Two little boys have a dream come true - 18 day holiday of a lifetime (Pop Century, AK & Others...) Pre & Post Trip Report - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Horray! at long last, the time came and on Friday night we finished our packing and went to bed far too excited !
Saturday morning came and although still ired from a busy week, we needed no reminding to get up and dressed. Car loaded with bags & boys and then off we set.
Travel to the airport was quick with little trafic around and we headed right to the disabled parking where we'd pre-paid for our length of stay.
We then headed into the airport and for disabled passengers, Virgin alow you to use the premium economy chec-in so we beat the queues and were very quicky through. Next to Security and again, a special queue for wheelchairs to very quick through here too.
We purchased somw water and a newspaper and then went to our gate. We didn't have long to wait when some assistants came over to help us get our boys on first before allowing everyone else to board, we carried the boys and off went our wheelchairs. The cabin crew were excellent, helping carry our hand luggage and so on and making sure we were OK all the time.
Charlie (4) was very excited, he'd never been on a plane before but Tom (13) had so it was old hat to him. The flight was uneventful, entertainment was OK, food was very good and the service superb. We'd certainly fly with Virgin again.
Afet what seemed like a week, we then arrived with a perfect touchdown at Orlando three quarters of an hour ahead of schedule. We waited until everyone else had disembarked before we took the boys off and sure enough our wheelchairs were there at the plane door and off we went to go through arrivals.
Yet again, sppecial line for wheelchairs and we were ahead of the queues again.
We went to reclaim our bags and as Virgin put a disabled tag on them, they are taken off first and so by this time, we were ahead of most of the people on our flight.
Down to the car hire area, a welcome pack from a Virgin rep and to the Dollar counter. We'd pre-paid for everything before the holiday yet Dollar still find a way to rip-off the Customer, the guy explained about we were covered in case of breakdown or losing our keys etc and although I checked our paperwork carefully to ensure we had the free tank of fuel etc included, I missed that we'd been charged another $100 for this breakdown cover. That would be classed as mis-selling and illegal in the UK
Anyway, the attendant brought our car and we were very happy with it, plenty of room for us all and the wheelchairs in the back where we'd folded down the rear row of seats. We were nicely suprised at how warm it was even though we knew Orlando was having a cold snap.
So, off we went to the Tax office to try to get an AMerican disabled badge. Forgot that it was Saturday and so they were closed, never mind, will do this on Monday.
We arrived at our first hotel, the Oak Plantation Villas. Our Suite was fine, plenty of room and everything we could want, especially the free wifi because we were situated very close to the pool and the wifi spot. That's why I can do these updates whilst we're here for the next 4 days.
By this time we were hungry and so after we'd unloaded everything we went across the road to the Red Lobster restaurant where Kelly our Male server showed us how good service should be done. He was excellent, tended to our every need and really looked after us. The meal was excellent and we also treated ourselves to a pitcher of beer which was really nice too. We don't normally drink much at home but enjoyed it here for a change.
Back home to the villa and off to a good night's sleep.
Plan to go to Seaworld tomorrow, watch this space for more..........
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So glad that you are here and starting to enjoy the magic! I had to laugh when you said you got chills at the American Experience at EPCOT. I do the same thing when I hear the British national anthem. I am a Brit at heart.
Have a wonderful time!
Suzie
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OK, Day two and sensibly, we planned a lie-in and not too much planning for this day, we'd just do whatever we felt like it.
Breakfast was in our villa, tea, toast & cereal and a very leisurely get washed & dressed. Still, we were out and about for lunchtime and we decided we'd go and do Seaworld. Collected our Orlando Flexitickets and in we went. Despite our breakfast we still stopped for a coffee and a pastry which was very enjoyable. We're all dresed in our shorts & T-shirts and it was a nice sunny day.
The first thing we looked at after some turtles was the pool full of rays and Charlie enjoyed them splashing although wasn't too impressed when they spashed him too. Next we went to see the Dolphins and Kate chose to feed the dolphins, at first, I was slightly sceptical at the extra $7 to feed them, I guess I expected that a park like this already had a budget to feed thei animals but how wrong I was. We queued up for about ten minutes then everyone was let into line up around the side of the pool and we were given a paper dish of small fish to feed the Dolphins and shown how to do it. Tom watched with great interest and we lifted Charlie up onto the wall so he could see what was going on.
Pretty soon we'd used all our fish up and then one of the trainers came across and asked if we managed to stroke the dolphins, we said "No" and so he very kindly attracted one across by slapping the water and gave us another plate of fish whilst making sure that both Tom & Charlie managed to stroke the dolphin which they both loved.
We were given a photo card saying that some photos had us on and we could opt to buy them. We did buy one with a frame and another as it showed the boys fascinated with the dolphins. When we're home I'll scan them in and put them on-line.
The rest of the day was good, we visited all sorts and saw a show with Dolphins in a pool theatre which also had trainers doing acrobatics and all sorts. This was a really excellent show especially when a cast member came across at the end and asked if the boys would like their photo taken with a trainer. Of course we said yes and once the crowds had gone, two of the trainers came and spent time with the boys and had their photo taken with them. This was really magical and the boys felt very special for the second time that day.
A club sandwich in the Anhauser Busch centre later and of course the free beer sample. However, we discovered that this was closing down that day for a new promotional display that would not be giving away free beer samples so we were one of the very last to experience this.
The Shamu show or "Believe" as it is now known was an exellent end to our day, the 4 rotating video screens were really impressive and the whole show was excellent. Again, the boys loved this and we took photos and videod it for future enjoyment.
After leaving the park we then headed to a local Walmart to pick up some essentials and found the place pretty unorganised and tatty, far from what we were expecting. We managed to get what we wanted but it then took over half an hour to get through the checkout. The staff were exeedingly slow, the self service tills were all closed and there were massive queues. I know it was Sunday evening but we were not impressed, neither were Tom Charlie who just wanted to get back to the villa for a drink and then bed.
So, we did get back and were son pretty tired so went to bed fairly early ready for another fun day tomorrow......
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Liz 
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You picked the right time to go - the weather here is freezing! 
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