Our Very Merry Kindschi Christmas Vacation Trip Report - UPDATED 4/23 - COMPLETE!! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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Originally, we were planning on spending our second day at WDW at HS, but after our extra LONG day we decided to sleep in a little bit and head over to Epcot for the afternoon and evening. After sleeping in a for a little bit, we headed over to Epcot. Since we had ordered and received our MVMCP tickets in the mail, we had to stop at “will call” and pick up our PH for our trip. This was the first time having to do this because we normally order our tickets ahead of time and get them in the mail. No problems! We got our tickets and were on our way. Of course we had to get our picture taken with SE in the background!
After taking lots of pics around the entry plaza, and finding our Leave A Legacy tile, we headed over to The Land to get FP for Soarin’. We stopped on the way to see Chip and Dale! After picking up our FP, we stopped and got our free Disney Visa picture. This time we saw Mickey and Goofy. Goofy had a great time playing with all of us. He even pulled Marcus back for some extra special pictures. This is one of our favs:
We were long looking forward to enjoying our favorite desserts at the France pavilion and headed straight there after our Visa pic. We enjoyed our favorites which include Napoleon cake and the cream horn (that’s my name for it…I can never remember the real name!) and headed to UK pavilion for some fish and chips for lunch. Somehow, I was too preoccupied by eating to take any pics!
After stuffing our faces we decided to begin our tour of Christmas around the WS. We started in Canada and got a chance to see the story tellers from Canada, UK, France, and Morocco. We also got a chance to see the drummers in Japan and Santa himself at American Adventure. My favorite was Pere Noel. He was very entertaining. DH and BFF didn’t seem too thrilled with seeing all of the storytellers, but warmed up considerably to the idea after we saw the first one!
We stopped and watched some of CLP from the back of the amphitheatre. IMHO, I didn’t get what all the hype was about. Abigail Brislen was the speaker that night and she did great, and maybe you need to be seated closer to the action, but I wasn’t all that interested or intrigued. So, we headed over to the pavilion where we stopped to get some pictures of the gingerbread house inside and look for some hidden Mickeys. I found one on the chimney!
We then headed over to the China pavilion and enjoyed more food! What else does one do in WS!? We tried a new dish and it. All 3 of us fell in with the Beef Noodle Bowl. It was also cold that night, so a hot soup with noodles and beef really hit the spot! We also ordered some potstickers (my fav!) and egg rolls. By the time we were done eating dinner, our FP time at Soarin’ was up. Since DH suffers from motion sickness BFF and I headed over, while DH went back toward Morocco to watch Illuminations. Soarin’ is one of my all-time favorite rides, so I was ok missing Illuminations, but it worked out perfectly. When BFF and I got to Soarin’ there was NO line so we hopped right on and were still able to watch most of Illuminations from the entrance to WS. We positioned ourselves just behind the tree up on the ledge by the lighted archway and let DH come to us after Illuminations and headed out once he found us. Miraculously, he found us without fail!
All in all, we had a pretty relaxing day-which was exactly what we needed after our day on Friday! We decided to head back to the resort and get a good night’s sleep for a busy day tomorrow!
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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
What a nice day in Epcot! Looking forward the the DHS portion.
We really took our time and enjoyed the WS this time. We didn't rush around at all. It was very nice! Thanks for reading!
Quote:
Originally Posted by vfair
Your day sounds great! More please.
We had a wonderful day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DyanKJ130
Sounds like an absolutely wonderful day! We all of the storytellers. They were the highlight of our trip too!
They really were a lot of fun to listen to! for reading!
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsblady01
more please
Ok! Hope to be done with this TR soon!
Quote:
Originally Posted by TNTWheels
Were was the different Kris Kringles (Santa Clauses)? I like to fine them and listen to them.
They have different story tellers from each country around WS during the holiday season. They were a lot of fun to listen to!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
I just love reading Christmas TRs! The World is so magical then!
This was our first trip to WDW at Christmastime. We knew things would be pretty magical during this time of year! We really enjoyed it. Just wish it had been a little bit warmer. It was pretty cool our entire trip.
Well, so far, very few of my carefully laid plans were being followed…but, oh well! On with the vacation we marched! I was glad for the extra sleep-in time the first full day at WDW considering the day we had had getting to good ol’ Florida! By today I was raring to go (which is actually day 2 + one night…) for a long awaited rematch on TSMM with DH and BFF from our summer trip! So we were off to DHS as soon as we all rolled out of bed and got ready. First things first, we went and got FPs for TSMM and decided since the wait wasn’t too long, we would wait in line since our FP time was already out until 4:30! First time around, I rode with BFF (Marcus). Here are the results:
my score is on the right, BFF is on the left
After our rematch on TSMM we decided to stop for some lunch at The Commissary. We this place. I’ve read so many reports of dissatisfaction with it, but we love the food. DH got the Cuban, BFF got the curry bowl, and I had the Fish and Chips. After a yummy lunch we stopped by the Animation Court to see who we could find. We were very excited to see Bolt and his sidekick Mittens out for autographs and photos!
Then, we headed over ToT and RR. RR had a FP time during the Fantasmic show we wanted to see that night and it was a 120 min. wait! Yikes! (This surprised me, as RR usually has a shorter FP time and Standby time? Must’ve been a busy day!) So off we went to ToT to get FP. Well, we got a nice little surprise! ToT standby time was only 15 mins!!! So, of course we rode it…twice! Then decided to give our stomachs a break and got FP for it since our FP window was open from our TSMM FP earlier in the day. For some reason, my notes drop off considerably from this point on for the day. But I do know that we had to kill some time before BPB so we strolled around on Sunset Blvd., did some shopping and took some pics of the light post decorations. Then we headed over to find a spot for BPB.
After the fun and excitement of BPB we headed to TSMM for our second rematch. This time I rode with DH and BFF rode by himself (well, with some guy who wasn’t all that thrilled to have waited in line for 50 minutes with his family to go on “this dumb ride”!) Like I said before, my notes from the day dropped off after ToT part I, so I can’t recall what Marcus’ score was on TSMM part 2 , but I have photographic evidence of mine and DH’s scores…alas, I lost! I think DH was 1st, I was second, and BFF came in 3rd.
My score is on the left, DH's score is on the right
I was not too thrilled about losing to my DH, but there’s always next time. However, my sadness was short-lived as we decided where to eat dinner and to head over to get in line for Fantasmic! After eating dinner at Rosie’s/Toluca we started the LONG trek back to grab seats for my favorite show on Earth! We watched Fantasmic, which is always a treat, and then headed over to see what all the hubbub was with OSOL. We were in awe! Very ! What an amazing presentation! We loved the dancing lights and spent most of the remainder of the evening at HS looking up in the air instead of where we were walking. DH says it is the most dangerous attraction in all of WDW because no one is looking where they are going, but rather, up in the sky!
After leaving HS, we headed over to MK for a little more magic before we turned in for the night. We got there just in time to watch the stage show and see Spectro for the 2nd time on this trip. If DH had his way about it (and I surely wouldn’t argue!) he would watch Spectro every night we are there! Well, after a very full day, we left MK and headed back to our resort for the night. Tomorrow will bring another full day at AK and dinner at our favorite restaurant, Raglan Road! Hang in there-I'm almost done!
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