My Best Trip Ever! A Disney Trip 10 Years in the Making - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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That story about Minnie is priceless! It always amazes me how expressive the characters are using just pantomime, but this one takes the cake! Evan just gets more adorable. I'm glad he warmed up fast to the characters and made the most of his birthday button. I think the other boys must take after their mom, not listening to a veteran's advice!
I do love that Minnie story.
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Originally Posted by honeybee723
That man should have know you don't mess with Minnie Mouse...oh no! Too funny. Glad to hear you had a great meal despite the craziness of that place. And the pictures came out great.
It is amazing how much the characters can communicate without words
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Originally Posted by KMB733
Sounds like a great time at Chef Mickey's!! I the Minnie story! I would have been laughing so hard!!
we were.
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Glad you had a great time at CM's, despite the rude guy! Great pictures!
Thanks
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Originally Posted by Cam22
, Minnie! So wish I had seen that! Otherwise, it was a great meal at CM!
Very nice indeed
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Originally Posted by chezp
Love the story about Minnie and how she dealt with that guy - go girl!
it was really funny
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Originally Posted by JKnott17
LOVE the Minnie story, I'm so glad she put that rude guy in his place Glad dinner was a success, looking forward to more.
Thanks
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Originally Posted by OhToodles!
I want to see a picture of Evan doing his Minnie impersonation.
I can't wait to try Chef Mickey's. We're going for breakfast on our next trip!
Have to see if I can get a photo of him doing it.
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Originally Posted by MayraLR
Great first day! It looks like you had a great time at dinner!
we did - thanks
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Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
Just catching up! Sounds like a great trip so far. I am cracking up over that Minnie story. Love it!
She's my girl
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Originally Posted by debrabrown
Well chalk one up for Minnie teaching the guy some manners. Sheesh!
Yay for the birthday surprises! Bring 'em on!
We got LOTS more birthday surprises
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Originally Posted by rhinohunter
Great Minnie story. Know how she felt. Hope none of the kids saw the jesture.
No I don't think they did.
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Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
Oh what a great story about Minnie Mouse--I suddenly like her a little more today.
Mom! Today was my mom’s birthday and since she hates to be the center of attention and doesn’t celebrate her birthday anymore – we made sure everyone knew it was her birthday.
Today was Animal Kingdom day. It really killed me not to go to the Magic Kingdom for our very first stop but when I planned out all the days, it just worked this way.
I like to be at the parks (or any place for that matter) first thing. I want to take full advantage of the lowest crowds. As it turned out, everyone else wanted to do the same today so we got up bright and early and made it to AK shortly after rope drop.
There were 11 of us all arriving together so it took a few minutes for everyone to get through bag check and entrance gates and then collect maps and times guides. As we are all gathering together a woman approached Evan to wish him as he was wearing his pin. “How many in your group?” she asked. “11” we respond. She then hands us 11 Fast Passes for the Safari. (#2 for the trip of Evan’s birthday pin surprises)
We were all excited and started to head over there. Along the way we posed for some pictures and found stitch.I need to get the photo CD back from my sister so I'll have to post photos later. Lots of people wished Evan a and every time we’d say “It’s Grandmom’s birthday too” everyone guessed her age as either 29 or 21 – gotta love those cast members. Each time we pointed out that it was Grandmom’s birthday she would hit us (playfully) “Oh will you shut-up” she would mutter under her breath. But the kids liked teasing her and she was agreeable.
While walking through Africa one of the drummers came around and we stopped to listen for a minute or two. Evan loves to dance so he was bopping away and the guy was singing and then into his song he sings “Happy Birthday Evan” (just that line not the whole birthday song) surprise #3. My sister tells the other birthday people you remember those that didn’t want to wear their pins “That is the kind of stuff they do when they see your pin”
We get onto the Safari using our FP and having no wait. We got the last 2 rows of our vehicle so we got some nice shots out the very back. We got to see the family of elephants and several of the babies and teens (the smaller ones, I’m not sure their ages).
The lion was walking around his rock for a moment or two and then laid down but at least we saw him briefly. The rhinos passed the road right behind us and since we were in the back we had a really good view.
The cheetahs were really active. One was running around and the other was fixated on something and you could see him stalking something.
We saw a bunch of warthogs sleeping in their burrows right by the side of the truck but I just checked and I don’t have any photos
– they really are ugly aren’t they?
During the ride I was trying to explain to Evan about poachers and Big Red and Little Red and he was very nervous that the little baby elephant had lost his mommy. As we left the ride I told him everyone was safe and he helped get the mommy and baby back together. He talked about the lost baby elephant for 2 days – I guess it really had an effect on him.
After the safari we decide to do PFET. As we are some where into the trail I needed to use the bathroom. I asked a CM where the nearest one was. “There is only one bathroom in Africa” he said. This made me laugh . I powered walked trough the rest of the trail. I saw that Lilly was out but didn’t stop to see her. I made it to the bathroom and as I was getting back to the trail just as everyone else was coming out. It was time for a little break I bought a water and we all pulled out our snacks to share . I had peanut butter crackers for me and cheese crackers for Evan but someone offered him some potato chips – guess what he chose? Well wouldn’t you pick chips over crackers? Hey it’s vacation so I don’t care what he ate relatively speaking.
Then everyone else needed a potty break. After that we split up Jill took her older kids to do some of the bigger rides and we took Eric with us as we were going to Camp Minnie/Mickey for some autographs. We were all going to meet at the 2pm Nemo show. Our first stop was to let E and E have their faces painted. Christine’s boys didn’t want theirs done so she took them to a kiosk next to the face painting and they picked out special leather bracelets with their name’s on them.
Evan showing his scary tiger - that is what he always gets - Eric was some sort or dinosaur/monster
On our way into CM/M the Lion King show let out and we were like salmon swimming up stream. But once we got to the trails, things cleared out. First up was Chip and Dale. While waiting we saw a gecko running on the ground. It jumped up on Bryson’s shoe and Christine grabbed a picture. Then it scampered over onto Gunnar’s shoe and he screamed holy murder. The poor thing ran off and we cracked up laughing. Chip and Dale were as playful as always and the meeting was nice.
After our meet and greet I needed the rest room again and was afraid this might be an issue all day – thankfully it wasn’t. While in the potty I was thinking what our next move would be. We had seen all the characters that were in CM/M last night so we didn’t really want to wait in any longs lines plus we still needed lunch and to be over for the Nemo show by 2pm.
I got out of the rest room and asked everyone if they wanted lunch. “We just ate” Christine tells me. She had packed sandwiches for herself and the boys and they were hungry so they ate. I was a bit annoyed. Now what would she do while we had lunch? Just sit there? I wasn’t going to go to some sit down place for an hour or more and make her wait for us – so I guess we weren’t going to need that ADR at Tusker House. My mom was really annoyed too.
Problem was Christine didn’t want to spend any money. Now her father (my mom’s boyfriend) paid for her whole trip and gave my mom $1500.00 for her to use to pay for things for Christine. But Christine didn’t want to spend any money. Later in the week she loosened up a little when my mom reminded her she had the money from her father – but that wasn’t the case right now.
We started to leave CM/M and I decided we needed to eat so we went into Pizzafari. We all got pizzas and Chris and her kids got sodas. This is just one to the things that is a pain about traveling with a group or with people you don’t know very well. Both my mom and I are very easy going and can change gears quickly so really no harm no fowl.
Birthday pin surprise count: 3
Coming up Next:
Checking an item off my to do list
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Great day overall! I love all the surprises Evan is getting. And how sweet is he, worrying about Little Red getting back to his mommy? Fortunately for the harmony of your group, you're much more easygoing than I would be at Christine packing lunch without letting anyone in on her plans. That's just .
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Fortunately for the harmony of your group, you're much more easygoing than I would be at Christine packing lunch without letting anyone in on her plans. That's just .
I'm usually pretty easy going, but that really would have boiled my blood. I give you credit for just going with the flow for everyone else's sake
Bummer on TH! I would've gone without them. Love Evan's face painting. I offered Dylan to get his done but he didn't want to. They do it at our zoo and now he's determined to have it done ( the last two times it was closed).