Is It Time Already?! OKW and POR, November 2013 - Page 19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I can't believe all of the noise you put up with on this trip! Yikes! But it sounds like you didn't let it spoil the magic!
The food photos are KILLING me! I'm starving as I read your TR and it's killing me to see the yummy food! I can't wait to get to WDW to take my own food photos, lol!!! And then EAT the food!!!
I can't believe the lights out on the trees, too! Holy cow! I'm really surprised that they'd let that happen since the trees are so prominent!
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Sorry that Yak and Yeti wasn't up to par. We've had good meals here and so so meals. On our most recent trip my duck was way too dry and I barely ate any of it. I should have sent it back. The teaser for the next update doesn't sound too good.
Just as Lauriep said, I have also never been at the AK after dark! No surprise as there are few dining choices and the park tends to close early....for the sake of the animals, which makes sense. Great to see photos here during this time as I've seen very few!
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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!
Nice shots of Animal Kingdom at night. Sorry Yak and Yeti wasn't the greatest, but as you said, if you ate all the leftovers, it couldn't have been that bad?
Yes, the leftovers were definitely finished!
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Wow you have been busy!
I personally always get lost in DHS as well, and I lived there for 5 months and go at least twice a year now. Still can not figure it out!
LOVE the lions on the safari! Such a shame about the camera batteries but at least the cell phone pics aren't too bad
There's probably more I wanted to say while reading.... but I've forgotten! Sounds like you had a great day at AK overall though! I'm excited to spend my first evening there in quite a few years on my upcoming trip!
This was really the first time I really explored this park, and even then there are parts of the park we didn't see this time that we saw in 2009. I still feel like there are parts I haven't really explored.
The safari was really cool. It was so neat to see the lions walking around when most TRs show pictures of them sleeping or sitting.
I've gotten very behind on your PTR. I need to go catch up because your trip is almost here!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily
I love seeing the pics of AK after dark. I can only go in the summer and it closes a few hours before dark then. I bet you had to be exhausted!
I wish I had taken more pictures of the park after dark. The kids were really ready to be back in the room even though it was "only" 8pm. Even though we weren't in commando mode, we had done a lot of walking over four consecutive park days.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great night at DHS! And a great day at AK! Love the pics from the safari, especially the lions! Sorry Y&Y wasn't the best! I think of it as overpriced Chinese food, and thankfully you can get a Yak Attack at the takeout place right around the corner! More please!
I'm hoping on my next trip I'll finally try a Yak Attack! Yak & Yeti was ok. I can't really place my finger on it...it wasn't bad, but it didn't wow me either. It was just sort of there, lol!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcc0313
Love the look of the park at night. We are usually out of there pretty early, getting there at opening, this year we were there to about 7 and loved how empty it got in the evening....very peaceful.
I really wish we could've been there at opening, but I'm glad we were there at closing. I know it's pretty rare that the park opens late, so it was nice to see something I hadn't seen much in other TRs!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Principessa_di_Fata
I can't believe all of the noise you put up with on this trip! Yikes! But it sounds like you didn't let it spoil the magic!
The food photos are KILLING me! I'm starving as I read your TR and it's killing me to see the yummy food! I can't wait to get to WDW to take my own food photos, lol!!! And then EAT the food!!!
I can't believe the lights out on the trees, too! Holy cow! I'm really surprised that they'd let that happen since the trees are so prominent!
Oh yeah, the noise was ridiculous. It was one of those things where I just couldn't believe kept going on and on and on...and from different sources, lol!
You know me and food! I couldn't wait to text you pictures!
I felt almost guilty taking pictures of the dark spots on the trees! It just seems so un-Disney! It felt like "Wow, I've got to take a picture of this because no one's going to believe me!"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Sorry that Yak and Yeti wasn't up to par. We've had good meals here and so so meals. On our most recent trip my duck was way too dry and I barely ate any of it. I should have sent it back. The teaser for the next update doesn't sound too good.
I'm glad I tried it so now I don't have to wonder what it's like. I'll probably try it again someday, but I won't be in a huge rush.
The teaser...you've probably already guessed what it is!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Just as Lauriep said, I have also never been at the AK after dark! No surprise as there are few dining choices and the park tends to close early....for the sake of the animals, which makes sense. Great to see photos here during this time as I've seen very few!
I was happily surprised when I discovered it would be open later than I was expecting. I'm glad we got the chance to walk around the park at night! I just wish I had taken more pictures!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
I'm sure by now you've guessed what happens next! Now every night there's been some kind of noise that either kept me from falling asleep or woke me up before daylight. Rather than dwell on it too much, I tried to put it out of my mind and make the best of it...what's done is done, right? The only night I didn't hear a lot of noise was the night it rained...probably because no one wanted to be out if they didn't have to be, right?
So this night was no different. We all finally fell asleep at some point after midnight. Then, I heard noise. This time it was similar to the first night we were here....but worse. I heard a motor start up and run...and run...and run. This time I opened my eyes to look at the time. 5:46am. Are you kidding me?! I closed my eyes and just sighed to myself. That darn motor kept running, and running, and running. At some point after what felt like an eternity, it stopped! Hallelujah!!! By now my brain was wide awake, and I knew it would be tough to fall back asleep. After a few minutes of silence, that darn motor started again! The sound wasn't moving, it was stationary...and loud! I got up and looked out the front window and saw nothing. I looked out the patio window, and saw nothing. There was no way I was going to wake up the kids by opening the door, so I just gave up and climbed back into bed again...once again sighing to myself.
FINALLY, it stopped. This time, I opened my eyes and looked at the time again. 7:02am! That darn noise had been going on for over an hour!!! Sigh..........
I'm not sure if I ever fell back asleep again, but eventually I got up...probably around 8. Evan woke up soon after, and this time Sophia actually started to move before long! I reminded her that if she wanted to have a nice big breakfast like she kept saying she wanted, she had to get up quickly. I think this time we were out the door soon after 9!
We took the first bus that came along and got off at Hospitality House. Our goal was to have breakfast at Olivia's, and we made it!
Evan had Mickey waffles and bacon:
I had crab cake Benedict, which I really enjoyed (I'm sure that's not the official name!):
And some grits! I LOVE grits! And these grits were so creamy and yummy!
Sophia had the breakfast sampler (sorry, I'm terrible with remembering names of dishes):
We all ate every single bite of our food! I'm so glad we finally made it to a nice big sit-down breakfast!
The decor was really fun in Olivia's.
Our server surprised us with a birthday surprise for Evan!
As nice as this was, none of us could quite get our heads around eating ice cream for breakfast, lol!
Evan had fun decorating his treat:
In the end, between the three of us, we got through one scoop of ice cream and about a third of the brownie. That was just a little too much sweetness to stomach so early in the morning! I thought about taking the brownie with us, but I knew it would just end up as smooshed chocolate in my backpack! It was a really nice surprise, though, and Evan enjoyed the attention!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Bummer that the noise continued for your whole trip. I think I would have had to contact the front desk. I've never understood sleeping with sound machines as I prefer it absolutely quiet. We leave a short distance from a major farm and some nights they have a motor to something that runs from around 10 PM to midnight. I always have trouble falling asleep those nights.
At least breakfast at Olivia's was delicious and filling. Not sure I could have done a brownie and ice cream that early in the morning either.
So you never found out what caused that noise? I would've been straight up to try and find out and then I'd have been straight on the phone to front desk, as it's not on to have your sleep interrupted like that.
Crazy how they have those noises outside your room. You would think there would be tons of complaints. Your breakfast looks yummy. I love grits! Those look super good.
Very upsetting about all the noise every single night. The loud families is a different issue, but the resort noises should definitely NOT have happened. The odd thing is that you don't mention ever hearing these noises when you were in the room early in the evening or daytime. They seem to only do whatever noisy work it is during normal sleeping hours, which makes no sense. If they send you a survey to comlete, complain about this! I usually get a survey e-mail within a few weeks of my return home.
Oh Jeannie, you are way too nice. I would have called the front desk after a while and asked what on earth was going on. I am getting annoyed just reading about it, lol!
So glad you were able to enjoy. They had such a great menu, so hard to decide what to try.
The food was very good! Honestly, the highlight for me is the grits! Living in California, it's not easy to find grits at all, let alone good grits!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Bummer that the noise continued for your whole trip. I think I would have had to contact the front desk. I've never understood sleeping with sound machines as I prefer it absolutely quiet. We leave a short distance from a major farm and some nights they have a motor to something that runs from around 10 PM to midnight. I always have trouble falling asleep those nights.
At least breakfast at Olivia's was delicious and filling. Not sure I could have done a brownie and ice cream that early in the morning either.
I don't need it to be 100% quiet, but once I'm asleep, the slightest noise wakes me up...but I'm not exaggerating when I say this was loud!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
So you never found out what caused that noise? I would've been straight up to try and find out and then I'd have been straight on the phone to front desk, as it's not on to have your sleep interrupted like that.
I think I figured it out a few days later when we were at Port Orleans. I did end up talking to the manager later on, which will be in the TR for the next day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily
Crazy how they have those noises outside your room. You would think there would be tons of complaints. Your breakfast looks yummy. I love grits! Those look super good.
My only guess is that the noise was right behind the wall where the headboards were. I would've been the closest to the source of the noise. The next closest would've been my 1 bedroom neighbors, but they were so loud that it probably didn't bother them, lol! The next closest people would've been in the building across the way...I'm sure they would've heard it, but probably not as loud as I heard it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Very upsetting about all the noise every single night. The loud families is a different issue, but the resort noises should definitely NOT have happened. The odd thing is that you don't mention ever hearing these noises when you were in the room early in the evening or daytime. They seem to only do whatever noisy work it is during normal sleeping hours, which makes no sense. If they send you a survey to comlete, complain about this! I usually get a survey e-mail within a few weeks of my return home.
I haven't seen a survey yet, but either way I'm going to let the OKW general manager know. It's already been a few weeks, but still I'd like to let them know what's going on so no one else has to go through it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Principessa_di_Fata
Oh Jeannie, you are way too nice. I would have called the front desk after a while and asked what on earth was going on. I am getting annoyed just reading about it, lol!
Breakfast looked delicious!!!
Yeah, you know me, I hate to ruffle feathers. I did go speak to the manager on duty, but not until the next day. I'll detail it in the TR when I get to it. I guess my thing at the time was not waking the kids, and had I opened the door or made a call, it would've woken them. In retrospect, though, how they slept through all that noise I have no idea. Sophia swears she was so tired every night that she never heard a thing!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
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