2 Year Anniversary PTR September 2010 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld, and Discovery Cove
Okay, so, I'm not quite sure how to write this section...You already know that we are going to these parks and on what days, and where I'm eating.
I guess I can talk about which rides we plan on going on, and how we plan to get there, and all that nice stuff.
We plan on taking the Mears Shuttle to the parks, because it is cheap, and they'll pick us up at any time, according to their website. I haven't called them yet. I plan on doing that in June.
We are doing Universal Studios first, because I want to ride all the crazy roller coasters. (Again, David and I are both adrenaline junkies.)
I leaned heavily on The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2010 and Universal Orlando 2010 The Ultimate Guide to the Ultimate Theme Park Adventure in order to figure out what rides we should go on and in approximately what order, just in case you were curious.
Here's our list of rides for Universal, in the order we plan on doing them.
Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket
Revenge of the Mummy
Men in Black Alien Attack
Jaws
(Lunch at the Midway Grill)
Disaster
Twister
Animal Actors on Location
Terminator 2: 3D
Lucy - A Tribute
Then we plan on revisiting any of our favorites if we have time, before going to dinner in CityWalk, at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. I'm planning on waiting in line an awful lot at Universal, because their equivalent of FPs seems a little iffy to me. It's my understanding you have to pay for it. What's the point of that?
Anyway. The next day, at Islands of Adventure, my MAIN focus will be the Harry Potter Theme Park, because I am a dedicated Harry Potter fan. (I have all the books in hardcover and paperback, and am working on getting all the collectible versions as well. I have all the movies on DVD, one on BluRay, a biography of JK Rowling, The Tales of the Beedle the Bard, Quidditch through the Ages, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In short, everything possible there is to have, I have it!) So, yes. Wizarding World of Harry Potter. YAY!
But here's the full list.
All the rides in Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Incredible Hulk Coaster
The Adventures of Spiderman
(Lunch at Cafe 4)
Poseidon's Fury
Jurassic Park River Adventure
Cat in the Hat
Back to Wizarding World of Harry Potter to explore the "town" of Hogsmeade and the castle.
Dinner at Top of the Walk Food Court in CityWalk
So there you have it. Our plans for Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.
For SeaWorld, my plans aren't defined quite so well. There are a lot of shows I would like to see, and the schedule will not be out for quite some time, so I am kind of waiting to find out about that before I prepare our "touring plan."
I do have a general idea of what we would like to see, so I will post that for you I guess.
We want to ride Manta, Kraken, Journey to Atlantis, Wild Arctic. We want to see the shows Believe, Clyde & Seamore, and Blue Horizons. And, of course, we'll check out the Aquatic Exhibits. We also plan on doing the Sharks Deep Dive...
I am VERY nervous about the Sharks Deep Dive, because I have been terrified of sharks since I was about six years old and saw Jaws by accident one night after my parents were asleep. A silly fear, perhaps, but a fear nonetheless. SO, we are doing this Sharks Deep Dive and riding Jaws at Universal in order to conquer my fear of sharks.
The Sharks Deep Dive, just in case you don't know, consists of putting on a wetsuit and specially designed helmet that allows you to breathe and talk underwater, and then getting into a shark tank and spending half an hour traveling on an underwater track that takes you through the shark tank. *deep breath* I am scared silly, but determined to do it! David thinks it's great that I'm so determined to conquer my fear...I hope I can go through with it once I'm there though!
For Discovery Cove, we are hoping to be able to do the Dolphin Swim first thing in the morning. We are picking up the rental car that morning, and then going straight to Discovery Cove.
After the Dolphin Swim, we are going to spend the day exploring. We are going to check out the Aviary, Ray Lagoon, Coral Reef, and the Conservation Cabana.
I am very excited about the Dolphin Swim!
We wanted to see the Blue Man Group at Universal, but since we're doing the Dolphin Swim and the Shark Deep Dive, we decided to wait until next time we are down in Orlando. Our budget can only handle so much!
So, this post has been a little more rambling and less amusing than I meant it to be...Sorry!
I bought the Universal Studios Tickets last month, and plan on buying the Dolphin Swim and all that it entails tomorrow! Yay for us!
Next up: The making of my "Travel Book" that I take every time I go on any sort of trip!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
So, every time I go on any sort of trip (but especially DISNEY Trips) I make a "Travel Book."
For Disney, the book has an "Important Phone Numbers" page, which has various numbers that I may need or may come in handy, including the hotel phone number, lost and found, and the number for security.
A new page I have this time includes where all of the First Aid Stations are located at the parks. (I have asthma, and it says that they can handle some of the treatment there at the first aid centers, so it's a good idea to have the info handy and easy to find, just in case!)
The book also has all of our flight information (Confirmation Number, Itinerary, and Seats), our park itinerary, our dining reservations (these pages also include which quick service restaurants we're eating at, just so my brain keeps everything in order), and our touring plans for the parks, which obviously include which rides we plan on going on and in approximately what order.
Another page that I am adding this time is a daily budget page...Last time we were at the World, we went a little overboard on our spending, just because we weren't really keeping track of how much money was leaving our wallets. This time, we'll have a set spending limit every day, so we don't go crazy!
The cover of my book right now is all cute and Disneyfied with Disney Stickers. I am going to have to redo my book, however, because way too much stuff has changed, and it's less work to just do a whole new one than to try to fix the old one.
I am going to print it so that each page takes up either a half page or quarter page, to save space, since I only carry a very small bag with me in the parks. (My little Jansport can pretty much handle a water bottle, a protein bar or two, my camera, my wallet & sunglasses, and my inhaler. It's about the size of a purse, but in backpack form. Yay for convenience!)
I had my current book "bound" at Staples, while I was still working there (yes, way back in Sept. of '09....I TOLD you I was crazy...I knew the plans would change, but thought I would still be working there to have another one done). Staples has a lot of binding options, including spiral, comb, and the kind of binding I had done, which I can't remember the name of right now...The cover is clear plastic, and the back is black plastic, and the pages are sort of glued into the binding. It looks very professional, at least if you ignore my Disney Stickers!
Hopefully I'll be able to get that done again. The plastic cover will help keep it dry, and I can keep it around after the trip...probably scribble notes in it to help me write my TR when I get home!
Side note:
WE BOUGHT OUR DISCOVERY COVE DOLPHIN SWIM PACKAGE THIS MORNING!
So, that means everything except the Shark Dive is paid for.
100% paid off, woot!
That includes the hotel, park tickets for Disney, Universal, IOA, SeaWorld, and Discovery Cove! Yay!!!!! So excited.
The Shark Deep Dive, just in case anyone is curious, is $150 per person, so it's a little spendy, but well worth it, at least in my mind! And, it's a once in a lifetime thing, and we can buy those tickets in about two weeks out of my next paycheck. (David's paycheck generally goes towards bills, and mine goes towards leftover bills and FUN stuff like Disney.)
I did the travel book thing for our trip with my sister and her family. I had one for me, her, and Stefanie had to have one, too. But it really helped when I called to talk to her about that trip that we could literally be on the same page. Great idea!
Congrats on having so much of the trip already PIF!
Another page that I am adding this time is a daily budget page...Last time we were at the World, we went a little overboard on our spending, just because we weren't really keeping track of how much money was leaving our wallets. This time, we'll have a set spending limit every day, so we don't go crazy!
On our trip in January, we tried something different for us. We had the DP, so meals were covered, except for tips. For each day of our trip (including travel days) , I had put a $100 cash in an envelope & marked (ex. DAY 1- 1/28/10). Whatever wasn't used that day I put in the last envelope. The only thing we used our debit card for was hotel costs during travel & gas money (we drove). Once we got to WDW, everything was paid for, so the $100 went very far, just using it for tips, misc. snacks, or shopping (although for shopping, we had several Amex gift cards that we had gotten for Christmas). I also had filled our mousekeeping tip envelopes before leaving home. It made me more aware of how much misc. money you can spend on a trip when you just keep pulling it out your wallet or charging it. I will def do this again next trip. I loved the thought of coming home from vacation and having it comepletely paid for!!
Your plans look great!!! I am trying to hold off starting my PTR since we aren't going back until Jan 2011. I really enjoy reading everyones TR!!! Planning for the trip is a HUGE part of the whole going to Disney fun!!!!!! I'll keep following along!
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.
On our trip in January, we tried something different for us. We had the DP, so meals were covered, except for tips. For each day of our trip (including travel days) , I had put a $100 cash in an envelope & marked (ex. DAY 1- 1/28/10). Whatever wasn't used that day I put in the last envelope. The only thing we used our debit card for was hotel costs during travel & gas money (we drove). Once we got to WDW, everything was paid for, so the $100 went very far, just using it for tips, misc. snacks, or shopping (although for shopping, we had several Amex gift cards that we had gotten for Christmas). I also had filled our mousekeeping tip envelopes before leaving home. It made me more aware of how much misc. money you can spend on a trip when you just keep pulling it out your wallet or charging it. I will def do this again next trip. I loved the thought of coming home from vacation and having it comepletely paid for!!
Thanks for the tip! Sounds pretty much about what I meant to do, except without the envelope! I figure, if we leave most of our money in the safe, except what we plan on using that day, and don't use our debit cards except for hotel stuff....That would be good, right? No credit card debt. Woo hoo!
I am glad you are enjoying my PTR! Thanks for reading.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Susan
It is such a relief having everything paid for before you actually go on vacation. 
Linear Mode
