A Christmas Ship Comes Sailing In (A Cam and Luke TR) Completed 2/16 - Page 10 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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.
Tifton has been hit hard…my home town of Albany is not far from Tifton and also badly hit. The flood of '94 caused extreme damage and lots of manufacturing left. I'm so sad when I go home…
But you are in the bubble!!!
I was saddened and felt the folks who lived here as it just looked depressing. But if they've lost their major industries that means jobs and money gone. So sad.
Great Update Cam. The last time I "drove" was in 1978! The Blizzard of '78 to be exact - yikes. All the way from Massachusetts at the time. It was a long long trip for this early teen, at the time. Although, I have actually thought if I had 2+ weeks off at a time, I would consider driving down again.
The last time we had driven to Florida was 1980, so not to far behind you, though we had no blizzard to deal with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Another smooth day of driving mostly! Glad you're in the bubble
Friday had a bit more traffic, but really it was a fairly smooth day.
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.
Glad you finally made it to WDW! What a great feeling that must be after such a long drive! I can't believe the size of the bathroom at your hotel as that's just ridiculous! Can't wait for more details as I'll be on the same cruise in just 3 1/2 months!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Glad you finally made it to WDW! What a great feeling that must be after such a long drive! I can't believe the size of the bathroom at your hotel as that's just ridiculous! Can't wait for more details as I'll be on the same cruise in just 3 1/2 months!
It was ridiculous as the room was quite spacious and could have given up a little space to make the bathroom larger.
Failing to want to go back....was your hotel a Best Western as I recall ? I've stayed at a number of these over the years and the rooms were always quite spacious. Don't remember their baths being small, but perhaps, I am wrong on this. It's been, 2-3 years since I stayed in a BW and I remember the bath being adequate!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Failing to want to go back....was your hotel a Best Western as I recall ? I've stayed at a number of these over the years and the rooms were always quite spacious. Don't remember their baths being small, but perhaps, I am wrong on this. It's been, 2-3 years since I stayed in a BW and I remember the bath being adequate!
It was a Best Western. We've stayed at several of these and this is the first time we had a miniature bathroom.
It was a Best Western. We've stayed at several of these and this is the first time we had a miniature bathroom.
I guess these can all be different and not exactly cookie cutters as you could sum this up! If you're ever up in CT, there is a good one in West Haven., where I've stayed The best thing being next to the Texas Roadhouse Steakhouse, which is quite good.
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
I did feel a little bad stopping the last update right at the point when we arrived at OKW. But the holidays were full of fun activities.
Finally at Old Kew West, we had to circle for a parking space before we could check in, but found one on our last loop. Since we had done online check in, this was quite simple. In a few minutes we knew our room was in Building 38 Room 3812 on the first floor, But at 3:40 it wasn’t ready yet. The CM felt we would get a text right at 4:00. Luke and I both needed a restroom break. Then we wandered around Conch Flats General Store for fifteen or so minutes. Then we headed back to the car to find our building and room even though we’d received no text. Some other DVC folks were also waiting outside for their room to be ready. We first checked at 3:58. Still no joy! I could see through the open shad that the room was ready. At 4:20 just as we decided to return to the Hospitality House, a text came to Luke’s phone that room was ready. I quickly took photos, and then we got our bags.
You can tell that it was not a sunshiny day. I had thought I'd change but chose wisely to keep my Nike pants and hoodie on.
The other DVC folks were a bit perturbed that they had been made to wait when, like us, they could tell the room was ready. We dropped the bags in the room, grabbed the camera, and headed to the Turtle Pond bus stop. Moderate wait before an Epcot bus arrived. The longest part of the ride seemed to be all the stops within OKW itself.
On the bus ride over, I was checking park hours. I turned to Luke and told him that tonight was A Very Merry Scary Birthday Party at MK. As soon as birthday came out of my mouth, I knew I had flubbed up, and the two of us laughed about my new name for the party almost all the way to Epcot. No problems at bag check. Breezed through Magic Band scanners.
Photographers were very busy, but we managed to get a few photos at the holiday centerpiece at the end nearest Spaceship Earth. The Christmas Stitch topiary was our backdrop. I thought our photographer took pictures with her camera, too, but they did not show up on PhotoPass. I didn’t purchase Memory Maker for a 1 ½ day visit, so I am glad she used our camera, too.
We knew going into our time at WDW that there was no way were going to see it all, so our focus was Christmas events that we couldn’t see in May or October. But now the fun was about to begin.
A nice start at OKW and Epcot to your cruise! I didn't realize there were so many bus stops at OKW as I've never stayed there! But should know that as how expansive the resort is and with the many golf rounds (certainly at least 10), I've played at Lake Buena Vista, which surrounds OKW and others here! A lot of LBV golf course occupies OKW and all on the first nine holes. There are other Disney resorts surrounding the LBV course, with them being POR, POFQ, SSR and THV. Quite a lot over a golf course. I think that is all of them. Let me know, if I forgot a resort!
The latter four resorts are on the back nine and just love the views of them, while playing here! . Especially, seeing the boats from the PO resorts going to and fro' to DTD!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!