Our Island Hopping, Rain Dropping, Champagne Popping Adventure - Page 12 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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A ghost on ToT?! How cool! Never seen one, but will now keep my eyes open!
Sounds like MD was having a tough day more than once, with the drawing, and the belly kick on the slide....Wayne came along at just the right time! Making me think he could be the KK Wayne!
Great day!
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
I'm so glad Maddie's pig tails are back! It sounds like a good time was had by all. The photos of Maddie eating chicken at the luau are precious. I haven't been since the 80s and I know the show has changed--I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. Terribly sorry that the wine wasn't up to snuff--it isn't at HDDR either, but it is included!
I'm so glad to find another family that enjoyed SoA. Having been to Hawaii several times I realize it's not exactly like a luau there, but it's close (considering that most 'luaus' in Hawaii are geared toward tourits anyway).
Your family is adorable and I'm looking forward to reading more about your adventures!
Your girls are adorable. I can't wait to hear all about your cruise! We have been considering a Disney cruise for awhile and this just might push us over the edge!
WOW what a wonderful and full day yall had! Love doin the drawing class at AA, Very cool that Mary Devall got to kept the artist drawing! LOVE, LOVE the Luau!!!
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Me and Cole in the Sears Tower Skydeck, 103 floors up, in a glass box hanging off the side!
Jill, I had to catch up on your two latest updates. You all go so much done at AK and MK in the same day! Love the animals and chocolates in your turn down. Too cute! Thank goodness Maddie was fine after the fall. Your drawings of Grumpy were all so good! I have never seen a dollar folding so beautifully!
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Our magic waking hour seemed to be 8 a.m. because that’s when we were up again on this last morning of the Disney World portion of our trip. We got ready, packed and ate breakfast in the lounge before we called bell services to store our luggage. Once that was taken care of, we walked to the monorail and were soon at Epcot.
We went back and forth as to whether we should just drive to Epcot and leave for Port Canaveral from there, but we ultimately decided that we didn’t want to risk anything (i.e. chocolate, deodorant ) melting in the car.
We grabbed FP’s for Soarin first and then went to find Nemo. Maddie loves the gift shop in The Seas and, after a quick search, found a new friend, a Webkinz whale. We somehow managed to convince her to wait until the end of the day to make her purchase. She wanted to make sure that she bought the very one that she had picked out, so we hid him in the back of the pack (or whatever a group of whales is called ).
Maddie wanted to do a height check on the Sum of All Thrills, so off we went. By now, we definitely knew that Maddie was still a couple of inches away from 48”, but I couldn’t remember if Sum of All Thrills had a 48” requirement. Sure enough, it did, but Maddie took it okay. Instead we headed over to Mission Space: Green and had a great time riding together.
We had done about all we wanted to do in FW for now, so we strolled over to WS and made an impromptu decision to eat at the San Angel Inn. We had no lunch plans and Maddie had asked about the restaurant about every time that we rode the Gran Fiesta boat ride, so why not? Thom checked with the CM outside who took our name and then sent us inside. We waited only a few minutes before we were seated not too far from the entrance. No water view for us today, but the ambience was still nice.
I first discovered the avocado margarita at La Hacienda, so I was thrilled to see it on the menu at San Angel.
For my entrée, I decided to have two appetizers, Sopa Azteca (traditional tortilla soup with avocado, cheese and pasilla pepper)
and Tacos de Filete (grilled tenderloin beef served with soft flour tortilla, topped with chipotle pepper sauce). Thom went with Pollo A Las Rajas (grilled chicken breast served over red peppers, onion strips, cream sauce, and fresh cheese) while Maddie found chicken nuggets on the menu and Mary Devall took a break from mac and cheese and ordered a beef taco.
Neither girl really ate that much, but Thom and I had a perfectly lovely lunch. We even split the desserts that came with the girls’ meals since they didn’t want any part of those either. Who turns down a churro . . . really?
The beauty about having a margarita at lunch is that all of that complaining goes in one ear and out the other. The girls really weren’t that bad, but Mary Devall didn’t like the taste of hers and Maddie managed to fill up on her virgin raspberry daiquiri before her food arrived.
After we paid our bill, we took the short walk over to ride the Gran Fiesta. As we waited to be assigned to a boat, the CM took one look at us and started laughing at the way we were lined up. She told me that she had to take a picture of us, so I handed her my phone.
We had a fun boat ride and now Maddie could say that she had eaten at that restaurant in the ride. On our way out of the Mexican pavilion, Maddie asked if she could color a Duffy. We told her that we couldn’t stop at all the countries, but she was welcome to color at a few.
Next we stopped in Norway for a little Duffy coloring and a ride on Maelstrom.
From there, we stopped for more Duffy coloring at China and Germany where the girls also enjoyed some treats from the caramel shop. Thom and I were still too full from their desserts at lunch.
The same people who declared that they were not going to stop in every country for Duffy coloring and stamping stopped at every country until Morocco. At that point, Maddie decided that she was okay with foregoing the rest of the countries and heading right for Soarin since our FP’s were ready. I think that her awaiting Webkinz whale was actually the deciding factor.
I must be a creature of habit because as we approached France Thom made the comment that we needed to stop for my Grand Marnier slushie. I actually shocked him by passing. That avocado margarita was so thick that I was still full from lunch.
We continued on to Soarin where we had front row seats. I figured we would be returning to purchase Maddie’s whale at this point, but she asked if we could ride Nemo again first . . . so we took the long way. We finally made it back to purchase Maddie’s whale and found him exactly where we had left him. Believe it or not, this was her first purchase of the trip. She promptly named her whale Puffy Pants.
Even though we needed to get going, we couldn’t leave Epcot without riding SE. Maddie and I rode together and I tried to recreate the conga line from memory . . . and I did it! Of course, don’t ask me to tell you what I selected because I’m lost after the “health” selection.
We hopped a monorail back to the T&TC and then walked to the GCH. While Thom got our car and luggage, I took the girls inside for a bathroom break. On our way back outside, they asked if I would take their picture here. Wow! That brought back such sweet memories.
With one last to the Poly, we were on our way to Port Canaveral. Well . . . we really would have been on our way if the Map app on my phone hadn’t taken us all the way around MK to find I-4. I have no idea how that happened, but we finally found I-4. After stopping for gas, we were truly on our way. The Mitchells were already at the hotel at Port Canaveral relaxing by the pool, so I was happy that it only took us an hour to get there. We were ready for Part III for our vacation!!!
P.S. We are heading to California tomorrow for a little CLQ meet, so my Final Thoughts and the splendid cruise portion of this trip report will be delayed just a bit!
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Love the animals and chocolates in your turn down. Too cute! 
Thank goodness Maddie was fine after the fall. Your drawings of Grumpy were all so good! I have never seen a dollar folding so beautifully! 
) melting in the car.
). 
Instead we headed over to Mission Space: Green and had a great time riding together. 
That avocado margarita was so thick that I was still full from lunch. 
to the Poly, we were on our way to Port Canaveral. Well . . . we really would have been on our way if the Map app on my phone hadn’t taken us all the way around MK to find I-4. 
"Sparky"(My first trip.)
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