Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue **Updated 12/23~~2 Times** - Page 13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sounds like a lovely time you had!! It's amazing how the disney tummy can scream at you isn't it??
I laughed out loud at your boat experience! We went to the TTC to pick up my tickets for MVMCP and I just took a picture from the boat dock. BOY was the WIND COLD!! (Of course it was only 40 degrees the day I was there but still!!) I give you guys a LOT of credit for that ride!!
When we got back to the CR we headed on up to the room. We planned on leaving for Epcot in a couple hours so we wanted to freshen up and get ready. When we walked in I saw a nice surprise planned by Andy...
I have always talked about how one day I wanted flower petals like that Awww, he listened He went through WDW Florist to have it done. But the CR added the champagne, balloons, and card in the middle, which was a nice touch. We were so pooped (remember 2am bed time last night, 7am wake up this morning) that we ended up taking a quick hour nap with Stacy rambling in the background. Then we got ready and drank our champagne Pretty soon we were ready to head back out..
Again, one of the beautiful plusses of the CR is going out of your room, down two floors in the elevator, and getting right onto the monorail! I it! We hopped on board and were on our way to the TTC and then on to Epcot. While we were making the loop around the park I texted Brandi to let her know we were there. I also let her know about Andy's crude joke comment while we were waiting on the monorail at the CR. If you examine the mural with the 5 legged goat like we did, you'll see one of the natives doing what Andy referred to with a drug reference.... that's all I'm saying. Andy continued on to add that that may be the reason why the goat has 5 legs.....
We stopped to have Photopass photos made.... these are the ones he took with my camera...
These were both prospects for Christmas cards... and we went with the second one
Anyway, Brandi and Pom and Brandi's cousin Ashley were in the WS and were going to meet us at SSE. We got to go in the side door so we could meet Pom in the handicap area. Yes Pom, we used you!
Pom, Ashley, me, and Andy all rode in one car and Brandi rode in the car behind us. Side story coming on....
A few days prior on "ourspace" Pom and Andy were going at it on the Pom and Andy show. Pom said something about Andy calling or something and his receptionist would answer.... and Andy claims he thought Pom was referring to himself as his own receptionist. So he says "I'm not calling if that receptionist picks up, I don't want to talk to that a$$" SO, when Brandi came home and read the Pom and Andy show she immediately read that as Andy called her an a _ _ So I found out about all of this on the ride down to the WDW earlier so the whole trip we referred to Brandi as "that a_ _" ...... So she rode by herself because she's an a$$
Anyway, man we sound twisted....
I took some really silly photos of Brandi on SSE......
Look at her... it looks like she's going "Weeeeeee"
And then...
This one makes me think of a kid on Christmas....
Andy and I had preplanned our SSE ride... we were going to choose everything the exact opposite that we normally would.... so we were concerned about our heath, that we liked nature, blah blah blah... And our picture plan was to be looking away from each other, but it didn't work. AND, that A$$ saw us in the monitor and started laughing which made me start laughing right as the picture was made
So we ended up with this...
THIS one is my fav! Strike a pose Andy!!!
So apparently I fell down the mountain while skiing (imagine that...how did they know???) And Andy was able to fix me with his technology....or something...
Anyway, look how interested he is in fixing me...
After SSE Pom had to go to the bathroom, imagine that So I took the opportunity to go as well.... While we waited on Pom I took this picture..
After SSE, Ashley left us to meet up with someone and was going to meet us back in the UK. We worked our way around the WS starting in Mexico. We just walked, talked, and acted silly of course. We stopped in Germany so Andy could hit up the beer and pretzel cart. I think I had a beer as well and we shared the pretzel....
We continued on around, and made it to the UK quite early. I can't remember if we made it to the 6pm show, but I know we saw the 7 and 8. I'm thinking we did make it to the 6pm show b/c after it Andy, Brandi and I went to see Pooh, but we ran out of time and went back out for the 7pm show, where these old farts flat out stole our seat!! Pom was sitting there and Andy sat down... and the old guy tried to sit down on top of Brandi!!! What a jerk! Apparently they were trying to take the bench and somebody told them it was taken and they didn't like that... We show up, we stare at them with our evil eye, and start to sit down and seriously, the old guy slides his butt off the arm of the bench and right down onto the bench and practically on top of Brandi. So Brandi slides over and Andy sits right down next to the old guy, and I sit in Andy's lap practically draped over the old man. Seriously, what a jerk. People are so ugly sometimes. It would be different if we hadn't left Pom and Ashley sitting there on the bench....and we were gone for like a total of 10 minutes....Okay, I'm over it........
So we enjoyed all the shows......Angie and Bill and Jan and Clan showed up as well
This one makes me think Pom is floating somewhere in the Haunted Mansion
LOOK!!! Bill is smiling... BIG!!
After the 8pm show was over we said our goodbyes to Bill and Jan and Angie
Brandi and Pom offered to drive us to the GF for our ADR at Narcoossee's. We happily accepted. In the car Andy got Pom all riled up about waffle house b/c Pom wanted to go and Brandi said no but Andy just kept aggravating it by talking about the waffle house's hashbrowns
When we pulled up to the GF Pom got a little nervous about Brandi pulling right up to the front b/c that boy was NOT tipping the guy for letting us out of the car The way Pom said it still makes me laugh. I can't remember it word for word but it cracked me up. In fact the whole car ride was so funny that my stomach muscles hurt when I got out of the car.
The time had come where we had to say goodbye to our Baker friends until next time... I seriously was sad.... We hugged, said bye, and headed inside, trying not to think about the fact we wouldn't see them again until April....
Thanks to those Bakers we made it to the GF in time to see the fireworks!!
AND the EWP!!!
We checked in for our dinner and since we had one of the latest times, the place was almost empty half way through our meal. I had the seafood bisque which was fabulous, and Andy and I split the scallop dish which was AMAZING!! I don't remember what Andy had as an appetizer..........??????
Anyway, I had arranged for personalized menus when I made the ADR so we had those with our name and anniversary and date at the top. We've got them here to be framed
AND, after dinner Andy surprised me with CAKE!!!
It was the cake I have always talked about. Our wedding cake was the one thing I was sad about from our wedding. My mom insisted on hiring this very old lady caterer and she just did not do what I wanted with my cake. It turned out more cream colored than white.... the lines weren't straight on it.... it had bows, I didn't want bows.....but oh well...my mom was paying, so I couldn't complain (at least I thought so at the time....)
So I saw this cake on tv and have talked about it for years..... And Andy made it happen....
Sheesh it was a lot of cake, but in order to get the custom cake he had to get the 10 inch one. I posted the debacle he went through with ordering it in the food forum... I'll copy and paste in later....
But it was GOOOOOD!!! It was chocolate cake with this chocolate mousse filling.... Ai yi yi!! I hate that we weren't able to enjoy more of it. We calld the Bakers late that night to tell them to come and get it or that we would meet them somewhere the next day so it wouldn't go to waste, but we didn't get in touch with them until too late the next day Oh well.....
Still, Thank you Andy for the cake! It was fabulous!! As was everything for our anniversary
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To quote the Old Man in A Christmas Story "For cripes sake", two updates in one day!!
We had thought we would sort of sleep in this morning, take it easy, eat breakfast at the CR, and then head out to Port Canaveral. We hadn't really unpacked since we'd only been there two nights... but boy did we sadly underestimate the amount of crap we had.... all the purchases, gifts, clothes we'd worn, jackets, all the toiletries we used getting ready, there was a lot of stuff. We also had to condense our luggage b/c we had one extra suitcase that we carried stuff in that we only needed at WDW b/c we already had two pieces of luggage apiece for the cruise... so that had to be done. So we got up around 8:00 or so, started throwing everything together. I had hoped we could get breakfast and enjoy ourselves leisurely but that didn't happen. I wanted us to leave WDW by 10:30 at the latest, but the closer 10:30 got the more nervous I was getting and I wanted us gone by 10. Plus we had to check out, get the car from valet, and load it up. AND I wanted to pick up a few last minute things from the gift shop. Why do we wait to the last minute for everything???
SO anyway, we got ready, and out on the balcony Andy had to do his Richard Nixon "I'm not a crook" pose b/c we'd joked about it ever since we booked our room here
I took one last picture from the balcony..
And then we headed downstairs to grab a pastry and fill up our mug at the new Contempo Cafe. The process wasn't at all difficult, but the area is kind of crappy.. There is construction on the other side of it, as well as Chef Mickey's. There was a lot of bumbling people in the way, too .... there always are when you're in a hurry.
We hit up the kiosk...
I just picked up a pastry from the grab and go section (which confused me b/c I didn't understand why it wasn't on the kiosk, then I saw it at the shelf where you pick up your food......so that sort of irritated me. Andy chose some breakfast sandwich so he got a number. I paid while he waited and finally we both had food.
I have to admit, I was a crabby patty this morning. I was nervous as all get out about the cruise for some reason. And it just continued to get worse... knots in my stomach worse. We took our food outside and ate by the pool but we couldn't enjoy it like I had planned b/c we were running out of time. Poor Andy, I made him swallow his sandwich whole (if he even finished it...)
I wanted us to get a few pics before we left...
Then we booked it back up to the room, and grabbed all our stuff. I helped Andy take it downstairs and while he got the car and loaded it I went back to the gift shop to pick the LE Thanksgiving Pin I wanted.
Not much longer after that, we were on our way east to Port Canaveral. I am going to end this TR here and it will be picked up in the DCL trip reports forum. When I start that I will come back and post the link.......
Hope you enjoyed the WDW part. There is MUCH MUCH MORE to come on the cruise !!!