Is It Time Already?! OKW and POR, November 2013 - Page 25 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
How great that Sophia was into meeting the characters! I have an almost 14 year old that refuses to meet characters. Luckily for me, I have a 10 and 9 year old who are willing to do character meets. So this girl will get to meet lots of characters, even some princesses.
What a fun time with Gaston and how great Sophia's suddenly into meet and greets!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
How great that Sophia was into meeting the characters! I have an almost 14 year old that refuses to meet characters. Luckily for me, I have a 10 and 9 year old who are willing to do character meets. So this girl will get to meet lots of characters, even some princesses.
I was thrilled that Sophia "became a kid" again on this trip. She's getting to the age when it's not cool to be like a kid, so I was glad she became my little girl again on this trip!
I'm hoping our next trip won't be too far away...I'm going to plan for meet and greets and character meals!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
We arrived at POR loaded down with "stuff" and couldn't wait to check in and go to our room. I gave Sophia the backpacks and food boxes and told her to take Evan over to the little seating area in the lobby. I walked up to check us in, and it was very easy as always. I told the CM I had a second set of Magic Bands since this was the second resort of our trip. She wasn't sure which one I should use, but she took the second/POR set to check and see if the reservation was on there, and it was. She gave me a map of the resort, and I asked her if it was close enough to walk to our room. She said of course! She gave me general directions to our building...out the door, to the right, over the bridge on our left, then left to our building. Ok, no problem! I called over to Sophia and Evan to bring our stuff, and we set off.
It was a beautiful night tonight. It was cool but not terribly cold, and there still wasn't any rain! The resort looked gorgeous, even in the dark. There was a river that ran through it, and the wooden bridge to cross over the river was so quaint and fit right in with the theming. Our room was in Oak Manor, and we found the sign for it. We couldn't quite tell if we were in the right part of the building, but the room numbers began with 92 on the second floor of the building, so that's where we started (I think our room was 9216, but don't quote me on that).
It turns out we entered the building at almost the polar opposite of where our room was, lol! Still, we were in the building, so we walked...turned right, then turned left, then walked through a middle walkway to the other side of the building, turned left, turned right, then turned left...and FINALLY found our room! I'm making it sound like it was far away when it really wasn't that bad, but I was expecting the walk to be a little shorter!
I had told the kids where we were staying, but I hadn't told them we were in a Royal room! At check-in, the CM gave us a paper scroll, so before we walked into our room, I had Sophia read it. It was a cute little letter from Tiana welcoming us to her Royal Guest Room.
I opened the door, and this is what we saw.
Then I heard a squeal, and then I saw Sophia running through the room looking at everything. She absolutely loved the room! She immediately said we had to stay in this room the next time we visit, lol!
And yes, our room did have a working fridge.
And then I had to show the kids the fireworks in bed!
With the lights on:
With the lights off:
Super cool!
I loved the table in the room. It looks like there's an open letter on it, but there isn't!
It's part of the table!
Well, at this point we were getting hungry. I figured we could take our leftovers to the food court and use the microwave to heat it up. Sophia, where's the food? Well, it turns out she left it in the seating area in the check-in lobby! Ugh, it had probably been a good 20 minutes since we left the lobby. I called over there to see if anyone by chance had found it, but no luck. I guess even if they had found it I'm not sure I would've still eaten it, but oh well.
I wasn't too thrilled about this turn of events because I was planning on not having to buy dinner for us (yes, we had spent our vacation budget and the trip wasn't over yet!). But, nothing to do but walk over to the food court and get us some dinner. We headed back out and saw the nightly movie set up in the courtyard of our building. People were sitting on beach blankets watching Tangled.
We stood there and watched for a few minutes, and then we continued on to the food court...after we took a quick peek in the gift shop!
The POR gift shop was much larger than the one at OKW. We knew we'd be back to shop!
At the food court, I decided on baked ziti.
Sophia decided on just breadsticks with sauce, and Evan went with his perennial favorite, pepperoni pizza. I had to wait about 10 minutes for Sophia's breadsticks. I guess there was a run on breadsticks or something, because I couldn't believe we had to wait that long...there were 3 other people standing there waiting...and hungry!
I didn't take a picture of Evan's pizza, but here's a picture of him back in the room eating it!
I also decided to buy a refillable mug. We were reasonably close to the food court, so I figured we'd make good use of it, even though it was already late in the day. It was Tuesday night, and we were leaving Thursday afternoon, the 28th. A sign on the wall said the days are based on calendar days. I confirmed with the CM how many days I needed to buy, telling him we were leaving on Thursday the 28th. He said 3 days. Ok, 3 days it is. I think it was $14.99.
I went to go fill up my mug. It said my mug was good until the 29th! What?! I paid an extra $3 bucks for a day I wouldn't use? Oh geez, I was too tired to argue the point. We'd just make sure we would drink at least $14.99 worth of coffee and soda before we left (which if you think about it is a LOT of coffee and soda!).
On the walk back to the room, we started to feel a few large sprinkles...just a few.
We ate our dinner, and then I decided I had to go back and get a refill, darn it! I walked all the way back to the food court and filled it up with my favorite mix...half Sprite and half fruit punch. The machine was actually able to figure out how much I had dispensed. I made my half and half concoction, took a big swig and then I went to top it off with a bit more punch, but it said I had to wait! I guess it knew I had filled up two halves! Bummer about the wait, but cool technology!
I think it was about a minute and a half until I could refill again, so what did I do? I downed that entire puppy so I could get a full refill! I was going to make this overpaid refillable mug worth it, so help me!
Mug full once again, I trekked back to my room. I felt a few more large sprinkles, but that was it. By this point, it was about 9:30pm. I guess we really lucked out with the rain!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Nice rooms at POR! I guess you have the themed rooms? I stayed in Oak Manor back in 2009. A bit of a walk, but not quite as bad as some resorts, depending on what section you're in.
Too bad, that Sophia left your dinner back in the lobby!
That's a lot to pay on the refillable mugs for the last day. I used to get these, when each resort had a different mug. Now I don't, since I pretty much just have coffee in the morning at the resort and I don't drink much soda. I'm usually having lunch outside the resort in one of the parks or one of the golf courses and dinner is always table service somewhere within Disney. In my ten trips to WDW, I've never had a non table service meal at dinner! I definitely, enjoy my meals!
__________________
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!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Boy, you had some great eats today! Sorry about misplacing the leftovers for dinner! Great pictures from MK! Glad Sophia got to meet Gaston! Love your room at POR!
The room looks so nice! Funny about the mug! I imagine you chugging the drink and getting your money's worth. LOL
We really loved the room. It was smaller than our studio at OKW, but it was plenty of room for the three of us. The resort was just gorgeous and so peaceful. We were there during the busiest times (the two days leading up to Thanksgiving) yet we it didn't feel super crowded at all.
That darn refillable mug made our time at the resort so funny. We had less than 48 hours to drink $14.99 worth of liquids!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Nice rooms at POR! I guess you have the themed rooms? I stayed in Oak Manor back in 2009. A bit of a walk, but not quite as bad as some resorts, depending on what section you're in.
Too bad, that Sophia left your dinner back in the lobby!
That's a lot to pay on the refillable mugs for the last day. I used to get these, when each resort had a different mug. Now I don't, since I pretty much just have coffee in the morning at the resort and I don't drink much soda. I'm usually having lunch outside the resort in one of the parks or one of the golf courses and dinner is always table service somewhere within Disney. In my ten trips to WDW, I've never had a non table service meal at dinner! I definitely, enjoy my meals!
It was a "special" Royal Room costing a little bit more than the standard room. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the money, but seeing those kids running around the room in aw made it so worth it!
We bought the mug around 9pm on Tuesday night, and we were leaving the resort around 2pm Thursday afternoon, so we had less than 48 hours to use it...but it did span 3 calendar days. I guess somebody didn't tell the computer, because it gave us 4 calendar days (but 72 hours from the time we bought it!). Anyhow, I just wanted to make sure we got our money's worth. I wanted a mug as a souvenir anyway, so I should've just bought a length of stay mug at OKW...although we would've hardly gotten any use out of it at OKW.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
I love the Royal Room! Glad it was hit with Sophia!
It was a huge hit! Even Evan got into the spirit and was trying to name all the princesses.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Boy, you had some great eats today! Sorry about misplacing the leftovers for dinner! Great pictures from MK! Glad Sophia got to meet Gaston! Love your room at POR!
We did have some great eats! We had enough food for all three of us to eat dinner! We had two half sandwiches and almost an entire order of pumpkin pancakes! What bugged me the most was that we had lugged that food around all day! What a pain! LOL!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
The royal room looks gorgeous. I'm so glad you decided to extend the trip and got a couple of nights there, especially after the somewhat disappointing stay at OKW. Wonderful that both kids really appreciated the extra theming in the room! What a shame you didn't get to eat the food you'd carried around and stored all day.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I am just signing in but, I have read your whole TR in 2 days! I love the Royal Rooms too! We stayed in one last year. Looks like you all had a magical time!
The royal room looks gorgeous. I'm so glad you decided to extend the trip and got a couple of nights there, especially after the somewhat disappointing stay at OKW. Wonderful that both kids really appreciated the extra theming in the room! What a shame you didn't get to eat the food you'd carried around and stored all day.
I think it will become a family tradition for us to resort hop at WDW! I kind of like it that way!
The only thing that wasn't great about OKW for us was our luck with the noise. The room itself was great, and the resort looked really nice. I would stay there again, but next time I will be extremely careful about room location (which of course isn't guaranteed except for the expensive ones near HH!).
The leftovers...I'm still slightly mad that we lugged that food around and never got to enjoy it! And I hardly ate any of those pumpkin pancakes! I literally had been looking forward ALL DAY to having them for dinner that night!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
The room looks absolutely beautiful - I'm not surprised Sophia said you have to stay in one of these again.
I really wish we could've stayed an extra night at POR. It was such a beautiful resort. I wish we could've taken a little more time to explore. On one of the days, I came across a horse drawn carriage going through the resort...I had seen the signs for it but there wasn't any time when we could've done it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
I got behind and dont' know where to start!
Kona and BOG looked delish!
Glad you switch over to POR was easy. Glad Sophia loved the Royal Room too!
Welcome back! I've had so much fun with this TR!
Quote:
Originally Posted by llgmommy2
I am just signing in but, I have read your whole TR in 2 days! I love the Royal Rooms too! We stayed in one last year. Looks like you all had a magical time!
Welcome aboard! We had a really great vacation! I'd really like to try different resorts each time, but POR was one of those I wouldn't mind going back to sooner rather than later!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
What a great day at the MK! You all look like you are having so much fun in your pictures.
I forgot you were staying in a Royal Room at POR, I'm so glad it was such a hit with Sophia! I had heard that they got rid of the full comforters in the rooms and replaced them with a runner, but I hadn't seen any pics of that. I kind of like it, the white blankets really brightens up the room, those old comforters were really dark.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
I stayed in Oak Manor back in 2009. A bit of a walk, but not quite as bad as some resorts, depending on what section you're in.
I definitely, enjoy my meals! 
Liz 
Linear Mode
