Dreaming of a Disney spring break! THIS SECTION COMPLETED - Page 74 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Thank you!! Sometimes Joshua surprises the Holy heck out of me. I am thinking that there just might, might have been 1 character taller than him. It'd have to be Goofy and only because of the hat.
You got some great photos of me with the different kids. Bob blends right in with my family here: And obviously, he got the memo to wear matching shirts.
Thank goodness my Bestie knows me so well and surprised me with this a few weeks after getting home:
He is just the cutest thing I've seen down there for ages. I was quite bummed that my DH didn't get big HINT that I wanted it either. You rock Chez!
You are so right about Bob blending in - you have an extra family member!
How your family didn't pick up on those hints, I do not know - they were not subtle, shall we say? Happy to pick him up for you, my buddy!
We are big Queen fans in this house, too! Getting to choose your own soundtrack seems like a definite benefit of renting a car over Disney transport. We've never rented a car at WDW, but we will next month!
Great picture of you all at CM's! Looking forward to reading about the meal.
Just a note for those heading to Chef Mickey's: it helps to be extremely firm with the people at check in about what you want and when you want it. (NOW!)
Catching up on your last few updates! that pirate shirt! Great time at MK! All the pictures are terrific and it is so to see the happiness on everyone's faces. The group picture at Chef Mickey's is great. What a wonderful group!
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A break at the resort sounds like the perfect way to cool down from the heat. Love the group shot at Chef Mickey's, sorry that you had such a logn wait.
You're right, I should have done the "this is what I want, buy it for me now" thing. They *might* have gotten it.
Bit like me with the Madonna concert tickets a couple of years ago. I should've just said to Mark "that's what I want, buy them for my birthday". I thought the hints I was dropping were totally unsubtle, but obviously not...
We are big Queen fans in this house, too! Getting to choose your own soundtrack seems like a definite benefit of renting a car over Disney transport. We've never rented a car at WDW, but we will next month!
It is - and it's even better now, we just bring our iPod and lead, instead of lots of CDs. It's been great to have that with us!
Saturday 9 April – part seven: chaos with a bunch of real characters at Chef Mickey’s
Eventually, we were seated at around 7pm in a small room (guess they’ve heard about us before then... ) and this is where the chaos started!
As we got up there, Minnie was just doing the rounds, so first we got photos with her, both big and little children alike...
Then Goofy arrived – the only character that can see eye to eye with Josh!
Next up was Mickey... and of course everyone wanted a photo with the main mouse!
Just as we thought we might be able to sit down and get to the buffet, : because Donald arrived on the scene as well.
It was completely mad, but we saw all the characters, bar Pluto, literally within 10 minutes of arriving at our table, which was quite something.
All 13 of us had been crammed on to one big circular table, which worked, except I don’t think it was designed for 13 people. It was a very, very tight fit with a couple of people having to eat off their lap, as they couldn’t even get their chairs near the table. Eventually, Mark collared someone and they agreed to us having the small circular table next door that seated about four, so that we were all a bit more comfortable.
Sean and Sharon joined us on the smaller table, but Ciaran decided to stay put on the big table and he made great friends with Brandon:
As you can see, everyone was having a great time:
From there, it was off to the buffet and my goodness, what a great choice here. As Ben said to me, “much better than Cape May Cafe”, but then again, it couldn’t be much worse. On my first trip up, I loaded up with salad items and Sharon and I both fell in love with the coleslaw – it really was to die for!
Next time, I hit the hot food items and the salmon with the dill alioli was so tender, it just fell away when you cut it and was beautifully moist. All too often, the fish can be dry on a buffet, but not here. I asked our server Dan to pass on our compliments to the chef and he told me that it’s all to do with how they cook it. I can’t remember the term he used now, but apparently it’s only used at two buffets on Disney property. Now you might think that maybe it should be used at every buffet, if it tasted so good here, but the other place it’s used, obviously not to as great effect, is the Cape May Cafe.
Dan was a wonderful server and looked after us very well. At one point, I saw him and went to ask for another water and there he was, carrying one for me! I got a Bahama Mama there in honour of Sue and Steve – miss you guys!
Of course, we had the napkin waving as well:
As we ate, Pluto came round and we got our photos with him as well.
The characters were certainly very quick at rotating and, before we knew it, all of them were doing a second run at our table.
Chef Mickey’s
Food 9˝ 8˝
Service 9˝ 9
Atmosphere 10 10
Value for money 9 8˝
Average score: 9.25
As always with a big group, settling the check takes a while and we had some fun working out who owed what. Wendy and ourselves were paying with the room keys, so Heather and Brandon headed off to the Magic Kingdom to get a spot for the parade and to meet up with Bob and Larry, while we finished things off at the ranch.
Next: three night-time treats at the Magic Kingdom
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I am thinking that there just might, might have been 1 character taller than him. It'd have to be Goofy and only because of the hat.
Bob blends right in with my family here:
Happy to pick him up for you, my buddy! 
Holly: 
that pirate shirt! Great time at MK! All the pictures are terrific and it is so 
to see the happiness on everyone's faces. The group picture at Chef Mickey's is great. What a wonderful group! 
: because Donald arrived on the scene as well. 
Eventually, Mark collared someone and they agreed to us having the small circular table next door that seated about four, so that we were all a bit more comfortable. 
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