From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 6/30 - Page 65 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We have yet to see the Star Wars launch bay. It is definitely on the list for this time if it's open. Fun photos on the GMR and I can't wait to hear about the dessert party!!
Catching up with your TR - I realize I have said it many times but your photos are just stunning. I love the sky pic on your way along the Boardwalk (something I would generally take a photo of). Love love love the topiary pics. Bw those, the butterfly shots, and the perfect timing of the monorail shots...you really nailed my love for the Flower & Garden Festival. Yet another reason I am so torn when to travel this next trip. Looking forward to showing off your TR pics to JB's Dad since he has no understanding of Disney or the Festival.
Catching up with your TR - I realize I have said it many times but your photos are just stunning.
Thank you so much!
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I love the sky pic on your way along the Boardwalk (something I would generally take a photo of). Love love love the topiary pics. Bw those, the butterfly shots, and the perfect timing of the monorail shots...you really nailed my love for the Flower & Garden Festival. Yet another reason I am so torn when to travel this next trip.
I know. Disney don't make it easy, do they? We love the Flower and Garden Festival, but then you've got Food and Wine and the Halloween Party in the fall and we do love the holiday events, but we haven't made it to Disney for those since 2013 and there's no sign of us doing so for the next couple of years.
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Looking forward to showing off your TR pics to JB's Dad since he has no understanding of Disney or the Festival.
Thursday 2 March – part ten: experiencing the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party
When we came out of the Great Movie Ride, we made our way back to the Star Wars Launch Bay. We checked in and we were told that we could go in at 6:15pm, which was only five minutes away, so we hung around until we were told we could head in. We loved the lanyards they gave us, which we were able to keep…
When we walked in, this is the sight that greeted us…
As you can probably see, it wasn’t all desserts, something I knew beforehand, and something that had persuaded me to go for this. Although I have a sweet tooth, I was using this as a dinner, and I wanted some savoury items. You get flatbreads, cheese and olives (Mark had my olives), cheese and tomato, along with melon and grapes, and then you got into the cakes.
They all had some great names attached to them, but a lot of them were quite basic – i.e. the BB8 and R2D2 cupcakes were just vanilla cupcakes, albeit with some wonderful decoration on them. I don’t quite know what it is with Darth Vadar, because again here the cakes with him on them were all peanut butter. Now I don’t know about you, but I see him as more a dark chocolate person, rather than peanut butter…
In case you’re worried about the food running out, don’t. Mark said to me “you’ll be lucky” when I went back for something, but I knew I’d be fine, as I saw Cast Members regularly replenishing everything out there, and I don’t think they ran out at all.
As well as the food, there were drinks on offer. Some were non-alcoholic, but they had a number of alcoholic cocktails as well. The galactic punch was made up of coconut rum, spiced rum, mango syrup, and passion, orange and guava juice, while the cosmic citrus twist was citrus vodka, and watermelon lemonade. The light speed margarita had tequila, blood orange syrup, sour mix and lime juice, while swamp milk was vodka, melon liqueur, vanilla syrup, and topped with half and half.
The galactic punch was wonderful, but dangerous, as it was one where you didn’t taste the alcohol, and later on at the bar, I saw just how much alcohol went into it! We also tried the swamp milk, but my goodness, that stuff was potent!
To begin with, they have people serving it to you, but when I went back to get some more, I discovered you then had to go to the bar to get it, which I didn’t realise.
I was a bit concerned that we might not find somewhere to sit in here, but we found space on the benches in here easily enough. If standing for long periods is an issue for you, then you might want to make sure you get in early enough to snag a seat, as they did fill up.
During the party, the Stormtroopers were constantly walking around through the buffet area, although I have no idea if the Jawwas remained out, as we didn’t go into that area. It was a nice touch.
Because you were in the Launch Bay, you could go and see Chewbacca and Kylo Ren if you want, but we didn’t bother. I think I saw a few people go and do that though.
To be honest, there is more than enough to fill yourself up from the buffet, and we did. We actually ate more of the savoury items than the sweet ones, as we found that we’d had enough of those quite quickly. We also had a good few cocktails between us. Once you add up the maths of that, trust me, the price you pay for this really isn’t that bad…. And that’s before you get to the fireworks viewing.
You have more than enough time to eat. In fact, we were probably ready to go from about 7:10pm. We’d been told that we’d go about 7:20pm, which seemed early to me, given that the fireworks were at 7:45pm, but in the event, we were told the leaving time would actually be 7:30pm, which worked for me, as it allowed me plenty of time to be sitting down before we headed out.
When we did, we were led by the two Stormtroopers – oh my goodness, can you imagine how cool that was?
They then stood at the entrance to our VIP viewing area, and it was here we all got handed Chewbacca mugs. I kind of half knew about this, but forgot, and it was a pain, as neither of us had a bag to put them in, so had to hold them while taking photos of the fireworks.
Directly in front of us was the disabled viewing area, and apart from maybe half a dozen people on scooters, it was deserted, so we had a really clear view of everything, as the next people in front of us in the general viewing area were maybe 10 metres or so in front. Although we were slightly off to the left, it was a perfect place to watch them from.
I've heard that this is worthwhile. So glad you could experience it!
All of those drinks sound tasty. I'll have one of each! And the spread of food looks delicious too, quite the variety which is nice.
But yes, why isn't Darth Vader's cupcake made of dark chocolate? Hmm.....
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Wow, that's very different from the Disneyland dessert party! I'd have loved a lanyard. Sounds well worth it! I may need to sign up for this on our November trip!
But I need to log on from home, as the pictures aren't coming thru at work. Stupid firewalls, always getting in my way!
OK, I'm still catching up, but I had to respond to this before I forgot...
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Originally Posted by chezp
We both absolutely fell in love with Loews Portofino Bay. The theming absolutely blew us away, and we’d both happily stay here, even though it costs a small fortune.
This hotel holds a special place in my heart, so it thrills me so much when people love it. And the next time we're both in Orlando at the same time, perhaps we can work out a stay that won't cost a small fortune.
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Glad to hear that you enjoyed the Star Wars Dessert Party! We liked it too! Our favorite item was the seasoned pita bread! I did NOT like the swamp milk. I could have lived without the Chewbacca mug, and actually ended up leaving mine in our hotel room, although my DH and DS brought theirs home.
Wow, that's very different from the Disneyland dessert party!
Oh interesting - different how? Dessert parties weren't something I'd really considered until this one, but it was so good, now I'm interested in others...
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I'd have loved a lanyard. Sounds well worth it! I may need to sign up for this on our November trip!
But I need to log on from home, as the pictures aren't coming thru at work. Stupid firewalls, always getting in my way!
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We also tried the swamp milk, but my goodness, that stuff was potent! 
And the spread of food looks delicious too, quite the variety which is nice. 
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