Today's Special Moments are Tomorrow's Memories - A September 2014 PTR - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Thank you, thank you! I get hungry just looking back over them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilsEagles08
I LOVE the spreadsheet!! Your really working that park hopper this year! Besides transferring are you planning on hitting up DTD on the 13th?
Thanks! DH said he wanted to try park hoppers so I'm trying to get the most out of them that I can. I'm already thinking we won't get them on our next trip; whenever that might be. We hadn't planned on a trip to DTD since we don't have any special "need" to shop there, but if we get the itch, we can always sneak over on one of our pool days.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Great dining plans!
Thanks!
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Originally Posted by OhToodles!
Great dining choices! And I LOVE the spreadsheet! I live for mine!
Thank you! I'm not sure I could live without this spreadsheet either...it definitely helps me sort everything out that's overly excited in my head.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great plans!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by kingfamily1129
your plans and dining look great! Sorry you trekked all the way to work just to go home... bummer! But I'm glad you got everything you wanted!
Thank you! Yeah, my heart broke; particularly because I really wanted to be able to snag a dinner reservation at Be Our Guest for our only MK day. Thank goodness everything worked out ok!
Quote:
Originally Posted by stardust190
Sounds like some great ADRs. And I love the spreadsheet. I make them too and my DH always just rolls his eyes at me. It's nice to come here and have my OCD validated!
Thanks! DH gives me a sarcastic-type look when I pull mine out too...glad to know I'm in good company!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great job with all your work on the ADRs!
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Timon-HakunaMatata
I love all the resorts, however, that being said, I don't know if you can beat the pool at the BCV with a quick walk to the BW at night, and EPCOT a quick walk around the corner. In reality, I think that is the best place for entertainment value in one location. I would add the BWV, but they can't swim in the BCV pool. Side note.....the pool at the BCV's is the only pool to have to be licensed as a 'water park' that isn't a full on water park in Florida. So now you know!
We are there the same dates, minus us leaving on Friday morning to go to Vero Beach for the day and night. I will be curious to see if my family wants to do half a day at the parks both days. If so we won't go back. lol.
We are doing the Halloween party Sunday night, might do it again another night too. parade is great, special fireworks for the party which is cool....celebrates the villans. Plus the ride lines are pretty much non-existant. We did it two years ago and my girls loved it. Maddie loved the dance party in the Silver Saloon? Think that was the name. Diamond maybe. She had lots of fun with Daddy dancing. I cant hold her anymore though!
EPCOT is fun. You will miss the food and wine festival, which is food a palooza in booths. As it is, there is so much to eat at the world showcases, it is amazing. Check out the 360 shows at China and Canada. Rest in the hidden garden with the hedge maze behind the UK section.
Akershus is the best character meal IMO. Breakfast is great, they have a buffet which...well, meats and cheeses and Danishes is about it for me. But they bring a plate of cheesy potatoes, sausage and bacon that is huge. And if you want more, they bring more! Bacon palooza~! Hannah will LOVE the Princess Parades (every 15 minutes or so).
Cape May was ok for me, normal breakfast buffet, but both my girls want to go back, so..there is that.
Brown Derby is really nice without being dressy or pretentious I thought. Get the sliders! I don't have my wifes meal schedule off of her computer, but you have many of the same meal places as us. I want the HDDR, but she isn't quite as keen on it as I am.
Hope Tommy is feeling good. We are getting close to going! We will be doing the 7 am flight out this time again. I like being able to do a park the day we get there, as do my girls, so we give up sleep. We also sleep in the next morning! No rope droppers for us!
The pool was a huge factor in our decision for lodging. It doesn't surprise me that this one needs a water park permit...it looks like so much fun! DH and DD are already excited about the slide!
This is our first experience with MNSSHP and we are very excited. Everyone's reviews and tips just fuel that excitement even more so! Do any of our plans seem to match up? Maybe we will bump into each other!
Food and Wine Festival is definitely on my Disney World bucket list. I'm thinking maybe an adults only trip where we can spend more time in Epcot. DD is not a very adventurous eater.
We ate dinner at CRT last year and had somewhat of a poor experience right from the start. I'm hoping Akershus can fix all of that so we continue to have a "princess" meal for DD to continue with. From what I hear, we shouldn't be disappointed. I'm looking forward to walking through World Showcase before it officially opens to get some great pictures of the countries we pass without too many people in them.
Since we are still newbies to the World, rope drop still appeals to us until we can get a better idea of what attractions/shows are the favorites and we can manage our time a little better.
Thanks for your support and well wishes for DH. His progress is slow, but still progress.
Quote:
Originally Posted by patclairesmom
Jumping onboard. As everyone has said, you do certainly need this trip. Great choices in ADRs. We love Flying Fish also, especially the steak. Continued prayers for you DH.
Thank you so much! Flying Fish REALLY stuck out for all of my family members. DD even liked the cesar salad! This might end up being our "tradition" meal. Thank you for the continued prayers too!
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Winds from the East, Change Coming In…Like Somethin’ is Brewin’ and Bout to Begin
Winds from the East, Change Coming In…Like Somethin’ is Brewin’ and Bout to Begin
It happened…GASP! I never thought the day would come when I would have to make changes to the plans, but it did. However, in a stroke of pure genius thanks to DM, we actually made our plans better! We did have some unfortunate casualties, but we grieved and are ready to move on.
Yesterday, DM emailed me with an observation she made that hit me like a “duh” moment. I was so very proud of her. Why waste one of our days on our Park Hopper going to the Magic Kingdom during the day on Tuesday when we can get in at 4pm for MNSSHP and still get 8 hours of park time? Then we can save our regular park ticket, go back to Magic Kingdom on our previously planned pool day on Friday, and get 5 days in the parks instead of just 4 days thanks to our party ticket! I gave DM an A+ in Disney trip planning training yesterday. Job well done! HELLO!!! We just gained an extra park day without the expense!!! FAN-FLIPPIN’-TASTIC!
Next, I had a challenge on my hands-can I move our Cape May Café reservation from Friday morning to Tuesday morning AND can I replicate our FastPasses from Tuesday to Friday? As it turned out, a 7:45am reservation at Cape May Café on Tuesday was out of the question if we were going to relax that morning in preparation for a late night at MK. I was; however, able to get a 10:25am reservation on Monday morning, another pool day. This meant we had to kiss Beaches and Cream goodbye. There was nothing else available the rest of the week to move our Beaches and Cream reservation to that would work with our plans. It’s okay though; I wanted to keep the character breakfast at Cape May Café more than Beaches and Cream, so I added our loss to my bucket list for another trip back to the World.
As long as our Be Our Guest reservation for Tuesday at 4:15pm is safe, we should be good. I hear they always let party guests in with their tickets at 4pm so I think it will be okay. I will discuss the FastPass+ changes in the next post. The changes affected the following days:
Monday, September 15, 2014-Pool Day Brunch – Cape May Café – 10:25am Dinner – Hoop Dee Doo Revue – 4pm
Tuesday, September 16, 2014-Pool Day/Magic Kingdom/MNSSHP Brunch – Quick Service at Resort Dinner – Be Our Guest – 4:15pm
Friday, September 19, 2014-Magic Kingdom Breakfast – Use Snack Credits Lunch – Quick Service at Magic Kingdom Dinner – Yachtsmen Steakhouse – 6:55pm
Up Next (FINALLY): FastPass+ is a Planner’s Best Friend!
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About This Page: 
bummer! But I'm glad you got everything you wanted! 
Kristin
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Thank
Pixie Dust
Is that what I think it is? Yep, it's gotta be it! Changes in the air...can you smell it? Changes are coming!!
Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
Liz 
I never thought the day would come when I would have to make changes to the plans, but it did. However, in a stroke of pure genius thanks to DM, we actually made our plans better! We did have some unfortunate casualties, 
but we grieved and are ready to move on.
I was so very proud of her. Why waste one of our days on our Park Hopper going to the Magic Kingdom during the day on Tuesday when we can get in at 4pm for MNSSHP and still get 8 hours of park time? Then we can save our regular park ticket, go back to Magic Kingdom on our previously planned pool day on Friday, and get 5 days in the parks instead of just 4 days thanks to our party ticket! I gave DM an A+ in Disney trip planning training yesterday. 
Job well done! HELLO!!! We just gained an extra park day without the expense!!! FAN-FLIPPIN’-TASTIC! 
There was nothing else available the rest of the week to move our Beaches and Cream reservation to that would work with our plans. It’s okay though; I wanted to keep the character breakfast at Cape May Café more than Beaches and Cream, so I added our loss to my bucket list for another trip back to the World.
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