My feet hurt...I walked around the world today! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
If you followed my pre-trip, you know that we were able to leave home a little after 4:00am. Yay! We made great time and drove straight to... Animal Kingdom at 2:00pm. Earlier, I had written that the kids voted to visit Epcot or MK upon arrival. We are not 1/2 day AKers. We always fill one whole day and wish we had more time. Dh and I presented AK to the kids and they happily agreed! Finally, extra time at AK. Since we needed to exchange our AP vouchers for tickets, we headed for a ticket window and the young lady took care of us right there. We had no FP+ set for today, so decided to take it easy and just enjoy being there. No rush for the big rides; no running to the next attraction and missing the details around us; no stopping the kids from exploring because we have to be somewhere. We walked and paid attention to the smaller enclosures of animals. We watched water birds and fish. We hung out with a crocodile. I did set up FP+ after entering the park. So, after exploring, we headed over to PW. Dh and I enjoy PW, but twice in one day is all I can take. The kids would opt for many more, if we let them. The quick jerks have gotten to be too much on my shoulders , elbows and anything else that gets slammed around. When our trip back in time was over, we made our way to our next FP+. We went to see Finding Nemo - The Musical. Here's where we learned a lesson. The window for entering the FP line is about 20 minutes. Don't get in line at the beginning of the window! You're just standing in a hot, partially shaded spot for. 20 minutes. Next time, we will enter at the end of the time allowed. There were plenty of seats, even while stand by's were entering. We did try something new because of our early entry. We sat very close to the front, beside the middle aisle. It was so fun! It gave a different perspective of the performers. At the end of the show, Dory leaned down to greet my Dd!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Nemo ended and we made our way back over to Dinoland. Our last FP+ was for Dinosaur! Ds was looking forward to this, as this was his ride to conquer last trip. He ended up loving it! Dd - not so much. She refused to try it again and my tummy didn't feel great, so we waited for the guys while looking at every single item in two gift shops. We discovered the ride had stopped while they were on it. It did resume after a wait and the guys made it home before the asteroids hit! At some point between FP+, we had our traditional snack at the Yak and Yeti CS. Dh and I think the egg rolls are awesome and the kids love their french fries. We sat in the shade with cold drinks and all that fried goodness. Yum! My kids are picky eaters. They turn up their noses at foods that have "stuff" in them. It has to be familiar and somewhat plain. Quite frustrating for Dh and me. It's worse in restaurants than at home. Well... We talked Ds into trying an egg roll. Yes! He thought it was great and even asked for more, later in the trip. Dd was happy with her fries. Those are really good fries, btw. Both kids participated in a couple of Wilderness Explorer activities. We ended up at the Boneyard for one of them. I was not looking forward to that. The Boneyard has always been a stifling, sticky, hot mess of a place. Not today! It was actually cooler than the playground below. The huge fans were really working. I just sat and enjoyed it.
We took our time wandering between activities and decided to leave before park closing. We didn't want to over do it before our first full day. Dinner was at Mara at AKL. I have my regular choices, as do Dh and the kids. So, I ordered my African Stew, Dh ordered his veggie flatbread and the kids ordered pepperoni flatbread. My stew and Dh's flatbread have changed! The stew has less liquid and was served over rice, instead of beside it. The flavor was also a little different. His flatbread had completely different vegetables than in the past. Kind of a let down, but not horrible. We finished dinner and walked around the lobby and animal viewing areas. A security guard saw Dh looking for a particular hidden Mickey and was nice enough to help him find it. That led to an impromptu tour of the lobby to show us more hidden Mickeys. He was very nice and even told us some stories about WLV, when he used to work over there. We made it to our room at the Hampton Inn before too late. We were very ready to sleep and that bed is just what I needed. That Hampton has the most comfortable mattresses and sheets!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Thanks for all the responses everyone. I hope to post Day 2 tomorrow or over the weekend. Tonight was orientation at both of my kids' schools and we have Dh's brother and his family coming into town for the weekend. Then, first day of school is Monday. I did find out that my contract to tutor was renewed for this year. So, that's one less thing to worry about. Nothing like waiting to the last minute.
I love your day at AK, it sounded like you got a lot "done" by just wandering around. We always do Mara on the first day we're at AKL, we love it! I really like the new African Stew with the yummy rice. Congrats on the renewed gig, by the way
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
We discovered the ride had stopped while they were on it. It did resume after a wait and the guys made it home before the asteroids hit! At some point between FP+, we had our traditional snack at the Yak and Yeti CS. Dh and I think the egg rolls are awesome and the kids love their french fries. We sat in the shade with cold drinks and all that fried goodness. Yum! My kids are picky eaters. They turn up their noses at foods that have "stuff" in them. It has to be familiar and somewhat plain. Quite frustrating for Dh and me. It's worse in restaurants than at home. Well... We talked Ds into trying an egg roll. Yes! He thought it was great and even asked for more, later in the trip. Dd was happy with her fries. Those are really good fries, btw. Both kids participated in a couple of Wilderness Explorer activities. We ended up at the Boneyard for one of them. I was not looking forward to that. The Boneyard has always been a stifling, sticky, hot mess of a place. Not today! It was actually cooler than the playground below. The huge fans were really working. I just sat and enjoyed it.
! Your first day at AK sounds fun without rushing and hassles. 
PassPorter Guide Author
Liz 
Linear Mode
