Living the dream and remembering the Bagman LIVE UPDATE 10/2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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
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.
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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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The Safari Spectacular should be something! I'm really looking forward to it! I was intrigued by the Coca Cola store, but had not heard about the Levi store. Dave will love that! I wear Lee's as well.
I had not heard about the self-serve cameras. Interesting idea. However, I love the interaction with the photographers, the magic shots, etc. I sure hope this isn't a trend for the future! With the Gold AP, we get Photopass photos, so I will have to give them a shot!
(I've never heard the story of Mark and Piglet... )
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The Safari Spectacular should be something! I'm really looking forward to it! I was intrigued by the Coca Cola store, but had not heard about the Levi store. Dave will love that! I wear Lee's as well.
Interestingly, if you live in Europe, you get a totally different type of Lee jeans - all close cut, which is why I can't get them over here, as they just wouldn't fit me.
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I had not heard about the self-serve cameras. Interesting idea. However, I love the interaction with the photographers, the magic shots, etc. I sure hope this isn't a trend for the future! With the Gold AP, we get Photopass photos, so I will have to give them a shot!
I have a feeling if this works, Disney will start to go down this route more and more, as then they don't have to pay for a Photopass photographer.
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(I've never heard the story of Mark and Piglet... )
Ok, I was trying to find the trip report on here (it's here somewhere, I swear...) but with no joy. Basically it was a number of years ago. I remember a few people who were at the Crystal Palace - Terri (DrDolphin), Marie (CRCrazy) and her youngest, which makes me think it was about 2005 maybe. Anyway, we went there for breakfast and Mark was on a table of women (this is how he tells it anyway...) and Piglet put his hand on the table. Mark was eating bacon at the time and took his knife and fork to Piglet's arm, but was spotted and called out and he made Piglet cry. From memory, I had to comfort Piglet, who was really upset by the whole thing and then Mark had to apologise and may even have had to get down on his knees to seek Piglet's forgiveness. If anyone else remembers this incident better than I do, please shout!
Nice going with the Safari Spectacular reservation, even though it was a bit of a headache getting through the phone lines for this! Should be a fun event and looking forward to your experience in your future TR!
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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!
Thanks for telling the Piglet story again, as I'd forgotten as well. Poor Piglet!
I hadn't heard of the self serve Photo Pass spots either! I'm not sure how I feel about that. I did hear that some of the DVC resorts have a do it yourself photo "booth" where DVC members can have a series of photos taken and then get a little photo collage printed out right there.
Both Fairmonts and their restaurants sound great! I'm a little jealous of all of you are getting to take the DVC safari. It ends before our trip begins.
Ok, I was trying to find the trip report on here (it's here somewhere, I swear...) but with no joy. Basically it was a number of years ago. I remember a few people who were at the Crystal Palace - Terri (DrDolphin), Marie (CRCrazy) and her youngest, which makes me think it was about 2005 maybe. Anyway, we went there for breakfast and Mark was on a table of women (this is how he tells it anyway...) and Piglet put his hand on the table. Mark was eating bacon at the time and took his knife and fork to Piglet's arm, but was spotted and called out and he made Piglet cry. From memory, I had to comfort Piglet, who was really upset by the whole thing and then Mark had to apologise and may even have had to get down on his knees to seek Piglet's forgiveness. If anyone else remembers this incident better than I do, please shout!
Oh.My.GOODNESS! Best ever!! I didn't join Passporter's until 2006 which might be why I never heard the story! Thanks for sharing!!!
Nice going with the Safari Spectacular reservation, even though it was a bit of a headache getting through the phone lines for this! Should be a fun event and looking forward to your experience in your future TR!
Thanks for telling the Piglet story again, as I'd forgotten as well. Poor Piglet!
I know - he was really mean to him.
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I hadn't heard of the self serve Photo Pass spots either! I'm not sure how I feel about that. I did hear that some of the DVC resorts have a do it yourself photo "booth" where DVC members can have a series of photos taken and then get a little photo collage printed out right there.
Yes, I've heard of that as well. I still prefer the personal touch.
Both Fairmonts and their restaurants sound great! I'm a little jealous of all of you are getting to take the DVC safari. It ends before our trip begins.
And I guess you have nothing during your stay? I noticed they were trying to do events through the year, as they had the private parties a the Magic Kingdom in the spring, then the parties at Typhoon Lagoon (I think I've got that right - I didn't pay much attention as it wasn't during our stay) and something for Christmas. I remember looking at the dates and thinking they'd tried to space it throughout the year, but they hadn't really managed it.
Pre-trip report – part twenty nine: what’s a popover?
Saturday 9 July
Today I started to look at our plans for New York City, as it occurred to me that I didn’t know what the deal was with subway tickets. In London, if you want to use the Tube now, generally you get an Oyster card, which is a swipe in, swipe out card that you top up. I didn’t know if New York had gone the same way, and whether or not you could buy tickets at the stations, as that’s not necessarily the case in all cities these days. Thankfully, it looks fairly simple, you can just buy as many rides as you want with a pay-per-rise MetroCard that you can either buy from a station booth or a vending machine, with the choice of loading anything from $5.50 up to $80. As each journey seems to be $2.50 - $3.00, we’ll probably get maybe $15 each, as I think we’ll need to make three or four journeys. Simple!
I did the same with Toronto, and that again all seems quite simple. You can get tickets at booths at each station (amazing how we’ve done away with those on the London Underground – now you see why I was checking this out ) and, even better, as we’re there over a weekend, it looks as if we can get a group/family ticket, which gives us a pass for $12 for the two of us – result! Montreal seems to be the one place where you buy your tickets at a vending machine, but I can live with that. They do a one day unlimited pass or a three day one. I think the one day pass will do us, as I can’t see us needing to use the subway on the day we arrive or the day we leave, as the things we plan on doing are within walking distance of our hotel.
I’ve also had a look to see what our hotel does for dinner, as I’d prefer to eat either in the hotel or nearby. I don’t want to make any fancy arrangements, given we’re flying up that day, in case we’re late. The plan is to hopefully hit the Disney Store, get dinner and then head out to Cirque du Soleil, and do most of the exploring the next day.
Staying on the subject of food, I thought it was about time I checked out the offerings in Acadia National Park, as I figured it might be a bit limited there. I was right. Apparently, there’s only one restaurant in the park – the Acadia Jordan Pond House, which serves lunch and afternoon tea. It’s got some good ratings on TripAdvisor, so I checked out their website. They serve popovers, which get good reviews on TripAdvisor, but I’d never heard of them. I had to look them up online, and this is what Google told me:
A popover is a light, hollow roll made from an egg batter similar to that of Yorkshire pudding, typically baked in muffin tins or dedicated popover pans, which have straight-walled sides rather than angled.
Ok, sounds interesting – maybe I’ll have to give them a go. They had a phone number for reservations, but I didn’t want to call internationally, so I’ve emailed them asking for a lunch reservation on the day we’re there.
I’ve made some more dinner reservations, the first was for our first night in Montreal, as we’ll have driven over from Quebec City and I figured I’d rather have something booked near our hotel. I found a great place called Beaver Hall, which is a French restaurant with a menu that’s got plenty for both of us, and it’s got good reviews on TripAdvisor, so I’ve booked us in there. The second night we’re going to eat at one of the Zibo restaurants, as they seem to be a chain in Montreal. It’s a combination of Italian and Canadian, which sounded intriguing, and I liked the look of the menu. I did contemplate going for a dinner cruise, as they do have that, but the prices were quite high, and the reviews not particularly amazing, so I decided not to bother.
I’ve also figured out a couple of places for lunch for our two days in Quebec City. On the first day, we have the option of eating at Le Parlementaire at the Assemblee Nationale, but the menu isn’t exactly inspiring, even though it sounds like a beautiful place to eat in, so I’ve come up with another couple of options. They’re both creperies that are well rated on TripAdvisor. One is Casse Crepe Breton and the other is Au Petit Coin Breton. I figured that, as we’re in a French part of Canada, we should have a proper French lunch, and what’s more French that crepes, right?
For the next day, I’ve found a place called Spag & Tini, which is an Italian restaurant that does a really nice set lunch menu. They take reservations, but only two months in advance, so hopefully I’ll book with them in a few days’ time.
I’ve also been looking more carefully at our plans for Montreal, and it’s probably just as well I did. I knew I wanted to go to Chalet du Mont Royal for the views over the city, but when I looked up getting there via public transport, it’s about a half hour walk from the nearest subway station. However, there is public transport literally a hundred metres away, so we’ll aim to head there on the day we arrive, and do that before we check in at our hotel. That should save us quite a bit of walking.
They finally have details of tours of the Olympic Stadium again, and you can get tickets for the Montreal Tower, which we are definitely doing combined with their Souvenirs from 1976 exhibition, as they’re celebrating 40 years since Montreal hosted the Olympics. Included with that exhibition is the guided tour, and they’ve detailed the departure times, so I’ve been able to put a bit more “meat on the bone” for our plans for that day.
I also did some more research about the Underground City, as I want to visit that. I was trying to find a tour, but didn’t come with any that I thought would work for us. I know it’s impossible to miss, given it’s so huge, but I wanted to know what the most impressive bits were to ensure we didn’t miss them, so I now have a couple of places I definitely want to visit.
I have also discovered that, as well as the Disney Outlet store we’ll be going at Merrimack in New Hampshire, there’s a Disney Store in Toronto, in the same shopping complex as Bath and Body Works, so that works. Then I found out there’s another Disney Outlet in Niagara Falls on the American side of the border, so I’ve made a note of where that is, so that we can go there as well. Hopefully we’ll have some luck in at least one of those three stores.
I was going to call Zazzle to find out what’s happened to our larger sized T-shirts, as we had an email on 24 June to say they’d been shipped. More than two weeks later, still no sign of them. That can’t be right. Unfortunately their customer services are only open on weekdays from 10:00am – 6:00pm, so I’ll try and give them a call this week to find out what’s going on. The website is no help, as it only has the tracking details from our original package, not the second dispatch.
Denise posted this evening that the decals for the MagicBands are now ready. I think they’re great value at $3.50 each. We’ve ordered four, just in case anything happens to the first MagicBands (I never know if Disney will let you keep a MagicBand when you switch resort) and, if nothing else, we can use the spares for scrapbooking.
Sunday 10 July
I had another look through our plans for Canada today, and already I’ve ditched the idea of booking lunch for our second day in Quebec City. I’ve decided that something had to give, and having read reviews, I’ve got rid of the Musee de la Civilisation in Quebec City. It sounds amazing, but the reviews say to allow a full day, and we just haven’t got that much time. The plan is now to leave Quebec in the morning, after a wander around the lower town, and visit the Olympic Park on the way into Montreal. We’ll then have the next day to visit the archaeology museum, Chateau Ramezay and the Notre Dame Basilica, as well as the underground city.
On our final morning, we’ll stop at Mont Royale on the way out, before driving over to Ottawa. This should then allow us to visit at least one museum there – definitely the Canadian Museum of History, and possibly the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum too. That will then leave us just the Parliament building the next morning and a wander around the city centre, before we head to Toronto, hopefully getting there early enough to visit Casa Loma.
We’ll then have a full day to explore Toronto, and head out to Niagara Falls in the morning, as it’s an hour and a half’s drive, and dinner at the Skylon Tower is at 4:30pm, and I’d like to do a fair few of the things there. The number one is of course a cruise on Hornblower Cruises, but I also want to do Journey Behind the Falls and perhaps take the Whirlpool Aero Car as well.
So there we go – I think we are just about set with the itinerary for that part of the trip – phew!
I think the Disney section of the trip is pretty well sorted… for the moment anyway, until they amend the hours again, and maybe add in the night-time entertainment for Animal Kingdom and tell us whether Symphony in the Stars at the Studios is on during our stay.
I did go through our reservations, and realised we still have breakfast booked on the Monday morning we depart on the Dream for four of us, as Maci and her mum won’t be joining us after all. I can’t remember if I mentioned this, but they’re going to be on the Transatlantic cruise (I think I have that right ) our of Barcelona instead, and heck I can’t say I blame them. There doesn’t seem to be any other reservations at the same time (8:35am), so I ended up leaving the reservation as it is. Who knows? Another couple of people may decide to join us… and if not, we can explain that the other two weren’t well on the day.
You’re not going to believe this…. Our neighbours handed us our Zazzle T-shirts today. I have no idea how long they’ve had them, given the email said they’d shipped on 24 June. We never had a note through the door telling us they’d been delivered, which is why I was going to phone the company to ask what the heck was going on. I just cannot believe our neighbours sat with the package for probably best part of two weeks. What were they thinking?
Next: I may need to do some more slimming down on these choices…
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It's another gorgeous hotel in a perfect location! Good choice. 
Anyway, we went there for breakfast and Mark was on a table of women (this is how he tells it anyway...) and Piglet put his hand on the table. Mark was eating bacon at the time and took his knife and fork to Piglet's arm, but was spotted and called out and he made Piglet cry. From memory, I had to comfort Piglet, who was really upset by the whole thing and then Mark had to apologise and may even have had to get down on his knees to seek Piglet's forgiveness. If anyone else remembers this incident better than I do, please shout! 
They had a phone number for reservations, but I didn’t want to call internationally, so I’ve emailed them asking for a lunch reservation on the day we’re there. 
However, there is public transport literally a hundred metres away, so we’ll aim to head there on the day we arrive, and do that before we check in at our hotel. That should save us quite a bit of walking. 
combined with their Souvenirs from 1976 exhibition, as they’re celebrating 40 years since Montreal hosted the Olympics. Included with that exhibition is the guided tour, and they’ve detailed the departure times, so I’ve been able to put a bit more “meat on the bone” for our plans for that day. 
I have no idea how long they’ve had them, given the email said they’d shipped on 24 June. We never had a note through the door telling us they’d been delivered, which is why I was going to phone the company to ask what the heck was going on. I just cannot believe our neighbours sat with the package for probably best part of two weeks. What were they thinking? 
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