Marchin' Through the Grand Floridian TR - Page 10 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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So we're eating the fabulous Narcoossee's food while flirting outrageously with Chevy, and we're all gabbing like mad. Suddenly I notice colored lights out in the darkening waters, so I leapt up, screeched, "It's the Electrical Water Pageant!" and sprinted for the door.
Out on the deck, I snapped these just for you:
The crocodile kept opening and closing his mouth -- I was getting a little worried for our dinosaur friend.
Of course, I was singing along to "Under the Sea" and swaying to the music. Finally three of my dining companions came outside, about the time the show was over.
I am so happy to have finally seen (and heard) the Electrical Water Pageant!
By the time we got back to the table, dessert had arrived. (Don't you love it when that happens? )
Three of us had chosen two kinds of Creme Brulee (Key Lime and Coconut Custard).
Both were very good. Another person chose Almond-crusted cheesecake with Lambert cherry sauce:
and that was very good -- not what most of us think of as cheesecake, but still very good.
Kathy proclaimed herself too full for dessert, but of course Chevy brought the birthday girl a little something:
By the time we paid the bill, it was going on 10:00. Perfect, since the Magic Kingdom was getting ready for the nightly fireworks. We stood on the deck and watched until they were done. From that distance, my camera couldn't do much good -- so I contented myself with this quick shot and then simply stood and enjoyed the show.
We all had more seminars coming up in the morning, so said and went our separate ways to
.
One of my Narcoossee's dining companions had dared me to wear something Disneyfied at the next morning's seminar -- so of course I HAD to. Whoever took this photo was probably too hard to hold the camera still -- I seemed to evoke that reaction from most of my HR compatriots that morning.
Here I am with one of the speakers (and the author of the book I'm holding -- "Louder Than Words").
The conference ended around 12:30pm, with nearly all the participants heading immediately for the airport. (Of course, all my new friends were now kicking themselves for thinking they wouldn't have anybody to go to the parks with -- -- so here they were, rushing to get home on a FRIDAY AFTERNOON. When they could have gone into WDW with ME. )
I'd been leaving little notes for Mousekeeping along with a nice tip each morning. When I got back to my room that afternoon, I found my lamp was sporting a new towel thingy:
I changed into shorts and then had to make a decision. I knew I'd be spending the next day at the AK with Sandy and her family, and then going home Sunday morning. All I'd done at MK on Tuesday was lunch at Tony's and the PhilharMagic, but I knew that park would be nuts due to spring break.
Since DHS is my favorite park AND because I don't expect to get back to WDW for the next year or longer, I decided to swap hats (my hair was plastered to my head thanks to the Goofy pirate hat, which meant I had to wear something on my head the rest of the day or else risk frightening small children ), so slapped on my ToT cap ("I suggest you take the stairs. . . .") and took the bus to. . . .
I stopped by TSMM, but of course all the FPs were long gone, and the posted wait time was 90 minutes -- so I said, "I'll just enjoy playing the Wii version at home," and went on my merry way.
Another gorgeous day, so I decided to simply soak up all the 1939 Hollywood ambiance and not worry about getting in attractions. But I did stop by the ToT and the posted wait time was 20 minutes. Heck yes, I'll do that! That is my favorite attraction in any of the parks. I would have ridden it again but by then the regular line was all the way to the gate. But once is better than not at all, right?
So you know where I headed next, right? Yep, the Single Rider Line at. . . .
Look -- it's Aerosmith Mickey!
Even the SRL was l-o-n-g but not as bad as the regular line -- gee whiz, those folks are crazy to wait that long! Of course, I started chatting with two businessmen behind me (they'd been at a conference at the Contemporary all week) and then with a brother and sister from Orlando who were in front of me (he's maybe 20 and she's maybe 15) -- they were so polite and so interested in how often I go to WDW. They were there because of out-of-town company .
When we finally got into the building, I started pointing out the hidden Mickeys -- the two businessmen were because they'd never heard of hidden Mickeys and couldn't imagine why anyone would care. Of course, I blithely informed them that Disney like me love staring at floors, ceilings, stairs, etc. just for the opportunity to glimpse a hidden Mickey. I'm sure they thought I was but I didn't care.
The Cast Member at the building entrance asked me if I'd ever seen the hidden Mickey inside the recording studio. I didn't think I had, so he told me to ask the CM in there.
Well, the SRL people stand furthest from the window. So when I asked the CM in there about a hidden Mickey, she said, "Wait until everybody exits to get in line for the limos, and then I'll show you the hidden Mickey."
So that's what we did. As soon as everyone exited, I slipped under the bars separating the SRL area from the regular area. Then I stepped up to the window and looked down at the hidden Mickey. (It's on the floor in front of the guitars that are on display.) I thanked her, and then started to slip back under the bars to the SRL area.
The CM said, "Oh, go ahead and stay in the regular line -- that will get you on the ride a little faster." Well, this is getting better and better!
After my "limo ride," I looked through the gift shop a bit and then went outside to get in line for ice cream. My new friends found me there -- first, the businessmen: "Hey, what happened to you? You disappeared!" When I explained, with great about my good fortune in getting bumped up to the regular line, I couldn't help saying, "See, caring about hidden Mickeys sometimes comes in handy!" They and went on their way.
A minute later, here comes the brother and sister with a similar question. By that point, I'd reached the front of the ice cream line. "Do you have Mickey Bars?" I asked the CM behind the counter. "Sorry, no -- you can get them further up the street." To which I cheerfully replied, "That's OK -- guess I'll have to 'suffer' with a swirl cone."
I kept trying to hand my room card to the CM so she could charge the ice cream to my account, and she kept ignoring me and instead handed me the ice cream cone, saying " from Disney."
Then I turned to the brother and sister, answered their question about where I'd disappeared to in the RnRC line, and then informed them that Disney had just given me free ice cream for my birthday. They smiled and said, "Have a great time" and I told them to do likewise.
I was wishing WDW sold lottery tickets about then, because I was feelin' soooooooooooo lucky!
So I stopped to take a of myself with my birthday cone:
LOVE that Aerosmith Mickey!!
And what a great afternoon - getting dropped into the faster line AFTER seeing a hidden Mickey and then FREE ice cream! YEAH!
Not fair teasing the pregnant lady with food porn from her favorite place to eat at WDW (Nacrossee's) . Great timing with dinner, getting to catch EWP & Wishes. I must admit that my fav place to watch Wishes is from the dock at Nacrossee's
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and went our separate ways to 
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Whoever took this photo was probably 
-- so here they were, rushing to get home on a FRIDAY AFTERNOON. When they could have gone into WDW with ME. 
That is my favorite attraction in any of the parks. 
but I didn't care. 
from Disney."
of myself with my birthday cone:
your ToT hat (I have it in pink).
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