Putting a boot into our original Easter plans… COMPLETED 5/3 - Page 11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I can't believe what a cool place this is! Plenty to do and see. The smelling room sounds very interesting and what a shame that you guys couldn't hear more about the process of how the gin is made. However, it sounds really gross. I am not a gin fan at all, but I think if I had the opportunity, I would check this distillery out!!
It did sound a bit gross and, in fairness, I'm probably not doing the process justice. I couldn't remember it all and was hoping to find more on their website about it, but no such joy.
95%?! That seems downright dangerous , given there’s always that one person who doesn’t follow directions. Imagine if that was part you and Mark hadn’t heard, and you took a sip!?
95%?! That seems downright dangerous , given there’s always that one person who doesn’t follow directions. Imagine if that was part you and Mark hadn’t heard, and you took a sip!?
Oh no, she made very sure we all heard that. We were told about four or five times and she did keep an eye on everyone, so she kept us all in line.
Quite an interesting tour with the smelling room and distillery process! I'm not a fan of gin in any way and although, I'd try it, I wouldn't be looking to make a purchase of the stuff! That's insane with the one that is 95 proof! Even stronger than grain alcohol, which is something like 90 proof. I've had the latter but not since I was in my 20's as used for fruity grain alcohol punches.
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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!
Such a fascinating tour at a beautiful place. I never knew so much went into making gin!
That's what I was thinking as well as not a gin aficionado in any way!
But, if you're talking tequila (not shots) but margaritas, then I'm game as I can't think of a margarita I've never liked! They are just so good with some amazing combos and I could just enjoy myself at a tropical resort by the pool, relax and just drink these all day and take in the scenery! That is until I nap here !
It would probably catch up to me, but I'd enjoy every one of these and then have a nice snooze by the pool! Love strawberry and anything with Agave!
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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!
Quite an interesting tour with the smelling room and distillery process! I'm not a fan of gin in any way and although, I'd try it, I wouldn't be looking to make a purchase of the stuff!
That's pretty much how we feel about it as well...
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That's insane with the one that is 95 proof! Even stronger than grain alcohol, which is something like 90 proof. I've had the latter but not since I was in my 20's as used for fruity grain alcohol punches.
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That's what I was thinking as well as not a gin aficionado in any way!
But, if you're talking tequila (not shots) but margaritas, then I'm game as I can't think of a margarita I've never liked! They are just so good with some amazing combos and I could just enjoy myself at a tropical resort by the pool, relax and just drink these all day and take in the scenery! That is until I nap here !
You see, margaritas don't do anything for me...
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It would probably catch up to me, but I'd enjoy every one of these and then have a nice snooze by the pool! Love strawberry and anything with Agave!
However, strawberries and Agave... yes, now you're talking!
Friday 30 March – part seven: “yep, he’s got the same sense of humour”
This was the end of the Bombay Sapphire tour, but now you could return to the bar by the main entrance.
Here, you get your complimentary cocktail, which would be made up of your preferences from the “smelling room”. Now here I was really surprised, as I ended up with Green, made up of Bombay Sapphire, Martini Extra Dry Vermouth, balanced with upcycled citrus cordial and fever-tree soda water, which I would never have ordered. I’d have gone for something much sweeter, but apparently because I didn’t select more floral options, that’s why I didn’t get any of the sweet options. It was really fascinating stuff and just goes to show how the different senses can get confused.
Mark didn’t miss out as the driver either. He got an alcohol free drink. He had a choice of two, but as one, spice rack, had apple juice in it, and I’m allergic to that, he went for pink garden, made up with upcycled citrus cordial married with fever-tree aromatic tonic and enhanced with a fresh sprig of rosemary instead, so I could try it. He also got a small bottle of Bombay Sapphire and a bottle of tonic, which I thought was a nice touch.
We had a look in the shop, but as they were mainly selling bottles of Bombay Sapphire and the one thing the tour had failed to do was give me an idea of what it actually tasted like, I wasn’t interested. However, they did have some beautiful displays…
… and as for this…
Mark looked at it and first thought it said £100, then spotted the extra zeroes!
We picked up Mark’s driver’s goodie bag and made our way back to the car. By now, the rain was just non-stop and you knew it had set it for a good chunk of the day.
Google Maps was telling us about all sorts of problems on various roads, but we managed to find a route, thanks to the GPS, and it took us about an hour and a half to get to Bath, where we were spending the night. The roads were all single lane, so you were only able to go as fast as the car in front, but as Mark said, no-one was going to go that quickly, given the weather and road conditions. I will say the journey was quite painful, considering it was only 40 or so miles. I was very glad when we were getting towards Bath, let’s put it that way.
We talked on the way over about how, if we’d done the twilight package, we wouldn’t have seen much of a sunset, if any, so perhaps things had ended up working out for the best after all.
Finally, we were at Bailbrook House Hotel, our home for the night. We’ve stayed here before and really enjoyed it. The only pain is that you have to check in at reception in the old building, yet all the rooms are in the new complex, which is quite the walk.
A shot from later on when we got back from dinner, but you get the idea…
As we went to get checked in, the woman did a double take at our name and when she saw we came from Kent, as she’d worked near where we live. It turned out that she’d worked with Mark’s second cousin and knows him quite well. Altogether now, it’s a small, small world! Mark made a joke at one point and she even said “yep, he’s got the same sense of humour”.
We were taken up to our room, which was changed, so it was a bit nearer for us, by the loveliest guy. He really couldn’t have done anymore for you and was so genuine. When he said nothing was any trouble, you really felt he meant it. The room was lovely…
We settled down for a bit of downtime, and not long after we did, the phone rang. It was reception checking that we were happy with everything. Nice customer service!
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I'm not a fan of gin in any way and although, I'd try it, I wouldn't be looking to make a purchase of the stuff! That's insane with the one that is 95 proof! 
Mark made a joke at one point and she even said “yep, he’s got the same sense of humour”. 
It was reception checking that we were happy with everything. Nice customer service! 
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