Best Trip Ever - We laughed so Hard I should have Brought Some Depends - - FABULOUS PP Meet & Magical Moment on TSM **Updated 12/7** - Page 11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
A FABULOUS PP Meet; Rissa Disappointment with my Favorite Ride; Magical Moment on TSM - Cont'd
We arrived "safely" at SSR. Rissa was thoroughly impressed with SSR and actually ended up liking it better than WL (sacrilege! LOL), but I think mainly because she loved the 1 bedroom as compared to a regular hotel room.
We checked in and found not only was our room ready, it was on the highest floor and in the Grandstand just as we had requested and it was ready. We paid for our DDP and then went to the Concierge desk to get our tickets for the HDD - which she requested that we wait until the night of just in case we "lost them". Apparently she doesn't know about the fine pockets in our PP - but we said we'd come back the morning of. Then she mentioned that we still needed to pay for our DDP. Well, we had just paid all $1000 of it and we paid in cash and the front desk forgot to give us our receipt, so we had to run over and get our cash receipt from the lady who checked us in. With that all taken care of, we still needed to get our MNSSHP tickets. She then told us we had to pick those up at EPCOT at the Guest Center. So we figured we'd get those the next day as we were going to EPCOT that day. We never figured what a "challenge" that was going to be ..... She did ask us the exact day of our Anniversary and the exact day of Rissa's birthday and all of our favorite characters. Gee, you think somethings up?? LOL
After that was all complete, we headed over to the store, bought a few things - including our morning half and half for our coffee. Did I mention we bring our own beans and coffee grinder? We went and checked out our FABULOUS room.
We loved our room as expected. We'd stayed in a 1 bedroom before there and knew how lovely it would be. Of course our luggage was not there yet, but we knew we could get that later. We dropped off a few things (namely our money in the safe and credit cards, etc.) and left.
On the bus over to DHS a little girl, around 4 years old, LOVED my toes and proceeded to touch the flowers painted on them. LOL I thought it was funny and apparently her parents thought it was "normal" behavior for their daughter. She was really sweet and told me all about her and how her brother do not get along and how he doesn't eat his "greens"??
We made it to DHS by around 2:20. We rode TOT and the moment we walked off, Rissa turned to me and said "Well, that was a disappointment". Apparently, she was expecting a carnival ride like "the drop zone" and this was not up to snuff. She did warm up to the ride later when she could appreciate the 'fun zone' on TOT. Now this is my FAVORITE ride and I was a bit disappointed with her reaction. But Disney to her was like a giant carnival and she was more into "speed". This led us over to RNR, but not before we got FPs for a later drop on TOT.
They have changed the Guest Assistance for RNR and now want us to transfer to a wheelchair. Well, there is no way I'm expecting my family to push my large rear end up those ramps on a wheelchair, so I just parked my ECV and we waited in the line. It was only a 15 minute or so wait and I was good. She, of course, LOVED it. It was a huge hit!!!
We rode GMR next of which she declared BORING as well. In fact she looked ENTIRELY bored the whole ride.
After the boring afternoon we had, we headed over to our reservation at H&V. As we left the Great Movie ride the sky decided to OPEN UP and POUR down on us. I proceeded to take my HUGE clear tote and wear it completely over my head. It drew lots of stares, but seriously it kept my head dry and I could see through the front of it, so it was all good.
We had a 4:30pm reservation, which I thought was 4:00pm, so we were there a bit early. The meal was just as good as it always is. I had a Blackberry Mojito, that needed some sweetener in it. Once I sweetened it up, it was good. Sheri then walked in the restaurant and sat there while we were finishing up my mojito which she tried (and I think agreed it needed some sweetener).
I then saw Patrick, of whom we had last year. I wish I had taken a picture with him. Well, I mentioned I was a PFLAG mom and on the local PFLAG board and he about flipped. He was so excited and told Kassie how lucky she was to have an excepting mom! I just loved him! Here's some info on PFLAG in case you are interested and don't know what it is: PFLAG: Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays
Our server then brought this out to us. The "Where Dreams Come True" was in cocoa powder:
Then Sheri took this sweet but unflattering picture (of me):
We all headed toward RNR and TOT, but first we took a bunch of crazy Photopass pictures.
First up - We're supposed to look scared - notice Kassie...
Another scared one - Kassie and Rissa both look asleep - but they didn't both plan it, they just were thinking alike:
Everyone got in on the Stitch photo:
RNR - Silliness still happens, by a few...
Ok, everyone's serious, but me....
Everyone was supposed to rock out. I have NO idea what I was thinking?
I don't remember if Sheri rode with us. But I believe she did. She doesn't normally ride these. She'll have to correct me if I'm wrong.
She then left us and headed back to Food and Wine and we headed over to Star Tours. They sent me to the other side - through an empty ride and told me to wait. I waited and waited and figured they'd ridden without me. But no, they were there when the doors opened I was told to walk back through to their car.
It was getting close to our Fantasmic show, so we walked that way and entered the stadium. We all sat down and I ran for water and popcorn and cotton candy. I bought two cotton candy's as they were small and I figured we'd share. The little girl in front of us had gone to BBB and she looked so sweet. I figured her to be about 8 years old. Before the show started, I asked her dad if I could share some cotton candy with her. I figured that would be safer than just giving her some. During the show I couldn't find my water as it had rolled somewhere and it was dark. I kept asking my family if it were down there by them. The little girl had heard me and turned around and said "If I had water, I'd share it with you". Awwwwwwww
Rissa thought Fantastmic was "AMAZING" and her boyfriend told me she didn't like fireworks and "that kind of stuf"...
We then rode TOT and some Columbian family (we overheard them talking about that) rode with us. It was there first time and the father was TERRIFIED. Seriously, he screamed like a girl and that got us laughing our rear ends off!! Even his own kids were all doubled over laughing at him. We all posed like zombies on that ride. I wish I had bought that one as we looked so funny!
Next we met back up with Sheri and we all rode TSM again. This time, we had a longer wait as they had an actual wheelchair to load. It's really pretty amazing how they can accommodate about anyone on this ride. While we were there a French Cast member was talking to us. Now she was pretty, REALLLLYYYY pretty - my daughter enjoyed that and she was SO FUNNY. I mean really silly, would do anything for a laugh funny. It's not often that you see such pretty girls, letting loose. We thought her and two other women were SO SUPER nice. We had a lovely time talking to them. We must have stood there about 15 minutes talking.
Well, we rode our ride and Sam didn't do so bad.
Sam ended up with a decent score:
But when we came around the curve, they said "You have won a special prize. It's called the 'We like you SO MUCH you get to ride again' prize". So we rode two times in a row. How sweet and VERY magical indeed!! Although, as many of you know our arms ACHED when we were done - especially with the Fibromyalgia. I just couldn't stop pulling that cord.
Next we headed to Muppets, which Rissa enjoyed very much. Lastly, we headed over to RNR to use our FPs. The line looked INCREDIBLY long and I just didn't want to stand in it, so we told the girls to go and ride and we'd pick up food at the food area right there on the corner between TOT and RNR. We got everyone's "order" with the intention of taking everything back to the room to eat it before bed as we were all STARVING (we ate dinner at 4:30 and it was almost 11:00pm).
Sam and I picked up 2 turkey legs, drinks, chocolate cake, carrot cake, double cheeseburger and chicken nuggets. At the turkey leg place one guy noticed our anniversary buttons and sang the Happy Anniversary song again to us and then asked us what two sides or desserts did we want as a special present. We chose apple slices (of which they gave us two) and a giant bag of chips. We sat and waited for them on a bench so I called my mom while waiting. I just loved sitting there in all that Disney magic, at night, watching people leave for the night. Knowing we'd have a good meal in the room later. It took them 40 minutes in the FP line (so glad I didn't have to stand in it).
We got back to the room and called bell services to bring our luggage. It was 1:00am. We put stuff away and ate. Then all voted to 'sleep-in' the next morning. I think we were asleep around 1:45.
Up next: There's a Bug Biting My Arm; Test Track in the RAIN; Two Geisha's
__________________
Yvonne:
My Gorgeous Daughter the Graduate----------------->
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.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
WCC was one of our favorite meals last year. We will definitely be doing that next June (yep you read that right). I do not remember any tell of a bug incident though.... Hmmmmm, can't wait for the next installment!
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.