Is It Time Already?! OKW and POR, November 2013 - Page 13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Glad the phone was safely returned to you. At this rate, you'll know all the bus drivers personally! Love the photo with Pluto wearing Evan's ears. I always love meeting Mickey's doggie.
So glad your phone was found and it didn't take too much time out of your day Love Sunshine Seasons, always a great variety!
It did take an hour of our day, and we already had a late start to the day!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Thank goodness you got your phone back.
Thank goodness, right?!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily
Your lunch looks great! I've only had dessert/breakfast items there. I love that ride. I hope to do the Agent P thing next time.
When I was trying to decide if I wanted the ahi tuna salad, the CM told me it was really spicy. I'm not a big fan of spice, but it didn't look "that" spicy to me. I decided to throw caution to the wind and try it...more because I wanted the cold noodles! It turned out to be only moderately spicy, so I was able to eat all of it without problem!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Glad the phone was safely returned to you. At this rate, you'll know all the bus drivers personally! Love the photo with Pluto wearing Evan's ears. I always love meeting Mickey's doggie.
Pluto was amazing! He spent a good amount of time with each guest, and it was so entertaining watching the interaction!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
Another lousy night of sleep. I hope this wasn't every night!
Umm...well...now that you mention it....
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
It did take an hour of our day, and we already had a late start to the day!
Well, when my boyfriend lost his phone in MK, it took at least an hour out of that day, and then probably a half hour out of each of the other days calling to try to find it.
It was never found
So you got lucky, an hour waiting around at Disney is still better than not being at Disney anyway, right?
Back in 2009, they were just starting to roll out the Kimmunicators, and since I hadn't read about it before our trip, we completely missed it. This time, we were happy to try out Agent P.
As we walked by Canada, Sophia asked if it was Canada, and I said yes. That was the extent of our time at Canada this trip. After the trip, Sophia and I asked each other why we never went back to Canada. And we also realized we never walked into China. What were we thinking?!
The mission was pretty self-explanatory. It took us about 45 minutes or so to go through the entire mission. It took us all around the UK.
After we completed our mission, we decided not to do another one, so we dropped off our communicator as instructed. I thought about getting some fish and chips at Yorkshire County, but we weren't hungry enough yet.
It had started to sprinkle a bit as we left the UK. We headed on to France. Back in 2009, we missed Impressions de France. I wanted to make sure we saw it this time. I loved it! The music was beautiful as was the scenery. When we exited at Les Halles, we started to browse the gift shop. It was then that we saw people walking in wet. Hmm...I guess we should just get some snacks at Les Halles then and wait out the rain.
I had planned to do this anyway, but I wasn't terribly hungry yet. I saw the cutest macaroons, but I've never been a fan of them. They always seemed so blah-tasting to me. The ones at Les Halles, however, looked so cute...and they were packaged so nicely!
I didn't eat the macaroons until that evening, but let me tell you they were DELICIOUS!!! If this is how macaroons are supposed to taste, well let me at them!!!
Sophia decided on a fruity parfait thing (that's the official name, you know! :P ), Evan wanted a croissant, and I of course had to have a creme brulee! For drinks we had hot chocolate, coffee, and milk. Sorry, one of these days I'll figure out how to rotate pictures!
We sat and ate for about half an hour, and then we decided we should go ahead and brave the rain or else we'd be wasting the day away! The rain looked to be slowing down, so we headed out.
We passed by Chefs de France and saw the table we ate at back in 2009.
I remember that day so well. We didn't have an ADR for dinner, but everyone wanted to eat at Chefs de France so I walked up and asked if they had anything available. To my amazement, they checked and then told me yes! And we got probably the best seat in the house!
The rain was coming and going, and we made it to Morocco and looked around. It was crowded in there because people kept streaming in to take cover from the rain. We decided to keep moving on.
As we were about halfway to Japan, the rain started to come down harder. Luckily, we made it without getting completely drenched. We browsed around the store, and I asked Sophia if she wanted to pick a pearl. She thought about it and went back and forth for a while. It wasn't busy, so I told her she should make a decision before more people showed up. Finally, she decided she didn't want one, so we kept browsing through the store.
Next: Continuing our adventures through the world!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Well, when my boyfriend lost his phone in MK, it took at least an hour out of that day, and then probably a half hour out of each of the other days calling to try to find it.
It was never found
So you got lucky, an hour waiting around at Disney is still better than not being at Disney anyway, right?
Oh man, that's a real shame he never found his phone. I'm not really complaining about the hour we lost...it was just a dumb reason to waste an hour, lol, especially after I drill it into my kids all the time not to leave anything behind! I felt terrible making them wait around because of my mistake. Trust me, I checked for my phone every single moment for the rest of the trip! I wasn't going to make that mistake again.
I've read other TRs where people lost their phones. Such a shame that sometimes they're not recovered...hard to imagine "bad" people at WDW!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Sorry you lost some time waiting for your phone to be returned, but at least, you got it back. Sounds like the Agent P mission was fun. I love Impressions de France because, as you said, the music and scenery are both beautiful. Looks like you made the best of the rain, too.
Glad you got the phone back! Glad you're having a great time at Epcot, despite the rain!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Sorry you lost some time waiting for your phone to be returned, but at least, you got it back. Sounds like the Agent P mission was fun. I love Impressions de France because, as you said, the music and scenery are both beautiful. Looks like you made the best of the rain, too.
Epcot is our favorite. We were determined to make the best of it!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
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We spent quite some time meandering through the store, but we didn't buy anything. Eventually, we decided to brave the rain again.
It looked like it had let up a bit, so we started walking. About halfway to America, the rain started to come down a lot harder, so we started to run quickly (but safely!). We made it into the shop at America (never been in there), but it was small and crowded, so we ran over to main building. I showed the kids to optical illusion picture, and they had fun walking back and forth looking at it. There was a show beginning just then, so we went in to watch...with Sophia kicking and screaming that she had to learn history during her vacation!
I can't believe I got this picture of the holiday decorations...and no people!
After the show, which I had seen before but the kids hadn't, we had to decide what we were going to do. It didn't look like the rain was going to let up. It wasn't super strong, but it wasn't light either.
We made it to Italy and quickly browsed the shops, but they had the a/c going on full blast in there, so we decided to move on. We made it to Germany, and it was here that I gave up and decided to buy ponchos for all of us. Unfortunately, they only had children's sizes left. I bought one for Evan, and then we decided to run back to Italy to see if they had adult sizes left. Fortunately, they did. Magic Bands really came in handy during all of this because it wouldn't have been fun digging around for my wallet with all the wet people around me! Paid with the Bands, and it was easy peasy again!
Then we headed out again, this time covered in lovely Disney plastic!
We walked past Germany and pretty much kept going until we made it to Norway. We decided to go on Maelstrom. The ride was fun, but at the end instead of making you wait for the doors to open to see the movie, the doors were just open and the movie was playing inside. We sat down to watch it because I really did want to watch it (I had seen it in 2009 and didn't mind watching it again). About two minutes after we sat down, the movie finished! We didn't feel like waiting for it start again, so we got up and left.
We HAD to stop by and get a picture with our favorite troll:
We braved the rain and continued on to Mexico. We wandered around a bit inside the pyramid where we saw some kids on an Agent P mission. Evan decided he wanted to save Mexico, so I told him we would do it the next time we came back to Epcot when it wasn't raining. He was fine with that.
I asked the kids if they wanted to go on the boat ride, and they said yes, so that was our next stop.
This became one of Evan's favorite rides! He seems to really like the song!
We prepared ourselves to head out once more to brave the elements!
I had made an ADR at Boma for 8:30 tonight figuring we would've spent the entire day at Epcot. It was now about 6:30, and we were pretty much done with the rain and all. We decided to head over to AKL and take our chances with arriving early at Boma. We headed out to the bus stops, and luckily the AKL bus arrived pretty quickly.
The bus stopped at Kidani and then headed on to Jambo House. We walked into the lobby and then headed I think straight ahead and down the stairs thinking that would take us down to the restaurant. Well, it didn't. We wound around and ended up near some guest rooms, I think, but we came upon an elevator and took it down one more floor to the restaurants level.
We arrived at Boma just after 7pm. I told the CM we had an 8:30 reservation but we had hoped we could get in a little early. They said they would do what they can and asked us to have a seat. I think we sat maybe 5 minutes, lol!
Next: Food!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Glad you got the ponchos and made the best of the rain. I hadn't thought of the shopping aspect of the magicbands. I can really see how, especially in the rain, it would make a big difference not having to dig around for money or your room key. It's funny how you never know what's going to grab kids' interest. Evan liking the Mexican boat ride and quoting Stacey all week-- so cute! Sophia cracks me up, though, with her aversion to learning on vacation!
I am so sorry about the noise at night, I do not sleep very heavily as well so it probably would have woken me up as well.
So glad the bus driver had your phone and that you got it back quickly. RAIN....I usually say the WS is a great place when it rains as you can just wander through the stores and pavilions but it does get crowded. Glad you got to see the American Adventure, one of our favorites.
So glad that BOMA was able to get you in early for dinner.
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