Stay Calm and Hakuna Matata TR (9/21/13-9/29/13) - Completed!! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Sounds like a great morning aside from Philharmagic! I forgot about the Merida meet as I've missed it on my trips so far. Added to the to-do list, thanks for the reminder!
September 26th, 2013 Part I
When I woke up the next morning, I still have to admit I was still feeling a little bummed about the events that had recently happened. However, today was a new day and it was time to start anew. So, like routine, I trekked over to the food court got some pancakes for Joshua to eat later and some coffee for myself and Will. When I got back to the room, they were both dressed and ready to go, a first for both of them this week. I think they knew better than to get on my mean side, like they did last night. For today, we had reservations for O’Hana, afterwards we planned on visiting EPCOT. As we drove over to the Poly for breakfast, we talked about which park we would visit on our last day in the bubble, and after much discussion, we decided we would head back to the Animal Kingdom on our last day there. We pulled up the Poly, found a spot to park and headed inside to the Great Ceremonial House and rode the elevator up the second floor, where I checked us in at the podium. By now, Joshua was use to the routine of getting his picture taken before sitting down to breakfast. I think this was the only day where I couldn’t come up with a good idea for matching shirts or outfits.
After our family portrait was taken, Will and Joshua went to men’s room, while I waited for our name to be called. They were still in the Men’s room, when the pager went off, I was approached by the Host, Jonathan, who was from my home state. We spoke for a few minutes about traffic in that area, while we waited for the rest of the gang. It was too long, before the Will and Joshua joined me and we were all shown our table, but not before we stopped at the counter to carry a basket of wonderful assortment of breakfast breads. Our server came over and poured juice for us and explained how breakfast was served and where and when we could expect the characters to visit. I started on the breakfast bread, which was very light and delicious. I was half-way through my second piece of bread, when our breakfast arrived, which consisted of a plate of Mickey shaped waffles, fruit and the main course. We gave Joshua some Mickey shaped waffles, while Will and I plated some of the scrambled eggs (Hua Paka), fried potatoes (Uala Kahiki), bacon/sausage (Pua’a) on our plates. I also had some of the fresh fruit, which consisted of pineapples, melons, and cantaloupe. While I did enjoy scenery and the interaction with characters, my husband and I did not enjoy the entire meal. The food was way too salty for us, so we only had a few bites of the items on our plate. My palate is very sensitive to sodium, so for us breakfast meats such as bacon and sausage is usually a problem at restaurants in Disney, since they seem to cook regular bacon or sausage which is high in sodium, usually at home we eat either maple flavored or low sodium, which I’m able to tolerate better. However, I’m not going to let a little bit of unpleasant food deter me from having fun with the characters and adding a couple more signatures to my autograph book.
September 26th, 2013 Part II
After breakfast, we drove over to the Epcot’s parking lot and found a spot up front in the handicap section. I believe we got there around 9:45 and the skies over head started getting dark, so we got our poncho ready just in case. After taking care of bag check and placing our Mickey to Mickey to enter the park, we headed over to our first ride of the day, Spaceship Earth. It rained for a little while during the ride, but it didn’t cool anything off, just made it more humid and hot. After, we finished riding Spaceship Earth; we headed over to the Seas Pavilion and climbed aboard the clam shells to see if we could find Nemo and his friends. Next, we walked around looking at the different fishes and sharks in the tanks. As we exploring the area, we noticed the wait time for Turtle Talk with Crush was 10 minutes and there was hardly anyone in the waiting area, so we decided to head on in and wait for the next showing. During that time, Joshua and I looked at the Jellyfish and played the trivia games. Everything was going fine, until the holding area started to become more and more crowded. I told Will to keep an eye on Joshua who was starting to become a little anxious. Poor guy! I told him we would only be in this area for a few more minutes before we could go in and watch the show. Well that last word I said about going to watch the show, was all it took and next thing I know he’s darting off with Will running after him. He must have thought he was going to be watching something like “PhilarMagic” again. I could see him talking to Joshua to try and reassure him and then I saw them heading back towards me. At this point they had opened the doors and I went on inside to the theater, thinking they were coming in behind me and figure we just meet up inside. The show started and Crush made his appearance. I strained to look around and couldn’t find them anywhere, since I knew Will was with Joshua and the show would only last about ten minutes, I sat back and watched and taped it for them. Will was a little angry about me going inside to watch the show, but I told him that I thought they had both gone inside too and that I had recorded it, so he could watch it later and maybe next time we could convince Joshua to try it once. We then left the Seas Pavilion and headed back over to Future World East, where our Fast pass for Test Track was ready. I didn’t realize how long we had been inside the Sea Pavilion, so we missed our Soarin return time, however the one scheduled for Test Track was ready. Joshua was in one of his disgruntle moods, but he still wanted to ride, so he and DH went off and got into the fastpass line, which was pretty long, but Will wasn’t too worried, since he knew they not let people in as a group. I sat this one out and went inside to look at the exhibits. It took Will and Joshua a little over half an hour to tour and ride track on the attraction. Will preferred the old test track and wished that had been a way to skip over the design part, which didn’t interest Joshua at all. They both felt the ride section wasn’t as fun either. However, one would have a hard time telling from their picture:
At this point, Will was ready to go back to the resort. I asked him if mind if I headed over to Germany to pick up some goodies from Karmell-Kuche! Joshua didn’t want to leave yet either, so I told him lets walk the World Showcase, before heading out. So, we started off walking towards Germany, passing Mexico, Norway, and China. After picking up a Caramel Cluster Milk Chocolate Pecan and a Caramel Apple Oatmeal Cookie for later, my husband wanted to turn around and head back, but I told him we’re so half way to the other side of the show case and I wanted to check out one more thing. I didn’t want to tell him that what I wanted to check out was all the way over in Canada and we really weren’t even half-way around yet and since he didn’t have the map he didn’t know any better. So, we kept walking, while I pointed out the different countries to Joshua. Joshua’s favorite thing during this time was to find all the water fountains. Which he was really good at and so we travel on and on, until we came to what I had been looking for this whole time… Canada’s Food and Wine Festival Kiosk selling an item I really wanted to try, “Le Cellier” Wild Mushroom Beef Filet Mignon with Truffle Butter Sauce, which was absolutely delicious. My husband tried their eared Rainbow Trout with Bacon, Frisee and Maple Minus 8 Vinaigrette, which he really enjoyed. We used our snack credits for both items, which was really nice. I told Will, that this was a signature restaurant and that maybe one day we might dine there. After enjoying our snacks we headed out of EPCOT, but not before I grabbed a nearby Disney photographer to take a picture of us in front of the huge “golf” ball.
By the time we got back to resort, we only had maybe an hour to relax before we were heading out again. This evening we were going to driving over to the Fort Wilderness for the Hoop Dee Doo Review. On our way to the car we saw something run across the sidewalk and into the pond near-by. I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to take pictures, since both our phones were being charged at the time in our backpack. Well we walked over to see what had made a beeline for the water and we were in for a nice surprise, two black river otters! They were enjoying catching and eating an early supper, but I was kind of glad no children were near us when they were eating, because it wasn’t fish they were after, nope it was frogs! We didn’t know how long it was going to take to get over to the Settlement Post so, we were only able to watch them for a few minutes. The drive from our resort to Fort Wilderness only took a few minutes and we walked over to the bus depot and only had to wait a few minutes for the bus to arrive. I couldn’t remember which bus line was the shortest, but I figured we had plenty of time, since it was only 4 and dinner was at 4:30. So we found a seat on the bus and soon we were on our way. When we got there, I showed Joshua some checkers on the barrels outside the post where he could sit and play while we waited our turn to have our picture taken before going inside. It had been a long day and Joshua wasn’t feeling like having his picture taken again. I had to laugh, when they were trying to get his attention to look up at the camera. The one cast member there had a toy in his hands, which I assumed would be used to get the child’s attention. Well, he walks over and hands it to Joshua, who is totally fascinated with the spinning parts and now the toy has his total attention instead of the poor photographer. Then the cast member, who had no clue on how to get a child’s attention, looked over at the photographer and says, “I guess I should have held the toy and had them look over here, instead of giving it to them”. The photographer said nothing but just shook his head as she snapped our picture.
A few minutes, later they opened the door and started letting people inside. We decided to let most of the crowd head in, so Joshua wouldn’t get overwhelmed. As soon as I saw only a few couples ahead we walked over and were shown our seats, which too our surprise was on the floor, since we had used our dining credits for tier three seating! We all enjoyed the show and my husband and I even got a chance to dance when they asked if anyone was celebrating an anniversary. The only complaint that I have about it, sorry was I wished they wouldn’t rush the dinner part. I’m a slow eater and I really hate being rushed. I barely got a taste of the food when our server kept coming over to clear the table between sets. What little I did eat was pretty yummy, however. After dinner we headed back to the resort, where I did a few loads of laundry and worked on the trip report. We called it an early night and I believe we were all asleep by ten o'clock.
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