the EIGHTEEN years, TEARS, CHEERS & Hurricane FEARS TR - Page 14 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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This is a side story of Alicia and My ride on the “FRIENDSHIP” boat back to Beachclub Villas from DHS. It is THE line etiquette HORROR story of the trip, and it deserves its own post!
Preamble: As I stated previously, today was HOT. It was really the only day of the entire trip that the sun was SHINING. I can not stress enough how HOT it was. Well people, it’s August, and you ARE in FLORIDA! I guess you should expect it to be hot!
Alicia and I are in line waiting for the boat. It seems no matter when we want to leave the the BC we have no problem, but when ever we want to go BACK we have to wait. And wait. And WAIT. By bus, or boat, it didn’t seem to matter. We WAITED. We were about 20-25 or so people back from where the awning ended, standing in the sun. I figured it wouldn’t be too long for a boat since the line was that long. A couple more people came behind us, then came the WOMAN and her family. It was her, her two children and her husband. Well she decided that SHE did not want to stand in the sun. Even though if she moved over out of the line in the same SPOT she was in, she would have been in the shade, just in the exit part of the sidewalk, she decided to go stand down under the awning IN the exit lane! She was on this side of the gate however. She made a big ta-do about how she was just standing there because it was “cooler”. Her husband tried several times to get her to come back to their place in line but she just kept sending daggers his way with her eyes. Then she called her fat little girls to come stand with her so they wouldn’t sweat so much. Some one in the line up where she was standing said something that I didn’t hear, but she said again loudly “I’m just standing here to stay cool. It’s HOT.” No kidding lady, we’re all hot! A few more minutes go by and the WOMAN is trying to push her fat little girls into the loading line under the awning! She is essentially jockeying them into position to CUT IN! She then signals her husband with hands and eyes to come and join her! ARGH NO WAY!! Okay Karen goes a bit psycho at this point and has to go say something. So I say to Alicia, “Sorry. I’ll be right back” and I leave the line and go confront the woman! At first I think Alicia is going to be mortified, but she’s not. I go down to the woman and ask her to get back into her place in line and not to cut in front of all the people waiting. She has the nerve to say to me “I’m not hurting you get away from me” the conversation goes something like this:
Me: “yes you are hurting me. You are hurting me and the 30 other people in line you are trying to cut in front of”
Her: “mind your own business. I didn’t do anything to you”
Me: “Yes you did. You just cut in front of me and all these other people who have been waiting here”
Her: “I’m hot and my children are hot. I am not hurting you just go back in line”
Me “ You are hurting me. Everyone is hot and we have ALL been waiting our turn to get on the boat.”
Her: with an evil sneer on her face and NO intention of moving “God bless you” and she turned and tried to push her way into the line!
Me: “I don’t want your blessing you Evil Evil Woman!” (I'm a little annoyed and trying hard to hold MY temper at this point!)
The boat is NOW here and I go back to my space in line. And NO ONE lets them IN. Including the people who came up behind them (the husband did join her).
Someone up ahead of me in line also told the captains that they were trying to cut in, but they didn’t do anything. After we were on the boat, everyone around us was saying “Good for that lady who stood up to her” and “I’m glad someone else said something to that *itch, cause I think I would have punched her” and things like that. When they were getting off the boat at the Swalphin the evil thing turned around and smirked at me and waved. She was SO evil not just her behavior, but the way she acted like the other people in line were WRONG for not letting her cut in! As they were departing someone said “God Hates Ugly”, but I don’t think she heard it. I believe in getting back what you give out ten fold, and I REALLY hope that horrid lady got back ten fold the nastiness she gave out!
Well I didn't let her get to me after she got off the boat. Alicia was still kind of riled up, but I told her to let it go. It's not worth wasting your energy wishing her bad luck I told her. She will bring her own bad luck upon herself! We did have a pretty good laugh about it later when we were telling the story to the boys. And Jeff was happy that I didn't Bop the lady! Yea, getting arrested in Disney for assault and battery probably would not have been a good thing.
I would have been so infuriated....and the fact that once approached she still had nerve to keep going and still try to cut the line. I commend you on not punching her once just for your satisfaction....
Too bad the captains did not just say "no more room" and shut the gate so they would have to wait, but at least at that point they would be in the shade...
Good for you for confronting the Evil One...you are much braver than me(too much of a chicken ). I would have been cursing her mightily under my breath and in my head though!
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Dinner at Tutto Italia – this is how I imagined my vacation!
As I mentioned earlier we got seated fairly quickly after Evan and Jeff arrived. It was only a few minutes after 8pm. I had budgeted out a big chunk of change for this meal so I told everyone to get whatever they wanted. I ordered a small bottle of sparkling water, and Jeff talked me into getting the large bottle in case we wanted to share… OK! We shared some appetizers as usual. Then Jeff says “Why don’t we get a bottle of wine”
“OK”
He wants red, I want white. I don’t care if it goes with what I’m eating, red wine bothers me. It’s the sufates or something. Oh well, we get red, but I get to pick (so I pick an expensive one! I'll show him! HEY WAIT...I'M PAYING!). He ordered the spagetti and meatballs and really wanted his wine to “go with” his meal. OK!
The waiter we had was great and even spent some time living in Massachusetts so we spent a lot of time talking to him. He was almost done his time in Orlando and heading back to Italy soon, but said he was planning on coming back to Massachusetts to open a Gelato Store! We’ll see! I hope so.
The food was absolutely wonderful!! Corey got a great compliment from the waiter (before all the chit chat) for his correct pronunciation of his selection. He did take a semester of Italian in college, but boy that Kid has an ear for languages! Honestly he should go live in Europe for a couple years. He’d come home speaking 4 or 5 languages fluently!
Evan also had the spaghetti and meatballs. I had the Cannelloni al Forno, which was like a pasta pillow baked with spinach, ricotta, bechamel and parmesan cheese. Alicia had Penne Caprese with crushed tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil. And for the life of me I can not remember what Corey ate! Great! He’s the ONLY one of us who could ACTUALLY order in Italian and I don’t remember what he had! This is where taking notes would have come in handy. I know we all had Cappuccino and I think we had 4 desserts. There may have been 5 desserts this night. All I do remember for sure is we had probably the best time at dinner the whole trip at this meal. Both the food and how we were enjoying each others company. We gave the waiter an extra tip because he was not only enjoyable to chat with, he really did go above and beyond to make our meal memorable!
As we were leaving the restaurant, I realized it was after 10pm! WOW!! I can’t believe we spend over 2 hours having dinner! Well so much for Wishes!
I snapped this on our way out of Italy after dinner:
At this point we were heading out of the Epcot and we got stalled at the bridge near the Outpost. The bridge was up and they were putting away the Illuminations barges. Oh well, there goes my passporter meet! Well as sad as I was to miss my first meet, I was really having a great time with my family. For the first time on this trip, it felt like I wanted the whole trip to feel! Everyone was relaxed and having fun and really enjoying being together. Even though we had moments of fun before, THIS was the moment when I FELT the happiness and magic of my family being in Disney! Night time in Epcot while everything was closed and the barges were being put away. Weird…
We continued walking towards the front. Everyone was a bit ahead of me and I was mesmerized by this:
I'm such a kid at times. They had to stop and yell for me to catch up!
We made it to the monorail and I was now pretty happy that Jeff and Evan had done some exploring. I had NEVER been on the monorail before. So I was a bit nervous about figuring it out, especially with half a bottle of good Italian wine in me, but thankfully I didn’t have to! Jeff took the lead, two monorail rides later, and we were at MK! Once through the turnstiles we headed straight for the EMH wristband line. People were coming out in droves, so I was hopeful that it wouldn’t be too busy, but the crowd inside was still pretty high. First stop… Jeff needs to find a bathroom. That business taken care of, we head off down Main Street. My mission – find a photographer! I see that the photopass photographers are still out and I’m determined to get some pictures. But the kids want to head straight to SM so off we go! The wait time was pretty long and the fast pass is not up yet for EMH. We decide to head out to the back part of the park by BTMR. On the way what do we see, but a photopass photographer by the rose garden and I make them stop! Only a couple of people waiting. Jeff gives the boys the “do this for your mother look” and everyone complies – FINALLY I get my family picture!!
Up next EMH at MK!
Last edited by tinker_me_happy; 09-25-2008 at 12:55 PM..
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
Just catching up. We must have run into each other at some point because we were at DHS on the same day. I'm so happy that your dinner at Tutto Italia went so well. You waited for that moment long enough and you deserve it. Love the family picuture too. I can't believe how rude that lady was to you and then had the nerve to bring God into the conversation. The way she was acting was definitely un Godly. Can't wait to hear about MK EMH.
Having fun catching up! I know you were running late, but honestly we were still passporting away!! Next time you must make the meet. I am glad you all had such a nice dinner!
Just catching up!! Great updates, except for the heat and that rude family (who seems to keep showing up in everyone's TRs ) Totally your family photo!! So glad you were able to get one! Looking forward to more
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
What a great update...your dinner sounded delicious but I think what was even better was the smile that I am sure was across your face...
The family photo is wonderful...what a great looking family you are and so many smiles...guess this is a night that you will always remember (I think everyone got into the magic tonight)