Rain, Sunshine & Cupcakes ~ June 24 - July 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Poor Adriel! I felt so bad for him, but I'm glad you were able to fun back to the resort and make him good as new. You really did get to see and do a lot today, even the parade, which I have still not seen.
A great day at AK. Love the pictures of the parade and your meal at Yak and Yeti looked delicious
The meal was really delicious!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Wow - I had a lot of catching up to do!!!
Sorry about the accident! But hey - it happens.
Great pics!!!
He was so embarassed! I felt really bad but as you said, accidents happen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a great day at Animal Kingdom. Great photos of the parade and your sorbet looked - I could do with that right now!
Oh my, that sorbet was so good and refreshing!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMA
Great day at AK. And what a nice surprise from the Mousekeepers! Disney magic!
It was a huge surprise! The kids loved arriving at the room each day to see what mousekeeping had left that day. Although the last 2 days e got a different mousekeeper and it showed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Great pics and MK day!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jenseib
too bad about the accident but it happens and more often on vacations when kids get absorbed in all the fun....no big deal. One time Claire went potty and didn't pull her undies down all the way at MK....so needless to say, they were wet and luckily I had threw an extra pair in the bag that morning for some odd reason. She was wearing a dress so we walked out, her with no undies on under her dress and she was so embarrassed, but no one could see anything, got the new pair and went back in and put them on. All was fine.
I love your goofy picture in the parade. That is one of my favorite parades...it's the music for me. I just love the beat.
Yeah, I love that photo too! He posed for me!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lazanya
What a fun filled day at AK!
It was a fun day! Each time I visit I like this park more and more. It's moved up on my list.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great pictures from AK! Glad you got to see the parade!
I enjoy this parade very much! It's so fun and colorful!
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeybee723
Poor Adriel! I felt so bad for him, but I'm glad you were able to fun back to the resort and make him good as new. You really did get to see and do a lot today, even the parade, which I have still not seen.
We did miss some things like the Nemo show, It's tough to be a bug. But I got to see FotLK so all was good.
My alarm went off at 7:30 but I stayed in bed till’ 7:45. Got up and ready. I started waking up the guys but they were very slow. I was finally fed up with them and their non-willingness to get up early. After some words from my part, they started getting up (except Abniel). They were all pretty much ready to go but Abniel was still in bed and not wanting to get up. Arben volunteered to stay behind with him but I knew deep inside he wanted to go, as Epcot is his favorite park. That was it for me, I was done with Abniel’s attitude. I told him, rather strongly, that he was going to get up, get ready and go. I’d be waiting by the Fountain of Nations at 10:00 and he better be there or else. Yes, Mom is strict even at Disney.
So with that ultimate threat, Adriel, AJ and I left the room. It was 9o already, a little later than I wanted to leave but still good. We got to the park and went directly to Soarin. The wait time posted was 35 minutes but it was more like 20. We scored the front row! After our flight over California, we went to get fastpasses for Arben and Abniel.
We wandered around for a bit and then went to the FoN to wait for the guys. AJ and Adriel went into Spaceship Earth to play some games while I took some pictures (of course, what else).
After like 15 minutes I spotted Arben but he wasn’t coming from the front of the park. It turned out they had arrived about a half hour ago and were sitting in front of the Character Spot. I had walked through there but on the walkway directly in front of Innoventions. I passed right behind him and didn’t see them.
Anyways, I told him I had gotten them fps for Soarin, they had too. So we kept the earlier ones and I gave the others away. I found a mom and her son and asked her if she wanted the fps. Of course she did and she was so excited and grateful. You see, I was spreading some Disney magic of my own.
We still had some time before the fps were ripe so we headed over to Nemo. It was a walk on. After we came out I asked the boys if they wanted to do Turtle Talk with Crush but they declined. Ok then!
Oh no! Bruce ate them!
I wanted to see Captain EO so that’s where we headed. I had never seen this so I didn’t know what to expect. For me, it’s not the greatest show but I liked the music. My boys thought it was corny and don’t want anything to do with it.
The Soarin fps were ripe so we trekked over to the Land. While they rode the rest of us passed the time people watching, taking silly photos and joking around.
Afterwards we had some lunch at Sunshine Seasons (a first for all of us). I wanted to eat at Mexico but didn’t want to wait till’ they were done so I just got something there. I should’ve waited.
AJ got the Rotisserie Chicken, Adriel & Abniel got the Pizza Panini. I got them settled down and then went back for mine and Arben’s food. By the time I got back they were almost done so no pics of their food. Arben got the Sweet & Sour Chicken with Fried Rice and a brownie. I got the Mongolian Beef with Noodles and a Key Lime Pie.
My food. It looks better than it tasted.
Arben's food.
The noodles were absolutely horrible. They were so salty and yucky. I love noodles but these were not good at all. The beef was good and the pie was delicious. I love me some Key Lime Pie!
After our somewhat satisfying lunch it was time for WS. The plan for today was not to take a midday break and just tour around the pavilions until our adr, which was at 7. Yeah, let’s see how that works.
As we were walking toward WS the boys spotted the Brave playground and wanted to go in. We found some chairs underneath a tent and relaxed for a bit while Abniel and Adriel played. It was so sunny that they had the slide closed off because it was too hot to go down. After about 15 minutes they were done with the playing so we left for our tour of the countries.
We rode the Gran Fiesta Tour. Then the boys felt silly and started posing for some photos.
We exited and Adriel spotted Donald so we had to stop for a picture.
Next up was Norway. We rode Maelstorm with absolutely no wait. I was tempted to buy the Laila perfume but it was a bit pricey. I know Arben would've bought it if I had insisted but I didn't want to abuse. Next time I'm buying it.
Next up was China.
We kept walking around but it was so hot. We needed drinks so we stopped at the Outpost. We got our drinks (don’t remember what we got) and browsed around. Arben saw a hat that he liked so he bought that for himself. AJ also bought a necklace. We continued on and I stopped to buy a frozen banana, which I ended up throwing half of it away.
We kept on walking and snapping pictures.
We were tired so we grabbed some seats outside of Liberty Inn. The heat was wearing us out and everyone was miserable. It was only 3 and I knew we weren’t going to last until 7 so we made the decision to go back to the resort. We started walking but I felt I needed some a/c.
At one point I told Arben that if I didn’t go into a store now I’d faint. We were almost running now. We finally got to Mouse Gears and I started to feel a bit better.
Abniel found a Perry fluffy he wanted and Adriel found a Mickey Mouse dressed like Woody one. Then something funny happened.
While I was walking around I saw Arben. He was stroking a little boy’s head. The only problem was that it wasn’t any of our kids. I called out to him and he looked down and realized what he was doing. He apologized and came over to me with a mortified look on his face. He said he thought it was Abniel. I asked him if he didn’t realize the boy was shorter and he was wearing a cap. None of the boys were wearing one. AJ was almost rolling in the floor laughing and I burst out laughing too. I teased him that they were now going to put up warning posters with his photo on it. I attributed his little mistake to the heat. Let’s just leave at that. We started walking out but got sidetracked when we saw a rare character sighting.
We made it to the bus stop and shortly after were at our room.
Here are Abniel & Adriel's fluffies.
Sorry for the blurry photo.
We relaxed at the room for a little while. We freshened up and left the room at 5:40. We got to Epcot and headed directly to Via Napoli.
I got in what I thought was the line to check in. After a couple of minutes I realized it was the line for walk ups. Check in was actually inside. I went in and gave our name. We were seated almost immediately. I was so excited to eat here as all I’d read were positive things. I was not dissapointed.
Our server was so sweet. I forgot her name, of course. We ordered our drinks and food.
Abniel & Adriel got fruit, cheese pizza and a sundae.
AJ got the Pepperoni pizza and for dessert Coppa di Brutti Ma Buoni (amarena cherry and vanilla gelato with cookies of carnevale).
Arben had the Cheese pizza and the same dessert as AJ.
I had the Candele (candele pasta, sausage ragu, polpettine, mozzarella and ricotta cheese). I had the same dessert as the other two.
I loved my food! The pasta was awesome and the dessert to die for!
They brought Abniel some sort of cookie and sang Happy Birthday to him. In Italian! Which he thought was absolutely hilarious and giggled the entire time. I wish I had recorded, it was so cute.
Via Napoli is by far my favorite restaurant! No wonder so many people swear by it. My companions thought it was just ok, but I don’t care. We’ll be coming back to this one, that’s for sure. And may I say that the staff there is really easy in the eyes. A lot of good looking people in Italy! Just saying!
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Then we just started walking around the rest of the countries not really doing anything.
Here's that statue again.
We even stopped to watch this for a little while.
Chillin at the concert!
We exited WS and started making our way out of the park. Illuminations started so I snapped some pics from FW.
There was no line at SE so we went for it. Adriel and I made a silly face for the picture.
We decided to call it a night. There was a mob of people leaving the park. We got to our stop and only had a small wait for a bus. By the time we got on it was standing room only. A young man gave up his seat to me. So sweet of him!
Arrived at the room, we all got showered and settled in for some tv. I caught up with some notes and then it was lights off at 11.
Great day! I'm glad that you were able to squeeze in a break today, it sounded like you really needed it. I love Via Napoli too!! We ate there shortly after they opened, their pizza is quite tasty (and so are the waiters )
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Looks like a great day at Epcot, all the except the heat. I had to laugh at Arben's mistake not realizing the boy wasn't one of his own sons Dinner at Via Napoli looked delicious
What a wonderful day at Epcot! The last family photo is fantastic!
You got some really good photos around the park. It doesn't look like the park wos too crowded that day.
Glad you enjoyed Via Napoli. It is one of my favorite restaurants! If you ever make it out to Disneyland, be sure to eat at Naples. It is owned by the same company that owns Via Napoli and is very similar, but, to my mind, maybe just a tad better!
I'm still giggling about Arben messing with some kid's hair. I wonder what the poor kid thought! The heat does mess with you, that's for sure. Love all the Epcot pics. Great Via Napoli pics. Yum!
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But hey - it happens.
Great photos of the parade 
I was finally fed up with them and their non-willingness to get up early. After some words from my part, they started getting up (except Abniel). They were all pretty much ready to go but Abniel was still in bed and not wanting to get up. Arben volunteered to stay behind with him but I knew deep inside he wanted to go, as Epcot is his favorite park. That was it for me, I was done with Abniel’s attitude. I told him, rather strongly, that he was going to get up, get ready and go. I’d be waiting by the Fountain of Nations at 10:00 and he better be there or else. Yes, Mom is strict even at Disney. 
o already, a little later than I wanted to leave but still good. We got to the park and went directly to Soarin. The wait time posted was 35 minutes but it was more like 20. We scored the front row! 
At one point I told Arben that if I didn’t go into a store now I’d faint.
We were almost running now. We finally got to Mouse Gears and I started to feel a bit better. 
I called out to him and he looked down and realized what he was doing. He apologized and came over to me with a mortified look on his face. He said he thought it was Abniel. I asked him if he didn’t realize the boy was shorter and he was wearing a cap. 
I teased him that they were now going to put up warning posters with his photo on it. I attributed his little mistake to the heat. 
Let’s just leave at that. 
A lot of good looking people in Italy! Just saying!
Dinner at Via Napoli looked delicious 
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