Driving Karen nuts in 10 rides or less **Updated 2/18** COMPLETE - Page 21 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Okay....what planet am I living on that I *did not* realize you were updating?? (except for the fact that the thread wasn't updated...I'm just saying....)
Anyways...I love the half frenetic, half relaxed, and double the fun pace of this TR!
danielle
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~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
Lesley and I woke fairly early -- I closed up the pull-out couch and got my bags repacked for the trip home. (I couldn’t believe Mousefest 08 was officially over already!)
We hopped a bus over to Downtown Disney and walked right into Earl of Sandwich so I could stop my tummy from growling. I’d never eaten breakfast here (although the lunch/dinner meals here are a fav of my family!) I got a sausage and egg sandwich and a lovely coffee – yum dillyicious!
As always, Lesley and I had a great conversation while we consumed our meals and finally had to push ourselves to leave so we could get some shopping done. Lesley wanted to run into the Pin Traders -- little did I know that sneaky Lesley would be picking up the most adorable pin of a Minnie cell phone for me, the Mad Texter. )
I stepped over to Basin (which I’d never visited in DtD before!) and grabbed some fun bath bombs for friends, and some pet “soap” shampoo. It’s been too cold in my hometown to try it, but I’m looking forward to warmer weather to see how my dogs like it. Lesley rejoined me and we crawled all over Basin, filling our noses with lovely smells. I was hoping to snag another pot of the Pink Sugar-scented balm, but discovered that that is only sold at “Basin White” at the Grand Floridian. Ugh… I’ll have to remember to stop next trip for some more!
We headed into World of Disney for some power shopping. I noticed right away that WOD had some seriously good sales running – I think all mugs and t-shirts were 40% off and Christmas items were 50% off. Even Disney Crocs were 50% off, so I snagged a pair of blue fleece “mammoths” that have not left my feet since!) I grabbed an ornament, the Crocs, and a pin for my DS (that would be part of his Surprise Birthday Trip announcement on Christmas morning.) Much to my delight – I saw a pair of silver Mickey head earrings that tickled me to the tips of my toes. (I’d lost the previous pair on my vacation in June! Since they had been purchased 5 years prior, I never thought I’d see them again.) They were three times as expensive as they’d originally been, but, hey… I’m not really complaining!
On one of my trips ‘round the store, I saw the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique and had to snag this pic:
The big macho guy in the doorway gave me the giggles.
Lesley and I hooked up again and decided to stop in at the Lego Store. I knew I couldn’t fit a big set in my carry-on, but had to look at everything anyway. I got a few stocking-stuffers for “my boys.” (DH has gotten Lego for every Christmas and birthday since he was a child and we continue the tradition to this day.)
I have a memory of stopping AGAIN at Earl of Sandwich for lunch – ‘cause I’m pretty sure I had a holiday special (turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce! ) Lesley… is this correct?
Anyway, we also spent a little bit of time sitting on a brick wall and that’s where we saw our buddy Sharon walking over. She was (I think) waiting on her parents to finish up their shopping so we got to chat a little bit before she had to go. I called Karen and filled her in on the events of the last day or so…. *sniff*… I still missed her so much, it hurt!
Details are getting fuzzy for me – it *was* over two months ago, folks (but who’s fault is that, right?!) – but I know Lesley and I went back to SSR so I could pack up my stuff and get it checked with Resort Airline Check-in and store my carry-on bags.
Then we hopped a bus for the Magic Kingdom to have a last wander around.
The weather was perfection itself! (But, can someone explain to me why I didn’t take a portrait-oriented shot of the Partner’s statue? – sheesh, I cut off the top turret! )
Oh, yeah... one thing I noticed this trip -- they have done something to Mickey's pants, shoes and gloves on the statue. They're sort of a gold/bronze now, as if they polished away the oxidation or something. I'm not sure I'm a fan of it.
I texted Sharon to find out where we could hook up and she and her folks were already in line somewhere. I knew I had enough time for one, maybe two rides (before I had to head back to catch my Magical Express bus). Lesley was willing to join me in one of my favorites – Mickey’s PhilharMagic. As always, it didn’t fail to make me even more enamored of it than the last time through.
Yipes… I suddenly realized that the 3 o’clock parade was due to start in about 15 minutes – if I walked over to the Haunted Mansion to meet up with Sharon and her folks to say our goodbyes, I’d get stuck by the parade and have one heck of a time getting to the buses. I had to send the sad little text to my buddy that I’d have to catch her “on the flip side” – a formal goodbye would just not be able to happen.
I got a fun little pic from ShaSha, letting me know she was so sad about my departure…
You should know that about 10 minutes later, she sent another saying “never mind. I’m over it now.” (stinker!)
I gave Lesley a great big hug and thank you for her friendship – and the free night on the couch in her villa! Then I booked through the castle and walked down Main Street (catching sight of our CM buddy, Scott, from the day before. I refrained for giving him a big “jazz hands” hello and kept going.)
By the time I got down to the train station, I realized that I’d have about 5 more minutes in the park – and what better way to spend that time than with a Mickey Bar! I got one at the cart by the station and then found a rocking chair by the Town Square Exposition Hall’s porch. To my delight, I got to watch the whole parade from that vantage point while noshing on my chocolate loveliness.
**sigh** It just doesn’t get any better than this!
Then it was off to the bus to SSR, where I chatted with a lovely set of newlyweds. The whole time we were talking, the bride kept giving me slightly odd looks – which I attributed to the fact that we’d been talking about the number of times I’d been at The World.
Imagine my surprise (and shame) when I arrived back at SSR and stepped into the ladies room – right there on my chin was the largest, blackest glob of chocolate from my Mickey bar! Oy, oy, oy! How stinkin’ embarrassing was that?!
Anyway, I eventually started giggling and knew that I’d have to call Karen one more time that day and let her know about *this* -- this is the kind of story that’s perfect for the *friend* who took such delight over my tripping in the Grand Floridian’s lobby during Mousefest ’07, the unintentional flashing of my bra in Canada in June ’08 and now… the Great Chocolate Chin of Mousefest ’08.
Before I climbed aboard the bus, still talking to Karen, I captured the sad face moment.
Sigh… another trip over, another Mousefest over, another return to normal life.
At least I had my bestest bestest friend talking in my ear about the details of our Spring Break shore house vacation that she’d already gotten all planned out for us. Then it was on to the airport, an hour's delay at the gate, and an uneventful flight home where my boys (and dogs) were happy to see me again.
***sigh***
Thanks for sticking with this folks! If you enjoyed this TR, keep your eyes peeled for a pre-TR on my upcoming (like a WEEK away) trip to celebrate my son’s birthday. Until then... I leave you with a little song:
Now it’s time to say goodbye to all our familyyyyyyy
You had to put that song in there, didn't you. Somehow I hadn't heard about the Mickey bar chin (and I'll be scaring tourists tonight for sure ). I was glad to at least get to see you a bit, and as I told Lesley, it's probably better, because I wasn't ready for another sad goodbye. Can't wait to hear all the details of Calder's birthday trip!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
What....no pic of the great chocolate chin???
Sounds like a perfectly lovely ending to a practically perfect Mousefest trip (minus one playa).
Happy to hear the next TR and your excitement is quickly approaching!
danielle
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~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
Ok the song did me....that song always gives me the chills. But it was all worth it to finally get to read the final chapter of the Mousfest TR by Caldercup and it was so great.
Glad that you were able to enjoy some time before you had to head off, but I am so sorry that you did not get to see P-Sha one more time before you had to leave, however, I agree, once you get caught in the parade crowds....there is no prediction when you might get through.
You last moments in MK sounded so magical...a Mickey Bar, rocking chair, parade (ok so you did leave some chocolate on your chin but I bet that couple will never forget you )
Ok...I am ready now, so get started on that Pre-TR ok?????
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Pixie Dust
It's hard to be in your happy place & have so much sadness.
Dora
Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
Gawrsh! 
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) Lesley… is this correct?
)
Somehow I hadn't heard about the Mickey bar chin (and I'll be scaring tourists tonight for sure 
). I was glad to at least get to see you a bit, and as I told Lesley, it's probably better, because I wasn't ready for another sad goodbye. Can't wait to hear all the details of Calder's birthday trip!
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