Making Lemonade out of Mousefest **Updated 2/18** COMPLETE - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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Heather - I just read your TR from beginning to end. Great pictures! They brought back so many memories. It was so good meeting you this week and sharing rides - both in the parks and to and from SSR. I'm glad you made it safely home my friend.
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The Mousefest that Almost Wasn't Day 1 12/11/08 Travel Day!
This Mousefest almost didn't happen for a myriad of reasons . . . all of them compounded into 12 little hours. My story really begins on the night before Mousefest . . . funny how that worked out isn't it.
So . . .
Twas the night before Mousefest and I had to work. In fact my boss had me closing despite the fact that I had an early flight. Well I closed the bar just before 11pm completely frustrated by a truly rude guest. So I put everything away and made sure everything was clean and finished the paperwork.
I could have headed out to the street car stop, but no . . . I headed to Chuck's sports bar instead. Please remember that I have to get up in 7.25 hours to leave for the airport. Unfortuantely, at Chucks I run into my dear friend Thom who has just closed the restaurant bar and we start talking . . . and drinking and talking and drinking and I of course have just one too many. We hopped into a cab as we live less than a block apart and headed for home. Airport is now 5.5 hours away.
I set my alarm clock and fell into bed, unfortunately I didn't notice . . . thank you Mr Morgan, that while setting the alarm clock I had also advanced the time. Alarm goes off . . . way to soon . . . I pick up my head and look at the clock . . . which instead of reading 6am reads 8am.
PANIC AT THE DISCO!!
I start to rebook my flight and get myself a seat on the 11am flight no problem, just more money . . . and then I look down at my computer. My computer tells me its 6am. AHHHHHH I would have made my flight. SO I call SW and they rebook me on the earlier flight no problem. This was a mistake. I should have stayed on the 11am flight. But I am determined to make it to Orlando as early as possible.
I get to the airport about 30 minutes later. Its still kind of dark and its SNOWING. I park at the Park and Fly, which I have already prepaid and hop on the shuttle to the airport. I check in and check my 2 bags and head through security. Shortly after I get seated my flight is posted as delayed. I believe I went outside for a break at this point. When I got back . . . after a pat down at security, this announcement came over the loudspeaker: "The New Orleans International Airport is now closed to airtraffic." and Southwest makes the announcement that my flight is now no longer delayed, but CANCELED. See should have stayed on the 11am flight. So I get in line at the counter and call my dad, yeah computer geek Dad.
Dad checks the SW site first. Nothing is available until Friday. Then Dad finds a 5pm flight on AA for about $500. The only way I could do that would be to NOT EAT all week. Then a voice sounds in front of me. Southwest is not rebooking from the counter we need to go back to ticketing. AHHHHH. Someone ahead of me looks at my bag and my clothes and says . . . "Going to Mousefest?" YUP! "What are you going to do?" I Don't know . . . What are you going to do? Turns out the person two people ahead of me has spotted my passporter badge and we decide to take my car out of parking and drive to Orlando . . .
Who is the mystery stranger . . . and why on earth would she get in the car with CRAZY me? Well thats easy . . . she wasn't really a stranger everyone else knows her as Anita Answer. Just so you know . . . her name isn't actually Anita.
We pulled out of the Park and Fly and onto I10 at about 10am.
Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
Terrific start, Heather! I still can't get over how you just hopped in the car and drove, with a new friend along for the ride. Come back with more soon!
What a crazy morning...snow in New Orleans, alarm ahead of the time...but you made it to Mousefest, and what a great travel companion to drive down with. That will be something to go down in your memory book...I picked up Anita Answer and drove her to Disney
Can't wait to hear more...hope you are feeling better real soon.
What a crazy morning...snow in New Orleans, alarm ahead of the time...but you made it to Mousefest, and what a great travel companion to drive down with. That will be something to go down in your memory book...I picked up Anita Answer and drove her to Disney
Can't wait to hear more...hope you are feeling better real soon.
I am feeling a bit better thanks! The drugs seem to be doing their job! Any the Merryvale Merlot. I have the day off tomorrow so I should be able to get the rest of my travel day and the beginning of my first day posted!
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We drove and we drove and we drove some more. Okay I was still a leetle under the weather from the escapades the previous night so actually Andrea drove. We stopped at about noon at a McDonald's somewhere for food and fuel. I didn't have a full tank when we left New Orleans. Then Andrea drove some more and attempted to attend a work conference call . . . didn't work out so well, but she tried.
Andrea had one of those neat portable GPS devices so we plugged in and if figured out where we were once we told it where we were going! At some point we switched drivers so I took over behind the wheel and Andrea took over as navagation control. After dinner at Subway and more gas we switched back and Andrea got us to the Beach Club with no problem.
I really enjoyed her company. Its amazing how well you get along with some people without even trying. We had a very pleasant trip. Occasionally the alarm on her phone would go off and alert her as to where she was supposed to be . . . Sorry Mike . . . I didn't mean for Anita Answer to miss Mousefest 101!
Before I knew it we were pulling into the Beach Club. I helped Andrea unload her stuff and she gave me her phone number in case I found anything she left behind or needed anything. At this point please remember that I have ZERO luggage. It was somewhere in Southwest's capable hands. Unfortunately I didn't know if that meant New Orleans or Orlando. Please also remember that I am wearing my PAJAMAS!! (and sneakers)
After saying my goodbyes and making use of the lovely restroom in the BC lobby, I set out to find Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa. I've never driven around WDW before. I don't have a map. I do have Andrea's directions memorized: right out of the gate, left at the light, left at the water tower thing that says OKW, right at sign for OKW, pass OKW and turn right into SSR. Its now 11:00pm. I followed all the directions correctly and got to SSR without having to make any u-turns! GO ME!! I can be a little directionally challenged when driving. (For example when driving from NOLA to NJ I once missed a split that put me in Ohio instead of Pennsylvania and out of my way by 4 hours!)
When I got to the little gate where they make sure you are a guest. I about collapsed on the steering wheel. I told the Security Gaurd all about my day while he was checking his clip board. I started to dig out my ID, but he told be not to bother, I'd had enough trama for the day. Don't worry it gets better from here. (I also get lost.)
I pull up to the Carriage House and am almost immediately called to the desk. I get all checked in and then I ask the big question . . . the really big question . . .
"Can you help me locate my luggage?"
No no, I'm not going to leave you hanging today. I'm usually good for that, but not today.
I explain to the woman about checking my luggage and not bothering to retrieve it before leaving the airport. I literally have my purse, the clothes (PAJAMAS) on my back and my laptop. Oh a a pair of jeans that was randomly sitting on my backseat. I don't know if they fit or not at this point.
Guess what? My luggage was already there! Southwest put it on a plane and DME picked it up, in spite of the fact that I never got on a plane or on a DME bus! Awesome! Both of my bags and my Owner's Locker were present, accounted for and being sent up by Bell Services! I was so happy I almost jumped across the desk and hugged the CM, but I didn't want to get thrown out before I'd even seen my room.
I head back out to my car after checking with Bell Services and look at the map of SSR. I'm heading to the Paddock. I miss the turn, it looks further on the map then it actually is. I keep going and take the next right, which takes me all the way round and then I see a sign that says "The Paddock" so I pull in and then I look at the room numbers. They are oh 1000 numbers lower than my room number . . . I turn around. I ALMOST get run down by a flying golf cart! I pull back out into the street and crawl past another parking lot looking at the numbers . . . still to low. I finally find where I'm supposed to be, which would have been the second building if I had made the correct turn, but was really the I don't know 6th building because I missed the turn.
So I climb one flight of stairs to my room and THE DOOR WON'T OPEN. Okay the little light turns green . . . I push down on the handle, the handle doesn't move. Little light turns green. I push down on the handle, it jiggles. Little light turns green. I slam down on the handle and the door FLYS open. Yeah!
And I am speachless! The room is fantastic.
And the VIEW
Yeah! I love DVC!
Bell Services drops off my bags very quickly and I decide to go for a walk to try and figure out how far it is to the food court etc. Its pretty far. Not miles, but pretty far. I'm about as far away as you could be, but thats okay! Its good exercise. I journey back to the room and set up my computer and check email etc an then get ready for bed and set a wake up call. I'm all ready to head out to AK first thing in the morning!
Glad you made it!! And how great that your luggage was waiting there for you!! Great pictures of your room! Glad you finally found it and could get in!!
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I hope it gets better from here on in. 
to hear about the rough start, but I have a feeling it's going to be a magical journey in your car! Looking forward to more
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