The I CAN NOW TALK about my trip TR 8-15 to 8-21,2010 COMPLETED - Page 26 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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.
So I still had one day of work left and a ton of things to do.
Wednesday night, I tried to clean up the house as much as I could before I really needed to go to bed.
Thursday August 12th...
I went to work at 2:30am. I got all my work done and then went to bookkeeping to hang out until I left. I am suppossed to "help" customers after 10am. I left at 11am "woohooing" all the way out the front door!!!!!! I drove over to the city hall to get the dog his license. Done!!! I went home to clean the house and actually fell asleep for a few hours. I woke up at about 2pm and starting getting the house together. At 3pm I had to take Buster to the kennel. He hates the car. I drove with one hand on the leash and one on the wheel trying to keep him calm until we got there. I had told Katie to stay home and clean the family room so I could vaccuum it when I got home. I said good-bye to Buster and was playing with 2 prairie dogs that they had at the kennel, Rocco and Rico. They were adorable...I could have played with them for hours but I had to get home. When I got home Katie was still on the computer and family room wasn't cleaned up. I told her not to leave it all for me and to help me. We got the downstairs clean and the kitchen straightened up. I ran to clean the bathroom. At about 5, we headed over to the funeral home to pay our respects to Kara's family. There was a big long line with lots of Worcester Police there...I was happy there were alot of people there. With that done we went home to eat dinner and clean some more. I vaccumed all the rooms and cleaned all the floors. I tackled my room last because my bureau is where I put my clothes that don't fit in my drawers or closet. I ended up throwing away (donating) stuff I didn't wear anymore and getting my clothes put away. We had dinner and they brought out their suitcases. I checked the lists calling out things that needed to be packed. After running the dishwasher and emptying it, I cleaned out all the leftovers and put everything in the dishwasher to run in the morning. David kept doing laundry so that we wouldn't have stuff lying around. We all went to bed. I set the alarm for 8am, knowing that we weren't leaving until noon (keep that in mind) and I would get up early anyway.
I got up at 6am. I don't know why I can't sleep. I decided to finish reading a book I had bought. I let them sleep in until 8. We didn't have that much to do. Our flight wasn't until 6:30pm, so we had plenty of time. I really wanted to mow the lawn but David said to leave it until we get home, we'll do it Sunday, the 22nd. (keep that in mind also).
He finished up the laundry. We all had breakfast. I vaccumed the rugs again and brought the trash to the garage. Dave decided to run a few errands. I don't remember what he did but he left for a while with Katie. When he got back at noon I started getting nervous. Wasn't that the time we were leaving???? We unplugged all the tv's, air conditioners, washer and dryer, and computers. He actually unplugged the modem which is connected to the phone but no one should be calling us. We checked the house for the umpteenth time packed the car and got ready to leave. I made sure all the doors were locked and off we went at 1:30pm...that's close to noon right???
David had picked up a GPS before we left because we were renting a car for the weekend and wanting not to get lost thought we would try it. We programmed it for T.F. Green airport in Providence and here we go. We were going to the Providence Place Mall to go to Dave and Buster's for a nice lunch first. We got to Dave and Buster's and found a seat. The waiter was great when we told him we didn't have a lot of time. I'm already panicking because I need to be at the airport and through security before I can relax. Katie had a chicken sandwich and Dave and I had the blackened chicken pasta. We ate and then played a few games. We left there and reprogrammed to GPS for the airport. It was only a 30 minute ride to the airport...so we thought. The GPS was slow finding a satellite so we ended up in the wrong direction. I'm starting to freak out. I have a feeling the GPS wasn't such a good idea. We get going in the right direction and we are at the airport. Now David has this thing about parking. It has to be what he calls a pull through and not near anything. A pull through is pulling into a parking space that is open on both ends so that he can pull up to the front one and just pull out when we leave. Know what I mean??? I roll my eyes because that's what I do. The time is now 5pm and the plane is leaving at 6:30pm. I'm panicking now!!! After checking to make sure that the car is all set, we grab the shuttle and get in line...the long line....for security. That goes pretty fast, thankfully and we head to the gate. Thank God for a small airport. Dave saw a Dunkin Donuts and told me to go get an iced coffee to relax and he and Katie went to one of the shops. I come out and Katie is wearing a lifeguard hoodie. What? We didn't even leave the state yet and he already bought her something...geez. Oh well, it was cute, she was cold and it's vacation right?? Anyway....Our boarding passes were B7,8,and 9. We got in line with the other herd of cattle. That's the only thing I don't like about Southwest. We board the plane for our 3 hour trip. I bought ear planes because I have such troubles flying. We left 5 minutes early and got there 25 minutes early. That was awesome. We arrived in Orlando at 9:05pm. The earplanes didn't work for me...I could hear for a few hours after that. We headed over to the baggage claim and while they waiting for the luggage, I went outside to have a smoke. When I stepped outside...OMG!!!!! Who turned on the Sauna???? Wow...I knew it was going to be hot but Oh My...I didn't expect that!!! My glasses fogged up. I go inside and say to Dave and Katie...go ahead go outside...is it hot? Why yes it's 9:30pm and it's melty.
We head over to Alamo and get our rental car. Everything has been painless so far. They say pick out one of those cars in the first row. David looks and then goes back over and says how do you know what we take? we obviously haven't rented a car in a while. We picked out an Impala and toss the luggage in. Dave and I both drive Jeeps. We got in the car and both felt like we were sitting on the floor. After figuring out the ins and outs of the car, we headed out. We reprogrammed the GPS and were on our way. What's that??? Can't find a signal??? " Redirecting....redirecting.." Hey guess what we are going the wrong way AGAIN!!!! At this point we have named our GPS. Her name is Sluggish Sally.
****disclaimer: No offense to anyone named Sally!!!.***
Now we are pointed in the right direction...we are headed to the Hyatt Place Hotel near Universal. It's about 20 minutes from the Airport. "Redirecting...redirecting"...I'm going to smack Sally...Oh look I see the hotel behind that building. Turn here.."redirecting".....oops...Dave turn here....phew we made it. We checked it and went up to our room. It was beautiful. No I didn't take pictures..that would have been a smart thing. Anyway...the room had a sitting area, a fridge, 2 huge beds , table and chairs and a desk and chair. Oh yeah a bathroom too. We dropped everything there and went to Walmart that was down the street. Dave turn here...no I think you passed it... turn around....no you have to take a right....do a u-turn here...now turn left. Wow...not a great neighborhood. Let's do this fast. We go in and grab soda, vitamin waters, a few snacks, deodorant, suntan lotion and a bunch of other things. While we were in there, they obviously were unloading freight. The floors had boxes all over the place, the aisles were a mess, the floors also were sticky. But the thing that really bothered us was a manager walking and talking to one of her associates swearing and yelling up a storm...saying she was going to (&%% kill someone and all that. It was not pretty. We paid for our stuff and decided that we were going to write a letter to Walmart. It was the most unfriendly, filthiest (store and manager's mouth) place I have ever been in. Dave was mortified. We beat out of there and headed back over to the hotel. Hey guess what we didn't get lost this time. We ent back to our room to get some sleep. It was about 11:30pm. Katie and David decided that they were hungry, so we went down to the little area were they had sandwiches and salads, snacks and coffee 24 hrs a day. Dave got a turkey sub and a bag of chips and Katie got a salad. The guy said $19.00. Dave almost fell over. He paid and then laughed all the way to the room. They ate their food which wasn't that great and went to bed. We set the alarm for 7:00am.
Coming up.....Let's walk over to Universal...it's right across the street!!!!
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
More great updates! We used a GPS on our SoCal trip, and never again! So frustrating, always "recalculating" and would always take us not the direct route (many times)! At least I know not to buy one myself now!
About This Page: 
Susan
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Let the Games Begin....
Katie's graduation
Liz 
PassPorter Guide Author
Great start 
Love Sluggish Sally, classic! 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Linear Mode
