So you thought we canceled? (A Sept. PTR) - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
I know you're going to explaining about whether or not to get a reservation for Harmony Barber Shop, but I'm going to highly suggest getting one!
I remember you recommending it in your TR. I'm just iffy on it, because at this point, Bri really is a wiggly little girl who is completely incapable of sitting still for longer than just a minute or so. And she is also still not big on strangers. I'm kind of concerned she'd not sit still long enough to get even one snip. Also, what if her hair isn't long enough? Lol. Of course, she does have that one little long spot in the front...they could always just snip that, I suppose.
She'll be ten months old when we go. Is that too early for a first haircut?
Dining Plans and Park Itinerary...Plus Re-Introductions
I'm sorry that it's taken me just a little bit to get back to the report. I've been trying to finish up my TR for our trip last year. I've only got a couple of days left to write up for it though, so I think I'm safe to start focusing a bit more attention on this one.
Before I start sharing my plans again, I feel like I need to reintroduce the main cast members of our little journey to the World.
Me (Jessica, Jess, Jessie, Mama, Mommy) - Age 25.
My favorite Disney Characters are Tinkerbell, Belle, and Minnie Mouse...today. (Tinkerbell is consistently a favorite, but I find myself answering this question differently almost every time it's asked! Rupunzel and Tiana are big contenders for the top spot as well!)
My Husband (David, Dave, Dada, Daddy) - Also Age 25
His favorite Disney Characters are Goofy, Flynn Rider, and Gaston (He thinks Gaston is great villain, lol).
And, last, but definitely not least, our little star of the show:
Our Daughter (Briana, Bri, Bri-Bee, Little Love, etc etc) - Age...10 months at time of trip.
(Forgive the picture from a couple months ago, but I couldn't resist this adorable picture...spit on her chin and all, lol!)
Briana's favorite Disney character is hands down Minnie Mouse. She gets so excited when she sees Minnie. Her other favorite is Winnie the Pooh. She loves his red shirt, and his nose is very chewable, in her honest opinion.
So now you know who is going! Woot!
On to the plans!
David and I had to really work hard at paring down our dining wish list this year. As many of you know, we have gone for either ten days or two weeks for the last three or four years, so we have had a long list of restaurants to choose from, and always a wide variety of places we ended up being able to eat at. This was really nice, except now that we're only going for seven days, it kind of hurt to cut out some of our favorites.
Our original wish list had 20 restaurants. We managed to pare it down to 13, and then we really had trouble paring it down further to fit into our 7 day schedule! In fact, we really didn't manage it very well. We're paying for one of our sit down meals out of pocket, because we couldn't get it down to 7 places...we just had to keep the 8th one!
Here is what we ended up with, along with the dates and times of our reservations:
'Ohana - Sunday - 9/1/13 - 8:00PM
(We loved this restaurant when we tried it with Tracy and Chuck, so we just had to go back! We're hoping setting it for 8:00 will give us time to get there, since our flight arrives at 5:30. We'll have to take a cab, but that's okay.)
Be Our Guest Restaurant - Monday - 9/2/13 - 8:05PM (We had to try this one for obvious reasons - it's new, and it's Beauty and the Beast!!!)
Boma - Tuesday - 9/3/13 - 7:45PM (We were a little nervous about trying this last September, but we both loved the food and decided we had to get in there again!)
Coral Reef Restaurant - Wednesday - 9/4/13 - 1:30PM (We had tried this a couple years ago and enjoyed it. Our main decision to go back was the big tanks...Briana loves fish and water, so we're hoping she'll be entertained during dinner. Does anyone know if you can request a seat by the tanks?)
Rose and Crown - Thursday - 9/5/13 - 12:00PM (We decided to do the Rose and Crown instead of Raglan Road this year, because Raglan Road can be awful loud, and we weren't sure if that would be too much for Bri. We'll miss the bread pudding, but the toffee pudding is almost as good!)
'50's Prime Time Cafe - Friday - 9/6/13 - 5:00PM (We just love this one!)
1900 Park Faire - Saturday - 9/7/13 - 9:30AM (This has become our last morning tradition. David loves the restaurant and the feel of the hotel...I just know that someday he is going to ask to stay there...I won't be upset when that day comes!)
Noticeably absent from our list is Le Cellier. I don't remember our exact reasoning on this one, but I think it was something along the lines of: we have been every single year and we should skip it this year. Or maybe it was that we had to choose between that and Boma? Or it could be that it takes two credits even for lunch now...Hmmm. I don't know. Either way it'll be our first trip without it!
Our park itinerary is sort of based off of our ressies, so some of the parks will be pretty easy to figure out.
Sunday 9/1
Travel Day - No Parks
Monday 9/2
Magic Kingdom
Tuesday, 9/3
Animal Kingdom/Epcot
Wednesday, 9/4
Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Thursday, 9/5
Epcot/Magic Kingdom
Friday, 9/6
Animal Kingdom/Hollywood Studios
Saturday, 9/7
Travel Day - Magic Kingdom/Epcot
Oh, I almost forgot! Quick Service choices!
Sunday, 9/1
No quick service, since we're eating at 'Ohana for dinner.
Monday, 9/2
Casey's Corner for Lunch
Tuesday, 9/3
Flame Tree BBQ for Lunch
Wednesday, 9/4
Everything Pop Shopping and Dining for Dinner
Thursday, 9/5
Pecos Bill's Tall Tale Inn and Cafe for Dinner
Friday, 9/6
Restaurantosaurus for Lunch
Saturday, 9/7
Yorkshire County Fishshop for Lunch (Another last day tradition!)
So now you have the basic plan of our trip. I want to get into more detail for you, but I'm tired, so that will have to come another day. Hope this will tide you over!
Great re-introductions! You picked some great places to eat. BoG is so good! You will enjoy it Hopefully when you are at MK, you will get to meet the Gaston that we met while on vacation in March. OMG he is awesome!!! David would love it!
Great background on you guys! I love that picture of Bri. So cute in her little ears. Your dining list has made me hungry... All great choices! You mentioned that Bri has one long bit of hair in the front. Mallory has a strange long section too, but it's kind of on the side. That's what I plan on having them cut in Jan/Feb. She's doing OK in the hair department, but I don't think that there will be much that I want them to cut. We shall see...
Great choices you got on there! My DH loves the GF as well, said it's his favorite resort so far. We'll see when we go to WL if he still feels that way. Though, it's funny bc out of all the DVC places we've been looking at, he hopes for BLT next trip. me too though, so it's all good.
You got a real good mix of regular TS and character meals. Lots to entertain Bri!
Last trip, we had the DDP and we ended up paying for 3 meals OOP (of course, I carefully planned what ones to pay for...IE the cheapest! lol) One of the meals was 2 credits so we really only paid for 2 meals...but we just couldn't get it any lower than that!
Isn't it SO hard to pare down your ADR choices!!!? We decided for next trip, we want more flexibility and not to be sitting at restaurants as much. So we have forced ourselves to pare down our ADR's to 1 per day...period. We have it down with the exception of 1 day...which is AK.
We don't really like the choices there for meals, and we LOVE Tusker House breakfast, it's one of our faves period actually. However, I don't like doing breakfast as our only sit down meal of the day (unless it's the day we leave) so AK will be breakfast and late dinner.
We might also sneak a Plaza Restaurant at MK in for a lunch somewhere, bc honestly...it's good, a nice little break and won't take long...quick food and no characters, and it doesn't really cost that much more than CS. We'll see about that though. LOL!
Can't wait to hear all about the rest of the trip! It will be a different kind of trip than you are use to, but just as fun. Like I have said before I brought my DD when she was just over 9 months and she loved the characters so much. You should make her a scrap book of this trip, so when she is older she'll be able to "see" memories of her first trip, instead of actually remembering. My DD LOVES looking at the pics of her at WDW as a baby, she thinks it's so neat.
Congratulations on another trip! Can't wait to hear all about this one too. Great dinner choice from what everyone else is saying! Love the picture of Bri. so adorable!!!
They have lots to keep little ones entertained at the Barber Shop - stickers, light up toys, bubbles, etc. If you think you want to do it and you want her first cut to be in Disney then I'd make a reservation. It's more about the experience than the cut, but my boys needed one badly! They were exactly a year old for theirs and probably needed a cut at 10 months. You don't want to decide to go and then wait for hours.
Great ADR choices! It's lunch time and it's made me hungry!
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
Jumping in! You're going to have so much fun on this trip with your new little Disney fanatic. My daughter was 10 months old too when I took her on her first trip to Disney, and now she's already been 5 times, and is begging to go again. I think I've created a monster. You'll see what I mean in a few years.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
"Sparky"(My first trip.)
In fact, we really didn't manage it very well. We're paying for one of our sit down meals out of pocket, because we couldn't get it down to 7 places...we just had to keep the 8th one!
me too though, so it's all good.
PassPorter Guide Author
I love the photos of you guys, especially the one of you and Bri. 
Deb
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
You're going to have so much fun on this trip with your new little Disney fanatic. My daughter was 10 months old too when I took her on her first trip to Disney, and now she's already been 5 times, and is begging to go again. I think I've created a monster. You'll see what I mean in a few years. 
Linear Mode
