Celebrate! A Disney TR-November 16-24, 2013 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sorry your room was so far away to begin with and only a bit closer in the end. Fun first day at AK. We love CS at Flame Tree as it's delicious and really a bargain. Very nice of the CM to give you a voucher for shorts/pants after the gum accident.
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I wanted to apologize for not updating the TR. I will be working hard on the next update this week but last week we found out Jake may have a heart defect. I've been working on getting myself put back together emotionally and planning financially for the upcoming tests and getting our family history put together for the cardiologist appointment we have in a couple weeks. Thanks for your patience and I am looking forward to sharing more magic. I definitely need to share and start planning a new trip!
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That's scary news to get! Hope the cardiologist can give you some reassurance and a good treatment plan.
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Originally Posted by chezp
I'm so sorry to hear that.
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
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Originally Posted by lfredsbo
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Originally Posted by iwonathomas
Just joining in on the TR. Sounds like a great first day even with the room change and gum incident.
I am sorry to hear about Jake and praying all goes well!
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Originally Posted by OhToodles!
Thank you all for the pixies and kind words!!! Jacob was home today with a migraine so we are having Mickey Pasta to make him feel better. I thought what better way to finish up this awful day than to relive some our trip and try to plan the next one? So I spent some time browsing the forums and the disney website. Less than two years so we can start thinking ahead!
Anyways I'll be posting shortly with another update! Thanks again!
I was up about 9am, which is still early considering the long day yesterday. I had a weird dream involving my dad and a family friend so I sent a text to both that I love them and then updated the software on my phone. Jacob woke up so we decided to go to the pool for a bit.
We went back to the room and got ready to head to DTD. We stopped to get our refillable mugs, filled up and then went to wait for a DTD bus. We sat right in the front as there was only a few other people on the bus. We decided on ice cream for lunch so we headed to Ghirardelli where I had the salted carmel sundae and Jacob had a double scoop waffle cone with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and we split a Dasani. We waited outside at a table by the water and face timed my dad, which was comical because he doesn’t know how to use his iphone at all. We took a picture and texted it to my sister and mom.
After finishing our ice cream we headed to World of Disney, where Jacob had his first Disney sticker shock experience. He wanted to bring home souveniers for his brother and sister and when he saw the Minnie Pillow Pet thing he proudly said this for Aubrey and then went “It’s HOW MUCH?” I thought it was rather funny.
We started for the bus stop and on the way Jacob slipped and fell and cut his leg but I made him tough it out and we waited for a bus. He is really just a very klutzy kid. Thank goodness he's mostly used to falling now! I did feel bad but I've got to stop babying him, right?
Justin was meeting us at bus stop 1 (having the closer room really helped with our ability to split up!) and we found him as concierge so I left Jacob with him and walked very quickly to our room to get some bandaids and then walked swiftly back to Bus Stop 1. I fixed Jacob’ leg up with my little kit and then we had Justin get on the bus first, followed by the wheel chair and finally me and Jacob. We found it was easier to wheel Justin to the bus, tell the driver he’s transferring, let him hop on (literally!) and me fold the wheel chair and then have Justin or the driver help me lift the chair onto the bus. We did this as often as it was convenient; when Justin was really hurting he stayed in the chair. We sat down and relaxed for our short trip. We were headed to Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party!
We arrived at 4pm where we split up. I went through bag check, the boys skipped that part and went right on through to guest serviced to pick up our tickets. There was a bit of a line so I met them there but all told I think we were done in under 15 minutes. We headed inside the gates to get our wristbands. Jacob was wearing his birthday button and was wished a happy birthday by some very sweet cast members. One even told us to feed him more! We laugh at this because it is said so often because he's so skinny. We then headed into the park towards Buzz. The board said it had a 15 minute wait but it looked much longer than that so we instead hopped on to the People Mover which we’ve never been on but enjoyed very much.
We then headed towards the Speedway but stopped for ice cream for Justin. This was Jacob's first time riding solo! I also have never ridden this. The smell and vibration of the cars make me very ill. I enjoy this time to walk around, peek in shops and of course take the pictures. I believe I now have a picture of him from each trip on this ride.
After riding the Speedway we headed towards Fantasyland to find some food and we ended up at Pinocchio’s. I didn’t take pictures but I had the pepperoni flat bread and Jacob and Justin each had the chicken nugget meal with fries. I was surprised the flat bread was as good as it was! We then looped through New Fantasyland for a looksie.
After our little detour we headed back through Fantasyland and headed towards Splash Mountain. This was a first for me as the last trip it was either down or just too long of a wait. We boarded our vehicle getting the last two rows and we laughed as Jake screamed his head off the entire ride!
After riding we stopped for a bio break and then we split up. The boys headed to ride PoC as I got in line for the party merchandise. I bought 2 shirts, a pin, and an ornament and then met the boys outside Pirates and we headed towards the Jingle Cruise. We’ve never rode this either, but I was happy to ride it with the new holiday overlay. Jacob thought each and every corny joke was absolutely hysterical Justin thought it was cheesy and I enjoyed it. I have to mention our guide definitely made the ride better than I was expecting but I didn't note his name down. We then headed towards Tomorrowland so the boys could ride Buzz while I watched the Totally Tomorrowland Christmas Show. That show is definitely cheesy but I enjoyed the Christmas music and the Christmas spirit at the show.
We walked around a bit and then found a really good spot near the hub for fireworks viewing but we ended up moving down Mainstreet so we would be able to see the parade more easily. We were right next to a garbage can which helped block Justin from some of the crowd. While waiting we decided to spread some pixie dust so Jacob gave two glows ticks to two little girls that were sitting next to us. After the castle show started, we realized we should’ve stayed where we were. People kept walking in front of Justin so he couldn’t see, including children on adults shoulders. I get doing this if you can’t see but don’t do it if people are behind you! We did this for the parade when Jacob was four but my dad was against the railing and no one was behind him!
Anyway, during the castle show we saw a fight nearly break out, right on main street. Yes two guys nose to nose, obnoxiously going at it while three different women were trying to step in and break it up. Finally one guy left, not sure what happened, and the guys that stayed were extremely nice and made sure they were out of Justin's line of sight. As a way of saying thank you, Jacob gave a glow stick to the little girl that was with them.
We face-timed with Jacob’s grandma (his dad’s mom) for a bit during the fire works and then hung up and enjoyed the show. I enjoyed the fireworks but I have to say I prefer HalloWishes at the MNSSHP much better.
We stayed in our spot for the parade and Jacob and I left to get cookies, apple juice and hot chocolate from Crystal Palace. Jacob and I had our PP+ pictures taken. When we returned the people next to us had been replaced with some new people. We ended up chatting and found out they were from our neck of the woods. We chatted about Cleveland for a bit and discovered they live on the Eastside while we live on the Westside. Anyone who lives here will know what I'm talking about.
We enjoyed the parade when it came by and Jacob was given plenty of attention by the characters. A few of the performers in the parade even wished him a happy birthday! When the parade ended we fought the crowd and sneaked back to the Big top Circus area for pictures with Scrooge McDuck! I was thrilled!!!! I grew up watching Duck Tales and I love him in the Disney version of A Christmas Carol so I was very happy to make time for this. We were advised that they would only take one picture but we got a couple since we had my camera and the photopass card. When the characters came back out we were surprised with not only Scrooge but also Donald and Daisy! What a pleasant surprise!
We walked back to ride Buzz Lightyear one last time before the park shut down.
We then headed out of the park and Jacob turned 11 as we were leaving! I happened to glance at my phone and realized it was 12:05am, the exact time my baby was born! Jacob and I snapped a picture on my phone, because how often do you get to be in the Magic Kingdom at the exact time of your birth? Disney Magic!!!!
We were back to our room about 12:45 and I passed out right after I showered and got ready for bed.
Overall I really enjoyed MVMCP but I probably won’t go again. It was way too crowded for us and I didn’t like the snow on main street. I know we could have relocated further back in the park but I’m not sure its worth it now that I’ve met Scrooge. Maybe if we were going with people who had never been before but otherwise I'd rather spend the money on a new experience or another day on our park tickets.
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