The Hula Girls hit WDW Trip Report - UPDATED 9/30 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Cast: Traci(me) 39, DH Aaron 38, DDx3 Lexsie 12, Lakin 9, and Loganne 7.
We flew Airtran out of Kansas City On Sept 20 at 8 am. We arrived in Orlando at 11:45 Florida Time. We were happy with the flight and service of Airtran, would probably use them again despite all the time changes. When we arrived at the DME line it seemed like it was 2 miles long, so I told DH and girls to find a place to camp out and I would get them when we could get in line for the bus. The line moved quicker than I thought, and when I got to the place where it started to zig zag, a cast member told me to get in a new line. She had opened a new line and I was the 2nd person in it. Our first magical moment. Within a few minutes we were in the line for POR. One bus full left and another arrived very quickly and we were on it and off to Walt Disney World!!
Our check in was a little longer. I probably stood in line for 35 minutes until it was my turn. The cast member explained everything very thoroughly, and then we were off to building 25 in AB. Were happy with the location as we had a small pool at the bottom of our staircase and were about a 3 minute walk from the west bus depot. We were a ways from the main building, but that did not really bother us as we didn’t need to go there very often. We threw our stuff in the room, and headed to the bus stop. We were on a mission to get to MK!!! Mickey and friends were waiting for us!!! I am not sure the girls feet hit the ground, they were beyond excited.
We arrived at MK at 2:50, and when we walked in the place was packed. WE were a little freaked out thinking…This is the off season? Then we realized the parade was about to start. DD 7 was shaking with excitement as the princesses floated by her on the big floats. 100_1484.jpg
It was a great way to start our adventure in MK. When the parade was over she basically stormed the castle. We had a hard time keeping up with her!! After that we rode some rides and then decided we were starving. We were right in front of Caseys Corner and it started pouring rain, so we thought…this is a great place to eat. Of course while we were ordering the place filled up with people trying to get out of the rain, so we had to sit on the floor to eat. 100_1495.jpg 100_1496.jpg
We didn’t care, because at that point we would have eaten anything, anywhere!! Those were good hotdogs!!
We spent the rest of the time riding rides, and were surprised that almost everything was a walk on. We did everything on our list and then some!! We lost track of time and missed spectro magic, and I never got to see it at all. We stood close to the zip line for the fireworks, and tink flew right by us. That was a great tip I picked up here on PP. The look on the girls faces during the fireworks was worth the price of the whole trip. I almost started bawling!!! We then headed towards the bus and our first night at POR AB. Day 2 coming at a later date!!!
Great start! What a magical afternoon at the magic kingdom! Glad the crowd turned out to be manageable--walk on--wow!
Your girls are so pretty!
Looking forward to more!
__________________
Read all about it in my TR, "Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!" Jill Phil. 4: 13
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DAY 2
Today we get up early, and believe me…it was a short night, but we must get to Animal Kingdom ASAP!!! 100_1551.jpg
We arrive right as they are letting people in, and of course head straight to the safari. We enjoyed that, but no one wanted to stay and look at the gorillas because of course they needed to get to EE. Well… on the way we run into Kali Rapids, and no one is in line, so we ride that. I got soaked…It felt like a bucket of water was dumped on my head. NOT PLEASANT. The girls want to ride again, and I said now or never, because once I get dry I am not getting back on. DH laughs and laughs….guess who gets in the wrong seat this time? DH whines and whines. I and laugh and laugh!!!! Then we are off to EE, No line there either. We ride 3 times in a row. This is a great way to get dry, by the way!!! I love this ride, kids love this ride, DH can not handle going backwards. He doesn,t ride the 3rd time!!
Now we head to Dinoland. Dinosaur is awesome, and is Dh favorite thing in the whole place. As you can see by the pix--the girls do not love this ride. 100_1561.jpg
I think they are all 3 on the floor!! We mess around awhile and decide to eat lunch at Restaurantosaurus. It was good! I had mandarin chx salad, and the rest had burgers, but we all liked the food.
After lunch we watched the nemo show, and I have to say it was awesome. Don’t miss it!! Then we headed over to the Lion King show, and you won’t want to miss that either. It was very good!! The girls were not interested in the character trails so we ran around and re=rode some rides. The park closed at 5 pm that day, so we hopped on a bus and headed to MK for EMH!
Once in MK we ride all our favorites--Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion..etc. We do a lot again as the lines are very short. We did fast pass splash because it had a 30 minute wait, otherwise waits were 10-15 minutes or less. We ate Dinner at Harbour House, and again the food was very good. I had fish and chips. We stayed until closing, and again we missed spectro magic, and watched the fireworks from adventure land which is not the best view. For some reason DH loved the jungle cruise and we rode it several times. We all really enjoyed POTC too.. Anyway…We got off the bus at the resort at around 12;30 am and we were exhausted. Day 3 to follow…
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