Dreaming of a Disney spring break! THIS SECTION COMPLETED - Page 51 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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The tour looked like tons of fun, loved the pictures. I really enjoyed seeing them as I have never really explored Ft. Wilderness, but it does look beautiful.
Great tour so far! Are those segways more "rugged" than regular segways?
They are They can certainly do much more than normal Segways. I was a bit scared at first when we went off-road and I was going over branches and things, as I kept expecting my Segway to fall over, but no, it coped fine with everything it rode over.
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Friday 8 April – part three: still Disney’s best burgers?
We were introduced to some of the horses here, including the one that usually acts as the Headless Horseman in the Halloween Party. They were all beautiful beasts and this is definitely somewhere worth spending some time, especially if you’re staying at Fort Wilderness.
That all done, we were off again and heading out along the trail to Wilderness Lodge, learning about some of the plants that we passed, including the fascinating tale of air potatoes, which grow really quickly and were originally for feeding cattle. The only problem? The cows didn’t like them!
On the way, we did a little bit of off-road work, going through a pine grove. I must admit, at first, I was a bit scared of this, thinking that I’d be thrown off my Segway every time we went over a branch, but my goodness, these things do take a serious battering. They just didn’t worry about anything they went over, although I quickly learnt how to use my knees as shock absorbers off road!
Soon we were at the Wilderness Lodge, so at least now I know where the trail to Fort Wilderness is. We went through the Villas, which was really neat, as this was something I just wasn’t expecting to do. :
We headed back towards Fort Wilderness, stopping for a photo opportunity, with a view of the Contemporary (learning it was once called the Tempo Bay Resort – interesting), Bay Lake Tower and Cinderella Castle behind.
Then we headed back gradually to where we had started from, doing a bit more off road work through the pine groves again and hearing more about the resort, Disney history and a couple of corny gags on the way as well.
I can’t praise this tour highly enough, although my goodness, it is tough work on you physically. At one of the stops, they did encourage you to try and get the circulation going in your legs and I could see why. Somehow, this felt tougher than the Epcot tours. My ankles and knees were really aching when we got off and, much as I’d loved this tour, I wasn’t sad when it was over, as I don’t think my body could’ve taken much more. :
We profusely thanked Ron and Forrest for being such excellent guides and received our exclusive pins for doing this tour, which is always a nice touch. I think we both enjoyed this tour more, because you could do more on your Segways in terms of going off road and also we were exploring an area that we’re really not that familiar with. At Epcot, you’re in familiar territory the whole way round. However, we all found that the maximum speed limit of six miles an hour was a bit frustrating, as we all got to the limit at times. I think Ben nearly fell off his Segway at one point, as when they get to their maximum speed, they start rearing up a bit on you.
We wandered back to the bus stop, marvelling at how busy the pool now was, which had been deserted just a couple of hours earlier. It was already baking hot, which was no surprise, but it was disappointing, as it was sapping your energy.
We made it to the bus stop and caught one almost immediately. Again, it wasn’t empty as the one earlier had been. We were soon back at our starting point and I took a few photos of the trail rides area, before heading back to the car.
We drove back to the Beach Club Villas and headed back to our respective rooms for a few minutes, meeting up a few minutes later downstairs. We all headed over to Beaches and Cream for lunch and we were delighted to see Delores the second we walked in, both giving her huge hugs. She was our server and of course, she was wonderful as always.
Wendy waiting for us!
We knew what we were going to have, with both of us getting a Caesar salad, followed by a burger for Mark and a veggie burger for me.
Josh went for the onion rings and someone else liked the look of them!
He had fun with his burger as well:
For dessert, I went for the fudge mud slide and boy was that good!
Ben and Josh both seemed to be enjoying their No Way Jose as well, although the thought of that with peanut butter in is just horrific to me. I can’t stand peanut butter! :
Wendy joined the kids in getting a Mickey ice cream dessert:
”Now what shall I get?”
We had such good fun, especially Josh, who was loving all the music on the jukebox. Despite his age, he’s a real child of the 1950s and 1960s, although Wendy and I kept telling him that the 1980s were much better. He wasn’t buying that!
Now you see her.... ... now you don’t!
We had such a fun time in there. Beaches and Cream just never ceases to deliver and that’s why it’s a firm favourite for us.
Beaches and Cream:
Appetiser 9 9
Entree 9½ 9
Dessert 9 N/A
Service 9½ 9
Atmosphere 10 9
Value for money 8½ 9
Yes, 16 and you cannot weigh over 250lbs..............they say the Segways just simply won't go. Josh was meant to go, but he does weigh over 250lbs...............it's all feet though.
Great photos Chez!! Josh was so "mine, mine, mine" with his onion rings, I believe we only got one!! LOL
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Just got all caught up with your updates! Loved hearing about your Ft. Wilderness segway tour and of course your meal at Beaches N Cream. Sorry your meal at the Cape May Cafe was less than stellar but you did have great company to share your meal with After hearing about the segway tour I am definitely considering trying one out. Would you recommend the Epcot one or the Ft. Wilderness one for a first timer?