Four Days Off Christmas Edition Complete 1/13/11 - Page 15 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Sounds like another great day Heather! The CP must be a great event and really gets you in the Christmas mood. Too bad, you didn't have more photos of the event! I ate at Portobello back in May. I thought the food was quite good as was the service. But like you said it is quite dark in there.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Wonderful day! Love all the restaurant details and reviews. So glad that the room was up to par.
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Heather, I am so impressed by this TR (and you other solo trip). Your ability to organize and plan your trips is extraordinary. I am comtimplating a solo trip in 2011 and only hope I can have as great a trip as you have done this past year!
Hi everyone! I'm back after a very long work weekend. I closed New Year's Eve and then worked doubles New Years Day and today.
This update is going to be kind of short because I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't taken Keys to the Kingdom and you aren't allowed to take pictures backstage.
I got up before the sun was up, again and headed out to catch a bus to the MK. I didn't make park opening, as WDW changed many of the MK opening times to 8am and I wasn't going to get up and going that early--because I had a 9am tour.
On the bus I continued looking at reservations--still searching for a character breakfast! Miracle of miracles! I found a 7:20 reservation at Chef Mickey's for the next morning! I jumped on it and completely changed my plans. I was going to go to DHS all day on Wednesday and had a reservation at HBD and was planning on seeing Fantasmic. I decided to spend the day at MK instead. It required some planning. I started stalking a reservation at LTT. It wasn't to be found.
I walked through the gates and into an empty Main Street Bakery at about 8:15. I ordered a cinnamon roll and was handed an enormous roll! I didn't take a picture, but it was huge--I didn't think there was any way I was going to finish it, but at about 8:40 I was throwing my empty plate away!
I checked in to my Keys to the Kingdom tour at about 8:30 and I must have been the last to check in because they knew who I was! Everyone decided it was a good idea for a bathroom break before our tour guide met us. So we all headed out to the bathroom next to Town Hall.
When we got back our tour guide Jeff was waiting with headsets. We all got keyed in and ready to go. Jeff used to do Keys tours all the time, but now he does mostly VIP tours for celebrities and works the overnight shift--apparently there is one Guest Services staff member who stays over night in the MK with the cleaning crew and the folks doing overnight rehearsals. What a cool job that must be! Tour guides also have to keep current on their tours--if they go X number of days without doing a tour they have to be completely retrained. Jeff had to do a tour the day I went on it. However, he's been doing them for so long and usually does specialty tours, so I felt pretty good about being on his tour.
Jeff eats, sleeps and breathes Disney. His wife also works for Disney and they had a Disney wedding. On his days off--he goes to an Orlando theme park--he has APs for all of them, but spends most of his time at Disney--he can see Wishes from the front of his house! People like Jeff make me want to work in Guest Services for WDW!
We had a really great tour! I think there were only 8 of us and so there was lots of time for questions and discussions. I'm not going to tell you anything about the tour itself, because I highly advise that you take it if you haven't. We did get backdoored onto HM and got a personalized Jungle Boat tour with ride secrets instead of the usual spiel. The ulitildors are pretty neat, but I liked the information provided more than the "backstage" views. I ordered a book from Amazon on Jeff's advice--Bob Thomas (who wrote a Walt bio) also wrote a book about Roy and the building of the company!
We took our lunch break after HM at Columbia Harbor House. All the food was waiting for us when we arrived--identified by little name cards that had our Keys to the Kingdom pins on the inside. We had all ordered when we checked in. I had the Lighthouse Sandwich--hummus, broccoli slaw and tomatoes on whole grain bread. It came with my diet coke an a bag of Disney kettle chips. If you've been wondering the Disney chips are really good! My sandwich was awesome and I'll certainly be back to CHH to order it again, but I must confess I added a little mayo and a little of the honey mustard sauce from our personal fixins area. (The bread was a little dry--it might have helped if there was more dressing on the broccoli slaw.)
I have to share a small story. One of the women on the tour was a huge Mr. Toad ride fan, and during one of our stops she asked about its demise. Apparently ridership was waaaay down, even after the folks who were protesting started riding all the time. My Undiscovered Future World tour guide told me that there was a Dreamfinder T shirt available at Epcot and a Mr Toad T shirt at MK. I found the Dreamfinder T shirt at Epcot, so I asked Jeff where I could get the Mr Toad shirt. Apparently it sat on the racks for months at WDW and the only place it was available now was at the cast member discount store at MK. I jokingly asked Jeff if he could get me one . . . he looked at me very seriously and asked if I could come back to the MK on Friday. I sadly told him I'd be leaving on Thursday. He was off until Friday during the day. I thought it was really cool that he would have picked me up one if I had been around on Friday. I suppose the lack of interest in Mr Toad's Wild ride is highlighted by the fact that they couldn't sell a T shirt with Mr Toad on it.
When our tour ended Main Street was already packed with people waiting for the 3pm Christmas parade--at 2pm. So I walked most of the parade route looking for a spot--no luck--so I decided that I'd catch the parade the next day and be lined up early. I decided to head towards Fantasyland. I started walking up the path in between the Castle and LS. Wonder of wonders . . . there is an area with two little benches on the path . . . it was completely empty and had a perfect view of the bridge from the hub to LS. I took up residence. About 10 minutes later a family joined me on the other bench and along the rail, but they wisely didn't encroach on my bench--a two seater that I had spread out on.
I did take some photos of the parade. They are in the next post!
Photos from the Christmas Parade from my secret bench:
The bridge before the parade
Something interesting I learned on KttK is that the Castle float is both Disney's oldest and most expensive parade float. They've had it since the 70s and use it in every single parade possible!
So granted it wasn't a great place to take pictures from because of the bridge, but it was really a great place to watch from! If you ever need a place to watch from and it seems like the whole route is full of people--head up the left hand side of the Castle!
I continued to stalk a dinner reservation at MK for the following night. I couldn't find one . . . I logged into my Disney web and brought up my reservations for the rest of the trip--trying to see if it was feasible to make my dinner reservation and get back to see Holiday Wishes. Guess what? I had made a Liberty Tree Tavern reservation when I was still planning on going to the MK on Wednesday. (I changed my plans when I got a Keys tour on Tuesday instead of Wednesday.) I had forgotten to cancel the reservation! Score! I knew then that Wednesday was going to be great--Chef Mickey's first thing in the AM and then LTT for dinner at 8! I canceled my reservation at HBD and decided to spend the whole day at Mk and skip the Studios altogether this trip!
Up next a last tour through Toon Town and changing a dinner reservation--again!!!
Thanks for the updates Heather. Sounds like you had a great CM for your Keys Tour in Jeff. I took this a couple of years ago and loved it. Seems pretty much the same as mine. I won't spill the details either. Love the parade photos!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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for him to offer to pick up the Mr.Toad shirt for you.
it! Wish I could be one of the tour guides, too! 
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