Escaping Election Chaos - UPDATED 10/23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great Start!!! Fantastic that just the two of you are spending time in my favorite bubble!!!
It's ours too!
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Originally Posted by KMB733
Great start!!
Thanks!
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Originally Posted by sazzifrazz
Sounds fun. DH and I just returned from a 3 night stay that was supposed to be just us leisurely visiting the world. Well, we get there and there is still so much we want to do that it turned commando!
Probably will happen to us...though we are going to try not to!!
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Originally Posted by mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince
I love the Halloween decorations at WDW; such a great time of year to visit. Have fun!
We love the decorations too! October is a great time!
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Originally Posted by MayraLR
Great start!
Thanks!
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Originally Posted by lauriep
Glad you decided to do a report! I loved the intro and it sounds like it'll be a great trip. I understand booking the 1-bedroom. So nice to have the extra space, laundry and that nice, big bathroom and tub!
It really works for us!
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Originally Posted by buzzspal2
Have Fun.
Thanks, we will!
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Originally Posted by Cam22
Great start and great plans!
Thanks! You set the bar high!
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Originally Posted by Hugmonster
Great Start.. I have loved the rest of your TR's so I look forward to this one.
Thanks!
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Originally Posted by BlueCinderellaEyes
Sounds like a wonderful couples time trip! I need to do this with DH again soon! DH and I went alone the 1st time and have had the kids with us the other times! Maybe our next trip will be just us!
Cant wait to read about where you have chosen to eat!
Thanks, we having the kiddos with us, but sometimes, I like just us!
The last few trips have been all about the kids and character meals. That’s fine, we love watching the interactions and getting wonderful pictures, but we were really ready for some “grown up meals” on this trip. So we sat down and made a list of the places we love. There are many, so we decided they had to be ones we haven’t enjoyed in a while, after all, we only have three nights!
We both agreed, Narcoossees had to be on the list. It is one of our most favorite meals. The last two trips there were Narcoossees reservations! But alas, not for us, but for the Moms and Dads while Mema and Papa babysat!
Sulley really wanted Chef de France, and it’s been a loooong time since we’ve been there. So Chefs is added. And he also wanted Le Cellier for lunch. My mushroom-hating spouse wanted to have the filet with mushroom risotto. Methinks the hating of the mushrooms is not all that strong anymore!
Finally, I said I would like to eat at California Grill. We have not been there since 2008. I thought it would be nice to get to eat there again.
So there we had our choices, all we had to do was wait for the 180+ window and plug them in wherever they fit! Then I got a message from Grammy Grumpy, she and her DH were going to be arriving on 2 Nov, how about we get together for dinner! It’s been a while since we’ve been there at the same time, we seem to keep missing each other! I said I would be making ADRs soon, did they have any preference, she didn’t, so I suggested Cali Grill and she was amenable.
About this time, our 7-month DVC window was about to pop. I talked to Sulley and we discussed our options. Now, we Saratoga Springs, our home resort. I know a lot of people think it’s too spread out, it’s too far from any of the parks, but we are happy there. However, we do want to try all the others too. We’ve been to VWL a couple of times and love that as well, but again, a change is what we are after. After looking at our dining plans, our park plans…why not try to stay at BLT? We could try to get a studio (MK view hopefully) so the points aren’t killer, it’s only three nights, so it was do-able on what we had left for the year. We could handle the studio for three days. Let’s do it!
Bright and early, I was on the phone to Member Services. And was shot down immediately. I tried for Studio MK, Studio Lakeview, Standard view…all booked up.
I took a deep breath…and moved up to a 1 bedroom. MK view was not available, but there was a 1 –bdrm Lake view. BOOK IT!!! Awesome! Walkng distance to MK!!! I’m a happy girl! Our remaining points covered the difference, I just didn’t have as many to bank for next year.
Next task to handle…making the ADRs. Our plans look like this:
10/31 arrival day –Magic Kingdom
--Lunch counter service MK
--Dinner Narcoossee’s (after 7, hopefully)
11/01—Epcot/DHS
--breakfast in the room
--lunch—le Cellier
--dinner—Chef’s de France (again late)
11/02-Magic Kingdom
--Breakfast—Main Street Bakery
--lunch—Casey’s (?)
--Dinner—California Grille for four.
11/03---Departure day for the ship
Breakfast—counter service at Contemporary or in room
Lunch—ON THE SHIP!
But before I could call….a message from Grammy Grumpy. They wouldn’t be arriving until pretty late on the 2nd, so dinner wasn’t in the cards. I was dejected. We have such a good time with them. BUT! They could meet us for breakfast on the 3rd instead! Yes please!!! So a new plan was hatched and I was to book Kona Café for four on the 3rd! Our plans were set.
Now I just have to wait for my window…..
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Finally, at the end of April, our window opened up! I was excited as I logged onto the website. Since we have second seating for dinner on the ship, we decided we needed to move our dinners at WDW to the later side. I hoped that would help getting our choices!
I entered Narcoossee’s for the 31st, requested 7:30 and it was available! Looks like I’m going to have some good luck!!!
I entered Chef’s de France for 1 November, and the website tells me to enter our reservation number for our stay. And I hit the brick wall. The website won’t recognize the DVC confirmation number.
So, I decided to call Member Services and book our ADRs. Soon, I had everything we wanted at the times we wanted! I booked DME for our trip from the airport to Bay Lake, asking for extra tags because of the cruise. (Thank goodness for FREE BAGS! ) I didn’t need to book it for our return since we will be headed to the port from Bay Lake. Now I could relax…but do we ever REALLY?
I started watching very carefully, hoping to see Be Our Guest opening during our trip. Alas, it was not to be. But we are happy with our meals! I am especially looking forward to Kona Café our last morning.
Things remained quiet for a while, life continued, we welcomed our new DGS in May and began to think about his first trip, but Mom and Dad say it’s a little ways away. We took some small trips, going to HHI for a long weekend and meeting Ginger and Baxter there. In July we took a weekend cruise out of New York on the Magic. Small touches of Disney to hold us until our trip!
A friend of Sulley's from the area found out we were headed down and said he would like to have lunch. Since it's a work day for him, he made an ADR at The Wave since it's right there at the Contemporary for 12:30 on our arrival day. It's going to be tight, but if we don't check in immediately, no big deal! We land at 11, so it should be do-able!
Now all that remains is packing for the trip. We went out to buy a new piece of luggage to replace a piece. All the luggage is safely staged in the Disney guest room. Somehow that seems appropriate! We are 8 days from leaving, we have three days of work left before our leave starts. We decided instead of leaving work the day before, we would take the Monday and Tuesday before off so that we can rest up over the 4 days before our trip. Wouldn’t you know, our off days are filling up. :P But soon, we will be inside that Disney bubble, relaxing, rejuvenating, reconnecting. That’s the goal!!!!
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
Your plans sound great! I bet BLT will be a nice choice. It is so convenient to be so close to the MK. I love Kona for breakfast too! The macadamia nut pancakes were delicious. Have a wonderful trip!
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Pixie Dust
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having the kiddos with us, but sometimes, I like just us!
]
It’s been a while since we’ve been there at the same time, we seem to keep missing each other! I said I would be making ADRs soon, did they have any preference, she didn’t, so I suggested Cali Grill and she was amenable. 
I tried for Studio MK, Studio Lakeview, Standard view…all booked up.
We have such a good time with them. BUT! They could meet us for breakfast on the 3rd instead! Yes please!!! 
So a new plan was hatched and I was to book Kona Café for four on the 3rd! Our plans were set.
) I didn’t need to book it for our return since we will be headed to the port from Bay Lake. Now I could relax…but do we ever REALLY?
Sammi
Dana
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