A Grown Woman Crying--Our First Trip (Finally Posted!) - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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.
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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.
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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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A Grown Woman Crying--Our First Trip (Finally Posted!)
I've not posted a trip report yet as I've been busy planning my next TWO return trips! But I've been given such fantastic advice on this site, I feel I should share the story of 'the first trip'. So....ahem...this is going to be long...
Part I--Arrival
I never wanted to go to Disney World. In fact, when I was ten years old, my family took me there and I hated it. But I 'had to' go back this past November to attend a convention. My husband and I were coming off of an absolutely awful trip to Europe (Who doesn't like Paris? This girl!) and he was honestly scared to travel with me again so close to 'The Europe Misadventure'. Well, guess what? I LOVED Disney World. I sat in the airport on the way home and googled prices for a return trip. Seven days after we landed at our home airport, I'd completely booked and planned a mother-daughter trip, and I've been given lots of great advice on here for that planning. But I digress...let's start at the beginning...
We spent our first night off-site to save money. The Hampton Inn was great, as was the very nice Italian restaurant we walked to at 9:30pm, starving and in need of a post-work-day-post-two-hour-flight glass of wine. I wish I knew the name of the restaurant because I'd recommend it to everyone.
The alarm clock went off at 6am and my husband started jumping up and down (I am not kidding) and yelling 'we're going to Disney World!' I had told him I would be doing this, but I was wrong--I was really, really tired! It took us 10 minutes to get from the cheap hotel to the lobby of the Beach Club Resort, another five to check into our hotel (at 7:30am!), another five to walk to our room, and maybe another ten to freshen up and walk to the bus stop. We were at the gates to the Magic Kingdom before 8:40.
I had no idea there was a little show before the rope drop (in fact, I'd never heard the term 'rope drop' before!) and right before the train pulled into the station and all of the characters started singing and dancing, this HUGE bird flew up and landed on the ball on top of the american flag pole on the highest point of the train station. It was really amazing...and then I started to cry. Just a little, mind you, but a few tears leaked out. Yes, there I stood, a grown woman crying at a bird and the opening ceremony to the Magic Kingdom.
I cried harder when we actually entered the park.
I clicked a few quick photos and then practically ran down Main Street towards the castle...
I shall stop now and attempt to upload some photos. Stay tuned for Part II--The Magic Kingdom!
Photos below: 1. The husband waiting to get in to the MK. 2. A fuzzy pic of the bird on the rooftop. 3. Me SO excited!
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'd read somewhere that you should go to Adventure Land first if you don't have children (possibly in my passporter) and so we did. I had a few 'must dos', and two of them were in Adventure Land--the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. We were on the second or third boat of the day for the Jungle Cruise, and it was definitely a good first experience. I loved how they let one of the kid on board 'steer' through the cave--that was my first moment of understanding what 'Disney Magic' is all about.
After the Jungle Cruise we walked about contemplating whether or not Adventure Land was even open--there was NO ONE there! We rode Aladdin with maybe one other family, and then made our way to Pirates of the Caribbean. This was the ride that broke me when I was a child--I could not deal with the insanity that was the line. We walked right on and during the ride--yep, you guessed it, I cried. I also REALLY liked the recent movie-related additions to the ride, as I'm a huge fan of all three movies (and Johnny Depp!)
We then walked over to Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road...and looked at it. And walked away.
It is fortunate that we took photos of ourselves outside of Splash Mountain before we went on--I sat in THE SEAT that gets wet. I may as well have taken a shower with all of my clothes on--but it was GREAT. We both loved the whole ride and would have gone on again had it not taken half the day to dry out my underwear!
We then walked over to Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road...and looked at it. And walked away.
Entering Fantasy Land, we each had different things on our minds--I wanted to ride It's a Small World and the husband wanted to ride Dumbo. My desire was nostalgia driven--who doesn't want to ride 'Small World' when they go to Disney? The husband's desire was experience driven--he went to Disney as a small child and totally freaked out on Dumbo. He felt he needed to 'conquer' the ride; because I love him, I stood in the longest line of the day--twenty minutes to ride Dumbo. I hate to admit it, but there was a really nice view from that elephant car.
Oh--and I loved 'Small World', and in between we rode the carousel, hoping to dry off from Splash Mountain (it didn't work!).
While I really wanted to ride Winnie the Pooh, the line was insane, so we skipped it (more reason to go back again!) After obtaining a Fast Pass for Peter Pan (which was AWESOME, especially after visiting actual London and riding the London Eye), we made for my number one Disney desire--The Mad Tea Party. I thought I wanted to ride them because they were classic Disney--they actually turned out to be really, really fun.
At some point in here we also visited the Haunted Mansion--another one of my 'must-dos'. It was even better than I'd hoped.
Please note--this was all before NOON. The park was close to empty--aside from Fantasy Land--and we managed to do all of that before lunch...with another:
We then walked over to Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road...and looked at it. And walked away.
After the last 'walking away from BTMRR', we decided to take the train around the park. We thought it would be scenic. It wasn't. Fortunately we were able to make our 1:15 reservation at Liberty Tree. The meal was great, and it was our first experience dining in Dinsey.
More on this later...I'm going to hit 'submit' now before this freezes and I lose everything I've written!
Photos: 1. The husband in awe on Jungle Cruise. 2. Aladdin alone! 3. Splash Mountain Pre-Splash 4. The view of Fantasy Land from Dumbo
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I cry everytime we go. You should have seen me when I saw Disney's cruise ship. It was pretty bad. My husband tells people not to get me started. I am glad you got the Disney bug! Isn't it fun?
Don't worry about the tears! Disney magic makes me cry on every single trip--several times! My "family" likes to point and laugh! You are off to a great start! I can't wait to read the rest of it! Good luck planning your future trips!
I love your "and looked at it and then we walked away" moments. Can't wait to read more about your trip, you have a great start here. Also, I cried when we got on the Magic Express bus in September...and when we got to the hotel. And when we got to Magic Kingdom and going down Main Street....so don't feel bad!
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.
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