Shhhh ... A Very Merry Surprise! ~ PTR for 11/4 - 11/12 2011 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
I just read your whole PTR so far and it sounds great! I am also from NJ (not too, too far from Edison) and have wanted to make the drive to WDW from NJ. I'm also planning a Nov/Dec trip but for 2012. Sounds like you are on top of everything for your trip!
I am so glad I found this PTR and caught up! You'll be there the same days as we will!! This is our 3rd Jersey Week trip. Although our school doesn't close for the whole week, we still think it's a great time to go and take our boys out for a few days.
Our youngest two are also allergic to peanuts/treenuts, with our youngest having several other allergies as well. We feel so safe eating at Disney and Love the chefs there. We've had some great dining experiences there as well. We'll be eating at CMC the same morning you all are. We've got a really early ressie 7:20am...but then again, all we have to do is roll out of bed and walk downstairs. This is our second time staying at the BC and our second time eating at CMC. We had Great character interaction the last time we were there, I think you'll really like it. Minnie even stopped to do some of the word find with our youngest.
Your resort looks like a LOT of fun!! And I think we're going to try the drive down one of these days. It might sound crazy, but I actually think it might be fun.
Good luck keeping the surprise. I would love to do that one trip for our boys, but we LOVE talking about it and counting down too much.
You HAVE to save room for F&WF food this year!! The offerings are usually so good and small enough that you can sample many of them. And wow, that frozen cosmo sounds delish!! I had my first FAB last time, a Grey Goose slushie...very very good as well.
We'll be headed to our first MVMCP as well, but on Tuesday. I was also glad that Jersey week allowed for a Christmas party this time around. We've done the MNSSHP twice and loved it, and now we're looking forward to this. And one of my "MUST DOS" this trip is Rope Drop at MK too! We've never managed to get there and I would really like to see it.
Sorry to ramble on and on...but I thought it was pretty cool that our trips are so similar. (Aside from all the princess stuff. With 3 boys, you can imagine I don't get a chance to hang with the princesses. )
__________________
Dawn
Last edited by dsteiny23; 06-19-2011 at 06:17 PM..
I just found this and really enjoyed reading it. Your plans sound great! We will be there for the Mickey's Christmas party on November 30. I am looking forward to reading all about your trip.
Sounds like a great MVMCP day, we loved the party, the parade and the fireworks were amazing and the kids loved the dance party and the chracters.
We can't wait!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Congrats!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by tibe
I just read your whole PTR so far and it sounds great! I am also from NJ (not too, too far from Edison) and have wanted to make the drive to WDW from NJ. I'm also planning a Nov/Dec trip but for 2012. Sounds like you are on top of everything for your trip!
I know, I get a little "obsessed" with planning, it's just so much fun The drive from NJ really isn't bad, I actually look forward to it! Congrats on your trip next year, have fun planning!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dlandmom2
Your plans sound great! I'd love to go in early/mid November some day. It sounds like a great time to be there!
November is my favorite time to go now! Low crowds and great weather, you can't ask for more!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ESL teacher
I just found this and really enjoyed reading it. Your plans sound great! We will be there for the Mickey's Christmas party on November 30. I am looking forward to reading all about your trip.
Thanks for reading along! Have a great time on your trip!
I am so glad I found this PTR and caught up! You'll be there the same days as we will!! This is our 3rd Jersey Week trip. Although our school doesn't close for the whole week, we still think it's a great time to go and take our boys out for a few days.
Our youngest two are also allergic to peanuts/treenuts, with our youngest having several other allergies as well. We feel so safe eating at Disney and Love the chefs there. We've had some great dining experiences there as well. We'll be eating at CMC the same morning you all are. We've got a really early ressie 7:20am...but then again, all we have to do is roll out of bed and walk downstairs. This is our second time staying at the BC and our second time eating at CMC. We had Great character interaction the last time we were there, I think you'll really like it. Minnie even stopped to do some of the word find with our youngest.
Your resort looks like a LOT of fun!! And I think we're going to try the drive down one of these days. It might sound crazy, but I actually think it might be fun.
Good luck keeping the surprise. I would love to do that one trip for our boys, but we LOVE talking about it and counting down too much.
You HAVE to save room for F&WF food this year!! The offerings are usually so good and small enough that you can sample many of them. And wow, that frozen cosmo sounds delish!! I had my first FAB last time, a Grey Goose slushie...very very good as well.
We'll be headed to our first MVMCP as well, but on Tuesday. I was also glad that Jersey week allowed for a Christmas party this time around. We've done the MNSSHP twice and loved it, and now we're looking forward to this. And one of my "MUST DOS" this trip is Rope Drop at MK too! We've never managed to get there and I would really like to see it.
Sorry to ramble on and on...but I thought it was pretty cool that our trips are so similar. (Aside from all the princess stuff. With 3 boys, you can imagine I don't get a chance to hang with the princesses. )
Be sure to say hi if you see us! We'll probably miss you at CMC, our ressie isn't until 8:45 I've never been to the Beach Club, and I'm looking forward to checking things out over there. I've heard great things about it, and it's definitely on my list of Disney hotels that I'd like to stay at one day. Our resort is a lot of fun, but it would still be nice to stay on property in the "bubble". Someday, I suppose
Keep your fingers crossed that I can keep the surprise! I'm surprised that I've made it this far, I'm like you, talking about it and counting down are so much fun! The few people that do know about this trip are probably so tired of hearing about it from me Writing this PTR is helping though, I get to vent my excitement with everyone here!
On Thursday (11/10) we plan on visiting the studios, and after reading another post today I am so happy I chose this day! There was some talk on the boards not too long ago about the Osbourne Lights, and how they were going to start later this year than they did in 2010. I was dissapointed about that, but happy to see today that they will actually be starting on the 10th this year! Perfect timing!
I plan on getting to DHS early for Rope Drop, so that we can head first towards TSMM (along with everyone else ) to make sure we get a ride in. I'm hoping now that Star Tours is open, maybe the craziness around TSMM might die down, but it doesn't seem like it has so far from what I've read. We'll just have to wait and see. After that, not much is planned. Oldest DD LOVES to draw, so I'm sure we'll get to the Animation Academy at least once on this day, if not more! Some other favorites we'll need to check out are Playhouse Disney Live on Stage, The Voyage of the Little Mermaid and the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area. We've never seen the Beauty and the Beast show, so I'm hoping to fit that one in too, and also the new Phineas and Ferb meet and greet. Of course, like I said before, the Osbourne Lights are definitely on the list!
Oh, remember when I said that I may be adding an ADR to our trip? Well, I did, for this day at HS. Originally I had planned on CS for lunch, but after reading some negative posts about HS CS and really not finding anything particularly intersting on the menus, I decided against it. We had lunch at the 50s PTC last year and had a fabulous time, but I thought we'd try something different this year. So, Sci Fi Dine in Theater here we come!
And now, we've come to the end of our trip. Friday will be our last full day, we'll be leaving early on Saturday morning to start our 17.5 hour trek back to Jersey . Inevitably, at some point on this day I'm sure that the Disney "depression" will start to set in knowing that we are at the end of another trip. I'll drown my sorrows in a Mickey Bar or two, and I'm sure that the wheels will start spinning to get another trip in the works! OK, who am I kidding, I've already got another one going in the back of my mind, and I'm not even done with the PTR I've got Disney on the brain, and looks like there's no cure!
So, anyway, as usual I have left our last day open so that we can revisit some favorite attractions or get to those that we might have missed along the way. Most of the time we end up at the MK or Epcot on our last day, and I'm thinking that this will still be the case for this trip as well.
Thank you everyone for reading along with all of my plans so far! I've had a lot of fun writing this, and it has helped me get through some of those days where I really want to spill the beans of my surprise to DDs
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
This is our second time staying at the BC and our second time eating at CMC. We had Great character interaction the last time we were there, I think you'll really like it. Minnie even stopped to do some of the word find with our youngest. 
(Aside from all the princess stuff. With 3 boys, you can imagine I don't get a chance to hang with the princesses. 
)
I've never been to the Beach Club, and I'm looking forward to checking things out over there. I've heard great things about it, and it's definitely on my list of Disney hotels that I'd like to stay at one day. Our resort is a lot of fun, but it would still be nice to stay on property in the "bubble". Someday, I suppose 
Writing this PTR is helping though, I get to vent my excitement with everyone here! 
I've got Disney on the brain, and looks like there's no cure!
Linear Mode
