Home is Where the Mouse Is TR (June 1 - 11, 2017) - Page 14 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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How fun for you and your friend!
My best advice for packing/dressing for the weather has already been stated -- dress like an onion (also known as layering) And if you are still cold, that certainly gives you permission to indulge in a new MM sweatshirt!
We'll miss you by exactly one week--have a marvelous time!
I like the new sweatshirt idea! I was actually looking to buy one when I went this past June but I couldn't find "the one". Being cold in January would be the perfect excuse. I mean, no one can fault me for buying one.
There are a couple of things I'd forgotten to tell you guys.
First, on our AK day we were supposed to meet up with my other SIL and her family. She was going to get in using her cousin's (also Arben's cousin) CM passes. Well, like a month or so before the trip, she asked if we could change the park plans to doing AK on Saturday because the cousin couldn't get her in on Friday. I said absolutely not. I explained to her that we had already booked fastpasses and had an ADR with a dining package, and that this late we wouldn't be able to find anything we wanted. This SIL tends to this. She always expects people to change their plans to accommodate her. That doesn't fly with me. You'll see another attempt to change plans later on in the TR.
Second, my phone has an app that counts the daily steps. I forgot to include those after the end of each day. So I'm just going to write up the steps for the first 2 days and the rest I'll include in their respective update.
We woke up at 7:30. Slowly got ready and then headed to the food court to have some breakfast. After we were done there, we headed to the bus stop. A bus arrived shortly and we were on our way to DHS.
We arrived in the park and we could already feel how hot it was going to be. Our first fastpass was for TSMM, so we headed in that direction. We got in line and we were quickly through. AJ smoked us all with a score of 134,000. I got a pathetic score, as usual.
My score in on the left. I think I rode with Adriel.
From there, we started walking around. There was still a lot of time before our next fastpass. When we got to the front of Journey of the Little Mermaid, we saw that a show would start shortly and the line was pretty short, so we hopped in. We watched the show and the boys were bored, as usual.
It still was too early for our Star Tours fastpass so we found a shaded area and sat down. I think we also browsed the store for a bit. Not being Star Wars fans, nothing caught our eye there.
Finally it was time to ride. AJ was deemed the Rebel Spy. We had a good laugh at that and he was truly mortified, he DOES NOT like attention.
At this point we were kind of hungry. We decided on getting some snacks. AJ and Abniel shared a funnel cake and each got a coke.
Arben had a beer. Adriel had a slushie. I had a Mickey pretzel with cheese sauce and a coke. YUM! Everything tastes so much better when it's Mickey shaped!
We settled on some benches around Echo Lake to enjoy our snacks. There were some ducks that wanted in on the action too. We had to be very careful with them as I know they can be very sneaky.
He thinks he's so cute.
After we were done, we headed towards Sunset Blvd. as our next fastpass was for TOT. We had some MM pictures done but the kids refused to be part of them. AJ said he didn't want to take the pictures because they would make him do silly poses and he doesn't like that.
We browsed a couple of stores, trying to get as much air conditioning as possible because the heat and sun were unbearable.
I don't know what the heck this kid is doing.
When it was finally time for our ride, we had to convince Arben to go on the ride. We had a great sequence. But upon exiting, Arben declared that he would NEVER ride it again. Here is the photo.
I've come to the conclusion that AJ is a robot.
You see the lady next to Adriel. She had her hand on his thigh for the whole entire ride. And the woman next to her was hysterical. It was hilarious!
We wanted to see how much was the wait time was for RnRC, but it was down. We decided to just head back to the resort.
We never got together with BIL and family. I think I didn't even text them. At this point, I was tired of having to know their every move and try to synchronize them with ours.
Oh, and I forgot to add a home update. Monday was my birthday and I got the most amazing gift EVER. A burst pipe at 11:00 pm. By the time AJ and I noticed (we were the only ones awake), there was half an inch of water in 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and the living room. It was so much fun getting water out the front door until 12:30 am. And Arben slipped and scraped his hand and a toe, while running to see what was happening. He was bleeding so much I thought we'd have to go to the hospital for stitches. Yeah, good times, good times!
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Great day at DHS and a fun day for all! Too bad with the not so called birthday present!
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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!
not exactly the kind of birthday present you want!
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Disneyland Paris approx 2004, Caribbean Beach April 2013, Polynesian May 2014, Old Key West October 2015, Wilderness Lodge Oct 2017, Disneyland Paris October 2018 and looking forward to AKL Sept/Oct 2019 trip!
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--have a marvelous time!
I was actually looking to buy one when I went this past June but I couldn't find "the one". Being cold in January would be the perfect excuse. I mean, no one can fault me for buying one. 
This SIL tends to this. She always expects people to change their plans to accommodate her. That doesn't fly with me. You'll see another attempt to change plans later on in the TR. 
We decided on getting some snacks. AJ and Abniel shared a funnel cake and each got a coke.
Everything tastes so much better when it's Mickey shaped! 
What a stinky present!
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