You can find me in da Beach Club -- COMPLETE!! Final Thoughts UPDATE 7/1 - Page 30 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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
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Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
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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.
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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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Karen, just caught up. And, from WAY, WAY back, your caption on the Glowtini pic, "glowing, alcoholic, peace-keeping yumminess" has just become my "Serenity Now" slogan to get me through Zack's teenage years! I Kat's Mr. Potato Head offering. It's like a Dali masterpiece, methinks you've got quite the creative genius there (well aside from the Lego bit.) I'm a firm believer in the power of the Main Street Barber Shop. It's just about the only way I can talk Zack into a haircut, which means that a return trip is about 7 months overdue. Can't wait for more, Karen!
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Karen, aka Zack's Mom - Lover of all Things Disney and the San Francisco Giants!
Karen, Kat looks absolutely adorable as Snow White - it really suits her! I will add on here that you and Steve look pretty dashing as pirates as well. I mean that!
Listen, I loved Coral Reef and did not like Marrakesh and thought Mama Melroses was just "okay." So we're fellow members of the Lonely Eater's Club. My fam damily has LTT planned for December - before I even read your review, I was wondering about the menu...I only like my grandma's Thanksgiving-type food - I've never enjoyed anyone else's, or any restaurant's, attempt at it. I'm still planning on visiting LTT, but mainly just for the character's/experience and hoping that I'll be pleasantly surprised by the food.
Can't wait to try the P&P party...and for more of your TR!
Love all the Kat photos!!! She is truly a princess!
Sorry LTT wasn't that good for you. We love LTT but being from the south we love comfort food and are pretty easy to please. I think the characters are what makes that meal for us. We would probably never eat that cafeteria type food if we went out to eat here.
<<sigh>> This picture is exactly what Disney is all about!! No matter what you say, Kat is just adorable. I nominate this photo to be in the next Passporter edition!
And as far as LTT, now I am a little nervous about our ADR for before MNSSHP. I hope we aren't pushed out so quickly in October!
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Saturday, October 9, 2014 - Kaitlyn and I before the Happy Haunted 5K at ESPN Wide World of Sports
glad to hear that you enjoyed the party but not LTT - it does stink when you get rushed to eat like that
Those pics of the fireworks were great and Kat did look awsome in her costume with the apple bag
more please
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Great update! The party sounds fabulous, I soooo want to attend Sorry your meal at LTT was rushed, I think you just had a bad experience. It must've been because of the party, although saying that we've been three times during the MNNSHP and MVMCP parties and it's never been as rushed I love the photos of Kat, especially the one with her and Ariel, so cute!
This is the true Kat. Don’t be fooled by the cutesy stuff.
I this photo! Truly priceless! Of all the fabulous photos you've posted of Kat, this is the one I adore! I can't look at it without smiling. Glad you enjoyed the P&PP, but sorry you didn't love LTT. Hurry back with more, more, more!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Karen, your photos are stunning! I love the one of Kat in the mirror, at the carriage and, yes, the one of the "true Kat" Darling! But this one is probably one of the best photos I have seen of a child with a character EVER.
Have you considered submitting it to AllEarNet.com for their photo of the week
I'm way way way behind on your report (I'm always so slow that I rarely post). But, I just wanted to say how sorry I am about Christine. I also feel very ashamed that you guys have such a hard time getting through customs when you come into the U.S. (sorry). I had such a wonderful experience flying into the UK--- I feel badly that you don't have as good of an experience. I'm looking forward to reading more!!!
! I think you're probably right, generally fish and chips are better up north, in that most places are good. Down here, we have some excellent ones, but some that are so-so, but hey, at least you don't get mushy peas here!
OK--- I was wondering why I never got the mushy peas, but I stayed just outside of London, so I guess that's why?
No matter how many times I visit WDW, and no matter how many wonderful things I’ve planned, I never enjoy the last day. I hate leaving the room, knowing that I can’t return, even to freshen up; I hate knowing that the only thing to look forward to is a long haul flight; and above all, I hate that the holiday is over. I’ve just never been able to switch on to the mentality that dictates that one can continue to have fun right up until one leaves the purple signs right behind. If I could wake up and floo powder myself right home, that’s precisely what I’d do with the last vacation day.
We packed our suitcases in such a manner as would be as unwelcoming to the customs officers as possible (dirty underwear on top, class A drugs inside Pal Mickey (JOKE)) and wandered down to the Cape May Café.
This is my standard Disney breakfast fare.
I love the bacon in WDW. Deep fried, streaky, crispy, yumminess. Steve won’t touch it. In England, bacon is usually lightly fried or grilled and back bacon is also generally preferred. I, however, believe that if the Almighty had intended us to eat grilled (broiled) food he would never have invented deep fat fryers.
If you’re feeling less decadent than me, there’s a lovely granola bar with yoghurt and fruit and cereal, which can be loaded into a sundae glass. I did take a photo but it came out blurry.
Of course we had characters
We were promised Chip and Dale. Dale came around.
(You can always tell when it’s my last day as it’s off with the contact lenses and on with the glasses; contact lenses + long haul flight = trip to casualty department of hospital [a long story which I’ll share at some time]).
And then Dale came around again, two minutes later.
I didn’t think a great deal about this until I asked when Chip was coming out and our server pointed over to Dale #2. Err no. I think that’s Dale. Everyone knows that Chip has a black nose. Apparently Chip and Dale had a fight that day and didn’t want to come out together. I felt bizarrely and disproportionately cheated by this nonsense. Even Kat knows the difference between the two chipmunks.
Anyway, I’m not complaining too much as I did enjoy the breakfast. The setting is lovely and the theming is good. I probably preferred Crystal Palace and 1900 Park Faire, but it’s eons better than Princess Akershus or whatever it’s called which retains the Mattnkatsmum title for the worst character breakfast in Disney. (We had our Storybook breakfast three trips ago and I still can’t let it go. I’ve been known to wake up screaming ‘GET ME OUT OF THIS AWFUL PRINCESS CONVEYER BELT FACTORY WITH THE DECIDEDLY MEDIOCRE FOOD’. I’m thinking I should ask Disney to pay for counselling.
We bid farewell to our lovely studio at Da Beach Club and loaded the car with all suitcases. We had a couple of hours to kill before we had to make our way to MCO and decided to head over to MK.
Interestingly, we noticed that the crowds seemed heavy – we later learned that there was a convention of hod-carriers or something similar that had really boosted the attendance.
Kat chose to ride Barnstormer one last time and we then agreed to line up for the Princesses. MAJOR MISTAKE. Kat isn’t even particularly interested in Cinderella et al, so I was somewhat exasperated (given that the Princess line showed a 40 minute wait time and the other two lines had no wait) that my stubborn (another characteristic inherited from her father) daughter refused to switch lines.
And let me tell you, we didn’t wait 40 minutes; the wait was well over an hour. Every two minutes or so, Steve and I would try out our best persuasion techniques to try to convince Kat that a meeting with Pooh was a far more attractive alternative, but to no avail. What was particularly frustrating was that the line never seemed to move. Only one family at a time seemed to be let through to the hallowed Princess greeting area.
Finally (please read this word with due emphasis – in my head I’m saying ‘FINALLY’ loudly and with due irritation) we got to see Princesses.
Just as Kat was having her photo shoot with Cindy, we noticed that Belle was getting up and leaving, apparently to ‘powder her nose’. Steve whispered that he wondered if ‘powder her nose’ was Disney speak for ‘snort some charley’ – a most inappropriate and unDisney comment if ever there was one, but Steve finds this kind of thing hilarious. Problem was, Kat overheard and asked very loudly if Belle had gone off to snort some Charley. Have you ever heard Snow White snigger? I have.
We were asked if we wanted to wait for Belle (I think the CMs wanted to get rid of us as quickly as possible) but I indicated that having just waited an hour to meet said Princess we’d wait. And I suspect that Belle had a tummy problem or something that would have explained the awful delays.
Ever the professional, Belle returned moments later, complete with freshly powdered nose.
Steve still swears that she looks a little spaced out and glassy-eyed.
If you read my last WDW trip report http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...-complete.html apologies for the shameless plug) you’ll know that my favourite attraction in the whole of WDW is The Hall of Presidents. I fully intended to save the best ‘til last. We arrived at the HoP at 11.30, to be told that we were too late for that showing. I decided to grab a sandwich at Columbia Harbour House and catch the next show.
I didn’t take any more CHH photos; a tuna sandwich is, after all, a tuna sandwich. It was, however, delicious. As always.
We sprinted back to HoP and were there at 11.57 to be told that we were too late. I did my best Kathy Bates in Misery impersonation ‘I need to see this show; I’m its number one fan’, but to no avail. They wouldn’t let us in. And I bet there was no one else in there. Steve and Kat were both delighted, however. I can’t think why.
We decided to see Mickey’s Philarmagic and then head to the airport. We knew we had a couple of decent photos on our PhotoPass account, so we grabbed a passing photographer to take a few more piccies.
Before we left we caught the Family Fun Parade.
I bought the PhotoPass CD whilst Kat met some Pinocchio characters.
And we took Kat back to the Barbers’ Shop for one last sprinkling of pixie dust.
Goodbye WDW
We had an uneventful wait at MCO, where we took these photos.
Looking back I think there’s something deeply psychological about taking photos of statues of Disney characters on the way home from holiday. We were clearly tying desperately to cling to the last vestiges of our trip.
And apart from Steve smashing a large bottle of Tylenol on the security conveyer belt (which did NOT go down well) not much else happened.
Our flight home was only half full, so we each had a few seats to ourselves. Kat slept the entire journey, Steve watched a couple of films and I acquainted myself with a friendly cabin steward who force-fed me with rum and coke for the entire flight.
Looking back I think there’s something deeply psychological about taking photos of statues of Disney characters on the way home from holiday. We were clearly tying desperately to cling to the last vestiges of our trip.
Too right!! I completely agree!!
And good for that cabin steward to keep the rum and cokes flowing
I'm sad that your trip is complete now, Karen!! Any final thoughts that we can look forward to?
Eileen
What a shame about the Hall of Presidents - exactly how many dollars do you reckon Steve slipped the Cast Members to keep telling you that you were too late for the show?
I'm very sorry to see this great trip report draw to a close and I can't wait to read the next one!
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Kat's Mr. Potato Head offering. It's like a Dali masterpiece, methinks you've got quite the creative genius there (well aside from the Lego bit.) I'm a firm believer in the power of the Main Street Barber Shop. It's just about the only way I can talk Zack into a haircut, which means that a return trip is about 7 months overdue. Can't wait for more, Karen!
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I will add on here that you and Steve look pretty dashing as pirates as well. I mean that! 
So we're fellow members of the Lonely Eater's Club. My fam damily has LTT planned for December - before I even read your review, I was wondering about the menu...I only like my grandma's Thanksgiving-type food - I've never enjoyed anyone else's, or any restaurant's, attempt at it. I'm still planning on visiting LTT, but mainly just for the character's/experience and hoping that I'll be pleasantly surprised by the food. 
ANGIE
I love the photos of Kat, especially the one with her and Ariel, so cute!
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