Alice, Mickey, and Pooh Bear ... Oh my! A First Timer's Trip Report -- Updated 8/19 - Page 8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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.
your reaction to nemo was my reaction to the festival of the lion king--i just couldn't believe that it was INCLUDED in the price of admission. we love vegas and have spent a lot of money on shows there. and while lion king isn't quite as impressive as, say, LOVE or Ka, it was definitely VERY cool in the same way--and free! well, not free--but the cost of a one day ticket to WDW is LESS than the cost of a cheap seat at a cirque show in vegas! and a cirque show is only 90 minutes long! (still love vegas, though!)
Great updates! Love the new ears! I'm so glad you got to see the Nemo Show--it's really wonderful!
Me too!! Nemo wasn't a show I had planned on seeing originally, but I was so glad we got to catch it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
What great adventures you all had at AK!
Quote:
Originally Posted by thumper8524
Enjoying your TR. Thanks for bringing us along
Quote:
Originally Posted by EmilyJ
What an awesome day
guys!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by elbodans
your reaction to nemo was my reaction to the festival of the lion king--i just couldn't believe that it was INCLUDED in the price of admission. we love vegas and have spent a lot of money on shows there. and while lion king isn't quite as impressive as, say, LOVE or Ka, it was definitely VERY cool in the same way--and free! well, not free--but the cost of a one day ticket to WDW is LESS than the cost of a cheap seat at a cirque show in vegas! and a cirque show is only 90 minutes long! (still love vegas, though!)
Yes I was very impressed!! Obviously it is much shorter than a Broadway show or whatever, but seeing as we have never been to a Broadway show, we were very impressed.
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.
Today the plan was to spend the morning relaxing by the pool and then head out to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at about 4:00. Before we left I had picked up a few Haloweeny type things at Wal-Greens. I thought this morning would be a good day to share them ... a few cookies, some light up toys and a little singing vampire Mickey.
Kolby really enjoyed the little surprise when he woke up. He especially liked the light up toy and ended up using his all day!
Even though we had planned to spend the day relaxing, I had heard about the pick your own parts Mr. Potato Head station that was in Downtown Disney. Before we left, I picked up 3 Potato Head bodies and brought them with us. Since our week was pretty packed, we decided to head to Downtown Disney early this morning to check things out and hit up the store that had the Potato Head parts. We planned on not staying long so we would still have some pool time before we went to the party that night.
Before heading to the bus stop, we stopped by the dining center to refill our resort mugs. These ended up being a great deal for us. We got them filled at least twice a day, so it really ended up saving us on drinks.
After we were all set with our drinks, we headed down to the bus stop to wait for the Downtown Disney bus. While waiting we met 2 women that were from Maine. This was their first time at Disney as well. One of my favorite things about being at Disney was the ability to talk to so many guests. Since everyone you meet is also on vacation, they are all willing to chat for a little bit. It was so fun to meet people from all over the place!
Since we were staying on property and had no car, we used all Disney transportation the whole time. I liked using the buses for the most part. The only bad part of it was when we would get on and it was standing room only. Even on the best of days, standing for 20 minutes is really, really difficult for me, never mind at the end of a long day of walking. For the most part, we got pretty lucky with the buses and only had to wait longer than I would have liked a couple of times.
When we arrived at Downtown Disney, we headed into the first shop we saw. Hubby was still on the look out for his ears, so we wanted to try and pick those out for him pretty quick. He settled on a pair of Jack Skellington ears and had them embroidered with his name on the back. I picked up 3 fridge magnets and a postcard to send to my mom. After paying for our goodies we continued on our way.
The next place we wandered into was the Art of Animation building. We were hoping we would be able to do a little vinylmation trading. We did do a quick one, but they really didn't have anything spectacular. The boys enjoyed looking at all the statues and paintings. (I did take pictures of a few paintings, but I don't feel comfortable sharing the pictures online since it is copyrighted work. )
Our next stop was Goofy's Candy shop. My buys LOVE icees or slurpees, so when we saw Goofy's Glaciers as we walked in, of course they had to stop and take a peek.
The woman behind the counter offered some free samples to them, which they of course loved.
Luckily for them, I had a snack credit that I didn't use from a previous day, so I picked them up a Glacier to share.
We weren't planning on getting any candy here as we knew we would be going trick or treating that night, but we did walk around the store a bit just to see what they had. I pointed out a woman to Kolby, Sha, who was making chocolate covered strawberries, and she took notice of Kolby's ears. Sha came around to the front of the counter and showed Kolby a trick for keeping his ears on without being itchy.
She asked Kolby a few questions and discovered that it was his first time at Disney World. She asked one of the girls behind the counter, Brenda, to get him a special little treat. She explained to him that Mickey had told her that it was his first time here and that she should do something special for him. He thought this was just the best. (After we left the store, he mused that since Goofy had been the one to leave us a welcome message on our room phone when we arrived, he probably had told Mickey himself. )
His special treat was mini m&ms!
She was so sweet to Kolby and even gave him a special certificate for his encounter with her. It was officially for "Goofy's First Visit". He was so happy that she did this for him!!
Before we left for Disney, one of the big things I read on the boards was to be sure to stop and talk to the CMs and not to always be rushing off somewhere. This encounter is a great tribute to that. I could have easily rushed us to the store that had that Mr. Potato Head parts, or not even bothered with the candy store since we would be getting plenty of candy that night. But if I had done that, we would have missed out on this really special encounter. It is something my son talked about for quite a while afterwards.
The next place we stopped was the Rainforest Cafe. We weren't planning on eating there, but we had spied the pressed penny machines they had, so we wanted to be sure to collect those.
Some of the machines we encountered pressed the pennies just by pushing a button, but a few were the original hand crank ones. My son preferred the button ones, but he would try to make the hand crank ones into a little race for himself.
My husband wandered off while we were doing the pennies, and came back with this green stuffed frog. We asked if he had bought it, and he said that he had in a way, for 50 cents anyway. Turned out he had won it in one try from one of those claw machines. He usually has such good luck with those.
Finally by now, we got to Once Upon a Toy, which was the store that had the Mr. Potato Head parts.
You can see the stand for this right when you walk in the store.
As soon as my son saw this, he turned to me to ask if he could get some, expecting me to say no. I told him "Of course!" and explained that that was why we had gotten the Mr. Potato Head bodies before we left. My plan was for each of us to fill a box with the parts that we wanted. They were so excited to go around and pick out everything they wanted.
It soon became clear that my son's box would never close with the amount of stuff he was choosing. One of the employees clued me in on big Mr. Potato Head bodies that you could fill for only about $6 more than the price of two boxes. They said the head fit about 3 boxes worth of stuff. I made the decision to have my son and I share the head so he could get a bit more stuff.
I am really, really good at spatial relation stuff, so I knew I could get this head filled to the max with stuff. I took the box that my son filled and the one I had filled, and started methodically fitting everything in the head. I left virtually no spaces unfilled. I was able to fill the head with our two boxes, plus at least another box and a half. Sadly I didn't get a close up shot of it all filled, but once it was emptied we could fit the pieces that were in there back in the head, plus 2 gallon size bags!! I fit a TON of stuff in there.
We did end up having to buy 4 larger pieces that we couldn't fit in the head or my husband's box, but that was no biggie considering everything we were able to fit in there. I think the ladies were impressed with my packing skills too as the girl at the counter even gave us a little bit of magic and threw in one of our 4 pieces for free!! It was so nice of her to do that for us.
After the store, we stepped outside to grab some pictures with the large Mr. Potato Head.
My son was copying Mr. Potato Head's arms, and I tried to too, but I got mine a little backwards.
Perry forgot which show he belonged to for a second and was hanging out with Buzz.
We weren't quite done with Downtown Disney yet, but I really wasn't looking to stay much longer. Did we ever make it back to the resort and get our pool time before the party that night?
Excellent work on stuffing Mr. Potato Head! I love changing up my two Mr. Potato Heads with each season. Love all the extra bits of magic you have had from the CMs this morning.
Our next stop at Downtown Disney with the World of Disney store. My husband saw the big Stitch shooting water out and he spent about 5 minutes get pictures of him.
I literally have 10-15 more of that almost exact same shot on my camera!! LOL After my husband was done, we headed into the store, but we got about as far as these guys.
I was afraid if I went any further, I too would expire from exhaustion and be stuck in that store forever. Seriously though, I took one look at the size of that store and voted a big no on it. I knew my son still wanted to go to the Lego Store, so walking through this big one would have really shot all our plans of relaxation completely out of the water. So we left and headed over to the Lego store.
The Lego statues they have out front are truly awesome.
And really make you wish you were just that good with those little blocks.
My son didn't spend too much time looking around the store before he decided he wanted to do the pick-a-brick.
The wall of Legos here was the biggest I have ever seen, and we had a lot of fun filling in all the gaps in this thing too, though he probably ended up with way more tiny little pieces than he'll ever have uses for!!
He went to pay for his purchase and my husband surprised my son by getting him the Lego kit of the day. It was a small race car type thing, but my son was thrilled to have it!
Once we were done in the Lego store we headed back to the room.
We were excited to see if mousekeeping had done anything special to our window that day. I think perhaps we were the only guests at Downtown Disney that were looking forward to going to their rooms to see what mousekeeping did, but my son was so excited and kept saying "I wonder what Ada did today!" LOL Now THAT is the magic of Disney!
The true magic though, was the fact that our mousekeeper, Ada, did not dissapoint. We did not change a thing from the window the day before, which if you recall looked like this:
And when we walked up to our window today, this is what we were greeted with:
We were literally in shock! She had taken all our toys and made a huge window display with them. She pulled a chair up and used my quilt we brought from home to prop up our Cowboy Woody and the Buzz that my son bought on our first day. Then she added in some of the goodies I had given the boys just today and even made us an adorable dog out of towels.
The biggest surprise of all though, was the balloon. This was a gift from her. We did not buy this balloon and have it in the room for her to use, rather she left it there just for us. She did not know it, but my son had asked for one of these a few times, but we hadn't gotten one yet, so he was super excited to see it there in our window.
As stated early on in our PTR, my son is not a huge ride person, so our goal was to find other things in Disney to make it a special trip for him. These special touches from Ada, our mousekeeper, meant so very much to him, and in turn to me. We looked around and though other windows had a few things in them, nothing as big and elaborate as this. Ada must have seen something special in our family, and I am so glad she did.
After checking out the new window digs, we headed down to the dining area at All-Star Movies for lunch.
My son had a kids cheese pizza with 2 sides.
I had a steak and cheese sub with fries and a rice krispie Mickey as my dessert,
and hubby had the chili cheese dog with fries and a rice krispie Mickey for dessert.
Lunch honestly wasn't that great, but it was enough to fill our bellies anyway. We headed back up to the room to sort through our Mr. Potato head parts and try them out ...
and do some relaxing. We decided not to go swimming, since hubby had some homework to do, and my son was having fun putting together the Lego car his dad had gotten him. So we turned on the Disney channel and just laid back for a bit.
I had hoped to leave a bit earlier, but after all the walking we had ended up doing in the morning, I was happy to rest for a bit longer. We had our costumes on and were ready to go by 5:30.
We had big plans for our costumes. We were going to do a pirate theme and I had plans for a tinkerbell-ish thing, but none of it really came out the way we wanted, so the day before we left, hubby and I headed over to Michael's Craft while my son was playing with a friend. We picked up some iron on letters and white t-shirts and I quickly made up our costumes that night. Can you say last minute?
That picture isn't great, but I thought they turned out pretty good all things considered! That is the reason we also needed to be sure to have ears by today, I thought it would be fun to have a loose interpretation of the Mousekeeter thing by wearing ears we all actually liked!! We did have to take apart our window a bit while we were in the room. My son wanted to play with his Woody and Buzz, and we needed our bags for trick or treating, we also decided to take the balloon with us to the party.
So off we headed to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Halloween is our family's all time favorite holiday, so we were uber-excited to meet lots of characters, especially Lotso, go trick-or-treating, see the parade & fireworks and perhaps ride some rides. We had big plans for the night, did it all go as we had hoped?
We love our potato head. Extra magic helps make everything so special
Yes, I was quite impressed with the overall feeling you got from CMs. Certainly not everyone was in the spirit all the time, but I would say that most were 100% better than I have seen at any other theme park!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
What great interaction you had with the CM at Goofy's Candy Company. I love those CMs that go out of their way to make your trip magical.
Good job on getting all of those potato head pieces to fit! I love the different pieces that they have there, they are just so adorable.
Thanks!! It was a lot of fun to give it a go. At first the CMs were trying to give me tips, then when they saw how much I was getting in there, they were trying to help by bringing over all the smaller pieces I could fit into spaces.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Excellent work on stuffing Mr. Potato Head! I love changing up my two Mr. Potato Heads with each season. Love all the extra bits of magic you have had from the CMs this morning.
I love Mr. Potato head too!! I haven't unpacked mine yet, but I intend to have him out on display for sure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
What a great day you had at AK! Love all the pictures! And another great day at DTD! Looks like a fun time!
there are so many things i love about that last post i'm afraid i won't remember to comment on them all! well, obviously the first thing is the mousekeeping surprise. that's hands down the coolest mousekeeping related thing i've ever seen (and i read a lot of trip reports! ) how wonderful! and i love that your son took the balloon with him to the halloween party!
i super, SUPER love the photo of your husband and son in DTD. what a GREAT shot. seriously--love.
speaking of things i love--is that a MICKEY BAR in mr. potato head's hand? with a bite taken out? that's definitely the best potato head accessory i've ever seen!!!
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
guys!!
the different pieces that they have there, they are just so adorable.
I love changing up my two Mr. Potato Heads with each season. 
And another great day at DTD! Looks like a fun time! 
Seriously though, I took one look at the size of that store and voted a big no on it. I knew my son still wanted to go to the Lego Store, so walking through this big one would have really shot all our plans of relaxation completely out of the water. So we left and headed over to the Lego store.
) how wonderful! and i love that your son took the balloon with him to the halloween party!
Linear Mode
