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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.

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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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Old 04-02-2008, 02:04 AM   #1
MaryEL8775
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My Birthday Dream Come True!!! **Updated 10/9** COMPLETE

Ok, well bear with me as this is my first ever trip report. Let me start with introductions....
Last year '07

This year '08

Me ( turning 33 during trip) Student, SAHM, Disney Fanatic
DH (35) Stocker at Costco
DS (11)
DD (10)

This is our 2nd time to WDW and actually only our 2nd family vacation of a lifetime.

We will be staying on-site at Port Orleans French Quarter.
I chose the resort, while DH chose all the ADR's and the kids chose the parks. This way we all had help in the planning.

Our flight leaves out of BDL at 6:45am and arrives at MCO at 9:35am. From there we are taking the DME to our hotel to check in. After check in our plan is to drop off the carry-ons at luggage and go to Epcot for the day til our ADR at Trail's End at 5pm. I am hoping to try the Lotus Blossom Cafe for lunch at Epcot though.

I want for our family to try new things on our vacation. So I hope they like the choices I made for CS meals. We have the basic dining plan so this is ok with is.

After Trail's End, the plan is to go back to the hotel to unpack and swim. I am going to try to surprise the family with a carriage ride however. (They don't know this yet!)

More to follow....
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Old 04-02-2008, 06:43 AM   #2
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Sounds like a lot of fun so far! I am curious about Trails End, you will have to tell us all about it! The carriage ride sounds like so much fun! I think that is a great surprise! Cant wait to hear more
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Old 04-02-2008, 10:26 AM   #3
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Good start! Looking forward to reading more.
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Old 04-02-2008, 11:02 AM   #4
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You're off to a great start Mary!
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Old 04-02-2008, 12:16 PM   #5
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Old 04-02-2008, 12:53 PM   #6
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Day 2 plans...

This is our first complete day at WDW so we are going to spend ALL day except for dinner at the Magic Kingdom.

Up early in the morning and off to see the opening ceremony at 9am...(hopefully)
Lunch will be at Cosmic Ray's around 12pm. Then more fun til Dinner at GF at 1900 Park Fare at 5:05pm. Then back to MK til maybe 11pm. Since the park closes at 12am I figure if we leave an hour earlier while people are watching Spectro at 11pm we can get back at a decent hour.

I do want to catch the 9pm Spectro and the 10pm Wishes as I didn't get to see them last year. I did catch the 11pm last year.

There maybe some time for swimming maybe if the kids don't want to watch the fireworks because I do have other days planned for MK as well since that has the most rides for parks for us.
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Old 04-02-2008, 01:02 PM   #7
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Great plan...definitely try and get in Spectro and Wishes one of the days. LOVE THEM
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Old 04-02-2008, 01:05 PM   #8
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You rplans look great so far...
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Old 04-02-2008, 01:06 PM   #9
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Cant wait to here how yor trip goes!
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Old 04-02-2008, 02:48 PM   #10
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your plans look wonderful
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Old 04-02-2008, 02:57 PM   #11
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Have a great trip!
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Old 04-02-2008, 03:32 PM   #12
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You're making me want to go back right now! Great plans!

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Old 04-02-2008, 04:29 PM   #13
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Great plans! I am looking forward to reading more!
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Old 04-02-2008, 08:21 PM   #14
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Day 3 plans,,,

I am trying to give the kids a small break today lol... So I figure if we get up at 8am and get the kids swimming til 10:30am then hopefully by 11am we can be on our way to Epcot (while everyone else starts taking breaks) Lunch at 12pm at the Cantina de San Angel in Mexico. We love tacos but have never had any at WDW so this should be fun. We will make sure to hit Soarin, Mission Space, Test Track, Spaceship Earth, and Nemo while we are here. Then we are off to Ohana at the Poly for 5pm ressies. After dinner we are headed back to Epcot to get a good spot near the Friendship docks to watch Illuminations at 9pm.

Now I know that the park has EMH that night so we will probably get a few more rides in esp. Soarin' and Mission Space before we head back to the hotel at 11pm. Again we can leave an hour before the park lets out so we don't feel like sardines. But I doubt we will since we are at the POFQ.

Last year we felt so squished on the buses to the All-Stars. NEVER AGAIN!!!!!

Time to sleep til 8am and more swimming....
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Old 04-03-2008, 02:17 AM   #15
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Your plans look great so far!
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Relaxing on board the Magic. The trip report for our back-to-back cruises on the Disney Magic has started!
My Countdown Counting down to: 2019
Happy New Year!
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