The happiest place on Earth for 28. (TR) - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 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.
We had been told our tickets were at will call, so the teacher asked at the outside window and was told that we had to go inside. As soon as we walked through the door into the air conditioning everyone went aaahhh! Teacher asked a man standing there but we said to go the outside window... when teacher told him she said to come inside the guy said okay and just let us go in. Strange operation.
I had taken several pictures but I did not like how they turned out so deleted them which means I have few for here.
The first room had tv moniters on the walls showing grammy winners accepting awards, the first thing in the next room was cool. It was a huge counter where 16 people at once could listen to music on headphones, the counter top was like a touch screen that you could pick types of music and then artists and songs. Everyone played with that for a bit. The rest of the room had booths for different people or music types.
They were playing some good songs for this display.
This was a section about George Carlin, I used to have a couple of his comedy records (dates me!)
The next floor was hands on, there was instruments to play and a sound booth that played the same song as if it was on a gramophone, record, cassette tape, and up though modern means. Also, a place to view Grammy performances.
Quite a few were watching, maybe they were just happy to sit for a bit.
The last floor was mostly gift shop and a section that changed topic. We all checked out the gift shop, prices were extreme but DD did find a key chain with a miniature replica of the Grammy award.
The regular price was $12.95 but schools get in for $8.00 each. I wouldn't go back but it was interesting.
We walked outside into the heat and decided to get a group picture, here's mine.
DD and the 2 girls in the front are part of my group, the teacher is looking towards me and the guy next to the teacher with sunglasses and a pink shirt is the male chaperone, Sirfredrick.
Teacher called the driver after I dug out his phone number and we walked back to where the bus driver had parked, piled back on and we were off to the Fairfield Inn in Anaheim.
A nice start to your trip and glad you had few travel problems!
__________________
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!
A nice start to your trip and glad you had few travel problems!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
The museum looks like it had some interesting exhibits, but I'm not sure it's any place I'd think to visit.
I understand the TA set this up because it has to do with music and we were a choir so that makes sense and the students found it more entertaining than the adults I think. Actually, there wasn't a lot there, it can be seen in an hour maybe an hour and a half if one took there time which I'm not sure if it's worth $13.00.
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.
Sheryl, who was supposed to go to Costco with me had spoken to our driver about dropping us off at Costco which was something the T.A. had recommended and she had; not only did he agree to take us but said he would bring us back to the hotel! What an awesome guy!
Mr E. pulled onto the freeway headed toward Anaheim. I was feeling tired so closed my eyes for a bit. The freeways were expanded since the last time I was down or he drove a way I hadn't before. Then we started seeing signs for Disney which was exciting.
We finally arrived at the hotel but the bus was so big we had to back up and jockey a bit to get turned and park where the hotel people wanted us. Mr. E told us to just grab a suitcase and not to worry about whether it was yours or not so we could clear the road. I told DD to grab one for me as I was not getting off the bus, I thought we'd leave immediately for Costco however, Sirfredrick protested about us not asking everyone what they wanted from Costco because some people could be allergic or have food intolerances. We had already discussed this at a chaperone meeting and believed we had everyone covered but this discussion/argument between Sheryl and Sirfredrick was not appropriate in front of the students and a waste of time as far as I was concerned. Sheryl got upset and left the bus.
Once everyone was off and the suitcases gone, Mr. E got back on the bus but no Sheryl and I couldn't see her out the windows so I texted her and she was getting her room key and going to her room. I told her Mr. E was waiting to take us to Costco and we shouldn't keep him waiting; by the time she got to the bus it was 4:40-4:45pm and I was hoping to be back by 5:30. The Costco was only supposed to be 4 miles away but Mr. E had never been there before and it took us 17 minutes to find it, and Sheryl wanted to complain about the argument with the other chaperone the whole why but I finally got her distracted by something else.
Mr. E. dropped us off at the door, I grabbed a cart and was heading in when Sheryl wanted to get a cart too so she ran back to do that. I was looking for snacks but Sheryl needed to use the restroom, I told her to meet me in the section. I found the individual trail mix, individual packaged plain nuts, granola bars both crunchy and soft. By then Sheryl was back, and we headed to the fruit while keeping an eye out for bottled water. This place was jumping, there were people and carts everywhere with little regard for anyone else shopping.
We found the apples and Sheryl wanted to get oranges too which was fine with me. I had been adding prices and so we had enough money. We couldn't find the bananas, finally we asked another shopper who knew where they were. Next stop, bottled water, we found and loaded 6 cases; I wanted to pick up a box of mixed chips and had been looking for the chip isle, Sheryl wanted to get pop so she asked someone and it was clear on the other side of the store so I told her go ahead and meet me up front. I was walking to the front looking for the chip isle but didn't find one and didn't see Sheryl up front either so I texted her and she said the chips were over by the pop where she was so I turned around and headed over there. I was beginning to think we'd never make it out of there. I found Sheryl, grabbed a box of chips and she was debating about pop, she said she would pay with her own money, I was thinking that if she wanted pop for herself she needed to pay herself we couldn't use student money. I told her it was almost 6 and we needed to go which got her moving. We made it to the check-out line and DD texted me asking where I was. I told her we were checking out and should be back by 6:30pm.
Now we were supposed to be heading out with our groups at 6pm to find dinner before DTD at 7pm. I texted teacher and he said he took a bunch of kids to Panera Bread which was right by the hotel and that he would send kids to help carry in stuff when we arrived.
We checked out, I called Mr. E to let him know we were done and he pulled up, we threw stuff into the bus and hopped on. I used the rest of the student Costco fund to tip Mr E. because he didn't have to take us, let alone help us unload or drive us back.
Sheryl texted her DD and I mine to say meet us outside, DD said she had my suitcase, and hotel key and what room I was in. I texted teacher to let him know when arriving and to send students, he said they were on the way. Guess what? We arrived back to hotel about 6:25 but the only students were mine and Sheryl's DD's. Mr. E., the DD's and me unloaded bus while Sheryl went to borrow a luggage cart.
I gave Mr. E. a BIG thank you for service above and beyond and he was off. Sheryl came back and we loaded all the stuff onto the cart and began making out way up to my room where everything would be stored since I had the room to myself. The four of us made it to our hallway where we finally found some other students and the 4 boys came and helped us unload.
I grabbed by waist pack and dumped what i needed into it, picked up DD and another student (Karen, who spent much of the time with us for this trip) and we walked outside to meet everyone just before 7pm.
I explained to teacher that DD, Karen, Sheryl, her DD, and I had not had dinner and we needed to eat. We would like to stop somewhere to get food and then we would head to DTD if the rest of our groups could travel with them. He suggested we eat at DTD but we were hungry now, it was an hour and a half past dinner time! He agreed and I reminded him to choose a meeting place for us to use.
There was a McDonalds so we stopped there although it was jammed packed and took us awhile to get out food. Sheryl and her DD were though first and done first and went over to DTD. I decided we were going to sit and eat and then go over since the group would now have 4 adults for 21 students and students did not have to stay with their chaperones, only in the DTD area. So we took 25 minutes to sit and eat before we headed over.
Sorry this was sooo long without pictures but I did not take pictures of shopping at Costco
Good grief - and the drama continues... and this time it's not even the kids! I hope you get some enjoyment out of this trip, as so far, it seems to be a heck of a lot of stress.
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.
Good grief - and the drama continues... and this time it's not even the kids! I hope you get some enjoyment out of this trip, as so far, it seems to be a heck of a lot of stress.
Yep it does, the 2 chaperones had a few run ins during this trip which drove me crazy because they were supposed to be the grown-ups - the students were acting more mature. The trip is about to get better
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pris
Whew! I would have been worn out! It seems to me that you became much more of the leader, rather than simply a chaperone.
I was tired, you are right about the leader bit, I just spoke suggestions to the teachers quietly and he implemented each one. One example was that the T.A. had us meeting as a group at 11PM to walk back to the hotel and then 1/2 hour wind down time before lights out at midnight with a 7AM wake up call. I suggested to the teacher that we meet at 10:15, with lights out at 11PM and he agreed. The students were on time to meet between 10 and 10:15 each night ready to return to the hotel very tired. The only person who kept talking about staying later was Sheryl.
Oh well, the start of the trip craziness is over and now I can relax a bit.
About This Page: 
. It was an adventure crossing that road
Alaskan Mom aka Bonnie
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Teacher asked a man standing there but we said to go the outside window...
when teacher told him she said to come inside the guy said okay and just let us go in. Strange operation. 
but DD did find a key chain with a miniature replica of the Grammy award.
and decided to get a group picture, here's mine.
PassPorter Guide Author
Sheryl got upset and left the bus. 
I hope you get some enjoyment out of this trip, as so far, it seems to be a heck of a lot of stress.
Linear Mode
