Amy's Fabulous Split StayTrip Report!!!! (Finally)... - Page 23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
So, I am still having trouble down loading pics today, I will have to try again later or tomorrow.
After we slept in, and had such a terrific viewing off our balcony, we had a quick breakfast in our room. The night before I had finished up our snack credits to get breakfast stuff at the Mara - milk, juice, cereal, muffins, etc. It's nice to have a fridge in the room for that reason. Oh- and not to forget - ZEBRA DOMES! You get 5 in a nice container for 1 snack credit, and boy was it worth every last bite. YUMMO!!!
After our breakfast, and leisurely showers, we were ready to head out to DHS. We took the walk over to the buses about 11:30am. There was a HUGE line for the DHS buses at that time, but not at all for any of the others. We heard people rumbling that they had already been waiting 20-30+ minutes to get a DHS bus, and we ended up waiting just as long on top of their wait! We stood there and watched bus after bus for all the other parks come and go, but no DHS bus, and the CM that was present had no explanation for us, and just kept standing there smiling talking on her walkie. Finally, my hubby had a great idea, we would hop the next bus to Epcot, and then take the boat over to DHS instead, or a bus to another resort and go from there instead of standing there like cattle any longer. So, just as he said that, an Epcot bus pulled up and we hopped on - still not seeing a single DHS bus, and over 100 people waiting for it! It worked out great, we got to Epcot, and there was a bus waiting right there for all the AKL people to take them directly to the DHS gate! I spoke to another family from AKL later that day and they said they never even got on the first DHS bus, waited over an hour, and got to DHS at 1:30pm! We got there about 12:10pm after our fiasco.
We decided today would be dedicated to Toy Story Mania! And, all of our favorites - and a much slower pace, since we'd already been to DHS twice this trip. So, we headed over to TSMM, and much to our pleasant surprise, there was only a 15 minute wait! Pretty much the amount of time it takes to walk through the queue line. We love competing with each other for high score, and it's the highlight of our time at DHS for sure. After about 4 times through TSMM, out tummies were rumbling, so we decided lunch today would be at Toy Story Pizza Planet. We love the pizza here, and for about $7-8 you really can't beat their pizza/salad/drink combo. It's plenty of food, and enough even for smaller eaters to share. Especially two kids. Thankfully our kids could care less about the video games, they figure they can play them at home, they just like the atmosphere, so we tend to get in and out pretty quickly.
We went back to Rock n Roller & Tower of Terror, and those too had minimal wait times as well, we must have just gotten lucky that day. Although late April/early May really is an optimal time to go if you want to avoid crowds! I got to ride Rock n Roller and TOT twice - once with DS15 Michael, and once with DH Tony!
We did Star Tours, and DS7 Matthew again tried despirately to get picked for Jedi Training, with no luck. It's not that easy people! He waits forever, is one of the first kids there, in the front row every time, wears a Star Wars T-shirt, jumps up and down and screams, and still doesn't get picked after trying 6 times this trip! He was pretty bummed out, and mad as H@#~! at the Jedi Trainer. Oh, well. At least he got picked to do the Pirate Tutorial at MK!
We had 6:00pm ADR at the Cape May Clam Bake for dinner at the Beach Club, so we hopped the boat at 5:00pm. We had never taken the boat before, and it was a really nice ride. It takes about 25-30 minutes total, and it's very leisurely and scenic. You pass by the rear view of the Swan and Dolphin hotels, and then into the waterway for the Yacht & Beach Clubs & the Boarwalk resorts. It's funny, I enjoyed this part so much, I forgot to take any pictures!
We got to the Beach Club about 5:30, checked in and got our little pager, sat in a nice seating area in the lobby and people watched for a bit, they called us at 5:45. The Clam Bake is terrific! Tons of seafood- clams, crab legs, shrimp, fish, lobster bisque, chowder, corn on the cob, roasted potatoes, lots of hot dishes, carved meats, lots of kids choices- mac n cheese, pizza, nuggets, and really good desserts including this oreo bon bon that is to die for!
After our tummies were more than full we decided to walk it off on the Boardwalk. We'd never been before, but for 8:00 at night, it was pretty dead. We checkout the ESPN shop so the boys and hubby could get some souvenirs, and the sweet shop - like we needed anything there after that dinner!
I never realized how close those resorts are to Epcot - Beach Club & Boardwalk "butt" right up to it, and from the bridge between the two you can see France, and the international gateway is just steps from Beach Club - if I could afford it, with it having such beautiful decor, the best pool on property, and Cape May Cafe, I would stay at Beach Club in a heart beat!
After our stroll down the Boardwalk, we took the boat back to DHS, as Hubby and DS15 were determined to see Fantasmic tonight- but no way did it happen, even with two showings, the lines were outrageous even on a quieter day, you'd have to wait for hours like cattle in a hot, humid crowded line to get in, hope to get a decent seat, for a 15 minute show you've seen tons of times before. It's our favorite show on property, but it's just not worth it anymore to go through that!
It was about 9pm by then, and DS7 and I were tired, plus I had a lot of packing to do, we were checking out in the morning, as tomorrow was our last day.
So, DS15 and DH stayed behind and closed DHS that night while we headed back to the resort. It didn't take long for Matthew to fall asleep, and once I packed us up, I took some time on the balcony to listen to the quiet peacefulness of the savannah. I could hear chewing close by, and in the moonlight I could see the Zebra, and a giraffe near our area.
Up Next: Our final day in the World, our traditional "good bye", some great pics, and my comparison of a mod vs deluxe resort.....
__________________
~Amy~
Last edited by Buffalogirl18; 09-20-2009 at 01:41 PM..
Our final day in the World . We woke up quite early today, 6am, as we had 8am ADR at Crystal Palace today. We hopped up, showered, finished packing, called bell services to pick up our luggage and take it to storage until we left on DME at 4pm- they got to our room in 10 minutes! We took one last look at the savannah from our balcony, but it was pretty quiet and empty at 7am, not really much to see today, and that was disappointing, since we were saying goodbye to AKL.
We got to the bus stop for Magic Kingdom at 7:10, and there was one pulling up at that time - yay! It took a good 20-25 minutes to get there from AKL, it being the farthest away. We were at MK and in the gates by 7:40-7:45. Our ADR was for 8:10.
One of our traditions - we always spend our last day at Magic Kingdom, and we always go to Crystal Palace for breakfast that day! That last entrance down Main Street towards the Castle is always bittersweet, but I just love the feel you get, the magic of being one of the very few in the park before opening when you go in for an early ADR at CP....not even the photopass people are usually out just yet. The music is so much clearer, the smell of the bake shop so much sweeter, the sound of the birds so much prettier. I love the crisp morning air on this last day. Everything about it is wonderful, except that sinking feeling in my gutt that tells me we are going home today.
So, after we rome a bit and take some pics, we check in and are called just a couple minutes after "Winnie the Pooh and Friends welcome the Leto Family"...we've heard that sentence a dozen times before, and I never get tired of it! This is one of our favorite places to eat, and by now I think we've sat in every corner of the restaurant. My DS Matthew loves the puffed french toast. DH & DSMichael are all over the meats and the pancakes. I am more the omelets, fresh fruits, and pastries kind of girl - and oh do I miss those chocolate croissants right about now! Even though DSMichael is 15 now, he still loves that Tigger- and loves to get his pic taken with him! My favorite is Eeyore, and Matthew loves Piglet. DH Tony also loves Eeyore too.
After breakfast, and we always try to finish before 9:00, we head over to the bridge to Tomorrowland. We like to be there for rope drop - then you get to throw pixie dust to open the park! (I always save mine, so I can put it in my scrapbook. ) After rope drop, we head right over to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin - no waiting! We love this ride, love everything about it, and ride about 10 times in a row before I tell the boys that it's enough and it's time to move on to something else because our time is limited today. We got to ride the Astro Orbiter for the first time, but the wait was about 15 min, and it takes forever to get in and out of the thing, the ride is short, and I don't think it's really worth all that trouble! But, there is a nice view up there! Unfortunately, SM & TTA were down for refurb these are two of our faves, and we were totally bummed - but were are so looking forward to the new and improved versions when we return next year!
Around 10am, we saw some Disney Imagineers testing out a stage show over by SM, and we wandered over to see what it was about, they asked us if we wanted to hang around and check it out, it was still in "soft opening". It was "Stitch"! I took a lot of pics, and if I can download them i will share!
After that we went back to all of our favorites- Mickey's Philharmagic- and it is my high opinion that in this show to get the optimal 3d effect you must sit in the 3rd row center! Haunted Mansion (we love hunting for hidden Mickeys in here and at POTC).
We went back over to Tomorrowland to have lunch with Sunny Eclipse at Cosmic Ray's Cafe, because well, you just have to! I love the variety here, and there's always plenty of seating to be had - in the air conditioning.
We have to leave MK each year on our last day around 3:30 to head back to the resort to leave on DME at 4:15, our flight home is usually 7:15-7:30pm. We are lucky enough to have nonstop flights to and from Buffalo, and it takes about 2 1/2 hours to get there.
So, after lunch, and some more rides and milling about, we always spend our last hour doing exactly the same thing each year....we stop at the bake shop, get some milk and chocolate chip cookies, find a bench on Main Street,we talk about our favorite things from this trip, and then we people watch, soak in the sun, the music, the sounds and smells of Main Street, watch a little of the parade if it's happening, then we make our way over to the Castle, say one last good-bye to Walt and Mickey, take one last look at the Castle, and I shed those tears as Tony and I hold hands and we all head for the exit. That tradition is priceless to us, and I wouldn't change it for anything.
So, we got to the bus to MK just as it was leaving for AKL, and we got back to the resort, got our luggage and were on our way to the airport, I hate how they play that farewell video with all the characters - rub it in why don't you?!?!? Nothing like making us all feel like poop that we are going home!
So, now you have 3 hours to kill at the airport, and 2 kids to keep busy - what to do, what to do - NOTHING! You've already spent a small fortune at WDW, I refused to go hog wild at the airport too. So, we sat around at our terminal, had some McD's for dinner, it was the longest 3 hours ever. Then, we have lift off - a nice smooth ride home, 10pm and we are back in good old Buffalo - yay. I am going through Disney Withdrawals already. 8 Days was just not long enough. I Think 2 more days would have been perfect. yes 2 more, 2 to relax, maybe go back to Epcot and 1 day to vegge at the resort, that would have been great! (note to self for next year)....
NEXT UP: Lots of pics, and my comparison of a Mod vs Deluxe...
This has been such a great report. I love how you had such a wonderful viewing with the animals on your last full day at WDW, and what a great time at DHS with such low crowds. Sorry that you did not get to see Fatasmic, I love that show but we passed it up too this year, just such long lines and waiting for that extra 10 pm show sometimes just does not feel worth it especially after you have been in the park all day.
Loved your description of your last morning at WDW...I hate that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you know that this is your last time in the park for awhile. Glad you all had such a great time, sounds like it was the perfect send off ebfore heading home.
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Ballston Lake, NY
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 46,162
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 94
Likes (Received): 241
Thanks (Given): 0
Thanks (Received): 139
Pixie Dust (Given): 3
Pixie Dust (Received): 4
Just got caught up on your last 2 days. What a complete nightmare trying to get a bus to DHS, but despite that it turned out to be a good day. And sounds like you had a wonderful last day at MK. Can't wait to see your pictures and read your reviews.
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.
About This Page: 
Enjoy a Disney Lifestyle......Everyday!
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Deb
I got to ride Rock n Roller and TOT twice - once with DS15 Michael, and once with DH Tony! 
Oh, well. At least he got picked to do the Pirate Tutorial at MK! 
PassPorter Guide Author
We took one last look at the savannah from our balcony, but it was pretty quiet and empty at 7am, not really much to see today, and that was disappointing, since we were saying goodbye to AKL. 
But, there is a nice view up there! Unfortunately, SM & TTA were down for refurb 
Linear Mode
