A Foodie Celebrates 40 TR (Sept. 28-Oct. 7, 2012) - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Where: BCV/AKL split stay
When: September 28 - October 7, 2012
Who: Shayne (that's me!) and DH David
Why: My 40th birthday celebration. My birthday was on 9/11, but we wanted to celebrate at F&WF, so we delayed our trip until 9/28.
Day 1, Friday 9/28; Part 1: Here we go!
The last 2 weeks before our trip were absolutely crazy at home -- work, kids' homework, Cub Scouts, peewee football -- I was losing my mind. And that meant I didn't get to pack a single thing into my suitcase until the night before we left! I was up until 1:30 a.m., then fell into bed only to have the alarm rouse me at 4:30 a.m. We were out the door at 5:30 and arrived at the airport at 6:20 for our 7:25 a.m. Southwest flight. We checked 3 bags and went through the long security line.
There were 3 young women who were close to missing their flight and were asking each person/family in line if they could move ahead in line. I didn't mind moving aside, as we had plenty of time and I've been in that situation before, and it's a terrible position to be in. The lady in front of us let them pass, but chastised them to "leave the house earlier next time." I guess she hadn't had her coffee yet.
We got recombobulated after passing through security and started toward our gate, when we realized that we had lost the folio from the gate agent with the numbers/bar codes for our checked bags. We returned to the security area, where I knew I had seen it in an outside pocket of our backpack after it went through the scanning machine, but couldn't find it, even after a TSA agent helped us look around. Oh well, we'd just have to hope our bags didn't get lost.
We had paid for EBCI on Southwest and got assigned boarding positions A25 and A26. David had only flown Southwest once before, and wasn't really a fan. But our growing disillusionment with United (we were former Continental loyalists) along with much cheaper airfares for this itinerary meant we were flying Southwest this time. Not long after we got to the gate, it was time to board. We walked on and easily found an aisle and middle seat toward the front of the plane. Our plane was wi-fi equipped, which was kind of cool. The flight was uneventful AND we arrived 17 minutes early. Score! By the time our feet hit the ground in Orlando, David was sold on Southwest!
I was tired, so I stopped at Starbucks in the terminal at MCO before making our way to DME. We entered the line for DME at 11:00 and were on the bus at 11:05! We departed MCO at 11:19 and stopped first at POR. Lots of people got off here, so it took a few minutes to get underway again. Next stop was Boardwalk. Here, we saw a family -- grandparents, mom and preschool DD -- waiting on our bus to arrive with a cocktail in hand. Soon, a young, fit, clean cut man got off the bus (I'm guessing military) and was greeted with hugs and kisses, gleeful shouts of "Daddy!" and the aforementioned cocktail. It made me smile to see such a happy family reunion at such a happy place!
We finally got to BC at noon and went to the online check-in area. Our room wasn't ready, but we got everything else squared away, including my birthday button. When the CM pulled out her Sharpie, I was hoping she had nice handwriting. She tried to make my name look fancy, though, and it ended up looking like "Shayze" instead of "Shayne." Oh well, either way, it was still celebratory!
We checked our bags with Bell Services and walked to B&C for lunch. We got in with no wait and had Maria as our server. We had her back in December, I think, and I liked her a lot. There is a revamped menu at B&C, so I tried the Bacon Angus cheeseburger with a cherry Coke and David had just a plain burger.
WARNING: This TR will include lots of food porn!
We ordered a No Way Jose for dessert -- I can't go to B&C and NOT get one! -- and Maria dimmed the lights and turned on the rotating light like they do for a Kitchen Sink, brought me a birthday balloon, and had everyone in the restaurant sing "Happy Birthday" to me.
With our tummies full, we were ready to head to the pre-race expo to pick up our race packets for the Tower of Terror 10-Miler (for both of us) and the Happy Haunted Trail 5K (for David). Dedicated event buses were running from BC to WWS, and we had just missed a bus. After about 15 minutes, another bus came and drove us out to WWS.
We got our race packets, t-shirts, and commemorative pins. I also bought a finisher's t-shirt (hoping that I would, indeed, finish!). Of course, I couldn't resist some shopping while we were there, as the whole place is full of different kinds of running merchandise. I saw a cute sparkly Minnie Mouse running skirt, and I thought that would be fun, so I bought it. Then I realized that I had forgotten to bring a headband to absorb sweat. As luck would have it, Bondi Bands -- the brand I wear -- was there AND they had a red band with white polka dots.
Soon I realized that running without my normal running shorts would mean no pockets. So I found a running belt that was red with white polka dots and would hold my phone and other stuff I needed during the race. Look at me! Suddenly I had something approximating a costume!
While at the expo, David got a text saying that our villa was ready. So after I shopped to my heart's content, we caught a bus back to BC and headed to our room.
About This Page: 
I was up until 1:30 a.m., then fell into bed only to have the alarm rouse me at 4:30 a.m. We were out the door at 5:30 and arrived at the airport at 6:20 for our 7:25 a.m. Southwest flight. We checked 3 bags and went through the long security line.
The flight was uneventful AND we arrived 17 minutes early. Score! By the time our feet hit the ground in Orlando, David was sold on Southwest! 
We entered the line for DME at 11:00 and were on the bus at 11:05! We departed MCO at 11:19 and stopped first at POR. Lots of people got off here, so it took a few minutes to get underway again. Next stop was Boardwalk. Here, we saw a family -- grandparents, mom and preschool DD -- waiting on our bus to arrive with a cocktail in hand. Soon, a young, fit, clean cut man got off the bus (I'm guessing military) and was greeted with hugs and kisses, gleeful shouts of "Daddy!" and the aforementioned cocktail. It made me smile to see such a happy family reunion at such a happy place! 
Oh well, either way, it was still celebratory!
-- and Maria dimmed the lights and turned on the rotating light like they do for a Kitchen Sink, brought me a birthday balloon, and had everyone in the restaurant sing "Happy Birthday" to me. 
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