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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Alrighty! I'm back from my whirlwind four days and it really was a lot of fun!
back to where I left off . . .
Day 2 Part 2
After lunch I headed towards Expedition Everest, where I was told the single rider line wait time was 25 to 30 minutes. Thats about 15 minutes too long for the SRL. Of course then I noticed that there were a ton of unaccompanied kids in the SRL and whole families. No love for the actual single rider there. So I moved on. I headed over to Dinosaur, where the wait was supposed to be 20 minutes, but it moved pretty quick. I was reading in line so I really didn't notice. Yes, I can walk and read on my iPhone at the same time--at least in a queue line. I rode with a family of 3 who were pretty jumpy--I of course screamed at the appropriate time when they take your picture. That big Dino really does scare the heck out of me every single time. I also learned that if you brace your hands out in front of you its a lot less jerky. I browsed through the gift shop, but didn't buy anything. I spent a lot of time shopping this trip, but very little time actually buying--I felt uninspired by most of the merch.
After Dino I headed back to EE, where the SRL seemed a little more manageable. I think I waited about 15 minutes. I bought a EE magnet in the gift shop and decided I'd had enough of the park for the day. Just as I approached my bus stop my bus was pulling away . . .oopps too much meandering through the stores, but still no purchases.
A bus for Ft. Wilderness pulled up and I decided it was time for a little adventure. I thought about the time constraints for my dinner reservation and decided I had plenty of time! I forgot about the transportation issues at Ft Wilderness. Oopps! So I ended up at the Outpost and had to look at a map to figure out which bus to get on to arrive at the Settlement. Turns out all of the buses end up there, so I got on the first internal bus that arrived. The purple bus serves both the cabins and the meadows. It was pretty neat to see the cabins. I used to work at a summer camp, so it was all very nostalgic for me. Although most of the cabins I lived in for those 10 summers were not in the shape that the Ft Wilderness cabins were in. (Although, all of the brand new lodge style living at same camp were lovely, with state of the art composting toilets! Unfortunately most of my time was spent in older cabins--anyone read Camp by Michael Eisner? My time at Frost Valley really did shape the person I am today.)
There were tons of teepees set up in the meadows--don't know if some sort of weird gathering was going on or if there are always there--anyway--pretty neat!
I arrived at the Settlement a few minutes later and noticed that a bunch of sites were decorated for either Halloween/Thanksgiving or Christmas. I took a quick look and was pretty amazed. That's something I'd love to do when I retire: book a Ft. Wilderness campsite for a month or two and just live at WDW. I'm sure, with my background, that I could probably do it with a tent and a camping stove--just not in December. (Although it was quite warm for November)
I checked the Settlement Outpost for Ft. Wilderness merch--none to be had besides pins. Sad, Sad
I took a lovely boat ride back to the Contemporary, where I made a not so pleasant discovery. Mousekeeping had appropriated my wine glass, one of the ones I keep in my OL. Now granted, they aren't expensive glasses. I bought them at Target for $2.99 a piece, but they are hard plastic, dishwasher safe, Bordeaux glasses. I called housekeeping to inquire about my missing glass. I discovered something I don't love about Disney service--lack of empowerment. The person answering the phone said--let me go find my manager and have her call you back. I don't need that answer. Even if that is what the person is going to do--tell me--"I'm going to check on that and call you back myself." The manager did call me back and tell me she was going to look for it and she'd call me back with the results. I told her I was leaving for dinner shortly and that she should just leave me a message. She told me they'd deliver it to my room if they found it.
I went out and had a quick dip in the hot tub. I shared the hot tub with two adorable, but unsupervised children who were clearly lacking in the bathing suit department. Both kids, a girl and a boy, were swimming in their skivvies. I did enjoy my 15 minutes of bubbles. I went back upstairs and changed for dinner. There was a message on my phone that my glass had not been located, but $20 had been credited to my room. Okay.
I hopped back on the boat and headed for the Wilderness Lodge. I was about 30 minutes early for my ADR, but was seated immediately. The chef came out to discuss my allergies and let me know that anything I ordered would be personally overseen by the chef. Thanks!
As usual, I over ordered. I had the beet and goat cheese salad, which was not actually a salad, but rather three lumps of goat cheese topped with three beets and microgreens. I was hoping for more greens. I started out with a glass of Evolution to go with my beets. I followed it up with a serving of the lovely smoked Portabello mushroom soup. Its yummy, but its rich. Finally, I had the pork belly appetizer, which came on a butternut squash risotto. The pork belly was perfect, but the risotto was lacking in both flavor and seasoning. Salt people, its not something to be afraid of--pepper either! I've found, when cooking risotto that it needs to be seasoned several times during the cooking process--especially when adding a bland ingredient like squash. I only ate about 1/3. I had a glass of A-Z Pinot Noir with this one. (pretty good memory with no notes eh?)
I ordered the berry cobbler for dessert with a glass of ice wine, sorry I don't remember which one, but it was the one recommended with the dessert. I didn't come anywhere close to finishing it, but that's okay--it was still yummy. I did finish the ice wine.
At this point I was done, exhausted, worn out and just plain sleepy. I headed back to the Contemporary instead of the MK. I was planning on seeing Wishes and the Main Street Electrical Parade, but I just didn't have it in me. I bought a bottle of red in the gift shop and headed back to my room and my extra wine glass. I did hear most of the Electrical Water Pagent through my open window/door as I was drifting off to sleep.
I had an early, awesome morning at Epcot planned so it was good to get the much needed rest. More to come!
Oh just a note, I did check out the WL gift shop and they had tons of resort specific merch--but no regional wines Perhaps I should have checked Roaring Forks, but I didn't think of that until just now.
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