My Best Trip Ever! A Disney Trip 10 Years in the Making - Page 9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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You are a very patient person. I believe that I would have told Christine how I felt about having to change plans to accomodate her actions. Glad you and Evan are having a great time.
I like to think my patient and Christine is really high stung - as you will find out - so it really wasn't worth the fight.
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Originally Posted by materstater
More please!!
coming right up
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Originally Posted by Dawn in Scotland
I'm impressed with how well Evan was behaving, it sounds as if he was a delight to be with. Loving the trip report!
He was a REALLY good boy
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Originally Posted by honeybee723
Great photos! Chad has a cousin who married a dancer, and she used to work out in stilettos to strenghten her leg muscles. I doubt that's what those "girls" were doing, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.
I doubt it too
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Originally Posted by KMB733
Great Photopass Photos!!!
Thanks
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Originally Posted by lauriep
Great morning at MK. Too bad Evan backed out of some of the rides, but you ended up doing a lot and he'll probably feel more comfortable next time. As you say, as long as he's having fun! Sounds like a good plan to veer off on your own for the afternoon. Your family just doesn't seem to have the knack of traveling as a group down-- they keep going off without you! The photopass pics are great!
I was a little disappointed he backed out but at least he was happy - happy kids makes for happy mommy!
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Sorry Evan didn't want to ride HM or SM. I have the same problem with my DS (and he's 9)! Great photopass pics from AK!
Oh I hope he out grows this before he is 9!!!
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Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
Too funny Evan was chatting about the strollers! Looks like a fun morning!
He does like to chat!
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Originally Posted by honeybee723
Yay for Evan for riding BTMRR. I would have been really impressed if he would have done SM, but there's always next time.
I think SM was a long shot but at least we got in the line with out a melt down
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Originally Posted by mcc0313
Glad that Evan was recieving some birthday magic. What a great morning the two of you had at the MK. Love the pictures from AK.
More birthday magic to come
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Originally Posted by Cam22
Great PP pics! You two had an awesome morning at MK! Sorry you didn't get to ride HM!
me too I really love HM
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Originally Posted by chezp
Great day so far - sorry Evan wasn't up for all the rides.
Hopefull next time he'll do everything
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Originally Posted by KMB733
Great morning at MK!! Sorry to hear there were some rides Evan didn't want to ride!
It was a great morning, even if I didn't get to do HM or SM
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Originally Posted by JKnott17
Sounds like a great morning, but sorry there were some rides you missed. We finally got my DD on HM this trip, after years of trying
I'm hoping he'll grow into those rides.
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Originally Posted by islandgirl
Great morning at MK!!
it was - thanks
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Originally Posted by rhinohunter
Nice day @ MK. Sorry about the rides. Hopefully Evan will come around.
I hope so too!
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Originally Posted by OhToodles!
I love all the pics of Evan. He's too cute!
Dylan felt about the same for BTMRR, but he did enjoy Splash.
As we were leaving the “mountain range” we found a couple to give our BTMRR FP’s to. Of course Evan had a million questions as to what I was doing and why.
We headed into Pecos Bills for lunch. It was crowded and they weren’t doing the “wait until you have food and then find the table” thing. Fortunately, we found a table – one of only a few and we had our lunch.
Now I was planning on heading back to the hotel for a little rest – but that is not what happened. We just kept finding new and interesting things along the way but all the while moving toward the exit.
First we took the train from Frontierland to Main Street. Once on Main Street, I thought it would be nice to get our picture together with Mickey and Minnie so we went toward that area. I noticed the wait for both the Princess and Mickey were minimal but I grabbed a FP for the mice just in case.
Before we saw Mickey, Pinocchio showed up and we were second in line to meet him.
Then it was right into the stand by line for “the girls”. Evan met Cinderella, Belle and Aurora. I almost started to cry when he met Cinderella (the first princess) as this was his first face character. Evan acted all shy; I think it was the quietness of the room. I was just so choked up with emotion. It was like – here it is, the moment I’ve thought about, dreamt about and wished for…for years! Next was Belle and she taught Evan how to greet a princess – by kissing their hand so when he met Aurora he showed her what he had learned and she was very impressed. Of course they all commented about his birthday and how old he was, and called him by name.
practicing!
Moving in for a "proper" greeting
Next we met Mickey. Minnie was not there. Apparently she was off baking Mickey a cheese cake. Evan, with a little help from me and the cast member was able to guess Mickey’s pantomime.
After we came out there were some hula hoops on Main Street and Evan did that for about 10 minutes or so, all the while the cast member commented about his birthday, how old he was, was he having a good time, etc… Next I took him to buy a new hat and he chose the baseball hat with the Mickey face and ears on it. Eric has the same one so now they were twins. I needed to pick up a set of Pluto mouse ears for a friend at home so that was checked off the list as well.
Next we visited with Pluto – I think that was Evan’s favorite character for the entire trip. He scratched Pluto behind his ears and Pluto loved it. Next we had a photo session in the flag pole area (sorry I don’t know the technical name of this area). We were looking down Main Street at the castle with the fall decorations on either side.
All the while I kept thinking – oh we’ll just do this and head back. So the conversation in my head was something like this…
After the train we’ll head back…
Ok right after we visit with Mickey we’ll go back to the hotel…
Just let me pick out his hat and then we can go…
Oh Pluto is out – let’s get a quick photo…
I really want a shot with the pumpkins THEN we can go…
At this point I decided it was time for the first Mickey bar of the trip. Evan had the big long popsicle. We sat on the ground near a water fountain to enjoy our yummy, cool treat. It had taken us so long I honestly thought I might see the rest of our group on their way out so I called my mom to see what they were all doing as I thought I might wait for them if they were close to leaving. She said they had just left. I told her we were still on MS enjoying an ice cream and must have just walked past us. They were in line for the monorail so I told her we’d catch her back at the hotel.
As I was taking the wrapper off Evan’s popsicle I had brought a plastic drink lid and placed the stick through the slots on the lid, like a make-shift drip-tray for the popsicle, in the hopes of saving his clothes from ice cream stains. Again he had a million questions about what I was doing and as I explained it him a man came over to the water fountain with his daughter and saw what I was doing. The guy made a comment about how ingenious that was. I told him “this isn’t my first time at the rodeo”. I later told Christine what I had done and she had never heard about it either and the idea. So I helped at least 2 people with that little tip. Hey maybe I should submit that into the newsletter.
Ice creams finished and tummies full, it truly was time to go and we made our way to the resort monorail. As we got into the monorail and it pulled away Evan says “I just saw Aunt Jill”. “I don’t think so sweetie – Aunt Jill is like 15 minutes ahead of us and is probably at the hotel. It must have seen someone that looks like her.”
Just then my sister calls me – “We just saw you”. “What? No way – Evan just saw you”. They had gotten in line for the express monorail and that line was down so they had been waiting for about 15 minutes. Good thing as that one wasn’t going to stop at the Poly anyway. Turns out they ended up getting the bus to Shades once they got to TTC. I really ought to listen to Evan when he says things because he has been right on more than one occasion. Even when I think it is far fetched, like I see Aunt Jill.
Coming up Next
An unexpected afternoon turns into a horrible night.
A great afternoon at MK! I totally understand your "after this, we'll go" but you never do. Happens to me all the time You got some great pics of Evan with the characters, he is so adorable! I'm not liking the sound of your teaser, I hope your night doesn't turn out as bad as it sounds.