Snafus, Stupidities and So Many Firsts TR Dec 11- 19th - COMPLETED 1/25 - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Today is Alex’s actual homecoming day from Guatemala so I wanted to throw in some special surprises.
Today would be the only day we would be woken up by an alarm clock! In the past we’ve done several breakfast ADRs but this trip we only had one and I have to tell you, I liked it! Given the mad, crazy rush getting the kids out the door to school every morning it was nice to have a slower pace for vacation.
This morning we had a 9:05 ADR at the Poly for the Lilo and Stitch breakfast (Ohana’s). This was a first for us. I planned for us to be at the bus stop at 8 thinking that would give us plenty of time since MK opened at 9 buses would surely be running, right? WRONG! Yes, another snafu! We waited, and waited and waited and waited. I mean buses were coming in droves for all the other parks. Finally it was like 8:40 and we hopped a bus to Epcot. There were several buses behind the Epcot bus and we thought surely one of them HAD to be an MK bus, right? WRONG! But it was too late. We had already hopped off at another bus stop. Ken called the front desk and there was no real reason given as to why the MK hadn’t shown. Then another resort guest said their friends waited an hour the other morning for a MK bus. Time was ticking. The bus finally came at 9. I am not kidding. Now enter stupidity. There was a huge group of people who were also waiting for the MK bus. One nice gentleman who was quite brave as well raised his voice to say something like look, there’s a lot of people waiting to get on and some people have been waiting longer than others. How about we let the people who have been waiting for an hour get on this bus. Sounds great, right? WRONG! Enter the pushing and shoving with one lady jabbing me to get on the bus. I put my arm out and said if anyone should get on the bus it should be him who tried to quell the chaos! She said my family is on the bus and I am not separated from them. I said, “No kidding! Think you’re the only one?!” I am not a confrontational person. Really, I’m not. But I had had it with people showing poor manners on this vacation! The man who tried to be the voice of reason thanked me and we discussed how ridiculous people can be.
Shake it off, Brown! Shake it off! We arrive at the Poly 30 minutes late. I am NEVER late. This had me very upset. I explained our situation and the woman at the counter taking reservations was none too sympathetic and said they would squeeze us in when they could. Great. Thankfully it took maybe 10 minutes and we were seated. My first impression was it was beautiful. It’s the Poly after all! My second impression was holy cow is it cold in here! Like uncomfortably cold! I know there are a lot of Ohana fans out there so please don’t hate me. We did not care for the breakfast. As I mentioned Ken hates family style and while the bread and juice were better than good, the rest of the food was just average. Characters were quick and it just didn’t do it for us.
We left the artic for the heat wave outside. Now, heat and my hair do not go hand-in-hand. Especially when the humidity is high and it was high the entire week. I liken my hair, if left down, to this, only, a lot scragglier.
So, that’s a brief explanation as to why in most all my pictures my hair is up or as you’ll see in the days ahead, only a hat will do, especially if you add a little sprinkle of rain to the mix!
I digress… before hitting the rides we hit Uptown Jewelers. Remember the special souvenir I mentioned? It caught my eye at another store in Epcot but it was out of stock. So the manager told me to try UJ at MK and there it was. Or should I say, here it is.
It’s from the “It’s a Small World” collection. This ride holds a dear place in my heart. It was the first ride when we first took our kids to Disney 3 years ago that really caught their eyes. They giggled and pointed everywhere and even waved at all the children. Abby even asked if the children got breaks if they had to use the bathroom or were hungry. Fast forward to this trip when the kids are 4 and 7 and it still brings out something special in my kids. They comment about the countries and the children and just seem to connect to it. So, I wanted something that would always make me think of the sheer joy and innocence that ride brought and still brings to my kids.
continued in next post...
__________________
Deb
Last edited by debrabrown; 01-09-2010 at 10:50 PM..
continued...
Then we went to Toontown for our first fairy meet! ` The wait was only 30 minutes but for the princesses it was 0. And it stayed 0 for a long time. Interesting….. once inside Pixie Hollow Rosetta was the first to greet us. She was ok.
Tink was hysterical. She was right in character – very cute and very talkative. We didn’t feel rushed at all!
Then it was Terrence and he was just as amusing and entertaining. He challenged Alex to a race (which was beyond funny!) and just let my kids talk and talk to him.
I give the fairies a thumbs up and can’t wait for Pixie Hollow’s improvements. Abby didn’t buy that we were shrunk…especially when she saw the pictures.
We wandered to Minnie’s house and after watching Abby and Ken ride Goofy’s Barnstormer Alex wanted to give it a try. His first rollercoaster! They went one more time! Way to go baby boy!
We hopped the train to Frontierland. Ah… such a relaxing way to get around. First up was some Dole whips – our first on the trip!
The kids wanted to check out the Swiss Family tree house so we did – another first. They thought it was cool.
To the Pirate tutorial next where Alex was given an official pirate oath. POC was next followed by SM. It was the perfect day for it – hot! I had threatened before coming to MK that I was going to make Abby ride in front. She decided she wanted to but I was like, no, let’s not. Well wouldn’t you know as fate would have it we were next for row 1 so off we went! Yes, we got soaked. But once wasn’t enough so we did it again – in the front row!
Pants dripping and underwear clinging (I hate that wet feeling!) we went to HM so Abby could ride with dad.
We headed to Cosmic Ray’s for dinner (skipped lunch due to the late breakfast!), rode the TS and got a spot just in time for the castle lighting. It is such a cool little show! I love how the castle lights up in its own Disney way.
Even though the parade for the MVMCP wasn’t until 8 people staked their spots right after the show. Crazy! We did as well – in the castle hub as always. We passed the time eating cookies and drinking some hot chocolate (not the night for it!) and listening to classic Christmas songs Disney was blasting. Way cool. We were entertained by the castle Christmas show which was cute
and then the parade. My oh my. I am not a parade geek but this was just beyond spectacular. I don’t want to give it all away for those who haven’t seen it but it was just very, very special. The toy soldiers are way cool. I could have watched them all day.
Fireworks were next and they were just as special.
We left after the fireworks because it was late and the kids, especially Alex was beat (note the no nap!) Leaving was a breeze. I was shocked! I wish we could have stayed later but there was no way the kids or us had the energy. By the time we got back to CSR Alex was asleep on me and it was 11:30.
A very, very special day at MK indeed!
Up next: AK day 2 – some old favorites and new adventures
Great updates!
Sorry about the long wait for the bus and then not being thrilled with O'hanas (We had a fabulous time there last trip).
Glad the day got better- sounds like a great time at MK!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I can't see the picture of your iasw souvenir. But it sounds beautiful and your day at MK sounds wonderful, too. Stefanie was so excited to see Kanga and Roo in the MNSSHP Boo To You parade as they are two of her favorites that we just don't see. Glad to see they are in the MVMCP parade, too.
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.
Great updates!
Sorry about the long wait for the bus and then not being thrilled with O'hanas (We had a fabulous time there last trip).
Glad the day got better- sounds like a great time at MK!
I think as far as Ohana's goes the bus situation and being late then being freezing cold just added up to a not so great experience. Maybe on another day we would have been in a different frame of mind, ya know?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Stefanie was so excited to see Kanga and Roo in the MNSSHP Boo To You parade as they are two of her favorites that we just don't see. Glad to see they are in the MVMCP parade, too.
Yes, Rabbit was on a separate parade float as well so the kids were just jumping for joy to have seen all the friends from 100 acre wood!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a nightmare with the buses - some people are just unbelievable. Thank goodness your day got better from there on....
Yes. The buses have me spooked to try an early morning breakfast for our next trip. It was just the weirdest thing.
Great update.....sorry about the buses & being disappointed with the O'hana breakfast. You sound like me, when one thing after another doesn't go as planned, I have a job going with the flow & get very frustrated. We put so much time into trying to make special moments for our family, it can be disappointing when others don't hold up their end!!!
I the dress & the IASW keepsake!!! Can't wait to read more.....oh & about your hair, although I'm sureyou don't think it is a bit funny!! My hair, on the other hand, is super straight!!! I guess I'll finally post pictures of myself when I do my TR!
Great update.....sorry about the buses & being disappointed with the O'hana breakfast. You sound like me, when one thing after another doesn't go as planned, I have a job going with the flow & get very frustrated. We put so much time into trying to make special moments for our family, it can be disappointing when others don't hold up their end!!!
I the dress & the IASW keepsake!!! Can't wait to read more.....oh & about your hair, although I'm sureyou don't think it is a bit funny!! My hair, on the other hand, is super straight!!! I guess I'll finally post pictures of myself when I do my TR!
Yes, please post pictures of yourself! I have my grandmother to thank for my hair. It gets wirey when humidity hits and try as I might it is very difficult to keep straight on very humid days.
About This Page: 
Given the mad, crazy rush getting the kids out the door to school every morning it was nice to have a slower pace for vacation.
We waited, and waited and waited and waited. I mean buses were coming in droves for all the other parks. Finally it was like 8:40 and we hopped a bus to Epcot. There were several buses behind the Epcot bus and we thought surely one of them HAD to be an MK bus, right? WRONG! But it was too late. We had already hopped off at another bus stop. Ken called the front desk and there was no real reason given as to why the MK hadn’t shown. Then another resort guest said their friends waited an hour the other morning for a MK bus. Time was ticking. The bus finally came at 9. 
I am not kidding. 
Now enter stupidity. There was a huge group of people who were also waiting for the MK bus. One nice gentleman who was quite brave as well raised his voice to say something like look, there’s a lot of people waiting to get on and some people have been waiting longer than others. How about we let the people who have been waiting for an hour get on this bus. Sounds great, right? WRONG! Enter the pushing and shoving with one lady jabbing me to get on the bus. I put my arm out 
and said if anyone should get on the bus it should be him who tried to quell the chaos! She said my family is on the bus and I am not separated from them. I said, “No kidding! Think you’re the only one?!” I am not a confrontational person. Really, I’m not. But I had had it with people showing poor manners on this vacation! 
We did not care for the breakfast. As I mentioned Ken hates family style and while the bread and juice were better than good, the rest of the food was just average. Characters were quick and it just didn’t do it for us.
Deb
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
But it sounds beautiful and your day at MK sounds wonderful, too. Stefanie was so excited to see Kanga and Roo in the MNSSHP Boo To You parade as they are two of her favorites that we just don't see. Glad to see they are in the MVMCP parade, too.
PassPorter Guide Author
the dress & the IASW keepsake!!! Can't wait to read more.....oh & 
about your hair, although I'm sureyou don't think it is a bit funny!! My hair, on the other hand, is super straight!!! I guess I'll finally post pictures of myself when I do my TR!
Susan
Linear Mode
