The Graduate, the Gadget Girls, and the Groovy Grown-ups - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
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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.
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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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The Graduate, the Gadget Girls, and the Groovy Grown-ups
Well . . . it’s not exactly a surprise that when the school year ends for Mary Devall, the Koenigs head south the very next day!
Horror of horrors, the great Southern Snow Storm of 2011 almost threw a wrench in our tradition this year! Mary Devall's school closed for three full days in January and we soon discovered that the day after the official last day of school was the last make up day.
I didn’t worry about it too much because surely the “powers that be” would come to their senses and forgive the days. I continued to think this when they made up their first day on President’s Day . . . and I continued to think this when they made up their second day on Good Friday . . . and I most certainly continued to think this when the governor actually forgave any remaining days . . . but nothing from the school district .
Thom finally asked Mary Devall’s teacher her thoughts and was told that if she already had plans, then it wouldn’t be a big deal to miss. I took that as “go and have fun” and asked Thom to make our train reservations. As luck would have it, a couple of days later . . . just a week or so before the end of school . . . the school district finally forgave that last day! Now we could start out our vacation guilt free!
So you’re asking yourself . . . “Why was it so very important that you arrived in Disney that day? Wouldn’t Disney still be there the next day?” I’m glad you asked. It just so happened that our traveling companions were set to arrive on that day also and we couldn’t allow them to wander around aimlessly without us. What would they possibly do? They would be lost and we just couldn’t have that.
And now you’re asking yourself . . . “Just who are these traveling companions?” I’m glad you asked.
Actually (a favorite word with both my daughters ), I’ll just let the title of this trip report explain it for me:
The Graduate - - Zack, brand-spanking- new high school graduate, son of best buddy Karen, budding director and constant source of entertainment for these two . . .
The Gadget Girls - - Mary Devall and Maddie (for more information, reference the title of Karen’s trip report . . .), budding 5th grader and kindergartener who never let a moment of down time pass without having some type of electronic gaming device in their hands and often begged iPhones off one or more of these three . . .
The Groovy Grown-ups - - Karen, Jill and Thom. Okay, the “groovy” part is totally our own opinion, but we are definitely grown-ups (at least from a legal standpoint ). Karen and I spend most of our time on vacation balancing a FAB in one hand and pointing everyone in the right direction with the other. We pretty much spend the rest of our time rolling our eyes at Thom’s many observations on life and his ugly shorts.
Just as an example of “life with Thom,” I asked him to give me a short description of himself that started with “G” for my trip report title. These are the responses that I received:
· Gobama …because I was the president of our vacation
· Super Diaper G Baby …its kinda funny
· Buster G Posey …because he was a baby
· Gannoying …for the obvious reason
· Geelicious …because Teelicious is cool enough to go Geelicious
· Ghom …almost as cool as Thom
Please note that none of these were used.
Now when you travel with Karen, you benefit greatly from her fine planning skills. The only thing that I had to do was book a room for our family for our first four nights at the Wilderness Lodge (a.k.a. the much beloved “Old Hotel” to Maddie ), book three nights of our stay at the Beach Club Villas, book our train trip and reserve a town car. That’s it, folks.
Of course, I almost messed up right away when I missed out on the room discount for club level rooms at the WL and ended up putting down a deposit on a rack rate room. I was counting on an AP club level rate to be released at a later date, but when it didn’t materialize, I sadly had us switched to the YC club level at the AP rate. It was a great savings, but it broke my heart not to be at the WL with Karen and Zack. What really broke my heart was when I fessed up to Maddie that we were moving to the YC and she burst into tears.
Karen promised that the girls could come over for mini marshmallows, but I obsessively continued to check the AP site almost every day. Miracles of miracles, about a month before our trip, a club level room at WL with an AP rate opened up! Thank heavens for patient travel agents ! I was so happy to be able to tell Maddie that we were moving back to the Old Hotel! She gave me a big woo hoo and a pre-K fist pump!
The call to Member Services was easy enough - - especially since Karen had already called and verified that a two-bedroom was available for our entire six night stay. She took the first three nights and we took the second three. Thom booked our train tickets with about a month to spare and I reserved our town car literally the day before we left. And that is all we did to plan for an 11-day trip.
Karen even planned our park days and made our ADRs. When Maddie mentioned a couple of months before our trip that she would like to eat at Sci Fi one day, I told her that she needed to take that up with Ms. Karen when we saw her over Spring Break. She did and was happy to discover that Ms. Karen had already sensed that she might want to eat there. Karen is good like that - - she made all of our ADRs with each of our likes and dislikes in mind. Sometimes I think she knows me better than I know myself.
Our last week before vacation was pretty crazy with end-of-school activities and Thom traveling, but we just took it day-by-day and kept our eyes on the prize. Finally, that long awaited last day of school arrived and we could let out a deep sigh. In keeping with our normal Friday night activity, we went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant (a.k.a. Mexico) with Thom’s best friend (who is also our wonderful dog sitter) before coming home to finish the last minute packing. Sweet, sweet vacation had finally arrived!
YES!!! I have been waiting for you to start your trip report, Jill! I am so glad that the hotel Gods were with you and you were able to switch back over to be with Karen and Zach! Yikes ...5th grader...when did that happen Looking forward to reading about your 11 day trip. Especially since we were there during the same time period so it is always fun to hear someone elses perspective on the crowds, etc.
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Yippeee! The Koenig summer trip report has started!
You know I have been waiting!
How can it be that Zach has graduated and Mary Devall is a 5th grader and little Maddie is in kindergarten???? Time does fly!
So glad that it all worked out for you to arrive the same day as Karen and Zach!
And I am very happy that you were able to stay at WL!
I am just sorry to have missed you guys by just a few days!
I am looking forward to the rest of the story.......
It has begun...the TR that I was waiting for and we are getting a double dose this time with Karen giving us one as well
So glad that everything worked out with school and that you were able to change back to a room at the WL so that you can all be together.
Can't believe Maddie is heading off to kindergarten and Mary Devall heading to 5th grade (ok I can't believe I am a mom of a HS graduate and that Angel is heading to middle school) - they are just growing to fast (can't we give them vitamins to slow this stuff down...
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I am so glad you started your TR! I can't believe how fast your girls are growing up, I believe the first TR I read of yours was a cruise TR and Maddie was just a baby!
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Just as an example of “life with Thom,” I asked him to give me a short description of himself that started with “G” for my trip report title. These are the responses that I received:
· Gobama …because I was the president of our vacation
· Super Diaper G Baby …its kinda funny
· Buster G Posey …because he was a baby
· Gannoying …for the obvious reason
· Geelicious …because Teelicious is cool enough to go Geelicious
· Ghom …almost as cool as Thom
I had almost, ALMOST forgiven Thom for the Buster Posey teasing and then he has to go and bring it up again! For those not tuned into the viciousness that is one Mr. Thom Koenigs, I was at the Giants' game where Buster Posey broke his leg after that low, down dirty play from the Florida Marlin Who Shall Not Be Named. (And for those outraged by that last statement (because it was a totally clean play) Giants fans are not rational about this injury to our sweet, sweet Rookie of the Year.) Plus, it happened only two days before we left for vacation. I was so upset the next day that I burst into tears when one of my co-workers told me that he thought it might mean the end of his career. Of course, the longer than necessary hug that resulted from that exchange tells me it might have all been a ploy to cop a feel...
ANYWAY! I think Thom waited maybe 4 minutes into the vacation to start talking about how Buster Posey was a Super Diaper Baby because he couldn't just walk off the injury. Urggghhh! And now I'm trying to come up with my own "G" word to describe Thom and I'm finding a shocking absence of swear words that begin with that letter. Seriously! WHERE IS EILEEN?! I need her help!
Jilly, love you, love the girls, know I'm going to love the trip report. That other one in your household? ON. MY. LIST.
__________________
Karen, aka Zack's Mom - Lover of all Things Disney and the San Francisco Giants!
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Mary Devall's school closed for three full days in January and we soon discovered that the day after the official last day of school was the last make up day. 
I continued to think this when they made up their first day on President’s Day 
. 
As luck would have it, a couple of days later . . . just a week or so before the end of school . . . the school district finally forgave that last day! Now we could start out our vacation guilt free! 
It just so happened that our traveling companions were set to arrive on that day also and we couldn’t allow them to wander around aimlessly without us. What would they possibly do? 
They would be lost and we just couldn’t have that. 
and pointing everyone in the right direction with the other. We pretty much spend the rest of our time rolling our eyes at Thom’s many observations on life and his ugly shorts. 
I was counting on an AP club level rate to be released at a later date, but when it didn’t materialize, I sadly had us switched to the YC club level at the AP rate. 
It was a great savings, but it broke my heart not to be at the WL with Karen and Zack. What really broke my heart was when I fessed up to Maddie that we were moving to the YC and she burst into tears. 
! I was so happy to be able to tell Maddie that we were moving back to the Old Hotel! She gave me a big woo hoo and a pre-K fist pump!
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I wish our state would forgive snow days! 
For those not tuned into the viciousness that is one Mr. Thom Koenigs, I was at the Giants' game where Buster Posey broke his leg after that low, down dirty play from the Florida Marlin Who Shall Not Be Named. (And for those outraged by that last statement (because it was a totally clean play) Giants fans are not rational about this injury to our sweet, sweet Rookie of the Year.) Plus, it happened only two days before we left for vacation. I was so upset the next day that I burst into tears when one of my co-workers told me that he thought it might mean the end of his career. Of course, the longer than necessary hug that resulted from that exchange tells me it might have all been a ploy to cop a feel... 
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