Nineteen nights of MouseFest, Disney and Christmas - THREAD 1 - UPDATED 1/11 - Page 8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Well, we're now back - as you've probably seen from my various posts elsewhere in this forum and on the boards in general. Work has been underway on my trip report even while we've been away and I'm pleased to present the first couple of installments for your delight....
Friday 7 December – part one: “we’re off to Disney tomorrow”
Imagine the scene if you will. It’s early in the morning and I mean really early, like before the alarm goes off at 5.30am. Don’t ask me why, excitement I guess, but I’m awake already. As the alarm does sound for the first time, the first words out of my mouth are “we’re off to Disney tomorrow”. Me, excited? Never!
Fast forward through the last day of work, where it’s fair to sat that they were amazed by how much I had prepared for them for while I was away (let’s just say Disney is the best motivator!) and it was soon the evening and we were ready to start off on our epic journey of Christmas fun at Walt Disney World.
We ran a few last errands and finally we were ready to go. It was a quick run up to Gatwick Airport, where we would be spending the night. We had booked a package with valet parking for while we were away and dinner that night. Once the car was safely left with the valet, we checked into the Hilton and were offered an upgrade to a room in the new section of the hotel for just £10, instead of the usual £25 they charge, so we went for that. The room was certainly impressive, although it was quite a walk from the reception area.
Our room - isn't the walk in shower neat?
We made that walk and dropped off our hand luggage, then headed over to the terminal to check in our cases with Virgin Atlantic. There was no line at all, just how we like it.
Look how quiet it was!
All checked in, it was back to the Hilton to get our free dinner and what a great free dinner it was too! The voucher we had entitled us to a three course meal at the Garden Restaurant, but it turned out that it was a buffet with things like asparagus, smoked salmon and shrimps for appetiser, a choice of chicken, salmon and beef for main course and a wonderful selection of desserts. I really couldn’t fault any of the food that we had and we had a fair bit of it!
Having said that, when we got the bill, I could see why it was so good. By accident, they bought out the bill before applying our dining vouchers and it came to £63! The buffet was something like £25 each! Once the dining vouchers were applied, the bill only came to £10 for our drinks. Now that’s much better and how great that the package saved us more than £50 on dinner alone.
Digging into the buffet dinner The lobby at the Gatwick Hilton
By the time we finished eating, it was coming up for 9.00. We headed back to the room, watching a bit of TV and then it was time for bed.
Saturday 8 December – part one: we’re going to be late leaving
We didn’t have a bad night’s sleep. The bed was comfortable, although apparently my pillows were much better than Mark’s, he told me this morning. How he knew that, I’m not quite sure…. I suspect he might have borrowed mine in the night!
We were quickly up and on our way into the airport. The Hilton is linked to the south terminal where we were flying from by a walkway and it’s probably about a five minute walk from the lobby to the security checks.
The Christmas tree at Gatwick
Because we were flying Premium Economy, as opposed to just ordinary Economy class, we were able to go through fast track security. That was probably worth the price of Premium Economy alone. There were only about six other people in line with us and even then, it probably took us about 10 minutes to get through. They were very thorough, we had to take off any shoes, including tennis shoes and belts and they tested the small amounts of liquids that I had with me (well within the 100ml limit). It’s good to see them paying such careful attention.
As soon as we were through security, we went to find breakfast and ended up at a place I knew from up north, Est Est Est. Mark had a full English breakfast, while I went for some fresh fruit with yoghurt. It seems to be my staple diet on flight days. For some reason, maybe nerves or excitement, I always seem to have a slightly upset stomach whenever we fly and again, I needed to settle it.
The best thing about eating here, apart from the good food, was the view. It overlooks the runway and it was so much fun to sit there and watch the planes take off and land. It’s also frightening when you realise how little space there is between planes here. It’s certainly a busy airport.
The view from our table The restaurant Our food
After finishing our food, we did some shopping and I got either my birthday or Christmas present, I’m not sure which, an i-pod nano, complete with docking station.
The shopping area at the South terminal
Then it was the dreaded wait for our gate to appear and it was soon obvious that there was something very wrong when we were still waiting for that information at 10.55 and our flight was due to depart 20 minutes later. It was clear we were going to be very late leaving and that’s exactly what happened. When we finally got to our gate, we were told there had been a security alert on another Virgin Atlantic flight and that’s why we were delayed. You know it’s bad when they don’t even bother boarding you in order, they just tell you to head for the doors and get on with it. That means they’re desperate to get everyone on the flight as quickly as possible.
Glad you are back home safely....can't wait to hear how everything unfolds.
Your pre-fllight hotel looked quite luxurious. Hope your belly settled, security settled down, and you had a smooth flight over!
danielle
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Pixie Dust
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your new sig picture! I'll be looking forward to reading about your trip to Discovery Cove as one day I hope to take Kiara to it.
Cathy
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