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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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've certainly made me hungry! I need to get breakfast pretty soon...
I warned you! (ok, after the fact, but still...)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
What great eats and drinks you had along the way!
We really did! It was hard to pick a favorite.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
You've made me wish we were going back for the F&WF this October. I loved the Seared Sea Scallops at Scotland and the Kalua Park Slider at Hawaii. Luke tried the pineapple wine and felt it was, in his words, "Just not right." your new ears.
Glad the pineapple wine had the same impact on someone else! Luke was correct, it just wasn't right.
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Originally Posted by pamcarey
Yum!! All of the food that you sampled looks so good!
It tasted good too!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Love your new ears! I've never seen those before. Great time noshing around Epcot.
I loved the ears! I loved that it was a perfect souvenir to my first F&WF. And, they were on clearance, I assume because the festival was winding down, plus I got a DVC discount!
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
I don't think we had any of those things. Bummer! That warm chocolate dessert covered in cream looked pretty delicious.
Oh, that chocolate cake! I'd love to find a recipe for that one.
Well darn it...I was in the middle of an update, and the iPad seems to have erased it. That's what I get for not writing in another format and just pasting. Given that I lost 30 minutes of toggling between PP and Photobucket, I'm going to quit for the night. I'll try again tomorrow. Sorry!
Your food choices around Epcot looked quite delish! Quite a lot to chose from and if you skip over one, you may feel you're missing out on something! I suppose you could fill up quite fast on these and I think it's a good idea to make a meal out of this, while making your way around WS!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
OK, finally, I'm back! I really want to knock this out and finish so will do my best to accomplish just that!
Picking up where we left off, DH had his eye on Belgium, as he really wanted the fruit-topped waffle.
I had a bite and while it was good enough, I don’t know that I’d put it on my top 10 list…..
This brought us to the American Pavilion, and the Chase Lounge. We had to wait in line a few minutes before we could head up, but not too long. It was on the warm side, so we were both ready to cool off in the AC for a bit, and get some free drinks from the fancy pop machine. You also each get a ticket for a FREE alcoholic beverage. Since DH doesn’t drink, that meant TWO drinks for me! If you’re counting, this meant drinks #4 and #5 for me. I had a Proseco, and a white ale. Both were pretty good – better if you remember they were FREE!
By this time, DH was a bit tired. He has a health issue that makes it hard for him to keep up our Disney pace of days gone by. Since I was full (and maybe a bit tipsy), we decided this was a perfect time to head back to our room for an afternoon nap. So, that’s just what we did.
After a couple hours back in the room, we were both re-energized/sober enough to head back to Epcot for more eating and drinking.
We started out Down Under – as we decided to start at the left side of World Showcase this go ‘round, figuring we got about to the middle, starting from the right, earlier in the day. New Zealand and Australia were neighbors (seemed appropriate, right?) so they marked our first stops.
In New Zealand, I went with another recommendation from Tracy (elbodans), the lamb meatball with spicy tomato chutney. Now, I was pretty skeptical when she raved about a meatball. I mean, how much can you really do to a meatball?
Well, this thing is another one that definitely makes my Top 10 Tastes list (guess maybe I should put an actual list together, huh? I’ll do that – and post it as part of my final thoughts). It wasn’t so much the meatball itself, as it was the tomato sauce on this thing. I wanted a BOWL of those tomatoes. I LOVED the sauce! I would happily put that on everything if I had the recipe – meatballs, chicken, pasta, a spoon….Yum! I’m drooling now just thinking about how delicious it was.
Australia, sadly, wasn’t as rave-worthy. We had the pesto and potato lamb chop, and the pavlova with fruit. I didn’t dislike either, just didn’t think they were necessarily worth the stomach space (when I should have just gone back for another meatball!).
We fared better at our next stop – Mexico!
We each had a taco, which may not sound all that exciting, but they were spectacular! Again, wish these tacos were available all the time at the CS in Mexico. I’d make a beeline for them!
Mine was shrimp, and DH’s was rib-eye. Both were excellent (but I think mine was better).
Florida was the next booth, and we tried the hash which had mixed reviews from folks. I thought it was tasty, but not through the roof good. And it seems as though I did not get a picture of this, sorry. The thing I did REALLY like there, which surprised me quite a bit, was the Key Lime wine. I am not typically a white wine drinker, far preferring reds, and I definitely don’t like sweet wines. This was just really yummy and refreshing. I keep meaning to see if there’s a way to get that here in the mid-Atlantic….(must make a note to myself on this).
Next up, Africa! This was a big hit with both of us.
We had beef tenderloin tips Berbere-style and South African bobotie and thought both were really delicious. Mine had a bit of heat that I appreciated.
When we got to Germany, we tried the schinkennudeln pasta gratin with ham and cheese. It was yummy, but not something extraordinary. We did say it would have been a favorite for our mac&cheese lovin’ DD, though!
Poland was the next country we explored (and the booth picture was taken during the day when we were back the 2nd day, as I realized I’d missed it the night we were there):
Here we tried potato pierogi and kielbasa, and sauerkraut pierogi with pork goulash. Both were good, with the potato pierogies MAYBE being one of my top 10’s (lower half, if they are).
By that point, we were pretty full. Not uncomfortably full, but not really in need of much more. So, seemed like a good time to stake out a viewing spot for Illuminations. We were able to use the wheelchair viewing area (not sure I mentioned, we did bring DH’s wheelchair, as we knew he’d last longer if he could walk a little and ride a little) and it wasn’t the best place we’ve seen Illuminations, but not the worst either. While we waited, we did decide we needed to cap the night with something sweet. We’d seen they had a special seasonal funnel cake and agreed it sounded good to us both. It was a pumpkin cake, and had a very nice flavor – if you like pumpkin and cinnamon!
I also realized we were sitting very near to the booth selling DOLE WHIP with liquor (specifically creme de cacao)!!! Now, how could I not try that!? I’d been busy drinking water all afternoon, trying to detox from my early afternoon, but decided I was good to go on another drink by this point. It is a very tasty combination, I must say!
Finally, time for my favorite show – and a good cry (because who can watch Illuminations without shedding a tear or two?!). I didn’t take many pictures, as I do think it’s hard to really capture in a way to do it justice. But here are a couple of shots:
Once that was over, it was time to call it a night. We had to wait for a second bus, but it wasn’t too bad. This is always when I wish we were staying at Beach Club, though! Love being able to walk back to the room through IG at the end of the night!
Tomorrow: Safaris and cocktails, but not at the same time!
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What a yummy day! Sounds like even the selections that didn't make it into the top ranking were still okay. I love a good tomato-based sauce. I'll have to check to see if that recipe for the meatball sauce is available anywhere.
What a yummy day! You got through a good portion of the booths.
It worked well for us starting at the front and working our way back - and then starting on the other side when we returned. We did skip booths we were just so-so about.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Oh man - I should have NOT looked at this while I am hungry!!! I sure could go for a few of those shrimp tacos right now, with a cold margarita
You guys sure did get to taste alot today!
Oh, those shrimp tacos.....so good. And they'd be perfect with a margarita!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Oh, I wish I could taste the food in your pictures... yum!
Me too! I was getting hungry putting the update together!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
What a yummy day! Sounds like even the selections that didn't make it into the top ranking were still okay. I love a good tomato-based sauce. I'll have to check to see if that recipe for the meatball sauce is available anywhere.
If you find that recipe, Laurie, you'll have to let me know. I am not kidding about being able to eat a bowl of it!
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
I need to get breakfast pretty soon... 
your new ears.
Quite a lot to chose from and if you skip over one, you may feel you're missing out on something! 
I suppose you could fill up quite fast on these and I think it's a good idea to make a meal out of this, while making your way around WS! 
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