Rides, Rainclouds and mishaps....Disney Style - Page 18 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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I am finally all caught up. I loved seeing pictures of my beloved Richmond. We just moved from there to TX. I miss it.
I am so sorry about Gertie. How sad. I am so glad you made it safely home, though. Wow! You sure had a lot of factors to get through. But, all in all, it sounds like y'all had a fantastic trip.
I'm glad you recognized it Laura. I had to look at the time stamp to figure out where it was. Thanks though for your comments. We did have a wonderful trip. There were so many fun things that happened that it almost seems hard to believe that all that other stuff happened too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diz
What an adventure you guys had! You are troopers! Your trip home proves that! Congratulations on holding it all together through all your storms!
I’m so happy you made it home safe and sound!
What a wonderful way to make this trip special for Abby! You went with the flow in order to make it happy for her! That's great parents! Very !
Thank you very much. We didn't only make it happy for her (obviously our main goal), but we also made it happy and memorable for ourselves at well. As much as I made plans and wrote itineraries, once I got there the only plan I vowed to keep was the one to have fun. Anything that didn't get done I told Lenny we'd do on the next trip if it's still around (we missed Pocohantas and unfortunately, that will close for good in a couple of weeks.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by triddle67
Darlene, I enjoyed traveling with you and your family. Thank you for sharing your adventure. I was sorry to hear you had a rough ending, but I was glad you made it home safe and sound.
Thanks a lot Trish. I'm very glad you enjoyed it, rough ending and all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by luvnwdwgal
Thanks for sharing your trip! So glad you made it home safe and sound, sorry about your bunny though.
Thanks Cindy. Gertie's at peace so I'm okay with it now.
What an adventure you guys had going home! You handled it very well...I think I would have been going crazy with that long of a drive ahead of me
Truthfully the drive wasn't all that bad. My only other alternative would have been to wait until the train ran again (which I think didn't happen until Friday or Saturday), but by doing that, it would have cost me a lot more than my original train fare. Filling up the gas tank and staying in an extra hotel I didn't plan on actually cost me less than my train fare.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ariel14
Great trip Darlene! I really enjoyed reading your TR!
Monday - Sunny and hot
Tuesday - Cloudy with a few sprinkles
Wednesday - Cloudy and windy, finally rained about 11 PM
Thursday - cloudy and rainy until early afternoon then cloudy and dry
Friday - Cloudy most of the day but it remained dry
Saturday - Dark clouds and big raindrops in the AM, a little more rain in the afternoon
Sunday - cloudy in the AM but the sun came out in the afternoon and made it extremely hot
Monday - partly cloudy again, it poured several times that afternoon
Tuesday - sprinkled a little, then started pouring, then by the time we hit Jacksonville, it was only cloudy. It was sunny in South Carolina by the time we got to the hotel
PICTURES
Digital taken by me and Lenny that were kept: 1338
Photopass photos: 124
PRESSED COINS
Pressed pennies: 141 (mom bought a few on her trip though)
Pressed quarters: 29
DINING PLAN APPROXIMATIONS
Dining plan cost 688
Dining plan paid 888
Total savings 200
MEALS
Monday - Chef Mickey’s dinner at 5 PM.
Character interaction: wonderful
Food: very enjoyable
Buffet lines: very reasonable / kept moving
Final thoughts: Very happy with meal and would definitely do again. It definitely lived up to all the positive things I’d read about it
Tuesday - Crystal Palace lunch at 11:30 AM.
Character Interaction: wonderful
Food: very enjoyable but could have eaten more
Buffet lines; very slow and long. Very discouraging - we didn’t want to get in line as there was no gaps to grab what you wanted, including the plates, and then get back to the table in time for the characters
Final thoughts: I would certainly try it again. It could have been an off day with the buffet lines
Wednesday - Hoop Dee Doo Dinner at 5 PM.
Entertainment: Enjoyable
Food: very enjoyable
Final thoughts: I can pay less and get more next door at Trails End buffet. This wasn’t enjoyable enough to repeat IMO
Thursday - Akershus lunch at 11:20
Character interaction: Good - could have been better but lunch was very busy
Food: Pleasantly surprised. Enough to chose from that we didn’t leave hungry
Buffet line: Never overly large and kept moving
Final thoughts: Enjoyable enough that if Abby wants to see the Princesses again I would return
Friday - 1900 Park Fare Breakfast at 11:10
Characters interaction: wonderful
Food: Typical breakfast stuff
Buffet line: kept moving steadily - gaps to grab what you wanted
Final Thoughts: Would much prefer a lunch meal instead as I don’t care for breakfast foods but I
would do it again if Abby HAS to see Alice or Mary.
Saturday - Whispering Canyon Café lunch at 11:30
Interaction: none on our waiters part but he didn’t feel well (see TR)
Food: very enjoyable
Final thoughts: Even though we didn’t get any kind of interaction, the food itself was very enjoyable and worth returning for
Saturday - 50’s Prime Time dinner at 6:20
Interaction: none
Food: enjoyable
Final thoughts: I don’t dislike here or the food, but it’s not on my must do list (I’ve done it 3 times). We went, Lenny experienced the atmosphere and we’re happy. We’ll probably pick someplace else next time.
Sunday - Tony’s Town Square lucnh at 11:35
Food: okay (was much better 2 years ago)
Final thoughts: My overall experience (food and server) was much better 2 years ago. We’ve done this twice. I don’t think I’d do it a third time.
Monday - 1900 Park Fare dinner at 4:30
Character Interaction: Wonderful, but the sisters were better than Cindy and the Prince
Food: Very enjoyable this time
Buffet lines: kept moving steadily but with enough gaps to grab what you want
Final thoughts: Not the best experience 2 years ago so I had my reservations before going. This year was such a different (and much better) experience that not only am I glad I went, but I would also go to it again.
OVERALL
We had a great time and can’t wait to repeat it. Lenny actually asked me last night when we can go back. Mr I don’t want to go from 2 years ago is now Mr. I can’t wait to go back. I can’t wait either. Surprisingly (actually not that surprising given Abby’s Autism), Abby has only asked once about going back. She asked when we left if we could go back someday and I told her we would, but she hasn’t mentioned it since. But despite all our mishaps, it was a really great vacation and it will be repeated. It’s just now a matter of when we’ll have enough saved up for it.
Thank you everyone who read my TR. I’m glad you all enjoyed it and hope that some of what we did will help others in their planning or with questions that might come to mind.
Before my last trip I had to put one of my cat's down. It's never easy no matter what.
Glad you made it home without to much problems.
I know someone who ended up losing a day at disney this week because Amtrak cancelled his train on Saturday and he ended up taking one on Sunday.
He's also making the best of it.
Thank you, and you're right - it's never easy. Whether you've had them a few months or several years, it hurts just the same.
When the train cancels on you, that's all you can do is make the best of it. It's the price you have to pay when you rely on transportion provided by others such as planes and trains. We were lucky though in that we also had our own transportation with us and didn't have to rely entirely on the train.
When the train cancels on you, that's all you can do is make the best of it. It's the price you have to pay when you rely on transportion provided by others such as planes and trains. We were lucky though in that we also had our own transportation with us and didn't have to rely entirely on the train.
It's also good you found out ahead of time instead of showing up and expecting to be able to ride and then having to figure out the rest of your travel.
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I finally got caught up and now its over . Great trip report. You had a lot of mishaps but you kept your sunny outlook. Way to go. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us and the pictures were awesome.
Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us Darlene!!! I'm so glad that you had a good time, despite your troubles. You have one of the most positive attitudes and it really is inspiring!!
About This Page: 
Laura. I had to look at the time stamp to figure out where it was. Thanks though for your comments. We did have a wonderful trip. There were so many fun things that happened that it almost seems hard to believe that all that other stuff happened too.
You are troopers! Your trip home proves that! Congratulations on holding it all together through all your storms!
What a wonderful way to make this trip special for Abby! You went with the flow in order to make it happy for her! That's great parents! Very 
!
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. Great trip report. You had a lot of mishaps but you kept your sunny outlook. Way to go. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us and the pictures were awesome.
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