Going north, south, east, west - Chicago UPDATED 1/7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
Going north, south, east, west - Chicago UPDATED 1/7
This is the fourth part of this multi-stop trip report.
It all started here with the pre-trip report, then continued here with the New York section of the report. The most recent thread about our Walt Disney World adventures can be found here.
Now it's on to the next stop - Chicago, which this thread will cover, before heading over to Disneyland in California and our final stop of Las Vegas.
Friday 24 October – part one: proper deep dish pizza!
We were woken up by the alarm at 5.00, as we had to get going for our 8.10 flight with Southwest. A quick shower later and we were ready and off. Mark headed to go and get the car, while I headed for front desk, as we hadn’t had our bill through the door yet. They are getting very late with them these days, as usually whenever we’ve checked out this early before, it’s always been there.
I got two shocks when I left the Beach Club Villas. The first was how humid it was outside and the second was the fact that it was running really hard. I was so glad that I was going to the front desk and could stay dry. I made it a few minutes later, after dropping my coat on the way and having to go back for it and then having to forage for my room key to let me into the main building, as it was so early. All the charges to the room sadly tallied up with the recollections of my spending. I say sadly, as that’s how I felt when I saw the total amount!
I headed outside and Mark was waiting there for me and then it was off to get some fuel at the Hess gas station. As non-Americans, we have to go in and put a credit card down to pay, as we don’t have a zip code where our card is registered. I got chatting to the guy serving in there, who said that gas over here must seem very cheap to us. You could say that. $39 to fill up the tank. That’s about £28 at home and we’re still paying £60 to fill up, so yes, it’s way cheaper than at home.
That done, it was off to the airport in what can only be described as appalling weather conditions. The rain was just relentless. Full credit to Mark for driving in that. That can’t have been fun at all. :
We made it back safely and returned the rental car and headed into check our bags in. We were told that one case was over the weight limit by 2lbs, but that was easily rectified and all four were on their way. We cleared security with an extra check of my case, because it had so much electrical gear in it. Well, I didn’t want to put my camera chargers etc. in the suitcases, did I?
We headed for the gate and had our breakfast of coconut bars from Disney and waited for our flight. The last time we had flown with Southwest, it had just been boarding in either the A, B or C groups. This time, you have numbers as well and board in sequence. They have posts with details of where to line up. It’s a great idea and worked really well, even if the guy in front of us couldn’t quite fathom it out and had to move behind us. I gather it’s a new way of doing things and it’s a great improvement.
I’ve never got off the tarmac so quickly at an airport before. My goodness, we literally taxied out and were off, no waiting at all. The flight was very bumpy through much of it, so bad that they suspended the drinks service at one point and did the cabin checks way earlier than usual, as we came into land.
When we finally got down on the ground, we were 20 minutes early though, which was pretty impressive. We had a few problems finding the signs for baggage claim and fortunately we weren’t the only ones. An American couple asked where it was and when the woman pointed out the signs to us all, I don’t know how we missed them.
We quickly got our cases and after exchanging cell phone messages with Lesley, we found her outside in the car, just before an over-zealous staff member tried to move her along.
I was amazed at how quickly we were in the city. The traffic looked bad for a little while, but really it wasn’t and soon the skyline was in view. I would share photos with you of it, but I can’t, as my camera was in my hand luggage in the trunk of the car. It’s a shame, as it was a lovely view. We soon found the hotel and Lesley dropped us off, so that we could check in and get ourselves straight. Fortunately, our room was ready, but it took a lot longer to sort ourselves out than we had figured, as the room was exceptionally small. Look at these photos and you’ll see what I mean!
Therefore, we had to get out what we need for the next couple of days, as living out of a case would be hard, as there was no way we could leave them open while we were here.
Lesley texted us just as we were heading down to the lobby to say that she was there, so that was great timing. I was so pleased when her first words were “I’m quite hungry”, because that meant food and boy, we were both hungry. I also knew that it meant proper deep dish pizza at Pizzeria Due, which was literally just a block from our hotel. This place is legendary and it’s where deep dish pizza originates from, so out we headed.
When you walk in, it’s clear that it’s retained the feel that it had all those years ago when it first opened. It’s a bit like stepping back in time 20 or more years and it’s got a real homely feel to it.
The food here is really good as well, although I’m not sure what that means for my love affair with pizza in the future. This was very different to any pizza I’ve ever tasted before and it was lovely. As I say, I’m not sure I can go back to the told style of pizza now. I went for the spinach pizza, after finding out that my first choice, the three cheese and pesto one, would take 40 minutes to cook. I was too hungry to wait that long. Mark had a similar issue, as his first choice would’ve taken that long, so he went for the sausage one. The deal we had for lunch also included either a salad (my choice) or soup (Mark’s choice). This was a great first dining stop for Chicago and many thanks to Lesley for picking up the bill – a very unexpected surprise.
Our first stop after lunch was to pick up our Go Chicago Card from concierge in one of the city’s shopping malls. It turned out that the guy who served us, Charles, was born in England, but moved over here at an early age.
Glad you arrived in Chicago safely!! Boy that hotel room is a tight sqeeze!! Looks like you had a great meal and wonderful company!!! We loved Chicago when we traveled there a couple of years ago and found it to be quite a friendly place and very family-friendly!! Can't wait to read more!!
Glad to have you back Cheryl...hoping your birthday trip to Paris was amazing (it is kind of nice knowing that once we finally finish your American Trip we can partake in hearing about your Paris adventures I hope )
Sorry you had a bumpy flight bit glad you made it over to Chicago early and that Lesley was there waiting....Lunch looked very delicious, that deep dish pizza really looks good.
Wow this makes me miss Chicago! And holy cow (tm Harry Carey) that was one small room! Did you crawl over the bed to the other side or did you dodge the TV as you went around the bed?
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Cool! You are in Chicago. We didn't get to explore Chicago when we were there...just drove through. A shame, too. There is so much to see and do there. Your hotel room looks like the one we had in NYC a few years ago. Teeny tiny! The pizza looks terrific. Great update, Cheryl!
Sounds like you're off to a great start. I see you've been using the black and white setting on the camera more often . . . . Those photos are really great.
Pizza is making my hugary . . . haven't had dinner yet! What hotel did you stay at? I'm thinking about traveling to Chicago to visit a friend later this year!
Glad to have you back Cheryl...hoping your birthday trip to Paris was amazing (it is kind of nice knowing that once we finally finish your American Trip we can partake in hearing about your Paris adventures I hope )
I hope to start on the Paris trip report in a few days' time, so it will be running at the same time as this one. I'll try and remember to update in this thread when I start that one.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
$39 to fill up the tank. That’s about £28 at home and we’re still paying £60 to fill up, so yes, it’s way cheaper than at home. 
: 
)
Cathy
Teeny tiny! The pizza looks terrific. Great update, Cheryl!
! I don't think I could have waited 40 minutes for a pizza to cook either 
Danny and I at Epcot 8/14/08
Linear Mode
