Go your own way - Decade of Dreams - UPDATED 6/24 - COMPLETE!! - Page 78 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I've been out of town for almost a week so I've missed quite a lot! I love all the pictures, glad to see you had more fun with friends toward the end of the trip. Thanks for the pictures of Wilderness Lodge - my favorite resort! Looking forward to hearing more of your last day.
hey, i like that idea! a photographic tour with chez leading the way! hmmm...i know you are not going to be there a whole lot of time, but maybe you will think about this as a meet???
Hey, we're there from late on the Thursday to Monday lunchtime (ish) - I'll certainly think about it. I'm happy to do something on whenever the Epcot day falls, depending on our other plans, which we don't know at this stage. But I'll keep the idea in mind!
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Wednesday 6 May – part four: a real festival highlight!
We saw the wasteful garden on the way to Morocco, which was interesting. There are two small pavilions, giving you ideas of how people waste things like electricity etc. and how they can change their lifestyles to be less wasteful. It was interesting to see and not too educational.
Morocco had a lovely topiary of Aladdin, but again, very little shade.
So it was on to Japan next. There, I had to go and have a look in Mitsukoshi and it was so funny to see a lot of products that we had seen in the shops in Japan in here. I don’t know why, but I just always assumed that the merchandise would be aimed at a tourist market, but not really. It is pretty genuine. The funny thing was that their kimonos were actually cheaper than we had found them to be in Japan, which surprised me. I didn’t buy one though, despite that.
We came out of there and wandered through their gardens, seeing the bonsai they had there and enjoying the shade there. This park really wasn’t at all busy today. :
It was on to the American Adventure next and this really had nothing to celebrate the Food and Garden Festival, although I guess that in fairness, they do have the concerts at the theatre here, but that was it. Again, there was no shade, so we didn’t stop there long either.
Next was Italy, with the beautiful Lady and the Tramp topiary, which was just adorable.
We wandered into Germany and getting too hot again, had a look in the shops, but to be honest, I don’t think the air conditioning was working very well, because we didn’t feel that much cooler in there. We headed back into the sun, not feeling refreshed at all.
Next to Germany was one of the highlights of the festival, the Peter Pan and Captain Hook playground. The topiary of Captain Hook with Tic Toc was quite something and I loved the displays they had of naval flags. You could work out what they spelled out and the bit I worked out said Tic Toc crocodile. Very good. This really was Disney theming at its best.
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I thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the pictures that you posted Cheryl!!! This was the first year in three years that I haven't been able to be at Disney during the F&G Festival and I really missed seeing all the beautiful displays. You made it possible for me to enjoy it online though!!! I loved the PP pic of you and Wendy in the Epcot entrance with the monorail behind you both. The story of the parents telling their children to push past you to get in the front cab was unbelieveable. What kind of parents teach their children to cheat like that! Looks like you had quite a full last day at WDW. Sorry it's almost over though.
Interesting that the kimonos were less expensive at WDW than in Japan. But I'm glad to hear that they are offering a true assortment of items in the shops, I bet that is true of all the pavilions around World Showcase. I hope it stays that way! All the topiaries look lovely. I like the knot board they had in the Peter Pan/Hook area.
Wednesday 6 May – part five: this has changed a lot…
We headed towards China, as we were getting close to our ADR time for Nine Dragons. We did think that we might have time to see the film, but sadly when we enquired, it was either 12 minutes off and lunch was only 15 minutes away, so that wouldn’t work. Instead, we walked around the Terracotta Army exhibition.
Then we had a browse in the shops. I know Mark always dreads me going in here, but I was good and didn’t get anything in here, although I was salivating over some of the tops, they were so beautiful.
We got to Nine Dragons a couple of minutes before 12.00, but there was nowhere to check in ahead of them opening, you just had to wait for them to open, as the check in was inside. As soon as the doors opened, we were in (heck, we will run for air conditioning today!) and were seated immediately. They have a good system here, with you checking in and then being taken straight to your table. I know that’s probably because they had only just opened, but it’s a system that a lot of other places could easily adopt.
We got a window seat and I was immediately impressed by the rehab that had been carried out here. It looked a lot fresher and more welcoming. I was soon to discover that it wasn’t the only change that they had made here. The menu had a good range of items on it and quickly frankly, that hasn’t always been the case in Disney World this time, with the Whispering Canyon Café and Rose and Crown in particular suffering from dramatically cut down menus. I guess it’s another sign of Disney cutbacks.
Anyway, back to the menu. I decided to go for the shrimp summer rolls for starter, while Wendy went for the pot stickers.
For main course, I had the fragrant five-spiced fish, while Wendy had the chicken, although I didn’t note down if it was the honey sesame or Kung Pao version, so she’ll have to tell you that bit.
The taste of everything was superb, although I will be honest, the fish became a bit samey after a while, although that’s often a problem I have with Chinese dishes. I tend to find that, although beautifully flavoured, I need something else after a while and this was what happened here. You certainly got a lot for your money as well. I had two massive shrimp rolls and two great big pieces of fish. I guess that they took on board the previous criticism about Nine Dragons not being good value for money and did something abut that, because it’s certainly good value now. Our meal came to $46 for the two of us, which we thought was excellent. I know that the last time Mark and I ate here, which I think was either in 2002 or 2004, the bill came to way more than that, so that just shows how much cheaper this place is now.
The service was excellent and our server did a sterling job of keeping our glasses filled up, which wasn’t easy. Bearing in mind how hot it was, we were both drinking a lot and very quickly, so he did well to keep up with us. All in all, I would definitely come back here and I’m really pleased to see the improvements that have been made here. I’m glad Disney have taken on board the previous complaints, listened to them and acted on them. I can’t wait to bring Mark here in December.
Nine Dragons:
Appetiser 9
Main course 9
Service 10
Atmosphere 9½
Value for money 9
Average score: 9.30
Refuelled and full of drink, we felt ready to head out into the heat again and we didn’t get far, as we first stopped the topiary troll…
… and then that Maelstrom only had a five minute wait, so we dived on that. Just as we walked up to it, it went up to a 10 minute wait, but to be honest, I think five minutes was much more accurate. We were probably on in just three or four minutes. We had a freaky experience on this and I can only put it down to those Norwegian trolls. Our boat stopped halfway around, fortunately just before we got to the backwards bit (otherwise that could have been fun!) and the message came on that worried us a bit, that a Cast Member would be coming to get us out of our boats fairly shortly. Oh great!
Well, when faced with such a sight, what’s a girl to do, but take a flash photo of what we got stranded in front of, especially as the whole ride had stopped and nothing was moving. It was very eerie, but a minute or two later, it did start up again and we were off and the rest of our Norwegian exploration was incident free.
We headed next to Mexico, as that’s also a good cool place in the heat.
We went on the Gran Fiesta Tour. As Wendy said, you don’t want to wait for this, but it’s fine.
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This really was Disney theming at its best. 
I loved the PP pic of you and Wendy in the Epcot entrance with the monorail behind you both. The story of the parents telling their children to push past you to get in the front cab was unbelieveable.
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