After 15 years of Magic, we finally get to leave our kids at home! My trip report. Updated 11/16 - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel 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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Glad that you are feeling better. Loved the pictures from your MNNSHP, glad that you both enjoyed even with some heavier crowds. Sounds like a wonderful day at the AK - what a funny story about the lion, it is so rare that he is up and moving so I guess catching him doing whatever he might be doing still ended up the hit of the safari....
I am so enjoying reading all about your trip with "no kids". I am doing my first leaving the kids at home trip in February and while I am still having those pangs of guilt (when the 10yo looks at me with those puppy dog eyes and says I cannot believe you are going to "our" place without me) I am also getting so excited to go and enjoy all those things that I might pass over when I have the kids on the trip...like drinking a FAB in peace . Can't wait to hear more.
Sounded like a great day at AK.
Glad you are feeling better. I, too, am fighting some horrible chest and head cold and I really wish it would go away. But I am glad it is happening now and not in 30 days when my trip gets here.
More please.
Glad that you are feeling better. Loved the pictures from your MNNSHP, glad that you both enjoyed even with some heavier crowds. Sounds like a wonderful day at the AK - what a funny story about the lion, it is so rare that he is up and moving so I guess catching him doing whatever he might be doing still ended up the hit of the safari....
I am so enjoying reading all about your trip with "no kids". I am doing my first leaving the kids at home trip in February and while I am still having those pangs of guilt (when the 10yo looks at me with those puppy dog eyes and says I cannot believe you are going to "our" place without me) I am also getting so excited to go and enjoy all those things that I might pass over when I have the kids on the trip...like drinking a FAB in peace . Can't wait to hear more.
Good for you, taking a "no kids" trip! You not only deserve it but it will be WONDERFUL!! I felt horribly guilty about going without the kids but in the end; they were fine and we had a great time! Have fun planning your get away
Today we were super excited for 2 reasons, 1) We finally get to see what all this Toy Story "insania" is all about and 2) We had tickets to LaNouba!
We were up fairly early as it was morning extra magic hours at DHS and we only had 1/2 day there to accomplish all the things we wanted to. We were at the Studios and through the turnstyles by 8:10 and made our way DIRECTLY toward Pixar Place which was where the main flow of traffic was headed. When we got there, the standby line was already 50 minutes so we took the fastpass (return time was NOON!!) and beat feet.This was a ride we WANTED to ride, just not without a fastpass We decided to hit The Great Movie Ride which was a walk on. I love that ride.
After GMR we headed to Muppet Vision, then took a walk along the Streets of America which were derserted at this time of day.
My husband and i are not into ToT or RnR, we've been on both but just didn't like them (i know, i know) so we skipped that part of the park all together. This does make touring DHS much easier for the 2 of us, our kids would have had other ideas, however.
By about 10ish, we were both wishing we had something to eat so we wound up at Starring Rolls for bagels. Man, that place was so busy! After a pretty long wait, we got our coffee and bagels and were refreshed and ready to go! Our next stop was The Magic of Animation. We really enjoyed this "tour" and spent a long time looking at everything. Someday, we're going to do the "Animation Academy" and make drawings...we really should have done it this time... Anyway, Mickey was at the character greeting spot and we hadn't met him yet on this trip so we needed to go say a quick "HI" to our good pal. We hopped in line. At one point, Mickey needed to go back for a bite of cheese and this man that was in line ahead of us almost lost his mind! He started freaking out about how they'd been waiting, blah, blah....i think he felt very foolish when Mickey returned so quickly
Lots-o-hugs was out too and i just HAD to go see if he really smelled like strawberries (he does!) so we got in line for him too.
We spent some time out by the Sorcerer's Hat meeting characters...we saw Chip and Dale, Donald, Daisy, Pooh and Piglet...lots of characters were out so it was fun to go say "hi" to our friends
It was FINALLY time to go see what Toy Story Mania was all about so we made our way to Pixar Place and got in the fastpass line. We still waited about 40 minutes to ride but HOLY COW!!! I loved that ride! That was really the most fun i'd had on a ride in a long time. Our scores weren't great but it was a blast! Now i see why this is such a popular attraction...we will do that again, just not on this trip. When we got out, the standby line was 100 minutes We decided to stop and meet Buzz...i love me some "spanish Buzz"
By the time we got out of Pixar Place, it was time for our lunch ADR at Sci-Fi. After Sci-Fi we needed to start heading out of the park. We had LaNouba tickets for 6pm so we both wanted to freshen up before heading to DTD.
Ok, lets see, where did i leave off? Oh yes, we headed back to POR to freshen up a bit before heading to DTD for LaNouba. On our way back, we saw the sky-writer was leaving messages so i made DH pull the car over so i could snap a picture of it... Isn't that sweet <3 I couldn't make out what was written below but the plane went on to add the word "God" to "Love", only by that time, the word love was all smeared We had plenty of time to take a walk to Riverside Mills and grab some drinks, we also poked around the gift shop but decided that we could do our shopping in DTD after LaNouba.
We arrived with about a half hour to spare so we went ahead in, grabbed a program, some popcorn and a soda and took our seats. The pre-show with the clowns in really very cute. We had excellent seats in the first row of the upper tier, right next to the sound booth. We had a chance to chat for a few with the sound guy which was cool. We had a group of 3 older ladies sitting behind us who were having so much fun...at one point one of them mades a reference to the movie "Strange Brew" and then we all were feeling a little bit OLD! The show was AMAZING! This was our 3rd time seeing LaNouba and i am enchanted from start to finish each time! There were a few changes in the show with the jugglers replacing the german wheel (which i think i prefered) but the overall feel of the show was the same. Our favorite little diablo girls were amazing and i noticed that many of the performers are the same as our first viewing of LaNouba in 2006. The show seemed shorter to me this time but it was just amazing, i can't wait to go see it again! After the show, we headed out to the car to put away the LaNouba program, our popcorn bucket and drink cup and decided to leave the car there and walk to the other side of DTD. It was a really nice night and we figured it was much easier than trying to fight for another parking spot. DTD was hopping on this night but we managed to stop and look at some shops along the way toward the Marketplace. We stopped into the Harley store so DH could get a Harley Davidson, Orlando t-shirt which he was very happy with. We made it to the Marketplace and it was really getting crowded...we wondered why it was so flipping busy that night...i think there was MNSSHP going on in Magic Kingdom and no Fantasmic! scheduled for that evening so that may have drawn the crowds to DTD. We did see A LOT of young ladies in their 20's that were dressed like they may or may not have required monitary compensation for their time . DH and i both said more than once "my daughter better NEVER dress like THAT!" We did manage to get in some qualiity shopping at WOD and the Christmas Shoppe. After doing some serious shopping, we were ready for some serious food so we wound up at Earl of Sandwich for yummy meatball sammies which were delish! That was a great way to cap off our day...we headed back to the West Side, poked around in a few more shops and headed back to POR. The next day was our last full day in Disney and we had an early ADR at Kona Cafe for some yummy tonga toast. We had a great, fun filled day but we were ready to put up our feet and relax!
Coming up next...more food and wine and a LATE night at Magic Kingdom!
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Last edited by wendybell; 11-16-2010 at 12:36 PM..
Enjoying your report.....Dh and I alternate years taking grandkids/going alone together. We love both kinds of trips and really have learned to enjoy the years that it is just he and I. Glad you and your Dh had a great time....
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still ended up the hit of the safari....
. Can't wait to hear more.
Liz 
We decided to hit The Great Movie Ride which was a walk on. I love that ride. 
We decided to stop and meet Buzz...i love me some "spanish Buzz" 
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