A 40th celebration to end the world! THREAD 1 COMPLETED 2/16 - Page 43 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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You have some great pics! Love the tigers - you got them while they were smelling (mouths open) and I really like the ones of them sleeping too. I guess I like kitties.
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AWESOME photos! The fish actually look 3D and that "portrait" of the gorilla was just beautiful. I've missed so much at AK... That was my favorite seat at Yak and Yeti - it's nice when the parade comes by.
Great pictures of the animals! I love the cattle ones too, that must have been quite a funny scene to watch in person, the last one looks like they are kissing and making up!
Before I forget and before I post today's update, I just wanted to say that the highlight photos are now up for the Disneyland section of the trip report. I know it'll be a looooong time before we get to that, but I wanted to share some photos with you - and especially of Cars Land, which was just amazing. Some photos from our cruise on the Fantasy are already up in that forum as well....
Saturday 8 December – part five: that’s the most fitting 40th birthday present!
We had Jeff as our server at Yak and Yeti, and he was superb. Not only was he a lot of fun (it turned out his family come from near where my parents live), he was very attentive, and I couldn’t fault him. He was a real credit to Disney, an absolute pleasure to deal with, and someone who really seemed to enjoy his job. He got a good tip for his work…
I was a bit disappointed with the choice of appetisers on the menu. There was only the wok-fried green beans, battered green beans with sweet Thai chilli dipping sauce, which Laurie ordered, or the seared Ahi tuna with wasabi aioli and sweet chilli slaw, as all the other options (with the exception of the not very exciting house salad) had meat in, so I went for the tuna, and it was pretty good. The flavours combined together well, and it wasn’t too spicy, despite the mention of wasabi in the description.
Mark had the Thai chilli chicken wings tossed in a sweet Thai chilli sauce, with spicy Asian pickled cucumbers, which he seemed to enjoy.
Jeff brought the entrees to the table just as Mark was finishing up, and profusely apologising, saying he’d tried to time it so that they would be out just as we finished our appetiser, and it worked perfectly for me.
My entrée was the Malaysian seafood curry with Mahi Mahi, scallops, little neck clams, mussels, shrimp, zucchini, roma tomatoes, red curry broth, and jasmine rice, and it was excellent, although it did have a little bit of a kick to it. At first, I didn’t think there was that much to it, but there was, as there was more fish buried under the herb. It was impressive in terms of how much they served up, and it tasted pretty good too.
Mark went for the Shaoxing steak and shrimp, made up of skirt steak, tempura-battered shrimp, jasmine rice, stir-fried vegetables, and chilli plum dipping sauce. It was certainly a beautiful presentation…
…. And Mark was impressed with it, particularly the steak.
I was the only one who went for dessert, opting for the sorbet, made up of one mango, one raspberry, and one lemon (thankfully not too sharp! ) to help cool my mouth down a bit, and it helped a lot.
I got a few photos of the restaurant on the way out.
Yak and Yeti:
Appetiser 8½ 8
Entrée 9 8
Dessert 8½ N/A
Service 10 9½
Atmosphere 9 9
Value for money 8½ 9
Average score: 8.82
I’m putting this here, as it’s strictly not lunch, although it happened at lunch. Laurie is such a wonderful, generous person. Not only did we get gifts from Imagineering, picked up during her visit to LA, she also got me the most amazing 40th birthday present, a Christmas ornament with a difference. When I first looked at it, I spotted the team GB logo, then I saw a photo of me, then I realised what Laurie had done. She’d taken photos from my Olympics trip report, cut them into squares and put them on a Christmas ornament. She honestly could not have found a more fitting 40th birthday present for me if she’d tried. It was absolutely perfect, and I was completely blown away by it. How I managed not to burst into tears as I looked at it, I do not know. That will have pride of place every year on our Christmas tree.
When we came out of there, we headed over the bridge and into Discovery Island.
I knew that the trail to see my donkey was nearby, and headed in that direction. On the way, we got side tracked by this, which was neat…
Then we headed down the trail, with me moving at a good speed. Amazing what the prospect of seeing Eeyore can do for me!
There was barely any line, and soon we were seeing Pooh…
… before moving on to my donkey boy!
Then finally we saw Tigger.
We lucked out, as the characters all left just after we saw them. I was so glad to have seen them all, but especially Eeyore! We saw Pooh returning as we left…
We headed out of the park, stopping to browse in one of the shops…
I love this range of merchandise
… to get some more Photopass pics…
… and to see a final couple of animals…
Then it was outside. By now, it was almost 3pm and it really was hot with the sun beating down.
We said our goodbyes, and headed back to the car and drove back to the room.
We then spent the next couple of hours back in the room, with me catching up on the boards, photo editing and trip report writing.
Before I forget and before I post today's update, I just wanted to say that the highlight photos are now up for the Disneyland section of the trip report. I know it'll be a looooong time before we get to that, but I wanted to share some photos with you - and especially of Cars Land, which was just amazing. Some photos from our cruise on the Fantasy are already up in that forum as well....
I have to say I loved your photos of GCH. The room looked beautiful really romantic and the hotel is just gorgeous. Definitely a bucket list place.
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they were and that's one of the reasons I take so many photos. I figure that at least one will come out if I take enough! 
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It was absolutely perfect, and I was completely blown away by it. How I managed not to burst into tears as I looked at it, I do not know. That will have pride of place every year on our Christmas tree. 
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