My first solo adventure - Disney style!! - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Add me to the list who's never seen the AK parade!
I almost always schedule it in my plans and never seem
to get to see it! I definitely will next time!
Sounds like a terrific morning at AK! I love the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. Of course, my family is often reluctant as they know I'll get captivated by some animal and forget to move on. I think this parade is more personal, too. The characters seem to interact quite a bit with the crowd. We were only able to catch the tail end of it this year.
I love the parade at AK! I'm glad you enjoyed it! It sounds like you got to spend some quality time doing things you wouldn't normally get to do! Can't wait to hear what you thought about the F&WF!
This was one of the best trips to WDW ever, I am looking forward to another solo some day!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Glad you had a great time in AK! Great pictures!
I really did, thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luvsun
What a great time you are having!
I loved doing the KTTK tour!
Your afternoon at AK sounds fun!
Great updates!
The tour was great, worth every penny. AK was all new and exciting this trip!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pinkyt177
I actually accidentally caught the parade on my first visit to AK, it was so much fun! It was my DD first trip and she can't wait to go back.
I had missed it for so many years and I was bound and determined to see it this time. I agree, I can't wait to go back on our next trip!
Quote:
Originally Posted by wayneava81
Add me to the list who's never seen the AK parade!
I almost always schedule it in my plans and never seem
to get to see it! I definitely will next time!
It's worth it, really try and squeeze it in!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
What a great time at AK!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MickeyMAC
Great update, glad you had a good time at AK.
It really was a great time, even if for just a few hours!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Sounds like a terrific morning at AK! I love the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. Of course, my family is often reluctant as they know I'll get captivated by some animal and forget to move on. I think this parade is more personal, too. The characters seem to interact quite a bit with the crowd. We were only able to catch the tail end of it this year.
I thought that trail was just gorillas. I had no idea there was so much more to see! And this parade is by far my favorite now. I don't know what it is, but it just seems more festive or more involved with the crowd for some reason. Lots of fun!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
I love the parade at AK! I'm glad you enjoyed it! It sounds like you got to spend some quality time doing things you wouldn't normally get to do! Can't wait to hear what you thought about the F&WF!
Yep, that's the best part of this trip is doing things that I wanted to do without hearing other complain!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a fun time in Animal Kingdom!
It was probably the most fun I've had there so far. But now I've explored more so subsequent trips will be better!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Day Three, Monday November 2, part 3 – dinner in 3 countries, dessert with a bang!
I made it out of AK without any crowds and headed to Epcot. A last minute thought had me parking at the Beach Club thinking that the walk may be a wee bit shorter than the walk from the Epcot parking lot since I was headed to the F&WF area anyway. In retrospect, I think they’re just about the same! But my feet and hips were starting to complain so I was trying to make it easier on them.
Anyway, I found my way over to France for my first ever sampling and was surprised by my first spotting of Marie!
I tried the Cabernet Short Ribs with Mashed potatoes and found it heavenly.
Full of flavor and tender too. And I love mashed potatoes! I soooo wanted the chocolate milk crème brulee, but since the Wishes Dessert party was in a few hours, I saved my sweet tooth for later. I finally was at Epcot at the time the France chair-climbing guys were out so I watched some of that.
I wandered over to the Canada area for some Cheddar Cheese soup and then Greece for the Spanakopita.
The soup was tasty, but too strong in some flavor for me. Not sure what it was? Onions? I dunno. And the spanikopita was also strong in the spinach department. I’ve had it elsewhere but with a more cheese less spinach flavor. Oh well, I would be filling up on desserts soon! I stopped at the Festival Marketplace stand to pick up a spoon rest I had eyed up earlier, and then exited at the International Gateway and headed back to my car.
Continued.......
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
I just love the MK when the lights come up and the sun goes down. There’s just something extra special about that time of day. I arrived right about that time but didn’t really get to soak it up as I had to hurry over to check in for my Dessert party. I had read about people waiting in line to get into the buffet and wasn’t sure if I needed to wait or not. When I got there, I saw about 10 people waiting and there was still about 20 minutes till the official 7pm open. So I went over to Buzz to get a FP and then came back to wait in line. In this short amount of time, about 5-10 more people got in line! Looking back, I don’t think it makes a darn bit of difference if you wait in line or just show up right at your ADR time. I didn’t know.
Eventually, I was shown to my table for 1 which happened to be directly in front of the railing and with a perfect view of the castle. Ahhhhh. My little table was even decorated with some Mickey dust because they must have noted it in my reservation that it was my birthday trip. The best part? A chair. When packing for this trip I had only packed sandals and some old Keds sneakers. Nothing real supportive because on the last few trips with the kids, we didn’t walk much and I only wore sandals on all of those trips and was fine. So why would I pack my more supportive running shoes on this trip? Dumb!! I had been wearing my sandals since I arrived (switching between 3 pairs) and my feet and hips were most thankful for that chair!
Anyway, I headed up to the buffet and found myself in dessert heaven. Dessert. Heaven!
I filled up my first plate with some choice goodies and stopped for a nice glass of milk. What goes better? I couldn’t even tell you everything I got, but I’ll try, based on the pictures!
A cannoli, crème brulee, 2 different kind of chocolate dessert bars, and either chocolate mousse or chocolate cheesecake. Soooooo yummy too, every last bite! I polished off the first plate and headed back for more. These little desserts are so cute too, aren’t they?
SpectroMagic was beginning to come around the hub and I stood up to watch it only to be disappointed that you can barely see the tops of the floats and that was about it. I considered heading over there to watch it closer, but I knew I could see it a few nights later so I headed back for a second plate of heaven.
The second plate looks like it had another cannoli (what can I say, I love ‘em), 2 different fruit tarts, another kind of tart (lemon perhaps?), tiramisu, cheesecake, and a fruity concoction. And another glass of milk! I was getting full but I hadn’t had the chocolate covered strawberry yet so I went back for that and I think a few other things but I don’t have a picture of that plate.
The fireworks were starting soon so I just enjoyed sitting in my comfy chair and took a few shots of the castle while waiting. It actually was starting to get a little windy and chilly so I had to put on my windbreaker. Soon, Wishes had started and the absolute best part was seeing Tinkerbell flying DIRECTLY over our heads!!!! Oh my, it was so awesome! I mean, you could even see her face and watch her doing her acrobatics along that wire. That was so cool! This was probably the very first time I could sit and enjoy the show aspect of Wishes rather than it just being “fireworks.” Since I’m usually with the kids, I spend more time watching them enjoy it (or comforting them) so I never really paid much attention to the “show.” I can understand now why so many people love it!!!
Ah yes, when that was over, I headed over to ride Buzz and likely TTA as well. Such a bummer that Space Mountain was down as that would have been a perfect time to ride it – sans kids!! Oh well. I don’t have many other photos from this night, but I remember riding BTMRR – which I think everyone should do at night!
I don’t recall whatever else I did but found myself back at the hub and not knowing what to do next. This was a defining moment in this trip. If you’ve noticed, I had scheduled myself to be quite busy these first few full days and didn’t have much down time. But here I was, in the middle of Magic Kingdom, EMH night, without anyone to ask, “what’s next?” It was mind-boggling. After a while, I realized what it really meant to be solo, and kind of forced myself to go explore a little bit. I remember Jungle Cruise also being fun at night so I headed over there. For some reason, JC was closed, so I wandered up to Pirates. I ended up in the front row of the boat with only 1 other couple a few rows behind me. That was weird! I may have also gone on Haunted Mansion earlier, because I do recall going on it twice in a row. I know I spent some good time browsing around the Emporium as well. But with a strange feeling of not knowing what to do and thinking I had seen enough, I headed back to the hotel. My legs were certainly happy for that!
Upon return to the hotel, I had a little surprise in my room. My DH had sent a Donald Duck flower arrangement to my room!!! Forgot to mention, he had called me earlier during the Dessert buffet to see how I was doing and I thought it was kind of strange. (We have an agreement when either or both of us are away, we only call to say we’ve arrived safely and then don’t call anymore cuz we found that’s too hard on the kids. They do better without speaking to us while we’re away for some reason) He wanted to know if I had gotten the flowers!!! And he got the Donald Duck arrangement to boot, what a sweetheart!
So even though it was 11pm already (man, what a long day), I called and left a Voice mail thanking him for the pretty little arrangement!!! And then I went to bed – I was beat!!!
Coming up: A little birthday shopping and an unexpected journey
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Cassie
PassPorter Guide Author
I stopped at the Festival Marketplace stand to pick up a spoon rest I had eyed up earlier, and then exited at the International Gateway and headed back to my car.
When I got there, I saw about 10 people waiting and there was still about 20 minutes till the official 7pm open. So I went over to Buzz to get a FP and then came back to wait in line. In this short amount of time, about 5-10 more people got in line! Looking back, I don’t think it makes a darn bit of difference if you wait in line or just show up right at your ADR time. I didn’t know. 
I had been wearing my sandals since I arrived (switching between 3 pairs) and my feet and hips were most thankful for that chair! 
This was probably the very first time I could sit and enjoy the show aspect of Wishes rather than it just being “fireworks.” Since I’m usually with the kids, I spend more time watching them enjoy it (or comforting them) so I never really paid much attention to the “show.” I can understand now why so many people love it!!! 
I don’t have many other photos from this night, but I remember riding BTMRR – which I think everyone should do at night! 
After a while, I realized what it really meant to be solo, and kind of forced myself to go explore a little bit. I remember Jungle Cruise also being fun at night so I headed over there. For some reason, JC was closed, so I wandered up to Pirates. I ended up in the front row of the boat with only 1 other couple a few rows behind me. That was weird! I may have also gone on Haunted Mansion earlier, because I do recall going on it twice in a row. I know I spent some good time browsing around the Emporium as well. 
But with a strange feeling of not knowing what to do and thinking I had seen enough, I headed back to the hotel. My legs were certainly happy for that!
Waiting to eat with Goofy - DLR May 2010
Linear Mode
