The Big Birthday Celebration / Meeting My Starfish Pre-Trip Report - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Now that I had my "w's" all set, it was time for the planning. Since the trip was a short one, I knew I couldn't see it all. So I decided that since AK is my least favorite park, especially in the warm weather, I would skip it this time. And because MK is my favorite park, that's where I would spend my birthday. So this brought me to this schedule:
Thurs. arrival day - Epcot (World Showcase)
Fri. DHS
Sat. birthday! - MK
Sun. departure day - Epcot (Future World)
With this set, I started to think about dining. We NEVER eat out at home unless it's someone's birthday, so it's a real treat for me to sit in a restaurant and have someone wait on me. So I decided, what the heck, let's do deluxe dining and bring along the elastic waist pants for the trip! After some serious research I came up with the ADR list:
Thurs: lunch: Le Cellier! Dinner: Tutto Italia (my favorite)
Fri: breakfast: Cape May Cafe Lunch: Sci-Fi
Sat: Breakfast: Chef Mickey's Lunch: Tony's Dinner: WCC
Sun: Breakfast: Akershus Lunch: Nine Dragons
Not sure what we do for dinner on Friday, it might be popcorn and something from the Boardwalk Bakery. I also put my celebration on every ADR, just to see what happens. I won't be disappointed if nothing happens, but I'll be very appreciative of whatever they do to make my Birthday special. (I'm really hoping that they sing to me in Tutto Italia the way they did for others last time we were there. )
Ok, food done.
But...... my DF and his daughter decided to invite many more people than I was expecting. Many more. Now, I like having lots of friends around and I appreciate their love, but, well, this is my BIG birthday. I was kind of hoping to allow myself to be a Diva for once in my life and do exactly what I wanted to do, and these new guests threatened to put a damper on my plans. I just have to come up with a nice way to say, "I'll meet you for breakfast, but, Dahling, I want to be alone", as Greta Garbo would say.
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Now that we're back, I think this trip report should be called "The Why My Life Should be an ABC Sitcom Report"
But here goes:
Our day started ridiculously early. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:25am, yes AM! I wanted to get as much Disney time as possible. So, I loaded up the car the day before and got everyone up at 3:00am. Wow, this was no fun at all!! DH grumbled that taking me and Maclane to the airport was my birthday gift, and Maclane, well, he was just kind of walking in his sleep. Luckily, the weather was good and we were on our way!
On a side note, we had had a bit of a scare the day before. It actually SNOWED! It didn’t accumulate to much, but people drive a little crazy when it snows and I knew that it might slow us down. Plus, not thinking that it would snow in April, I didn’t get the trip insurance! And, of course, that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the snow flying. But, luckily, it stopped in time for our travel.
On the way through the terminal, we were behind a family that was just all discombobulated. The kids kept running in the wrong direction, the poor Dad was trying to pull four suitcases, and the Mom was trying to nurse a baby as she corralled the older kids. It looked like something out of a Chevy Chase movie. And then, that’s when one of their suitcases exploded and clothing seemed to burst all over the place. As several people tried to help the harried family, the mother kept screaming for people to stop touching her clothes. What a sight! They finally pulled it together and continued on. Maclane and I hung out a bit to give them some space. We had plenty of time, and it was too early for me to get my head around all that confusion. We stopped for a restroom break to give them some extra space and hopefully go back to a peaceful trip through the airport.
Wouldn’t you know it, about 20 feet later, we found a pair of clean men’s underwear. Of course, it had to belong to the crazy family because there they were, not that far in front of us wrestling with a suitcase! I walked over to the father and tried to hand him the underwear, “Excuse me, I think these might be yours.” He looked at me like I had three heads and yelled, “Those are not my skivvies.” So everyone in the area turned to look at me holding a pair of men’s underwear. Great. What else could I do but ask, “Do these belong to anybody?” I brought the house down. Then not knowing exactly what to do with these things, I hung them over one of the stantions at the baggage check-in. Maybe someone would notice them and claim them??? More laughter. Oh well, there are worse ways to start a trip!
The plane was packed, but thanks to early bird check-in, we had good numbers in the A boarding group, and crazy family went to the back of the plane. A very nice man sat next to us and for the most part, we just listened to music and dozed for the plane ride.
Up next: Bring me my steak!
I walked over to the father and tried to hand him the underwear, “Excuse me, I think these might be yours.” He looked at me like I had three heads and yelled, “Those are not my skivvies.” So everyone in the area turned to look at me holding a pair of men’s underwear. Great. What else could I do but ask, “Do these belong to anybody?” I brought the house down. Then not knowing exactly what to do with these things, I hung them over one of the stantions at the baggage check-in. Maybe someone would notice them and claim them??? More laughter. Oh well, there are worse ways to start a trip!