Our Penny Pressing Plans Pre Trip Report - Page 9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Looks like yall are all set to go! Have a great trip! I look forward to reading all about it when you get back!
Thanks. We are pretty much set now. Just really last minute packing and I'm looking forward to writing another report.
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I stress a little driving in the rain too! Good luck on collecting all the pennies at the resorts - that always seems to be the tricky part for me.
Thanks. I'm truthfully not aiming for all the pennies as I think it's a lot of time and effort but Lenny seems to think we can get them all. We'll what happens.
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Plans look great! for good weather!
Thank you.
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I love the inside of the van especially the customs seat covers.
Thanks. And the work twofold. Not only do the protect the seats but also they keep Abby warm when she decides she's cold and wraps it around herself.
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Hunting down all of those pennies will certainly be an adventure. I'm so excited for y'all.
Thanks. And the adventure for me won't necessarily be getting the pennies - it will be seeing portions of the other resorts.
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finding all those pennies!
Thanks. Like I said, I'll be happy with whatever we get. If we get everywhere, great, if not, we can do it the next time.
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Have a great trip.. I wish I were gong with you all. Happy pressed Penny collecting.
Thanks. And no offense, but I tried having a friend come. We all know how that turend out so I'm not in a hurry to repeat the experience.
Saturday August 8th - Drive from home to Hagerstown Maryland. I’d like to be out of the house no later than 7. Usually whenever I say a time, it’s an hour later that we actually leave. This year I’m hoping we can actually leave at 7.
Sunday August 9th - Drive from Hagerstown Maryland to Lorton Virginia for the Auto Train. From here, we’re only about an hour or so from the train station but I’d still like to leave early. Who knows what the traffic will be like around DC even though it’ll be a Sunday morning. At least if we get in early, we have the tv for Abby to watch to waste some time. We’ll also go to the local Subway again for lunch like we did last year.
Monday August 10th - Arrive in Florida hopefully on time (9:30 is the schedule) then drive straight to AS Sports. After check in, we’re thinking of going to Fantasia Gardens for a round of mini golf then on to DTD for some pressed pennies and maybe some souvenir shopping. Hopefully when we’re done here, our room will be ready so I’m thinking of dropping off our bags and by this time it might be time to head to the Contemporary for our 5:30 ADR at CM’s. If it’s not time for dinner, we’ll either swim or go the MK. After dinner we’ll go to the MK to close it out.
Tuesday August 11th - Our MK day with an 11:40 lunch at CP. We’ll spend the day here but right now, I have no idea what is going to happen this night. It is one of the two days Fantasmic is playing. If Abby wants to see it, I’m thinking we need to leave the MK at 5 and head to DHS. We’ve talked about it and Abby says she’d rather stay in the MK and ride the rides that she can’t do at home unlike Fantasmic. At least with that, she can watch whenever she wants at home online at Youtube. But she could always change her mind again. So this is all up in the air and I’ll let everyone know what happens when we get back.
Wednesday August 12th - AK day. We’re going to take it easy today. All we’re going to do is Africa, Planet Watch, FOLK, the parade and of course penny hunting. We have a 6:40 ADR at Trails End Buffet and once there, we’ll play it by ear. We might take a launch over to the MK or we might call it an early night. We might also go to Port Orleans Riverside for some pennies
Thursday August 13th - Epcot day. I’d like to be at the park early today to get something done in FW before our 12:00 lunch at Akershus. After lunch, we either do WS or make our way to the International Gateway to take the launch over to DHS. If we take the launch early in the day, once at DHS we might do TSM or we might turn around and go to the Boardwalk for some pennies. If we take the launch late, and it’s near time for Fantasmic (and if we haven’t seen it yet) we might stay for this. No matter which way we do the launch, we’ll end the night back at Epcot where it’s an evening EMH and where our van will be parked.
Friday August 14th - DHS day. We’ll spend the day here doing whatever and leave about 5ish for our 6:00 CMC clambake dinner. After dinner, we might hit CBR and Pop for some pennies.
Saturday August 15th. We’ll start the morning off with an 8:30 Ohana breakfast and from there, we’d like to rent a boat from the marina. After that, we might head back to AK to do Dinoland including Nemo and Kali (Abby says she wants to ride this year). Since AK closes early during our trip (at 6:00) that night we’ll either do some resort penny hunting and then go back to AS Sports or we might go to the MK for the night.
Sunday August 16th - MK day unless someone changes their mind. Tonight we have a 4:30 ADR at 1900 PF and I expect after we’ll end up back at the MK.
Monday August 17th - Lenny’s birthday. First stop will be guest services to get his Birthday fun card and then he says he wants to go to Mouse Gears at Epcot to spend it. It’s his day so he gets to choose but I’m hoping we’ll spend a good chunk of the day at the MK for Abby. We have a 5:00 dinner at CM again (Lenny’s request) and I’ve ordered one each of the Pirate and Princess cakes. The Princess one as a joke (which I know he’ll give to Abby) and the Pirate one for him. I’ve actually been rethinking this though. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s not a good idea. I don’t know if it will go over so well as I originally thought.
Tuesday August 18th - Pack up and head to Sanford for the Auto Train again. I haven’t decided what time to leave yet. Disney is about an hour from Sanford and check in doesn’t start until 11 or 11:30 so we don’t have to leave super early, but oversized vehicles (like our van) are required to check in no later than 2 pm. I’m thinking we might leave Disney early just to avoid prolonging the inevitable which will put us in Sanford early. By doing that, we should have time to find the local Subway (shouldn’t be too hard - I’ve mapped it out already) and have some lunch (no way will I buy it at the station - it’s all prepackaged stuff and extremely expensive) before we get in line.
Wednesday August 19th - Drive from Lorton Virginia to Scranton Pennsylvania. We’ll take our time this day and whatever amount of time it takes us to get to the hotel is what it takes. In 2006 we had to stop at a rest area so Lenny could take a nap because he was so tired after vacation. If we have to again, we will, if not (and if the train gets in on time) we could be at the hotel by 3 in the afternoon. Yes, it’s early but it will give us a chance to relax before having to drive the remaining distance to home.
Thursday August 20th - Drive to home sweet home. Home should only be about 5 hours away, but depending upon traffic and weather, it could take more time. We probably won’t leave too early this day unless we’re all up and ready to go.
Sounds great. Plenty of options thrown in there, which is always a good thing. But at the same time, it sound like you've got it worked out to see most everything at the parks and quite a few resorts too. Should be a great trip!
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Great job Darlene! You have it all well planned out but with plenty of wiggle room for changes if necessary. Sounds like Abby is going to be adding lots more pennies to her collection. I know she is going to have a fabulous time,
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finding all those pennies! 
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so I'm not in a hurry to repeat the experience.
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