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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What a great first day! Love the pics Your meal at CRT looks delicious! Ironic that the 16 year old had more manners than the adult did at the Dessert Party. Looking forward to day 2.
What a great day at MK (despite the rude people ). I love hearing about arrival days, it's such a great moment because your whole trip is still ahead of you.
What a great first day! Love the pics Your meal at CRT looks delicious! Ironic that the 16 year old had more manners than the adult did at the Dessert Party. Looking forward to day 2.
David and I talked about that, too, how the adult could have taken lessons from the kid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xrosario
What a great day at MK (despite the rude people ). I love hearing about arrival days, it's such a great moment because your whole trip is still ahead of you.
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I woke up at 7:00 this morning, and David woke up soon after. We got our showers and were out the door by 7:50. We caught the bus to Animal Kingdom at 8:06. (Haha, I took really good notes that morning for some reason!)
I asked David to stop for some PhotoPass Pictures.
Our first order of business after the pictures was to get David on Expedition Everest. He rode it twice using the Single Rider Line. I was bummed that I couldn't ride it with him, but I wasn't letting him know that, because I had argued until I was blue in the face before our trip to convince him that he could ride the coasters (or any other ride I wasn't able to ride) even though I wouldn't be able to ride with him. So I put on my happy face and didn't let him know I was feeling a little sad.
The second time that he rode, I manage to snag a picture of his ride vehicle coming down the track. His hand is raised because he was about to wave, but I snapped the photo a little too early.
David wanted to go look at a certain shop, but I suddenly desperately needed to use the restroom (pregancy is so much fun, lol), so I went in search of one after David and I debated about which one was closest. I finally just said I was going to the one that was on the way to...something...because I knew exactly where it was. I can't remember which one it was though.
Anyway, on the way there something kind of weird/funny happened. It was still kind of early so the park was still pretty empty, and all the CMs at the little shopping stands were looking kind of bored or chatting with each other. As I was walking by two CMs standing by a stand that had a bunch of stuffed animals on it, one of them looked up and saw my anniversary pin. "Happy anniversary," she called out. "Where's your other half?"
Since I was in a hurry to get to the restroom, I gestured vaguely behind me and said "Somewhere that way." I must have sounded annoyed, because the CM replied, "Anniversary fight?"
"Uh, no...I'm going to the restroom."
"Oh! Straight ahead!"
First of all, why was that the first thing she thought of? Secondly, if I had just been fighting with my husband, would that really be any of her business? I just thought it was odd.
After I used the restroom, I walked past them again, and realized that the one who hadn't said anything was a manager of some kind. She made sure to wish me a very happy anniversary and ask me some questions about how my visit was going. I think she was afraid the other CM had upset me, but I honestly thought the whole thing was kind of funny. I told David about it when I found him again, and he thought it was pretty amusing as well.
David got a sweet tea and asked me if I wanted anything, but I was sticking with my water.
We walked the Maharaja Jungle Trek. The bats were pretty cool! For some reason, I don't have any pictures of the trek...I was sure I took some of the bats at the very least, but I guess not.
Walking toward the FotLK, we saw Dug and Russell, and I just had to stop. There were a few people in line ahead of us when Dug and Russell had to "go get some cookies and milk," but the CM said that they would be back in five minutes, so we went ahead and waited. I'm really glad that we did, because it turned out to be one of my favorite character interactions of the trip.
Russell knelt down to kiss my belly. David said that Dug tried but I missed it because I was already turning away to meet Russell after I gave Dug a hug. (Dug a hug...Don't know why but the rhyme made me laugh. ) It was just very sweet, and the pictures turned out great!
This one looks like Dug is about to lick David's face.
After our we got our Wilderness Explorer badges (), we headed over to the Festival of the Lion King. On the way there, we saw a sky writer.
We were seated in the Lion Section. (I've read a couple of times on the boards since we got back that they may be ending this show? Does anyone know if that's true?)
When they chose a kid from each section to do the sound for each animal, something super cute happened. The little girl from the elephant section didn't quite get what she was supposed to do when they held the mic in front of her. So she was prompted again. "Give an elephant call!" She paused for a second, and then in this sweet little voice she confidently says into the mic "Elephant call!" Everyone laughed! It was so adorable!
I was really disappointed in my pictures of the show this year. Last year I managed to get some really awesome ones. I don't know if it was where we were seated or what, but the lighting was all wrong in almost every one of my pictures, and I didn't get any that I found particularly good.
I decided I was starving after the show, so we headed to our favorite AK quick service spot: Flame Tree BBQ. David had a #1 - a half rack of ribs (which comes with coleslaw and baked beans) and I had a #5 - a turkey sandwich (no tomato) that came with cranberry mayonnaise and honeydew melon.
I was trying to eat a little healthier than I normally would on a vacation for the sake of the little one residing in my belly at the time...but I was drooling over David's ribs the whole time and ended up wishing I had just had what I really wanted. David got the chocolate mousse for dessert, and I got the key lime one. I warned him that the mousse was going to make him sick, reminding him what the key lime did to him last year, but he was certain he would be okay if he took his Lactaid.
The plan was to go see Finding Nemo and Flights of Wonder, but during lunch I started to fall asleep at the table. (How embarassing is that?!) David didn't even have to make the suggestion this time - I said I wanted a nap. (Big shocker, I know.)
We got back to the resort at one, and I immediately lay down (after snapping a photo of our newest towel creature) and fell asleep. I woke up at 2:15 to find David fast asleep next to me. When I woke him, he told me that the chocolate mousse had really upset his stomach. I resisted telling him "I told you so," because I knew he didn't feel well...but I did tell him so, didn't I? Poor guy.
We both went back to sleep for another hour, and then I woke up and tried to get David up so we could go to Epcot, as had been our plan. David refused to get up. *sigh* We had a bit of a disagreement. I wanted to go to Epcot and he didn't.
I go stir crazy if I am in the hotel room for too long, and the thought of an entire afternoon wasted was killing me. (I'm really not good at relaxing. I always want to be doing something.) But I didn't want to go to Epcot by myself...people who have read past trip reports know I have anxiety issues and have a hard time with crowds, so going to the parks on my own scares me. So it wasn't so much that I was mad at him for not wanting to go, as I was mad that him not going was preventing me from going by proxy...and it was all my fault, not his.
So really, I was mad at myself, if that makes any sense.
At any rate, I left the hotel room, absolutely fuming (but not really sure at that point who I was angry with), and went down to the food court to get a snack.
My intentions of eating healthy food on this trip went out the window as soon as I read "cheese fries" on the menu. I ordered those, and as an afterthought, grabbed David a strawberry Pop Tart in case he was wanting a snack. (Because even when I think he is being a pain, I still love him...and I had calmed down enough by that point to realize he wasn't being a jerk...I was. He didn't feel well!)
I sat there in the food court to eat my snack and give myself more time to pull myself together. After I finished eating, I caught up on my notes and watched the Disney Channel on the big T.V. there. I tried to work up my courage to go to Epcot a few times, and once even sort of wandered in the direction of the buses, but in the end, I chickened out again.
I wrote in my notes "I hate fighting with David, but I hate the fact that I'm a wimp even more."
A CM was walking around saying hello to people, and I must have looked like I needed cheering up, because he came up to me and said hello and handed me a bunch of stickers and chatted with me for a few minutes. He was just what I needed to shake off my bad mood, and I decided to go check out the shop to see if I found anything interesting. I needed a new autograph book anyway - mine was almost full.
I bought a new autograph book, and, on a whim, a deck of cards. My theory was that if I had something to do, I wouldn't mind being in the room so much, because I wouldn't just sit there watching the same shows I watch at home all the time.
I walked back up to the room (with my peace offering of Strawberry Pop Tarts, David's favorite, lol), and found David sitting on the bed with his cell phone in his hand. He was about to call me because he was worried that I had been gone for so long. Awwwww....What a sweetheart.
He played Go-Fish with me, and I beat the pants off him 5 times in a row. This deck was not liking him much. We had a ton of fun, laughing and joking the whole time. I accused him of letting me win, and he said "Lady, I'm not letting you do anything...you're kicking my butt!" He did beat me twice, so he couldn't accuse me of cheating.
We had an 8:00 dining reservation at Raglan Road that night, so we left the room just after 7:00. We caught a bus to DTD right away, and got there by 7:45. We checked in right at eight, and we were seated right away in the main dining area near the stage.
As we were being seated, the guy who was singing on stage was scolding the crowd. "It's called a drinking song for a reason! You're supposed to raise your glass and take a big swig. As they say, you're in an Irish Pub now. 'T ain't Starbucks you know."
The Irish dancers were good, but not as good as the ones we saw last year. They needed to find their smiles...I think they dropped them somewhere during the course of the evening. Although they were smiling when they brought two little girls up onstage with them to teach them to dance. It was very cute, I think one of the girls was celebrating a birthday.
David and I both ordered Shepherd's Pie, David had water and I had milk. The waitress also asked us what we wanted for dessert and I said "We'll take the bread pudding." This ended up causing a misunderstanding, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Not a great picture, but I didn't want to use the flash and bother everyone at the surrounding tables.
The guy at the next table was drumming on his leg while the people were singing onstage. I wouldn't have cared (I was clapping along at times, too) but a) it was shaking my seat, since it was all one long seat shared by the people sitting on that side of the tables, and b) he was completely off beat. I kept rolling my eyes at David, but he thought it was funny.
Our server, Sarah, brought out our bread pudding, but she only brought one. When I ordered for both of us, she assumed that meant that we wanted to share. But Pregnant Jessie doesn't share food...and especially not dessert! : Lol! She apologized and brought us another one right away, though, so it all worked out. I guess next time I should let David speak for himself.
After dinner, we headed back for the hotel. David asked me if I wanted to go swimming. It sounded like fun to me, so we got ready and headed down to the pool.
I hadn't been swimming since...well, a long time before I was pregnant anyway. It was amazing to feel weightless like that. I was laughing like a little girl and hopping all around the pool, enjoying feeling so light after so many months of feeling very heavy. David was laughing at me, but he jumped around with me. We swam (and hopped and floated and splashed) around the pool for about 45 minutes before we decided to head back up to the room.
While swimming and feeling weightless was awesome, I was unprepared for getting out of the pool...It was such a weird feeling, like someone had added a bunch of weight to my shoulders and legs while I was swimming. I felt twice as heavy as before! Very strange. David laughed at my grumbling about it. He offered to swim longer, but I was tired, so we headed back to the room.
We grabbed quick showers, and then we ended up watching Criminal Minds until about 1 in the morning, when we finally fell asleep. It was a fun day, even sans Epcot.
Coming up next: Day 4 - Mini Golf and Boma anyone?
What a great first day! That's crazy about the rude people. You sure got a lot done that day!
The pregnancy weightless thing reminds me. When I was pregnant with my first, he was so low. A friend let me swim in her pool. It felt so good, but afterward it was horrible! I didn't want to get out! Raglan Road sounds so yummy.
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Last edited by dutchdisneyfamily; 12-12-2012 at 03:56 PM..
Great time at AK, but sorry that the mousse made David sick. We discovered this past June that we really like Raglan Road. We'll be going back this June.