The This TR Won’t Take Me a Year to Finish (aka Disney with Extended Family) Trip Report - UPDATED 5/22 w/ AK and Tusker House - Page 13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Finally all caught up. Love the TR so far! Especially the part about Mom shooing everyone off of her empty plane seat. One time I took a Greyhound from Tulsa, OK home to New Jersey. What a bunch of us did is pretend to be sleeping, half across the seat next to us, and people would leave us be and find other seats. Ironically, only until Philadelphia..then they had no problems "waking us up".
Lol, leave it to us Philadelphians. I'll have to try this trick next time or tell Mom.
Quote:
Originally Posted by luvnwdwgal
Looking forward to more!
Thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LouigiAnne
The pictures of the resort are beautiful, the food looks good too! And I'm another 1 that bruises easily. Probably have 3-4 good ones now! LoL Can't wait to hear how your DM enjoyed her trip too so I'm Waiting patiently for your next up date LouigiAnne
What is it with bruises? DM said she had the best time of her life, although you couldn't always tell, lol. I will be back with an update soon. Thanks for always waiting patiently.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
Club level is definitely something to try - especially using points from DVC too - worth it!!
Looks like it. I can't wait to try and get some kahlua and hot chocolate,lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ekschuler
sounds great so far! Love all the pics...mmore please!
Thanks. I have lots more pictures too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ArielsMomto2
Love the pics of AKL. We'll be there next week and it just looks so nice.
Wow, I can't believe you will be there next week already. You will love AKL! I will send pixies your way for great weather this time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PamelaK
Glad your plane was so early. AKL looks gorgeous. I hope to stay there someday. The food looked delish also!
I really loved AKL and highly recommend it to everyone. The kids really loved it. It was definitely it great experience.
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.
Just catching up... great updates! Glad you were pleased with AKL. We've been there several times, and the lobby never fails to take our breath away. It really is spectacular. Looks like fun at the pool, though I'm sorry about the bruise. I always seem to get some sort of ailment when I'm at Disney, whether it's a blister or a cold. Oh well, I'm sure you didn't let it spoil the magic! Looking forward to your next installment!
Just catching up... great updates! Glad you were pleased with AKL. We've been there several times, and the lobby never fails to take our breath away. It really is spectacular. Looks like fun at the pool, though I'm sorry about the bruise. I always seem to get some sort of ailment when I'm at Disney, whether it's a blister or a cold. Oh well, I'm sure you didn't let it spoil the magic! Looking forward to your next installment!
You are so right, the lobby is nothing short of spectacular. No, I didn't let the bruise spoil my magic. Thanks for catching up. My next installment is coming right up.
After about 10 more minutes at the pool, we headed upstairs to check out our room. I knew it would be nice, but I was surprised at how beautiful and big it seemed for a studio. Mom had tears in her eyes when she walked out onto the balcony. I’m so glad she got to experience this resort, even if it was just for one night.
Here are some pictures of our room:
I was going to ask everyone not to laugh at my two tone body in the background, but it's just too funny.
partial view from our balcony
We called for our bags tipped $10. Then we relaxed in the room for a about 30 minutes, before getting changed. The boys were starting to get loud and antsy now and I knew it was time to head out.
We headed over to the bus stop to catch our bus to DHS. We ended up waiting forever for our bus and were just about to give up when one finally arrived 45 minutes later. It was pretty frustrating, but it was the longest we waited for a bus the whole trip.
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.
We wanted to try and squeeze in some rides before dinner. First we headed to Star Tours.
To my surprise, Aidan was tall enough to ride. I asked if he was sure he wanted to because it was going to be fast & bumpy, but he assured us he was ready. He was mesmerized the whole time and thought we had really gone to space, lol. The rest of us liked the ride well enough, but someone had really bad BO and that did not make for a truly enjoyable ride.
Next, we headed to Muppet Vision and noticed there was no wait, so we headed in. It was great fun as always.
At around 6:45pm we decided it was time to head over to 50’s PrimeTime Café for our 7:20pm dinner.
I was trying to sneak past the entertainer outside the restaurant because I didn't want to be late, but the kids really wanted to play with him. He was dressed like a “nerd” and he had hula hoops for the kids to play with. I was trying to volunteer Jared to hula hoop, but it backfired and I was chosen instead.
I'd like to think I'm coordinated, but for some reason I’ve never been able to hula hoop. I did try, but ended up completely embarrassing myself. I had a blast though, as did my family laughing at me.
After Jared got a turn, I told our friend that it was time for dinner and I did not want to be late.
I checked in at around 7pm and requested a table with plenty of room. I didn’t want to be sitting on top of each other like we were last year. I had intended to let the hostess know that it was Mom’s first time and that we would love a fun waiter or waitress; but I completely forgot, and boy did I regret it. We were seated about 5 minutes later by our friend the “nerd”.
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.
Our waiter was just okay. For some reason, I think he didn’t really like us because I did see him joking around with some of his other tables, but he just wouldn’t get into character with us. We still had a great time thanks to the waiter at the table next to us. He was wonderful and I guess he noticed that we were bored and started letting us in on the fun.
I have to admit, I was a little nervous about bringing Mom to this restaurant because even though I love her to death, she can get a little loud and embarrassing sometimes, but she was okay. She did take matters into her own hands and sang Happy Birthday to the lady at the table next to us, but it didn’t get much worse than that. Love you Mom
As for the food:
We were still on the deluxe dining plan this day. Now, I really thought I had take a picture of the food here, but apparently I was too focused on my PB&J milkshake and only took a picture of that
my shake which was delicious
Since I don’t have pictures of the food or any decent notes from that day for that matter, I’m going to have to hunt down my receipt so that I can tell you all what we ordered. I’ll be back with that soon. sorry
Beautiful room. (Don't worry I have a two-tone body too! ) Great pictures at the Studios - you got a lot done before supper. Oh dear, sounds like supper might not have gone as well as hoped for!
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.
I was able to find a receipt. Here is what we ordered:
Appetizers:
Mom and I ordered the beer battered onion rings for two.
DH and Jared ordered the chicken noodle soup.
Entrées:
I wasn’t very hungry so I ordered the meatloaf, but I gave it to Jared. Meatloaf is his favorite and the kids’ portion is too small for him.
Mom ordered the olive oil poached salmon.
DH ordered the Pot Roast
Aidan got chicken nuggets, as always.
Dessert:
I always have room for dessert, therefore I ordered the brownie sundae.
The boys each ordered the build a sundae.
DH ordered the smores.
Mom didn’t get any dessert.
We were all very happy with our food, but I have to say the Pot Roast is my new favorite.
Overall, we had a great time, mostly due to the other waiter. He was just hilarious and Jared was having so much fun with him. I just wish our waiter would've been more fun. This has been the case the past few times we've been here. It always seems like our waiter/waitress is not that into character.
Our waiter did try to redeem himself at the end though. The boys were wearing birthday pins okay so their birthdays are in March and June, but he had everyone sing Happy Birthday to them and made them wear silly hats.
More pictures from dinner:
Without the dining plan, the total for dinner would've been $103.71. We left a $21 tip.
We would probably come back here again, but maybe we can request a fun waiter or maybe ask for someone by name. Can this be done? Has anyone tried this?