A Relaxing Trip to Ill to see a special 3rd Birthday - 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.
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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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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A Relaxing Trip to Ill to see a special 3rd Birthday
My trip to Silvas ILL to see my great nieces 3rd Birthday , It was only me on a solo trip .
and it Started off really nice got everything packed on time got kids off to school then my friend picked me up to take me to the airport it took about an hour to get there and i had no problems getting TSA and scanned thru . I had a bite for breakfest and then had about a half hour that turned into an hour , then we got loaded on the plane a half hour late and then spent another 45 minutes on the runway Thank You Goverment !!! , but i had a bumpy up and down other then that they made up some time in the air . Once on the ground i asked the customer rep by the gate where my connection was he pointed and said look at the board gee glad the word customer service helped !!!!! I asked a airport person that was alot nicer he said the dead end other side of the airport URGH!!! so i started to run when i got near the gate the nice lady said i did not have to run but i only made it with about 5 min to spare . I had a very nice short flight to the Quad city and it was nice got my luggage and avis was right across from the carousel . I got my rental car and off to nieces house . after arriving at my nieces house it was relaxing and nap time then off to dinner at Franks Pizza it was ok then we went shopping excuse to walk off dinner lol. then it was bed time . then we woke up and went out to a diner for breakfest after the diner we went to a mall for a little bit hit old navy , nieces husband got a haircut then we headed home because they both had to work that night so i got to spoil a little child by taking her to monkey Joes a bouncing place after that i took her to KFC for lunch then we went home to take a nap after that we went to a couple of stores then we had applebees for dinner then we went home to put the baby to sleep.
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Sat- I went to Gallena Ill -- it was this nice little town with alot of history , Ulessey S Grant owned a home here as well as a few of his generals . the only bad thing lol was it was boy scout weekend :O( , till about 2pm after there parade there was alot of people it was a 6 block main street with alot of stores with stuff from today and yesterday . it was alot of fun seeing things from my childhood like the origanal pocket fisherman and a cigarette machine where you can also buy a pack of gum also which would be illegal today . as per eating lunch i stopped into a bakery an had a dish of ice cream and homemade cookies now that is a sweet lunch. and i also stop in one of the old pub's for an early dinner i started off with a Yummy Yammy Hammy it was a yam biscut with ham and cheese and a special seasoned mayo it was goood . and i had a bacon cheeseburger nothing special but it was awesome nothing frozen and thick cut bacon , everything was so good and i even had some left overs for a late night snack. I had such a great day but all good things must come to a long drive home .
I stopped by to see my great niece on my home to my hotel and she was wide awake and bushey tailed so i gave her one of her birthday gifts a cinderella dress up caustume . that she put on right away and fun with it . it made me smile ( I so cannot wait for her first trip with us to disney next year ) after a long day it was time to sleep .
Sun - I woke up got ready and off to Chuck -E - Cheese for a 3rd birthday for a princesses it was alot of fun from the begining to the end watching her play on the rides and play some games the food was surprisingly good Pizza and soda after a long day the little princesses had to take a nap and i went to my room to pre pack :O( , then we went to my niece's job for dinner it is a cafe inside a Casino .
Oh boy talk about great food , I let my niece do the ordering , we started with a fresh spinach dip and fresh made potato chips with a french onion dip and for the main course fresh made fish and chips and a baked speghetti everything was hot , fresh and delicous !!! for desert my niece's supervisor brought out a few cupcakes with whipped cream and fresh berries for her 3yo it was for her birthday that was so nice . after a great meal my niece and her family headed home and i hit the Casino whooo hooo fun time !!! lol :O) I had alot of fun then i went home for a good night sleep for some tearful goodbyes for now
Mon departure day -- I got up and my niece and family met me at The Iowa Machine Shed for Breakfest ( they were on the travel or food network) I had a breakfest skillet that has everything in it and 2 pancakes and there chessey potato cassarole is the best i have ever tasted . after breakfest me and my niece's went shopping lol after all the luggages are packed lol im crazy but K-mart had .99 cent clearence i could not refuse . But i did make my 50lbs lol. after this we went back to my niece's house to say goodbye and it was tearful i so love that kid and off to the airport .
i brought the rental car back no problems except the getting in an out of the car , i have rented the same class other companies and a bigger car to get in an out of .
Now off to check in at United and URGH!!!!! yes again crappy service , I love a human checking me in but in this little airport the only one person seemed to have a problem with people going out of the country , so i use the check in machine pay my baggage fee and no printed luggage tag so I said excuse me with almost a not nice voice and said where is my luggage tag please !!! she said it was back here oh ! gee maybe you think you should tell the customer this . URGH ! oh it gets better wait . I got on the plane no problem the short flight to Chicago was nice i get off the plane to ask where my connecting flight was , I ask the person at the gate and was told the board is that way !!!!! WTF does this company know what CUSTOMER SERVICE IS !!!!!! no problem found where my gate is but it was in another terminal and of course i had to ask an airport employee was more of a help then a United worker !! but there was a bright spot they had a Garette's Popcorn whoooo Hooo !! so like a dummy i only buy a small butter damn i should of bought a giant lol :O). I got onto my flight on time and we even got into LGA a bit early and my wife already got my luggage due to my daughter saw the thing i put on my luggage to stand out from everyone elses. then off to reality and home sweet home .
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
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thank you guys it was alot of fun and a quick trip ,
wish i was able to post pictures but since things changed i cannot post them from my laptop URGH! :O(
United will never see any of my business again especially after there computer generated letter i got from them via email .
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