My Best Trip Ever! A Disney Trip 10 Years in the Making - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Sorry about all the drama there at the end! At least you guys were having a good time even if they weren't.
As I said I refused to let this ruin my trip
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Originally Posted by lauriep
What a shame things fell apart! That ride will probably always remind you of "the time that..." Hope the adults get their acts together and play nicely for the rest of the trip!
I don't like that ride too much anyway - so no loss.
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Sorry about the meltdown!
me too. It really does throw a wet blanket over everything
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Things were going well, sorry about the meltdown!
Things will go well again just takes awhile.
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Originally Posted by rhinohunter
With so many people in the group you are doing very good to keep you and Evan under control. Sorry for all of the meltdowns. This is why my wife and I try to keep the group small wherever we travel so we can better control the events.
I'm going to do small next time I go to WDW
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh boy, that was some drama!
Definately!!
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Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
It's amazing how meltdowns can come out of nowhere! Hope everyone settles down and enjoys the rest of the evening.
I just it isn't out of no where when you are type of person who can't let anything or anyone slide.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
So sorry about the meltdown/drama!
Thanks for the pixies. Things do eventually get better
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Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Yikes! It's so frustrating when the adults act like children, isn't it? Sorry for that, but good job keeping your cool and staying out of it.
I don't like confrontation so I try to steer clear of all drama
Quote:
Originally Posted by lazanya
All caught up! Sorry about the meltdowns.
thanks for following along. I suppose into every vaction a meltdown must occur.
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeybee723
Sorry for the meltdown...on everyone's part. I hope everything gets worked out for the rest of the day.
Stay tuned everyone I have the next installment ready to go I just forgot to bring in my photo CD today so I can't resize the pictures. I usually resize each day as I go along rather than all of them at one time - just works that way for me - but the disc is at home. But hopefully will post tomorrow.
Waking up this morning, neither my mom nor I had a great feeling. I was hoping the drama from last night wasn’t going to ruin everything but knowing the folks involved, I didn’t have the warm and fuzzies .
It was decided by me that we would stick to our schedule for the rest of the trip. Trying to keep ADR’s and parks to visit. My sister decided they were just going to do their own thing today and perhaps things would cool down enough that we will be back on track later in the week . If worst came to worst we would just have 2 parallel vacations. So…no peace this morning .
That said, it was Studios day with lunch at 50’s Prime Time Café and then tonight was the Halloween party. I knew lunch was out as my sister and her family was going to Epcot today instead and Christine won’t spend the money for lunch . Today was also the day I was hopefully going to meet Princess Sharon.
Evan, me, Mom, Christine and her 2 boys Gunnar and Bryson all headed over to the studios. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and we took pictures with the Lightning McQueen and Mater topiaries at the entrance.
We arrived shortly after opening and went directly over for FP for TSMM. It was maybe 9 or 9:30am and our return time was already noonish. But at least the line to get the FP was only a few people and it moved quickly (2 minutes tops).
We just continued walking and ended up at the back lot tour so did that. I do really miss the old version when you could actually see working sets and the green screen effects. Even though that tour was long – you really learned at lot more about making movies and shows. As we were pulling into the gate to exit the tram I got a text from Sharon (Princess Sharon) that she was in the park and we were going to meet at the GRM. I was hoping we would get to do TOT together but there was no way Evan was up for that.
Along the way we got side tracked with a meet and greet with Mike and Sully but soon enough I was in the presence of royalty.
After introductions we did rode the Great Movie Ride together, gangster version. Evan was very confused as to what was happening and our gangster was very hard to hear over the fire/explosions. Evan did great though, I did cover his ears and eyes during the alien scene and he was fine . He got a little nervous with the Raiders scene but liked Tarzan and Mary Poppins.
After the ride we chatted for a few minutes and took a few photos and then had to say good bye to Sharon.
This was my first Passporter meet and I have to say I failed miserably. I tend to take a long time to open up to people and having Evan and my family/friends in tow, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to really converse with Sharon. Sorry P-Sha. Hopefully next time we’ll have more time to talk. I think you all know what it’s like – trying to keep everyone happy. They all graciously came along with me so I didn’t want to leave and say “Hey I’m getting a drink, see you all later”…
After leaving Sharon we were going to head over to watch the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. But just then the dance party – what ever it is called now – showed up and we watched that for a bit. Evan was having a blast dancing and playing air guitar. He is just so uninhibited. I love that about little kids, their pure joy and freedom. Guannar joined in too but Bryson was much more reserved. He is just a more sullen child and Chris kept asking him if he was having a good time and he kept saying yes. But he just wasn’t as expressive as Gunnar and Evan. ]WDW Oct 2011 pictures by hbryfogle - Photobucket I hope this works....
We made it over the stunt show just in time as we got the 2nd to last row of seats. None of the boys had ever seen the movie and I’m sure my mom has forgotten it and I don’t know if Christine ever saw it but, that said, the boys loved it. As I knew they would I mean honestly what little boy doesn’t like fire, explosions, chases, fighting? I myself think this show really needs an update , or another attraction completely but Evan enjoyed it and that’s all that matters. I’m sure he didn’t understand any of the concepts of this as stunts and that it is all choreographed but that is fine. He is 5 and enjoyed it on a 5 year old level.
After Indian Jones it was onto HISTK playground. Upon entering Evan exclaimed “This is so cool” Yes, Mr. Disney would be proud; his imaginers have done their job. It was crowed in there so we camped out at the exit and the boys ran around.
I had some mixed feelings on this. I’m the type of parent that will keep my eye on my child when in playgrounds like this. Of course when he was really little I would follow him around. Now that he is a little older I want to give him the freedom so I watch him. He can run around and I’ll sit on the bench or table and watch what he is doing. I don’t read a book or talk on the phone or text. I watch what he is doing.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when parents just turn their kids loose in playgrounds and then don’t ever watch what they are doing. I know they think their child is 8 or 10 or 12 and doesn’t need to be watched like a hawk, and that may be true but your 8 or 10 or 12 year old still gets excited and is not mature enough to not trample the 3, 4 or 5 year olds . Plus, let’s be honest, some parents are just awful and do not teach their child any manners so the 8, 10, 12 year old uses bad words, is rude or butts in line…I know you all know what I’m talking about so I’ll get off my soap box.
So the problem with HISTK is that it is nearly impossible to follow your child around in there to make sure they are behaving themselves. I was relieved to see cast members stationed around to try and keep some order to things. Anyway – all that said Evan was having a blast. It was so nice to just let him run around and blow off stream and climb and slide and crawl.
After a half hour or so we gathered the children up to leave. Evan and I were waiting at the exit while Christine gathered up G and B. While waiting one of the cast members handed Evan the phone and said he had a phone call. It was Goofy who sang him Happy Birthday – gotta love that pin!
Sorry that there was still drama going on this morning with your sister this morning. Hope things get back to normal soon, and that you are all able to enjoy WDW together for the rest of the trip.
You still managed to have a great morning at DHS though. How cool to have a PP meet with Princess Sharon! Too bad you didn't have more time to spend with her. Also, I totally hear you about your playground soapbox moment! I always try to teach my DDs to wait their turn and watch out for little ones, I really wish that everyone would do the same!
Talk about wonderful birthday magic for Evan, from the man at DTD to the birthday phone call.
Sorry for the family drama, but glad you are just going on your schedule and enjoying anyway....glad you were able to meet up with Sharon even though it was a short visit.
So loved the video of Evan dancing...you can tell he is just totally having the time of his life.
Sounds like you are having a great time at DHS. How cool that you got to meet Princess Sharon!! And what a great magical moment for Evan, having Goofy sing him Happy Birthday!
Probably a good thing that your sister decided to do her own thing if she wasn't ready to make peace yet. Great photos from DHS. LOVE the video of the dance party! Evan was totally into it! I've heard so many reports from parents that the playground is a bit scary as you can't keep track of little ones. How great that the CM there noticed Evan's birthday button and he got a call from Goofy!
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