Nala & pride "A Bucket Full of Magic" TR - Page 15 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wanting Sarafina to see what else her first stay at the BC, and her first stay on CL had to offer, I decided to show her the lounge. She was ready for a snack and so was Kiara, so the two of them grabbed a plate of goodies and a cold drink. When they finished, I stated it was time to venture out into the world. Epcot was calling and we were now at its back door. Since I was the only member of the pride that had skipped breakfast, I was getting close to starving. A Shawarma platter from the Tangierine Café was calling my name and I had every intention of answering! Grumpy was also ready for some fish and chips from the UK and he knew Kiara most likely would be too.
Off we headed to the International Gateway where we stopped at the ticket booth to turn in our vouchers for the Give a Day passes we had received. Our intention was to upgrade these one day passes to a six day park hopper and I was really hoping we wouldn’t have to go through the gate once to activate them before we could do the upgrade. I collected photo ID’s from everyone and fished out the copy of Kiara’s birth certificate. Much to my delight, when I asked the CM if we could upgrade, she told me it was no problem and went right to work on getting our passes. Yippee! That was much easier than I thought it may have been. She also gave us four volunteer buttons and I put mine on my camera strap.
We went into the WSC, and as we made our way up the hill, with every intention of hitting Yorkshire Country Fish Shop, it dawned on Grumpy and I that none of the counter services in the WSC opened until noon. We had about a half an hour to wait until that would happen, and before either of us had a moment to figure out what to do during the wait, Kiara tugged on Grumpy’s shirt and said “Dad, I want to do that.”
Kiara was pointing at the Kim Possible kiosk, and since she was so adamant about doing an mission, Grumpy stepped up to the line with her to get a FP. What a great time killer a KP mission would be. The CM that assisted the two of them asked if they had done a mission before, and Grumpy responded with a yes. He then asked which countries they had done. It was here that my memory, which is very good with totally and completely useless bits of information that shouldn’t be retained, but are, came in handy. A quick search of my internal data produced the response of “We have done France and Norway”. The CM took that information, asked if we were sure we hadn’t done the UK, and after a quick nod from me, Grumpy confirmed that the UK was indeed a new mission for us. He punched a few buttons and a few seconds later, out popped our FP for a KP mission in the UK.
Problem was, it wasn’t until two PM.
So much for our plan of killing time until the counter services opened in the WSC.
With about fifteen minutes to kill before the counter services opened, and two hours and fifteen minutes to kill before our first KP mission of the trip, we were forced to seek out other methods of entertainment. We decided to stroll around the WSC and take in the holiday decorations. Somehow between the IG and France, we managed to kill fifteen minutes. And with the hour of noon now at hand, as we strolled through France, I discovered my favorite drink kiosk was now open for business.
Wasting no time, I made a beeline and bellied up to the bar for my favorite adult beverage in all of WDW, a Grey Goose lemonade slush. Grumpy, much to my surprise, declined one of the frozen delights, (who are you and what have you done with my Grey Goose loving husband?) but Sarafina was game. I figured she would much more enjoy that other thing sold there, that of that orange flavored thing, that in my opinion is way too sweet, so I ordered her one of those.
The two of us stepped away from the kiosk and the above average warmth of the November afternoon quickly made our drinks a melting mess. The only thing to do was drink, and drink fast. I noticed that Sarafina, who does not often have adult beverages, and is therefore a bit of a mixed drink weenie, had a look on her face that hers was a bit too much for her. Mine on the other hand, was perfect. I continued slurping away at my little glass of Grey Goose heaven, and I figured if Sarafina couldn’t finish hers, either Grumpy or I would have to step up to the plate, take one for the team, and finish it off. But, that didn’t happen.
As we were making our way towards Morocco and my date with the platter, we noticed Belle out for a meet and greet. Kiara got excited when we saw her and wanted to get in line for a picture with her. Lucky for us, the line was short, as in only one person waiting behind the person she was greeting, so I took her by the hand and got in the very short line. It was then I noticed just how empty the WSC was. As I looked around, I think I only saw about 30 people, and 20 of them were CMs. It was the last time on this trip we would see a crowd level like that!
While Kiara was waiting her turn, I saw Grumpy, who was waiting outside the line, pointing to my backpack I had left with him and asking if I wanted the autograph book. Being that I was just getting acclimated to being in a park, I wasn’t quite ready to deal with the monster book, and when I declined, Grumpy gave me “the look”. Guilt overtook me, and I held out my hand in acceptance and he fished the thing out the backpack and walked it over to me. As soon as he did, the CM that was Belle’s handler, took notice of it and asked me if he could see it. I handed it to him, and he flipped through it looking at every page. Belle’s last guest had moved on, and she stretched out her arms to Kiara, who ran into them, without her handler even noticing. When he did look up from the book, he looked at Belle and said “You have to see this book”.
Like her handler, Belle then flipped through every page. I was so grateful the line behind us was not long, as I am sure if it was, we would have been taking up way too much time with a character to be considered socially acceptable. I was a bit overwhelmed by the praise that both Belle and her handler gave me for Kiara’s book, but it was nice to know that a few other people, other than Grumpy and Kiara, recognized all the love that I poured into the thing. It really was a warm, fuzzy moment.
After Belle had signed Kiara’s book and posed for a few pictures, we met back up with Sarafina and Grumpy, and since Belle’s line was almost empty, her handler came over and started chatting with us. He was such a nice man, and so very enthusiastic. He was a joy to talk to and let us know the times some of the story tellers in the area were coming out. He told me that I had to make sure to get their autographs in Kiara’s book, and that was a great piece of information to have, as I was not aware they signed them. Pere Noel had just stepped out in France, and he told us we should go hear his story while the crowds were low.
Unfortunately, my empty stomach was driving me in the opposite direction and we were unable to go see Pere Noel. I was beyond ready for a Shawarma platter, and after thanking the CM for his information and advise, I lead the pride to Morocco. Pere Noel would have to wait for another time, and possibly another day.
No one had any interest in food from Morocco, so I was the lone one placing an order. I, however, knew once I arrived at the table outside the pride had claimed, there would be many hands reaching to my plate for just a bite or two of what was on it. The meal went just as I expected, but thanks to the large portion of the Shawarma platter, I was able to get my fill.
Just as I was finishing up, I noticed Sarafina stretching out her legs. The size of her ankles made me gasp, as they were swelling up like balloons. Even though we hadn’t done that much walking by our standards, it had been too much for her.
Not wanting to kill the fun, I knew she would have kept on going, but I suggested we head back to the BC to take a rest. Grumpy was not thrilled about the idea, but Kiara perked up and asked if she could go for a swim. The day was perfectly warm, and as weather in Florida goes, I knew it may be her last chance for pool time. Back to the BC we went, with a little girl excited about getting some time at SAB, and a senior citizen grateful for the idea of some rest and a break from the walking.
Up next: A pivotal decision that saved the trip ………..
Awesome update, Nala! I know firsthand how beautiful the things that you make are! How could other people not notice???? I hope Sarafina's ankles hold up!
Wonderful that Belle and her handler really appreciated Kiara's book. What a special keepsake that will be. Hope the rest helps Serafina's poor ankles!
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
And I think I'll request a TOT view next time I stay at the BC! 
I love it!!! 
Grumpy was also ready for some fish and chips from the UK and he knew Kiara most likely would be too. 
We had about a half an hour to wait until that would happen, and before either of us had a moment to figure out what to do during the wait, Kiara tugged on Grumpy’s shirt and said “Dad, I want to do that.” 
but it was nice to know that a few other people, other than Grumpy and Kiara, recognized all the love that I poured into the thing. It really was a warm, fuzzy moment. 
Even though we hadn’t done that much walking by our standards, it had been too much for her. 
Kiara's autograph book & noticed when I made one for my last trip it got me a lot of attention from the characters. 
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