A Maria and Ben “Mousefest” TR: The Greatest Gift of All Update Finished 5/3 - Page 19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Saturday
December 13
Day 4
Ben and I woke up at about 8:30 AM and started to get ready for the House of Blues Gospel Brunch. I was really excited we were meeting Sheri there as well as Betty Sue and Chantel and her family. I was also excited because I had a new hat to wear. The brunch was at 10:30 AM and we left our apartment in Winter Park at about 9:15. We arrived at DTD early and wondered around a little bit.
Here is me ready to get taken to church…
Chantel and her family arrived first…rocking their Saints gear….Who Dat?!?
Sheri and David arrived and soon we were ushered inside. We had a wonderful table right in front of the stage. I had a awesome time at brunch. The food was out of this world fantastic…I had breakfast stuff as well as fried fish, shrimp cocktail and so much more that I can’t remember right now. I also took advantage of the cheap bloody mary’s and mimosas.
The music started soon and it was really good. I was expecting a whole gospel choir…but it was a couple of gospel singers but they definitely brought the house down.
I think I worked off most of what I ate dancing and clapping.
It was a great time.
After the brunch we all parted ways. Ben and I went to Molly and Joey’s room at the Saratoga to watch the Saints game. We stopped off at the Hess to get some beer. It was really nice of Molly to let us use her room to watch the game…I was scared security was going to show up because of all the yelling Ben and I were doing.
After the game we headed over to EPCOT for a short visit with Molly and Joey before they went to their reservation at The Flying Fish.
We headed over to HS to get some food before the CLQ meet at the Osbourne Lights. I grabbed a pretzel and frozen lemonade and I think Ben had popcorn and a coke.
We then headed inside the Tune In Lounge for a quick drink
Ben had a beer and I had a margarita….yum.
We started to make our way over to the lights but were stopped in our tracks by an awesome Christmas performance by Mulch, Sweat and Shears.
We had the best time watching them play.
Coming up…Osbourne Lights Again!!
We met our fellow passporters in front of the Writers Stop. Everyone was merry making and we got there right at the tail end of the ornament exchange. I did not participate but Betty Sue gave me an extra ornament she had made…and I love it! Ben went get me a drink…they had some special holiday drink they were selling form a kiosk …it was called something like “Winter Wonderland” and it was pretty strong. Someone gave me a really cute candy cane straw…which made my drink even more festive. I was able to meet a ton of new passporters and revisit with some ones I had met on previous trips. It was nice to see Cheryl who we missed with Wendy the night before.
After strolling around a bit a big part of the group headed to the Tune In Lounge for drinks. I was done drinking for tonight …the Winter Wonderland and the Margarita earlier not to mention the beers during the Saints games or the mimosas and bloody marys at the brunch…I was definitely done drinking. I sent Ben inside to get himself a beer. There seemed to be some kind of hold up because it took everyone forever to get drinks…but in the end everyone was sipping away happily.
After the little after party meet…Molly, Joey, Ben and I headed over to RNRC to try and ride but it was down. At this point Molly and Ben decided to high tail it to Toy Story…Joey and I sat down in front of the big hat and waited. Apparently toy story was down too…so that was the end of the night.
We went home and told Joey and Molly goodbye…I hate goodbyes.
Coming soon.
Decorations at Beach Club and Yacht Club
Who DAT indeed! I'd like to think our gear getting "blessed" had a bit of a hand in the win that day... LOVED finally meeting my home-girl (&guy) and whew!! don't worry how much you eat at the brunch, cause those bands work it off of you! I was getting text score updates all day @DHS, sitting on benches & screaming to myself...I think some folks thought I was part of the Streetmosphere...maybe the psychotic failed actress character...Debbie Drama.
Glad to see the updates Maria, the brunch at the House of Blues sounds wonderful, I have always wanted to try that. Looks like some great meets and greets. Can't wait to hear more.
We had no plans to go back to WDW today because I had a final the next day and then we were flying out to Louisiana for Christmas…but I woke up early and studied and at about 4PM we decided to drive over and see the holiday decorations at the Beach and Yacht Club.
It was a wonderful way to spend our last night in Orlando...before going home for break.
We parked at the Yacht Club because it always has a lot more parking spots than the Beach Club.
We have never had the luxury of staying at the Yacht Club but Ben and I do have a big crush on it. We love the nautical theme and grown up feel, The Christmas decorations were great and we really enjoyed them...next to the Saratoga they were my favorite.
We spent a lot of time at the Yacht Club really enjoying the ambiance. We then decided to head over to Beaches and Cream to have a sweet treat before going over and see the decorations in the Beach Club lobby.
What to order? What to order?
That'll do!!
Yummy! Yummy! Yummy!
Thanks CM for this awesome picture of us. (sarc mark)
We were now on a crazy sugar high and decided it was time to go over and see the decoration at the Beach Club.
We really enjoyed these decorations.
Crystal was my favorite horse on the carousel
The carousel was very popular there were tons of people there taking pictures.We noticed that it was almost time for Illuminations. We walked over to the International Gateway and got a pretty good spot in front of Canada to see the show. Unfortunately, the wind was not in our favor and half the show was blocked out by smoke.
We took a leisurely stroll back to our car and then we drove back home. I prepared for my last final the next morning and our Christmas trip home to Louisiana.
Coming Soon…The Wrap Up!
I love Disney! I especially love Disney around Christmas time. Ben and I had a great time and can’t wait to start planning our next Disney Christmas Excursion. I would really like to thank Molly for inviting us to stay with her and Joey at the OKW,,,that was a blast. I would also like to thank Chantel for planning the Gospel Brunch…it was so much for to do that with a group of people. I would like to thank the New Orleans Saints for beating the Falcons…making it well worth it to be cooped up in a room all day Sunday watching the game (and if you haven’t heard we went all the way baby).
Look for another PTR coming soon...Maybe something around the F&WF.
Okay so that was a lot of updates to comment on
First of all LURV the hat at brunch but then again you know I it
You are just too swanky
The gospel brunch actually looked like a lot of fun!
It sounded like a full day of drinking and friends and good times....especially with lots of new and old PPers
Love the last day...I would love to live there so you can just soak up all this really cool stuff that you guys get to do! The holidays are my fave time of year to go...hmmm thinking I should try to go for a few days this year jsut to see the decorations again.
OOOHHH BTW...if you go to the F&WF you better totally come meet us for drinks! sersiously though..
that was a great wrap up and a great trip!
Okay so that was a lot of updates to comment on
First of all LURV the hat at brunch but then again you know I it
You are just too swanky
The gospel brunch actually looked like a lot of fun!
It sounded like a full day of drinking and friends and good times....especially with lots of new and old PPers
Love the last day...I would love to live there so you can just soak up all this really cool stuff that you guys get to do! The holidays are my fave time of year to go...hmmm thinking I should try to go for a few days this year jsut to see the decorations again.
OOOHHH BTW...if you go to the F&WF you better totally come meet us for drinks! sersiously though..
that was a great wrap up and a great trip!
We will def come and meet up with you guys for a drink.
Since I was reading this all in one shot I actually opened a word doc so I could type as I go. So here is my random list of comments and love:
First of all… we so need to scheme and get the Princess 5k plans in order since we are so alike you make me smile! Lol!
I read through this while at a grad class and I literally laughed out loud at Ben’s big boy crush on the Kwanza lady. Your 2 years ago Christmas pics were fab! We didn’t get to see the Epcot festivities when we were there in January 2006.
Your “3 things” about Hess almost made me spit out my water (yes I am still at my grad class)
I love this quote and need to hear one of these stories asap…. Lol… “A Molly and Joey story is like well choreographed dance….and these stories will make you gasp aloud, laugh out loud and possibly pee your pants”
Okay so Grand Floridian tea—I NEEEEEEED to do this. If our flight times don’t work out in October, this is a must must must if I can work in a March weekend at the World! I will even pay for you, I swear!!! Lol! Your hats rocked my socks, btw!
You abbreviated Monsters Inc Laugh Floor as MILF—which made me re-read the entire thing twice. Haha!!! I was thinking of the American Pie meaning of MILF…. How am I the first one to acknowledge this?
The windy pic of you outside AK with the Dunkin coffee is too awesome for words. I can literally feel the wind/caffeine need.
I love love love the Poly cameo! Yay! Can’t wait to go there for the first time eva! And I am with you—I ADORE the pics you took of the Chef Mickey’s tree! Too cute! I also love the gingerbread tree. I think we missed too much Christmas stuff coming in January. Gonna have to work another xmas trip in one of these days! Lol!
This comment was soooo very Rob & Mel “I was so proud of him b/c he didn’t even complain that it was served on a whole wheat bun…oh wait yea he did.” ROFL!!!
In conclusion, you did an amazing job of braving and conquering crowds and getting to see so much Christmas Disney Magic! Thanks so much Maria, Ben, Molly, and Joey (and all the other Passporter cameos)!!! Excellent TR!
And its summer hot in NY and your winter pics cooled me down!
And your blurry pic outside Beaches and Cream is awesome and hilarious and perfect.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.