Who Said Work isn't Fun - a mini TR to the World Completed 3/24 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
So originally when we made our Fast Pass choices we booked the three mountains for early in the day just still on the mindset that we needed to get to the MK early to miss the later in the day crowds.
We set the alarm for about 7:30 AM figuring we would go check-in for the convention, grab some breakfast and then head to the park.
When the alarm went off we both sat up, looked at each other and said...why are we rushing, we can change our Fast Pass times. Plus there was a party today so the predicted crowd levels for today were not that bad.
Kim pulled out her phone and within minutes we smiled that wow....the app really did work as we now had all our Fast Passes for a bit later in the day.
We both went back to sleep for another hour or so, it felt great just being able to be a bit lazy. We both really enjoyed that extra hour or so to sleep and soon we were up, taking our showers and getting ready to enjoy the day.
The weather was beautiful so I grabbed a picture as we walked to the main building.
We grabbed a quick bite at the Rix Café, I think I had a croissant and then we went to check in for the convention. When we reviewed out booklet we saw that they added a special treat for Monday night and were giving us complimentary park tickets for Monday after our scheduled sessions....F&WF here we come
We actually had reservations for California Grill for this evening but given the change to enjoy the F&WF since yesterday's outing was so messed up we cancelled the reservation and planned on heading over to Epcot around 4:00 at the end of our last session.
We were able to book some Fast Passes for the evening so we were hoping we would get a chance to enjoy Soarin since yesterdays ride was a dud.
We had quite a wait for an MK bus, there was a huge crowd waiting at the bus stop and a CM who was desperately trying to get a bus for us. I have to say I was not to impressed with the bus service at the Coronado, both at the resort and the parks . I think we waited almost 30 minutes for a bus and by the look of the crowd the wait was even longer.
Finally a bus came and we were herded onto the bus, I felt bad as there were people who came after us that never made it on the bus, I am hoping another bus came soon.
Soon we were at the park and I felt great, no headache residue (but I was really careful and took meds a few times when I started to feel a little twinge). Soon we were through the turnstile and I think we both had big smiles as we took in our first glimpse of the MK for this trip.
The holiday decorations are definitely my favorite.
We just took a slow walk up Main Street soaking up the atmosphere.
Now I really did not take notes this trip but by the looks of my photos and what I can remember we headed up to the castle and then headed towards Liberty Square.
I do remember checking out the Christmas store as I had to pick up a new ornament for the tree, I saw a few that I liked but I did not grab any at this moment and we headed to a few short line and enjoyed the Haunted Mansion, I mean what else is there to start with as Halloween was fast approaching .
After our visit with our 999 Happy Haunts we headed over to New Fantasyland as we had gotten an invite to try the new FP at BOG. We were excited to see how lunch compared to dinner.
As we walked over to New Fantasyland we stopped to watch the show that was taking place....really cute.
I think our FP time was 11 AM so we headed over and were quickly ushered in. We had pre-ordered our meals so the CM led us to our table in the Ballroom and they told us our food would be out shortly. We went to get our drinks while we waited.
In August when we had dinner here we ate in the Rose Gallery and there were only like three large families so it was not loud at all in that room, but now in the crowded ballroom, it definitely gets loud, but I love the theme in here and the snow coming down outside the windows and the ceiling is amazing!!
We both had ordered the Roast Beef Sandwich with fries and we ordered the "Masters" Cupcake to share.
The sandwich was delicious, and the cupcake as really moist and fresh....all in all I loved lunch, I actually think a little better than dinner. I enjoyed the dinner but I think the lunch is a great option for those that cannot get a reservation, or for someone who wants to save some money and as a counter service this would be a great use of a counter service credit.
We were so happy that we had this option, but I have to say it was much cooler today then it was in August and the line, while there was a wait was nothing compared to what I saw this summer, so it was a manageable wait....definitely worth it. Thumbs up all around on this new lunch option
Our first FP was Space Mountain which neither of us was in the mood to do at this moment so we switched it to something I do not remember. We wanted to see how the "double dipping" situation was working (as there were so many stories swirling around that weekend) so we used our room keys to get a FP for the Fairytale Hall - we opted to visit with Rapunzel and her royal friend Snow White and the cards worked with no issues.
While we waited for our FP return time (which was about 30 minutes) we headed over to UTS - maybe a 10 minute wait even though it was posted at 20 minutes, again this ride moves so quickly in terms of loading I always feel the posted wait time is more than it actually is.
We headed back to visit with the princesses. I really love what they did here....
Soon it was time for our first royal visit. Snow White was as sweet as ever....I think she liked her new home
I took some more pictures of the area while we waiting for Rapunzel.
Then it was time, Rapunzel was as fun as ever and got us to pose like her.
When we made our way out we stopped at the Rapunzel bathrooms and Kim wanted to charge her phone for a bit so I wandered around for a few minutes taking pictures.
I think before we headed towards Frontierland to ride BTMRR we stopped for Philarmagic and then we headed towards our next FP location where we had FP+ for BTMRR and SplM.
Splash was done...I mean dry as a nail and empty logs backed up (it ended up coming back up later) but we decided to switch our FP for the Jungle Cruise for after our BTMRR ride. We headed over to BTMRR and saw this....
Yes folks this was the FP return line, and from I heard it had been like this all day. I will say that it moved quickly, I think the magic band scanners definitely slow the process when you have a large group returning at once since they are still new so people not knowing what to do....once we got passed the scanners we had maybe a 5 minute wait.
We had a great ride and was about to use our room keys to grab another set of FPs when a woman behind us said...don't wait for FPs, I actually have some extra ones (guess she lost half her party), come ride with us.
She was so sweet and her little son (he was about 10) decided he had to ride with me - guess I made a friend.
After we thanked her again for her generosity we decided to head over to get our wristbands for the party then we would come back for our FP return time for the Jungle Cruise.
Now I am missing a chunk of our day, I told you no notes but I do remember us doing some other stuff before the party started, I just do not remember when.
I also know that somewhere during the day we visited Tomorrowland where we went to the COP, charged Kim's phone in the Space Mountain area (there is a plug when you exit the ride...funniest thing someone stopped Kim to ask when she would be done with the charger, she had to explain it was her charger ), rode the People Mover, and rode Buzz. I also know we visited Storybook Circus, just to wander.
Now back to the regular schedule, for some reason we headed to the front of the park, and then we realized we should have walked to the Rose Garden for our wristbands but we decided to stop for a moment to visit with Mickey as we had heard he would start talking this weekend. (now again terrible memory but I am almost certain that we had a FP+ for this, so maybe this was what we switched our SpM FP+ too and we used our cards for the Jungle Cruise?)
Can I tell you it was so amazing, loved his interaction, there was a little girl so shy before us and it was her birthday and we all started singing with Mickey. The he did some card tricks with some other guests, soon it was our turn and when he asked us how was our trip and we told him we were so excited to come visit with him we got big hugs and it was just so cool. I have to ask Kim as I think she has a picture as I thought I had it on my camera but it must be on hers.
It was such a fun experience. When we headed to the Rose Garden I realized I had misplaced my will call email that I printed out, luckily Kim had put the card on my Magic Band so they were able to pull it up that way, but I also realized I had the email on my phone which the CM said would have worked as well.
Wristbands in hand we headed back over to Adventureland for our Jungle Cruise. We also stopped for a ride with some of our favorite pirates. We actually were starting to feel a but hungry so we decided grab dinner over at Peco Bill's since we were in the area (we originally had ADRs for the Plaza for about 4 PM but we were so full from lunch we ended up cancelling them).
I just love the toppings bar here. Dinner filled me up and from this point on I cannot tell you which direction we went in first. I do remember that it was a bit before 7 PM and we headed over to the HM to enjoy it in the dark, but that by the time we came out and took our pictures (and I am so disappointed as we were going to order our PP picture from here and both of us totally forgot) it was 7:15 and all the special edition pins were already sold out in the store in Frontierland
All was good as we had a fun time visiting with the friendly ghosts, I do love that it just feels different when you ride at night, especially when you come out and it is all Halloween decorated
I can tell you we hit every single Trick or Treat stop, I know our first one was the one at Splash Mountain and then we just made our way around to Fantasyland, Storybook Circus, Tomorrowland and finally finishing in Adventureland (with a final stop at Guest Services where I asked the CM if I could have a little allergy free candy as it was bad enough I was at the party without my children but if I came home with a ton of candy for Jasmine and poor Angel had no candy I would never hear the end of it....LOL). The CM was wonderful and loaded my bag up with yummy stuff for Angel.
I also remember that the line for the Seven Dwarfs was so long so I ended up stealing a shot of them as I walked by.
And we did wait to see Tarzan, here we met this nice family, we ended up having a discussion as her youngest was just diagnosed with allergies so her other kids were trying to trade with her for things that were safe for her so I mentioned guest services which she did not know about but she thanked me so much for letting her know. Soon it was time for our meeting with Tarzan and Jane.
I also think we rode Pirates again after we finished the last of the trick or treat stops (the one at the POC was our final one).
We headed back over to the castle to see the Castle show and Hallowishes. we ended up finding a spot near the Crystal Palace. I just enjoyed, no pictures, I really loved the holiday version as I had never seen Hallowishes before. I know the girls would love it.
We were planning on watching the late parade so we found a spot on Main Street, I took some pictures of Main Street, loved the pumpkins in the windows.
Now I will tell you that we never saw the parade, I know....I was so excited but Kim was tired and felt the twinge of a headache coming on, we had a super early morning tomorrow and in all honesty I was exhausted, so it is just another reason why I have to make it back for another MNSSHP with the girls next time so they can enjoy as well
It was a good thing we did as the line to the CSR was so filled, (it looked like a bus has not been there in ages) and we waited almost another 30 minutes (again not loving the buses this weekend) we saw buses for every other resort, sometimes more than one, when ours finally came they could not fit everyone on so we waited for the next one, another 15 or 20 minutes (and even then we did not have a seat so it was packed). By the time we made it back to the resort (this was after leaving the MK before the parade so maybe 10?, it was almost midnight, if we had waited for the second parade we might have never made it back
Soon it was lights out as we had breakfast at the convention at 7:30 and the sessions started at 8:45 so we set the alarm for 6 so we had time for showers and such and soon I was off to dream land.
Oh I am so glad today was a much better day for you. I love the way you were able to swap your Fastpass + around to suit you. If only we had a phone that worked properly in the States to do that as our BlackBerry isn't the greatest at getting online. I know there are the kiosks, but I'd like to see some more of those, as they were few and far between from what I saw on our trip. I couldn't believe that line you ran into at Big Mountain - thank goodness it at least moved quickly.
Sorry about the bus service at Coronado - bearing in mind, it's a convention hotel, that really surprises me, as I'd have thought they'd have wanted an excellent service for any convention guests wanting to go into the parks...
What a relief to wake up headache-free and to be able to keep it at bay for the whole day. Nice to get a bit of extra sleep in the morning. When I first heard about the FP+ I worried that it would add more deadlines and stresses to days in the park, but I'm very happy to see from recent reports that it really is flexible and can help to make things more spur-of-the-moment than otherwise. Very nice! You lucked out with the timing of your trip in that you were able to get the "legacy FP" in addition to FP+. That's ending, and the old machines may be closed down by my next trip. Glad to hear that lunch at BOG is so nice! I love the look of the menu and can't wait to try it.
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.
It's nice when you can squeeze in another hour or so of sleep. So sorry the buses were unreliable at CSR as you had some ridiculously long waits. Your MK day as well as MNSSHP looked like lots of fun. I think Luke and I need to consider BOG for lunch as it does sound like an incredible CS experience.
Love how easy the FP+ worked out for you switching throughout the day. Seems like you had a great time at the party and made the right call leaving when you did!
I'm so sorry you had a mirgraine the first day and that F&WF was so crowded. There shoukd be some sort of law banning all sickness from WDW.
Gald day 2 was better
Glad the headache did not linger into the next day. Your day at MK sounded great as did the party.
What a pain with the CSR buses. They definitely need to get that fixed.
Just signing in here. So sorry you got slammed with that migraine, but you were a trooper!
Yuck on the buses but we enjoyed CS when we stayed there but we had a car.
__________________
Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
I feel terrible as it has been weeks since I wrote an update, I am hoping once I get through this work week I will be able to finish this (it was only a mini-TR you would think I would have had it done
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh I am so glad today was a much better day for you. I love the way you were able to swap your Fastpass + around to suit you. If only we had a phone that worked properly in the States to do that as our BlackBerry isn't the greatest at getting online. I know there are the kiosks, but I'd like to see some more of those, as they were few and far between from what I saw on our trip. I couldn't believe that line you ran into at Big Mountain - thank goodness it at least moved quickly.
Sorry about the bus service at Coronado - bearing in mind, it's a convention hotel, that really surprises me, as I'd have thought they'd have wanted an excellent service for any convention guests wanting to go into the parks...
I found that using the system on my phone was pretty easy, but I do agree they need more kisoks, I saw huge lines of people waiting for assistance, the truth is not everyone has a smart phone, using the system should be as easy for them as for someone with a phone I would think.
I was surprised at the bus service, I thought well maybe because we were heading to the parks at off times but as a convention hotel you would think that people would be in and out of meetings so that the standard morning and evening rush might be a bit different, but I will say that on the day I was leaving there were tons of buses in and out....guess maybe we were just there on an off weekend.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
What a relief to wake up headache-free and to be able to keep it at bay for the whole day. Nice to get a bit of extra sleep in the morning. When I first heard about the FP+ I worried that it would add more deadlines and stresses to days in the park, but I'm very happy to see from recent reports that it really is flexible and can help to make things more spur-of-the-moment than otherwise. Very nice! You lucked out with the timing of your trip in that you were able to get the "legacy FP" in addition to FP+. That's ending, and the old machines may be closed down by my next trip. Glad to hear that lunch at BOG is so nice! I love the look of the menu and can't wait to try it.
I really did find the whole FP+ a nice way to go....just not having to run for that early AM FP was really nice. In all honesty we really did not need the other FP but I wanted to see if it was still working and it did work out well as the line for Rapunzel was quite long, so it was nice to get in a bit quicker.
I really loved lunch, dinner was nice but I think lunch might be the way we go from now on....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
It's nice when you can squeeze in another hour or so of sleep. So sorry the buses were unreliable at CSR as you had some ridiculously long waits. Your MK day as well as MNSSHP looked like lots of fun. I think Luke and I need to consider BOG for lunch as it does sound like an incredible CS experience.
Loved BOG at lunch, I enjoyed dinner but I think lunch won out for me. And for someone on the DDP, it is definitely worth the CS credit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Love how easy the FP+ worked out for you switching throughout the day. Seems like you had a great time at the party and made the right call leaving when you did!
I was a bit sad that we did not see the parade but after that wait I knew we made the right choice. With such an early day I cannot imagine getting back to the resort any later than we did.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
I'm so sorry you had a mirgraine the first day and that F&WF was so crowded. There shoukd be some sort of law banning all sickness from WDW.
Gald day 2 was better
I agree...my kids say vacation should be a migraine free zone for me, I have been lucky, only twice have I really been hit with one that made me as sick as I was, but waking up feeling so much better was a huge relief.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
What a great day Meg! Love the pictures from MK! Glad you had great meals at BoG and PB! Sorry the buses weren't timely!
I had such a fun day, it felt so nice to really have nothing on our schedule and just enjoy the atmosphere, just doing what we felt like at that moment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
Glad the headache did not linger into the next day. Your day at MK sounded great as did the party.
What a pain with the CSR buses. They definitely need to get that fixed.
I was glad that headache was gone, when I was leaving the buses seemed much better, just sitting at hte DME stop I saw a ton in like an hour, so I am hoping we just hit a bad weekend for bus service.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
Great day at MK, followed by a great time at MNSSHP! I'm so glad your headache was gone and that you were feeling better.
I had so much fun at the parade, and the candy for the girls got me back in their good graces after going without them
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Just signing in here. So sorry you got slammed with that migraine, but you were a trooper!
Yuck on the buses but we enjoyed CS when we stayed there but we had a car.
When we finally got back that night I have to say I was surprised myself that I had not just given up on my journey to Epcot. Waking up feeling better was such a relief.
Just joining in. Sorry you had to start your trip with a migraine. How awful. But glad you were able to enjoy the next day. What fun! Your sandwich from BOG is making me hungry - good thing it's almost lunch time. I think I'll be seeking out a roast beef sandwich somewhere.
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
About This Page: 
. I think we waited almost 30 minutes for a bus and by the look of the crowd the wait was even longer.
), rode the People Mover, and rode Buzz. I also know we visited Storybook Circus, just to wander. 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
I love the way you were able to swap your Fastpass + around to suit you. If only we had a phone that worked properly in the States to do that 
as our BlackBerry isn't the greatest at getting online. I know there are the kiosks, but I'd like to see some more of those, as they were few and far between from what I saw on our trip. I couldn't believe that line you ran into at Big Mountain - thank goodness it at least moved quickly. 
Holly: 
Sorry the buses weren't timely!
Liz 
Linear Mode
