The trip report that may never be......UNLESS.... - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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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Location: Physically stuck in Michigan while my heart and soul reside in Disney.....
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The trip report that may never be......UNLESS....
Ok, you all! I need help! Probably more help that any of you can give but thats beside the point...lol.
Seriously! We leave for our 12 day WDW vacation on the 26th...that is 5 days! It is our first one since Brent and I got married this spring. So very very special. Both of us are crazy busy getting ready, I have to work all weekend and I know Brent has tons of stuff to do to get ready to go BUT........I want a pre-trip report!!!! Now we all know what I want, is what should happen!
Besides he does them sooo much better than me, much more entertaining! I need to enlist each and every one of you to help!
BRENT (disdadnmi)...PLEASE GIVE US A PRE-TRIP REPORT!!!!
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I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world
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Heather - "I'm Tinkerbell's biggest fan!"
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
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WDW- july 2015 beach club
It is a busy day/weekend, but I'll give it a shot. Waiting patiently by the computer right now for 9:00 for the Bruce Springsteen tickets to go on sale in Detroit.
OK, here we go: First a little background: Smilechaser (Liz) and I have been friends for the better part of three years now and actually met through Passporter. We are now married (almost always happily!) and about to take our first trip to Disney as a family. Here are our last too trip reports if anyone is interested in a little background:
We have most of our usual cast intact: My lovely wife, Liz. Disney freak extraordinairre! What she has in personality, and humor and vivaciousness more than makes up for what she lacks in the culinary skills. (After all who the heck has the fire department come to her house two Thanksgivings in a row??? "but the directions never said to take the pumpkin pie out of the box before you bake it") Heeee I'll pay for that one.
Our eldest daughter that is going with us: Tori. Our 14-year old Emo kid. 3 months ago she claimed to be too old for Disney and this would most likely be her last trip with us. Since then she has become almost more excited about it than the younger ones. She currently sports purplish hair and sends out in excess of 10,000 txts per month. She is a fantastic young lady, and I am so very blessed to call this young lady my daughter now the Liz and I are married. She is truly the example of everything that is good about 14-year old kids. She is like my own flesh and blood daughter. Luv ya Tori!
Our second eldest daughter, Jordan. 12 years old and a true Disney and Ariel lover. Last trip she was kissed by Ariel and proudly sported the lipstick on her cheek for most of the day. She is not quite up to Tori in terms of txt messages but is gaining ground. Her hair is currently blue, like the Sea, hoping Ariel will like it. She puts up with my Cinderella obsession like a champ. (Those of you unfamiliar with my love for Cinderella, I refer you to our trip reports, most notably the engagement one) Thanks, darlin!
Brendan: The 10-year old boy of the group. Typical 10-year old boy. Loves Mickey. Into everything, rambunctious, but still a Disney lover. Puts up with My Cinderella obsession too and even managed to get me some special attention at a few of our dinners on last August's trip. Most notably at Akershush when Cinderella came up to our table. He grabbed the camera, looked at me and said 'get up there, big guy!'
Cheyenne: Oh my. Blond hair, blue eyes, 10-year old Simba loving young lady. Cheyenne adds much to our new improved family, and I am really looking forward to this vacation with her.
Capsule:
We are taking off from Detroit Metro Airport on Wed 8/26 around noon, hopefully, and arriving at Orlando mid afternoon, without fear of hurricanes this year (right Liz?) And even if we do encounter inclement weather we WILL have ponchos this year. Wait a minute, SOME of us had ponchos last year, right Liz?? Oh, and some of us actually had luggage when we got there. And it contained dry clothes! (Sly little reference to Liz's little incident last year with her luggage. Who in the heck checks every single piece of luggage when traveling into a hurricane anyway? Let me see, you want to take the only dry clothes I have while I'm flying into a hurricane to an airport that is swamped with people and cancelled flights and hope everything comes out ok when I'm reunited with my luggage in my room at Disney??) If all goes well we will be checking in to POP around 4 pm and settling in, taking it easy that night. We requested a room in the 80's section facing the pool. (Love that 80's music they play there!)
Here's our plans:
Thurs 8/27: Arriving at MK for morning EMH. Got to see the Castle, and Cinderella to make it seem real. ADR at Crystal Palace 10:00.
Fri 8/28: Morning is wide open for whatever we want to do as we have park hoppers. Evening will be at Epcot as we have 5:00 ADR at Biergarten.
Sat 8/29: Going for evening EMH at Animal Kingdom, 9:00 pm ADR at Boma.
Sat 8/30. 5:00 Akershush ADR for me and the younger kids, Rose and Crown ADR for Liz and Tori at the same time. then hopping over to MK for evening etra magic. Will definitely see Cindy then!
Mon 8/31 Evening EMH at the Studios. Not going to miss that! 4:00 ADR at 50's Primetime.
Tues 9/1 This day is wide open, may hit a water park, or go with the flow. ADR at Whispering Canyon 5:00
Wed 9/2 Another go with the flow day. Water park or whichever parks we have neglected so far. But the real highlight of this day is our Evening ADR at 1900 Park Faire!!! Look out Cindy, here I come! Last time we ate here is when I proposed. 8:00 pm!
Thur 9/3. 6:00 pm ADR at Lecellier!!! Liz is really looking forward to this. So this is probably an Epcot day. Water park in the am??
Fri 9/4 Evening ADR at Chef Mickeys
Sat 9/5: Here it is!!! Breakfast at the Castle!!! MMMmmmmm!! Can't wait for this. it's at 8:30 so we get to arrive at MK at 8:00 and walk down Main Street with very few people around. Take many pictures at the Castle then go in to Meet Cinderella. I'll be looking forward to this the whole trip. The younger girls have appointments at The Bibbidi Boppidy Boutique at 11:00. Jordan says she's going to be a Hippy. (Can they do that?) and Cheyenne is undecided.
Other things we plan on doing: Brendan and I will rent a Sea raycer. We want to spend a day checking out other resorts, and plenty of time just baking in the sun after this horribly cold Michigan Summer we've had.
I know this is brief, but I promise a full, detailed picture filled report when we return!!
Brent
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Last edited by Disdadnmi; 08-22-2009 at 06:24 PM..