Oh the Places We Go, The People We See Updated 11/03/2013 - Page 49 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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sorry about the melt downs - toddles overdrive it sound like
Yes, we pushed her hard for a week, so I guess it was time for a full blown tantrum of some sort. Glad I wasn't there. LOL
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Aww poor Abby! But I had to laugh at her "possesed" picture and her talking to Mickey before eating the popcorn.
I am glad it didn't scare the others too much. They mostly laughed about it after. But they said it was pretty bad for a few minutes there. And the thing was, they had no clue what she wanted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Funny Abby story, especially about her talking to Mickey before eating the popcorn.
She's a stinker. I still ask her at times if she still talks to her Mickey popcorn and she looks at me like I am crazy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I love the Abby story, but I have to confess I adore the photos of Dumbo at night - so stunning!
Dumbo is so pretty at night. One of these days i will bring my tripod to the park and try for a neat, colorful blurred picture of it going around.
Some of you have made it there already, but I have started my Williamsburg, VA trip report and would like to invite you all to come over and join. It will be a bit5 slow going as I am going to keep working my way through this one too and I don't always have enough time to do 2 at the same time, but I was feeling antsy to start it.
I forgot to post this, but I think after Gail left we took these photopass pictures as well.
We decided it was time to call Skip before it got too late. It was still massively crowded and I was starting to feel achy again and I just needed a rest. We went in search of a peaceful spot.
We found a spot and sat on the steps. We gave Skip a call. It was really magical sitting there. The view of the castle was amazing and the Main Street Electrical Parade was going by as well. We described the castle to Skip, but he just didn’t get it. After we got done talking to him we just sat there for a long time.
I was really starting to drag now. I was feeling achier, my throat was feeling sore and I just wasn’t sure how much longer I could make it. It was extra magical hours now and I REALLY wanted to take advantage of it, but the crowds didn’t seem to be going down at all. I then made a decision that I regret still. We decided to leave. Claire was OK with it, but I just hated doing it. I have heard that if I waited about 30 -60 minutes it did clear out quite a bit, but at the time it didn’t look like it would.
We headed towards the front then around 11:40.
We decided to duck into a few stores.
In just a weeks’ time the store was totally transformed from Halloween décor to Christmas.
Good bye Magic Kingdom! We WILL be back to see more of you in the next few days!
If memory serves me well, we didn’t have much of an issue with getting a bus. I do remember it being full, but we had seats. It felt like a very long ride back. There was a race going on and traffic was heavy because of this. We did see many runners as we drove on.
We made it back to the Beach Club and made the trek to our room. We could hear music blaring and lots of crowds. I assumed the race must be starting in Epcot. We got settled into bed and even in our room we could still hear music blaring and loud crowds cheering. AND an announcer who NEVER shut up. I went to check our sliding door, as I swore it had to be open for as loud as it was, but nope, the door was shut tightly. I even double checked it later because it was just so loud. I was NOT happy about this. Had I known this, I would’ve stayed at MK. There was no sleep to be had with all this loud noise. My Mom even grumbled about it and said it had been going on for quite some time. I don’t know what time I finally fell asleep, but I can tell you it took a long time and I was just not in a good mood. I had never heard of this being an issue before, but I now know if I go during a race time, to be sure not to stay anywhere near where the race is being held.
All in all it was a good day. I wasn’t feeling 100%, but I still accomplished a lot. We had visited 2 parks and had a wonderful ice-cream lunch ….Oh the Places We Go. We met up once again with Carey and her family. Oh the People We See.
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Very strange about the music and noise so late at nigh, you think they would have told you when you made the reservation. I hope you are felling better in the morning.
I lost internet last Friday and it wasn't fixed today. I have been having major withdrawals. My only link to the outside world has mostly been my phone. I did get to my Moms a couple of times to do work off her internet, but working off my craptop isn't as nice as my desktop!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
Very strange about the music and noise so late at nigh, you think they would have told you when you made the reservation. I hope you are felling better in the morning.
It was so annoying. I will definetely look into it further in the future if I go during a race weekend.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
I really love WDW at Christmas. Your pix are very nice. Sorry about the possessed child. She is so cute.
It is such a wonderful time to go. So many neat things to see.
Well except the possessed children.....
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
You certainly packed a lot into that day.
We did a lot this trip. I had a lot more time than I usually do, but it still seemed like I never had enough time.
While the internet was out, I had extra time on my hands so I edited many non vacation pictures that were piling up. (I also did quite a few vacation pictures as well) I thought I would share my fireworks shots. These are just the ones we did at my parents house. It's hard for me to get them framed just right, because basically I would have to stand in the cornfield next to the house to be far enough back to catch it all. So with knowledge that I am not willing to do that and this is just for fun and practice, this is what i took.
Rise and Shine! I don’t remember how early I got up, but I know it was early. My Mom was up and about early too as they had to be packed and ready to head our fairly early as well. We discussed the whole snack credit issue and she said they rarely used them, so she was not sure why I had none left. She said they never could figure out half the time how to use the plan and paid out of pocket half the time. She also said they had more charged to the room and gave me some money. I went down to sort it all out. The charges were already applied to my card ….isn’t that nice. But they did allow me to pay it off in cash and credit my card back. I asked about the whole credit issue and she said they had some system glitches the day before and she wasn’t aware of what, but maybe that was the problem. She printed up my credits left. Holy Cow! I had SEVERAL snack credits now showing. And clearly when I bought the pretzel yesterday it didn’t take that credit off. I asked about it, and she told me not to worry. We also had several counter service credits to use up before midnight today as well. Oh gosh. We were going to be eating a lot today!
I then gathered the bags I had packed and took them to the van and drove over to Art of Animation. That was going to be our next resort stay. I figured it would be easier to get checked in and take as much of our stuff over first thing while I still had access to the van.
Claire was very excited to be staying in a Little Mermaid room at the AoA. Back in the Spring when I decided to extend my stay longer I really debated this. At first it was a no brainer, it would be Pop Century in a preferred Pool view room. Then I saw some preview pictures of AoA and it got me thinking. I still debated and it was also announced that the Little Mermaid rooms would be opening earlier than planned. When it came down to it, I just really wanted to check it out and also be in a brand new resort. I decided to book it and even decided I would stay there, even if there wasn’t a discount. Luckily my wonderful friend Carey got a pin code for free dining and it included the Little Mermaid rooms as the time. I booked my room attached to her pin as well and was able to get free dining for this portion of the trip. I also decided to try out something else new …deluxe dining. I did the fuzzy math beforehand and I figured it would come out to close to the same amount as what I would pay for with regular dining. Well actually when applied it was even less, so I was a happy camper.
I proceeded over to AoA to get us checked in and drop off some of our bags. I texted Carey to let her know I was on my way as well. She had texted me the day before and told me they would give us their light up necklaces they had used during the Christmas party, so we planned to meet up one last time and I could get those and say good bye as well because she was heading home today.
I swore I took pictures of the lobby when I checked in, but if I did they have disappeared because I can’t find them. I thought I brought along my point and shoot, and maybe I did and just didn’t take any pictures. I got myself checked in. Of course our room wasn’t ready but they promised to text me when it was. I let them know that I had little faith in that as this was my 3rd Disney resort and not one had texted me yet. They even gave me a card I could use to call in and check…Yep I lost that in some very secret safe place. LOL. They were having a bit of an issue with my tickets and I told them I had picked them up already. Well they played around and told me they now were attached to my new KTTW card. Ok then, that’s nice to have. I then made my way over to meet up with Carey. Carey was in the LM section as well and she said she was about as far back as you could get. They originally had a closer room but when they went inside it just had a king bed, which wouldn’t work for the 3 of them, so they were moved. Kadence was in tow and a little disappointed that Claire wasn’t with me. I let her know she missed her, but I had to let her sleep in a bit as we have been so busy. We chatted a bit and Carey gave me the lay of the land. It was really neat to see the resort in person and I planned to tour around later in the day.
We said our final good byes and I headed back to the Beach Club. Mom and Dad were ready to leave and I got Claire up and going as well. Today was our Downtown Disney day, with plans to go to DHS later in the day to see the Osborne Lights. Well I decided that today was also going to be nap day. We had been going strong for over a week now and we really needed to have a little bit of mid-day rest. After my parents left, we finished up with our packing and checking the room and had the rest of our luggage picked up to be transferred to AoA. We then headed out. I think we started our way to the bus stop around 9:40ish. Of course we had to make a stop and get a few pictures.
And off to the bus stop.
We had the bad bus mojo again and waited quite a long time for a bus. I think at least 20 minutes.
I took this picture from the bus stop, but I am not even sure what I was trying to get.
And a bush nearby.
Claire and I discussed our bad bus mojo and finally one came and we headed off. I was excited to see the Décor all around here as well and I took several pictures of it.
We had to get a fun pose. I don’t think we ever took this shot before.
I submitted this next picture in a contest around Christmas time and it won! I won a Disney gift card.
I didn’t even know there was such a thing as the perfectly princess birthday party.
We had some shopping to take care of. Nothing special, but we still had to shop.
We did a lot of browsing. I don’t think we actually bought anything. There we several shirts I liked, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay the Disney prices for them.
I eyed the Dooney’s too. I REALLY liked the retro style pattern, but I wasn’t finding a style of purse I liked with that pattern.
After looking around some more I kept going back to the Dooney’s. I asked if another shop in DTD sold them as well and I was directed to Trend D I believe. I really wanted one and my excuse to get one was to make up for all the bad bus mojo I had had during the stay so far. Surely a new Disney Dooney would make me feel better, right?
We headed over and YES! I found a style I liked. I was so excited. I snatched it up. I think the lady was surprised at how easy the sale was. She went to grab another so I could look at placement (her suggestion, not mine) and I paid with my Disney Visa and got 10% off too! I was on a high leaving that store. Claire was even excited because she saw how excited I was as well and I guess it was contagious.