October 27th-November 4th, 2012/ Our 4th trip and our best trip/ASMu - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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!
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Our Journey: Departed October 27th, returned November 4th and we flew from Jackson, Mississippi to Orlando.
Where we stayed:
All Star Music Family Suite Calypso building room 538 (second floor- not close to the elevator) Using the DDP.
What we did while we were there:
Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Island of Adventure, Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens and Discovery Cove.
Day 1: We left our house around 11:00 am for the hour drive to the airport. We had a 1:30 flight. I figured since Southwest boards 30 minutes prior to departure that we really needed to be through security by 12:30 and with the hour drive I thought leaving at 11:00 would give us a little wiggle room just in case we ran into a traffic jam or accident on the highway getting to the airport.
We got our bags all checked in. We had 7 checked bags for the 5 of us and each of us had a carry on backpack.
Once we got through security we realized my DS11 forgot to bring any type of jacket with him AT ALL and I ended up stopping at an airport gift shop and buying him a sweatshirt hoodie so he would have a jacket for the trip. Thank goodness it wasn’t outrageously expensive. It was only $20. We also bought each of the kids a bag of snacks and a drink to take on the plane. I prefer to get them something so we don’t have to use the on board drink service. The drinks they bring you are tiny and watered down by the time you get them so I save us some time and trouble and get everyone something. ($27 for snacks and drinks)
The plane arrived on time and we boarded the plane at 1:00 pm. We had bought EBCI so we had very good boarding numbers. I think we were A21-25. I always buy the EBCI because I prefer to sit close to the front of the plane so that we can get OFF the plane quickly once it lands.
We departed Jackson airport at 1:30 headed for MCO at Orlando. We arrived at MCO at 4:10 pm (we had a time change and gained an hour going from Central time zone to Eastern time zone) The flight only actually lasted an hour and 40 minutes.
We had reserved a rental car with Advantage car rental through Priceline. When we deboarded the plane we headed over to A terminal lower level where the rental cars were and somehow walked right past the Advantage counter (it is the first one you pass) and walked all the way to the very end of the car rental counters only to realize we had obviously passed it somewhere. That’s when we got all the way back to the beginning and saw we had not even noticed it was the first counter you come to.
We had reserved a mid-size car for $13 or $14 a day. I don’t remember the exact price but once you add in all the taxes, surcharges and rental fees it was going to cost $200 for 9 days.
Of course when we got to the rental counter (I knew they would) they offered to upgrade us to a full size car for $5 a day more, so we agreed. They ended up giving us a choice of several different cars to choose from but all of them seemed like mid-size cars to me. What they call a full size car is a Nissan Altima. That is what we chose. But it was a new car with just 2500 miles on it.
Once we got in the car it was a keyless ignition and we couldn’t figure out how to start the car so we ended up having to go get an attendant to show DH how to start it. I don’t remember exactly what you had to do…It was either push down the brake and hit start or push down the gas and hit start. The key fob thing they give you has no key on it and it is just for locking and unlocking the car. I don’t really like the keyless thing myself. But since DH was the only driver on the contract I didn’t have to worry about having to figure out how to start it myself.
We finally got out of the airport and went and found a Wal-Mart to buy some snacks and drinks for the room. By the time we got to the resort to check in it was around 7:00 pm.
I had done online check in so our room had already been assigned and the packet and KTTW cards were all ready.
We were given a second floor room even though I had requested a first floor room. But by the time we got checked in there was no first floor room available to switch to so we went ahead to our room. We were in a family suite in room 538 on the wing of the building that juts out towards the parking lot. We were close to the stairs that took us out into the parking lot and we used them a lot during the 9 days we were there. We rarely used the elevator.
Once we got settled into the room we went to the food court for a quick dinner.
I had the create your own salad. DS & DSS had the Philly Cheese steak sandwich. DD had the Turkey with sides and DH had the baked Chicken with sides.
Everyone had Ice Cream for dessert except me. I was just too full and didn’t want anything.
The kids went for their first swim of the trip and played Ping Pong down by the pool. We got to bed kind of late.
Tomorrow would be Busch Gardens, Tampa.
__________________
10/27-11/6/11 All Star Music Family Suite (QSDP) --Family trip
1/26-2/1/12 Quality Suites Lake Buena Vista --Adults Only trip
4/16-4/21/12 Rosen Inn --Adults Only Trip
10/27-11/4/12 All Star Music Family Suite (DDP) --Family Trip
4/14-4/19/13 Quality Suites Lake Buena Vista- Adults Only Trip
11/10-11/17/13 Wyndham Bonnet Creek- Adults Only Trip
11/2015 Wyndham Bonnet Creek- Family trip
Last edited by MsPeggySue911; 11-23-2012 at 06:14 PM..
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