A Universal Disney Fantasy in three acts - Rehersal Report in Progress - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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 quick change to Day one of the rehersal trip. We have added a ressie at Portobello for dinner on arrival day. This replaces the Bistro ressie we lost due to refurbs and the idea of grabbing something at Big River Grille. Portobello is on our list to try and will add to the number of sit downs we have tried. After this trip we will have eaten at 36 of the 71 available table service restaraunts, over halfway there.
Oh, and on a side note we have hit 10 days are have checked in-online. Rehersal time is almost here.
As the rehersal trip gets closer I am finishing a few details on the main show.
Puzzlewoman and I now have our plane tickets for January and I will be calling Universal tomorrow to set up Act 1.
Act 2 has gotten better, I just got ressies for Be Our Guest on January 10. So that sets up our dinner on the 10th and Cheeser had gotten ressies for Ohana's on Jan 11. Our dinners are all set up for Act 2.
We are about just under 2 months to being able to book cruise details. (me want Remy dinner and Palo brunch, yummmm!) along with a possible tour of Barcardi and a little photography outing for me while the others might do a beach thing.
It's all falling into place. Now it's time for rehersal (cue the Dole Whip and Main Street Bakery Cinnamon roll please)
We just got back from the rehersal trip. A bit wet and we both were fighting off a bug while we were there but overalll a good trip.
We arrived on Saturday and checked in to our room at Boardwalk Villas. This was our first stay here and this resort might now have topped WL as our favorite. The room was decent sized and the resort felt calm and quiet. The boardwalk with it's quick access to many good places to eat and easy access to Epcot and Hollywood Studios make this a great place to stay.
Our room was ready when we arrived at 1pm so we dropped off our carryon and headed to the Boardwalk to grab a bite of lunch. We went to Big River Grille. Nice place but a bit cramped in the dining area. I had the Beer Cheese Soup while Heather had the Chicken Quesidillia. Both were pretty good. In fact I think I like the soup better than the soup at Le Cellier.
After lunch we headed to Blizzard Beach to play the Winter/Summerland miniture golf courses. The courses are a lot of fun.
The Winter course Castle
The Summer course castle
After golf we began the always fun game of "getting to Downtown Disney from a park" game. A CM told us we could get there by going to the DD stop. I had my doubts from past experience and my doubts were correct. Shortly after we got to the DD stop another CM told us that the DD bus only goes to the DD resorts. So we got on the bus to Saratoga Springs. We figured we could walk, catch a boat, or hop a quick bus from there. When we got to SSR there was construction at the main entrance so the bus came in through a back entrance. This got me totally turned around. We went to the main lobby and asked how to get to the DD boat explaining that we had a dining ressie. When the CM found out our dining ressie was in about 25 minutes he decided that we didn't have enough time to get there by boat. He said he was getting someone who could drive us over. This came a a surprise to us. A girl showed up and loaded us into a Disney van and took us to our ressie. She was real nice and super talkitive (not in a bad way). We got to our ressie on time.
Dinner at Portobello went ok. Not what I was expecting. It wasn't bad but wasn't a stand out, gotta go back place. I had ravioli Giganti (really big ravioli with cheese and spinich) and Heather had (I think) the Tuscan Salimi pizza. I also tried the Birimisu (think Tirimisu made with Porter) and Heather had the Cappuccino Gelato which she loved but I couldn't get past the fact that is was a dark gray color that just looked wrong.
Once dinner was over we headed back to the resort and, unknown to Heather, an anniversary surprise I had arranged weeks earlier.
Yay!! Sounds like a wonderful start to your trip so far. I can't wait to hear about the surprise!! Is Boardwalk the resort that has a quick back entrance into Epcot? I haven't stayed in any of the Deluxes, so I can't remember which ones are walkable to parks.
Yay!! Sounds like a wonderful start to your trip so far. I can't wait to hear about the surprise!! Is Boardwalk the resort that has a quick back entrance into Epcot? I haven't stayed in any of the Deluxes, so I can't remember which ones are walkable to parks.
Cheers!
Rachel
Boardwalk does have the quick walk to Epcot. Yacht and Beach club also have the same walk. We also found out (the boat driver told us this) that if you take the boat from HS get off at Swan and Dolphin (first stop) and you can walk to Boardwalk and beat the boat there.
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We headed back to the resort after dinner. I had arranged a surprise for Heather that was going to be set up in our room while we were at dinner. I went through the Disney Florist and they were really nice and did a great job.
When we got back to our room all the lights were off. Of course this prompted a "Hey, I left some lights on when we left" fron Heather. I got her in the door and flipped on the entry light and told her happy anniversary. Leading from the door to the bed was a path of rose petals. On the bed was a large heart made from rose petals, two personlized towels, a bottle of Wishes sparkling fruit juice, two champagne flutes with etched Mickey's on them, and some mickey chocolates. Three led candles were placed around the room, a spa pack for two was in the bath area, a signed and matted photo of Mickey and Minnie was on the table, and above it all there was a siloutte of Tink making sure it was all just right.
The bed with rose heart, towels, sparkling fruit juice package.
The personlized towels with a Mickey chocolate on each one.
The bottle of Wishes and the champagne flutes.
The matted photo of Mickey and Minnie, signed and personalized.
Tink making sure everything was just right.
The surprise went over very well. We even get to keep everything that was put in the room. The towels are now hung in our bathroom at home, the Mickey and Minnie photo is on display, and the candles will be traveling with us on future trips as they make great nightlights. We are trying to find a place for Tink. I tried putting her on the wall above our bed but the cat and dog got way too interested in her. I'm pretty sure thr cat would have eventually climbed the wall to get her so we are finding a place for her to live without being attacked by the cat.
We called it a night. Tomorrow is MK which means I get my first Main Street Bakery cinnamon roll of the trip.
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So that sets up our dinner on the 10th and Cheeser had gotten ressies for Ohana's on Jan 11. Our dinners are all set up for Act 2.
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