PTR: Holiday trip for 3? Err, 5? Wait… 9?? Oh, 7..ish? - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
yay that things are starting to work out And isn't peer pressure great
Sometimes it is, anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Congrats at all Disney days! Good luck with the APs!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Congrats on getting all 6 days at WDW! on deciding about APs!
Quote:
Originally Posted by OCEANGRLLG
Good luck with your AP's!
Thanks to all of you on that! I love the idea of Annual Passes, I'm just a little squeamish on the cost difference right now. I know that we can make use of them again and make it worth the cost, but since we are paying for an extra adult ticket this time, I'm not sure about it. I'm sure there will be more discussion on it. More to come in my next post, that's for sure.
I am really excited that we'll just be doing Disney stuff the entire time, though. I'm happy to stay in my element.
__________________
Disney World Trips So Far: 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015a, 2015b, 2016a (2016b in planning)
Lia has officially (for now anyway) given the go ahead on planning for her being part of the trip. I've warned MIL that if she changes her mind after we buy the tickets for MVMCP that it will be her Christmas gift regardless. I can't save that ticket to use at a later date, after all. Lia swears she's positive though, so I guess we'll just wait and see.
A few changes:
I've made a few adjustments to our plans/schedule, let's see if I can remember everything. Hmm... I'll do it by day and I'm sure I'll get it.
Friday & Saturday: Currently no change. We'll still be driving partway Friday and stopping for the night, then driving the rest of the way Saturday. Downtown Disney early in the day before checking in and getting settled at our condo. Possible change here? Since we can't use the 6 months no interest deal with us staying off property and just buying tickets, Ken wondered if we could drive all the way, stay at a value resort on Friday night, and buy more than 2 days of tickets though we'd only be staying one day. I don't know if that would count or not toward the 6 months no interest thing. It isn't that we can't pay for it all at once, but that's the downside of not staying on property and booking ahead of time, it makes it a little easier to stomach seeing the money go when you do it a little at a time (without interest is the only way we would do that, though). Since we're going right before Christmas, it would be nice to buy the tickets now either way, so we don't have that big chunk coming out at the same time as Christmas gifts. Anyone know if this is possible? Moreso, what if it was one night and APs?
-------------------------------------
Sunday:, we're definitely going to do Epcot (day 1 of 2) now that Universal is out of the picture. Ken and I love it, Joc likes it just fine, and we haven't spent as much time there the past couple of trips as we would like. Joc doesn't care all that much for exploring the World Showcase, but she loves doing the passport and kidcot stations. We just switch off between the two of us, one can shop while the other stays with her. As long as she can ride Nemo and Test Track both days we're there, she'll be happy. I thought about adding another ADR here, but I don't know. I think it would be good to just take our first day at a relaxed pace.
-------------------------------------
Monday: Still doing Magic Kingdom this day with pre-opening Crystal Palace breakfast. No changes there.
-------------------------------------
Tuesday: No changes, Animal Kingdom and MVMCP.
-------------------------------------
Wednesday: Epcot Center Day 2. Currently, I have a 3 person reservation for Garden Grill. We've never eaten there before, and I've always wanted to give it a try. I'm considering losing that one and trying for Garden Grove again instead. We've eaten there once before and we loved the food. In posting about it on another thread here it got me thinking about how much I'd liked it, plus someone mentioned the restaurant.com certificate for use there. The funny thing is that I had a certificate for a $10 for $25 certificate for a local restaurant that closed down, and I'd gotten it for $2 when they did an 80% off special. Since that one closed, the credited my account, so I could use it for that. It would save $23 on it altogether, and since we'll have seen illuminations on Sunday, it would be ok to leave the park early. Hmmmm... or maybe I should do this on Sunday so we can leave early, eat, and get back to the resort for an early bedtime. Then, we could stay and watch illuminations on Wednesday. I'll consult my calendar and the magical dining reservations fairies and get back to you.
-------------------------------------
Thursday: Hollywood Studios day with a couple of changes. After looking at the menu (again) for Mama Melrose's lunch, I decided that it probably wasn't the best choice. I cancelled that reservation and made a new one at 50's Prime Time. Hopefully, everyone likes this one. I hear the food is pretty yummy! Also, I made the really tough decision and cancelled our dinner for two at Victoria and Albert's. I just keep thinking that it's over $300 for the two of us to eat dinner, plus both of us would need to buy something to wear (Ken's suit was ruined in Katrina and he never got a new one, and I haven't bought any nice dresses in a while!) which hikes the price up even more. I figure that's $300 we could put toward those APs, or if not, toward other things.
------------------------------------- Friday: Same plans, no changes, Magic Kingdom.
------------------------------------- Saturday: Same plans. Check out, Downtown Disney, head in the general direction of home.
__________________
Disney World Trips So Far: 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015a, 2015b, 2016a (2016b in planning)
Good to know about the restaurant.com for Garden Grove. I'm staying at the Dolphin and was curious about it for breakfast. Have you enjoyed bfast there or just dinner?
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
When you're done with them, send 'em my way I need some help with my trip!
Sure thing!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jennie622
Good to know about the restaurant.com for Garden Grove. I'm staying at the Dolphin and was curious about it for breakfast. Have you enjoyed bfast there or just dinner?
We've only done dinner there, sorry I can't help!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lazanya
Even with the changes, you still have great plans!
I'm sure there will be more changes before we go, but that's ok. It means I have something to keep me busy between now and then.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Changes look good!
Thanks
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great plans!
Thanks
__________________
Disney World Trips So Far: 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015a, 2015b, 2016a (2016b in planning)
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
And isn't peer pressure great 
Good luck with the APs!
on deciding about APs!
I'll consult my calendar and the magical dining reservations fairies and get back to you. 
NEW: 
(Miss Molly)
Linear Mode
