A DREAM is a wish your heart makes...Halloween on the High Seas edition - updated 09/14/2014 - Page 35 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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'm finally caught up. Like everyone else, I'm sorry you had to cancel June, but I'm crossing my fingers that October still works out. I really hope Mike's job turns into something permanent. If October had worked out for us this year, we were actually going to be there the same week you are scheduled to go. Figures!
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.
I know from experience that it was painful to cancel that trip, but I'm so glad you can breathe a little sigh of relief now that Mike has some good things happening. Disney and Lego?! All you need is a little sprinkle of Star Wars to make it a trifecta!
May the Fourth Be With You!
Sorry for the delay everyone! Thank you for all the well wishes for Mike. More positive news - he has 2 more interviews set up next week for a full time permanent position - both with really good companies so more pixies would be appreciated. Thank you!
I believe we set the alarm today since you know, they’d be kicking us off the ship this morning and we needed to make sure we got breakfast before the drive back to WDW. So we got up, ready and headed down to Animator’s Palate for breakfast at 8am (I think that was the time). It was nice being in the back with room since everyone had their luggage. The Boyle Family joined us at the same time and soon we were picking out pastries and what other goodies we wanted for breakfast. I think the kids were excited for WDW, sad to be leaving the Dream, or just plain tired as none of them ate much.
My breakfast
Mike's breakfast
Boys breakfast
After breakfast, I went to see about pictures. I ended up buying 10 images and then a booklet type frame. I had to pick them up and then we got in line to disembark. I was worried as we had discovered that we’d packed Mike & one of the boys’ cards (plus Mike’s driver’s license) in the luggage since he had left it in the pocket of his pants from the night before. Luckily, one card was enough to check us all out and then we got in line to go through customs. This is where we finally parted ways with Melissa & family. L I was happy we’d still be seeing them in a few hours time. We got picked for the line that took forever! Soon enough we were through customs and headed out to wait for our shuttle. Goodbye Dream!!
The shuttle came and we were back to our car in no time. At the lot we left the car they had a small alligator and Dylan held it. No pictures though – I was afraid they’d try to charge me for it. The drive to WDW seemed longer than the drive to port, but maybe because I had been so excited about the cruise. Soon enough though we were passing through those wonderful gates and into our ‘home’ for the next few nights, BLT.
Our room wasn’t ready so we decided to head over to the Contemporary and grab some lunch. I took no pictures, but I believed we shared a flatbread and one of the kid’s meals. Still no text about the room, so we took a spin on the monorail so Mike could say he at least saw Epcot.
View from the pedestrian bridge
Zoomed in
Zoomed in
Once back to the Contemporary, still no text so we hung out outside taking pictures. Then Dylan fell and scraped up his knee so we had to administer first aid – thank goodness I always carry a little kit with me. Always be prepared!
We were showing our Blues pride!
I can’t remember when we went in the Community Hall but we spent some time in there coloring and Dylan playing on the computer while we waited for our room. I was beginning to think we would have to change for MNSSHP in the bathroom when finally at 2:53pm I received a text that room 7140 was ready!! We checked out the room – unimpressed with the quality, got a little unpacked, then changed for MNSSHP.
Not a fan of first floor rooms!
The kitchen area has plenty of room.
The bathroom, however, does not have enough storage/counter space!
Problems/Things I found wrong about staying in a DVC resort:
Door to bathroom was a slider and was falling apart at the bottom
Wall is not straight - I think I get this from my Dad working in construction - just looks like it was rushed
Huge stain on the sofa arm
Paint chipping or not even painted ???
Maybe I was being really picky, but I was not impressed with the room.
At 3:43pm I texted Melissa to say we were walking to MK!
Sad to leave the ship, but how exciting to be back in WDW! I got "homesick" looking at your pictures of Epcot from the monorail. Sorry you were unimpressed with your room.
Oh, dear, I'm afraid I agree with you about the BLT studios. Not at all carefully constructed or designed. I hate that sliding bathroom door you never feel is really closed, it makes no sense to have all that storage space in the studio kitchenette and zero space in the bathroom, and the room just doesn't feel comfortable to me. I still think it's worth a stay there once in a while just to be able to walk to MK, but it's frustrating that they didn't do a better job.
We totally agree with the quality at BLT. If you read our TR from 2011 "The Good, The Bad and the Buggy" you'd understand. We had bugs infesting our balcony to the point of it being unusable. There was no "Mickey Head" towel, the tp holder was coming off the wall, etc. I could go on. And it really saddens us because that is our home resort. Just not really getting our dues worth.
Besides the flaws in the room, it also doesn't look as bright as the ones I've seen in the promotional videos of BLT. Sorry for the underwhelming room.
I'm sorry to hear about the room. I remember you talking about it on FB and not being thrilled. We've never stayed at BLT, but I haven't heard of many people actually liking the way they did those villas. I really like the photos from the monorail. It's getting me really excited for our trip!
Sad to leave the ship, but how exciting to be back in WDW! I got "homesick" looking at your pictures of Epcot from the monorail. Sorry you were unimpressed with your room.
We're homesick for Epcot too! On that trip we'd only gone to MK, so Epcot, DHS & AK haven't been visited in a while!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Agree with the room. That is not the way a room should look like, especially this one being in a newer resort. Totally not acceptable.
Thanks for agreeing with me!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Oh, dear, I'm afraid I agree with you about the BLT studios. Not at all carefully constructed or designed. I hate that sliding bathroom door you never feel is really closed, it makes no sense to have all that storage space in the studio kitchenette and zero space in the bathroom, and the room just doesn't feel comfortable to me. I still think it's worth a stay there once in a while just to be able to walk to MK, but it's frustrating that they didn't do a better job.
The walk to MK was the really only good part about it to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coop
We totally agree with the quality at BLT. If you read our TR from 2011 "The Good, The Bad and the Buggy" you'd understand. We had bugs infesting our balcony to the point of it being unusable. There was no "Mickey Head" towel, the tp holder was coming off the wall, etc. I could go on. And it really saddens us because that is our home resort. Just not really getting our dues worth.
THere were a few bugs, but being on the ground floor and near water that didn't bother me as much. Now if we'd been there longer and there were more - that would have been a different story!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Besides the flaws in the room, it also doesn't look as bright as the ones I've seen in the promotional videos of BLT. Sorry for the underwhelming room.
We did have the curtains drawn most of the time - because of the ground floor and the marina right there I felt like anyone could look in and see everything.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Glad you had no issues with only one card getting off the ship!
I am another that agrees with the BLT issues. Very sad
I'm just glad AKL is my home resort!
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Sounds like a fun morning exploring the resort and riding the monorail. Sorry the room wasn't up to expectations!
It was fun, but it was a lot harder to kill time here than it was at AKL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by num1DVCfan
I'm sorry to hear about the room. I remember you talking about it on FB and not being thrilled. We've never stayed at BLT, but I haven't heard of many people actually liking the way they did those villas. I really like the photos from the monorail. It's getting me really excited for our trip!
I may try again some day - but probably at least a 1 bedroom and definitely not on the ground floor!
Not what I would expect from DVC or the newer DVC. I am picky too, when it comes to stuff like that. I realize they pretty much have people in and out non stop, but at some point you have to take the time to do some repairs and deep cleaning.
Love the pics as you rode the monorail through Epcot!
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Liz 
Linear Mode
