National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! PRE-TRIP AND DURING TRIP REPORT COMPLETED - Page 10 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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
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Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
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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.
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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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All caught up, and just in time! You're departure date is fast approaching! I love the way your mind works, Cheryl. Always trying to squeeze in just one more thing to see - even if it is hundreds of miles away. Love it! I'm so glad the flights finally worked out for you. BTW, what are your plans while in Chicago? Any meets.....?????
FYI, when Club Quarters started out it was strictly geared towards busniness travellers. It was a "club" hotel for companies to join which provided just the amenities business travellers needed and nothing else. (no pool, no bar, usually no fine dining restaurants, ((ie, extra hotel expenses)) etc..) I used to book them in New York, Boston, and Chicago back in my corporate travel agent days. Since then (2001-ish), they must be hard-up for more income as they've opened up to the general public. I think they've added more amenities since then as well (most of my corporate travelers did not want to stay there since they didn't have a bar.... ) I saw the one in NY in 2000 and it was very basic, yet very nice. I don't think you'll be terribly disappointed!
Thanks for the background on them.
And as for meets, well.... see what Heather posted below!
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I have a scene in my mind of you sitting at a rather large table with what looks like a jigsaw puzzle. At close glance, it's your travel plans. There you are, putting it all together, piece by piece.
Once finished will you glue it together and frame it?? After all that work, you should!
I have a scene in my mind of you sitting at a rather large table with what looks like a jigsaw puzzle. At close glance, it's your travel plans. There you are, putting it all together, piece by piece.
Once finished will you glue it together and frame it?? After all that work, you should!
Our Alaska trip was the most difficult to pack for also; I can't imagine packing for that plus all the other traveling you will be doing in one go.....
And I was also suprised to see the Queen on Canada money.... My kids and I were so interested in that set-up we googled about the common wealth and all that; I'm still not sure we completely understand it
Our Alaska trip was the most difficult to pack for also; I can't imagine packing for that plus all the other traveling you will be doing in one go.....
And I was also suprised to see the Queen on Canada money.... My kids and I were so interested in that set-up we googled about the common wealth and all that; I'm still not sure we completely understand it
Fortunately we do - although I can understand it can be a bit of an odd concept. The Commonwealth Games, a bit like the Olympics, but for Commonwealth countries, are well worth watching, as we still have a lot of good sporting nations in the Olympics, including ourselves, Canada, Australia and Jamaica.
Pre-trip report – part eight: the last couple of weeks’ planning
Even this close to our vacation, we weren’t 100% done with our plans. I went to start printing out our daily plans at the beginning of August, only to realise that there were some gaps that needed filling in. Mainly, these revolved around where on earth we’d be having breakfast, lunch and dinner on some of our days. Now, I don’t know about you, but I find it very reassuring whenever I’m at WDW, as that’s all taken care of for me. When I’m going to an unfamiliar place, it’s a very different story.
I didn’t want to be constrained by our plans, but equally, I wanted to have an idea of where was good to try in each area we visited. TripAdvisor became a very good friend during this process, quickly showing me which restaurants were highly rated and which weren’t, allowing me to draw up a shortlist for our stops along the way. It was also handy, as I found out, while doing this, that there’s nowhere to eat in Arches National Park, something quite critical to know beforehand, so we would have to find some food that morning and take it with us. Equally, I found that quite a few restaurants in Provo are closed on a Sunday night, and of course, that’s when we’d be visiting, so again, it was good to be aware of all of that and be able to plan accordingly.
Soon, most of the daily plans were printed off, signifying that they were finalised at long last. It seemed like it had taken a long time to get to this stage!
There were still some bits that were up in the area, and ironically, the last section of the trip to be sorted out was also the first, our time in Disneyland. I was in contact with Jeannie (Dlandmom2) over her trip to Hawai’i and we started to talk about meeting up at Disneyland. She also very kindly agreed to take delivery of my (rather humungous) Scrap Your Trip order that I wanted to put through. The original plan had been for Sue to bring it with her, but as she had a flight to deal with and weight constraints, somehow asking her to take 60 + pages of 12 x 12 paper didn’t seem very fair on her. : Jeannie stepped straight in and agreed to do it for me and we set up a meeting for the Sunday afternoon, just before we head off from Disneyland. It’ll give us a chance to explore Downtown Disney and see the changes that they’ve made at the Disneyland Hotel since our last visit.
On the Saturday, the plan was to get a World of Color dining package, so that we could then see the show that night. We wanted to go to the Wine Country Trattoria, having heard positive reviews of it on the boards, and our friends Mari, Raleigh, Carrie and Patrick would also be joining us. The plan was to get it for lunch, so that we’d have a snack for breakfast and a snack for dinner, but it didn’t work out that way. All Mari was able to get for us was 4:10pm, which was far from ideal, but as that was it, she rightly took it. Can I just say here very much to Jeannie for posting all those photos of the viewing area of World of Color? They were a great help and very much appreciated!
Mari then suggested doing Breakfast in the Park that morning. I have to be honest, I really had no idea what she was talking about. Surely most people who visit a park do breakfast in the park? Well, the clue was in the title, it’s a character meal with Minnie and Friends at the Plaza Inn, although I do have to admit that I had to go and look that one up, my knowledge of Disneyland not being what it should be. Well, at least that would be a new experience to try – and hopefully a fun one.
I think, at this point, I should also say something about our Disneyland tickets, as I just realised that, in all this planning talk, I never once mentioned those. We have a friend who works at our local Disney Store that we’ve got to know through many years of being regular visits there. She said to us about a year ago that, if ever we needed any tickets to Disney parks, to let her know, as she gets a set amount each year, and this year, she just wouldn’t be able to use them. She offered us some for our WDW trip in April, but we were set with Annual Passes. I did mention to her then that I might take her up on her kind offer for Disneyland... and we did.
We met up one night and she gave us our tickets, for one-day park passes for each of us for both days. We were absolutely delighted with that and immediately took her out to dinner to thank her for those, as that had just saved us a huge amount of money. She really is a great friend.
I will say here that I have no real idea how it’s going to work. I’m guessing that we go to the ticket booths outside the parks and they trade them up into “real” tickets. I have to be honest that does worry me a little bit, but then again, I’m never happy unless I have something to worry about. I keep panicking that someone will tell me they’re not valid or I shouldn’t have them, so think good thoughts that it’s all Ok.
I have to be honest that does worry me a little bit, but then again, I’m never happy unless I have something to worry about.
From one worry wart to another, I completely understand, but doesn't it usually all work out in the end? We had breakfast at the Plaza Inn when we went to Disneyland before our Tahiti honeymoon in 2004. At that time it was Pooh and Friends and the place was empty! I just couldn't believe it. We basically had the characters all to ourselves, and I couldn't imagine it ever being like that at Disney World.
Finally all caught up - what an adventure you have planned. So much time and effort went into this. I'm exhausted and I'm not even going - nor did I do the planning. You must be getting so excited because just a few more days to go. I must admit I'm jealous and only slightly miffed. I'd love to do a west coast adventure - but when are you planning an east coast one. There is lots of PP on this side of the US and we'd love to have you.
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Finally all caught up - what an adventure you have planned. So much time and effort went into this. I'm exhausted and I'm not even going - nor did I do the planning. You must be getting so excited because just a few more days to go. I must admit I'm jealous and only slightly miffed. I'd love to do a west coast adventure - but when are you planning an east coast one. There is lots of PP on this side of the US and we'd love to have you.
One day, one day... in fairness, we have seen a fair bit of the east coast already - Savannah, Charleston, DC, New York, Philadelphia, Boston....
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) I saw the one in NY in 2000 and it was very basic, yet very nice. I don't think you'll be terribly disappointed!
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What a great idea! 
so again, it was good to be aware of all of that and be able to plan accordingly. 
I was in contact with Jeannie (Dlandmom2) over her trip to Hawai’i and we started to talk about meeting up at Disneyland. She also very kindly agreed to take delivery of my (rather humungous) Scrap Your Trip order that I wanted to put through. The original plan had been for Sue to bring it with her, but as she had a flight to deal with and weight constraints, somehow asking her to take 60 + pages of 12 x 12 paper didn’t seem very fair on her. 
: Jeannie stepped straight in and agreed to do it for me 
and we set up a meeting for the Sunday afternoon, just before we head off from Disneyland. It’ll give us a chance to explore Downtown Disney and see the changes that they’ve made at the Disneyland Hotel since our last visit. 
Well, at least that would be a new experience to try – and hopefully a fun one. 
We had breakfast at the Plaza Inn when we went to Disneyland before our Tahiti honeymoon in 2004. At that time it was Pooh and Friends and the place was empty! 
I just couldn't believe it. We basically had the characters all to ourselves, and I couldn't imagine it ever being like that at Disney World.
Holly: 
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