Is It Time Already?! OKW and POR, November 2013 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Those pumpkin pancakes with pecan butter must be the same as the ones at The Wave. I LOVE those! I don't know how Sophia could fit all of that yummy-looking food into her teensy frame! I've only seen the "real" Mickey waffles at WDW, not the pancakes. Remind me next time I'm at DLR to try them! I can't wait to find out your room location at POR-- hope it's closer to all the amenities than at OKW. Is this the day the crowds picked up?
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.
Sounds like a great time in Germany and at Kona Cafe. Too bad no one could finish everything in Germany! Nice of the CM there to give you some free trips as Disney doesn't give much away for free! The Kona breakfast looked good. Would love to try the Kona coffee some day, but I usually wing it to WDW alone and I've had breakfast here on a few occasions and I think that's probably too much coffee for me and it's a bit pricey too!
Looking forward to POR as I'll be staying there at the end of March for the third time!
That was definitely pricey coffee for one person, but I'm glad I did it. A lot of this trip was making up for things I missed in 2009.
POR was lovely! I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it exceeded it! The grounds were just gorgeous!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Those pumpkin pancakes with pecan butter must be the same as the ones at The Wave. I LOVE those! I don't know how Sophia could fit all of that yummy-looking food into her teensy frame! I've only seen the "real" Mickey waffles at WDW, not the pancakes. Remind me next time I'm at DLR to try them! I can't wait to find out your room location at POR-- hope it's closer to all the amenities than at OKW. Is this the day the crowds picked up?
I really wish I could've fit more than a few bites of those pancakes, but I was super stuffed from the grits! Boggles the mind that Sophia could eat all that, right? She just LOVES going out for breakfast...but at home, she hardly eats anything in the mornings!
Next time you're in Disneyland, I'll meet you for breakfast at the River Belle Terrace! I hope they still make those Mickey pancakes! I might have to go check it out just to make sure!
We were already noticing a difference in the crowds that Monday. It still wasn't terrible, but it was definitely much busier than a few days before!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
I love how easy Disney makes a resort transfer. I would have had to pick the pumpkin spice pancakes, too. They looked delicious! I was hoping as I read all you two were carrying that you'd get a locker.
Feeling much lighter now, we headed onto Main Street. I noticed a parade was about to start and also saw a sign for Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, so I decided we should duck out of the crowds and into the Firehouse where we could get started with the card game! After a short wait, we received our card packets and a quick introduction to the game.
We only opened one of our 3 card packets since we decided we would just play together to begin with. We were given a map of the locations where we would have to go. It was a fun interactive game, and it was interesting to see how the game could "read" the cards you held up at each location.
I love this door!
We finished the game sequence on Main Street and decided to do some other things before we continued playing the game in other lands.
One of the things we missed in 2009 was Hall of Presidents. It was closed at the time to add President Obama. This was a must-do for me this trip.
I loved seeing the Presidential artifacts, but Sophia complained it was too much learning on vacation!
Then it was on to Evan's new favorite...Splash Mountain. It was sunny but not terribly warm. Still, it was our second to last park day, and I didn't want to say no to anything the kids wanted to do. And, I'm glad I didn't because we had a blast on Splash!
I'm pretty sure after Splash we went to Big Thunder, but I have no pics from it.
This also brings up something else...I know we did Enchanted Tales with Belle, but now I'm not sure when we did it. Did I already mention it earlier in this TR? Wow, my brain is really going...!
So far, the weather was holding up great! It was still mostly sunny and fairly warm.
Next: A fun lunch surprise arranged by our great TA!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
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.
I love how easy Disney makes a resort transfer. I would have had to pick the pumpkin spice pancakes, too. They looked delicious! I was hoping as I read all you two were carrying that you'd get a locker.
The resort transfer was great. The only "bad" part about it was not being able to get into our rooms until the afternoon, which meant we had to carry all that stuff with us that we didn't want to leave with them. The lockers were a lifesaver! At first we walked into the locker area and couldn't find any type of kiosk where we could pay for a locker...and then I looked around and couldn't see any keys sticking out of any of the lockers, so I was worried they were all taken! Yeah, it's been many years since I rented a locker, lol! I commented to Sophia I hope we don't have to carry all this stuff with us all day! Then Sophia said why don't we just go to the gift shop and pay for a locker, like it says on the sign. What sign? Sophia! Why didn't you tell me that in the first place, lol! I can't remember how much the locker rental was...somewhere in the $12-15 range? We did get I think $5 back when we returned the key that night.
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Whew - I had lots of catching up to do!! Love reading about your trip! Those pumpkin pancaks look delicious -- though the 50's PT meal had me drooling!
__________________
~ Jenn **Disney is REAL LIFE Magic, so much more than optical illusions **
Whew - I had lots of catching up to do!! Love reading about your trip! Those pumpkin pancaks look delicious -- though the 50's PT meal had me drooling!
We just loved all the food we had on this trip! I'm drooling too just thinking about it!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
The sorcerers game sounds like fun.... maybe I'll try it next time. Poor Sophia, with a mean mom who makes her learn things! Glad you rewarded her with a fun time on Splash. Can't wait to hear about lunch!
Love the shot of Sophia from Splash - she just looks so happy in it!
We had a lot of fun with Splash on this trip. We were laughing so much because we all got sprayed pretty good!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
The sorcerers game sounds like fun.... maybe I'll try it next time. Poor Sophia, with a mean mom who makes her learn things! Glad you rewarded her with a fun time on Splash. Can't wait to hear about lunch!
You should try the game. It was a fun little thing to do, and I have to say it might be a little easier if you do it on your scooter because then you can set your things down and have the cards ready on your lap to play!
Yes, poor Sophia!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
I'm going to keep plugging away...I can't believe I'm actually going to finish a TR! I'm not counting the Hawaii one because I did a lot of it during the trip!
We left off with lunch...and I need to tell a little back story. About a week or so before the trip, I got an email from my TA Megan (mcc0313) asking me if I was interested in trying Be Our Guest! Well, I had actually thought about it, but with Evan's picky eating I didn't see much on the menu that he would eat so I never tried making an ADR there. Plus, I figured it would be pretty difficult to get in, so I decided we could pass for this trip.
Well, Megan was having none of that! She said that she could help me get a FastPass for a BOG lunch! Wow! She even said she could order our food for us and have it waiting for us when we got there! That would've worked for me, but with an autistic son and a fickle daughter, it wasn't going to work for us. I asked Megan if she could just help us get a FastPass but it would have to be as late as possible on this day since we had the breakfast ADR at Kona Cafe.
I believe she made our FastPass for 1:40-2:10pm, or something like that. That worked fine for us because we were still full from breakfast! However, there was no way we would pass this up, so we made it over to the castle and bypassed the long line of people waiting to get in for lunch! We walked up to the CMs at the beginning of the bridge and gave them my name. They confirmed the FastPass and sent us over the bridge to the entrance to the castle/restaurant.
As others have mentioned in their TRs, the "direction" you travel in is reversed between lunch and dinner. We entered in the hallway flanked by suits of armor. There was a bit of a backup there, but it was fun hearing the little noises coming from the suits of armor! I don't remember any talking, but I do remember little things...maybe like a sneeze or a cough or something like that? It was fun!
As you walk through the hallway, there are several pedestals that have the menus for everyone to see...it rotates between pictures and descriptions.
And then we entered into the Beast's meet and greet area from dinner time. There was no Beast, but his chair was there!
In this room, there were maybe 6 stations where CMs were taking lunch orders. A CM directed us to one of the stations where we placed our order. Sophia had the turkey sandwich, I had the croque monsieur, and Evan just had fries. I asked him if he wanted some "steak" in the form of a sandwich, but he said he just wanted fries. Sophia also ordered a strawberry cupcake for dessert, and I ordered the French onion soup! Yum! I used my Magic Band to pay...there was very little we did during this trip where I didn't use my Magic Band...it worked like a charm for us 95% of the time, and even the 5% it didn't work wasn't bad because it was fixed easily.
After ordering (I have no idea why we ordered so much food when we were still full from breakfast!), we were directed into the seating areas and told to pick any open table. We walked around all three rooms but decided to sit in the big ballroom. It was quite busy, so there weren't a lot of open tables. Sophia saw one near the windows and Christmas tree, so we quickly grabbed it!
After about 10 minutes, a CM pushing a cart of food walked up to our table and asked if I was Jeannie. Then she placed all our food on the table. It was so cool! I was watching while we were waiting to see how the CMs did this. There's got to be a location indicator on those carts, and the CMs walk into each room and just keep following the arrows as it gets closer to the corresponding Magic Band. A few times, I'd watch CMs take a few steps then stop and turn around and go the other way. It was fascinating to see the technology in action! I wonder what happens if you don't have a Magic Band. I think there's a rose they can give you to set on the table that would take care of the RFID signal.
As you can imagine, there was no way we were going to finish all that food! Sophia and I ate half of our sandwiches. Evan ate all his fries. I had all of my soup. Sophia ate about half of our cupcake. I didn't want to waste the two half sandwiches so I asked Sophia to go find a CM and ask for a takeout box. I put the sandwiches into the box and we added it to all the stuff we were lugging around that day, lol!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
I never really got what the sorcerers game was. It looks like a lot of fun!
Here's my attempt at explaining the game. You get a set of cards which includes an activation key. At each station, you are sent to different locations in the area to do battle with the villains. You go to the station and hold up your activation key to start the interaction. You watch a brief "cartoon" of a villain doing something bad, and then you're prompted to use one of your cards to "battle" the villain. You pick one of the cards in your possession (I pulled my cards out to see what I have...Mowgli's Swinging Vine, Tiana's Hot Sauce, Aurora's Rose Petal, etc.), hold it up to the window, and then wait and see if your card was able to defeat the villain. Sometimes you're prompted to try a second card. After you defeat the villain, it prompts you to go to the next location. It's a bit like Agent P but using cards instead of the communicator.
I hope you're having a great time at WDW!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
The Kona breakfast looked good. Would love to try the Kona coffee some day, but I usually wing it to WDW alone and I've had breakfast here on a few occasions and I think that's probably too much coffee for me and it's a bit pricey too! 
PassPorter Guide Author
I was hoping as I read all you two were carrying that you'd get a locker. 
~ Jenn 
Linear Mode
