Passing through the Panama Canal - a Passporter's Tale **Updated 8/21** - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Monday - Memorial Day - update
Well I made it home around 11pm last night and after finally dragging myself out of bed around 930am have spent the day doing laundry, unpacking suitcases going through and putting things away, organizing photos and scanning photos. I may actually be ready to start my TR in a couple of days - still need to order the photopass CD....
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Thanks for taking all of us along for your adventure. I can only hope that the eastbound repo trip in August (which I will be on!!) is as stress-free and adventure laden as yours!
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Day 1 - OMG it finally starts!!!
*** Note - I had thought about waiting for the PhotoPass CD to arrive (ok I haven't ordered it yet - waiting to hear back from my partner in crime concerning a question before I order it) - but if I wait - I lose momentum - and knowing how I am when it comes to finishing trip reports - I figured it was best to strike while the brain is still in (missing my) vacation mode!! Not to mention I need to finish selecting, resizing, scanning, etc from my more than 2,700 photos, 35 video clips and all of Lesley’s photos.
Day 1 - May 8
Now as many of you may remember - I had been traveling a great deal before this trip (ok, ok - I know what's so new about that??) - Lesley was already in WDW and I had to teach on Saturday, go to Fort Lauderdale, St. Augustine and Miami on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before this trip. Joy! SO... after landing at JAX at 8pm on Wednesday night, driving home and working on scanning receipts so my secretary (thank you April!) could do all my travel vouchers while I was gone (always a good thing to pay the credit card company!) - I went to bed with the alarm set for 530am!!
That's right folks - I am starting my vacation at 530am Thursday May 8! Luckily for me - the suitcases were already packed and waiting at the top of the stairs for me to throw, I mean carry, them downstairs and load them in the car.
My goal was to be out of the house by 630am on the way to JAX (that's right - north Jacksonville - back to the airport I had left less than 12 hours earlier - in the opposite direction of Orlando.). Goal #1 – achieved (well close enough) – I left the house at 6:32am.
632am.....
I headed north – and in about 30 minutes to Jacksonville International Airport, pulled into Park Space and started to unload the car while waiting for the shuttle bus. Park Space is my usual parking location when I travel.
They have a frequent parker program. For every 45-days you park with them – you get five free…. Ok – remember – I travel too much – since I had 3 free five day certificates that I had saved for this trip. 15 nights of 17 free – not too bad! I unloaded the bags and Shelley (the driver) came and started to load them on the bus. I warned her they were very heavy. After we got on the bus – she asked me which airline I needed and warned me about overweight fees. I told her I was not flying and was just picking up my rental car. She recommended that instead of dragging the bags through the airport – that I leave them here, get the car and come back for them. Ok – I like that idea. SO – we drove to the front, unloaded my bags that had just been loaded and set off for the terminal. She dropped me at baggage claim, and I headed to the Hertz desk to pick up the car.
Although I am a Hertz Gold Club member – instead of telling me to go to the gold desk in the garage, the print out told me to go to the regular counter. Ok – weird but who am I to argue? So – I walked up to the desk, and checked in with Petra – the manager – who asked me what I was doing at the desk. I showed her my printout and she said – “Oh – that’s cause you booked something different than your saved profile” (that’s right sister! Who wants to rent a mid-sized 4-door sedan like the car I just left for vacation?). She told me she’d caught it – and to head for the garage. Out of curiosity – I asked what I got – and she told me a white sebring convertible (insert Terri doing mental snoopy happy dance here!). I thanked her and bopped off to the garage. I picked up the keys and headed for stall F56… and there it was!! So – I ran over, opened the doors, put down the top and took a bad photo in the dark garage. I am such a DORK!
Ok – back to the car. I got settled in – all mirrors adjusted, etc and pulled out headed back to parkspace. By now I was behind schedule. Very quickly we threw all my stuff (ok heaved and grunted since the bags were so dang heavy no one was throwing them anywhere) into the backseat (remember – the top was down = no room in the trunk – oops didn’t think about that when I booked this….) and I was off –headed south toward Orlando. I passed the exist for my house at 8am – only an hour and a half after I’d left home.
As I drove down with my Ipod plugged into the Aux jack of the car stereo –
it was overcast and cool – so cool in fact I had the heat blowing on my bare feet (I was wearing my new croc flip flops). At about 945am I made the call NOT to take 417 around Orlando – but to risk driving through downtown on I-4. I just prayed the traffic would cooperate. At 10am I stopped, went to the bathroom and broke out the sunscreen – since the sun had broken through the clouds and it was getting warm. I called Lesley to let her know I was close. I arrived on Disney property right about 1030am and headed over to Shades of Green to get my new Annual Pass (I am usually a Seasonal Pass holder - but I need an AP this year).
Shades of Green
$344.00 and 15 minutes later I was headed out the door. I talked to Lesley again, and we agreed I would head to the Boardwalk, check in and wait for her and Alice to complete their EPCOT flower tour and head over to meet me.
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Day 1 - continued
After pulling into the Boardwalk, valeting the car, and leaving my bags with bell services, I went to check in. There was a problem with the reservation. It appeared that my name had been deleted from the reservation and replaced with Lesley’s friend Alice… SO – I called Lesley, left her a message and headed over to EPCOT’s international gateway to convert my new AP voucher into an Annual Pass, took photos heading over and back and chatted with my friend Kelly on the phone for a bit while sitting on the Boardwalk.
After awhile, I went into the lobby, picked up a copy of USAToday and waited for Lesley to finish the tour. At almost 1230pm, I got a hold of her, and the tour had run late, but they were finished. Originally we planned to eat lunch at Beaches and Cream, but instead we opted for the Tangerine Café in the Morocco Pavilion. I walked over to EPCOT, took a few Photopass pictures (which I will post when I get them) and waited for Lesley and Alice to arrive on the bridge between the UK and France.
After hellos and hugs were exchanged – we headed for lunch since I was HUNGRY (no breakfast for me…). Alice and I headed into to get food first, Lesley held the table. I had the lamb wrap (basically a gyro) and it was very good – too much food for me!
After lunch – we explored Japan for a bit, saw the drummers, explored the stores (I found things I want to go back for) and looked for a butterfly necklace for Alice’s granddaughter. Then I could no longer resist the pull of my favorite EPCOT dessert – kaki gori!! Rainbow flavored (honeydew, mandarin and strawberry) – YUM!
We took some photopass photos in Germany with the Snow White and Seven Dwarves topiaries and lots of photos in Italy.
For our own Miss Dopeygirl!!!
Lesley took a photo of me tossing a coin in the “Trevi” fountain (I need all the help I can get to get back to Italy in 2010) and even caught the coin in mid-air!!! Lesley got an Italian margarita and shared a bit with me – yummy!! We headed off to Norway, China and Mexico for more window shopping (I am making a list for stuff to pick up in August – when I have my car and can take all my stuff home!).
After our trip around half of World Showcase, we decided to head back to Boardwalk. Lesley and Alice had driven to EPCOT, so they drove back and I walked back. I stopped in Canada and the UK to take a BUNCH more photos.
I ran into my first character of the trip - Chip.
Dale would not come take a photo with us... he said Chip stank. So I took a photo with Chip - and then took the slow boat to Boardwalk since it appeared I was developing a blister. I went into the Boardwalk lobby, sat down and within a few moments, Lesley and Alice arrived and we were checked into Room 4105 - a standard one bedroom villa - very nice!!
I'm so glad you decided to start your report Terri!! Love all the pictures, especially the one of you throwing the coin into the fountain!! Hope it does the trick and you can get to Italy in 2010!! Looking forward to more!!
I was so happy to see the start of your report...I figured it would take a few days (not that I am complaining)...I am so looking forward to reading all about your trip...
Glad you made it to WDW in good time...great car by the way and a great way to start your trip with dining and wandering around the WS....
Looking forward to more....(see I am hooked already )
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Love all the pictures, especially the one of you throwing the coin into the fountain!! Hope it does the trick and you can get to Italy in 2010!! Looking forward to more!!
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