Everything is Subject to Change Updated 7/6 - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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The dining changes are vast! This is for two reasons. I bought the new flights before I did my tax return and I was a little bit worried about $$, with two trips so close together. I don't like being paycheck to paycheck--I like to have a cushion if I need it. The other thing was that I had originally planned for a couple of sleep in mornings. Our recent experience with the heat and crowds during Spring Break season vastly changed my plans. Swapping resorts also changed our plans pretty significantly in terms of dining.
Brandon actually helped me decide on all the reservations, and surprise! He actually had requests for meals this trip. Some of them ended up being nixed after looking closely at the menus. Both of us in dietville required some fancy footwork.
We started out having a new first day and a flight that is a little later than our usual flight in. Southwest must have altered the flight schedule for the holiday weekend. I hope they haven't eliminated the 8am flight altogether!
We arrive at 11:40. (I get there 20 minutes earlier, but for planning purposes I used Brandon's slightly later arrival.) This is about an hour and a 1/2 later than usual. I'll probably find a snack while I wait!
I imagine we'll be starving upon arrival. I usually plan for 1 1/2 hours from plane landing to being checked in at the resort. This is usually about right. I'm going to plan on a light meal from Artist Palette.
I haven't done it yet, but I'm planning on Spa visits for both of us this afternoon. I need one really good night at work to facilitate this! Hopefully it is coming soon! I'm not sure what I want to have done at the spa, but I'm thinking about one of their specialties--the Adirondack Stone Massage or the Mystic Forest Treatments. We'll see! I'll probably book Brandon a standard massage.
Dinner is scheduled at the Turf Club Bar and Grill at 5pm. I don't know if you've read my previous trip reports, but this is actually one of my favorite WDW restaurants! It's so underrated! The food and service are always fabulous, Oh and that baked goat cheese tomato soup is to die for, and diet friendly!
We didn't have a lunch ADR for Monday, as that was previously arrival day! I quickly remedied that with a reservation at our favorite theme park restaurant: The Hollywood Brown Derby! Also diet friendly and super tasty!
Dinner on Monday remains the same! Brandon requested Kouzzina by Cat Cora and I thought it would be fair to give it another try. My first meal there, with a group of Passporters left something to be desired. The service was terrible. In fact, I believe that is the night I gained the reputation for being a server's worst nightmare here on the boards. I was also that manager's worst nightmare. I work in the industry, so I know exactly how things are supposed to happen. I'm a pretty handy tablemate to have around when things are going downhill. My management team would probably have comped most of the meal and dessert would have magically appeared on the table for everyone--and my management team is pretty poor, but the one thing they do very well with is rolling with the punches. The manager at Kouzzina didn't know how to respond to me at all . . . I would be very frustrated if I had to work for them. The one thing a manager really needs to be able to do is satisfy guests who are unhappy. Especially guests who appear to be regular visitors as shown by the number of Tables in Wonderland cards that came out of pockets at the end of this meal! An equal number of annual pass tickets and DVC memberships could have been shown!
Tuesday is where things really got squirrelly! Originally we were going to do the Chef's Wine tasting dinner at Flying Fish. It was a prepaid $300 dinner! It was the first thing I canceled because I figured $300 would go a long way towards paying for the rest of our meals. I moved my Liberty Tree Tavern reservation to Tuesday and then I did my taxes. The IRS didn't want all of the money I had put aside to pay them, so I ended up rebooking the Wine dinner, as I know it is a special experience that was built just for diners like us! I canceled the LTT reservation. Lunch on Tuesday will be "Provided" and explained in a later post. I have canceled my reservation at the Rain Forest Cafe!
When I canceled the original LTT reservation for Wednesday I booked us at Paradiso 37, figuring that we could spend the evening at DTD and maybe catch a movie. I decided to see, after the Tuesday wine dinner ended up working out afterall, if I could still, at this late date, book LTT. I could, but it was at 8pm instead of 7:30. We should still be done in time to catch the Memories show and Wishes. I'm hoping they add a second MSEP for this night, but no big deal if we miss it. Apparently no one is having dinner anywhere this week--even though the parks are supposed to be crowded. Lunch on Wednesday is at Sanaa, another one of our favorite must dos.
Thursday is now our departure day. Originally we were supposed to have lunch at Beirgarten and dinner at Marrakesh. Marrakesh was one of Brandon's requests, but I looked at the menu again and between my nut allergy and our diet, there wasn't much on the menu that we could actually eat. Beirgarten has too many tempting things on the buffet to be a good choice for me. I have faith in Brandon's will power, but not in mine. I am already planning on one meal that I'm going to cheat on . . . LTT. I cannot pass up the stuffing and the mashed potatoes. Brandon will have no problem just eating the meat and veg and salad. Brandon has a lot more weight to take off than I do and is doing great. He is an inspiration. He also spent his day off softening our flower bed out front enough so that it can be planted tomorrow.
So back to Thursday. We had two wonderful meals at Tutto Italia on this last trip. We're going back to have lunch on our last day. I can already tell you that we are having the antipasti plate for lunch. It is super yummy and low carb diet friendly! The service is wonderful and the restaurant is empty at lunch! (I'm actually kind of surprised that they are open for lunch--it is very pricey and seems to see very few diners.)
So that is the dining round up. In case you decided not to read my prose and are skipping to the bottom of the post meals are planned at: Turf Club, HBD, Kouzzina, FFC, Sanaa, LTT, and Tutto Italia!
Your ADR choices sound great, I am glad that you got to add the dinner at the Flying Fish back on, the experience definitely sounds fantastic. I can guess how P-Sha's two cents changed your plans and if I am right then your lunch will have an aazing view.
Great line-up! I'm so glad that both Sanaa and Tutto are open at lunchtime. Makes it much easier to schedule them both in. Good luck with your diet! Makes it much easier when you have a buddy, especially one who's got will power.
Well I have news, but not about this trip. Our friend and co-worker Melissa wants to go to Disney World with us, but not this trip. It looks like she'll be joining us in October. I just started to make my ADRs for that trip. It should be fun to have another adult with us!
I had an interesting day at work. I met someone today who works at Disney in the catering department and loves it. She was shocked to hear that we had a crappy experience at Le Cellier. She says it's one of her favorites and to give it another try. I really don't think I'm going to any time soon.
In other news, my Sanuk Yoga Mat flip flops have arrived and I think I'm in love! I'm going to have to give them a full day of lots of walking to be sure, but I think I have a new pair of flops for the upcoming trip that seem to be super comfy.
On to the actual update!
Once I had my dining all set. I went back and made more changes. Well I only changed one thing and it was to cancel a lunch reservation at the Rain Forest Cafe at Animal Kingdom.
I had just read Princess Sharon's review of the Wild Africa Trek. She completely sold me on taking this adventure. I was going to save it for a solo trip, but then I realized that Brandon would probably really enjoy it--and really hate me if I did it without him. It took me 3 phone calls to be able to book it, thanks again to the largest, fastest cell phone network--AT&T. I was actually surprised that I had my choice of times on the day I wanted. I decided to go with the 10am Trek because I figured that would put us at the break point at lunch time. It would be really cool if there weren't very many people! I love private tours and have had 2 of them thus far. (Wild by Design and Behind the Seeds, I was literally the only person for both!) I'm super excited for this. However, I will not be able to wear my flip flops. Disney requires real shoes--toes and heels covered.
Somehow I lost the little tether thing for my camera--the wrist strap. I ordered some new ones from Amazon--a 6 pack--thinking that there surely was a loop on my cell phone. Guess what? No place for a loop on the iPhone 4. Anyone need a strap for anything? I have 5 more. I also found out that the company that owns Flip is discontinuing the brand. The competition from smart phones is just too much. I was thinking about buying a Flip and then realized that both my camera and my cell phone take video. Heck, both my camera and my cell phone take HDR photos! (How cool is that) I am ordering a magnetic gorillapod tripod for my camera so that I can actually use that feature.
I'm working on a theme for clothing for this trip and can't pick one. Last trip was themed around flowers for the F&GF. Also Target has some jersey skirts on sale. I'm thinking about picking one up to try it out for touring, with my bike shorts underneath of course.
So there ya go--a real update for today. It's 11:11 make a wish!
I'd take a 35% raise!
Great plans - and it's great to hear your low-carb options!
I'm sure I'll be back with lots of great diet at Disney tips.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great rearranging of your ADRs! Wonderful choices! I'd love a 35% raise as we've not had one at all for 2 years now.
2 years without a raise . . . come to think of it we haven't had a cost-of-living pay bump in quite awhile. I'm maxed out on merit increases, so the only time I get a raise is if the company does a COL. (I still can't believe that you can max out on merit increases)
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and if I am right then your lunch will have an aazing view.
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We've never been back there since either...
I'd love a 35% raise as we've not had one at all for 2 years now.
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