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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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Friday December 19th/ Travel Day: I woke up at 4:15am and decided to go ahead and get up for the day as I knew we had a lot of stuff left to do before leaving. I got ready for work and did a mixture of cleaning and packing before getting the kids up about 5:15am. The kids got up easily and quickly got ready for school. We then all worked together to do last minute cleaning, packing, and loading the van. We were able to get everything done just in time to leave at 6:30am. We left about fifteen minutes earlier than usual so that I could swing by the bank and the post office. We were then off to school. I left school at 10:30am and headed to Winston’s class Christmas party. After his party I checked out the older kids as well. We then swung by the house to drop off backpacks and instruments and run through my “walk out the door” list. We were officially on the road by 12 noon. We were making excellent time. Everyone was getting pretty hungry, but I kept pushing through. Finally about 2:30pm- we stopped for lunch at Chick-fil-A. The gas tank was at half full by this point, so I went ahead and filled up at the Kroger by Chick-fil-A. By 3pm we were back on the road. About an hour or so after that Winston was complaining of being thirsty so we stopped at a rest area. Winston got a drink from the vending machine ($1.75 for one bottle- ouch). And everyone used the restroom too. We were quickly back on the road. Miraculously- those were the only two stops we made! We pulled under the Walt Disney World gates at 7:59pm. Excellent Time! However, check in was a different story. The lady that checked us in was slow and incompetent. I’m being literal. First she said the wrong name was listed as primary on my reservation. It made no sense. She spent over ten minutes trying to write down the “wrong name”. Then she had to call management. This took another ten minutes. Finally she says management said just to check us in and not stress who was listed as primary. Seems like she would have known this- so frustrating. Then she begins telling me about the rooms and pointing at the map. She had the map positioned where I couldn’t see it/under the desk. It was just all so odd. Then she says oh- yall’s rooms are far apart. I then told her me had guaranteed connecting rooms as I am one adult with five minor children. She can’t find us a connecting room. She tries to convince me we should take a suite. Ummm no! We don’t fit properly in a family suite. I told her this repeatedly. She keeps offering to get us a cot. How many times do I have to say no- I don’t want a family suite- if I did I would have booked one! She calls a manager to assist finding us a room. In speaking w/the manager over the phone- I could hear the manager getting frustrated with her. The manager ended up coming over. The manager was actually rolling her eyes at the lady- she was just completely incompetent. Then the lady tries to tell the manager how they should put us in a family suite!?! NO! I said no. The manager said no. She kept talking about the suites. I thought I was going to go insane. The manager ends up giving us two options- two connecting rooms in the very last building (non preferred) and a refund for the preferred portion of our reservation cost. Or two rooms side by side in the very closest building to the food court. I really wanted the preferred rooms and reluctantly took them. I’m already really bummed about not being connected. Wesley and Dillon are in their own room- which is mostly fine. It’s just not ideal in any way, shape, or form. After spending over an hour at check in- literally we were off to find our rooms. We parked and unloaded the van fairly quickly. The magic bands only open one of the rooms; they had to give us key cards. I’ll have to wait till I get some more patience before I go to the desk to fix that. After settling in the rooms, we headed to the food court. Some were hungrier than others. We all got our mugs. We only got two meals though. I don’t know if I mentioned this- but we are on the free quick service dining plan. Madilyn and Wesley split a chicken nugget and fry meal. Dillon got their dessert- strawberry smoothie. For the drink we got a chocolate milk to go in the fridge for tomorrow morning. Austin and Winston got a pizza meal to split. For dessert, they split a brownie cupcake. I also got them a chocolate milk to put in the fridge for tomorrow morning. I didn’t eat anything. No one really wanted a full memeal after having had such a late lunch. But the kids wanted a little something before bed… We then headed back to the rooms to get showered and get to bed. It was about 10pm when we got back to the rooms. It’s 11pm now and all the ones in my room are fast asleep and I’ll be joining them in a few minutes.
Oh, my, what an ordeal at checkin! I doubt that woman will have a job there for long-- and it's hard to imagine what job she's capable of doing! I don't understand why she was left to check anyone in without supervision, since she clearly did not know how to do the job. And bottom line, of course, and this wasn't her fault, you should have had the connecting, preferred rooms you were guaranteed.
Wow! I am so sorry the room situation was not resolved better. Can they get you into connecting rooms at a later date? You are there for so many days you would think they would find a better solution. Hope the rest of your adventures are much more fun than today's check in!
Saturday December 20th/Hollywood Studio’s The park was set to open at 8am for EMH. I set the alarm for 6:30am. Wesley sent me a text just before 5:30am saying to let him know when we were up. This woke me up and decided to just go ahead and get up for the day. Wesley needed to come over for toothpaste. Again- connecting rooms would’ve been nice . He got the toothpaste and I got in the shower. Wesley wondered around the resort while everyone else started getting ready for the day. At 6:30am we all headed to the food court for breakfast. Wesley got the bounty platter and ate every last bite. Dillon got the biscuits and gravy which counted as a snack credit. Madilyn and I split the bounty platter. Austin got a mickey waffle and bacon. Winston got a muffin with a snack credit. Since we had the mugs, we got strawberry milks to put the room for later as our drinks. Unfortunately, they got left out on the table instead of being put in the fridge and had to be trashed…. After breakfast we went back to the room to get our things ready. At 7:30am we left for the park. The GPS got us there lickety split. We were able to park decently close. We were able to skip bag check- this was our first time going bag less and I really enjoyed it! By the time we joined the line to enter with the masses we had less than ten minutes till park opening. The temperature was near 60. It was cool, but not cold. It felt really nice. Once in the park, we immediately split up. Wesley and Dillon headed for Toy Story Mania. The rest of us made a bee line for Rock N Roller Coaster. We stopped for pictures with multiple photo pass photographers. (I got the memory maker package) It was 8:20am when we got in line for Rock N Roller Coaster. It was listed as a 30 minute wait. It was probably more like 20. I like the way you can claim your ride picture with your magic band! Wesley and Dillon texted me that Toy Story Mania had a 40 minute wait. At 8:45am we headed over to Tower of Terror. It was posted as a ten minute wait, but I think it was nearly double that. Again, we claimed our ride picture with our magic band. When we exited, I was surprised to see Wesley and Dillon waiting for us. We had planned to meet at the entrance to Great Movie Ride. Wesley had really enjoyed his ride on TSM, but Dillon said his laser gun was broken and he was disappointed. I told him he should’ve reported it to the worker. If nothing else, it could have saved someone else disappointment… At 9:15am we got in line for Great Movie Ride. It had a posted wait time of 5 minutes. It was much, much longer than that. I timed it. It was 9:35am when we got to get on the ride. At about 10am we headed over to sign up the two little boys for Jedi Training. The show time I wanted was full, so we signed up for the 5pm show. This wasn’t ideal, but I knew we could make it work.
A little after 10am we got some snacks. I got a Mickey bar, Dillon got a strawberry bar, and Winston got an ice cream sandwich. The other three went in search of different snacks while the three of us sat at a table to enjoy our ice cream. Madilyn came back with a pretzel, Austin- popcorn, and Wesley- frozen lemonade. While waiting for those three to track down alternate snacks, Dillon and Winston rode Star Tours with a posted 20 minute wait. It was every bit of that. By the time they got off I was anxious we would miss our 11am fast pass for Indiana Jones. In retrospect, it was a waste of a fast pass as there was ample seating. However, I have had trouble in the past with this show filling up and it was important to us to see the show- so I guess it was worth the peace of mind… It was now 12 noon and we joined the masses to line up for lunch at Back Lot Express. I got an onion straw burger meal with an olaf cupcake. I really enjoyed the cupcake. Wesley got a cheeseburger with a Olaf cupcake- he did not enjoy the cupcake. Madilyn, Winston, and Austin got nuggets. I mixed up their desserts- Madilyn and Austin both wanted chocolate parfait, but I only got one and the rest cupcakes. This caused some sour puss faces, but they quickly decided to just split it. Winston had a cupcake also and didn’t like it. Dillon had buffalo nuggets with a strawberry parfait, he enjoyed all of it. We now headed to Star Tours were we had fast passes. The fast passes allowed us to zoom right on. We all enjoyed the ride. Next, we headed to the Lights Motor Action Show. I enjoyed it, but the kids were beginning to melt. Austin and Winston wanted to go back to the hotel. The weather got warmer and warmer as the day went on and at this point we were flat out HOT. I really didn’t want to leave as we had plans. But I didn’t want to deal with whiny kids either. So, I told the kids we would leave after we used our TSM fast passes, take a break, and return tonight for the night time show. So, after the show- we went to the HISTK playground for a while to kill time before our Toy Story Mania fast pass. After the playground we still had a bit of time before TSM fast passes, so we headed into One Man’s Dream. We walked through the exhibit and watched the film. Everyone, including the little boys really truly enjoyed this film. It was really nice to have comfortable seating and air condition for about 20 minutes. Now we rode Toy Story Mania with our fast passes. Everyone’s laser gun worked this time, so we all enjoyed the ride immensely. The standby was listed as 70 minutes, so I was glad to have the FP. At this point, we made our way toward the exit. This means we missed the Jedi Training they had signed up for. I had also planned to see Beauty and the Beast- so we missed that too. Back at the hotel, the kids put on swim suits and were quickly ready for the pool. They were hosting some really fun pool games today. The water was refreshing from the heat. We swam for over an hour before resting in the room a bit. At 5:30pm- we headed back towards the park. It was about 6pm when we re-entered and we headed straight for Fantasmic!. Unfortunately, by the time we got there they announce it was standing room only. I felt we would be miserable, so we decided to go do other things and walk back over for the later showing. We got numerous night time photo pass shots. And enjoyed the Osborne Lights- LOVE that light show!! At 7, we headed back to get in line for the 8pm Fantasmic show. We had no trouble getting a seat, and there were tons of empty rows even when the show started. Unfortunately both Austin and Winston fell asleep before it even started. Winston literally slept through the entire show. Austin did wake back up when it started, but he was barely awake. With Winston asleep, I was concerned trying to navigate through the crowds, so we left a few minutes before it ended. I had drove to the park today and we had no trouble finding our van and beating the crowds. It was about 9pm getting back to the hotel. Winston was fully awake now and we were already for a late dinner at the food court. The three oldest and myself all had the make your own pasta dishes. Austin and Winston had nuggets and fries. We had a range of desserts from strawberry smoothie to cupcake to cookies. After dinner, we quickly got ready for bed. It’s 10:30pm now and the little boys are fast asleep and I plan to be asleep by 11pm myself. Tomorrow: Magic Kingdom
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Oh, my, what an ordeal at checkin! I doubt that woman will have a job there for long-- and it's hard to imagine what job she's capable of doing! I don't understand why she was left to check anyone in without supervision, since she clearly did not know how to do the job. And bottom line, of course, and this wasn't her fault, you should have had the connecting, preferred rooms you were guaranteed.
I'm still shocked that they allow her to work with customers, she does not have the skills to do so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grammy Grumpy
Wow! I am so sorry the room situation was not resolved better. Can they get you into connecting rooms at a later date? You are there for so many days you would think they would find a better solution. Hope the rest of your adventures are much more fun than today's check in!
They said if I change my mind, I can get connecting rooms- but only in the last building. Apparently there was a mistake on my reservation as AS Music does not have connecting rooms in the preferred buildings due to the suites. They have king rooms connecting to two doubles. But no double bed rooms connecting to each other. We are getting along okay not connecting, but I would very strongly prefer the connecting rooms.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a complete nightmare at check-in you had! I hope to goodness that's an end to the problems and the rest of your trip is trouble free.
It really was a nightmare check in. I've never experienced anything like that before. When I re-play it in my mind I still can't believe how insistent that woman was about putting us in a suite. It was like something you'd see in a comedy movie or something.... She was just so odd....
I hope the rest of the trip is trouble free as well. Today was great!
Your first park day sounds like you had fun, even if wait times were longer than posted. We are arriving in Orlando a whole 24 hours early! (James decided he didn't want to stop and explore the battleship in Mobile, AL.) I think we are going into a park tomorrow (staying at an "off site" hotel at DTD), but haven't decided which one yet. I will text you if we go to the same park you will be in.
What a packed first day you had - you certainly made the best of your time in the parks! So how hot is it at the moment? I don't think I've ever known temperatures much above the low 80s on all our December visits.
Your first park day sounds like you had fun, even if wait times were longer than posted. We are arriving in Orlando a whole 24 hours early! (James decided he didn't want to stop and explore the battleship in Mobile, AL.) I think we are going into a park tomorrow (staying at an "off site" hotel at DTD), but haven't decided which one yet. I will text you if we go to the same park you will be in.
We are taking a break at the hotel right now, I hope to meet up this evening! Hope y'all are having a great time so far!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a packed first day you had - you certainly made the best of your time in the parks! So how hot is it at the moment? I don't think I've ever known temperatures much above the low 80s on all our December visits.
Well, it's really hasn't got much above 80. That doesn't sound very hot. But it's been very sunny and it has FELT very hot. Part of it is probably just that we have been having cold weather at home so it's a shock to the system. But I know we aren't the only ones as I see folks in tank tops and flip flops fanning themselves.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
What an ordeal your check-in was! I think I would have lost it!
I'm surprised I didn't lose it. I'm not sure I could have taken it had the ordeal lasted much longer...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
I can't believe how ridiculous your check in was. I do hope Ms. Incompetent isn't kept at that job. Sounds like a fun-filled day at DHS!
I hope they find a place for her outside of dealing with customers/people! It was a great Studio's day!
December 21/Magic Kingdom The alarm was set for 5:30am and we were still pretty tired when it went off. We quickly got ready anyhow. The four boys headed to the food court at 6am for breakfast. Madilyn and I ate breakfast foods from home in the hotel. At 6:30am, we headed to the bus stop. I had hoped to leave a little sooner, but it just didn’t happen. We walked out to a waiting MK bus. We arrived at the park just as the opening show started. We were quickly in the park. Austin and Winston immediately went to pin trading. We stopped for one photo pass picture. I would have liked to have stopped for more, but the older kids were getting antsy to ride something. It was 7:15am when we made it to Peter Pan. It had a posted 20 minute wait, but it wasn’t quite that long. Up next was Small World, which was a walk-on. It was 7:50am when we made it to Philharmagic which had a posted wait time of 10 minutes and that was pretty accurate. I really love this show!
It was now 8:20am and we were right next to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train which we really wanted to ride. Unfortunately it was an hour wait and our FP wasn’t good till 9:35am. We took a bathroom break. I also purchased some locking backs for the little boy’s pins. They had already lost two pins this morningL. So, we sat at a table and took the time to change out the backs to their pins. We were now done resting, but still had a ways till time for our Seven Dwarfs FP. So, we headed to Winnie the Pooh. It was now 8:50 and it had a ten minute posted wait. We still had thirty minutes till we could ride 7D, so we rode the Tea Cups with just a five minute wait. We now checked our wait time’s app and seen that both the Race Cars and Buzz had short waits so we headed that way. First we rode Buzz, then the Speedway Cars. By this time- we were able to use our 7D FP’s. The kids were very excited to ride, as was I. I did find it to be a tight fit for me on the ride. While I enjoyed it, I’m not sure it lived up to the hype I had anticipated in my mind. At this point (9:45am)- 7D had a 75 minute wait, so I was very thankful for the fast passes. Madilyn and I were truly hungry at this point. I was trying to hold off as I didn’t want to ruin our appetite for lunch- but we decided to stop for a small snack. The boys ended up getting something too. Wesley and I had lemonade slush. Dillon had strawberry/lemonade slush. The other three had chocolate mocha cupcakes. After our snacks, we went to see Monsters Inc Laugh floor where we had a brief wait till the next show. Our fast passes for Space Mountain were now good, so we headed that direction. The standby was posted at a 50 minute wait. We literally walked all the way to the front in the FP line. It was a great rideJ. And easy peasy to get our pictures with our magic bands. It was now a little after 11am and we rode the People Mover. It was a walk on. The ride stopped a few times, but we enjoyed it all the same. Now we rode Carousel of Progress which had a brief wait before boarding. I love this show/ride! It was now just shy of noon and we had a lunch reservation at Crystal Palace. When we checked in, they had trouble finding our reservation as it was under Wesley’s name- so odd. We seen Dillon’s ex-girlfriends family here as we had originally made our ressies for the same time so we could eat together. I sat with them while we waited and chit chatted. They said they were all sick! They had not even gone to a park yesterday because they were feeling so bad. Poor things! I know how it feels to be sick at Disney as Wesley and Dillon had the flu the last time we were hereL. The food was good; I found several things that I enjoyed. I avoided the dessert section since we are going to the dessert party tonight. Dillon tried a lot of different things as well and enjoyed them. However, the other kids ate mostly chicken nuggets and such- the same ones you get with a quick service meal. So, even though we loved the character interactions- I’m not sure I’ll be running back. I jokingly told the kids next time just Dillon and I would comeJ. We enjoyed meeting all the characters, but especially enjoyed meeting Winnie the Pooh. Dillon likes to call Winston Winnie sometimes and we told Winnie the Pooh that this was our “Winnie” which got some good, fun interactionsJ. After lunch, we settled the bill with my magic band- love it! And headed over to meet Mickey Mouse at Town Square Theatre where we had our third fast pass scheduled for. The standby was posted at 25 minutes. This was the talking Mickey and we really enjoyed it. We also made a video for my sister’s kids. I had the kids stand with Mickey and wave while I narrated and recorded saying “Hi D. Hi D. We are here at Disney hanging out with Mickey Mouse and having a great time. We wish you were here. Guess What? You will be here tomorrow! Pack your bags; you are heading out in the morning!” I think it came out really good and I’ve already sent it to my sister. She is showing them the video Christmas morning. We were planning to enter Adventure land next. But I knew we were going to be in the parks late again today, so I gave the kids the option to go rest at the hotel for a few hours and come back. They opted for the rest. I am typing this while Austin and Winston are supposed to be napping. Austin is snoozing it up, but Winston is asking to go to the pool . Winston fell asleep on the bus ride back to the hotel, so I thought he’d take a nap- but I guess not. Unfortunately, this means he will likely sleep through tonight’s firework show, same as last night. Just before we left the parks, Pam on the boards texted me they had come in early and were headed toward the MK. But we ended up leaving right as they arrived. Hopefully we can meet up when we go back in a few hours. At 5pm we headed back toward the bus stop. We had a bit of a wait before a Magic Kingdom bus came. Just before we had left Wesley looked at the weather and seen it was calling for rain. This was totally unexpected, as yesterday it was calling for zero rain this day. The hourly forecast showed the rain coming in around 9pm which would be about the time we would exit the park. So, I gave the kids the option of carrying in a poncho or not. All of the boys elected not to take one. Madilyn and I took ours. It was about 5:45pm when we got off the bus at the MK. When we got off the bus it was sprinkling and by the time we entered the park it was pouringL. We had thought we were going to have three park hours before the rain come in so this was disappointing. And I am one who does not do well walking around wet, so I wasn’t sure how this was going to pan out. Now, we had reservations for the dessert party at 6:30pm. The fireworks weren’t to start till 8:45pm. I had been wondering how this was going to work. Since it was pouring and it was quickly approaching 6:30pm- our reservation time, we jusjust ran for the Tomorrow land Terrace Dessert Party. When we got there, the CM explained that the 6:30 time was incorrect and that it would actually be starting at 8pm- one hour before the fireworks. I had suspected this might happen, but given the weather conditions it would have been nice if we could go ahead and check in for the dessert party. So, with that news we just took a table under the pavilion and sat to wait out the rain. It didn’t look like the rain would be ending anytime soon, and several of the kids were wanting to make a run for Pirates of the Caribbean. The rain let up a little- only a little. And we made a run for it. Madilyn and I were diligently watching for puddles and walking under awnings when possible. The boys were careless and getting more and more soaked every step of the way, but they don’t mind being in wet clothes. I do and so does Madilyn. Well, it was dark and hard to see sometimes. We ended up stepping in a river! Not a puddle- an ankle deep river! I was so upset! We had been working so hard to keep dry and here we were with soaking wet feetL. We made it to Pirates of the Caribbean where it was posted as having a 30 minute wait. But we were easily boarding within 15 minutes. The ride dropped us off in the gift shop. This is the little boy’s favorite gift shop, so they were excited to look around. I decided to look for socks. Madilyn wanted some also- the boys didn’t care. They had some night before Christmas socks priced at $10 per pair. Not a good deal, but I really needed dry feet. So, I purchased two pair. Madilyn’s had a hole in them when we went to put them on, so she had to quickly exchange hers. The rain had stopped. Once Madilyn and I had our dry socks on and were ready to go see about the Tiki Room, the rain started again!! So frustrating! No way was I getting wet feet again. So, we got some clear plastic bags and put them over our socks and under our shoes to keep our feet dry. Then we all ran for the Tiki Room. Unfortunately it was closedL. Jungle Cruise and Aladdin Carpets were closed too due to the weather I guess. So, we all started back toward the dessert party in the pouring rain. Madilyn and I were wet from the knees down but the boys were soaked head to toe. We still had a bit of time before the party would start, so we just sat in the chairs. Dillon’s ex-girlfriend’s family spoke with us for most of that time. Finally at 8pm they started letting folks into the party. The desserts were very good and there was a good selection. The view of the fireworks was pretty good too. As others have mentioned in their reviews- everyone went to the railing when the fireworks began. While I would definitely say we enjoyed it (and both little boys stayed awake to see it- yay!)- I really don’t feel I could justify the cost of it overall… So, I’m not certain we will be doing it again… but you never know… *The rain cleared up just in time for the fireworks. After the fireworks we quickly exited the park with the masses. We walked up to a waiting MK bus and were back to the hotel by 10pm. Everyone showered and got in bed quickly. It’s 10:30pm now and I’m exhausted and going to bed shortly… Tomorrow is Epcot!
Well, it was a great day until the rain started! What a disappointment after a forecast of zero percent. You did get a lot done, though. The surprise video you made for your sister's kids sounds fantastic. I hope she videos the reveal for you.
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Pixie Dust
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I hope to goodness that's an end to the problems and the rest of your trip is trouble free. 
. He got the toothpaste and I got in the shower. Wesley wondered around the resort while everyone else started getting ready for the day.
So how hot is it at the moment? I don't think I've ever known temperatures much above the low 80s on all our December visits.
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