looked into the restaurant hours again and this time they were offering 7:45 am reservation times. For those that are actually wondering, yes, I changed our time again.
With about 3 weeks to go, Disney changed some of the park hours during our vacation. For the most part, the changes didn't affect our trip. The only day that it does have an impact on is our Fireworks Dessert Party night. The fireworks will go off at 9:15 and the park was suppose to close at 10. Abby still struggles with after fireworks and parade crowds and even though I had planned to stay put in the Plaza Garden Viewing area for a little bit afterwards, with the park closing at 10, it didn't give us much time before we'd have to join the crowds trying to leave so I was hoping Disney would extend the hours. Disney did so now our plans are to go further into the park for a little bit while the after fireworks crowd leaves, do a ride or two and then we'll head out maybe about 10:30. If luck is with us, the after fireworks crowds will have thinned out and the park closing crowds won't be starting yet giving us a little buffer zone where it hopefully won't be totally crazy. If it is, I have a plan for that too. We just have to wait and see how it goes.
Sunday July 15th I remembered I could preorder our Be Our Guest lunch and doing this the last couple of years worked out really well so I did it once again. It's not technically mobile ordering - it's "preordering" - but whichever you want to call it, it gets us into the restaurant quicker as we don't have to go through the regular queue. At least in the past there has been a dedicated register only for those that preordered. I hope it's the same this year. Lenny has liked the beef sandwich there so I ordered that for him with the green beans. I started to order myself the beef sandwich with the fries but I don't think I liked it - and my past TR didn't tell me what I ordered or what I thought - so I changed my mind and went with the turkey sandwich with the green beans. Abby seems to choose turkey over beef when given the choice so I ordered her the turkey sandwich with the french fries. I wanted to order our breakfast too as we'll eat that meal too but I couldn't do that until the 16th. When I did get on the website to order, I ordered us all the Feast a la Gaston. I do remember liking it the last time (what's not to like? Eggs, potatoes, bacon, fruit) so why not go with it again?
Monday July 16th was also my court date for Abby's guardianship hearing. I spent 45 minutes waiting to spend roughly 45 seconds in front of the judge. My lawyer explained why I was there, the judge asked me two questions and then we were done. It was so easy. I will admit I was somewhat nervous - but only after I got there - as I wasn't sure what would be asked but I also thought to myself "they probably hear these cases all the time so probably don't ask too much." Like I said, the judge asked me two questions. "How is Abigail doing?" and "Is she still attending school?" I briefly answered his questions and he said he would grant the guardianship. The lawyer told me she would send me some paperwork to fill out - a year long plan - along with the court decree and just like that I was done and could come home again. When I got home, I felt like doing more Disney planning but other than preordering our BoG breakfast, I really had nothing else to do. I was pretty much current on everything. I did finally get my MB that day too so all in all, the 16th was a good day.
By now you would think after the 16th (only twenty days to vacation) I would be done with making changes to our trip. Everything seemed good to begin with but no, I was about to make more changes to our trip. After reading about Toy Story Land opening at 6:30 instead of 7, I changed our plans for our first DHS day. Instead of going in for EMH at 7 and avoiding TSL and the crowds I thought would be there, I have us arriving before 6:30 am to go right to TSL and hopefully ride the two new rides and after that, if my times are good, it'll be about 7 am and we'll go back to what I planned originally. And if that wasn't enough, on Tuesday the 17th, I read at multiple sources that in the AK, Disney would be having a family style Italian dinner at Pizzafari. It's similar to BoG in that the meal is still quick service (and I can use our credits for it), we will be served and reservations can be made (the Disney website said "they may be able to accommodate walk ups" but obviously it's not guaranteed). The difference is it will be served family style and at only dinner time. This really intrigued us so after several attempts at booking it online or through my device and failing, I finally called. After about 30 minutes on hold, I was able to book this and I canceled our Tusker House dinner. I know that may seem strange canceling a TS character meal dinner in favor of a non-character QS meal but we have good reasons. 1) We're eating breakfast at TH that morning - we will have already seen the characters and don't need to see them a second time. 2) It's something new and different and since "it's going to be an Incredible Summer" we want to try it. 3) It will actually be a good use of our credits. Another good thing is adding this and canceling TH really required minimal changes to our AK day. Instead of doing dinner and then Lion King, I just flip flopped them and then I was done.
It did make me wonder if I should make any other changes to our plans but after talking with Lenny and Abby, we all agreed everything was good and no more changes should or needed to be made.
So there you have it. We've been through quite a bit over the past couple of years since we originally started planning this trip - and you "heard" about a lot of it Even though it doesn't seem it, a lot went into planning the trip too. Maybe it was all done in a short period of time versus the months I've done in the past but as I've said before, the planning is a labor of love. I do enjoy doing it and I do enjoy sharing it. Over the next 2 or so weeks, all I have left to do is some packing, I have to place my pickup order at Walmart and just a few other little things that I have a list going for. Then it will be time for the trip.
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Even though it doesn't seem it, a lot went into planning the trip too. Maybe it was all done in a short period of time versus the months I've done in the past but as I've said before, the planning is a labor of love. I do enjoy doing it and I do enjoy sharing it. Over the next 2 or so weeks, all I have left to do is some packing, I have to place my pickup order at Walmart and just a few other little things that I have a list going for. Then it will be time for the trip. 
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