Going north, south, east and west - UPDATED 12/18 - Page 20 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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WOW!!! Amazing Updates... GREAT SPECTACULAR pictures!!! Oh... I'm SO EXCITED now to be going to Cali Grill for my Birthday in February!!
Epcot looks like a completely different place with all the F&WF booths! Definitely something I need to bring my DH too...
Loved the picture of SM and seeing the monorail and parking lot. SO funny that things are THAT close and yet you NEVER get the sense the parking lot is right there!
your meal looked so good! I saw the appy photos and thought -- "wow -- that looks great, I could eat those and be thrilled" but the scallops looked even better! CG is going on my must do list!
Great updates, Cheryl!! The photos are fabulous! Your sushi looked so pretty plated like that. Glad you were able to meet up with Jyl and Amy! (I noticed she was wearing the Red Sox uniform! ) Looking forward to more
Monday 20 October – part one: what happened to our tea bags?!
Once again, we failed to sleep in until the wake up call, but 5.40am is better than the previous days and it’s probably just as well we were up, as the wake up call only sort of worked. The phone just buzzed quietly and then when Mark answered it, nothing. We reported that to the front desk on our way out and the fact that the remote control for the TV didn’t seem to be working either.
We picked up the car from valet and were off to the Contemporary for breakfast at Chef Mickey’s.
We just about made it on time and saw another beautiful sunrise.
As soon as we checked in, we were seated immediately. As there were no characters in sight, we headed to the buffet, with me leaving two teabags in the mugs at our table, having asked for some hot water. Well, imagine our faces when we got back to the table and the mugs, complete with teabags in there, were gone. I was none too impressed by that and, sure enough, our server Kerrine didn’t look in the mugs, but just took them. We explained the situation and she did try and make up for it bringing Twinings English teabags over, but anyone who knows us will realise immediately that just wasn’t going to work. : That is one very poor substitute for PG Tips. Just as well then that I had a couple more teabags in my bag and on the second attempt, we were away.
Our server must’ve mentioned the whole thing to someone though, as we had a manager come out to see us a few minutes later to ask how everything was and to apologise for what had happened. Disney service at its best.
As for the food, it was certainly better than the Crystal Palace yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, there was nothing really wrong with their good, it just wasn’t very ambitious, whereas this was, especially the vegetable lasagne, which was lovely and very tasty.
The characters were all fun and we saw them all quickly. Pluto, the last to come through visited just as we finished eating, which was perfect timing. However, we got the distinct impression that they were being told to speed it up, as they didn’t really want to stop for much more interaction than just an autograph and a photo and that was it.
Feeling very full, we headed out and browsed the shops, which had probably the best selection of clothing that we had seen so far a Disney. Then it was downstairs, where we found Bruce on duty again. So we made him work for his money by seeing if he could get us into Cinderella’s Royal Table. Yes, I know, very unlikely, but my excuse is that we didn’t have the Deluxe Dining Plan in our minds at 180 days out. We decided quote late on in the day to go for it and, once we did, then it occurred to me that dining at Cinderella’s might be an idea. Still no joy, but we’ll keep trying. If it’s meant to be, then it’s meant to be and if it’s not, then never mind. At least we tried.
From there, we drove over to Mouse Memories. Once again, it took forever to get off Disney property from the Contemporary and then we had a pretty easy run out there. It’s very easy to find from the directions on their website and it’s somewhere that every keen scrapbooker should go to at least once. I think my eyes grew bigger once I walked in there and saw their selection. I think Mark’s eyes probably rolled when he saw the selection. However, I was very good and was done in about 20 minutes and escaped just $17 lighter. That was on top of the order that I had placed from home and was picking up today.
We drove back towards Disney, stopping at the outlet on the 535 and got some tennis shoes and socks at the Reebok store. At the nearby store, I hit gold in my search for jeans. Since I was last out here, I’ve lost something like 18lbs and this showed when I went to buy my jeans. The last time I bought any a couple of years ago, I was probably at my heaviest and got a size 16 In fairness though, they were a little big on me, but even so. Well, today I got into a size 10, so I was delighted with that. It’s things like that that make all the working out on the treadmill and the cross trainer and eating less worthwhile.
We drove back to Disney with the plan to go to Typhoon Lagoon, but on the way back to the Beach Club Villas, I did suddenly think that perhaps Stormalong Bay would be a better bet and mentioned it to Mark. That’s where we opted for, as it was closer with the promise that we would go to Typhoon Lagoon later in our vacation, even if it was only to get photos of the place.
One of many turtles living in the water by the Beach Club Villas
It turned out to be a great choice. As it was still morning, about 11.30am by this time, the place was pretty quiet, certainly quieter than we’ve seen it in some time with barely any kids in there. I quickly did my equivalent of 20 lengths that I usually swim at home. I couldn’t help but wonder why it’s so much more pleasant to punish yourself in this way when you’re out here. Somehow, all the time exercising seems much easier today in the beautiful sunshine and great sunshine.
After that, we sat in the sun for a couple of hours, although there were times that we both had to retreat into the shade, as the sun was still pretty brutal. In general, we were finding the weather conditions OK and certainly much better than the horrible humidity we had suffered during the first few days of our December trip last year, but occasionally, it was still too hot for both of us. We will definitely stick to only coming to Florida between mid October and mid to late May. The summer would be way too hot for us out here.
We were also in luck with drinks, with a server coming to see us almost as soon as I got out of the water to offer us alcoholic drinks from Hurricane Hanna’s. Wow, a Frozen Alcoholic Beverage? I was not going to say no to that, so I got a Pina Colada and said cheers to all my PassPorter friends who enjoy these.
Yay to you for your victory in the jeans aisle!
Wonderful pictures of the sunrise--I especially enjoyed the one with the pool in the foreground--Was that the BC or another resort completely?
Thanks again for sharing!
Great pictures. I believe the picture you're referring to might be the Contemporary pool. I love those early morning pool shots where everything is so peaceful. And the sunrise is gorgeous!
Yay to you for your victory in the jeans aisle!
Wonderful pictures of the sunrise--I especially enjoyed the one with the pool in the foreground--Was that the BC or another resort completely?
Thanks again for sharing!
That shot is at the Contemporary. It's taken from the fourth floor of the main building.
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I was none too impressed by that and, sure enough, our server Kerrine didn’t look in the mugs, but just took them. We explained the situation and she did try and make up for it bringing Twinings English teabags over, but anyone who knows us will realise immediately that just wasn’t going to work. 
: That is one very poor substitute for PG Tips. Just as well then that I had a couple more teabags in my bag and on the second attempt, we were away. 
It’s things like that that make all the working out on the treadmill and the cross trainer and eating less worthwhile. 
Sounds like you had good luck shopping!! More please 
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