10 KTTW Cards, 4 Rooms, and a Woods View! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We had originally planned to go down to WDW December 8th early in the morning, but after looking at flight costs – it was cheaper to fly down Wednesday evening and stay in a Value resort for the night. So after finalizing our dates we decided to book our rooms – one night at All Star Movies and four nights at Wilderness Lodge in a woods view room – we figured we would go all out !
It was then time to book the flights! We used Kayak and Delta seemed to have the cheapest flights – but with baggage fees (we were planning on checking one bag – which D.O.D. Dear old Dad didn't want to take – but ended up using most of the space in it! ) ended up being more expensive than Jet Blue with one free checked bag! We went ahead and booked our flights – and am glad that we did, because the prices soared about a month later!
After deciding our dates, our resorts and booking our flights, we checked out all of the events going on – there were a bunch of All Ears meets going on during our stay – and we wanted to do them all . . . well, once again, I wanted to do them all . After going through all of the lotteries and not getting a single one (and forgetting to enter a few ) - we were excited when a few events were posted that didn't require tickets – these included the Holiday Lights Tour at Fort Wilderness and the Chocolate Challenge at Epcot. After adding these events into our itinerary and checking touring plans (great, great, great tool!), we finalized our days . . .
Thursday – Magic Kingdom and Lights Tour that evening
Friday – Hollywood Studios (our FIRST time going here!!)
Saturday – Epcot (Dad's Birthday)
Sunday – Animal Kingdom and Chocolate Challenge
Monday – Downtown Disney
Next up was waiting for the 180 day mark for our ADR's . . . well I have a habit of being prepared really far in advance, but once the date comes I completely forget . . . not exactly the best thing . . . Well, after forgetting to book our reservations, until . . . October . . . we were only able to get Trail's End, Whispering Canyon, and Chef's Mickey – not too shabby, but unfortunately we were unable to get Ohana !
After doing all of this . . . in about one week . . . all that was left was to plan some more, count down, read about other people's trips, and plan some more (did I mention that ).
Next up I'll write about our final pre-departure plans and then I'll get to the exciting part – our trip! Thanks again for reading everyone!
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
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Plans look great! I still haven't booked our ADRs for our April trip, but we tend to avoid the super popular restaurants and like some of the more out of the way spots!
Booking flights always seems like the trickiest part to me as prices can fluctuate so much. Glad you all managed to book before the prices soared. Great dining choices, too!
What a great job you are doing!!! Really like reading your updates, Dutch, waiting on the next 1!!!!!!!..
Thanks so much for reading along! I've really been trying to make it interesting !
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsblady01
more please
Coming right along!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
Plans look great! I still haven't booked our ADRs for our April trip, but we tend to avoid the super popular restaurants and like some of the more out of the way spots!
Thanks! Yea - we actually ended up dining at some great places that we wouldn't have otherwise!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Great plans!
Thanks!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by queen2
sounds great
Thanks for reading!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Booking flights always seems like the trickiest part to me as prices can fluctuate so much. Glad you all managed to book before the prices soared. Great dining choices, too!
We agree! The flights were probably the toughest thing to book - and we were glad to get them taken care of!
Thanks everyone for reading! Update coming tomorrow!
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As I mentioned before, I have a bad habit of being prepared months in advance, but then about a week before, I'm scrambling to get lots of stuff done! Well, this trip was no different! About two weeks before our trip we went up to Target and Bed Bath & Beyond to get trip supplies (Clorox Wipes, Sunscreen, Ponchos, etc.) and I had a plan of taking out my suitcase that night – well that night, turned into the night before !
I pulled out the two suitcases (a big red bag which we were checking and a small tan one which I was carrying on) and began to pack. Unfortunately, I had a Chemistry test the next day (H2O is about the only formula I know ), and so the night before our trip was a late one! After being mostly packed, I called up D.O.D. to make sure he had everything we needed (I was staying at my Mom's) for tomorrow's departure!
I would be missing school for three days and made sure all my teachers knew. I started off each conversation with “I'm not going to be here Thursday, Friday, or Monday” and hoped it would end there – of course, I had to explain myself … well sort of … it was a bit like pulling teeth “Where will you be” “I'm going away” “Where are you going” “Out of the state” “Where” “Florida” “Why” “I'm going with my Dad” - it ended there with most of my teachers. A few required more details, for which my Mom found the following great excuse letter (credit to The Mouse for Less) for...
RE: [students name and vacation dates]
Please be advised that [student] will be out of school during the week of [date]. We ask that his absences be excused.
The reason for [student]'s absence is that our family will be out of the state during this week. While we are gone, we will be visiting Walt Disney World. We believe that [student] will be learning many things during this trip and that his education will continue in his absence from school.
Some things [student] will learn about:
* Different cultures of the world, including architecture, language, diet, and dress, by visiting the different countries in the Epcot World Showcase (Japan, China, Germany, Mexico, Norway, Canada, France, etc.) [student] will have the chance to explore the exhibits for each country and speak with natives from each country who work as cast members.
* American history by viewing the Hall of Presidents presentation in the Magic Kingdom and the American Adventure show in Epcot.
* Nature and conservation at Animal Kingdom.
* Science by exploring the Mission:Space ride in Epcot where he will have a chance to see and feel what it would be like to travel by rocket to Mars and by experiencing the Universe of Energy exhibit which teaches about fossil fuels, energy, and conservation.
* Economics by managing his own spending money and making budget decisions on how to spend his money.
[student] will also be learning about map reading by navigating in and to the different theme parks, as well as the resorts and water parks via the Disney bus system, sociological aspects of crowds including patterns and behavior, physics of the different rides, breakthroughs in technology at the Innoventions computer lab in Epcot, art and animation and the history of film, and mathematics.
We believe this will be a wonderful and educational experience for [student] and hope you agree not to charge him with unexcused absences as a result. If it is possible for [student] to take any assignments with him to be turned in when we return or to turn in before we leave any work that will be due while he is gone, please let us know as soon as possible.
Thank you for your attention to this. If you have any questions or need any further information, please feel free to contact me.
[Parent's Signture]
The next day I turned in my work for when I wouldn't be there, took my Chemistry test (and passed!!), said goodbye to my friends (who were all very jealous ), and just as I left school early at 2:45, D.O.D. pulled up in the car. We swung by my Mom's, picked up my bags, I said goodbye, and we were on our way to JFK!
Up next, the beginning of our trip and our night at ASM!!
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
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) ended up being more expensive than Jet Blue with one free checked bag! We went ahead and booked our flights – and am glad that we did, because the prices soared about a month later!
. After going through all of the lotteries and not getting a single one 
(and forgetting to enter a few 
) - we were excited when a few events were posted that didn't require tickets – these included the Holiday Lights Tour at Fort Wilderness and the Chocolate Challenge at Epcot. After adding these events into our itinerary and checking touring plans (great, great, great tool!), we finalized our days . . . 
. . . Well, after forgetting to book our reservations, until . . . October . . . we were only able to get Trail's End, Whispering Canyon, and Chef's Mickey – not too shabby, but unfortunately we were unable to get Ohana 
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), and so the night before our trip was a late one! After being mostly packed, I called up D.O.D. to make sure he had everything we needed (I was staying at my Mom's) for tomorrow's departure!
– of course, I had to explain myself … well sort of … it was a bit like pulling teeth “Where will you be” “I'm going away” “Where are you going” “Out of the state” “Where” “Florida” “Why” “I'm going with my Dad” - it ended there with most of my teachers. A few required more details, for which my Mom found the following great excuse letter (credit to The Mouse for Less) for...
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