The "Aren't you glad I booked the room?" TR - Page 12 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Even though the last few days before vacation were spent doing things we needed to do before leaving, the "real" work happened on Saturday. It all started with getting our boarding passes at 6:25 AM. I was online and ready for it but my passes were still B 19, 20 and 21. We preboard because of Lenny and Abby so I didn't worry about the group and numbers. I wasn't surprised by them either. The rest of the day was spent doing groceries for mom, getting our hair cut, making our hard boiled eggs and sandwiches, getting the pool covered, finishing laundry, packing and loading my mothers car. I also had to call the Car Care Center for a shuttle pick up time. I wanted it for 1 PM and when I talked it over with Lenny, he wanted me to make it for noon time. He didn't want to spend a lot of time waiting around. While I agreed with not wanting to wait around, I felt noon was too early and we might be rushed but it was a moot point until I actually called to find out the times. When I did call, I was offered both noon and 1 PM but I stuck with what my gut was telling me which was take the later time. I'm sure we did other stuff too but it would have been more routine things rather than specific to vacation. We made life easy and ordered dinner from a local sub shop when it was time. Before we knew it, it was time for bed. Abby was good - she was in bed by 6:20. I went upstairs with her but I didn't go to sleep until 8:30 with Lenny following shortly thereafter.
Sunday morning, I was up nice and early at 1:30 AM. I wasn't surprised that Abby was up already - I was completely shocked . Normally I have to wake her up but not this time . Adding to the shock was the fact she was cleaning up her room. Like most typical teenagers, that chore is normally done when she's told to do it but this time, she just did it on her own. I got Lenny up at 2 and the three of us finished getting things together and getting ready. Mom was up too and kept asking about things to make sure we had them. About 3:05 we left the house to go to Providence. The drive was uneventful and we got to the airport about 4 am. Curbside check in was already open and we were the only ones there. We said our goodbye's and thank you's to mom and handed over our luggage.
When we travel, we can't do one bag each so when we use DME, I always have to call for a second set of tags giving us a total of 6. In the past, we've only used 5 of them and I leave the last one at home. For some reason this year, I put that 6th one in my bag and took it with us. At curbside, when Lenny looked at the bags we were going to carry on, he asked if there were any that we could check to have less to drag around. Out of the 5 carry ons we had, the only option was our bag with our hats. Everything else had medicines, money, food we were planning on eating and Abby's stuffed friends that don't leave her sight. I told Lenny under "normal" circumstances no, we couldn't check anything else because we would need a DME tag. This time however, I had that last one with us so we could indeed send it along. Yes, I know we could have sent it anyway but we didn't want to take the time to go to baggage claim at Orlando. I pulled out the DME tag, put it on the suitcase and put it with the others to be checked. Once those were taken care of, Lenny was settled into the wheelchair and we had the carry ons, we made our way inside. The first thing we noticed was the huge line at the SWA counter. Why would people wait in the line at the counter when curbside is open? The next thing I noticed was the queue for TSA was not open yet. That took my by surprise as I figured it would have been open already.
We made a quick trip to the bathroom and when we came out, the TSA line was open. We made our way to where wheelchair uses go and we were checked right away. We were then sent to a line that had no one in it. We took off our shoes, threw our stuff in the bins and went through the scanner. I don't know what it is with the shorts I wear but they needed to check my waistband and pockets afterwards. I remember it happened before, I just don't know when or where now. Then, when we went to collect our bags, two of them needed additional screening - one of which had our hard boiled eggs and ice blocks. The TSA person just looked quickly and once he realized it was food he said the bag was good. Lenny grumbled a little bit about all the additional screening saying he felt it was "too much." He was hungry and tired and didn't want to stay in the TSA area. He wanted to be at the gate. We were there maybe a total of 10 minutes from taking off our shoes to having everything back so it really wasn't a long time. I didn't mind it. It is what it is, we were there in plenty of time and I had nothing to hide. If they want to double check my stuff, I'm going to let them.
We then made our way to the gate and Dunkin Donuts. I knew when we were getting close - I saw the huge line. I told Lenny and Abby to go ahead and get seats and I would wait as I knew it would take a while. If I went by and came back, the line would only be worse. After I got in line, I was taken by surprise for the third time of the morning. Dunkin Donuts wasn't even open yet! That meant the line was only half of what I thought it was. I looked at my watch - it was only 4:28 - and wondered what time it opened as I didn't see any time posted. It opened at 4:30 but it still took me 15 minutes to get a couple of waters, a coffee and a hot chocolate. Once I was at the gate with Lenny and Abby, we ate some breakfast, I made some notes and Abby watched Big Hero 6. For a while we were the only ones there but it quickly filled up. Boarding time came and even though we were the only ones in the preboarding line, two other families got let on first. What the???? Abby was a little bit upset but we got "our seats" on the plane so it was fine. Besides, all the luggage had already been loaded so there was nothing for Abby to see anyway. A few minutes into boarding, it was mentioned by one of the flight crew they knew a lot of us would be going to Disney and after a few other comments (which I can't remember) they played "It's a Small World" over the PA system. Next they played "Bare Necessities" but by then, pretty much everyone was on board.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
We left on time and had a good, smooth flight. We all slept some, watched TV, then slept some more. As we got closer, the flight attendants wanted us to wish another passenger a happy birthday but it wasn't as simple as that. It was a little boy - Timothy - and he was turning 10. We were all instructed to close all the shades and turn on all the call buttons which glowed blue. The rest of the lights were then turned off. We sang "Happy Birthday" to him and he "blew" out his candles (the call lights) then he was given a birthday crown made out of pretzel packages and coffee stirrers. He was also given a birthday cake made out of a roll of toilet paper with a red streamer tied around it and I think more coffee stirrers stuck in it to look like candles. I don't know if it's something he'll remember or not but I know I will. After that "Mickey Mouse" welcomed us to Orlando. I think it was a recording with a Mickey Mouse like voice, Lenny thinks it was the captain speaking, but whichever one it was, it was funny We landed 20 minutes early and made our way to the bathrooms. Our next stop was the gift store for a couple of pressed pennies. We eventually made it to DME and were first in line but there was no bus. One finally arrived and once the bus was pretty much full, we left the airport at 9:55.
I tried calling home to mom on the bus but she didn't answer. I then sent a text to Kate (a fellow Passporter) to let her know we were on the bus. After that, my phone beeped for a voice message and I didn't know who it was from. My phone never rang even though it was on the whole time so I don't know how I missed a call that came in after we landed (the time of the message told me it came in after we landed). It didn't even register that I had gotten a call but I listened to the message anyway . It was mom - my replacement at work never showed up so she had to go in I wasn't happy about that nor was she but it wasn't my fault. For those wondering, my replacement did finally show up so mom only had to work a couple of hours but it was more than she should have had to do (she works full time Mondays to Fridays, not weekends).
At 10:38 we arrived at AS Music. I had received a text our room wasn't ready yet so we hung out at check in to wait for the scooter which would be there around 11 (we hoped). We had a few more of the snacks that I had brought, Abby got some maps we promised we would mail out then Len went out for a smoke. About 11:10, Walker called saying they were on the way. I went outside to find Lenny was on his way back to us so he stayed outside to keep a look out for the Walker truck and I told him I'd go back inside and see if the room was done. He didn't understand why. "They'll text you when the room is ready, you're wasting your time." I had nothing else to do so I didn't look at it that way. Plus no one else was in line so it was a good time to do it IMO. A few minutes later, I approached Lenny with the news our room was ready and a new birthday pin for him so it was worth it to get in line. We also saw Walker pulling in so by 11:30 we were on Disney property in our room with the scooter. Since everything was going so smoothly, I had quickly thought to myself "it figures, I could have done a 12:00 pick up time for Alamo" but then I thought "I'm glad I kept 1 PM though because we don't have to run and race today." We unpacked the bags we had with us and just chilled out in the room.
Around 12, I got a text that our Garden Grocer order was in so I called Bell Services to have it delivered. By 12:30 all of that was put away as well. A few minutes later, we headed back to check in to wait for the Alamo shuttle but I went back for our umbrellas. Just like last year, clouds were building and it looked ready to rain.
Once again at the main building, while Lenny and Abby got the newest pressed quarter, I ran into the food court to check out the refillable mugs. There were only red ones with handles. For those that might not know, this was around the time that Disney started selling the mugs without handles as well. I wanted three colors, one for each of us and each with handles, so with only one color choice, I held off on buying it. In the few short minutes I was in the food court, what I expected to happen did - it started pouring out so I was very glad I had the umbrellas. Back with Lenny and Abby, we made our way outside to wait for the Alamo shuttle but we didn't have to wait long for that - or for the rain to slow down to a drizzle. We were the only ones on the bus and went right to the CCC. Once Lenny and the scooter were off, we went inside to check in. As we were finishing up, the counter person handed the keys to someone and had them bring the car to us at the curb. I don't know if this is a new thing or if it's because Lenny was on the scooter. What we got this year was a big, white Ford Explorer with 3rd row seating. The third row was up and we had no idea what to do with it. Lenny wanted the seats taken out but it didn't look like that was a possibility. Then I noticed 4 buttons on the left side behind the seats They were labeled with normal, store, fold, and something else. Since the two middle buttons (store and fold) looked the same to me, I pressed fold and the seat backs folded forward giving us a small flat surface two work with. It wasn't ideal but we managed to get the scooter inside the car. From there we went to Walgreens where we got some cheese slices, water, laundry stuff, postcards and Baymax keychains (one white, his "non-threatening huggable design," and one red him wearing his "carbon fiber underpants" - Abby wanted me to include these details ). I also contemplated getting some cortisone cream just in case I needed it like last year and both Lenny and I ended up agreeing "it's better to get it and not need it then need it and not have it" so I got that too. Abby needed a new wallet but they didn't have any Disney themed ones so we paid for what we had then went to one of the many gift stores on 192. We did find a wallet at the one we went to - an Inside Out themed one - plus a couple of shirts and pin sets. We then went back to the hotel with everything.
Abby and I ran everything up to the room while Lenny waited in the car and once there, I noticed all our bags had been left for us. I don't know why I opened one - maybe Lenny needed something I checked - but the one I grabbed had been opened by TSA. This prompted me to look at all of them and out of 6 bags checked, three had been searched. I don't know why but it's okay. It is what it is and if it really bothered me, I wouldn't fly. After leaving the purchases in the room and fridge, we went back to the car and went to play mini golf. Fantasia Gardens was closed for a short refurbishment so our only choice was Winter Summerland. It had stopped raining and for some reason, I was thinking the lines would be short. They weren't. The winter side was a 50 minute wait, the summer side 30 minutes. Abby had wanted the summer side to begin with so that worked out for us that it had the shorter wait. We had left Lenny in the car so I gave him a call to let him know. I left the camera behind as well so I don't have any photos of our game. It's a good thing too I left it as when we started to play, it poured again but only for a minute or two. Then the rain cleared out and it got hot. The one thing that didn't clear out was the other people. Abby was rushing herself because there were so many people so she wasn't doing well which caused a lot of "do overs." Then she started getting frustrated. She did keep it together though and got 6 legitimate holes in one but she didn't get a low score today. We finished around 4:50 so then we decided to go back to 192 for the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We have one here close to home and we like it so we tried that one. We had an awesome server named Matt who was on top of everything and then there was a woman making balloon animals too. We asked for one for Abby and when she asked what we wanted, Lenny said "can you do Mr Incredible?" She thought for a minute and then got started. He came out great we thought. He just wouldn't survive the entire trip (we expected that which is why we took the photo).
The whole meal was just enjoyable and started the trip off on a good note that when we finished, I spoke to the manager to let her know how much we appreciated what they did and how well they did it.
By now it was about 6:30 so we headed back to the All Stars where we stopped at Sports first to see what they had for mugs. They had red and blue, both with handles, so I picked up one of each color. I still wanted a third color so we then went to Movies to see what they had. They only had red and blue as well so I stuck with the two colors figuring I'd find a third color at some point during our vacation. We went back to the room where Abby helped me unpack our stuff. When we were done with that, Abby and Lenny went swimming while I got the stuff together that we would need to take with us to the parks. At 8, I called home and talked to mom for a few minutes and a little while later, Lenny and Abby came back from the pool. While they got ready for bed, I ran to the gift shop to pick up the autograph books Abby said she wanted. I was shocked though when I went in. The store had a lot less products and shelves than in the past. I actually noticed that at a lot of the stores over vacation. It was kind of a disappointment but on the bright side, it kept my souvenir shopping down. I went back to the room with the books, did a few more things and then we all went to bed. Abby was asleep by 9:30, Lenny and I had the lights out about 9:50. It wasn't as early as I planned but not as late as in the past.
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Southwestern Florida, USA
Concierge Level: 7
Posts: 39,153
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 39
Likes (Received): 114
Thanks (Given): 18
Thanks (Received): 46
Pixie Dust (Given): 1
Pixie Dust (Received): 8
What a great start to your vacation!
It sounds like the whole day went very smoothly!
I love that you went to check on your room and found that it was ready!
I love the Mr. Incredible balloon figure!
The wait time for the mini golf is crazy!
Now, Darlene.....how did the eggs do??? How many did you take?
How perfect that your room was ready so quickly! Very smooth start to the trip.
Too bad about the rain and the heat, but it sounds like yall had a great time in spite of it!
Looking forward to your next update!!
It really was a really great first day. There was no running and racing, we did what we wanted when we wanted (for the most part - planes and buses have schedules to keep ) and yes, every thing went smoothly. I was happy too about the room - we had done online check in so I'm sure that helped to have the room ready.
Rain and heat - both are expected in summer in Florida so I don't let it stop me. It might makes us do things in a different order but it doesn't stop me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luvsun
What a great start to your vacation!
It sounds like the whole day went very smoothly!
I love that you went to check on your room and found that it was ready!
I love the Mr. Incredible balloon figure!
The wait time for the mini golf is crazy!
Now, Darlene.....how did the eggs do??? How many did you take?
Thanks Ann. It was a great start and very smooth. The wait time for golf was crazy but that day only the one course was open. Fantasia Gardens was closed but I didn't expect the line there was after the rain that had come down. Mr Incredible did turn out really well. I give the people who do that a lot of credit - it takes talent to do something like that with balloons. I'm lucky I can blow one up and have it be balloon shaped.
Yes, the eggs . They turned out fine . I made my solid ice blocks and Lenny had brought home some styrofoam to line the bag with so by the time we got to security, they were still solid blocks. It was only once we got to AS Music that we noticed one of the bags started leaking but they hadn't melted much. The eggs were nice and cold too. I ended up taking two dozen with us. Now for how many of them got eaten, we won't go there (they got put in the fridge in the room which was cold enough to freeze things - the eggs included. After being frozen, they didn't fare so well and ended up getting thrown away)
Quote:
Originally Posted by NanaTink
Sounds like y'all had a pretty smooth trip and check in! Great first day!
sorry to hear about the rain...
We did have a great first day - and no need to apologize about the rain. It's summer in Florida. I expect it to happen. It's when we don't have the umbrellas that it can sometimes be a pain.
It sounds like your first day went well. It was a good idea to check to see if your room was ready. I'm glad there were some new pressed pennies to be made. Ican't wait to read more.
Liz
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
,
. Normally I have to wake her up but not this time 
. Adding to the shock was the fact she was cleaning up her room. Like most typical teenagers, that chore is normally done when she's told to do it but this time, she just did it on her own. I got Lenny up at 2 and the three of us finished getting things together and getting ready. Mom was up too and kept asking about things to make sure we had them. About 3:05 we left the house to go to Providence. The drive was uneventful and we got to the airport about 4 am. Curbside check in was already open and we were the only ones there. We said our goodbye's and thank you's to mom and handed over our luggage.
I wasn't happy about that nor was she but it wasn't my fault. For those wondering, my replacement did finally show up so mom only had to work a couple of hours but it was more than she should have had to do (she works full time Mondays to Fridays, not weekends).
Dana
]
) and yes, every thing went smoothly. I was happy too about the room - we had done online check in so I'm sure that helped to have the room ready.
. They turned out fine 
(they got put in the fridge in the room which was cold enough to freeze things - the eggs included. After being frozen, they didn't fare so well and ended up getting thrown away)
Heather
Linear Mode
