Driving Karen nuts in 10 rides or less **Updated 2/18** COMPLETE - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Just to document the princessy bed vs. the kangaroo wrestler’s bed :
But… I’d like to have it known that I completely UNTUCK my bed before I even get into it. The Princesses literally have to stand at the head of the bed and squeeze in under the covers to maintain the perfect princessy envelope.
I think I had a pea under my side of the mattress.
Quote:
By about the time that we turned in to the pre-show room, Jill’s central nervous system was really amped up.
Well, that picture just about sums it up.
Quote:
We managed to get the first and second rows on one side and got ourselves situated – it’s also when Jill got herself “ready” by hooking an arm through the arms of each of her CLQ-1 neighbors.
You will never know how much that hooking method worked for me.
Quote:
The funniest thing was, she was gripping my arm so tightly that I could seriously feel her heart fluttering like a bird – this girl was SKEEEERT!!
And, you know, until you told me that I thought I was being pretty about the whole thing.
Quote:
I did my best to “talk her through it” (although I’m sure Mary Devall could’ve done it better!) and let her know when we were entering the drop tower.
Oh please, Mary Devall would have told me that I was going to die, die, die!
Quote:
Then I quietly reassured her that they were locking us into position and we were safe – even though I don’t think she was listening at all by that point, merely holding on for dear life.
I don't remember the safe part.
Quote:
Once we were ready to drop, I said “this is it” and gave her arm a squeeze – I looked over and Jill had her head tucked down and was waiting for death to find her.
Now that I remember.
Quote:
Luckily for Jill (and my arm), it was one of the mildest drop sequences – lots of small hops, short drops, long climbs up with immediate drops that give great air time (which I think are smooth and wonderful) and… then… I saw the black and white swirly thing, telling me that we were done.
Thank the good Lord above for mild drop sequences!
Quote:
I covered the hand that was cutting off the circulation in my elbow and yelled, “YOU DID IT!”
Jill looked up, all confused, still scared, but suddenly relieved. “It’s OVER?!”
Yep… you did it, girlfriend. And you survived… with a smile.
That was such a happy moment in my life. I really wasn't that scared going into child birth.
Quote:
She had such a GRRRR-eat smile of happiness and joy that I was literally beaming when she said she’d *totally* do it again!
And I did! You guys were so, so sweet to take care of me.
Quote:
Heeee! I love all the different expressions – I’m in full-on holler, Jill looks like she wishes she’d wrapped herself in bubble wrap, Sharon looks supremely happy and the whole front row looks like we haven’t even started the ride yet.
What a fabulous day, from beginning to end! Art is such a treasure. I just love his smile. Your dinner sounds wonderful and I think that was so sweet of Bob and Larry to commemorate the event with special pins. Honestly, just having dinner and drinks with them sounds like an event in itself.
When they opened the doors, the line just kept coming and coming, making it clear that they were wrapped waaaaaaay around the corner.
I could not believe the line when we opened up! It was just incredible how many people were there right at 10:00 am. Sara and I opened the doors and stood back so as not to be trampled.....actually everyone was very orderly....we've all learned proper line etiquette from WDW!
Quote:
I think I ended up at the PassPorter table at least an hour or more, but it was a fun assignment (even though I didn’t get to circulate at the other booths at all) and the only thing that bummed me out was that I didn’t get to try one of the cream cheese pretzels everyone raved about!
OMG - those things were to die for! I had the jalapeno one and it had the perfect amount of "kick".
Quote:
Sharon and Jill ran out to Beaches and Cream to try and get us onto the wait list before the major crowds from the MMM showed up – Lesley and I found the nearest bathroom and were greatly “relieved.”
Again - perfectly matched bladders.
OK - I can't copy the entire "No Way Jose story", but I have no idea how we ate it all in 8 minutes while laughing hysterically. Poor Larry didn't have a chance to have more than a bite or 2 before he was trying to save himself from having 6 ice cream crazed women eating out of his lap. OMG - Eileen your retelling of the story had me laughing even harder tonight than I did either time on that Saturday!
Quote:
We settled up the bill and said our various goodbyes to the gang before heading inside for the most delightful conversation with Art the Greeter at the front doors of the Beach Club. I gotta say, this is one fellow who really understand that we all need to embrace our joy in life.
He told us how he frequently sees very uptight guests who just can’t seem to accept that joy is all around them, the way children are able to. One of his favorite memories was of a smiling conventioneer who was standing with a bunch of other conventioneers, all buttoned-up and uptight, angrily waiting for a rainstorm to end. The woman just refused to keep her happiness contained, despite the sour looks from her colleagues. Eventually, she kicked off her shoes and raced out into the rain, dancing with joy in rain puddle.
He was so charmed by that sight that he applauded her joy. Art advised us all to “find our puddle.”
We made him a solemn vow that we’d do that whenever possible – not hard when you’re surrounded by such wonderful, fun, fun-loving people in the Happiest Place on Earth, huh?!
I just Art! I don't think there is a kinder soul on the face of the earth. Since I've been home I haven't done enough looking for my puddle - but starting tomorrow I vow I will!
I headed out after we talked with Art. I had to get my laptop back to my room and get ready for dinner.
Eventually, we were all together and were escorted in to our table in the middle of the room. I looked all around me, drinking in the details. There were beautiful murals and paintings on the wall and the joinery and woodwork were just delightful.
This was my first visit to AP and I immediately fell in love with the restaurant. To me it was elegant, but not stuffy - my kind of restaurant!
Quote:
The table was still set for 10 and we asked them not to clear Karen’s unused setting at the head of the table. In fact, to enhance the feeling of her being with us, we even dressed her wine glass with one of the fabu princess tiaras that Joan had brought for all of us!
It felt so right to have Karen there with us that night - even though we didn't pay much attention to the spreadsheet. Somehow I think she would have done the same thing on that magical night.
The tiara's definitely added to the atmosphere. The only picture I took the whole day was this one:
After that I just forgot my camera was even there.
Quote:
Bob and Larry made the astounding (but most welcome) announcement that they wanted to take care of all the wine for our group – both the choosing and purchasing. Wowzers… that was amazingly generous and they did an excellent, excellent, excellent job. I loved the Riesling they selected for my sweet palate and the ice wine at dessert was just divine!
The sommelier came over with one of the bottles and showed us all the label. Bob immediately started describing the “bright flavors and crisp finish of the wine” in such loving detail that the sommelier eventually handed Bob his ring of keys and asked him to make sure to lock up that evening when he was done.
Hearing Bob and Larry discuss the wine choices was an education in itself! I really enjoy red wines, and their choice was amazing! They can choose my wine any time! Thank you both sooooooo much! I know there are a lot of exclamation points there, but it was that kind of a night.
Quote:
Lesley, my perfect “sharing" dinner partner offered to split her mushroom soup with me if I did the same with my cheese sampler.
Oh. My. Goodness…. Was this just the best combo. The soup was incredible and had the most creamy, light texture and taste. I seriously wanted to bathe in this stuff – it was just divine. And the cheese and the pairings – well, they were unbelievable. I love me a strong, stinky blue cheese. Yum, yum, yum!
Eileen is right. This pairing was so good! The soup - which was highly recommended by Larry - was divine. There were layers of taste that were just wonderful! And I just cheese! Any kind, any where. I can't tell you how great it was to have a sharing partner so I could taste both of these appetizers! Eileen!
I ordered the Braised Buffalo Short Rib with parsnip potato gratin, caramelized leeks, and red wine jus. It was fork tender, very tasty and the sauce was perfect! The berry cobbler was calling my name for dessert and it was as good as I'd been told. Unforturnately I probably didn't do it justice after everything else I'd eaten, but I do remember that I didn't leave a drop of the Ice Wine. I may not be an official member of the ELC, but I try to hold up my end of the deal when I'm in their presence. Not to mention that is may have been the best dessert wine I've ever had!!!!!!
Quote:
But, the single best thing about the whole night was what Bob and Larry did for us all next. They told us that they’d worked and worried and slaved over an idea they’d had. Charmed by the special event pins that they’d gotten from Disney for all the special tours and events they’d done over the years, they wanted to have something like that for our event – the first ever Bob and Larry Dining Experience.
I can’t even tell you how blown away I was by this – and it was not only beautiful, thoughtful and touching, but it took a lot of advanced planning and painstaking attention to detail. Simply, simply amazing.
Bob and Larry, you two are some of the nicest, most sincere, most delightful people I’ve ever met. You totally knocked my socks off and I’m still floating on a lovely memory of “good friends, good food” that will stick with me for the rest of my days. Seriously – that was a highlight of my whole life!
How can I put it any better than this! I know that a tear or two crept down my cheek I was so touched by their thoughtfulness. This may be one of the best gifts I've gotten...EVER! Thank you both for a wonderful evening my friends!
Location: Exported from Morgantown, WV to Shreveport, LA
Posts: 4,104
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 0
Likes (Received): 0
Thanks (Given): 0
Thanks (Received): 0
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 0
Wow. For *once* in my life, I'm just speechless! Bob & Larry's pins were amazing, your dinner sounded absolutely perfect (and PS, I me some stinky, smelly blue cheese too!), and in general, even though it was just the 3 of you, with no families (or Karen), your entire TR just sounds like the trip of a lifetime. And it's nowhere even close to being finished!
You have been busy! Wow, what a great day - I love the Tower of Terror photo. And those lines for the MegaMouseMeet!
As for the Bob and Larry dining experience - what a superb meal and a great surprise. I just so hope that we get to meet them next year at MouseFest. I have wanted to dine with them, having read their great reports, for so long now - and maybe we'll finally get to do that in December?
Okay, I have only lurked here and this is my first post, but I just wanted to say that I saw you all at Artist's Point and you were having such a wonderful time. My best friend and I had left the kids with the husbands and were out for the night and you guys cracked us up! Good to see grown-ups so thoroughly enjoying themselves. We wondered what the crowns were for, figured it had something to do with Mousefest!
When they opened the doors, the line just kept coming and coming, making it clear that they were wrapped waaaaaaay around the corner. (Show this to any doubting Thomases you know, just to show them that you’re not even remotely alone in your WDW obsession. Not only are these diehard fans, but they traveled to Orlando for this event, got up early to be there when it opened, and many had also gotten up before the crack of dawn to go to the Annual Passholder sale at World of Disney.)
Now that is fantastic! I'm glad that we appeared to be just fun and not annoying!
Jill
Quote:
Originally Posted by chris889
Okay, I have only lurked here and this is my first post, but I just wanted to say that I saw you all at Artist's Point and you were having such a wonderful time. My best friend and I had left the kids with the husbands and were out for the night and you guys cracked us up! Good to see grown-ups so thoroughly enjoying themselves. We wondered what the crowns were for, figured it had something to do with Mousefest!
About This Page: 
Love the stories, the food, and the pins!! 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
about the whole thing. 
Heeee! I love all the different expressions – I’m in full-on holler, Jill looks like she wishes she’d wrapped herself in bubble wrap, Sharon looks supremely happy and the whole front row looks like we haven’t even started the ride yet.
Dora
I had the jalapeno one and it had the perfect amount of "kick". 
Poor Larry didn't have a chance to have more than a bite or 2 before he was trying to save himself from having 6 ice cream crazed women eating out of his lap. OMG - Eileen your retelling of the story had me laughing even harder tonight than I did either time on that Saturday! 
Eileen!
For *once* in my life, I'm just speechless! Bob & Larry's pins were amazing, your dinner sounded absolutely perfect (and PS, I 
PassPorter Guide Author
Linear Mode
