My first trip report-Kennedy Space Center, Disney Dream and Universal Studios - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
PassPorter.com
Award-winning travel guidebooks

   guidebooks   |   news   |   podcasts   |   boards   |   blog   |   worksheets   |   photos   |   articles   |   updates   |   register   |   follow us on


Forums Closed
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.

Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.

And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.

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.

That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.

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!

Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!

Go Back   PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums > PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line > Sharing Your Adventure: Disney Cruise Reports
Register


Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.

To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.

If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 07-21-2011, 01:18 PM   #1
soccerdisney
Community Rank: Passenger
 
soccerdisney's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 34

Post Thanks / Like
My first trip report-Kennedy Space Center, Disney Dream and Universal Studios

I alway read trip reports but have never wrote one. Hopefully everyone find mine as interesting as I find all of yours.

Cast Me DW 44
DH 45
DS1 14
DS2 11

Plans discussed since November 2010 made in January 2011 while stuck at home because of 12 inches of snow!
Plans were:
July 9 Fly in early, head to Kennedy Space Center, dinner, stay at Radisson at the Port.
July 10 -15 Disney Dream doubloe dip
July 15-17 Hard Rock Hotel Universal, Islands of Adventure, City Walk, fly home late on the 17th

Reality: Followed plans to a T but shuttle launch did cause quite a crowd at Kennedy.

Day 1
July 9 Alarm was set for 3:50. Woke boys up and dressed. My dad picked us up which was very nice of him since he lives 40 minutes away from us. We were at airport by 4:30 and had bags checked and through security by 5:00. Grabbed some bagels, water, juice and a diet Coke for me and had a short wait before boarding. Flight was uneventful and we were in Orlando about 15 minutes early 9:15 their time. (8:15 for us). DH went to check in for car and I went to wait for luggage. Luggage was verrrry slow but we were in the car and headed for Kennedy by 10:00.

I planned our trip before the shuttle launch was announced and we considered skipping Kennedy because we knew it would be crowded but decided to try anyway. The wait to buy tickets was ridiculous. We stood in line for over 75 minutes. Ie was very crowded but amazingly, the biggest problems seemed to be their computer programs to sell tickets is soooo slow. Umm you can send people to space but you can't sell tickets any faster???? Once we got our tickets the crowd was managed really well and it never seemed too bad.

We hopped on the bus tour right away and enjoyed the tour very much. There are different stops and you decide how long you want to stay at each. All the tour guides we had were very good but I did get a little uncomfortable with one thing. Every guide we had, talked for 5-10 minutes about all the people losing their jobs because of the end of the space shuttle program. Not believe me, I totally sympathize with them but one mention would have been enough. I do not bury my head in the sand about what is happening but my vacation is my time to escape. Everything else was really great and interesting enough to keep both boys going. We skipped lunch but shared a cinnamon pretzel, drank a lot and DS2 had some dippin dots.

Around 4:15 we headed out. We headed over to Grills for dinner. Had a short wait. Dh and I both had fish tacos DS1 had shrimp scampi and DS2 had crab legs. Everything was yummy and we watched the Carnival Dream head out.

We then headed down to Ron Jon's for a little souveneir shopping. Finally we checked in at the Radisson. I verified I was on the 10:00 am shuttle and the clerk told me I was the first name on the list. We unloaded, parked the rental in cruise parking and went for a swim. About 9:30 we headed in and everyone fell asleep pretty quickly since we had been going for so long!

Day 2 will be posted soon. Thanks for reading!
__________________
Debbie
My Countdown Counting down to:
My PassPorter Bookshelf
soccerdisney is offline  
 
Reply With Quote
 



Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump














Please login or register to hide these ads -- it's free and easy!

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:30 AM.

-->

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Feedback Buttons provided by Advanced Post Thanks / Like v3.4.0 Patch Level 1 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
(c) 1998-2017 PassPorter Travel Press/MediaMarx, Inc.
Celebrating 19 Years of Making Dreams Come True
Ad Management plugin by RedTyger