Dreaming of a Disney spring break - part three COMPLETED - Page 76 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Oh I'm sorry this is ending--it was a great trip--especially since I actually got to come along for part of it! Is there are PTR for the West Coast/Cruise yet? Your garden was in wonderful bloom when you got home!
Oh I'm sorry this is ending--it was a great trip--especially since I actually got to come along for part of it! Is there are PTR for the West Coast/Cruise yet? Your garden was in wonderful bloom when you got home!
It’s always so hard to sum up final thoughts from our trips when they’re as long as this! In total, we had 17 nights of Disney fun – 14 of that on dry land and three on the water. Despite that, we didn’t get “Disneyed out” as we have on previous vacations and a lot of that probably had much to do with the weather.
This was the first major obstacle that this vacation presented to us. We’d deliberately picked April, as I’d found early May to be really hot, too hot for me, when I went on the Decade of Dreams tour a couple of years ago. So, April should be fine and not too hot, right? Wrong! They had record breaking temperatures almost the whole time we were there and there was barely a day not into the 90s, which is not what we needed.
That impacted severely on our touring plans. Instead of touring until maybe the mid to late afternoon and then having a couple of hours break, we found ourselves heading back to our lovely air conditioned rooms much earlier in the day for far longer breaks, which left us with far less time to tour the parks that I’d originally thought we’d have. As a result, it became a nightmare trying to get round them all.
Never before have we spent a full week in Disney and managed not to touch two parks, but we did it this time. In total, I think we only spent about three or four hours at the Studios and, while that was enough to hit a few top attractions that we wanted to see, it certainly wasn’t enough to do it justice.
We knew that the crowds would be bad during our stay, but to be honest, at the start, they weren’t as bad as we’d expected. By the time we got back from the cruise, things had changed and the parks were besieged, about as badly as they are at Christmas time. It was what I’d figured, but what I wasn’t prepared for was to add the heat into the crowds, which made things harder to handle. Something else we hadn’t figured on was being able to explore the Magic Kingdom on Easter Sunday and that was a very pleasant surprise.
We certainly did some resort hopping on this trip, perhaps a little too much and as Mark commented on many occasions, it wasn’t planned to the best advantage. We’ve agreed now that, in the future, if we stay at Bay Lake Tower, we should spend our time at the Magic Kingdom, if we’re at the Beach Club Villas, then we need to go for the Studios and Epcot and so on.
Sadly, it was too hot to take advantage of any of the swimming pools at any of the resorts we stayed at, which was a shame, but overall we enjoyed our stays at all of them. Of course, the Beach Club Villas remain our favourite and always will, but the Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas are a close second, and especially the wonderfully decadent concierge level. I could so stay there again in the future, if we get the chance!
Bay Lake Tower is probably now our third favourite DVC resort and I really enjoyed the view we had of Bay Lake. We could see so much from there, from resorts to parks, and it was a great location. What a shame that we couldn’t say that for the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge. Maybe if we’d had a better located room, we’d have enjoyed our stay there more, but I think it’ll be a while before we return again...
Now for the Dream – well, what can we say about it? We loved it so much that we ended up booking for the Fantasy for December 2012. I think that says it all! Our inside stateroom wasn’t great and I was disappointed with the virtual porthole. I thought we’d see more characters and more often, which is why we’re going with a veranda for our next cruise.
Where it excelled was in adding so much, compared to the Magic and the Wonder. Real stand-outs for me were the Rainforest (I cannot now imagine a Rainforest not having a view outside : ) and Animator’s Palette, with its superb show that captivated Ciaran so much. Of course, I can’t go any further without saying a word about Remy. Oh my goodness, one of the best meals of my life – ever. Simple as that. If you can afford to go there, then you need to....
As for the food on land at Disney, generally, with a couple of exceptions (Cape May Cafe and Le Cellier are ones that instantly spring to mind), the food was good. The service was up and down, although picked up towards the end of our vacation thank goodness, as we were beginning to feel that the level of service had nosedived considerably.
We tried out a couple of new places, Tokyo Dining and Via Napoli, both of which were excellent and that I’m sure we’ll return to. There were others, like Fulton’s Crab House and the Coral Reef, that we hadn’t been to in many, many years and they surprised us with the quality they provided us with, so they’re possibles for the future.
Once again, the Deluxe Dining Plan proved to be worthwhile for us to do, although we were glad that it was only for a couple of nights. Placing it around the beginning and end of the cruise was not the best idea either, as we ended up with about a week of just stuffing our faces!
This vacation was once again about catching up with old friends and, this time, unusually, some were from the States and some were from the UK. We know that Sean, Sharon and Ciaran loved their stay, even if Ciaran did have some issues with dark rides. Once we could get him on to something, he didn’t want to come off and that proved to be the case with the Dream as well!
It was so good to see Heather again and to meet Brandon and I just wish that some of our meals could’ve had better service and/or better food. Our time with Marie was far too short. We must try and do better next time! The same can be said of Larry and Bob, but we were just delighted to see them both again. They’re both such great people and we’d love to see them again next time we’re back in WDW again.
We also had some wonderful meals with Elaine and Keith and Bruce and Marta, all old friends and it was wonderful to see them all again. We loved meeting up with Gemma and David and hopefully we’ll be able to see them again the next time we go up to see my parents, as they’re such great people.
For me, the highlight was being able to spend so much time with Wendy and Ben and to finally meet their family. It’s so funny how, having heard so much about each of them, none of the kids were what I expected. Where was the non-stop chatter I’d previously heard on the phone from Gabby for example? Our time with them was too short, but at least I’d manage to persuade them to stay an extra day, which we put to good use.
It was a wonderful, wonderful vacation and I’m so glad that we had so long in Florida and were able to do so much more than usual – SeaWorld, Kennedy Space Center (for the guys), shopping and spa treatments (for the girls), golf, the Sunrise Safari, the list just goes on! I guess, despite the heat, we still did pretty well in cramming lots into an action packed 17 night stay....
Next time we head to WDW, it probably won’t be for as long, not with a seven-night Fantasy cruise in the middle of it, but it makes a pleasant change to be able to enjoy so long there. I know we’re very fortunate to be able to do that and we certainly had the most magical of times.
Next: it’s off on our next adventure! The pre-trip report for our upcoming trip will begin TOMORROW! I’ll post a link in here when I start it...
It was so wonderful to get to spend more Disney time with you guys! Both of us really enjoyed spending time with you and Mark, as well as Wendy and her fam and Sharon, Sean, and Ciaran. We can't wait to spend more Disney time with you guys! I'm hoping that we can do the Fantasy with you guys and I'm really looking forward to Tokyo! I hope that your upcoming tour of the West Coast is awesome. I'm taking my first trip to DL in December--and I'm very excited for it. I cannot wait to see all of the things that DL has that WDW doesn't. I now you are down to about 10 days for your West Coast trip. I'm excited for you!
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: you can't at all! 
it is - I try not to think about it being a lot, but I will admit it is... 
They had record breaking temperatures almost the whole time we were there and there was barely a day not into the 90s, which is not what we needed. 
If you can afford to go there, then you need to.... 
Bravo! Thank you for taking me along on your trip (report)! Hopefully, I will be able to meet you both in the future.
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