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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hello! And welcome to my latest trip report! For those that don’t know me, I am Jen.
I am a mother to 3 beautiful children, 2 of which are grown, one who is having her own little Princess in Oct, and my youngest, who is 9, Claire, who typically joins me in my travels.
I love Disney and try to make it to Disney World at least once a year. Some years that has not happened, but then other years I have been able to go more than once or at least to another Disney Destination. My last trip to the World was in Nov. of 2012. I was lucky enough this year to have gone on my first trip to Disneyland in Feb, just a month prior to this vacation. That one was for business and I traveled alone and met up and had fun with a co-worker.
This trip to WDW was a family trip…meaning my parents were going as well …..and had actually had its beginning stages started about a year prior to going. I had traveled with my parents to Williamsburg, VA in April of 2013 and we stayed at their Marriott time share. Mom said that next year she wanted to go back to Orlando and Claire and I could come, so of course that got the wheels going. We decided that we would do it over Claire’s spring break. I was not looking forward to going at that time because of the crowds, but it would be better to have her not miss school if we could help it. And a busy trip is better than no trip at all right? I got those dates from her school soon after we returned from Williamsburg, and Mom then reserved her time share for that week. Of course we tweaked things and decided to fly in a day early (with Claire missing a Friday before spring break) and then my husband, Skip, decided he would like to come at the end of the trip and try out a Disney cruise. Yes, Claire and I have now sailed Disney a few times, but Skip has yet to be on one…so the trip was extended a few days for that and a little extra fun after as well. What started out as a 7 night trip…. turned into 11 nights. March 21-April 1! (Yeah…. I wasn’t thrilled about coming home on April Fool’s day)
Plans were made and of course we had a few arguments about things…..nothing ever is smooth here.
First Skip was mad we were going and never told him. Well at that point it was so far off yet and I really hadn’t planned anything. I wasn’t hiding it from him, I just wasn’t talking about it in general. Then he decided he did want to come, but not stay with my parents nor did he want to go for as long. So we finally compromised and he would join us later in the trip and do the cruise portion with a day at Legoland at the end. The thing that drives me crazy is that I am a planner and he likes to do everything last minute. So even though I knew what the plan was, he wasn’t in any hurry to book the cruise. I told him more than once about the prices rising and his reply ….”I don’t care, I want to pay full price”. LOL!
He also had this “idea”….he wanted to come down to Florida on a Greyhound bus. He said he would have a years’ worth of stories to tell if he did that. It would take him about 28 hours to come by greyhound and for one who has limited time off, this was not a smart idea in my book, but he insisted this was what he wanted to do. Luckily in the end, we talked him out of it and he did fly down on Allegiant.
All was pretty much set by mid Feb (I actually booked the cruise on my birthday in Feb.) and we just had to wait. Of course I went to Disneyland in between that time which meant when I got home I had to do catch up work along with extra work to be sure all was taken care of before I left. It was a busy few weeks and I was happy to see March 21 come!
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.
I'm following along, too. I'm most excited to hear about your cruise. We went on our second Disney cruise last year and, OMG, it was amazing! Our first cruise was a short two-night cruise to nowhere out of NYC so even though it was technically our first Disney cruise I feel like I missed out on soooo much because it was so short. We are definitely hooked on DCL and just booked our third cruise. We also visited LEGOLAND last year; we loved it! I can't wait to hear about the WDW part, too.
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.
Yeah...famous last words from someone who hates spending money.
Quote:
Originally Posted by disny_luvr
I'm following along, too. I'm most excited to hear about your cruise. We went on our second Disney cruise last year and, OMG, it was amazing! Our first cruise was a short two-night cruise to nowhere out of NYC so even though it was technically our first Disney cruise I feel like I missed out on soooo much because it was so short. We are definitely hooked on DCL and just booked our third cruise. We also visited LEGOLAND last year; we loved it! I can't wait to hear about the WDW part, too.
I do love cruising. It will take me a bit to get to those days, but I am excited to write about it too. Short cruises.....are just too short!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Baloo
Of COURSE I'm signing in to read this! Wouldn't miss it for anything!
Yay!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
Looking forward to more!
Quote:
Originally Posted by patclairesmom
I'm on board, can't wait to hear more. Glad you talked Skip out of taking a Greyhound bus.
I am so glad too. I could just hear him griping about it for days after he arrived.
Today is the day! Claire, of course was very excited NOT to be going to school this day. Originally, I had thought I would take her to school for about 1 ½ hours and then pick her up, but the more I thought about it, I figured an extra hour of sleep for her would do her good. She goes to a Catholic school, and on Fridays the first thing they do is go to church, so really all she would be doing if she went was going to Mass.
We had a 2:30 flight out of Detroit, which is about an hour away from us. My sister, Gail and her youngest daughter Abby were taking us to the airport that day, as she has a van and could fit all of us, plus luggage. We want to arrive at the airport 2 hours ahead of time, which meant we would have to leave around 11 or so from Gail’s house. Claire and I loaded up the car and Skip drove us in and dropped us off at her house. He gave us kisses and was gone. He was on a mission to go to the store nearby that had roasted peanuts in a shell in large bags. Yeah…see how we compare? He only was willing to take us to Gail’s house so he could go stop off for shuck peanuts. LOL! Mom and Dad were leaving their car at Gail’s house. They were coming home sooner than I was and Gail would be picking them up from the airport.
We loaded Gail’s van and soon were on our way up. All of us excited. Abby, who is now 4, watched a movie the whole way up and couldn’t give 2 cents on what we were talking about, or where we were going.
We got dropped off and said our goodbyes to Gail. We went in and dropped our luggage off. We were flying Delta down as it was actually cheaper than Southwest and it was direct, which again, SW didn’t have when I stalked the site.
Then off to security. Claire is becoming a pro at this and it really is helpful that she at least has an idea what she is doing, though of course I still have to prompt her at times. Dad, however, will never become a pro at this, no matter how many times he goes through. Mom was specially selected to go through a special and quick line. Dad started to panic. I had to instruct him on what to do and where to go. All the while, reminding Claire what to do as well. And because I am with Claire, we go through the old scanners instead of the new ones, which Dad had to do. Too bad they wouldn’t consider him a child as well, it would’ve been easier on me. LOL! Once we got through, we gathered our things and Dad was just so worried about where Mom was. I told him we would find her eventually and to just grab his things and get his shoes on. Soon we found her and we headed off towards the gate, which of course was at the other end of the terminal. We needed a bathroom and planned to eat lunch before getting settled down at the gate. There was a fake monorail going towards our gate, but you could also walk. The line looked long and you had to go upstairs to catch it. We decided to walk and look for a bathroom and a place to get some food. Again, this did not fit in Dad’s plans….. Why are we walking? We are walking away from the monorail! Why are we going this way?.... You get the idea. You can only repeat “I am looking for a bathroom” so many times before you are ready to kill someone. We found bathrooms and a Coney Island type place and decided this would be perfect for lunch and went inside and took a seat. I was actually impressed that the prices were not too terribly inflated at all for an airport diner. I don’t remember what my parents got, but I know they both got a side salad and they didn’t have French dressing. This is another thing that sends my Dad into a tizzy. He only eats French dressing on a salad. He refuses to go to Olive Garden because of the salad…even though if you ask, they do have French dressing. Now I understand it to a degree…I am a fan of French dressing as well, but I am open to eating other kinds when need be, but I do prefer French in most cases. He did settle for Thousand Island and seemed somewhat happy then. I think my parents then shared a burger and fries as well. I went for the Patty Melt. I am a big fan of Patty Melts and this one did not disappoint.
Claire went for the…..hot dog…..big surprise there.
Claire’s meal came with fries and the waitress told me it came with quite a few, so instead of me ordering another side for myself, to just share with her, and that worked out great. Just enough for the 2 of us.
After our lunch we made our way to our gate and took a seat.
Claire, of course pulled out her kindle and I was on my phone, surfing facebook and emails.
As time got closer to our flight, I think I made some wise crack about going to the bathroom, something men don’t do till the flight is actually boarding,…..though I don’t remember how I said it, it was pretty funny and the older lady sitting across from us just started laughing and her husband said he had no comment on that.
We then chatted with them a bit and they were super nice. They were fairly newly married, and you could tell she was so in love with him, which was so cute. I guess he has been to Disney something like 18 times, and goes at least once yearly and she said when he started dating her he told her if she wasn’t into Disney, then it wasn’t going to work out between them! My kind of Man! We discussed where we all were staying and I believe they were heading to Key West later in their trip to stay at a Time share he has.
Soon it was time to board and we all lined up and guess what…..Dad had to use the bathroom. LOL. I think he had a nervous stomach as he used it twice on the plane as well before we even took off.
We settled in our seats with Claire in her window spot…a must for her, and I was in the middle, and Mom next to me and Dad across the aisle.
I took a picture outside. Claire went to close the shade and I told her it was not allowed, as if you HAVE to have the window seat, then you have to leave it open for all of us to enjoy from afar. LOL.
We took a selfie then, which I always look so bad in, but we were excited to be on our way!
We had the Delta 80’S video spiel about safety. This cracks me up.
It only played a little bit when it was turned off and the flight attendant told us they had to reopen the doors and that something needed to be fixed on the plane. Then the Captain came out to say that a strut had to be fixed and they were working on it right now. Um, yeah, I guess we want that!
Right outside of Claire’s window we could see the maintenance truck.
We had Claire as the look out to let us know when the guys got back in and drove away and she did her job and informed us and soon we were allowed to leave.
Luckily, we didn’t leave too late and soon were in the air.
Claire played on her kindle…..I must say these things are wonderful for trips…and I pulled out my laptop and worked on editing pictures from my Disneyland trip. This really makes the flight go by much faster. We also were served snacks and drinks, which is always a highlight for Claire.
Soon we landed at MCO …and the new strut held….which was a good thing…and were off our plane and making our way to restrooms and then baggage.
We found our baggage carousel and waited for the bags. Since they weren’t coming out fast, we headed outside and took in the fresh and warm Florida air. I think Claire had to use the restroom again so we made our way to those and used them again. And then I found it!!!!! If you read my DL TR you will know that I had found free tampons being in the dispensers at the DL hotels. I had posted a picture on my company’s facebook page and it became a big running joke. Since I had been to DL, a few other co-workers had traveled and anytime someone found free sanitary products, they would post it, or list places that did not have them.
I had just found out that that the handicapped restroom near baggage claims had a few free products as well…and of course I posted it.
Claire did not see what was so funny about this by the way. We got our bags…and we all double checked to be sure we had the right ones….for those that read my Nov. 2012 TR, you may remember my Dad pulled one wrong suitcase off and we didn’t notice it till the next day and it caused a lot of panic, but luckily we were able to make the exchange for the right one before cruising.
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
*Melissa
"I want to pay full price" 
~ Jenn 
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