September 14-22 Trip Report **Updated 10/11** - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Cast: Me (Karla) 38(18 trips) Loves Disney. I could be in the park from opening to close, I never tire of Disney or planning for Disney
DH (Sonny)(8 trips) 40 Sometimes he loves Disney, sometimes he doesn't. He is like the random ride selection on TOT, you never know what you're gonna get! To borrow a quote from Stacey.
DS (Eli)(10 trips) 7 Laid back and loves whatever he is doing
DS (Luke)(10 trips) 7 Loves Disney, wishes the rides were longer
DD (Kaci)(2 trips) 13 months, Loves any place she is at
DM (Karen) 63 Loves Disney it's always pretty easy to talk her into a trip.
DFriends Steve (39) and Sandi(36)
Dates: September 14-22, 2007
Resort: All Star Movies (preferred room). This will probably be the last time we stay in an All Star Resort. There was nothing terrible about it, we were just over it. I will give more details in the trip report.
Why are we going? I NEVER need a reason, it's Disney, My personal "Happy" place. Bonus, it's fall and free dining!
I never got around to a pre-trip report, but as you will see below, it was very busy before we left. I am suffering terribly from POST DISNEY BLUES ! I am hoping this trip report will help.
Reasons we thought we might have to postpone:
On July 7, my DM had to have back surgery. She had a ruptured disc that had fractured off and a couple of pieces were pressing on her sciatic nerve. She was in so much pain that she woke up feeling much better after surgery, but we weren't sure if she should tackle Disney. THEN, three weeks before we leave her knee starts hurting, she goes for an MRI only to find out she has a torn meniscus in her right knee. She had surgery TWO WEEKS before we left. We knew she would have to ride in a wheel chair, but we made the decision just to deal with it.
The day my DM had surgery on her knee the stomach bug began running its course through my children. Eli was hit the hardest and missed a day and two half days of school, thank goodness for Labor Day or he would have missed more. Luke got the bug, but not as bad, but he still missed a day and a half of school. Still we decided to go as planned. This was our second year of free dining. We took our twin boys out of school for a week, but if we go next fall, it will be during their fall break in October, so we did not book the bounce back offer for next years free dining. We were thankful the bug came and went before Disney rather than at Disney.
My DM had stayed home and kept our DD in May while DH and I took our boys, she was not about to miss this trip. I think she loves Disney almost as much as I do. In May we upgraded our park tickets to annual passes, since we already had our September trip booked. It was AWESOME having two trips booked at once. I didn't even really get the I'm leaving Disney blues in May, how could I, I was coming right back.
So without further delay here are the details of our trip.
Departure Day (September 14)
Eli and Luke went to a full day of school. We picked them up with the van fully loaded and on our way to the Atlanta airport from Chattanooga. ( I guess I should mention here that my DH met us at Disney. He went to the Tennessee vs. Florida football game in Gainesville on Saturday and drove over to meet us on Sunday with my Aunt and Uncle that live in Jacksonville, Florida).
Our flight was supposed to depart at 9:15 pm and our friends were to depart at 8:00 pm, yes I said SUPPOSED to. Our friends phoned me to say their flight had been delayed until 9, so I am thinking that is great, we will get there at almost the same time. We did get there at almost the same time, but unfortunately, we did not take off until after 12:30 am, which is not very good when you are traveling with small children. We had a great flight and walked right onto ME and left immediately for our Resort.
Fortunately at nearly 2am there was not a long line, only two people ahead of me. There were only two CM's checking people in so after about five minutes, it was my turn. We were checked in, not a very friendly CM , but he got the job done. We got our room requests that I had faxed in and we were off to our rooms.
Our rooms smelled "funny" upon entering a little musty , but maybe it was just because they had been "shut" up for a while. I did not notice a "smell" the rest of our trip. I do think it is time to refurbish the rooms here. We were in the Fantasia building #8. We had a great location, which was nice, so it meant less walking for DM. We rented a wheel chair at the parks each day, but at the Resort, she was able to walk around. We crashed, literally, well after finding a vending machine and decided to sleep in for as long as DD would allow.
UP NEXT: Day 2 of our Wonderful Vacation
__________________
Karla
Last edited by TinkerBelts; 10-12-2007 at 02:47 PM..
Reason: included # of trips for party
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
Great start...glad that you got the virus out of the way before you got to disney...and your mom...what a trooper but I would not want to miss WDW either...can't wait to hear more....
Well, we didn't sleep very late, but I didn't feel very tired. After a stop at the food court, it was onto Animal Kingdom.
When we went in at AK, the machine kicked out Luke's AP, the CM said is he ten? I said no he is seven, she said well his pass is an adult one, so we headed over to Guest Services. The CM that had upgraded our passes had give both DS's adult AP's, which is odd since I had to give their birthdates when we upgraded, this CM checked and the year was right, but she had them born two days apart , we got it fixed, got our refund for the amount we over paid. This is funny, well not funny, but the CM that did our AP's in May was so rude, in fact, I had written a letter to Disney about her, but had yet to mail it, I guess I can add this to the list of offenses.
Our friends had not been to Animal Kingdom since EE opened. We got our fast passes and went to Kali River Rapids, which I always ride with a poncho ! After a relatively dry ride we hit EE, we all enjoyed it so much we rode a second time. We had dinner reservations for LTT in the MK, so we grabbed lunch and did Dinosaur and P. Whirl. It was then time to head over the the MK.
We had a very good dinner at LTT . My Dad called to update me on the football game that DH was at and it was not going very well , at least I didn't have to watch it. DD liked the characters, but did not like for them to come up behind her while she was in the high chair . After dinner we hit POTC, I looked down and DD was asleep, which was good, because I wanted her to see Spectro Magic. She slept through POTC and through Spectro Magic, too . Oh, well, I guess she was still catching up from the night before. Spectro Magic was great as always, it just felt sooo good being at Disney, I wanted to soak it all up. After Spectro Magic we headed over to Buzz and Space Mtn. We caught what we could of Wishes while walking.
We decided to try to let some of the crowd get ahead of us, so we took our time walking to the bus stop. The bus stop was packed! After about 4-5 buses, we were finally on our way, that was the longest bus wait of our entire trip. We made it back to the Movies and after a snack we headed for bed. Up next Day 3 @ MGM.
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