"Deep Thoughts by Iron Man" TR 3-10 Sept 11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
What an awesome beginning to your trip! Kudos to the Delta pilots!
When I check your pictures, the dimensions are just that small. I always up load mine to Photobucket first where I can adjust the size and then use the code to load them directly into my TR.
Good idea!! I will try that with the next section.
__________________
PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
We got to Beach Club about 12:45 and not only was there absolutely no line for check-in (I had done online check-in but wouldnt have needed too), but as luck would have it, our room was actually ready . We got our folder and KTW and headed upstairs to drop off a few items. Our room was just down the main hall on the second floor (essentially above the gift shop) and our room overlooked the courtyard area between our building and the DVC villas building.
After a quick bathroom break it was time to head downstairs to the market for a quick lunch before the parks. I don't have any food photos from lunch because we were starving, but the kiddos each had flat bread pizzas that were really good, and Adam and I shared sandwiches. We couldn't decide between Ham and Cheddar or Turkey and Brie so we got one of each and each had half of each. They definitely hit the spot!!!
By this point, it was about 1:30 and time to head to the bus stop or our first stop on the trip...Magic Kingdom!!
Adam and the kids decided to pose at the bus stop while we waited...can you tell that Iron Man is excited to finally be able to ride the big kid rides???
We got to Magic Kingdom and gave IM the choice of the first ride for the trip and he chose....Thunder Railroad (as he calls it). We got really lucky too and the stand-by line was only 20 minutes
2 very excited kids ready to ride the rides
Our kiddos are very stereotypical in that Kayla is a complete daddy's girl, and Carter is Momma's boy, so that is how we split up for the ride.
Again, can you tell this kid is excited for his first roller coaster ride ever??? While we waited I received about 20 more kisses and was told how great I was and my favorite "this is seriously the most greatestest awesome thing ever...I'm gonna ride thunder railroad!!!!!!"
As a side note, you will notice the entertaining poses throughout the trip...I don't know that he took a "normal" photo the entire week.....
After thunder railroad, we made our way to splash mtn and walked right on as well. Then managed to go back and forth between the 2 for a few more rides before we headed back to Adventure land to ride POTC. I don't have alot of photos from the afternoon because Carter kept us so entertained with his excitement that I forgot to take photos
About 6:00 we decided to head for the monorail station to head to our ADR at Ohana. I have tried every other trip to get a reservation here, so I was super excited to get one this trip!! We got to the Poly and bit early and took the opportunity to roam around and check out the resort....GORGEOUS!!!
When we checked it for our 7:45 reservation, I asked for a window seat to watch the fireworks, but the wait would have been a lot longer, and after a 3am wake-up the kids were slowly crashing and we wouldnt have made it for the fireworks anyways...
We did just lucky and could see the castle from our seat which was a nice touch The food at Ohana was fabulous!!!!
It was really funny watching Carter try to eat his salad
For dessert we had pineapple bread pudding (HEAVENLY!!) and the kids had ice cream sundaes....can you tell that they liked them?
As we were finishing dinner, it was time for some activities...first up, coconut sweeping races!!!
After the races and the limbo dance, it was time to head back to the resort...we were all exhausted, and I wanted to get us unpacked before heading to bed.
Up Next: It's time to go Soarin round the World
__________________
PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
How neat to get checked into BC so quickly and your room to be ready! The excitement on your kids' face is priceless! Great afternoon at MK and dinner at Ohana.
Great start.
My family is that way too about getting up early. We hate it every other day except for the times we are going to Disney!!!
I love the pic of Iron Man on Thunder Railroad. Too cute.
Glad you ended up with a good view at O'Hana's without the wait.
Great start.
My family is that way too about getting up early. We hate it every other day except for the times we are going to Disney!!!
I love the pic of Iron Man on Thunder Railroad. Too cute.
Glad you ended up with a good view at O'Hana's without the wait.
Isn't funny how Disney can change things Iron Man was sooooooo excited to ride all of the big kid rides this time!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
How neat to get checked into BC so quickly and your room to be ready! The excitement on your kids' face is priceless! Great afternoon at MK and dinner at Ohana.
Glad you also got the pictures enlarged!
I'm not sure who was more excited at this point, the kids or their dad Thanks for the tip of the photos...photobucket worked out great!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Love the expression on your kids' face - they are so excited!
They are so excited whenever they are at Disney...guess they get it from their mom
__________________
PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
Man its been a few days since I have been able to work on this TR! I have been soooo busy! Good news though is that I got my fall garden planted this weekend That is one of the biggest bonuses about living in southern Texas...2 growing seasons! But enough of the garden, time for more TR
We started off our first full day at Disney with breakfast downstairs at Cape May Cafe! We are not huge breakfast eaters (I'm normally a granola bar and yogurt type of gal) but I knew the kids would love the character experience. We didn't have too long of a wait for our table (maybe 5 minutes) but I did take advantage of the time to show DH the DVC display in the lobby (remember my ulterior motives from my PTR ) He did agree at this point that he was really loving the Deluxe accomodations and everything that goes along with that.
While we were looking at DVC stuff, the kids sat down at the little tv to watch cartoons. I noticed this girl that sat down next to them and thought she looked like the little girl next door....well evidently Iron Man thought so too. He turned and said to her "Hey Lindsey how come you don't recognize me...its me Carter from the other yard.....How come you won't talk to me??" This poor little girl was sooooo confused! Although, so was poor Carter....DH and I however were
So like I said we got seated pretty quickly and DH headed off to the buffet with the kiddos....Iron Man was in love with the Mickey Waffles (I mean who isn't though!)
YUM!!!!
The thing that did take a bit at the restaurant were the characters....evidently they had just come past our area of the restaurant, so we had to wait for them to head back around. First up.....
MINNIE!!! (My favorite BTW)
After Minnie it was time for Donald....Kayla had been waiting for weeks to see Donald so she could tell him "Hey whats the big idea!" He loved it
A few minutes after Donald came what would be our final character for the meal....Goofy. He seemed to be the character out of all of them that tried to get thru everyone as quick as possible. There was very little interaction and in fact he came to the table, signed the books posed for a photo and walked away....too bad
Overall, we enjoyed Cape May, but I was really disappointed that there was no Mickey at breakfast....seemed odd to just have Minnie, Donald and Goofy...is that the way it normally is or did we just have an off day??
After breakfast we were off to EPCOT and can I just tell you, I LOVE THE WALK FROM BEACH CLUB!! It is so peaceful and beautiful and.....CLOSE! We would find ourselves making this walk numerous times throughout the trip. Of course at this point in the morning the World wasn't open so we headed straight for Soarin (which only had a 15 min wait at this time) No photos from soarin since the wait was literally just the time it took you to walk thru the empty queu. This was Carter's first time on Soarin and he was sold Once we finished the ride it just made sense to ride my favorite ride at EPCOT, Living with the Land (I'm a dork I know!)
I just love how beautiful the greenhouses are!
After living with the land we realized that Spaceship Earth only had a 15 min wait as well (this was starting to be a trend for the trip) so we headed over there. I was able to take a quick photo of Adam and Kayla before we ascended into the darkness. She is such a Daddy's girl
We had a great ride, and I was even able to get a photo from Carter and I's expedition into space/
We headed from there towards Nemo and ran into these 2 goofy chipmunks! They were hilarious with the kids and interacted with them for probably 5 minutes! In fact they were probably the best character meet of the entire trip!
After Chip and Dale we were able to ride Nemo and see Crush as well as do a bit of shopping, and then it was off to find some lunch. By this time the world was open and we headed to Morocco. DH and I love mediterranean food and middle eastern food so we always try to eat at the Tangerine Cafe on each trip and we are never disappointed. We shared the Chicken/Lamb schwarma combo plate and it was SOOOOOO GOOD!!!!
After lunch our bellies were full and it was time to walk off some of the food.......
__________________
PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Great start to your first day! Mickey is never at Cape May for breakfast, just Minnie, Goofy, and Donald, but Donald is usually much more entertaining than he was your morning. The walk from BC to Epcot is one of the best things about this resort.
Sounded like a great start to your day. The food looked yummy!
It definitely was a good start
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a great start to the day!
I agree!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great pictures from Cape May Cafe! I've never seen Mickey there in all our times! Great start at Epcot as well!
It's too bad that he isn't there......
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great start to your first day! Mickey is never at Cape May for breakfast, just Minnie, Goofy, and Donald, but Donald is usually much more entertaining than he was your morning. The walk from BC to Epcot is one of the best things about this resort.
I agree on the walk I wish that I had been able to take a run around the lake one morning, but I wasn't willing to wake up any earlier than I had too
__________________
PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
So far so good!! Sounds like you had a great time. Chip and Dale in Epcot were come of our favorite interactions as well, they were very silly and very willing to spend time with each guest, which was great. And surprisingly the line was never that long, you'd think with them being out in the open like that more people would hop in line, but it really wasn't bad!! Can't wait to hear more.
Man I swear I never have time anymore to write this TR! The last week has been pretty busy like usual with DH out of town again on business...but enough about that...time for more TR We left off last time at lunch on our first full day at Disney. We decided to take a bit of time after lunch and head back to the front of EPCOT to do a bit of shopping. Before that though we found Kayla's favorite Disney character...DAISY! She was super excited and even told Daisy that she was her favorite.
Along with Daisy we found one of Iron Man's favorite characters..STITCH! As usual, Stitch was quite the entertainer and did lots of interacting with the kids which is always appreciated
By this time, the kids were ready for more rides and the lines we nice and low so we headed off for both kids first time ever on Test Track.....well for a little boy who loves Lightning McQueen this was a great ride! Can you sense the excitement in his face? Yeah me either....I think he was just tired at this point
By the time we left test track we were greeted by darkening skies and thunder in the distance. Coming from TX where it had rained a total of 5 times this year by this point, we were not about to go hide inside
As soon as it started to rain, all of the obviously non-texans ran for cover.....but not my kids!!! I really think they were unsure what this wet stuff was that was falling from the sky
Once the rain started to subside, it was time to head towards Italy for our ADR at Via Napoli! As we walked up I felt bad for the super long line waiting outside in the rain hoping to get a free table.....
Once inside, we were seated in about 10 minutes and then introduced to our waiter Davide. At this point I am going to go off on a tangent about how great this guy was. First off let me just get it out there that he was VERY attractive and the accent made it even better He took plenty of time to explain the menu to us as well as give us recommendations for our food. He even gave us some Disney/Italy trivia to figure out during dinner.
As we were waiting for our food, he even took Adam and Carter over to the pizza prep area and explained how they made the pizza, the importance of the ingredients and lots of pizza history which they loved. He also introduced them to the pizza guys who were very patient answering all of Carter's questions....again, GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE DISNEY!
By this point our food had arrived. The kiddos were kind of boring and ordered spaghetti with meatballs. Adam went with Davide's suggestion and ordered proscuitto, cantelope, arugula and mozzarell pizza and loved it!
I went with a 3 cheese, artichoke and wild mushroom pizza that was to die for!I couldn't believe how big they were too
After pizza we managed to have room for dessert (sorry no photos ) I had the Zeppoles (AWESOME!) and Adam had the Tiramasu (probably the best I have ever had!) As we finished and were getting ready to head out, Davide came to thank us and ask how the dinner was. When I complimented on his wonderful service he thanked me again and let me know that this was his first night on the job I have to tell you that he was so great that I told my friend who would be at Via Napoli a week later to request him if she could...they did and were also super impressed by his service!!!
After dinner we roamed the world again until it was time for Illuminations and then it was off to bed....we were exhausted!!!
Up next......Will we be eaten by the Yeti??
__________________
PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
. We got our folder and KTW and headed upstairs to drop off a few items. Our room was just down the main hall on the second floor (essentially above the gift shop) and our room overlooked the courtyard area between our building and the DVC villas building. 
PassPorter Guide Author
Liz 
I've never seen Mickey there in all our times! 
Great start at Epcot as well! 
I have to tell you that he was so great that I told my friend who would be at Via Napoli a week later to request him if she could...they did and were also super impressed by his service!!!
Linear Mode
