Dreaming of a Disney spring break! THIS SECTION COMPLETED - Page 39 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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about the rough work day. that things work out. Glenn has been thru that on two of our trips to WDW. I'm hoping that you were able to set all the turmoil aside and enjoy the trip.
__________________
ºOº ~*~
Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
Sorry that wht was supposed to be the start of a wonderful vacation ended up with you dealing with issues at work. Not the way to start of a trip
What a walk to get to the terminal...and then not so great service at check-in. I am sure that all you were looking forward to was a good night sleep so you could wake up and just start off your trip but I have a feeling not all went so well.
Thursday 7 April – part one: “what else can go wrong?”
I think it’s fair to say that we both had a pretty appalling night’s sleep. Mark blamed the bed, whereas for me, it was a lot simpler. I blamed work, as I couldn’t stop worrying about things. I slept, but it was a very, very light sleep and, of course, that’s not good for my chronic fatigue and especially on a day when we’d be experienced jet lag later. It was not a good start. :
We finally got up and got going slowly, grabbing a shower. We headed down for breakfast, again at the Garden Restaurant, but at least it was included in the room price that we’d paid. Thank goodness we hadn’t paid for it, as sadly, like last night, the food was definitely lacking. Let’s just say that I got a vegetarian sausage and couldn’t even get my knife through it. The hash browns were similarly hard to cut, but at least didn’t taste too bad. I think it says it all that I ate more than Mark, going for fruit, some cheese and a croissant and pain au chocolat, as he just wasn’t impressed with what he’d got. We agreed that, next time, we might be better off going to eat in the terminal for both breakfast and dinner, as at least the food is fresh.
On the way back to our room, we shared the elevator with a family, and quickly got talking to them, as the dad had an Animal Kingdom Lodge polo shirt on. We asked if they usually stayed at Disney and they told us that they did, but this time, they were travelling with extended family and there were 10 of them, so they were going for a villa.
We went back to the room for a while and then headed out to the terminal. It was at this point that the tiredness from the lack of sleep last night really hit me. I honestly thought I was going to pass out, as suddenly I felt completely exhausted and wanted to pass out. A sit down by the elevators and I felt a little better. Mark cheered me up, by encouraging me to get some photos of the hotel lobby, before we headed down to check out.
I must admit I couldn’t wait to get outside into the cold air to feel a bit cooler. It’s probably just as well that we already knew it was quite a trek from last night, as it obviously such a shock to the system. It is stupid though – there’s just so far to walk and I can’t wait to see this work over and done with. Hopefully, by the time we next fly from Gatwick, it will be. When that will be, I don’t know, as we’ll be flying out of Heathrow in August/September.
We headed straight for the Fast-track security lane, which is a new Premium Economy perk. When I flew Premium Economy for the Decade of Dreams tour in May 2009, I was given access to it, as I was so distraught to be leaving Mark behind and the woman felt sorry for me, so this is a good step forward.
We were through in about five minutes, a big improvement on our experience a couple of weeks ago with Vienna. We just about made it out in one piece, after one family, who were in front of us, tried to trip me up twice and then stood in the exit, so that no-one could get out.
When we got through, I still wasn’t feeling great. It didn’t help that the terminal building was stupidly hot and even Mark was feeling it. We went to the airport information desk to ask if there was somewhere cooler I could go, but the three staff there decided to have a chat amongst themselves, rather than serve us, so we walked off.
Instead, we headed to one of the shops to get some Lucozade. I don’t know if you guys have that over in the States, but essentially it’s an energy drink, as Mark figured that I needed a sugar rush and, as I drank it gradually over the next hour or so, I did start to feel better, so I think it did the trick. As he said to me, after what I’d been through at work over the last 24 hours and the lack of sleep had probably left my body in a very poor state.
We browsed a couple of stores, looking at binoculars and getting some prices, as we really ought to invest in a decent pair for our Alaskan cruise. We also bought a couple of gifts for Wendy and her family that I know they’re going to love.
In duty free, we tried some Brazilian drink, first straight and then with a mango and passion fruit juice. All I’m going to say is that it didn’t matter what I put with it, it still wasn’t me – not nearly sweet enough. : We also saw some of the Wills and Kate tat that they had out for the upcoming Royal wedding. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with the wedding and no doubt we’ll watch it, but I just object to such tacky souvenirs, especially as it was said that they would make sure that, for this Royal wedding, they weren’t allowed to sell any tat. Well, that didn’t last long, judging by what we saw...
We headed upstairs to browse the stores, then I thought I’d do a restroom run, as no doubt our gate would open, as that’s what always happens, but not this time. : By the time we walked back downstairs and towards the entrance to the gates, our gate number was up and off we went.
When we got there, we were the first Premium Economy passengers. It’s such a nice perk to have your own line to get into the gate area, especially as we watched the line for Economy snake its way round and round and then outside, with everyone getting in the way of people trying to get past.
We stood there a while, before they let us through, as they were having a few technical issues. Sadly, that meant that we didn’t walk straight on to the plane, as we have done in the past, so we took our seats and browsed the magazines that they had. One was Cruise International and it had a two-page feature on the Disney Dream, which was interesting reading. It got a 91% rating overall and just got my excitement going even more. In a week’s time, we’ll be aboard that ship!
Finally, we boarded and we were very confused, when we were directed to go straight ahead and turn left. I’m sorry, what? We booked our seats upstairs. What’s going on? Finally, we found our seats and were even more unhappy to discover that they were in the middle aisle. Not what we wanted at all. : This is the first time that this has ever happened to us in all the years we’ve been travelling with Virgin Atlantic and we were not impressed. We spoke to the Flight Manager and she said she would look to see what she could do about it, but wasn’t holding out much hope, as the flight was full with 422 people. Great. To be honest, at that point, I was starting to think “what else can go wrong?” as the last 24 hours had just been awful for me and this was the icing on the cake.
In the end, it wasn’t too bad, although it was annoying not to have the seats we wanted. We got chatting to the couple next to us and there were definite strains of “It’s A Small World”, as it turns out that they live in the area that I work in. When the guy told me where he lived, I knew exactly where it was.
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NOT a good morning! That's a long list of things to go wrong for you. Hope things improve soon, but I have no idea what your teaser means! Guess I'll find out tomorrow morning.
My goodness, you are having some issues getting going--sorry your CF was kicking up its heels-that can't be a good feeling-and now another ominous title (and as I work with kindergartners, I can certainly feel your pain some days!!) Here's hoping your trip gets better soon!!
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about the rough work day. 
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I slept, but it was a very, very light sleep and, of course, that’s not good for my chronic fatigue and especially on a day when we’d be experienced jet lag later. It was not a good start. 
The hash browns were similarly hard to cut, but at least didn’t taste too bad. I think it says it all that I ate more than Mark, going for fruit, some cheese and a croissant and pain au chocolat, as he just wasn’t impressed with what he’d got. We agreed that, next time, we might be better off going to eat in the terminal for both breakfast and dinner, as at least the food is fresh. 
Hopefully, by the time we next fly from Gatwick, it will be. When that will be, I don’t know, as we’ll be flying out of Heathrow in August/September. 
As he said to me, after what I’d been through at work over the last 24 hours and the lack of sleep had probably left my body in a very poor state. 
I’m sorry, what? We booked our seats upstairs. What’s going on? Finally, we found our seats and were even more unhappy to discover that they were in the middle aisle. Not what we wanted at all. 
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