A Festival, Flowers, Friends, & The Fab Four - Adventures both old & new - UPDATED 4/25 - Page 13 - 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
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.
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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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Yeah! Melissa's back! Sounds like a rough start for you Melissa. It's definitely a different kind of trip when traveling with friends. Especially when they don't work on the same schedule that you're use to. Too bad the CM at the front desk of POR ruined your surprises. Hope things get better.
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I feel I should begin this TR with a few disclaimers....
A) If at any time I sound ugly or bitter....it was for good reason
B) If you're a smoker, please don't take any offense to any ugly comments I make about smoke breaks...
C) We had a million times better trip with T & K than we did with this crew.... (T & K = the inlaws if you didn't read my last TR)
SO, now that all that is out of the way, I guess we'll begin.
Sunday, March 23 - departure day
We had packed everything up the night before so this morning Andy got up early this morning to run to the store to pick up a few last minute necessities. When he got back I finally got up to start getting ready and spotted a cute little Peter Rabbit chocolate bunny sticking up out of one of the bags of luggage. A nice little Easter surprise from Andy
We got all ready and got everything packed up in the car and were headed out by 9:30am on our way to my grandmothers for Easter lunch with my parents and my grandmother. No way out of this Can't disappoint the moms...
So after a 2 1/2 hour drive we were there. Lunch was fab as it usually is when it's prepared by my Memee and my mama We both ate too much but that's what you're supposed to do when you eat at Memee's.
We left them around 3 and headed out to meet Kevin and Lori at their house b/c their house was on the way. Just a few minutes at their house and we were on our way.....about 200 feet down the road before we had to pull over while they turned around to go back....they forgot their vouchers and were insistent on getting them. (I mean really, who forgets their frickkin' WDW packet?????? )
Finally we were on our way, for real this time...
Andy wanted to indicate that we had a 5 hour drive ahead of us....
We had to make a couple pit stops along the way... which I don't normally do. I hate stopping. I just want to get where I'm going and spend the least amount of time in the car possible. Andy was right with his "monkey in a cage" comment...
See what I mean??? And I know you're drooling over my travel attire Andy told me I looked like a hobo.
We arrived in Brunswick around 8:30ish and found our motel. Across the street was the GOASIS gas station which was like the megamall of gas stations. They had a Subway, Burger King, and coffeehouse all inside. And people were just hanging out like they would at a coffeehouse. We made note to definitely remember the GOASIS for furthur trips We all grabbed something to eat to take over to our room, got checked in and we all went to our room to eat.
Audrey enjoyed her chicken nuggets....
I told her to freeze so I could take her picture.....
She took me quite literally
And this next picture shows just how excited she was about where she was going the next day...
Kevin, Lori, and Audrey headed off to their room for the night and after a quick bath I hopped into bed as well. Andy had found Monsters Inc. on the Disney Channel and it was like a sign (That is his favorite movie) So we layed there and watched it and then went to bed afterwards. I woke up at 3:30 all ready and raring to go...but I still had about 3 1/2 hours of sleep time left. I woke up every 1/2 hour after that hoping it was time to get up and go........until finally it was! Andy came out of the shower with some crazy styled wet hair and asked me what I thought it looked like. My response "Bozo the clown....or maybe Ace Ventura"..... not the answer he was looking for...apparently he was going for the "Wolverine" 'do. Oookay.... I love ya, but Hugh Jackman you're not! We got a good laugh out of it though
Now I had told them that we wanted to leave between 8 and 8:30am.... so around 8 we called them and told them we were heading downstairs to grab breakfast and we'd meet them there, ready to go. When did they get downstairs? 8:30am....pushing it right to the limit....
But it was okay b/c we were still on schedule and getting ready to be on our way!
We all pulled over to the GOASIS to fill up and we were on our way!
Coming up in next post: Arriving through those fabulous WDW gates!
So 3 episodes of Lost and a round of the alphabet game later we were exiting off of I-4 and then it was through the magical gates!!
A few seconds later we were being welcomed home at the POFQ
The guard at the gate got a good laugh out of my cheer of excitement when he said "Welcome home" I just that!!!
We all headed over to check in. Right as we got out of the car a woman walked up to us and was like "Hey Melissa and Andy" Totally caught me off guard b/c I didn't recognize her so I wasn't sure who she was. It was Mom2of2 (and I apologize I can't remember your actual name ) She told us she was from Gifts of a Lifetime and had handled our photoshoot with Robyn. We told her that we had the best time doing that and wanted to do it again one day. It was crazy running into someone that knew us! I guess Kevin thought we were nuts b/c he was standing right there with us when it happened
On Saturday I had called Disney Florist to have a Pal Mickey delievered to Audrey. The florist said they'd have it so that it would be waiting for her when they checked in. Well, we checked in, and no package..... We were told it was at Riverside waiting to be put in the room. I explained that we arranged for it to be waiting at check in. Apparently all this info was too much for her b/c she just kept acting all confused and then ruined Andy's surprise b/c he had apparently ordered something as well and was having it delievered to the room and she spilled the beans on it in the process. She finally said that it would be here in about 5 minutes so since our room wasn't ready yet we decided to go park the cars and eat lunch at the foodcourt and then check back. Surprise and magic completely blown.....
While they all went to park the cars and unload some needed items Audrey and I walked around the pool. Audrey LOVES pools!
There'd be no swimming today as it was barely in the high 60's. Not the kind of weather I was hoping for in sunny Florida on my spring break. But hey, atleast it was sunny
We all met back up in the lobby area and headed over to eat lunch...
Andy and I shared the chicken wrap with pasta salad which was very yummy....
Andy took that pic....he's getting so good
Kevin had the same thing while Lori and Audrey shared the cheese quesadilla and some fruit.
After lunch we walked back over to see if the package had arrived. We were told it had and they went to get it. While we were waiting Audrey came in and showed us that a nice family had given her their Mickey balloon b/c they were leaving today and the girl couldn't take it with her. Awww, a nice little touch of Disney magic.
Those balloons are hard as rocks!! I'd never held one before but Andy and Kevin were clocking themselves in the head with it and let me tell ya, it's hard
So after some more confusion the woman brought out the wrong package which meant we had to wait 5 more minutes while they had the right one sent over... Audrey finally had her Pal Mickey.
We all headed out to the bus stop to catch the bus to Epcot.
We didn't have to wait too long before one showed up and we were sitting inside.... when we realized that we had left our APs in the car !!!!! They were clipped in my Passporter which I layed in the backseat in the chaos of checking in and forgot to grab again......so we hopped off the bus and told Kevin and Lori we'd meet them at Epcot. We grabbed a taxi and made it to Epcot a good 5 or 10 minutes before they did b/c they had to make all the stops at Riverside..... But atleast we realized what we'd done before we got all the way over there Way to go, I know!
Coming up: Star Struck Audrey!
...Right as we got out of the car a woman walked up to us and was like "Hey Melissa and Andy" Totally caught me off guard b/c I didn't recognize her so I wasn't sure who she was. It was Mom2of2 ( I guess Kevin thought we were nuts b/c he was standing right there with us when it happened
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Margaret
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Can't believe we get an update the day after your arrival!! I can't wait. . . . . .
Danny and I at Epcot 8/14/08
Too bad the CM at the front desk of POR ruined your surprises.
Hope things get better.
I hope you're feeling better soon 
We both ate too much but that's what you're supposed to do when you eat at Memee's. 
)
And I know you're drooling over my travel attire 
Andy told me I looked like a hobo.
Andy came out of the shower with some crazy styled wet hair and asked me what I thought it looked like. My response "Bozo the clown....or maybe Ace Ventura"..... not the answer he was looking for...apparently he was going for the "Wolverine" 'do. Oookay.... I love ya, but Hugh Jackman you're not! We got a good laugh out of it though 
that!!!
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