A 40th celebration to end the world! THREAD 1 COMPLETED 2/16 - Page 60 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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As a former choir member, I am not surprised at all to hear of folks passing out due to the heat this year. Those robes are THICK!! And there is little to no air circulating in that many people crammed together on those risers... and if folks get a little nervous, they tend to lock their knees... and down they go. First rule of public choir performances, dress in loose, cool clothes under those robes... but I think Disney has a set dress code - white shirt, black pants... not exactly cool shorts and a t-shirt.
Also I think that there are multiple groups from different locations all mixed together for each performance. I realize they could announce where the choirs are from, but I think the idea is that this is the "Candlelight choir" - and not some mix of other choirs.
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One of these days Luke and I will finally get to see the Candlelight Processional live for ourselves, but until then I truly enjoy reading about others experiences at this performance. I have to agree with all Terri said about the said about the choir and the heat as I've sung in choirs for years and robes are soooo hot. I don't know how many times I've chanted in my head, "Don't lock your knees."
beautiful pics, love the port-a-potty ones They have cooling vests for runners, I wonder if they would ever consider using those. Much better than watching someone fall out. I mean they KNOW the singers are going to faint, right? A quick search finds them for about $70 each. Expensive, but worth it I think...
As a former choir member, I am not surprised at all to hear of folks passing out due to the heat this year. Those robes are THICK!! And there is little to no air circulating in that many people crammed together on those risers... and if folks get a little nervous, they tend to lock their knees... and down they go. First rule of public choir performances, dress in loose, cool clothes under those robes... but I think Disney has a set dress code - white shirt, black pants... not exactly cool shorts and a t-shirt.
Also I think that there are multiple groups from different locations all mixed together for each performance. I realize they could announce where the choirs are from, but I think the idea is that this is the "Candlelight choir" - and not some mix of other choirs.
Thanks for sharing that Terri - and I didn't realise that you'd been a choir member before. You learn something new every day!
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One of these days Luke and I will finally get to see the Candlelight Processional live for ourselves, but until then I truly enjoy reading about others experiences at this performance. I have to agree with all Terri said about the said about the choir and the heat as I've sung in choirs for years and robes are soooo hot. I don't know how many times I've chanted in my head, "Don't lock your knees."
Christmas 2014? Just saying.... You know one day we will meet up... hopefully!
beautiful pics, love the port-a-potty ones They have cooling vests for runners, I wonder if they would ever consider using those. Much better than watching someone fall out. I mean they KNOW the singers are going to faint, right? A quick search finds them for about $70 each. Expensive, but worth it I think...
I think it would be worth it, but then again, I can see that it is a lot of money for each person....
Sunday 9 December – part seven: “can you get a photo of us?”
When we arrived at Tutto Gusto, they asked if we wanted to stand at the bar or have a table, and I went for the latter. It was cool, as the tables were as high as the bar, and I ended up on the wooden “shelf” section, rather than the chairs around the table. I love it when it’s so high, you can’t actually get your feet on the floor. That’s always fun to me.
We had a look through the menus, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that you could get a variety of dishes from Tutto Italia, as well as dishes just from Tutto Gusto. Our server Paolo was a fun guy!
Clare and I were fascinated by the wine flights, and decided to get one each. I went for the sweet dessert flight, consisting of Moscato D’Asti, Verduzzo and Fior D’Arancio. It also included a tiramisu.
I was quite surprised when Mark got one as well, given he’s not a big drinker, and even more surprised that the one he got included two red wines, as usually he doesn’t drink those. He got From the Hills of Piemonte, made up of a Gavi, Barbera d’Alba and Langhe Nebbiolo.
As you can tell, they perhaps didn’t go down as well as perhaps he’d hoped….
We also had a look at the food menu. Mark declared he wasn’t hungry, but I got the L’Alpini, a cheese platter of cheese from Piemonte, near Switzerland.
Over the next couple of hours, we sat there, just enjoying the food, wine, and the good company. I cannot begin to tell you how much we laughed during that time. It was so much fun, and we ached from laughing by the end of it.
Soon it was time to head out to see IllumiNations and it was time to get the obligatory group photo, and this turned into one of the funniest spots of the whole evening. We asked Paolo to get the shot, but he couldn’t get far enough back, so he roped in the barman, who ended up having about four or five cameras coming his way. With some, the flash wouldn’t go off, with others, because it took so long to get the first photos, they’d turned themselves off. We ended up with quite an audience of Cast Members around us, as Clare said, probably to shield the guests from the lunacy taking place in our corner! It was hysterical, and how we got any group photos, I do not know.
Trying to work out the camera! Look at the camera-shy Cast Member behind Andy and Annabel I think Dawn is almost in tears here from laughing so much! And finally – what you’ve been waiting for – the photo we got!
We came out, and said our goodbyes to Dawn who was heading into work, with promises we’d see her on Friday night. We wandered through Italy, and into Germany. As we walked along, Mark voiced what I was thinking. We’d already talked about how deserted the park was, and literally no-one was lining up for IllumiNations at all. “Why don’t we look for a spot here, instead of going over to the Candlelight Processional viewing area, as everyone with a package will be over there?” Sounds good to me so we found a spot in Germany, just by the boat dock, and took up position.
Clare, Andy and I headed off to get drinks, with Andy getting a beer, and Clare and I heading into the wine shop and getting some Riesling Spatlese, so Andy ensured he kept our space for us.
We headed back to our spot to enjoy our drinks and heard the announcement that IllumiNations would be starting in 10 minutes. Then we had the announcement that there were technical issues, and we saw a boat zipping back and forth across the lagoon, as presumably they tried to deal with their technical issues.
In the meantime, we saw some of Wishes from the Magic Kingdom.
Soon we heard another announcement, and I stood up, assuming IllumiNations would be starting, but it was the five minute warning. At least it would be underway soon enough, and it was. It turned out to be a great spot to watch it from, and I managed not to well up until the last couple of minutes of music, which is good going for me. I got loads of photos of it, as you’d expect…
My photos:
Mark’s photos:
When it was done, we said our goodbyes to Annabel and Andy, who were heading back to Port Orleans, and we walked slowly back through the various countries with Clare and Andy.
When we got to International Gateway, we said our goodbyes to them. It had been such a wonderful afternoon and evening with great company. As always, PassPorter meets are so much fun. And guys, we must do it again in the UK sometime soon – we did talk about Westfield in Stratford, so maybe we’ll have to do that?
We walked back to the Marketplace, as Mark, not having eaten anything earlier, was hungry, so we grabbed a cinnamon bun for him, and I got an ice cream. I couldn’t believe we still had five snack credits to use even after that!
As we walked back to the room, I had a cunning plan. We had an extra table service credit now, and perhaps we could use for breakfast, but maybe not so much to eat, but to enjoy some character time? I suggested seeing if we could get into the Cape May Café, but we wouldn’t eat, we’d be there to see the characters, and Mark agreed. When I logged on, I was able to get 7:55am, so that worked.
I literally could not keep my eyes open any longer, so that was it, bedtime for me.
The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the low 80s. The best thing today was the PassPorter afternoon and evening we had together. The worst thing today was not being able to get to the Orlando Premium Outlets. The funniest thing today was our time at Tutto Gusto. Today we tried visiting Tutto Gusto And the result was it was a huge amount of fun! The most magical moment today was seeing Dawn in the Candlelight Processional.
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Sounds like a perfect evening! Love some of the faces Mark was making with the wine - my DH is not a drinker, and he makes those same faces if I'm successful in cajoling him to try my wine selection!
Tutto Gusto looks so great, and even better with a fun group like yours! I had planned to go there on my last trip, but never made it. I did have a nice meal at the main restaurant, though. Are all the chairs the high ones, or do they also have regular tables? Just asking because I can't get up onto those!
Definately looks like you folks all enjoyed yourselves at Tutto Gusto despite Mark's facial contortions Love how he saved your viewing spot for Illuminations Great shots of that BTW
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You know one day we will meet up... hopefully! 
Sounds good to me 
At least it would be underway soon enough, and it was. 
I got loads of photos of it, as you’d expect… 
And guys, we must do it again in the UK sometime soon – we did talk about Westfield in Stratford, so maybe we’ll have to do that? 
Boy, it's about time I read the current PP WDW guidebook so I'll be ready for our trip in May 
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