Me, Muffin, Disney World, and Universal - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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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View Poll Results: Which park would you give up if you only had three days at WDW?
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Just got all caught up.
All your plans as the days progressed seemed great, but sounds like you ended up the better option in the end.
WL and Poly are on my bucket list!
Dining choices look delish!
Glad you had a good Mother's Day. What a great spread you received!
What a great Mother’s Day! Great dining plans! Sorry about BoG! Hopefully you can find a cancellation!
You know what, Marnie? I would love to eat there again and it is very festive for the Christmas Party but I am so happy that WDW is a place where you can't be too disappointed with all of the dining options available!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by purplegal
Now thats a feast for Mother’s Day, it looked like a lot of work.
It was and it was!! I am so proud of my baby!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Nice spread! Katie did a great job!
Plans subject to change - you should get that tattooed somewhere!
She did and I sure should!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
Just got all caught up.
All your plans as the days progressed seemed great, but sounds like you ended up the better option in the end.
WL and Poly are on my bucket list!
Dining choices look delish!
Glad you had a good Mother's Day. What a great spread you received!
So I told you guys that we weren't super excited about the latter half of our dining plans. I've already changed a few things around!!
We are going to wait to go to Disney Springs until the evening of November 16th with Katie and Andy. We'll still dine at THE Boathouse. On the 11th, we cancelled our Boathouse ADR and instead made one for Narcoossees at 7:25 PM. This will fit much better into our park plans!!
On November 12th, I kept our breakfast ADR for 1900 Park Fare at 8:15 AM and I think we will then just hang out at the Polynesian for the morning and then have a late lunch at LTT at 2 PM. Muffin still thinks he won't be able to eat anything there, but I think he's wrong. Anyway, he agreed to try it. We chose lunch because there are actually more options.
I am also cancelling Terralina Crafted Italian on November 13th because one night at DS will be plenty for us. Plus we figure we will have a better chance of seeing the Christmas Tree Trail later in the week!!
So! This is now what our dining schedule looks like:
11/7- no ADRs.
11/8- Monsieur Paul
11/9- California Grill
11/10- Victoria and Alberts OR Party For The Senses
11/11- Narcoosees
11/12- 1900 Park Fare/ LTT
11/13- Grand Floridian Café
My hopefuls as we go on are:
11/14- Biergarten
11/15- Tiffins
11/16- THE Boathouse
11/17- Mama Della's Ristorante
11/18- Hard Rock Café
There will definitely be some Voodoo Doughnuts in our plans as well because Muffin and I ate at one of these in Seattle and these doughnuts are an art!! They should be a food group!!! AH-MAZING!!!!!!
I think your changes are great. Although I am curious about Terralina Crafted Italian.
Voodoo donuts, oh my yummy!!
If my plans go through, I will be arriving late evening on the 14th. I will miss you since you have US the rest of your trip.
I think your changes are great. Although I am curious about Terralina Crafted Italian.
Voodoo donuts, oh my yummy!!
If my plans go through, I will be arriving late evening on the 14th. I will miss you since you have US the rest of your trip.
Thanks!! Well, not necessarily on the latter part! Andy and I will still do WDW on November 15th and possibly part of the 16th. Let me know and I will be so happy to meet up!! Our tentative plan is for AK on the 15th and MK on the 16th.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
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The Wilderness Lodge and the Polynesian and why I think we will keep them! Or some musings into our wacky planning!
Since we now have a good outline for our dining plans, we really feel like our upcoming trip is coming together nicely. If we were to make any more resort changes, at this point, it would only be because we got a much better deal (which let's face it, is more and more unlikely these days).
As we are lucky enough to have gone to WDW countless times, we have been able to stay at every single deluxe resort on property with the exception of the Contemporary. I'm not sure why we haven't stayed there. We love the restaurants and the proximity to MK but we've just never looked at it. Anyway!
As many of you know, AKL is a heavy favorite in our house but we have really enjoyed every single resort we have had the pleasure of staying at. So!
For the last several trips, we have made it a point to relax more and immerse ourselves in our surroundings. We love the parks as well but I think we finally realized that we were paying lots of money to basically just sleep at a beautiful place that has so much more to offer! We have learned to balance down time with time at the parks and as a result have gotten so much more out of our WDW vacations!
I promise I am getting to the point here!!
This year, we are really happy with the way that our resort plans worked out as we love staying at the different deluxe resorts and it's been three years since we've stayed at a MK one. Since then, we have mostly done the Epcot resort area with a little AKL thrown in. So as much as we love Epcot, we feel it's time to remedy that!
The last time that I stayed at the Wilderness Lodge was in 2004, with my Dad and my sister. We had an amazing time and from what I can see and have heard, a lot sure has changed since then!!
The last time that Muffin stayed at the WL was in 1996 Every single trip, as many of you know, he asks to stay there again. We have even worked it into our plans a few times to either stay there or eat there and it just has not made it into our final cut. Honestly, it is not that I am opposed to staying there. Just for one reason or another, we wind up somewhere else.
This year, all of that will change!! I really believe that we are finished with our resort shenanigans for this trip and have settled on the WL for the first part of our stay. We both can’t wait to see it all updated as well as see what we remember from our previous stays there. It. Is. Time.
Because of all of this thinking, we really did start our planning out by wanting to book the WL for the week. However, we could not find any availability. So we wound up booking the Beach Club. [[[[[[[[[[[SIGH]]]]]]]]]
Don't get me wrong, as I said earlier, we love all of the deluxe resorts. We also love the International Gateway which is so much more efficient than going to Epcot through the Main Entrance. We just really wanted to stay at a MK resort this time around. It just so happened that the Beach Club was the cheapest deluxe resort by far available. So we booked it as a placeholder but still continued to look for alternatives.
Somewhere along the line, Muffin reminded me what a great time we had splitting our stay. We did this for the first time ever last year and were super nervous about it but we needn't have worried. It turned out to be so enjoyable and seamless. The only reason I hadn't considered splitting our stay again this year is because we are only on property for six nights. Muffin seemed to think that this was not an issue and convinced me to take a look at it.
I searched and searched but just could not find any availability at the WL for either the first or second part of our trip. The Poly, however, was available for the last three nights so we booked three nights at the Beach Club followed by three nights at the Polynesian. Still I wanted to keep checking on the WL because I knew how badly Muffin wanted to stay there. Then!
On my daily resort search, one day, the WL just popped up! It was for our entire stay so I cancelled our reservation at the Beach Club and the Poly and booked it. Muffin was thrilled but knew that I also wanted to stay at the Polynesian. I told him we could instead stay there next year but he insisted on looking to see if it was still available for the last three nights of our Disney stay.
It was. So we booked it and then had a slight hiccough trying to reduce the number of nights at the WL but were able to work it all out as you know. Sorry to reiterate all of this but I get to the point where I am confused myself! Anyway!
We may be a little up in the air about our scheduling but we both are at that point where we are satisfied with our choices for resorts and it just feels right. Also, we just paid the balance off, which we usually don’t do until we feel settled.
As far as the Polynesian goes, we also have not stayed at this resort since the kids were little and I honestly can’t remember what year it was but it was somewhere in the 1990’s. This is another resort we always consider and then falls out of favor, usually because of the price.
That being said, we the Polynesian and have visited it on every single WDW trip we have taken. We either had a meal there or did a monorail tour. For three nights, it is totally manageable and we also feel, long overdue! We love the feel of this resort and we love the walking path to the Grand Floridian. And!! I can't wait to get my lei!!
We plan to spend a chunk of time enjoying these two vastly different resorts! Just like last year at AKL and BWI, the two resorts couldn't be more diverse but we feel that each has it's magical charms with beautiful settings and theming. We are so hoping we are able to use both pools again as well. Last year, we enjoyed the pools so much at AKL and the Boardwalk.
We are also looking forward to our nightcaps at both the Territory Lounge and the Tambu Lounge. We find that having a nice beverage at night in a beautiful setting and reflecting on what we did and what we look forward to tomorrow a perfect way to end each day.
We may take the long way to get there but we always do and we are starting to feel like this trip is getting cemented! We even made most of our ADRs pretty MK centered as we will, once again, rely on WDW transportation.
Now that I've explained how we arrive at where we want to be, does it make me any less wacky?! ( This is not really something you guys need to answer)
Just saw your pm about Anojitos. Hope you enjoy it.
At this moment I'm at Bobby Flay's and having a great meal. That's for the great review. Food is so good here. Place is packed on a Wednesday.
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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!