Land and Sea - Yippee! September 2013 -TR updated 02/11/2014 - Page 17 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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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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A GREAT last day! Palo brunch is always awesome. I'm not surprised you just couldn't make it to the trivia contest. When that kind of tired comes over you, you have to give in. I love all the horizon shots-- my favorite part of cruising-- and I DO see Mickey waving in the clouds!
All caught up on your report. Your photos are great, and it sure looked like the family had a great time - I remember from one if your other reports as well, the boys always seem to have fun!
just found this and got caught up! Sounds like you all were having a great time!!! what a nice relaxing start to the trip at Beach club! Great that your boys felt comfortable enough to go and do their own thing! And that the adults got to have their own time at Palo! Looks delish!
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
I'm hungry after reading this last post. Palo looked great. I've seen a lot of people choosing brunch lately. I'm now torn about going for dinner or brunch. Decisions, decisions.
Sounds like a nice day. OK Duran Duran is my favorite group so curious what the question was - I think I could kill it on 80's trivia too. - today not so much but from the 80's - oh yea!
BTW - Was the second question "who sang I'm too sexy?" because that is the only Right Said Fred song I know - did they even do any others?
I can't believe it's your last night already! That seemed to go so fast. Looks like it was a great day (and the food pics are making me hungry - sadly lunch is a salad ).
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
What a great day. I love all the sunrise photos - so beautiful and as for all those food photos from Palo, I'm so glad I've just eaten.
Palo brunch was so good! Maybe we'll try dinner next time
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Originally Posted by MayraLR
Your meals today look delicious!
Everything was so good!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
A GREAT last day! Palo brunch is always awesome. I'm not surprised you just couldn't make it to the trivia contest. When that kind of tired comes over you, you have to give in. I love all the horizon shots-- my favorite part of cruising-- and I DO see Mickey waving in the clouds!
I can't believe I thought there wouldn't be enough to do. I was so tired and I don't think I did that much!
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Originally Posted by pamcarey
All the food at Palo looks so good. I want that strawberry soup next time I go.
I could use some right now, for real.
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Originally Posted by shazza
All caught up on your report. Your photos are great, and it sure looked like the family had a great time - I remember from one if your other reports as well, the boys always seem to have fun!
I'm editing out the whiny bits, but they do have fun!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
just found this and got caught up! Sounds like you all were having a great time!!! what a nice relaxing start to the trip at Beach club! Great that your boys felt comfortable enough to go and do their own thing! And that the adults got to have their own time at Palo! Looks delish!
It took me a while to relax and let them go have fun without worrying so much!
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Originally Posted by KMB733
Your brunch at Palo's looked delicious Can't believe it is your last day already!
It seemed like a very long vacation, then the last day came quickly...
Quote:
Originally Posted by stardust190
I'm hungry after reading this last post. Palo looked great. I've seen a lot of people choosing brunch lately. I'm now torn about going for dinner or brunch. Decisions, decisions.
Dh said he doesn't need to do brunch again, but I do!
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Originally Posted by OhToodles!
Fantastic day! Isn't Palo just awesome?!
it!
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Originally Posted by mommapants
Sounds like a nice day. OK Duran Duran is my favorite group so curious what the question was - I think I could kill it on 80's trivia too. - today not so much but from the 80's - oh yea!
BTW - Was the second question "who sang I'm too sexy?" because that is the only Right Said Fred song I know - did they even do any others?
I think Erika answered "Rio" instead of "Hungry Like the Wolf" I think "Too Sexy" was their only hit!
Quote:
Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
I can't believe it's your last night already! That seemed to go so fast. Looks like it was a great day (and the food pics are making me hungry - sadly lunch is a salad ).
It was totally great. The last day came up so quickly!
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Thursday, 9/12
7am...
It was both hard and easy to get up this morning: hard because we were tired and easy because we had no choice . We had the usual scramble to make sure we had everything squared away, took one last look around, then headed to breakfast. We were sad to be leaving, but it was buffered a bit, knowing we'd be back.
Goodbye? Hello?
Breakfast was in Animator's Palate and Mihaly and Francia were waiting for us. Erika and Gus got there about the same time, but they weren't really hungry. What we got from the menu sounded much better than it actually was. I guess the kitchen had already started to turn things over...
Most boring Disney breakfast plate ever?
Francia and Mihaly
We said our goodbyes and left a nice tip for the crew. Being a nurse, I can tell you what a 12 hour shift on your feet running around is like. What I can't tell you is how these amazing folks can do this for way more than 12 hours, for more days at a time and take care of you so well with a genuine smile. Outstanding!
The debarkation process was easy-peasy (the lines moved quickly) - I'm so glad Disney took care of our bags for us. We wouldn't see them again until later (way later) in Baltimore. We said like 16 goodbyes to Erika and Gus as they headed off to the car rental place - they were going to Universal Studios for the day! The trip back to MCO was uneventful and our plane was due to leave at 1:24pm. Except for a certain person who had an item that was more than 3 ounces and had to be stopped and bag searched (ahem. me ), the trip through security was also uneventful. Everything was fine until we got to the gate and found out that the flight was delayed. Apparently, the weather was bad back home. We have learned from years of flying out of Florida in the afternoon to expect weather delays . After listening to rumors going around, we quickly checked a couple of hotels that Dh has a frequent stay rewards at and brought up a page with a room on it on his laptop. At the same time, I had the Hertz rental car site up on my iPad. If we heard any bad news, we'd just click "confirm" and we'd have a place to stay if things went sideways. At the same time, we surfed the news sites and sure enough, learned that the tower at BWI had been struck by lightning and no planes would be coming in or out of the airport. I went up to the counter and politely asked if we could be switched to a flight the next day. We had booked through Southwest, but it was an AirTran flight. They were able to put us on a flight the next day in the afternoon. (Here's a quote from a member of our Disney Dream Facebook page, "We finally left the gate at 7:00, but sat and waited until almost 7:30 to take off. Got to BWI only to wait another half an hour for a gate to open up. It was 10:00 before we finally got inside the airport." This is what we wanted to avoid!)
With that taken care of, we booked our room and car - another Disney day! I thanked God that we were able to book a room and car solely on points. We left MCO in good spirits... until we got to the Hertz counter and Dh discovered didn't have his WALLET (record scratch) . We waited for what seemed like a long time in the little Hertz office in the parking garage while he went back through security and back through the gate. (He still had his passport on him, Yay! ) Meanwhile, a very nice older couple had found his wallet and he was being paged overhead - who can ever understand what that lady is saying?! He made it to the gate and offered to give the gentleman who found it (who recognized him right away from his driver's license) some money. Of course he declined. I'm sure he knew that a lost wallet was a very bad way to end a vacation! He got back to the Hertz counter and we were finally on our way. Maybe that's what we get for skedaddling out of the airport without double checking. Noted for next time, for sure.
(I'm listening to Wishes on MouseWorld Radio right now. Boy, it's a nice song )
It was an easy drive to the Downtown Disney Hilton Doubletree. There's something about being back on Disney property... The hotel is very nice and our room was really big.
It was 6:30pm by that time and we were tired after a very long day. There was no beautiful dining room with friendly people waiting for us, so we had to find dinner on our own . We ended up off property anyway, assuming that it would be easier and cheaper to dine somewhere on the main strip. We ended up at Red Lobster and had a nice meal. We also had a surprise celebrity siting: Ray Lewis was eating near the bar with his family! (Dh was wearing his jersey and the manager came over to tell us to take a stroll through the bar area.) We didn't stop to say hi or get an autograph, even though we REALLY wanted to. Besides, we didn't have a Sharpie pen on us, lol. Dh even wanted to wait outside in the parking lot for him. But I gently told him that we'd look like stalkers and it wouldn't be a good idea. By the time we got back to the room, we were all bushed and hit the (very comfy) sack. Tomorrow, we'd go check out Splitsville at Downtown Disney!
I'm so glad you were able to sort out the car rental and get another night at a hotel, as that definitely sounds like the best way to go, rather than such a late flight arrival back home.
I'm so glad you were able to sort out the car rental and get another night at a hotel, as that definitely sounds like the best way to go, rather than such a late flight arrival back home.
Yes, 10pm wouldn't have been so bad, but I wanted to avoid being stuck overnight in the airport. Sitting on the Tarmac for that long would have been very annoying!
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Smart move, arranging to stay the night. And, thank goodness the wallet was found.
We were so thankful! I left very nice camera a long time ago at a gate at Chicago O'Hare airport. I went back for it 5 minutes later and it was gone, so I was really worried about that wallet!
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