A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM - Page 12 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Gelato sounded like a perfect finish to your visit of the gardens. Glad you made it on to the 6:00 PM ferry. But best all you got to see some Canadian cows. D
Gelato sounded like a perfect finish to your visit of the gardens. Glad you made it on to the 6:00 PM ferry. But best all you got to see some Canadian cows. D
I'd be lying if I told you that wasn't a highlight of my day...
Monday 7 September – part fourteen: I don’t want the other desserts feeling left out!
Once we were on board the ferry, we headed up to deck five on a mission – to get to the Pacific Buffet for dinner.
There was a line when we got there, mainly because it was right by where the foot passengers get on, so they could obviously get there a lot quicker than the car drivers and passengers could. At first, my heart sank, but to be honest, there were probably no more than 15 people in front of us in line. We paid ($22.95 CAD each for the all-you-can-eat-buffet) and in we went. It really wasn’t that busy in there, and we were given a window table, which worked for us. We were warned that if they got busy, we might have to share, as it was a table of four, which was fine with us, but the restaurant never filled up, and there were always tables available.
The selection at the buffet was excellent. Obviously, we had sussed it out earlier, so I knew there’d be plenty for me, and there certainly was. I started off with a plate from the salad selection….
Next I moved on to the main courses, and here I got mushroom ravioli, salmon, and shrimps, all of which were excellent.
Here’s what Mark got on one of his trips to the buffet:
We both agreed that the food quality was excellent. Ok, so we’re not talking the standard of the Wonder here, but for a ferry service, it was good, down-to-earth food well cooked, and we both thought the price was very good indeed, as if they did something similar on the cross channel ferries between England and France (they don’t), I strongly suspect they’d charge a lot more than that.
Finally it was time to head over for desserts, and I think you can probably guess what I went for…
You will notice there’s a space on my plate in this shot. That’s because there were no raspberry ones left on my first round. Let’s just say that and the pistachio ones were very popular, because every time they filled up with the same number of each flavour, those were the first to go. It took two more visits to the buffet and a kind word with the woman up there before I finally got to sample a raspberry one…
I also tried some of the other desserts, as I didn’t want them feeling left out.
By the way, we did keep an eye open for any orcas, but again we had no sightings. It didn’t help that it was gradually starting to get dark as we boarded, so it was pretty much impossible to take photos outside, as all you got were the reflections of the lights inside the restaurant. That only got worse as the darkness grew, until we could see nothing more outside. I suspect that’s probably the point at which the orcas put in their starring appearance!
The nice thing was that once you had finished your meal, you could still stay in the restaurant for the rest of the ferry ride, and that’s what everyone else did, so we did too. When we heard the call for everyone to return to our vehicles, we set off, and about 10 minutes later, we were heading off the boat.
We made it back to the airport fine, even if our GPS did throw a fit on the way back, and decide we were on a new road. I don’t think we are, as we took exactly the same route out here, and you managed fine this morning.
When we got back to Dollar/Thrifty, there was only one woman on duty checking in the cars, which made for a painful wait. It didn’t help that there was an Oriental family in front of us, and my goodness, they were fussing around. I couldn’t fathom out what the problem was, and I don’t think the woman checking the cars back in could either. Finally they were dealt with, and we checked our car back in, and headed back to the hotel.
We had to walk through the airport check-in area to get to it, but that worked, as at least we now know where the WestJet check-in is.
We made it back to the room about 9:45pm. It had been a very long day, but a worthwhile one, and I can now say I’ve been to Victoria and the Butchart Gardens.
After checking in for tomorrow morning’s flight, and paying for our luggage, we headed to bed. Tomorrow would need to be an early start….
The weather today was dry and sunny with temperatures in the low 70s. The best thing today was visiting Victoria and the Butchart Gardens. The worst thing today was not having more time on Vancouver Island. Today we tried taking the ferry to and from Vancouver Island. And the result was it was a surprisingly relaxing and enjoyable trip. The most magical moment today was my first view of the sunken garden at the Butchart Gardens.
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Seeing that buffet makes me want to ride that ferry! It's the only way I've not been to Victoria (besides flying). The Gardens were just as beautiful as I remembered them and look pretty much the same to my memory. I always wanted to stand at the top of the sunken garden for a long time.
That was a very nice dinner on the ferry! I had Tombaugh at your comment about not wanting to have the other desserts feel left out. We think alike, my friend.
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No dessert left behind! That's right. And they looked delicious too. So glad that worked out for you guys to simply eat dinner while onboard the ferry.
The pictures of your journey to the hotel via the airport look like a pretty nice airport!
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Glad you made it on to the 6:00 PM ferry. 
But best all you got to see some Canadian cows. D
PassPorter Guide Author
That only got worse as the darkness grew, until we could see nothing more outside. I suspect that’s probably the point at which the orcas put in their starring appearance! 
I don’t think we are, as we took exactly the same route out here, and you managed fine this morning. 
Finally they were dealt with, and we checked our car back in, and headed back to the hotel. 
What a great day! 
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