You can take the girl out of Disney, BUT……… - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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
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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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Is it just me, but Skip's not looking overflowing with enthusiasm in those photos....?
LOL! I know. He looks so "thrilled" in all the pictures. But he did have a good time. He just doesn't wear a smile plastered to his face like I do. He probably thought...oh here comes all the pictures again too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Glad you got there safely!
Yay!!!! It wasn't too exciting of a day, but we were in FL at least.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcc0313
Excited to hear all about your review...sorry about the shades not closing all the way, that would definitely drive me a bit crazy too.
That was a bit annoying, but by the 2nd night it didn't really bother us too much anymore.
Claire and I decided to take a quick tour of the hotel. The pool closed at 11 and I had given her an option to take a quick swim and she said she didn’t want to. I should’ve made her put her swimsuit on though…just in case she changed her mind…because she DID!
As soon as Claire saw the pool she wanted to swim. By this time it was very close to 11 and there was just no way to get changed fast enough and make it back down. I did promise her some swim time for tomorrow though.
Views from the pool area.
We moved on the breakfast area. It was dark so I only took a few shots and kept moving.
Going back towards the front desk (which I don’t think I ever took a picture of).
And it was time to head back to the room.
Claire liked to be the official door opener.
We got ready for bed and watched a little TV. I connected to the hotel’s free wifi on my kindle and facebooked a bit and then we all called it a night. The room has 2 double beds, so I slept in 1 and Skip in the other and we gave Claire the choice to sleep with either of us. She chose Skip! Score for me!!!!
Claire is awful to sleep with. She is a totally bed hog and she likes to snuggle up to you. No matter how much you move her over, she shimmies right back like an eel.
I know it took me a while to fall asleep. The light was bugging me and we could hear cheering off in the distance too. The last time I looked at the clock it was 12:15, and I think it probably took another 15 minutes to fall asleep after that. I also had a lot of the pre-vacation dreams that night. Like we woke up late, lost our tickets, or everyone decided just to go home and not do anything. I always have weird dreams like that when I travel. So needless to say, that night’s sleep was not sound, but the bed was comfy at least.
Glad you got through security without Claire testing any new words!
And I have to have a DARK room to sleep, so those lights would have driven me batty!
The hotel looks nice. Sorry about the drapes. The hotel tour was a good idea. It should have allowed you to get to sleep better. Glad to see that you arrived safely.
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Yep, that's the hotel district as we like to call it...always noisy, but never a dull moment..lol...Claire sounds like Aiden...if given a choice, he'll sleep with my husband and he likes to lay horizontally and kick and stuff..and he's only 4...LOL....Can't wait to hear about your first day in the parks!!!
A busy travel day, think the hotel tour was a great way to wind down. Had to laugh when you described how Claire sleeps, my little one sleeps like that...I would rather sleep on the floor at times then deal with her in a bed . I always end up haning off the edge of the bed, just trying to find a spot of breathing room which never happens as even in her sleep she "knows" when someone moves over and she just follows suit.
Great start. Love the story of Claire getting the "b" word out of her system before going to the airport--classic!
Looking forward to more.
I prayed she didn't say it at the wrong time. Sometimes I tell her things then think...why did I do that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Glad you got through security without Claire testing any new words!
And I have to have a DARK room to sleep, so those lights would have driven me batty!
We made it and she kept very quiet!
I like a dark room too, but by the 2nd night I was so tired it didn't matter as much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
The hotel looks nice. Sorry about the drapes. The hotel tour was a good idea. It should have allowed you to get to sleep better. Glad to see that you arrived safely.
I just don't understand what they were thinking. Plus if we were on ground floor, anyone walking by could see my naked booty through the shears!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Looks like a nice place.
It was pretty good for the price. Nothing luxurious, but we didn't spend a lot of time there either.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kingfamily1129
Yep, that's the hotel district as we like to call it...always noisy, but never a dull moment..lol...Claire sounds like Aiden...if given a choice, he'll sleep with my husband and he likes to lay horizontally and kick and stuff..and he's only 4...LOL....Can't wait to hear about your first day in the parks!!!
You really appreciate how quiet it is at Disney with out any city noises going on.
Claire is awful to sleep with. I did take a couple of pictures of her with him because it was so funny.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Glad you made it there safely! Can't wait to hear about your first day in the parks!
I'm working on that update right now. Hopefully I can get it up tonight, if not tomorrow morning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Hotel looks great! Funny about the vacation nightmares!
I hate those, and I have them everytime we travel. Last year the night before the cruise I kept having dreams that I would be denied boarding the ship.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcc0313
A busy travel day, think the hotel tour was a great way to wind down. Had to laugh when you described how Claire sleeps, my little one sleeps like that...I would rather sleep on the floor at times then deal with her in a bed . I always end up haning off the edge of the bed, just trying to find a spot of breathing room which never happens as even in her sleep she "knows" when someone moves over and she just follows suit.
Can't wait to hear all about your first park day.
It's amazing how such a small body and hog a bed. I even said that if we had to, I would go buy a air mattress and just sleep on it so they each could have a bed. Claire liked that idea, but Skip said no.
I had the alarm set for 6:25, but I woke at 6:15 and started to get myself ready. Skip was up right behind me and he got dressed and headed downstairs for coffee. Claire got up fairly well this morning. I knew this would probably be the only day, and it was just because of excitement.
Look who joined us this trip!
Sadly, we kept forgetting we had him and only took a handful of pictures with him in it.
We headed down to get a quick breakfast.
The choices weren’t great, but it was free. Claire went with a mini powdered donut and only because I insisted she eat something. She’s not much of a breakfast person.
I went with the biscuits and gravy. They also had hard boiled eggs (which I thought was weird), and make your own waffles, toast and bagels, a couple of cereal choices, fruit, like apples and oranges, and a couple of juices and milk.
Skip came in (he was outside smoking) and told us he had talked to some people outside that said the park crowds weren’t too bad and many of the basic rides were walk on. I didn’t quite believe that, but was happy to hear that it might not be too bad after all.
We finished up breakfast and then made our way to the car.
We had another fight with it this morning. We couldn’t get it to unlock. We kept hitting the button and then a combination of buttons and finally it opened. I was about to have a panic attack. We NEEDED to get to Universal early today.
We got in and I gave Skip the directions. They were right up to a degree. Our directions stated we would need to make a Uturn to get to the parking garage. That was not the case and we almost passed the entrance because we were on the wrong side of the road.
As we drove, I took a few pictures.
This pirate ship was right around the corner and we found out it was a pirate dinner show.
After we made a big swerve across a couple of lanes, we were at Universal. It was VERY close to our hotel. Technically we could’ve walked if we were adventurous, but it wasn’t worth the time or energy to do that. I would say it was a good mile away.
We paid for parking, which is $15 for standard parking, and weaved along towards the garage.
We got a very close spot, right next to the elevators and just a short walk to the escalators.
It was about 7:30 now. I was happy that we actually got moving this fast.
The walk to the parks is not a short one, so be prepared.
There is a bag check, but it is really fast.
They have moving walkways which help make the trip go faster as well. BUT, be sure you keep walking…this is NOT a ride. In the morning we had no troubles, but in the afternoons when we left, people would get on and stand 3 wide and not move an inch. This annoys the heck out of me….it is called a “moving walkway” for a reason. You are supposed to move and walk!
If course the whole time I am snapping pictures along the way. Some turned out decent, some really bad.
I kind of got photo bombed here too. Not intentionally, but come on…get out of my way!
There’s a better picture.
For those who don’t know, this is City Walk. There are lots of shops and restaurants here and you have to walk through it to get to either park.
I was proud because the family was moving pretty fast and keeping up with me. I really had slowed myself down too, but we kept up a good speed.
I never did make it into this store. I had wanted to check it out, but time didn’t allow it and Skip was anti shopping.
We had to go to the will call kiosk and pick up our tickets.
This was a very easy process and it had no line. You just swipe your credit card that you paid with and punch in your confirmation number and out pops your tickets. We also got tickets for city walk, basically a waste for us. It’s for the night clubs at night, and we got our Three broomstick breakfast tickets as well.
This guy wanted to have some fun today too.
They had not opened the gates for early entry yet. I had heard they do this sometimes as early as 30 minutes prior and let you in so far, but not today. Look at the crowds waiting.
It was 7:45 now and we just had to wait.
Skip was in charge of a bag this trip. Since we didn’t bring a stroller along this time, I said he had to carry a few things to keep the load off of me somewhat. Skip does NOT know how to wear a backsack evidently. We laughed and joked on the ways he would carry it.
A little before 8 we were let in. We were behind a lady in a scooter. She went up and scanned her ticket and then backed up at full speed. We had to pull Claire out of the way or she would’ve been toast. The lady seemed like she wasn’t familiar with the scooter at all, but she also never looked behind her when she backed up. The lady behind us about had a heart attack. She said it was good we were on our toes, because that lady was crazy! LOL!
Claire didn’t have to do a finger scan, but I did. And it didn’t like me. The TM asked if I had used the ticket yet, and I told her no, this was our first day. Eventually she had me scan my thumb instead. Skip said he told her I used to be a bank robber so I took my fingerprints off. LOL!
We only got to go a few steps in and there was another rope blocking us, but we were there less than a minute and they dropped that and we took off with the herds of people…most heading in one direction….Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Of course I took lots of pictures on our journey.
I oohed and ahhed my way through. I just loved all the details and thought of my forum photographer friends who would enjoy snapping away here as well.
I pretty much knew where to go and it was easy NOT to get lost since the whole crowd was heading the same direction.
I must say, with walking, gawking and taking pictures, I didn’t get the best shots. I got a lot that were either under or over exposed, because I wasn’t paying attention to my settings at all.
I also had to remind myself that I would get back to these areas later and would be able to get more shots.
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He probably thought...oh here comes all the pictures again too. 
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