Finally a trip to Disney (May 5-14 2010) TR - Page 11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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.
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.
Great updates! Looks like you have having a great time!
We stayed in Aruba at CBR a few years ago. It is a nice resort, but we did like CSR better, we did actually use the exercise room there.
Did Bill ride Mission Space too, did he like it? I'm afraid to try the spinning side, and I love all other thrill rides.
I always take a little nap on Ellen's Energy Adventure. We used to ride it every year, my DS loves dinosaurs, but we have skipped it the last few years. Thanks goodness! It takes up a lot of time. But DS is a big fan of Ellen because of that ride!
Can't wait to read more!
__________________
Donning my Wellies to cut Peat in Scotland
Melissa
Ok by no means was it cold but my hair didn’t start standing on end as soon as I walked out of the hotel room.
As some know from my PTR today was supposed to be water park day but Bill is not a huge fan plus we had a bit more to finish up in AK. We were hoping to see the Komodo dragon on the jungle trek so my plans slightly changed.
We still had our breakfast at Chef Mickey’s for 9am and it was crazy in there kids running around. It was one of the loudest meals we had. We got our picture with only the fab 4.
Pluto kept disappearing so I have a feeling he had better table scraps at another part of the restaurant. (we didn’t think he was feeling to well) he got over to our area and disappeared for 15 minutes then he made his way back over for about 10 and then disappeared again and we decided not to wait for him so we left so we can start heading over to AK to finish up what we didn’t see on Friday. Our total check came to 53.23
We couldn’t find the bus stop at the contemporary so we walked over to the MK and hopped the monorail to Ticket and transportation. We were working off our breakfast lol… That is what we told ourselves anyways. We also thought we could catch a bus to AK from MK like we did from AK to Epcot the other day. So that was our mistake.
Here is a photo of us infront of the tree of life.
We finally got to AK at around 11am and we headed over to it’s tough to be a bug, did the discovery trails and then headed over to the jungle trek to see the Komodo dragon, because Bill really wanted to see him and he was hiding the other day.
He was sun bathing when we arrived and we stayed there for half an hour hoping that we would get some movement, and we were not disappointed. He was actual a very awesome animal to watch as long as he was far away from me to make me his dinner.
He looks kind of cute and you would never know how deadly his bite would be.
Thirsty
We watched him sort of sniff the air and get a drink of water. He was very fascinating he is now my desk top background on my laptop at home.
It was then off to Rafiki’s planet watch to hit up the petting zoo which didn’t offer to much to other than your normal petting zoo at home, however on our way we saw devine she was fascinating to watch we almost walked right by her.
At Rifiki’s planet watch I got to get my picture taken with J. Cricket, Rafiki, and I thought I had my picture with Pocahontas but I don’t have it so I guess just those two. It was also good because Bill’s feet were killing him and he was getting kind of cranky so I left him to sit and play on my Iphone while I got my picture taken a few times.
It was around 12:30 and Bill was getting hungry now because tonight we were going to see spectromagic and possibly wishes we had an early dinner at 5:20 we decided that I would eat the appetizer, bill would have the meal and we would share the dessert. So today
Bill had (I believe this is what he had)
Maple Tamarind Chicken - Seared chicken breast, Indonesian tamarind glaze, coconut ginger rice, baby bok choy, shiitake mushroom stir fry.
I had the Lettuce Cups - minced chicken breast, chopped vegetables, maple tamarind sauce, and crisp lettuce cups
We shared the fried wontons this was one of our favorite desserts and am so happy that there is no place that makes these where I live. Here is the picture that I promised. Our lunch was 43.84 that is a lot for just an app, meal, and dessert.
Looking at the wonton dessert makes my mouth water! I had it last time I was at Y&Y and it was sooooo delicious! I'm glad it's no where to be found around where I live too!!
Great pictures! Terrific day at AK! Dinner looks scrumptious!
It was really good I had read so so reviews so the first time we ate there we were unsure of what to expect but it was delicious.
Quote:
Originally Posted by melduckie
Looking at the wonton dessert makes my mouth water! I had it last time I was at Y&Y and it was sooooo delicious! I'm glad it's no where to be found around where I live too!!
I know we ate those fried wontons twice and would of had them a third day but decided to try something else they were so yummy.
After lunch we hit up Pangani Forest exploration trail, and at this point bill is really hurting with his blisters. So we headed back to the resort. Here are some of the animals we saw on our journey through the trails:
The baby is laying there to just hard to see.
We had dinner reservations at O’hana and it was delicious. We arrived at 5:15 for our reservations and the place was packed it was beyond crazy we were unsure if we would get in that quickly but they did not disappoint we were called in about 15 min which was not to bad putting us at almost our exact reservation time.
We decided to have some alcoholic beverages this evening. I chose a pineapple mojito because I love the one that is at the cheesecake factory it is my favorite drink but unfortunately it didn’t taste very good to me but luckily bill finished if off for me so I didn’t feel bad.
He ordered a standard Rum and Diet and he had a second one then finished mine.
We had the
salad- the dressing was delicious,
dumplings,
wings,
noodles and broccoli, our choice for meat was beef, turkey (which was so good between the tenderness and the seasoning almost beat out the beef), pork and shrimp the only bad thing on the shrimp is you had to peel them which took all the fun out of eating them.
Bread pudding for dessert it was yummy
Our total bill was 87.58
It was then time to hope the monorail back to MK for our viewing of Spectromagic. On our way we met Bob a photo pass CM who had two fozzie pins back at his desk and told me if I wanted them to stop at GF with him. I readily agreed and got myself two fozzie bear pins (he is my favorite next to eeyore ever since I was a child)
It was then off the MK we got there about 6:40 and got our picture taken by some of the photo pass photographers and just looked in some of the shops while we killed some time.
It was a little after 7 and you see people starting to sit for spectromagic so I tell bill that if we want good seats we need to sit now. So we sat for 2 hours by 7:30 all the seats on the sidewalks were taken. We had two girls squeeze next to me which was fine but it was a little cramped so I am glad no one else tried to fit in there with them because it was not going to happen.
As we were waiting bill played with the Iphone and I got some great castle shots with the different lights etc. playing with my new small tripod that made it much easier to take these kinds of shots with.
Finally after 2 hours of sitting we were a little sore after sitting on the concrete for so long the parade started. It was just as awesome as when I was younger and enjoyed the show so much. Here are some photos of the parade.
Afterwards we decided we were beat and we were going to head back to the room before the wishes crowd. Bill’s blisters were hurting and we were tired. All these early mornings were finally catching up with us. So off we went to the bus now there were quite a few people in line probably about 2 busses in front of us when the driver gets out of the bus and says anyone want to stand? Well Bill and I jumped on that because there was no guarantee that we would have had seats at a later bus anyways. This was the farthest park from the resort and it only took 15 min on the bus which wasn’t to bad.
We had talked and realized we will have enough credits to do one more signature dining meal so we decided to see if any were available. We decided to do one Wed evening because I really wanted the steak at Kona Café. On Wednesday though we had a dinner reservation at Teppan Edo but had a good amount of Asian cuisine by this point that we wanted to change it up. One at nine dragons and 2 at Yak and Yeti time to change it up.
Our first choice was Narcosse but they didn’t have any reservations available however, they did have Citricos so we took that for dinner on Wednesday and added lunch reservations for Thursday and Friday. Stay tuned to find out later which ones they will be. I had left these two blank but realized that I didn’t want to have to look for a place to dine with the crowds beginning to grow.
The weather today: 86 low humidity
The best thing today: Komodo dragon and seeing spectromagic
The worst thing today: Bill’s blisters
The funniest thing today: Meeting Lotso
Today we tried: O’hana
And the result: another great meal yummy
The most magical moment: Watching spectromagic and watching the castle change colors
Great updates. Glad you finally got to see Fantasmic. I still haven't seen it, one of these days.
All the food looks delish.
I can't wait to try Akershus with my girls.
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.
Great updates. Glad you finally got to see Fantasmic. I still haven't seen it, one of these days.
All the food looks delish.
I can't wait to try Akershus with my girls.
Fantasimic was great and we didn't have a bad meal, wolf gang express was a disappointment but it wasn't awful.
You will have fun with the princesses and you get a souvenier picture with Belle.
What a great end to the day - Spectromagic!! Great shots of the castle too - I have qa mini tripod that I'll have to see about brining on my next trip.
BTW - I'm so going to Wal-Mart tonight to look for the wrsit keychain and id badge holders.
What a great end to the day - Spectromagic!! Great shots of the castle too - I have qa mini tripod that I'll have to see about brining on my next trip.
BTW - I'm so going to Wal-Mart tonight to look for the wrsit keychain and id badge holders.
It is so much easier the badges were in the office supply area and I think that is where I found the wrist keychains.
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
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
[B]
*Melissa
PassPorter Guide Author
Liz 
Linear Mode
