Have Pen, Will Travel: A Solo Trip Report--Includes Dining and CSR Reviews and Photos! - Page 9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Uh oh! I hope that the morning works out okay--I bet someone didn't want to get up in the morning to make rope drop!
Sorry you missed your dinner reservation. I might have been pretty upset about that!
I'm sorry you didn't get to use your FP's (or give them away) but you're certainly not crazy for trying to give them away. IMO it just adds to someone else's magic during their stay.
You were much kinder to your friend than I would have been. With everything there is to see and do at WDW, I can't imagine thinking that getting drunk would be more fun. Ah, well, to each his own, right?
thanks for the comments everyone! i'm working on the next installment.
and yes, many of you are making the correct predictions about rope drop for day 3! and i also felt kind of the same way about drinking in epcot--while i have no problem with drinking (i like trying different drinks just as much as i like trying different food) i did think at several points 'well gee, we could be doing this at an applebees!' (and it would have been MUCH cheaper!)
OK, haven't been on for a day or two, so just catching up to the Drinking around Empcot. Sounds awful. I too enjoy the variety of drinks at Epcot but know I couldn't get one in each country - at least not in a day! And when you're the one left to be a bit more responsible, it is REALLY not fun!
Glad others have already told you the bagpipers were Off Kilter. I love them! (Did you check out the legs on a few of those guys?!?!)
Hope your morning at AK is better, but I don't have high hopes, given your friend's state when you returned to the room (or the boat ride, for that matter).
Glad others have already told you the bagpipers were Off Kilter. I love them! (Did you check out the legs on a few of those guys?!?!)
ha! funny you should mention their legs--i just now showed my mother my pics, and she commented 'nice legs!' to that very pic! i've always had a thing for men in kilts. real men aren't afraid to wear them.
we will definitely be catching a show when we return in may!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
i've always had a thing for men in kilts. real men aren't afraid to wear them.
You should have been at the race I went to today. It was in Corktown, which is the Irish section of Detroit. I ran a 5K with my dad and daughter. We saw many men in kilts!!!
Day 3 Part 1--Animal Kingdom with a very hungover friend, first time on Everest, Yak and Yeti TS lunch.
If you ever wake up one morning and think ‘hey, I know what would be fun--taking a very hungover friend to Animal Kingdom!’, please take my advice, for your sake and for the sake of your friend--don’t do it!
However, I have to give the woman credit. She was a trooper.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, breakfast. As we both woke up around 6am, I figured there was plenty of time for a hike to breakfast before boarding the bus for AK. I gave my friend some privacy in the room as I made the trek to El Centro to pick up breakfast for the two of us.
Notice my use of the words ‘hike’ and ‘trek’. It was pretty freaking far. But it was VERY beautiful in the morning...
Can you see the hot air balloon? It’s just below the one palm frond.
I especially like the symmetry of this photo...
...and it is now the wallpaper on my mac.
I purchased two quiche-like things at the takeaway station and schlepped them back to the room. For some reason, they were baked into paper cups, kind of like giant egg-y cupcakes--and it was quite difficult to not accidentally eat the paper. Not the best meal I’ve ever had, I’ve got to say! Fortunately, this was the only thing I ate all week of which I failed to take a photo. I’m kind of glad--I don’t ever need to re-live it.
Because my friend is far more laid back than I am (which is very easy to be--I’m rather uptight when it comes to certain things), we didn’t make rope drop at AK, though I’m pretty sure we came close. We were at the very end of the giant mob entering the park--my first (and only) missed rope-drop of the trip. We stopped to take some photos in front of the tree of life, trying out my X-shot iPhone extender arm...
...and then made our way into the park. Problem one was that I had no plan--well, actually, my plan was ‘do whatever makes my friend happy’, but as she had no concept of what AK was or what there was to do there, it was kind of difficult for her to have an opinion. We eventually decided (ok, I decided) to walk towards Everest to get fastpasses. When we arrived, the standby line was only 10 minutes long, and my (very hungover) friend decided we should ride right away.
I asked her many, many times before entering the queue ‘are you sure you want to do this right now?’, and she was sure. So on we went. I once again found myself wishing there had been more of a line, because the details were really amazing. The line itself is an attraction, and I could have taken copious notes and photos--but I figured I’d wait until I was alone to do that (those of you smarter than me should be figuring out why that logic was incorrect--but we’ll get to that in a bit!)
So we rode Everest first thing, and I wasn’t even scared because I was trying so hard to make sure she was having fun, I jumped on the ride with gusto. Well, guess what? It is now my most favorite ride in the entire World. Like the whole world, not just Disney World. Best. Ride. Ever. I actually contemplated buying one of these...
...but then thought better of it. After all, I'm a grown up, right? But they are so cute!
After Everest, my friend decided she was feeling not so good (imagine!) We visited every restroom between Everest and KS, (ok, there are only two, so it wasn’t that bad) only to find the wait for KS was 40 minutes. While my friend bought a much-needed bottle of water, I ran over and got FPs for the safari, and we continued on our way. We stopped at two more bathrooms en route to Tough to Be a Bug, which we watched while we waited for our FPs to mature. She liked ‘bug’, though she screamed bloody murder at the spider part (as did I upon my first viewing).
After Bug, it was time for our safari ride. Even in the FP line, we waited a good 15-20 minutes...and then the ride was a bit disappointing. I realize that there’s not always going to be animals out, and I’m ok with that, but I think my friend was a little bit bored. To be fair, it is still a very cool ride even without many animals--but that’s because I like things like that. My friend was less than amused.
We arrived at AK at around 9am, and upon exiting KS it was around 11:10. I had reservations for Yak and Yeti for noon, but my friend needed to eat sooner rather than later. Fortunately, the nice people at Y&Y were able to seat us almost immediately--I think my friend sitting in the corner looking a bit green did the trick! Well, that and the fact that they had just opened, and not many people had arrived yet.
We were seated upstairs, along the railing of the open staircase. She ordered Won Ton soup, which she thought would help her stomach (it did) and the Honey Chicken. I ordered the Tamarind Chicken with no appetizer--I was waiting for dessert.
The Tamarind Chicken was very, very good. It was plated in a rather unusual way--it was a boneless breast, marinated and grilled and then sliced, but placed back together to resemble one whole piece--with a leg sticking out the side. It was very odd--but very tasty. The stir fried veggies underneath were equally good. I love bok choy, so that might have been why I loved it so much. The rice was less than great, but I’m a rice snob--if it’s not sticky rice or jasmine rice (which this was not, despite what it says on the menu) then it is not my cup of tea. But the amazing chicken and veggies more than made up for it. I didn’t taste my friend’s honey chicken, but she gave it thumbs up.
And then, dessert. I had the fried won tons, as I read about them on here and had to try them. They were SO very good. Fried won tons filled with cream cheese, drizzled with coconut sauce and served with fresh pineapple? Yes please!
Honestly, I think they look good, but they were even better than they looked. My friend said she’s ‘try one’, but we ended up sharing them, as one bite was clearly not enough!
At this point my friend had to leave--she had to pick her son up from school, and it was nearing 12:30. I walked her to the gate...
And then paused to wonder at the appropriateness of my Y&Y fortune cookie fortune...
...before turning around to go back into the park. Because I had not really ‘accomplished’ anything when un-solo, I decided to look at my return to the park as my first time entering for the day--it was kind of like trying to hit reset on your brain. I walked in and to the left, headed towards a show I hoped would be both entertaining and good for my research--The Festival of the Lion King.
I am totally with your love of EE—the queue line is fascinating and beautiful, and it is the BEST ride. Even though TSMM is amazing, I think EE is my favorite. And I love the little plush ball Yetis. I wish they made them smaller—I’d totally put him on my desk.
Can’t wait to hear more about what you thought about FotLK!!
While iasw is my sentimental favorite, EE is my very favorite attraction! One trip, I rode it 7 times in a row! We even took the time to ride it during the marathon!
Great updates! Good for you to ride on EE. I will never even attempt it!
it was so much less scary than i thought (that's awful grammar, sorry, but you know what i mean!) the man i met in line at epcot the previous day explained it the best--he said 'it's just FUN!'...and then he smiled really big. that's how i'd describe it. fun. not scary.
I am totally with your love of EE—the queue line is fascinating and beautiful, and it is the BEST ride. Even though TSMM is amazing, I think EE is my favorite. And I love the little plush ball Yetis. I wish they made them smaller—I’d totally put him on my desk.
i saw a keychain sized yeti ball, but passed on that, too. if i put it on my desk, it would become a projectile! (i teach 8th grade--they, um, like to throw things...)
oh man!!! I want to go back to Y&Y right now just for desert!!! Isn't that the best tasting thing you've had??? ooohhhh..........my mouth is watering!!!!!!!!!!!
Hopefully your AK time got better and more productive!!!
__________________
Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Deb
)
Linear Mode
