A Pirate, a Princess and a Planner’s All New Disney Adventures -- Trip Report: COMPLETE!! 6/12 - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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All caught up!
Great day at the MK, how cool that you got to see the space shuttle and the CM gave you that special certificate!
Wonderful day at Epcot!
I love staying at the Epcot resorts, too... gotta love that International Gateway "shortcut"
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WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
After three long, hot park days in a row, we were all ready for some R&R—that’s why I’d made no plans whatsoever for our fifth day. Amazingly, for the first time in the trip I was able to sleep past 6 a.m. Then at 7 a.m. I hear an all too familiar, “beep beep beep beep!” DH had set the alarm. What????!!! He said he didn’t think I wanted to waste the day away! (umm, okay—the pool doesn’t even open until 9 a.m.!) In a second cruel twist of the day, our DME folder had already been slipped under the door. So mean to remind us that the trip is coming to and end!!!
DH took a run down to the BC Marketplace to grab some pastries for breakfast. He brought back a ginormous chocolate croissant that was soooo yummy! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
After breakfast DH and DD headed down to SAB. I hung back for a while and while I was lounging the phone rang. It was DH calling from the concierge desk to say that if we wanted it, they had both lunch and dinner openings at the Princess Storybook Dining in Norway. Wow—it was all booked when I’d called prior to the trip. I wasn’t 100% sold on going back to Epcot again so I told him to hold off so I could think about it.
Around 10 a.m. I headed down to SAB to meet the gang. DH and I decided we each had to try the big waterslide at least once before leaving. He went first then I did. It was fun! I need to work on my exit technique because I got a ton of water up my nose . DD was begging to go on – maybe in a few years!
We took her back to the small waterslide and she took more than a few turns on that. I love DD's Nemo swimmies...
We spent some time going back and forth about what, if anything, we should do that night. DH was gunning for the ADR at Norway because he wanted the convenience of walking to Epcot. I really wanted to go back to MK because it was open late that night and that’s the one park that left me wanting more this trip. It was a stalemate so we decided to go have lunch and see if an answer came to us.
Around noon tried our luck getting into Beaches n Cream for lunch. Score—only a 10 minute wait and we got a booth! DH ordered the steak sandwich and I got a chicken Caesar salad and we split. The steak sandwich was so good—I think I liked it better than the burger we’d had on the first day. For dessert DD got a Mickey sundae and DH and I split a hot fudge sundae with coffee and butter pecan ice cream.
Once lunch was done we decided to take a stroll around the Boardwalk to see if we could get DD to take a nap in her stroller. No such luck—we did the entire loop and she was wide-awake. Got a couple of nice photos though...
At this point we decided it’d probably be a disaster to go to a park for the evening if DD hadn’t napped so we decided to go to DTD instead (this had been in our original plan). But then the skies started to turn. A huge storm was coming through and even SAB was closed. The skies eventually opened up and at that point we decided to just stick around the hotel for the evening. Between the weather and our general lack of energy, it made sense.
We were able to snag a last minute ressie at the Cape May clambake for 7:30 p.m. This wasn’t my favorite meal of the trip, but I did enjoy those oreo bonbons! After dinner we went back to the room and started packing – end of trip depression was starting to set in…
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Sounds like a nice relaxing day at the resort Great pics! I agree with you on CMC, the oreo bonbons are the best part (I wish they had them at breakfast) Sorry it's all coming to an end
Boo hoo! I had a terrible pit in my stomach when the alarm went off—it was our last morning. We wanted to finish up packing before breakfast so we could go to the pool one last time before our DME pick-up at 1:40 p.m.
Once everything was packed we headed down to Cape May for our 8:50 a.m. breakfast ressie. There was a little bit of a wait so DH stopped by the front desk to ask for a late check out. They were nice enough to extend us until 1 p.m. Hooray! That’d give us a chance to freshen up after the pool.
DD was thrilled when we were seated and she saw the characters in their beach attire. It was a little bit of a wait for the characters to get to us (I think they were ending a rotation when we got there) so we took turns getting food. I really liked the yogurt parfait bar, and the Mickey waffles are always a favorite. Here’s DD admiring hers…
The character interaction here was fun! When Goofy came to visit us DD wanted to get his autograph. We'd already gotten it earlier in the trip and I only had one page left in her book, which we were saving for Minnie, so I opened it to the page he’d already signed and he drew a little sketch of himself on the page. I’m not sure it comes out well in this picture but it was so cool.
Minnie was a sweetie as always!
After breakfast we headed up to the room to get our swimsuits on for one last trip to SAB. This picture of DH and DD kind of captures my mood…the long, sad walk back through the lobby for one of the last times.
After a couple hours at the pool we headed back to the room to get changed and pull everything together to check in our luggage with RAC. DD spent our last half hour watching movies in the lobby while I got a few last pictures, like this one of the lobby and Art.
Our bus arrived right on time and as soon as we were moving DD conked out and stayed asleep until we got through security. Our flight home was on schedule and then it was back to reality.
Thank goodness we have this December trip to look forward to, it really takes the edge off the sadness of being back!
Thanks for reading my trip report! I had fun sharing it with all of you and I appreciate all your nice comments!
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Pixie Dust
I'm having fun writing it--it's like reliving the trip, which makes it less depressing that it's over!
Margaret
Love the pics 
He said he didn’t think I wanted to waste the day away! (umm, okay—the pool doesn’t even open until 9 a.m.!) In a second cruel twist of the day, our DME folder had already been slipped under the door. So mean to remind us that the trip is coming to and end!!!
. DD was begging to go on – maybe in a few years! 
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