A 40th celebration to end the world! PHOTOS ADDED 1/1 - Page 15 - 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.
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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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The weather then can go either way unfortunately. We lucked out in 2010 and had absolutely beautiful cool weather the entire 11 days we were there at the beginning of October. It is the best time for us as there is a Holiday then and my son is out of school so we can make it a longer trip and he will not have as many days of missed school. Sadly they do not consider a Disney trip as an excuse to miss school so we can only take him out at 5 days for the most. Our school system is not as enlightened as other states.
Bring layers Cheryl! We've been nice and warm and sunny during the day, but the temps have been dipping down into the 50s at night for the past few weeks.
I can't wait to hear and see all the Christmas stuff at Disneyland! We are still waiting for our first trip there.
Well our next one will probably be 2015 around the time of our next Alaskan cruise for Mark's 50th (provided Disney continue to go there of course ) so maybe you can join us for that?
Bring layers Cheryl! We've been nice and warm and sunny during the day, but the temps have been dipping down into the 50s at night for the past few weeks.
Pah - the 50s? That's nothing - that's our daytime over here right now, so that'll be fairly pleasant!
No we will be bringing layers, but at least we're not looking at temperatures in the low 30s at night, which we've seen before...
Pre-trip report – part ten: and now for something a bit different!
By now, it was mid November, and thankfully with Accuweather’s new website, you no longer have to wait until 15 days before your vacation to start seeing your weather forecast! Now they have a weather forecast (of sorts) at 25 days out. I say “of sorts” because of course, it’s notoriously unreliable that far out (not that I’m saying the weather forecast a day before is necessarily reliable! ) and I know it can change dramatically. Of course, that’s exactly what happened, and I saw temperatures yo-yo up and down by as much as 20 degrees. It’s a very different thing to be packing for 60 degrees, as opposed to 80 degrees, so it wasn’t much use, but heck, it was still nice to see it, because it meant our trip was getting close!
It was at around this point that I had a flash of genius (sit down, it doesn’t happen very often! ). When you’ve written as many pre-trip reports as I have (there have been just one or two… ), you start to think about doing something a bit different – and I suddenly came up with an idea! We were down to the three weeks before our trip, so why not actually write a diary of my thoughts, and what Disney planning I did just before we left… so that’s what I’m going to do…
Thursday 15 November – t minus 21 days
The park hours are out for our penultimate day at Disneyland. Big surprise, they’re exactly the same as the previous few days, with exactly the same times for the parades and fireworks. If only Walt Disney World could be this simple…
Let’s sit down, and have a look at Accuweather. Ah, thank goodness, there are some nice temperatures showing in the 70s, with sunshine. That’s going to be a heck of a lot better than it’ll be over here at that time of the year.
Time for a quick visit to the DVC Member website… no luck so far with the waitlist requests, but I double check on the site manually just to be sure… I don’t want to entirely trust it to them. Ok, so they were right – there’s no availability.
Time for more disappointment now – let’s see whether there are any openings for Be Our Guest. Big surprise, there aren’t, but I am shocked to see openings for the night of 6 December at Tony’s and Liberty Tree Tavern for the first time since I started checking out Be Our Guest a couple of months ago. Up until now, with Disney unveiling all their big products, like the Fantasyland expansion, on that day, I was starting to think maybe there was a media event, there was so little availability, but obviously not…
Friday 16 November – t minus 20 days
A quick check of the Disneyland website shows that our final day there has exactly the same park hours as the previous few days. I know that will shock you all, given my comments yesterday, and it wasn’t a huge surprise for me…
Now that I had those hours for the final day, I made up my mind about what I wanted to do for breakfast on that day. We’d really enjoyed Breakfast with Minnie and Friends on our last trip, so why not just go back there? I did contemplate the PCH Grill, but it was no contest. I sent an email off, and duly got back the time I wanted. It’s been such a good system, and an absolute bonus to those of us living outside the US. I’m so glad they introduced it.
There’s the first sighting of rain in the Accuweather forecast, but you know what? We’re talking three weeks out still. I’m sure that’ll change soon – and after all, how often do I say to others on the boards “don’t worry about the rain, there’s still plenty to do at Disney, and it’ll help to thin the crowds out.”
No progress on either the DVC member website or Be Our Guest reservations…
Saturday 17 November – t minus 19 days
Well, now we’re into our teens I feel like I can put on the music to IllumiNations without bursting into tears. Ok, so I managed to get most of the way through listening to that wonderful music that always transports me back to my favourite thing in Walt Disney World without getting a tear in my eye. I was so hoping to make it all the way through, but you know what? These were happy tears, because we’d be back home soon!
There were no more hours to look up for Disneyland, but I was still on the prowl for Be Our Guest reservations with no joy (especially after reading some reviews of the lunch on All Ears and seeing the amazing interior of this place - if nothing else, we’ll definitely be going in there to see it for ourselves!). However, there was some movement on the DVC reservations, although alas, not enough to move anything around, but I did notice that for Bay Lake Tower, which we’re only at for two nights, there was one night showing availability for a one-bedroom villa with a theme park view. Now if only that other night could become available and I could snag it. Oh well, I’ll just have to keep trying…
I realised as I went through my spreadsheet of what we’d be doing when that I had a lot of bits that were a bit vague, with options like SeaWorld, Aquatica, and book research. But what book research? I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t actually worked out what research I needed to do. Ok, better do that then – after all, we don’t get out to Florida that often for me to do research first hand, and I need to have a good idea of everything I need to do… After a couple of hours, I did have a better idea.
I had a look through our first aid kit and checked what we had in there, what we needed to add in there and what we needed to buy, so that’s another little job ticked off the list…
Sunday 18 November – t minus 18 days
Today it was very much a Disney morning, as we headed to Canterbury to meet up with Hazel (thomhazel on the boards) and her daughter Gemma. We met for brunch at Café Rouge, a French restaurant, which is ironic, as they currently live in France. It was a very pleasant meal, with Hazel and Gemma both getting omelettes, Mark getting a full English breakfast (now how’s that for ironic? ) and me getting the smoked salmon on brioche, complete with eggs and hollandaise sauce. A rare treat for me for breakfast!
Eventually after an hour or so chatting away, we had to say our goodbyes, but before we did, I got the waitress to get a photo of us altogether.
It had been such a fun morning, and we promised to do it again the next time they’re over in Kent, hopefully sometime early in the new year.
There’s still only one of the two nights showing up for a theme park view, one-bedroom villa at Bay Lake Tower, and as for Be Our Guest, who knows? Every time I ask the Disney website to search for ADRs online, it stubbornly looks at me, thinks a bit and then reverts to the same page I was on to begin with. Ok…. So I guess it’s not working too well today then…
Monday 19 November – t minus 17 days
Today was the day I took decisive action (finally! – now there’s a contradiction in terms if ever I heard one! ) and decided to change around our waitlist requests for the DVC. As there was still one night showing up for a one-bedroom villa with a theme park view at Bay Lake Tower, I decided to waitlist the two nights. At least then if the other night showed up, I wouldn’t have to worry, we’d (hopefully, depending on how many other people are waitlisted right now!) would get it. When I looked at the points charts, I was staggered to discover for two nights, that would be an extra 22 points. Wow – just for a view? Good grief! Still, if it came through, it would mean the vast majority of our additional points would be used up, so that worked for us.
I had another look at ADRs, as the Disney site decided it would work today and as I did, I couldn’t help but think, why don’t Disney do a similar waitlist process? You could do it exactly the same as the DVC – no more than two waitlists, to be fair to everyone, but it would mean, instead of constant checking for something, if it became free, the system would automatically assign it to you. Now there’s an idea….
I also spent a bit of time today looking to see what we’d already put in the suitcase (quite a bit, but not everything I expected, so I quickly rectified that! ) and printing off the packing list… not long now!
Well it's 20 here with white stuff falling down. But I remember it feeling quite cool at WDW in the 50's. Just need to decide how thick that last layer will be
I like the new blog-style pre-TR! Sorry about Be Our Guest. If push comes to shove, you could always go there early and see if they have any cancellations for that day?
For some reason, I always particularly look forward to your food pictures. Is that weird?
Just read through your PTR...whew! I'm exhausted! I do like seeing your process, especially when planning for a trip in a foreign country. Not super happy that you're going to more national parks...your last trip to Yellowstone had our family going on a similar tour in August because I loved your trip so much! Looking forward to hearing about your trip!
Finally all caught up! I have to remember to not stay away for so long next time.
I'm looking forward to your review of the cruise on Castaway Cay. We'll be taking our first Disney cruise next year and that sounds interesting.
I can't believe all the stuff you're doing and have to keep track of. You probably put Karen's BA$$ to shame with all that information!
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) so maybe you can join us for that?
), you start to think about doing something a bit different – and I suddenly came up with an idea! We were down to the three weeks before our trip, so why not actually write a diary of my thoughts, and what Disney planning I did just before we left… so that’s what I’m going to do… 
- if nothing else, we’ll definitely be going in there to see it for ourselves!). However, there was some movement on the DVC reservations, although alas, not enough to move anything around, but I did notice that for Bay Lake Tower, which we’re only at for two nights, there was one night showing availability for a one-bedroom villa with a theme park view. Now if only that other night could become available and I could snag it. Oh well, I’ll just have to keep trying… 
Still, if it came through, it would mean the vast majority of our additional points would be used up, so that worked for us. 
You could do it exactly the same as the DVC – no more than two waitlists, to be fair to everyone, but it would mean, instead of constant checking for something, if it became free, the system would automatically assign it to you. Now there’s an idea…. 
Tricia
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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