Putting a boot into our original Easter plans… COMPLETED 5/3 - Page 10 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Oh my gosh what a cool tour!! I love the wacky glasses!! What great conversation pieces at a party!! The greenhouse is lovely and I would want to stay there too if it was pouring outside!!
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The greenhouse is so cool! How a distillery works is fascinating to me, I don't know why. It's just so interesting! How they work to get the flavors is so unique.
The competition for the glasses is pretty clever too. Some of those are really cool!
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Tanya
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The greenhouse is so cool! How a distillery works is fascinating to me, I don't know why. It's just so interesting! How they work to get the flavors is so unique.
I know what you mean. I think for me it's because I just can't begin to imagine the process they go through to make these things...
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The competition for the glasses is pretty clever too. Some of those are really cool!
Quite a nice tour and you got a lot of good info and background on the Bombay Saffire gin. Always thought as well the blue came from the alcohol and not the bottle as it is. Love those greenhouses and a lot to see in those.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Quite a nice tour and you got a lot of good info and background on the Bombay Saffire gin. Always thought as well the blue came from the alcohol and not the bottle as it is.
You and me both. It's so true that you learn something every day.
Sadly, we had to move on eventually and out of the nice warmth of the greenhouses and, when we did, we went into the “smelling room”. That’s my name for it, not theirs, by the way! You’re given a card and you have something like 22 scents to sniff. They come from different botanics – either pine, spicy, earthy, citrus or floral. Now they suggest that you clip (you hole punch out the ones you look) at least three, but you can do more than that if you like. Well, I can tell you that we both struggled to even find three we liked. Some, like the liquorice, were disgusting to me, while others just didn’t smell of anything or much to me.
We bypassed the first table when we came in, as it was so busy, and we were then pinning all our hopes on finding something there, as out of the other three tables, I’d found one thing I liked the smell of and Mark hadn’t found any. Thankfully, we both liked a couple of the citrus elements on here, so at least we had something. Phew! Why was this important? Well, you’ll find out in due course. It’s pretty neat, I’ll tell you that.
This is essentially a waiting area to go into the distillery area and this is where I’d been told I needed a wheelchair, which is fine with me, as I had “open toed shoes”, because technically the protective boot is open at the toes. However, there was quite the debate between the staff members, who eventually decided that they were happy for me to go in as I was. After all, as they said, even in a wheelchair, I’d still be in open toed shoes. They opted to do a ground floor only tour, because I’d be on it, which was really good of them.
There were lots of people waiting to go through on the tour, but as we were talking to the staff, they told us they’d take us through first, so I could get one of the chairs they had in there, which was decent of them and also guaranteed we’d be on this tour. I’m sure there were a number of people who didn’t make it and had to wait for the next tour.
No-one was allowed to take photos and you had to turn your phones off and leave anything that couldn’t be turned off, like FitBits. I managed to get a couple of photos from the “smelling room” before the tour started….
I honestly can’t tell you a huge amount about the process, as a) there was a lot to take in and b) I couldn’t hear our guide the whole time. It wasn’t just the fact that I was sitting at the back of the group, Mark also made the same comment.
I know that the botanics were put in a basket at the top of the vat, although neither of us could work out where that was. It’s also the same process, in some respect, as that for making whiskey, as you get the “head”, which is too strong in alcohol terms, so has to be syphoned off, the “tail” which are the dregs, which also have to be syphoned off. This leaves the “heart”, which is the only part that goes on to the next part of the process.
Towards the end of the tour, our guide talked about how the tasters put the gin together and decide which of the products it will become. It’s a bit like wine tasting, from what I could gather, in that they swill it around in the glass (I know, very technical! ) to see how much it rides around the glass, then they taste it.
Then our guide brought out a glass that was 95% proof. We were warned not to sip it, otherwise it would burn our throat and we’d end up in hospital (I didn’t need telling twice! ) and we were only to put our little fingers in and put a tiny bit on it to sample it. I have to say it tasted like antiseptic. I certainly wasn’t going back to try a second sip!
I can't believe what a cool place this is! Plenty to do and see. The smelling room sounds very interesting and what a shame that you guys couldn't hear more about the process of how the gin is made. However, it sounds really gross. I am not a gin fan at all, but I think if I had the opportunity, I would check this distillery out!!
Sounds very similar to a wine "smelling" room! A shame you couldn't hear everything about the process as it's so weird to know they combine all this stuff to make a drink. But 95%?! Cripes.
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
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What great conversation pieces at a party!! 
The greenhouse is lovely and I would want to stay there too if it was pouring outside!!
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Love those greenhouses and a lot to see in those.
Thankfully, we both liked a couple of the citrus elements on here, so at least we had something. Phew! Why was this important? Well, you’ll find out in due course. It’s pretty neat, I’ll tell you that. 
) to see how much it rides around the glass, then they taste it. 
) and we were only to put our little fingers in and put a tiny bit on it to sample it. I have to say it tasted like antiseptic. I certainly wasn’t going back to try a second sip! 
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