Is It Time Already?! OKW and POR, November 2013 - Page 27 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Really enjoying your TR (tried to post a few days ago, but kept getting bounced). The Royal Room looks perfect - just right for a Princess, a Prince, and their Queen
Oh my i feel so far behind it isn't even true. I so know what you mean about life getting in the way. It is this rubbish thing we have to do called work that is the biggest culprit. I'm having a pace myself slower day at work today so caught up a bit.
I have always loved POR and your photos just remind me of why. The royal rooms look fab and the riverside mill is my favorite Cs. your breakfasts looked great.
So sorry about the transportation hiccups but glad you got there in the end. We never manage to do much browsing near disney Quest as we go in the summer and I end up melting in the heat.
What a bummer with the hassle of the bus and boat situation!
My DD has the same short and Minnie ears!!!
It wasn't that terrible, really. The timing was just bad, I guess.
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Originally Posted by Cam22
The mystery is solved. I agree 5 something in the morning is the wrong time to be washing the sidewalks. Can't wait to hear how the kids liked DQ.
I still have no idea why anyone would think it was ok to make that much noise at such an early hour for any reason. LOL!
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Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Glad to finally learn the source of the noise!
It was one of those moments when you hear the sound and you know exactly where you heard it before!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Great to hear that you know what kind of cart was the source of all the noise in the morning! Too bad about the transportation waits! Sometimes they're ridiculously long and you may see 3 or 4 buses going to a particular park show up before one arrives to the park you want to go to! That's poor scheduling on Disney's part and it's happened to me on a few occasions! Drives me nuts!
Hope you had a good time at DQ and DD and looking forward to your adventures there!
This was probably the longest wait of our trip, and I'm going to guess it was probably about 20-25 minutes. It could've been worse, but I'm glad it wasn't!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
I'm glad you found out what was making all the noise! I agree, that's not something they need to do at 5am! Nice breakfast, but too bad the boats weren't running when you first asked. A shame to waste all that time on your last day waiting for a bus. Every time you post an update it makes me want to be there NOW. Right now I wish I could click my heels and be at DTD. You left me with a smile with Evan's Splitsville comment!
I wish I had written down the other times Evan cracked us up on this trip! The way he just repeated things so "matter of fact" just made it that much more funny!
You'll be at WDW soon!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Glad you finally found out the cause of the noise, but that's insane to be doing that sort of thing that early in the day!
Whether they were power washing the sidewalks or not when I heard them at OKW, I don't know, but I DO know it was that same motor!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
POR looks so beautiful. I can't wait to stay there in October!
That wind was fierce! No wonder the boats weren't running!
Can't wait to see how you felt about DQ and if it was worth the money. My girls want to go this trip, so I am curious.
I wish I were back at POR now!
The wind was pretty brisk. It wasn't as bad as it looked. I think it just happened to be gusty right as I took that picture!
I'll be back soon to talk about DQ. The kids really liked it, but I'd plan to stay there for the better part of a day to really make it worthwhile. There's plenty to do there and enough to keep you busy all day!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great pictures from POR and DTD! Glad you found out what the noise was! Sorry it was so windy!
I really wish I were still there!
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Really enjoying your TR (tried to post a few days ago, but kept getting bounced). The Royal Room looks perfect - just right for a Princess, a Prince, and their Queen
I've really missed your beautiful pictures! I've been reading your Alaska trip blog and have enjoyed reliving your journey!
The Royal Room was indeed perfect for us! We really loved it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomhazel
Oh my i feel so far behind it isn't even true. I so know what you mean about life getting in the way. It is this rubbish thing we have to do called work that is the biggest culprit. I'm having a pace myself slower day at work today so caught up a bit.
I have always loved POR and your photos just remind me of why. The royal rooms look fab and the riverside mill is my favorite Cs. your breakfasts looked great.
So sorry about the transportation hiccups but glad you got there in the end. We never manage to do much browsing near disney Quest as we go in the summer and I end up melting in the heat.
I'm so glad you're here! You're right about this thing we call work, lol! I'm glad things have slowed down a bit for you, but I know you've got plenty going on!
I can't imagine being at WDW in the summer, to be honest. I don't do well with humidity at all! Our first trip was end of January, and this one was late November. I think that's the closest to summer I want to get!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Oh my goodness, I haven't updated since January 12th?! Well, I'm sure you've all figured out life just got in the way. It's been a tough year, and I have to admit it's very difficult for me to keep focused on anything for more than just a few minutes because something new keeps popping up that needs my attention! However, because I've been so crazy busy, I've been longing for WDW more and more...which brings me back to this TR! I promise I will finish it...I only have a little over 24 hours left to cover on this trip!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Ok, the show is finally resuming! I think we're at Day 9 of the trip, the day before Thanksgiving. We made it to Disney Quest, and the first thing we did was try to get the lay of the land. It's kind of confusing how you don't start on the first floor (in fact, at this late date, I can't remember which floor it was that we started on....maybe floor 3? 4?
Evan is a big Wreck It Ralph fan, so we had to get a picture:
There were so many "old time" video games that brought back great memories for me! The kids tried a few of them:
Anybody remember Dig Dug?
We waited in line for a bumper car type ride where you "drive" over these large balls which get sucked up into your vehicle and then you "load" the ball into a cannon and try to shoot it at other bumper cars. I'm so sorry...I didn't take any notes, and if I stop to try to look up all these ride names, I'll never finish this TR! The kids rode together in their own vehicle, but I was alone in mine. I couldn't get the darn thing to work. I was stuck for at least half the ride...I'm talking wedged-in-by-other-vehicles stuck. When I could finally move, my vehicle wouldn't vacuum up any balls and hence I had nothing to shoot! The line had taken some time, so I really didn't want to wait again. The kids had fun, so I didn't have to do it again.
Then Sophia wanted to be a pop star! She didn't buy the recording.
Then the kids wanted to go on the Virtual Space Mountain ride where you build your own ride. I walked through the design section with them, and then they got in line to try out their new creation:
This unfortunately turned out not to be a good thing for Sophia. She's prone to motion sickness, and she forgot to take some Dramamine that day. She was not a happy camper after she got off the ride. While the ride was going on, she loved it, but once it stopped...not so good. Sadly, Sophia had to take it easy for the next 2 hours or so.
Evan and I did the white water rafting simulator and had fun with that. Poor Sophia sat this one out. I wasn't sure if we were going to stay much longer, but she said she was ok as long as she just sat and didn't move. I did give her a Dramamine after Virtual Space Mountain, but the damage had been done.
Next we went on the Virtual Pirates of the Caribbean simulator, and that was a lot of fun! The movement on the bow of the "ship" was neat, and since we only had a party of 3 (I think...I'm not sure if Sophia did this with us or not), we were running left and right trying to "shoot" all the pirate skeletons that were attacking us. It was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, there's no way I could take any pictures while fending off our attackers!
At about this point, Sophia threw in the towel and just wanted to sit down somewhere. We went up to the top floor (5th floor?) and got some chicken nuggets for Evan while Sophia put her head down. I think she ate a few french fries to see if it would settle her stomach a bit.
I have no idea why I took an unfocused picture of mostly eaten chicken nuggets and fries, but here you have it!
After about an hour during which Sophia rested and Evan played on my phone, Sophia finally felt ready to get going again. We saw another simulator type ride that involved wearing a viewing thingamabobber on your head while you sit on a chair holding a light saber type unit (how's THAT for a description?!). Then once the "movie" starts, you watch it through your thingamabobber and you use your light saber thing to try to slash at the bad guys. The kids seemed to like it. The line was quite slow, but the kids wanted to try this, so we waited.
Oh, after we did Virtual Space Mountain, I wanted to buy the recording of the ride, but the machine was down. We went back again about an hour later, and they still hadn't been able to fix it. We figured it wasn't meant to be, so we went about our business and explored Disney Quest some more.
We decided after about 4-5 hours that we were done. We started to walk toward the exit stairs when the CM working the ride DVD's desk called out to us and told us they think they got the recording machine working again. It took a little while, but they finally found the ride video so we got it recorded onto a DVD and purchased it. It was pretty funny when we watched it because Sophia has very long hair and it flies all over the place during the ride!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Glad you're back, Jeannie! I've never been inside Disney Quest, so am always interested to read about what people do there. Poor Sophia-- motion sickness is no fun. Glad she came out of it after sitting out for some time.
Glad I'm not the only one who was confused about not starting out on level 1 at Disney Quest Sounds like you had a great time, sorry that Sophia didn't fare to well on Virtual SM!
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Glad to have you back and have the TR up and running again!
Looked like a lot of fun a DQ. Haven't been there in a number of years, but did use the coaster simulator then and enjoyed it!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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Sometimes they're ridiculously long and you may see 3 or 4 buses going to a particular park show up before one arrives to the park you want to go to! 
That's poor scheduling on Disney's part and it's happened to me on a few occasions! 
Drives me nuts! 
Sounds like you had a great time, sorry that Sophia didn't fare to well on Virtual SM!
back, Jeannie! Sorry life has gotten in the way. You all managed quite a bit of fun at Disney Quest. 
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So sorry Sophia didn't feel well at DisneyQuest. 
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